The discovery thread!
May 12, 2023 at 4:28 PM Post #78,661 of 102,646
Does anyone know or have more information about these headphones below, they think they are very beautiful but there is little information about the sound behavior of each one of them:
https://pt.aliexpress.com/store/1100218270?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000007.1.7b337c65ZCGFCT

EPZ Q1
S24d4a4e6efaf40d8a559513d07f0821eb.jpg


EPZ K1
S7026e39e2aaf4c3c976c5d622955ed960.jpg
Got this thing today, very good resin quality for $28. It has resin quality in the $200 band. In terms of sound, the bass seems to get ahead of the other frequencies a bit.

epz q1
 

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May 12, 2023 at 8:41 PM Post #78,662 of 102,646
FiiO coming out with FD11 soon, new entry level model in the DD series. Lets see perhaps they join the double DD hype.

1683917012410.png
I wonder which direction they are going to take in terms of tuning, JD7 or FDx. Fingercrossed for JD7-like tuning with even better DD or dual DD. However, from the description, I have a hunch that we are going to see a V-shaped sound. Maybe they are going to use that spiral bass tubes from FF3?

I’m cautiously optimistic about these.
 
May 12, 2023 at 8:54 PM Post #78,664 of 102,646
Another sub $10 USD contender.

$9.90 USD
The CVJ Stepless. Single DD 6 mm composite diaphragm.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004775054528.html









Maybe the Waifu packaging is worth the entrance fee LOLOL. (cough cough undercut the Moondrop waifus with a cheaper price!)

But why is it called the Stepless? The graph has so many STEPS!
iems with the dumbest cable I ve ever seen in my life, the sound is pretty boring.
 

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May 12, 2023 at 10:05 PM Post #78,666 of 102,646
Can't believe the price for hifiman re800 , just ordered a pair
One of my favorites for over two years now. If you like your bass and you like excellent timbre, then you'll enjoy them. Mids are recessed, but lush, like all hifiman mids.
 
May 12, 2023 at 10:10 PM Post #78,668 of 102,646
Quick OOTB for KZ x HBB PR2
IMG_7934.jpeg


▶︎Personal Purchase from KZ Global Shop at $29USD

▶︎The measurement appears almost a re-shoot of discontinued Tangzu’s legendary Planar, Wu Zetian.
IMG_7938.png


Wu Zetian = 14.5mm full-size planar
PR2 = 13.2mm full-size planar (bellsing?)

I run PR2 through 3 sets of 60min online burn-in session from this site:
https://www.chord-m.com/en/?runin=open

A pretty nice comprehensive initial burn-in tool that works great to most of transducers.

The right-out-of-the-box performance was a nightmare…I removed 70% of my out of box comments with “maybe I‘ve expected too much from KZ”.


I’m really curious what Crin (the burn-in disbeliever) would comment his out of box comment on PR2 VS A proper burn-in completed set of PR2. He has enough sensitive set of ears to tell a huge difference of this change🤔

⭕️PR2 requires significantly higher level of gain to have a proper sonic performance.
⭕️With Stock foam ear tips that is attached to PR2 out of box, and standard KZ stock cable, PR2 isn’t performing the true potentials

—Tonal Balance
As well-expected from HBB collaboration, warm and relaxed treble neutral that matches perfectly to tracks with “energy / momentum “ prerequisites. It also has good amount of detail articulation and with slightly accentuated air region, if you feel PR2 lacks air, you probably belong to “artificially generated air” lover.

—Timbre Tasting
Top Note: Tactile yet Nimble sub-bass
Heart Note: Smooth and tonally accurate mid
Bottom Note: Far reaching and pretty natural treble

—PR2 vs Wu Zetian OG
IMG_7936.jpeg


On the paper, PR2 appears to be more detailed around treble and air region?

I performed direct A-B test both using same ear tips (SpinFit CP360) and Wu’s 4.4mm balanced stock cable.

▶︎Wu has a noticeable advantage over PR2 for the planar driver performance in terms of transient response.

Wu sounds light and fast, PR2 sounds slightly slow when directly compared to Wu Zetian, I’d day 90% in speed.

For tuning wise both Wu and PR2 are almost same projectile, you can refer my Wu’s OOTB for the tonality.

Here is my Wu’s out of box impression as

Indeed! Thanks for recommending Wu @Redcarmoose & @Dsnuts & @baskingshark ! Wu immediately becomes my planar favorite.

