[helloh3adfi]

My best cable would be gold-plated silver coated in Teflon or similar fluoroelastomers (PVC is awful, waste of good copper in the wires...)
I have more info/stories about it, but that is quite off this thread.

Are there some available cables that meet your criteria?

 

[RetroE83]

How good full premium resin shell x single BA (Knowles ED29689) can be?

▶︎As usual personal purchase ($21 + tax with Flo Audio’s Store discount; you can buy their single DD Calla for the same price)


▶︎trying with Stock cable & ear tips

Impression: Quite good! Tuning is mid-centric, natural bass floor, slight hint of resolutions, it does better than Neon.

Unlike ER4, Lily is designed to run on daily used phones, it runs on almost all sources.

For $21+ tax, I can definitely recommend Lily as introduction to soft listening. It sounds fuller than what I expected from a typical “compact“ sounding single BA.

I like Lily over QoA Vesper, they both share same traits, warm neutral with upper mid spotlighting, however Vesper’s dynamic driver leave a long long transient tails which reduces visibility. Meanwhile Lily‘s mid-bass leaves no mess, a clean decay. It matches better for this tuning.

Lily is a re-discovery of “ah! You can play safe on mid-bass even with almost offensive floor of mid-bleed, single BA somehow balance out note weight“.

I’m pretty sure Feaulle’s H570 ear tips can lower this mid-bass, and make Lily more neutral sounding one, will try ear tip and cable roll later. Maybe Lily isn’t a Dunu Titan S beater, but it has more personality, I quite like Lily’s feather touch tuning.

Just found FR of Neon vs ER4S vs Lily and Calla on the same scale.


QoA Vesper and KBEar Neon as a cross anchor



I guess fuller sense as a single BA comes from mid bass floor.
Some reports Lily changes behavior under different OI, I may play around this later.

▶︎Tonal impression:
top note of midrange harmony
mid note of warmth
bottom note of sense of transparency

▶︎speciality
Lily can express the “ennui” nuance. It handles old recording tracks with good intention. I’m enjoying Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans, old old poor recording even remastered it has that monochrome tonality, Lily does great job playing back this tracks. Wood bass is more subtle as but still audible, it is how you’d hear in nice contemporary restaurants.


(If you visit Toronto, Canada, this George Restaurant has nice set of meal with jazz band with very reasonable price)


Now I’m starting to trust Flo Audio’s tuning, I will try their dynamic Calla.

With that discount, I decided take the plunge. Thanks! I paid almost double for the KB Ear Neon ($55 CAD on Amazon), which sits in my shelf most of the time; not a fan of deep insertion iems, but this one is tolerable/not noticeably discomforting with deep inserted Moondrop Spring Tips. Treble is barely passable for me, it has this wall of sound feel to it; midrange is good though and bass is tight. QC is pretty bad at least on my unit: I had to cement glue one nozzle after it came off on the first day :s

 

[helloh3adfi]

-sadly I was expecting S&S tips to come with it, no…

Why not just buy them alone? But yeah I wonder why they're not included...

When I sold the Zero they buyer also complained to me about the nozzle being so big since I did not mention it in the listing. Mini Truthear rant

Haha, your poor Zero didn't find a happy buyer yet.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Why not just buy them alone? But yeah I wonder why they're not included...


Haha, your poor Zero didn't find a happy buyer yet.

yea S&S tip is like $13, better than Softears UC ($18), but still some additional cost. I’d just order from Amazon.

With that discount, I decided take the plunge. Thanks! I paid almost double for the KB Ear Neon ($55 CAD on Amazon), which sits in my shelf most of the time; not a fan of deep insertion iems, but this one is tolerable/not noticeably discomforting with deep inserted Moondrop Spring Tips. Treble is barely passable for me, it has this wall of sound feel to it; midrange is good though and bass is tight. QC is pretty bad at least on my unit: I had to cement glue one nozzle after it came off on the first day :s

Gratz!
Lily is very fun IEM to play with, especially for someone owns multiple DAPs, amps, ear tips, cables!

I just turned off THX amp on my M11Pro and streaming pure AK4497EQ line out to Lily, it changed the sound so clean

It’s the most interesting IEM of 2023 so far, besides TRN X7 to me personally. I have to say sorry for HOLA and Titan S, both are great but that pathway is called highway “same-old”.

I’m pretty motivated to have a full coverage on Lily maybe.

 

[Carpet]

It would be interesting know how it competes against Audiosense AQ4 that is currently at same price

AQ4 at $100 is an absolute steal if you like warm tunings. Hexa is the opposite with a scooped mid-bass. Both are very good for details, stage and imaging. Hexa will still be available in the future for $80 (or less once another FOTM arrives).

If you share Crinacle taste in tuning - Hexa (Audiosense DT200 is on sale too as an option)
If HBB tuning appeals more then - AQ4

​

 

[gmdb]

An adapter should never change the signal in anyway, when ordering a cable with 3.5mm and 4.4mm they are the same cable the whole way to the jack.

