[WAON303]

And yet hypers hype these because they get freebies and the loyal supporters buy them without knowing majority of these so called "Reviewers" are the new late night infommercials. Luckily, its the cheaper brands. Imagine if 64Audio, FiR, Fatfreq or similar big brands had these kind of marketing with 0.01% dynamic driver installed, lol.

Seeaudio is not a brand I'd call cheap by any means.

They have kilobuck models in their catalog, albeit not many people own the Neo or Kaguya.

The false driver drama is something I'd expect from budget brands like KZ and Tangzu, not Seeaudio.

Now I wouldn't be surprised if Seeaudio used Bellsing BAs on their BA models instead of Knowles / Sonion.

 

[o0genesis0o]

majority of people value sound based on gain level, from my experience and by observations through various blind tests.

The higher the gain, clearer the sound, and general perception is “it sounds more lively”.

Actual resolution, Timbral Accuracy, Sound imaging, sound stage and positioning aren’t a concern for general people, as far as sound is “clear” it translates to “good”.

And we see mainstream music follows that rule and use super heavy compressors to pack maximum full gain in mixing, with top end chopped off for details (lossy compressor applied).

Balancing the volume / gain is tricky though. Say, you get E5000, you turn it up until a certain average loudness is reached on the measurement, and you listen. It’s likely you will call it muddy and muffled since most of that loudness is bass. You need to turn it up a few or more notches for the ear-gain to come up correct, and then it sounds right with big bass. In this scenario, which one is the right gain setting? IMHO, this is why a balanced tuning is desirable, especially in the lower end of the market where the targeted customers are not geeky like us goners here.

Btw, I found that if a chain is less resolving / spacious, whatever, making it louder does little to help. When I find one source is more “technical” than the other one, I always pump up the volume of the weaker source for one more test. However, the result rarely changes.

SeeAudio X Zeos Rinko is getting some backlash due to their driver apparently not being a "micro planar driver", as claimed in the marketing materials.

HBB opened them up only to find no signs of a planar driver. It's a very cheap piezo film instead.

Guess people are mostly paying for the sleazy artwork here, but this misleading and false marketing by Chi-Fi brands must stop. TangZu is a serial offender, and now SeeAudio has joined in too.

Interesting that HBB rather than HiFri opening these up. You should have seen Z fans thanking almighty and all the goodness for Z to produce such spectacular listening experience for them. I already noped out when I saw the ear gain of these IEMs

Am I the only one who wants to make a 2 isobaric loaded 12mm DD, 2BA and 8EST and call it "Diminishing Returns"?

Edit: Maybe it needs even more BAs.

Edit 2: Maybe even more ESTs.

isobaric DDs? Are you describing a new JH Audio IEM?

Maybe do a 7 way crossover, with dual DD woofers, 1BA low-mid, 1BA mid, 2BA high-mid, 4EST high, 4EST air. Imaging if someone can make and tune this correctly (neutral with proper bass boost, 5-8dB ear-gain), without choking any driver or wasting the EST. Truely endgame with the current technology right there. Imaging if they can price this around Thieaudio V16. I would save up and sell all the unused gear for one.

Edit: the only IEM with 7-way crossover that I know of is the STORM. This dream IEM is not going to be priced at V16 level.

Edit: as per JH himself, isobaric DDs configuration is to combine the effective size of two DD. So if you combine two 12mm drivers, you are going to get a behemoth 24mm DD. The bass is going to slap listener’s heads right off.

 

[Tzennn]

GK100 is out! 200$ on Hifigo: Link

 

[o0genesis0o]

GK100 is out! 200$ on Hifigo: Link

5-ways? Looking solid. Any graph for these ones? I might buy them for review a few months down the line.

Edit: Nevermind, found it on the GeekWorld thread

13dB ear gain, bass lower than ear-gain. Not for me. Might be fun for others.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

GK100 is out! 200$ on Hifigo:

5-ways? Looking solid. Any graph for these ones? I might buy them for review a few months down the line.

Edit: Nevermind, found it on the GeekWorld thread

13dB ear gain, bass lower than ear-gain. Not for me. Might be fun for others.

Let’s see what others measure it, we all know those gain levels may be inaccurate

But the timing of their release is kinda unfortunate…Blessing 3 is incoming in hours. And another big news of SeeAudio committing falsified driver advertisements on the Z-Reviews collaboration IEM Rinko circulating around, overwrites GK100 news

It‘s been told it will be available on Monday.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Great analytics from ear tip expert!

Very interesting as many are trying on those multi kilobuck ones and commenting they love it. I can see that’s a legitimate brass dick hype.

