SynaestheticA
500+ Head-Fier
Anything ever come of the Ibasso 17th announcements? Haven't heard anything from them on their regular channels since a few days before. Not much of a 17th party. Or am I confused?
The discovery thread!
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I agree. And this is also based on my own experience. Subjectively, I consider it probably the best selection of what you can buy under $50. But you definitely need to read the reviews to make it easier to decide.
jazzzy
100+ Head-Fier
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that's good; Moondrop is falling behind so better top up the game and lower the price
saldsald
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2016
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They are much better than you think, especially this Wind.
Juzear 41T is a facsimile of Aur Aurora at 1/3 to 1/4 the price. If you wanna stay on a tighter budget, that’s the one
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For the 7Hz Timeless fans, Timeless II is coming soon:
But just a philosophical question. Can it still be called "timeless" if it is replaced by a sequel?? Anyways hope this will build on the strengths of the Timeless I, which arguably ushered in the planar IEM frenzy of 2022!
https://www.facebook.com/Linsoulaud...7tSYLjsaV1Wo7K6rt68sEMRqt5oDf4sH2DMZ9YiR4cEfl
But just a philosophical question. Can it still be called "timeless" if it is replaced by a sequel?? Anyways hope this will build on the strengths of the Timeless I, which arguably ushered in the planar IEM frenzy of 2022!
https://www.facebook.com/Linsoulaud...7tSYLjsaV1Wo7K6rt68sEMRqt5oDf4sH2DMZ9YiR4cEfl
Tripowin Piccolo is probably the thing you’re looking for
Ferdinando1968
Headphoneus Supremus
I received the Hisenior Okavango (~USD$300) a few weeks or so ago. Unfortunately, due to my vacation coming up, did not have too much time to listen them in-between.
So I took some time out during this weekend and gave these a long, focused listen.
It's a 7-driver hybrid, with 1DD handling the lows and 6BA drivers handling the mids and highs. There are two tuning switches. Hisenior Okavango sound drastically different depending on the tuning switch position.
For now, I prefer the UD position (switch one up, switch 2 down). Results in the airiest highs and most balanced bass to mids transition. The default UU position is the most "v-shaped" of them all. Perfect for Pop, hip-hop and other bass heavy genres. There's still some BA timbre in the highs, but it's nothing too "invasive".
Overall, I find these to be one of the most versatile IEMs under USD$500. Dunu Studio SA6 do not sound drastically different with the switch engaged, while some others tend to veer too much into one way or the other (or have switch positions that are unusable).
The Okavango tread a fine line and manage to sound good with specific genres no matter which "switch position" you end up selecting. I also got the WhiteWhale cable which looks and feels fantastic.
I mostly used the Questyle CMA Twelve Master to form these impressions. A detailed review will follow soon.
Yes, they are gorgeous and amazing for the price.
Ferdinando1968
Headphoneus Supremus
I love the 41t, among the best purchases.
But I didn't think they were comparable to AUR.
Zerstorer_GOhren
1000+ Head-Fier
What BA does Variation have?So here is my Variations fixed and modded:
Cyan is the original FR and I settled with the orange line.
As you can see from the graph, I recovered a lot of the overly filtered mid-bass and it sounds much much more natural and tonally correct now. There is even more punch than before and I believe this is how they should have used the DD. They sacrificed the naturalness/accuracy and the performance of the DD for that FR and caused the DD to drive slower than it's designed. I also recovered some sparkle from the again overly tamed EST drivers so it sounds quite a lot crispier now. The stage size is also benefited from the recovered treble and it doesn't sound any boxy like before. The only driver(s) I didn't mod are the 2 BAs. I tried some caps and resistors but the stock setting seemed fine. However, I found it to be under-tamed mechanically and IMHO they should have put a knowles filter to tame the harsh upper mids but they couldn't coz there wasn't any space left. And thus I added filter paper to the BA hole like above.
I got the impression that they aren't the same when I was obsessing before purchasing the Canon II. I have a hard time looking at the bass heavy graphs of the OG and imagining it's remotely similar to what I'm hearing, but I've only put the one I have in my ears.
DynamicEars
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
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THE KZ CASTOR
So my Castor is arrived, I bought the Bass version as they have more unique tuning for me to mod them.
I bought the Castor with my own money, $13 shipped, an IEM that anyone can buy if they are willing to. I have no affiliate with KZ nor any connection with them
and this isn't a review post, more just honest impressions from someone that already happy with his endgame things. Just because the budget segment is very interesting to me, and to fulfill my Mod hobby as how far the budgets can be better.
The usual KZ small box and accessories, just like any other KZ standars, so I didn't take photo of them as I assume all of you ever unboxing a KZ, at least once.