Then inside the jack it's connected with separat ground for each ear on balanced or the ground is summed together on 3.5mm single ended. This also the same what happens inside a converter for 4.4mm to the 3.5mm.

If your afraid of a change just get something like this, then it's no cable inside the adapter changing anything.



Also avoid impedance adapter as they will change the sound.

Just need to be careful that the 3.5 mm connector on the adaptor is non-balanced version. The Ugreen image shows the rarer 3.5 mm balanced TRRS but the more common TRS version is needed. An adaptor with a cable link may be the only type available as shown.

 

[baskingshark]

I have generally purchased the 3.5 in most iems, but it might be worth it to get this. I am a little inexperienced with adapters. Can you get a 4.4 to 3.5 adapter and how does it impact sound if at all?

As @PhonoPhi said, there is no electrical problem going from 4.4 to 3.5 with an adaptor. The adaptor simply "rewires" the IEM cable to non-balanced and you use the 3.5 mm non-balanced socket. But you cannot go from 3.5 mm terminated cable to 4.4 mm with an adaptor without possible electrical problems. The balanced connection on the source component will often provide a superior sound.

Edited to correct typos and mention that there is a rarer balanced 3.5 mm TRRS connector (not the standard TRS). Should you have one of these, then it is fine to go from 3.5 balanced to 4.4 mm balanced.

Yep agree with @gmdb that using 4.4 mm (transducer) -> 3.5 mm (source) adapters are okay. You won't get the 4.4 mm (balanced) benefits of the source, it down throttles it to a 3.5 mm output in terms of voltage/power.

But going from a 3.5 mm (transducer) -> 4.4 mm (source) adapter will likely damage the amp over time.

There are indeed less common adapters such as from DDHIFI that uses a 3.5mm TRRS connector, that is okay to go from 3.5 mm (transducer) -> 4.4 mm (source), but those are not so common. I see a lot of dodgy sellers hawking the standard 3.5 mm -> 4.4 mm adapters on Aliexpress and they are really doing consumers a huge disservice.

The Gallileo has 14ohm, so you should look for an adaptor with a low impedance. Take a look here.

The 14 ohm impedance on the Galileo is gonna make it quite fussy for source pairing.

Based on the audiophile rules of 8ths, if the output impedance of the source is too high, it is gonna skew the FR.
So ideally, the Galileo should be paired with sources < 1.75 ohm output impedance (14 ohm Galileo impedance divided by 8 = 1.75). Something to take note.

Impedance adapters are a double-edged sword though. It can fix impedance matching between source and IEM, but might change the sound signature.

 

[Barndoor]

AQ4 at $100 is an absolute steal if you like warm tunings. Hexa is the opposite with a scooped mid-bass. Both are very good for details, stage and imaging. Hexa will still be available in the future for $80 (or less once another FOTM arrives).

If you share Crinacle taste in tuning - Hexa (Audiosense DT200 is on sale too as an option)
If HBB tuning appeals more then - AQ4

​

I got burnt with AQ4 (not literally). Ordered as xmas present in Nov sales. Opened it up on Christmas day and was faulty.
Audiosense intially said they would send a replacement, but nothing arrived and now they ignore me chasing them.

 

[Carpet]

I got burnt with AQ4 (not literally). Ordered as xmas present in Nov sales. Opened it up on Christmas day and was faulty.
Audiosense intially said they would send a replacement, but nothing arrived and now they ignore me chasing them.

That really sucks. I've had four IEMs from them and waiting on a fifth. All of them shipped quickly and I haven't had any QC issues. Their AliTools rating for dissatisfied customers is only !%, that's way better than the 4% of most good stores. I must admit that I do test everything when it arrives so I am within the 14 day disputes window. Now I'll be sweating until the DT200 shows up on my doorstep.

I had a good experience with Fiio recently, one item was missing from a package that was mishandled and returned by the airline and then resent. Refund issued with no problems. Ordered more stuff from them for Xmas and birthday presents since!

AliExpress disputes resolution does NOT always work either! If I get one more demand for a better photo or a video I'll scream. Add to that the disruptions with the pandemic and it's a wonder that we are still able to buy anything. Of course we do have a small local range of IEMs etc. (at the other end of the country) or can use local resellers who price gouge like it's going out of style. Anyway it's more online sellers with no local access to audition anything. I just need to breath, and then try to remember, I got into this hobby to relax!

 

[Barndoor]

Their dissatified customer rating would be worse if the system let me submit a review!

 

[Jmop]

We have some info on the new Tin HIFI IEM.

It is called the C5 Space Planet.

Seems to be a pseudo planar (Square planar driver) + BA, in the same vein as the Celest Gumiho




https://www.facebook.com/TINhifiOff...6Gahw37YPrv88tQPzo6uinZ2eUUe9eyxQ7gr8oaqNHM6l

This has a great look. Also might pick up the ie200.

 

[baskingshark]

Hey @PhonoPhi ! Apparently Truthear has released a firmware update for the SHIO last night, can be found here: https://truthear.com/download

It hints at an independent volume control? Not sure, don't have the SHIO with me now, but I will try to download it later after work!