Meanwhile, I introduced H570 to Japanese community Hopefully H570 becomes one of the standard and bigger dealers start to sell those.

I see Pentaconn introducing the international retailer network of this Softears UC + brass tube, the Japan Dicks Coreier Brass

https://twitter.com/pentaconn/status/1644171594363998208?s=46&t=0JEY5S3Hf1wWOxR34LyJdw


so….that brass dicks are actually Pentaconn’a product?

Anyway!

Hong Kong：soundwaveaudio.com.hk
Taiwan：facebook.com/SADTW.audio
China：4-ear.com
Korea：ankihouseint.com
Malaysia：


I tried that hk dealer and shocked to see $250 price tag. Phew it was HKD.

They changed brand name from Japan Dicks to Pentaconn

[EDIT] they don’t ship internationally

 

[baskingshark]

And yet hypers hype these because they get freebies and the loyal supporters buy them without knowing majority of these so called "Reviewers" are the new late night infommercials. Luckily, its the cheaper brands. Imagine if 64Audio, FiR, Fatfreq or similar big brands had these kind of marketing with 0.01% dynamic driver installed, lol.

TBH, the bigger boutique brands may already be using "cheaper" drivers as per the Knowles/Bellsing lawsuit - https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cxqlje/knowles_files_claim_with_us_trade_commission_to/

Knowles opened the drivers of some higher-end models to find that the innards were Bellsings:

"For each of the following items, Knowles has imported one into the US, disassembled it and found it to contain at least one Bellsing BA product, therefore seeking a Cease & Desist against the company:

• FiiO F9 Dynamic Hybrid Earphones
• Fidue A73 Hybrid Monitor Earphones
• InEarz Audio P300
• MagicEar Personal Sound Amplifiers
• Campfire Audio Solaris In-Ear Monitors
• Clear Tune Monitors AS-7 In-Ear Monitors
• Resound S-Receiver Tubing & Resound NP-Receiver Tubing
• Jerry Harvey JH10X3 Pro In-Ear Monitors"

So it won't be surprising that maybe there are some false claims from the more expensive models, just that nobody has the balls to open up a kilobuck IEM shell to check the drivers inside.

Did something similar with friends letting them test headphones.

All that has tested my Verite and Aeolus prefer Aeolus. Less resolution, bassier, less treble. None Audiophile people do prefer that.

But when guessing price they think the Verite is expensive and for example my DT770 is cheap. Might have to do with design and wood.

To my shock and horror, my wife cannot tell the difference between a $1700 USD DUNU LUNA and a $5 pirated Beats dollar store earphone. She says they sound exactly the same! Well that saves a lot of money haha.

 

[zenki]

TBH, the bigger boutique brands may already be using "cheaper" drivers as per the Knowles/Bellsing lawsuit - https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cxqlje/knowles_files_claim_with_us_trade_commission_to/

Knowles opened the drivers of some higher-end models to find that the innards were Bellsings:

"For each of the following items, Knowles has imported one into the US, disassembled it and found it to contain at least one Bellsing BA product, therefore seeking a Cease & Desist against the company:

• FiiO F9 Dynamic Hybrid Earphones
• Fidue A73 Hybrid Monitor Earphones
• InEarz Audio P300
• MagicEar Personal Sound Amplifiers
• Campfire Audio Solaris In-Ear Monitors
• Clear Tune Monitors AS-7 In-Ear Monitors
• Resound S-Receiver Tubing & Resound NP-Receiver Tubing
• Jerry Harvey JH10X3 Pro In-Ear Monitors"

So it won't be surprising that maybe there are some false claims from the more expensive models, just that nobody has the balls to open up a kilobuck IEM shell to check the drivers inside.




To my shock and horror, my wife cannot tell the difference between a $1700 USD DUNU LUNA and a $5 pirated Beats dollar store earphone. She says they sound exactly the same! Well that saves a lot of money haha.

Your wifey's the real deal. The rest aren't
Lol

 

[JEHL]

Your wifey's the real deal. The rest aren't
Lol

Meanwhile, the only conclusion I run into is that they have very different hobbies.

Or at least that's all I can assume. I have piss poor social skills so I live in eternal solitude.

 

[Audio Fun]

Don’t know if anyone shared this before, but Aful performer 8 has already released in Asia market: https://m.tb.cn/h.UIpnvsk?tk=wqO4dPi42BK
It’s retail for around 350 USD, but just graph itself looks really weird. And interestingly they named it as “Band” instead of “Performer” that we all know.

 

[JEHL]

isobaric DDs? Are you describing a new JH Audio IEM?

