[freelancr]

Lastly about Realme buds air 5 pro,

Prepare for intense treble. Besides the spicy treble they perform well and the standard tuning FR looks great.

The eq in the app is a joke. This is how the treble looks when turned all the way down.

 

[nikbr]

Oh dude, what's up with that gorgeous hand writing?

You obviously have no cat nearby to mess it all up in a blink of an eye.

 

[Enther]

Soon I can make an A/B comparison between Quintet and Hype 2.

 

[cobrabucket]

Still trying to decide between the Hype 2 and Okavango.
I'm pretty torn, tbh.
They both are intriguing in different ways.
Which would you expect to have better mids/ vocals?

 

[brsdrgn]

Prepare for intense treble. Besides the spicy treble they perform well and the standard tuning FR looks great.



The eq in the app is a joke. This is how the treble looks when turned all the way down.

Thank you for the information. I'm planning to EQ it by using poweramp equalizer. With DVC. Maybe turning absolute volume off would work for you?

 

[Nimweth]

Can someone recommend an ambient music with a little of bass?

Also Liquid Mind (Chuck Wild).

 

[PhonoPhi]

Great point. But I can offer a counter example: BA drivers are generally more distorted than dynamic drivers. I remember ASR folks mocking the U12t when comparing the graphs with FD5. I don’t think anyone listening to both and say “oh wow, FD5 is more resolving than U12t”, regardless of how they define “resolving”.

Anyhow, my point is: I have no idea



Congrats on your shiny! Keep these comments about excellent resolution and imaging coming, and I might blind buy one unit one day.



I don’t know. I personally don’t find any of those options, except the Xe6 offensive in terms of timbre when I listen to my classical library. Maybe that “BA” timbre razor thin note size is the essence of that resolving sound that I can’t quite have enough

To be fair, IEMs nowadays don’t feel lacking like the ones back in 2021. I’m A/B AuR Aurora with Moondrop Aria atm. There is like a gulf between them in terms of how nuanced and separate the sound is, despite similar tonality. Even Falcon Ultra and Hype2 is mostly “enough”. I personally never felt “enough” with the Blessing 2 and FD5 back then.

Where did you get that "BA drivers are more distorted"?!
Your personal "reviewer's experience" or just "beliefs"?

There is a nearly freely suspended coils in BAs.

BAs were designed to reproduce speech without distortions by a compact transducer.
Great invention that essentially created IEMs from hearing devices.

Real limitations of BAs is a limited frequency range that originates from the resonance of a freely suspended coil.

The limited range of a single BA was sufficient for speech recognition, where most of the information is in the mids, the great resolution of BAs worked well for resolution/recognition.

Then Etymotic made an amazing job in adapting a single BA, a legendary Knowles ED29689. The BA is more dampened (less resolution, but legendary vocals for many) to extend the range that works the best with a narrow resonant cavity. Still limited on bass and the last octave extension - a single BA can't do it all.

Deep insertion is not an option for me. So multi-BAs do a great/best job for my music enjoyment including the bass from BAs (my personal preference).

P. S. Added a sentence on limitations of a single BA.

 

[Surf Monkey]

the only way I can describe the notes in certain tracks is 'sickly'. Like eating too much of a sweet thing.

Cloying.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloying

 

[Leonarfd]

Still trying to decide between the Hype 2 and Okavango.
I'm pretty torn, tbh.
They both are intriguing in different ways.
Which would you expect to have better mids/ vocals?

Okavango has more of a thick presentation, mids and instruments have much weight to them. Bass is also lush and big, even if bass switch is turned down. Thankfully treble also have nice pressence so sound is not dark or veiled.

Have not tried the Hype 2, looking at measurement this might be more V shaped with leaner and clearer midrange?

I bet both are awesome, and not easy to choose.

 

[cobrabucket]

Okavango has more of a thick presentation, mids and instruments have much weight to them. Bass is also lush and big, even if bass switch is turned down. Thankfully treble also have nice pressence so sound is not dark or veiled.

