[PROblemdetected]

QOA MARGARITA. Music & Cocktails



Airy and engaging bass / Bajo espaciado y que engancha
Holographic and sweet presentation / Escena holografica y dulcisima
Over-Average technical performance / Capacidades Tecnicas por encima de la media
Suitable for high volume listeners / Puedes disfrutarlos con la música a tope de volumen
Not a detail monster / No es un monstruo del detalle
Cable should be better / El cable deberia ser mejor

 

[o0genesis0o]

Quick update: keep your eyes on Fiio this year. FH15 is shaping up to be an incredible performer. It fully takes advantage of Fiio K7 and Shanling M6U to presents an impressive soundstage image. I'm revisiting some old hits by Cat Stevens, such as Morning Has Broken. The level of micro details, separation, and 3D-ness of the soundstage surprises me deeply. The vocal floats slightly above, in front of me. The guitar locates slightly behind my ears. Backing vocals are pushed far in front of me, towards the background. The piano appears just at the ears level, jumping in and out the head. Very fun.

I'm still undecided whether FH15 presents micro-dynamic and dynamic contrast as good as JD7. But the sheer crispness and separation is better.

 

[PROblemdetected]

Quick update: keep your eyes on Fiio this year. FH15 is shaping up to be an incredible performer. It fully takes advantage of Fiio K7 and Shanling M6U to presents an impressive soundstage image. I'm revisiting some old hits by Cat Stevens, such as Morning Has Broken. The level of micro details, separation, and 3D-ness of the soundstage surprises me deeply. The vocal floats slightly above, in front of me. The guitar locates slightly behind my ears. Backing vocals are pushed far in front of me, towards the background. The piano appears just at the ears level, jumping in and out the head. Very fun.

I'm still undecided whether FH15 presents micro-dynamic and dynamic contrast as good as JD7. But the sheer crispness and separation is better.

Fiio is clearly one of the besr brands outhere. Their price/performance ratio is just absurd.

I still waiting for a planar or TOTL release on their catalogue.

I get the q7 and the utws5 and they are just fantastic as well.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Fiio is clearly one of the besr brands outhere. Their price/performance ratio is just absurd.

I still waiting for a planar or TOTL release on their catalogue.

I get the q7 and the utws5 and they are just fantastic as well.

Q7? The giant brick? Good for you. End game source right there. Spill the tea. Are they any good?

Re: IEM.

• The FW5 seems not to be doing fine though. So many complaints in that thread. I myself couldn't ask for better TWS gizmo. (Well actually, I do. Fiio should fix the volume buttons ASAP)
• Can't wait to borrow FH7s and FH9 to compare. I want to hear what Fiio can do when stuffing extra BA drivers inside.

 

[PROblemdetected]

Q7? The giant brick? Good for you. End game source right there. Spill the tea. Are they any good?

Re: IEM.

• The FW5 seems not to be doing fine though. So many complaints in that thread. I myself couldn't ask for better TWS gizmo. (Well actually, I do. Fiio should fix the volume buttons ASAP)
• Can't wait to borrow FH7s and FH9 to compare. I want to hear what Fiio can do when stuffing extra BA drivers inside.

The Q7 is just what I was looking for, a k9 but just "portable". Ive got the akm on the k9 and the ess on the q7, I just end on the amp/dac side for a long time.

About tws, I love the utws5 ability to move any of my iems on LHDC codec, nice noise floor and powerful bass power.

FH7 and FH9 are impressive hybrids, I sold the FH7 long ago because I prefer the 9, but the bass on the 7 is a little bit superior, just the 9 sound more "natural and relaxed" to my ears

 

[baskingshark]

As you said, KZ could use Knowles BA like TRN did. We may be surprised if we see that this year, but not sure if they can source enough knowles drivers while ongoing litigation Between knowles and bellsing. Well TRN did, while using Bellsing, so it’s not impossible.