-OOTB notes:
▶︎carrying pouch is HUGE and color theme is wine
Red with Gold is, well…not my taste..



▶︎Wu is a shallow fit type, the housing didn’t match with my ear so I need some bigger war tips that comes with it.
Generic Accostune AE tips styled ones.

▶︎Sound is impressive, wide diffusion, but not too U feeling. Nice balance that Tangzu team has managed. I may explain Wu’s balance as Mid-switch flipped on Anole VX. Almost warm-neutral with slight hints in upper mid as well as treble. Sub-bass is not overly emphasized (Not L-shape), with mid-bass having a welcoming warmth. People with 200hz sensitivity may feel it a slight “bleed” and may prefer Timeless style scooped uppper-to-mid bass, but I’m perfectly fine with this mid-bass.

▶︎Highly musically talented tuning. I can see the big boss of Tangzu spending nights and nights adjusting it, not a random attempt, the tuning has his/her philosophy. For someone tried many IEMs, this kind of tuning philosophy is not a tangible EQ thing, it’s more higher level top-down comprehensive bird’s -eye type “sound as a whole” presentation, just like someone creates instruments. Tangzu big boss has a talent to that extent. Now it’s getting interesting what Tangzu could’ve done with entry-level Wan’er S.G. It’s incoming and will arrive in weeks.

2022 is a year of good tuner…Salnotes Zero and Wu is currently my favorite tune

What matters the most to me is not technicality, after all things considered for “enjoying/live with your favorite songs”.

Surely technicality is like big engines in a car, a sportscar, hypercar, it goes as fast as you put your feet on pedal. But once you’ve done everything you could imagine with sportscar & hypercar, you feel the suspension is way too firm to over speed bumps, and if you hit any potholes on road with high performance sports tire&suspension, it will be very unpleasant. So I’m recently finding, cars made for “comfort & luxury “ more appealing. You don’t need huge engines for the comfort, same to IEM/headphones. But that’s a one man’s maturity in “sound” preference I think. So whenever I get tired of comfortable cars, I may move to sportscars again, having options, for cars are not easy, but for IEM, is still manageable, good point of this hobby.

Wu is a good example for that, it’s made for your comfort and pure enjoyment over technical things.

▶︎For Bass-Mid, the performance gap is 100 : 90 For Treble 100 : 95 for Wu : PR2

They are almost par👍

▶︎Planar performance at almost bare minimum budget🤯, for the price of $29, I bet this is hard to beat Planar experience anyone would chip in.

Overall experience, my expectations was very high, and PR2 actually met with that high expectations which is very rare occasion to my experience in any IEM open box experienc.

Also, although with HBB’s tuning advise, I’m quite surprised KZ is now able to tune IEM to fit to the target without sacrificing timbral accuracy which unfortunately did not happen back then to Zex Pro /CRN.

PR2 is 90-95% Wu Zetian and is best IEM of KZ has offered to date. Wow, great job in offering A-class IEM with that low budget!!
 
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May 12, 2023 at 11:02 PM Post #78,669 of 102,646
Quick OOTB for KZ x HBB PR2
IMG_7934.jpeg

▶︎Personal Purchase from KZ Global Shop at $29USD

▶︎The measurement appears almost a re-shoot of discontinued Tangzu’s legendary Planar, Wu Zetian.
IMG_7938.png

Wu Zetian = 14.5mm full-size planar
PR2 = 13.2mm full-size planar (bellsing?)

I run PR2 through 3 sets of 60min online burn-in session from this site:
https://www.chord-m.com/en/?runin=open

A pretty nice comprehensive initial burn-in tool that works great to most of transducers.

The right-out-of-the-box performance was a nightmare…I removed 70% of my out of box comments with “maybe I‘ve expected too much from KZ”.


I’m really curious what Crin (the burn-in disbeliever) would comment his out of box comment on PR2 VS A proper burn-in completed set of PR2. He has enough sensitive set of ears to tell a huge difference of this change🤔

⭕️PR2 requires significantly higher level of gain to have a proper sonic performance.
⭕️With Stock foam ear tips that is attached to PR2 out of box, and standard KZ stock cable, PR2 isn’t performing the true potentials

—Tonal Balance
As well-expected from HBB collaboration, warm and relaxed treble neutral that matches perfectly to tracks with “energy / momentum “ prerequisites. It also has good amount of detail articulation and with slightly accentuated air region, if you feel PR2 lacks air, you probably belong to “artificially generated air” lover.