Have not tried the Hype 2, looking at measurement this might be more V shaped with leaner and clearer midrange?

I bet both are awesome, and not easy to choose.

Thank you, sir. I must say that you are always so kind and helpful.
Really appreciate your input, Leonard!

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Okavango has more of a thick presentation, mids and instruments have much weight to them. Bass is also lush and big, even if bass switch is turned down. Thankfully treble also have nice pressence so sound is not dark or veiled.

Have not tried the Hype 2, looking at measurement this might be more V shaped with leaner and clearer midrange?

I bet both are awesome, and not easy to choose.

Okavango It's a fantastic set, truly noteworthy, and basically at an affordable price.
Detailed and in your face sound.

I'm using it in setup both switches on.
I have to try to lower something.

Comfort is good.
It has long thin nozzles.

The cable gives a feeling of well-being to the touch, it is light and does not twist.

In a 'just' world, this set should break the bank .

@PROblemdetected was right.

 

[SweetCans928]

I still keeping my Mest OG, for its technicalities, super resolution with razor sharp imaging (sharing the IEM class leading imaging with IER M9 and u12t) although I know for sure they are derailed from naturalness.
I have Z1R but Mest has been the closest one to my personal end game, not perfect but the closest I can get. Bass quality and tuning, and soundstage imaging, bodied mids, aspects that I put as priorities. I know the timbre is out and timbre chasing person won't like the Mest.
The timbre isn't dealbreaker for me, I have Monarch mkII for natural mids but the bass isnt up to Mest and Z1R.

But recently I found the last piece of my puzzle. I want to write about it here.
The pentaconn coreir brass. It boost up technicalities especially imaging at very audible performance. That made the Z1R have similar imaging quality like Mest. Therefore the Z1R is complete in almost everything. Mids also open up without sacrifices the bass at all. The mid bass become tighter and snappier. Timbre also improved in better way. They are expensive though, my most expensive eartips and I was skeptical about them, from fear of wasting money, become worth every penny, the improvements are more audible than changing cables.
Cons are expensive, and the stem inner lid is too short because the upper half are filled with brass material. And they don't pair well with bright IEMs. My mest become so sharp, too sharp even with extraordinary imaging, better timbre, it's tiring on upper region.

I will write up about pentaconn coreir brass later with pic and comparisons to my previous favorite eartips (azla sedna crystal, spiral dots, feaulle latex H570, moondrop springs, Spinfit W1) if They are on A class eartips, the Pentaconn Coreir is the only solid S class.

Have you tried the Pentaconns with Monarch MK2 yet? I've been waiting to see someone else's impressions regarding that combo. Also, I hope you get a chance to try MEST MK3! Most of the weaknesses people cite with MEST MK1 have become strengths with the MK3. Although, the treble is significantly more relaxed which can be problematic for some people.

And yeah the Pentaconns aren't great with everything, they even make some IEMs worse, but when they synergize, they reeaaally synergize.

 

[Animagus]

Hey guys! Here's my review of Kinera's flagship - Imperal Loki Emerald (International Tuning) that has an impressive 1DD+6BA+4EST+1 Bone Conduction driver quad-brid configuration. Read on to know what I think. There's a separate page just for comparisons with a multitude of popular IEMs in there. If you want more comparisons with any particular IEM, let me know and I'll see if I have them or can get my hands on them. Enjoy!

Kinera Imperial Loki Emerald

​

 

[carlosedp]

They are eartips but still a discovery... But this is the best thing I found recently... Reading some @AmericanSpirit posts he mentioned Butastur was designed with these H570 eartips in mind and they are really fantastic. Got them on AliExpress searching for "latex eartips".

Silicone tips get a bit itchy for me after a while and the Dunu S&S start to hurt because of the pressure they make... This is the perfect confort for me... Highly recommended.

Here on the Penon Serial but I'll get some more extra pairs for my other IEMs...

 

[ToneDeafMonk]

The Okavango has amazing mids with the 4 Sonion BA. I have yet to hear the hype 2