Apparently the lawsuit between Knowles and Bellsing has been won by Knowles:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...s-in-Trade-Secret-Theft-Case-Against-Bellsing

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-08/pdf/2021-21998.pdf


I ain't well versed in law (hope someone can help advise), but even if as per these articles, a US court issues a desist order barring Bellsing containing transducers being imported or sold in the US, how are they going to enforce it? Will customs open up the shell of every CHIFI coming in to American shores? Even if shells are opened, can the customs side identify it as a Bellsing driver if no serial number or identification is labelled on the BA? With every week releasing many CHIFI pokemon, how are the enforcers going to keep up with the flood of Bellising containing pokemon entering USA?

TBH, the advent of Bellsings is actually what suppressed high costs of BA IEMs. The ethics of copying and pirating the technology are definitely not something to be proud of, but just recall, around 4 - 5 years back, Westone/Shure were selling single BA types at nearly $100 USD, and multi BAs could easily hit north of $300 USD. The Bellsings used in some IEMs are actually quite good sounding and they were what broke the monopoly of Knowles over IEMs, leading to cheaper products for mere mortals.

Ironically, Bellsings are also used in TOTL models like the Campfire Solaris and JH products, so the engineers must see (or rather, hear) something in them to use them in TOTL gear (the ethics or using cheaper Bellsings in high priced TOTL IEMs are another story though).

 

[o0genesis0o]

Fiio is clearly one of the besr brands outhere. Their price/performance ratio is just absurd.

Fiio does not do the Pokemon weekly release like others. However, I don't think they have been very good (IEM-wise) for a long time. When I say "surprisingly good", the surprise is genuine because I still don't think that they generally produce hits. After all, the previous batch that I listened (FH3, FD5, FD7, FH5s, FA7s, and even FH9) are not extremely competitive. Let's see how they hold up this year.

The Q7 is just what I was looking for, a k9 but just "portable".

K9 in portable format? High-praise indeed. I should audition

Ironically, Bellsings are also used in TOTL models like the Campfire Solaris and JH products, so the engineers must see (or rather, hear) something in them to use them in TOTL gear (the ethics or using cheaper Bellsings in high priced TOTL IEMs are another story though).

Controversial statement: neither Solaris or JH audio IEMs sound good anyway

 

[PROblemdetected]

Fiio does not do the Pokemon weekly release like others. However, I don't think they have been very good (IEM-wise) for a long time. When I say "surprisingly good", the surprise is genuine because I still don't think that they generally produce hits. After all, the previous batch that I listened (FH3, FD5, FD7, FH5s, FA7s, and even FH9) are not extremely competitive. Let's see how they hold up this year.

K9 in portable format? High-praise indeed. I should audition

Fa7s is one of the BA Ive ever heard
Fh7 got the best bass on the sub1000 range

Just my two cents.

About q7, for 800€ got more power than my k9 akm, impressive noise floor and can move any headphone I plug on them

 

[Ace Bee]

I come with my new discovery, the 634EARS 9iNE! It is the evolution of 8iTE, the previous flagship of them before the LOAK came into existence. More details of the product can be found here - https://634ears.com/en/products/9ine/.

I have a special connection to this IEM - I was fortunate to be one of the beta testers of the prototype. Musashi San told me that he was thinking of targetting the western audience more with 9iNE, and was tuning it in such a way. However, even while doing that, he made two different tunings - one which was more spacious, but thinner sounding with more details and crispness, and the other one a bit more organic and thicker. I was sent the first one. While I could understand why it might have an appeal, it definitely was not suitable to my taste - and I told him the same. I described in detail what I felt was not right, what I liked, and what I would like to see improved, and then sent it back. Point to note - all the logistics and involved taxes was taken care of by him.