Maybe do a 7 way crossover, with dual DD woofers, 1BA low-mid, 1BA mid, 2BA high-mid, 4EST high, 4EST air. Imaging if someone can make and tune this correctly (neutral with proper bass boost, 5-8dB ear-gain), without choking any driver or wasting the EST. Truely endgame with the current technology right there. Imaging if they can price this around Thieaudio V16. I would save up and sell all the unused gear for one.

Edit: the only IEM with 7-way crossover that I know of is the STORM. This dream IEM is not going to be priced at V16 level.

Edit: as per JH himself, isobaric DDs configuration is to combine the effective size of two DD. So if you combine two 12mm drivers, you are going to get a behemoth 24mm DD. The bass is going to slap listener’s heads right off.

As far as my understanding goes the point of isobaric loaded drivers is that they'll behave as if the enclosure were half the size so that big driver don't get choked by small enclosures, while retaining the advantage of playing lower and/or louder than a smaller cone driver could. This knowledge comes from loudspeakers manuals however so I doubt the same may hold true for an IEM.

The 1st application in an IEM I actually saw is the AAW Canary with its dual 8mm DD.

HOWEVER. I always wondered. What'd happen if you put then in a push/push configuration rather than the push/pull configuration that you'd do in an isobaric setup. Read somewhere that a push/push configuration would lower the resonant frequency of the drivers, allowing them to play lower than either of them could on their own.

As for the crossover. I think any higher than 4-way is most likely overkill since no driver is THAT specialized so I'd probably lose more than I'd gain by specializing the drivers so heavily. 3-way (Subwoofer, midwoofer, tweeter) is what I'd go for in a loudspeaker setup. Also if I'm reading the specs of some sonion ESTs right. One may be able to cross them as low as 1kHz. Effectively letting the ESTs not just do treble duty but also upper-mid duty as well. Meaning in this case the BAs would only have to do 200Hz to 1-1.5kHz. As for how wide the range of the Sonion ESTs truly is in practice? No idea since no IEM maker I know of discloses crossover frequencies in their IEMs.

Although if it's not immediately obvious I know far more about loudspeaker than either headphones or IEMs. Mainly due to DIY loudspeaker tutorials being much more readily available than the other 2.

Another idea I have in the back of my mind is a coaxial driver headphone. Maybe someone already tried this and I haven't found out yet. but it bothers me that multi-driver headphones are so hard and/or rare to find to begin with. And I think most multi-driver headphones are put together with no semblance of a crossover so nothing coherent ever comes out of them. But I don't think multi-driver headphones are a concept doomed from the start.

As for a more recent application of isobaric DDs well I'll just leave this here: https://moondroplab.com/en/products/blessing3

You can imagine how excited I am for this even though I probably won't be able to afford it by the time it releases... Assuming it hasn't already.

 

[Tzennn]

Don’t know if anyone shared this before, but Aful performer 8 has already released in Asia market: 【淘宝】https://m.tb.cn/h.UIpnvsk?tk=wqO4dPi42BK CZ3457 「AFUL BAND旗舰级圈铁混合耳机BAND5&BAND8发烧入耳式有线HiFi耳机」 点击链接直接打开 或者 淘宝搜索直接打开
It’s retail for around 350 USD, but just graph itself looks really weird. And interestingly they named it as “Band” instead of “Performer” that we all know.

Edit the link https://m.tb.cn/h.UIpnvsk?tk=wqO4dPi42BK

 

[Audio Fun]

Edit the link https://m.tb.cn/h.UIpnvsk?tk=wqO4dPi42BK

Fixed thank you !!

 

[rayliam80]

Not sure if this has been asked but....how come there isn't a Simgot thread?

 

[o0genesis0o]

As for a more recent application of isobaric DDs well I'll just leave this here: https://moondroplab.com/en/products/blessing3

You can imagine how excited I am for this even though I probably won't be able to afford it by the time it releases... Assuming it hasn't already.

The graph of Blessing 3 is already up at Crinacle's database: https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/moondrop-blessing-3/

The amount of ear-gain scares me But at the same time, I'm also very excited about their new 2DD configuration.

Speaking of cross-over overkill, I think the subtonic storm (maybe the only IEM with 7-ways crossover at the moment?) manages to achieve a breakthrough level of clarity / resolution that blows all the reviews'/listerners' socks off, even the very critical ones. Gaea (and likely MS5) also use 4-way rather than usual 3-ways and they did a great job at note definitions and separation, all of that stuffs (of course the tonality of Gaea plays an important role as well). The HiBy Zeta with 5-ways also achieved an impressive level of technical performance even with its warm and moody tonality. Of course, we cannot draw any conclusion from a few samples, but I start to pay more attention to the crossover after experiencing these IEMs.