 

[Carpet]

How good full premium resin shell x single BA (Knowles ED29689 unverified custom full range BA, maybe Knowles /Maybe Sonion) can be?

▶︎As usual personal purchase ($21 + tax with Flo Audio’s Store discount; you can buy their single DD Calla for the same price)


▶︎trying with Stock cable & ear tips

Impression: Quite good! Tuning is mid-centric, natural bass floor, slight hint of resolutions, it does better than Neon.

Unlike ER4, Lily is designed to run on daily used phones, it runs on almost all sources.

For $21+ tax, I can definitely recommend Lily as introduction to soft listening. It sounds fuller than what I expected from a typical “compact“ sounding single BA.

I like Lily over QoA Vesper, they both share same traits, warm neutral with upper mid spotlighting, however Vesper’s dynamic driver leave a long long transient tails which reduces visibility. Meanwhile Lily‘s mid-bass leaves no mess, a clean decay. It matches better for this tuning.

Lily is a re-discovery of “ah! You can play safe on mid-bass even with almost offensive floor of mid-bleed, single BA somehow balance out note weight“.

I’m pretty sure Feaulle’s H570 ear tips can lower this mid-bass, and make Lily more neutral sounding one, will try ear tip and cable roll later. Maybe Lily isn’t a Dunu Titan S beater, but it has more personality, I quite like Lily’s feather touch tuning.

Just found FR of Neon vs ER4S vs Lily and Calla on the same scale.


QoA Vesper and KBEar Neon as a cross anchor



I guess fuller sense as a single BA comes from mid bass floor.
Some reports Lily changes behavior under different OI, I may play around this later.

▶︎Tonal impression:
top note of midrange harmony
mid note of warmth
bottom note of sense of transparency

▶︎speciality
Lily can express the “ennui” nuance. It handles old recording tracks with good intention. I’m enjoying Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans, old old poor recording even remastered it has that monochrome tonality, Lily does great job playing back this tracks. Wood bass is more subtle as but still audible, it is how you’d hear in nice contemporary restaurants.


(If you visit Toronto, Canada, this George Restaurant has nice set of meal with jazz band with very reasonable price)


Now I’m starting to trust Flo Audio’s tuning, I will try their dynamic Calla.

Calla isn't bad, it has a bit of driver flex though. It's warm, thick, not great on treble extension and there is a bit of bass bleed. So warm, relaxed, comfortable, easy to listen to but missing the air and sparkle some people crave. Only KZ level accessories and not worth the full price. So like the Canpur Joyfull 1&1, a viable Cadenza alternative with the coupon deal.

Lily was about the same price and a little more interesting. I'd expected the bass to be a little lacking, but that was pretty impressive. The treble extension seemed to be where the sacrifice was made in stretching it out to do all the frequencies with one BA. For a third of the price of DT100 it's an interesting option if you want to try a single BA IEM with normal fitting shells. GS Audio ST1 is damned near as expensive as DT100 normal price but with accessories of Lily, hence didn't get considered. Sound is relaxed and slightly warm. Comfortable to wear and relaxed tuning make these worthwhile for all day wear. Accessories are crap but they gave options for better cable and tips as well as a couple of case options (better to buy an XINHS cable for case and a pack of preferred tips in your size).

TL DR: Flo Audio Calla and Lily are both good for the discounted price, treble heads need not apply.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Hey @PhonoPhi ! Apparently Truthear has released a firmware update for the SHIO last night, can be found here: https://truthear.com/download






It hints at an independent volume control? Not sure, don't have the SHIO with me now, but I will try to download it later after work!

Ah, SHIO has some PC volume sync lag glitch, it sometime produces 100db class huge square wave when pause/resuming, apparently it punctured one of my eardrum I guess that patch will fix the issue.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Calla isn't bad, it has a bit of driver flex though. It's warm, thick, not great on treble extension and there is a bit of bass bleed. So warm, relaxed, comfortable, easy to listen to but missing the air and sparkle some people crave. Only KZ level accessories and not worth the full price. So like the Canpur Joyfull 1&1, a viable Cadenza alternative with the coupon deal.

Lily was about the same price and a little more interesting. I'd expected the bass to be a little lacking, but that was pretty impressive. The treble extension seemed to be where the sacrifice was made in stretching it out to do all the frequencies with one BA. For a third of the price of DT100 it's an interesting option if you want to try a single BA IEM with normal fitting shells. GS Audio ST1 is damned near as expensive as DT100 normal price but with accessories of Lily, hence didn't get considered. Sound is relaxed and slightly warm. Comfortable to wear and relaxed tuning make these worthwhile for all day wear. Accessories are crap but they gave options for better cable and tips as well as a couple of case options (better to buy an XINHS cable for case and a pack of preferred tips in your size).

TL DR: Flo Audio Calla and Lily are both good for the discounted price, treble heads need not apply.

Lily can sound with monitor flat with immense level of details (ER4 class) with some source match, I get a flat bass and buffed treble on Line Out mode(a huge huge difference when compared to how other IEMs react with source change
I’d add note that Lily can be treble head satisfying IEM if someone has extensive variety of playing environment.