After that, he released the 9iNE with the final tuning, and told me it was different than the one I listened to. The final version is bit more organic and thicker. Oh right, he did not release only one version - rather he released 4 versions, 9iNE (with wood backplate), 9iNE-B (Brass backplate), 9iNE-C (Copper Backplate), and 9iNE-S (SS Backplate). The S version is closer to the tuning I heard to, albeit slightly improved. I was interested to get one for daily beater iem, and he suggested me the 9iNE with Rosewood backplate. I went with his suggestion as he definitely knows better. Oh, the body is made of a single piece of blackened stainless steel.
(PS: The MIROAK-S that I have has a single piece Aluminum body with an SS backplate, and LOAK-T(CL) has a Titanium front chamber, SS back chamber, and Cocobolo wood backplate. The nature of backplate does affect the sound signature - Musashi San sent me a MIROAK with a wooden backplate along with the 9iNE prototype to check against the MIROAK-S, and I could certainly feel the slightly softened note edges on the sample MIROAK.)

Welp, now that I have the 9iNE in my hand...I can only say that I am quite pleased by it. 634EARS have a house sound, and that is very much balanced - such that it will most certainly will not make you go WOW at the first listen, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that is dissatisfactory, and eventually you will find out how refined and matured the sound is, the point at which you will fall in love. Well, I did.

The sound profile is focused on getting a balance of all three frequencies while keeping the sound as dynamic as possible. The bass has quite a nice full punch, goes deep. Lower midrange has a nice full body that is not too thick, upper midrange has a sudden burst of energy that makes the female vocals sound alive - it slightly touches the hem of sibilant region, but never actually gets into it. Treble is slightly toned down compared to the midrange, but still has a nice amount of energy - lower treble has slightly more energy than the upper treble. The sound signature overall is quite airy, with a very nice imaging and separation, and a very well-rounded soundstage with decent extension in all three directions.
Sounds pretty generic, right? That is how the 9iNE is - balanced, but most certainly not boring. For 37800 JPY, or around $290, I would say it is a pretty competitive set.

In the photo below is the 9iNE Rosewood, paired with Satin Audio Gaia II cable (I had to change the cable as 634EARS only supply single end cable...they also had the option of 4.4 mm plug, but I wanted to use it with my Qudelix 5K as an on-the-go solution, and I simply cannot settle for single end when balance option is there, hence an immediate cable swap.) The iem comes with a huge jute bag that seems quite handy. The tips are not the stock tips.

 

[OklahKekW]

Apparently the lawsuit between Knowles and Bellsing has been won by Knowles:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...s-in-Trade-Secret-Theft-Case-Against-Bellsing

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-08/pdf/2021-21998.pdf


I ain't well versed in law (hope someone can help advise), but even if as per these articles, a US court issues a desist order barring Bellsing containing transducers being imported or sold in the US, how are they going to enforce it? Will customs open up the shell of every CHIFI coming in to American shores? Even if shells are opened, can the customs side identify it as a Bellsing driver if no serial number or identification is labelled on the BA? With every week releasing many CHIFI pokemon, how are the enforcers going to keep up with the flood of Bellising containing pokemon entering USA?

TBH, the advent of Bellsings is actually what suppressed high costs of BA IEMs. The ethics of copying and pirating the technology are definitely not something to be proud of, but just recall, around 4 - 5 years back, Westone/Shure were selling single BA types at nearly $100 USD, and multi BAs could easily hit north of $300 USD. The Bellsings used in some IEMs are actually quite good sounding and they were what broke the monopoly of Knowles over IEMs, leading to cheaper products for mere mortals.

Ironically, Bellsings are also used in TOTL models like the Campfire Solaris and JH products, so the engineers must see (or rather, hear) something in them to use them in TOTL gear (the ethics or using cheaper Bellsings in high priced TOTL IEMs are another story though).

It's all about improving the margins the rest is just BS marketing. Like how it is now with smartphones that come without chargers and no audio jack and micro sd slots. All in order to upsell.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

And image of Hola released today on Facebook

Same shell/cable with ZERO (cable/shell) & HEXA (cable) = common platform! HeyGears owns their own high-precision 3D printer and good procurement route for resins = very cost effective outer shells, and more budget for the driver

It seems Truthear is surely directly competing with Chu/Jiu $19.00 from their pricing and color theme of the outlooks.