—Timbre Tasting
Top Note: Tactile yet Nimble sub-bass
Heart Note: Smooth and tonally accurate mid
Bottom Note: Far reaching and pretty natural treble

—PR2 vs Wu Zetian OG
IMG_7936.jpeg

On the paper, PR2 appears to be more detailed around treble and air region?

I performed direct A-B test both using same ear tips (SpinFit CP360) and Wu’s 4.4mm balanced stock cable.

▶︎Wu has a noticeable advantage over PR2 for the planar driver performance in terms of transient response.

Wu sounds light and fast, PR2 sounds slightly slow when directly compared to Wu Zetian, I’d day 90% in speed.

For tuning wise both Wu and PR2 are almost same projectile, you can refer my Wu’s OOTB for the tonality.

Here is my Wu’s out of box impression as



▶︎For Bass-Mid, the performance gap is 100 : 90 For Treble 100 : 95 for Wu : PR2

They are almost par👍

▶︎Planar performance at almost bare minimum budget🤯, for the price of $29, I bet this is hard to beat Planar experience anyone would chip in.

Overall experience, my expectations was very high, and PR2 actually met with that high expectations which is very rare occasion to my experience in any IEM open box experienc.

Also, although with HBB’s tuning advise, I’m quite surprised KZ is now able to tune IEM to fit to the target without sacrificing timbral accuracy which unfortunately did not happen back then to Zex Pro /CRN.

PR2 is 90-95% Wu Zetian and is best IEM of KZ has offered to date. Wow, great job in offering A-class IEM with that low budget!!
Yeah, I’m so tempted to add these PR2 to my collection just to have one decent planar IEM. They are also good for giving amps a work out and convince people that they need external amp :dt880smile:
 
May 12, 2023 at 11:15 PM Post #78,670 of 102,646
Yeah, I’m so tempted to add these PR2 to my collection just to have one decent planar IEM. They are also good for giving amps a work out and convince people that they need external amp :dt880smile:

Haha were you in a cave for 2022 and didn't ride on any planar IEM hypetrain?

Kidding, but yeah I saw a few local audiophiles who bought the PR2 and they were complaining on social media that the venerable apple dongle couldn't drive the PR2 even on max volume (by driving they mean not volume but the dynamics, bass tightness etc).

I don't have the PR2, but from the advertised specs of impedance 15 ohm and sensitivity 94 dB, it does look like this Pokemon might need amplification.
 
May 12, 2023 at 11:19 PM Post #78,671 of 102,646
Haha were you in a cave for 2022 and didn't ride on any planar IEM hypetrain?

Kidding, but yeah I saw a few local audiophiles who bought the PR2 and they were complaining on social media that the venerable apple dongle couldn't drive the PR2 even on max volume (by driving they mean not volume but the dynamics, bass tightness etc).

I don't have the PR2, but from the advertised specs of impedance 15 ohm and sensitivity 94 dB, it does look like this Pokemon might need amplification.

Then they can find out how thirsty high powered dongles can be on phone battery!:triportsad:
 
May 12, 2023 at 11:26 PM Post #78,672 of 102,646
▶︎Planar performance at almost bare minimum budget🤯, for the price of $29, I bet this is hard to beat Planar experience anyone would chip in.
This set probably makes a LOT of stuff under 100 bucks obsolete.

30 bucks got you garbage 5+ years ago, it's hard to believe you can get a competent set for 30 bucks nowadays, and not just a set that's well tuned.

I thought it was going to take a while before full sized IEM planar sets would drop below 50 bucks, boy was I wrong!
 
May 12, 2023 at 11:44 PM Post #78,673 of 102,646
This set probably makes a LOT of stuff under 100 bucks obsolete.

30 bucks got you garbage 5+ years ago, it's hard to believe you can get a competent set for 30 bucks nowadays, and not just a set that's well tuned.

I thought it was going to take a while before full sized IEM planar sets would drop below 50 bucks, boy was I wrong!
”what a wonderful world” we are living in😊
Yeah, I’m so tempted to add these PR2 to my collection just to have one decent planar IEM. They are also good for giving amps a work out and convince people that they need external amp :dt880smile:
haha come join us! It’s pretty worthy set especially with H570 & NiceHCK cables.✌️
Then they can find out how thirsty high powered dongles can be on phone battery!:triportsad:
ture that😆
Haha were you in a cave for 2022 and didn't ride on any planar IEM hypetrain?