Moondrop Chu/Jiu
Price:19.00
Cable : Non-detachable
Carrying Porch : Yes
Eartips: Moondrop Premium SpringTips
Color theme: Black with drawing
Shell size : small enough for female audiences and side sleeping

Truthear HOLA HALO
Price:18.99
Cable : detachable
Carrying Porch : maybe same with ZERO/HEXA
Eartips: maybe same with ZERO/HEXA
Color theme: Black with drawing
Shell size : standard shell size for an IEM

It seems Trurhear is covering their product naming after earch nations

ZERO—- 0 : English? Well India invented concept of Zero

HEXA — 6 : Greek/Latin. German HEX (Witch?)

SHIO — Tide : Japanese

HOLA — Introductory greeting : Spanish

Guess game: next one for truthear
8 full BA as to compete with S8

Easily thinkable but will conflict with their different nation naming
OCTA - 8 : Greek/Latin

Maybe because it Chinese culture loves 發 (to prosper) as number 8

Baat - 8 : Chinese (Cantonese)

P.S. 20 sets of HOLA giveaway by subscribing to Truthear’s social channels; a lot of work, but if anyone interested
https://gleam.io/zYn1j/20-winners-truthear-hola-giveaway

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Apparently the lawsuit between Knowles and Bellsing has been won by Knowles:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...s-in-Trade-Secret-Theft-Case-Against-Bellsing

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-08/pdf/2021-21998.pdf


I ain't well versed in law (hope someone can help advise), but even if as per these articles, a US court issues a desist order barring Bellsing containing transducers being imported or sold in the US, how are they going to enforce it? Will customs open up the shell of every CHIFI coming in to American shores? Even if shells are opened, can the customs side identify it as a Bellsing driver if no serial number or identification is labelled on the BA? With every week releasing many CHIFI pokemon, how are the enforcers going to keep up with the flood of Bellising containing pokemon entering USA?

TBH, the advent of Bellsings is actually what suppressed high costs of BA IEMs. The ethics of copying and pirating the technology are definitely not something to be proud of, but just recall, around 4 - 5 years back, Westone/Shure were selling single BA types at nearly $100 USD, and multi BAs could easily hit north of $300 USD. The Bellsings used in some IEMs are actually quite good sounding and they were what broke the monopoly of Knowles over IEMs, leading to cheaper products for mere mortals.

Ironically, Bellsings are also used in TOTL models like the Campfire Solaris and JH products, so the engineers must see (or rather, hear) something in them to use them in TOTL gear (the ethics or using cheaper Bellsings in high priced TOTL IEMs are another story though).

Yea balanced armature market was a duopoly between Knowles(US) and Sonion (EU), I wonder nobody complained too much to move antitrust legislations.

Yea maybe next gen of bellsing could really compete with originals. I’m doubting if HEXA uses one of those, the tweeter does sound like Knowles WBFK, not sure for mid-range, sounds like custom Sonions, but not too certain, not Softears-MID.

 

[saldsald]

Same shell/cable with ZERO (cable/shell) & HEXA (cable) = common platform! HeyGears owns their own high-precision 3D printer and good procurement route for resins = very cost effective outer shells, and more budget for the driver

It seems Truthear is surely directly competing with Chu/Jiu $19.00 from their pricing and color theme of the outlooks.

Moondrop Chu/Jiu
Price:19.00
Cable : Non-detachable
Carrying Porch : Yes
Eartips: Moondrop Premium SpringTips
Color theme: Black with drawing
Shell size : small enough for female audiences and side sleeping



Truthwar HOLA
Price:18.99
Cable : detachable
Carrying Porch : maybe same with ZERO/HEXA
Eartips: maybe same with ZERO/HEXA
Color theme: Black with drawing
Shell size : standard shell size for an IEM

It seems Trurhear is covering their product naming after earch nations

ZERO—- 0 : English? Well India invented concept of Zero

HEXA — 6 : Greek/Latin. German HEX (Witch?)

SHIO — Tide : Japanese

HOLA — Introductory greeting : Spanish

Guess game: next one for truthear
8 full BA as to compete with S8

Easily thinkable but will conflict with their different nation naming
OCTA - 8 : Greek/Latin

Maybe because it Chinese culture loves 發 (to prosper) as number 8

Baat - 8 : Chinese (Cantonese)

I bet HOLA is a typo of HALO 赫

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I bet HOLA is a typo of HALO 赫

Ahh genius. Yea the chinese didn’t made sense for the first time, totally unrelated, but HALO makes sense.

A typo or anagram

 

[Vonbuddy]

I come with my new discovery, the 634EARS 9iNE! It is the evolution of 8iTE, the previous flagship of them before the LOAK came into existence. More details of the product can be found here - https://634ears.com/en/products/9ine/.

I have a special connection to this IEM - I was fortunate to be one of the beta testers of the prototype. Musashi San told me that he was thinking of targetting the western audience more with 9iNE, and was tuning it in such a way. However, even while doing that, he made two different tunings - one which was more spacious, but thinner sounding with more details and crispness, and the other one a bit more organic and thicker. I was sent the first one. While I could understand why it might have an appeal, it definitely was not suitable to my taste - and I told him the same. I described in detail what I felt was not right, what I liked, and what I would like to see improved, and then sent it back. Point to note - all the logistics and involved taxes was taken care of by him.

After that, he released the 9iNE with the final tuning, and told me it was different than the one I listened to. The final version is bit more organic and thicker. Oh right, he did not release only one version - rather he released 4 versions, 9iNE (with wood backplate), 9iNE-B (Brass backplate), 9iNE-C (Copper Backplate), and 9iNE-S (SS Backplate). The S version is closer to the tuning I heard to, albeit slightly improved. I was interested to get one for daily beater iem, and he suggested me the 9iNE with Rosewood backplate. I went with his suggestion as he definitely knows better. Oh, the body is made of a single piece of blackened stainless steel.
(PS: The MIROAK-S that I have has a single piece Aluminum body with an SS backplate, and LOAK-T(CL) has a Titanium front chamber, SS back chamber, and Cocobolo wood backplate. The nature of backplate does affect the sound signature - Musashi San sent me a MIROAK with a wooden backplate along with the 9iNE prototype to check against the MIROAK-S, and I could certainly feel the slightly softened note edges on the sample MIROAK.)

Welp, now that I have the 9iNE in my hand...I can only say that I am quite pleased by it. 634EARS have a house sound, and that is very much balanced - such that it will most certainly will not make you go WOW at the first listen, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anything that is dissatisfactory, and eventually you will find out how refined and matured the sound is, the point at which you will fall in love. Well, I did.

The sound profile is focused on getting a balance of all three frequencies while keeping the sound as dynamic as possible. The bass has quite a nice full punch, goes deep. Lower midrange has a nice full body that is not too thick, upper midrange has a sudden burst of energy that makes the female vocals sound alive - it slightly touches the hem of sibilant region, but never actually gets into it. Treble is slightly toned down compared to the midrange, but still has a nice amount of energy - lower treble has slightly more energy than the upper treble. The sound signature overall is quite airy, with a very nice imaging and separation, and a very well-rounded soundstage with decent extension in all three directions.
Sounds pretty generic, right? That is how the 9iNE is - balanced, but most certainly not boring. For 37800 JPY, or around $290, I would say it is a pretty competitive set.

In the photo below is the 9iNE Rosewood, paired with Satin Audio Gaia II cable (I had to change the cable as 634EARS only supply single end cable...they also had the option of 4.4 mm plug, but I wanted to use it with my Qudelix 5K as an on-the-go solution, and I simply cannot settle for single end when balance option is there, hence an immediate cable swap.) The iem comes with a huge jute bag that seems quite handy. The tips are not the stock tips.

What would you recommend with regards to wood or metal or type of metal?