Kidding, but yeah I saw a few local audiophiles who bought the PR2 and they were complaining on social media that the venerable apple dongle couldn't drive the PR2 even on max volume (by driving they mean not volume but the dynamics, bass tightness etc).

I don't have the PR2, but from the advertised specs of impedance 15 ohm and sensitivity 94 dB, it does look like this Pokemon might need amplification.
you are invited to join KZ pokemon club😄

Before KZ was full of magicarps now they have gyarados!
 
May 12, 2023 at 11:55 PM Post #78,674 of 102,646
Quick OOTB for KZ x HBB PR2


▶︎Personal Purchase from KZ Global Shop at $29USD

▶︎The measurement appears almost a re-shoot of discontinued Tangzu’s legendary Planar, Wu Zetian.


Wu Zetian = 14.5mm full-size planar
PR2 = 13.2mm full-size planar (bellsing?)

I run PR2 through 3 sets of 60min online burn-in session from this site:
https://www.chord-m.com/en/?runin=open

A pretty nice comprehensive initial burn-in tool that works great to most of transducers.

The right-out-of-the-box performance was a nightmare…I removed 70% of my out of box comments with “maybe I‘ve expected too much from KZ”.


I’m really curious what Crin (the burn-in disbeliever) would comment his out of box comment on PR2 VS A proper burn-in completed set of PR2. He has enough sensitive set of ears to tell a huge difference of this change🤔

⭕️PR2 requires significantly higher level of gain to have a proper sonic performance.
⭕️With Stock foam ear tips that is attached to PR2 out of box, and standard KZ stock cable, PR2 isn’t performing the true potentials

—Tonal Balance
As well-expected from HBB collaboration, warm and relaxed treble neutral that matches perfectly to tracks with “energy / momentum “ prerequisites. It also has good amount of detail articulation and with slightly accentuated air region, if you feel PR2 lacks air, you probably belong to “artificially generated air” lover.

—Timbre Tasting
Top Note: Tactile yet Nimble sub-bass
Heart Note: Smooth and tonally accurate mid
Bottom Note: Far reaching and pretty natural treble

—PR2 vs Wu Zetian OG


On the paper, PR2 appears to be more detailed around treble and air region?

I performed direct A-B test both using same ear tips (SpinFit CP360) and Wu’s 4.4mm balanced stock cable.

▶︎Wu has a noticeable advantage over PR2 for the planar driver performance in terms of transient response.

Wu sounds light and fast, PR2 sounds slightly slow when directly compared to Wu Zetian, I’d day 90% in speed.

For tuning wise both Wu and PR2 are almost same projectile, you can refer my Wu’s OOTB for the tonality.

Here is my Wu’s out of box impression as



▶︎For Bass-Mid, the performance gap is 100 : 90 For Treble 100 : 95 for Wu : PR2

They are almost par👍

▶︎Planar performance at almost bare minimum budget🤯, for the price of $29, I bet this is hard to beat Planar experience anyone would chip in.

Overall experience, my expectations was very high, and PR2 actually met with that high expectations which is very rare occasion to my experience in any IEM open box experienc.

Also, although with HBB’s tuning advise, I’m quite surprised KZ is now able to tune IEM to fit to the target without sacrificing timbral accuracy which unfortunately did not happen back then to Zex Pro /CRN.

PR2 is 90-95% Wu Zetian and is best IEM of KZ has offered to date. Wow, great job in offering A-class IEM with that low budget!!

I detected a hidden message, your deliberate misspelling of "artificially generated air". This should have course been "artificially generated ear" or "AGE" for short. AGE is the result over time, of hearing loss, produced by repeated exposure to loud noise (in extreme cases this can even be deliberate). The symptoms are a profound loss of sensitivity to higher frequencies. This produces "treble seeking" behavior and a marked preference for increasingly bright signatures. These poor disabled individuals are literally deaf to your criticism and grumble in response with comments like "Bass head!". Many of us are doomed to eventually succumb to AGE as we get older.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Glad to hear that the PR2 approximates the Wu Zetian. That's my favorite planar and something cheaper to use as a daily driver is welcome. Mine have shipped, so looking forward to comparing them!:L3000:
 

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