I just took off the L and R driver and store the box, but the unit shell are stunning, made the lazy me grabbed my camera and did little simple set up and took few photos of the Castor. The shell design and the color is elegantly beautiful, they are quite a looker, and don't look like cheapo tranduscers at all. I do think this is the best KZ design I ever had.
So my impressions out of the box, they have great timbre, sounded natural, though intense on upper mids and lower trebles, I'm using 1110 setting as reference with Faeall balanced cable, with Fiio BTR7 as the source:
(I won't use M17 as this is a budget set) and the Pentaconn Coureir Brass on the tip. I will talk about switches later, but I like the 1110 more than others (best balance to me)
Bass : sub bass can't go real deep even though they have 2 DDs with 10mm on the lower frequencies, I can hear the limitation but very capable and passable for something below $50.
Mid bass quite punchy but bleed at the same time with smear (I guess from bad airflow of the filters, as usual). The drivers are quite tactile, they are on fast type so upper bass and texture is quite good
even they are bleeding. They aren't bass head level, above neutral but don't think like Legato. Impact is good enough, better impact than Krila.
Mids : with 1110 tuning, mids are clear, decent details, intense on high mids and lower trebles that made them little bit shouty and little bit towards thinner side, but not as thin as KZ PR2 or Krila because of
big bass counter balance. What impressed me is the timbre, they sounded natural much more than Krila and PR2. Hand claps and finger snapping didn't sounded artificial.
Trebles : lower trebles are too much even for me (who listening to Mest and Z1R that have intense trebles), but I have to give score on the natural timbre presentation. They didn't sounded sibilant of high trebles,
not tizzy, just intense and shouty lower trebles on high volume. The extension on past 10khz are great, airy with great technicalities and still sounded natural.
Technicalities : like recent KZ, they have great technicalities, and I was surprised of how good the details and imaging coming from the DD. Krila and PR2 (of course) have better details and resolution, but this Castor have best balance between technicalities and naturalness, they never sounded over sharp. Soundstage is on medium size, little bit smaller than Krila and PR2. Overall technicalities isnt star of the show but very good score as budget IEMs here.
Overall on standard (non modded) maybe I like Castor than Krila and PR2 because Krila bass is more linear, and I feel castor have better tuning on the bass, and the timbre, where Castor is better than the two.
Details are best on PR2 but mids sounded thin, the Castor is ready out of the box. I mod my Krila and PR2 though, and mod my Castor also to have better sounding. Will talk about this later on post Mod section.
Another photo of beautiful Castor with another recent KZs PR2 and Krila :
Let's talk about 2023 trend now : IEM Switches, not Nintendo Switch 2.
KZ bringing back their 4 Switches, non gimmicky switches that alter the sound tuning? kinda agree, BUT actually they don't have 16 permutations. I observed the switch tuning and measured them and have my conclusion here:
The crossover between 1st DD and 2nd DD is roughly at 300hz, so I neutralize the graph on this frequency, easier to look at.
the number 1 and 2 are BASS tuning (or affecting the Bass DD only, the 10mm driver)
1 for adding sub bass level, and 2 for adding high sub bass level. When you turn on the no 2 switch, which is high sub bass level it will ignore the switch no 1, so ON the 1 or off the 2 will
results the same : High sub bass gain. Turn on the switch 1 and 2 together will result same as turning switch 2 only, they dont sum the bass quantity.
See the graph here :
1 = Sub bass gain
2 = sub bass High gain
00 = bass switch off
10 = adding sub bass level
12 = 02 = adding High sub bass level, see the graph show no differences at all between 0100 and 1100
the Next Switches are number 3 and 4, they are MIDS & TREBLES tuning (or affecting the 2nd DD, the 8mm driver, 300hz above)
3 for adding Mids (after 300hz) and trebles at the same time (can't boost mids only or trebles only)
4 for adding High level boost of Mids and Trebles
again, they behave like the first 2 switches so if switch 4 is on (Mids and trebles High boost) the switch 3 is ignored, wheter you on or off, doesn't make any differences.
See the graph here :
3 = Mids & Trebles gain
4 = Mids & Trebles High gain
0000 = all switch off
0030 = adding mids and treble level
0004 = 0034 = adding mids and treble High level, see the graph show no differences at all between 0001 and 0011 (exactly overlapped but actually purple line is there)
Playing around with Switches, I feel that the 1110 setting (1 on, 2 on, 3 on, 4 off) is more suitable to me, because 1 and 2 are on, they have more sub bass, so not only mid and upper bass focused and on the 3 switch will perceived as more balanced tuning, the bass will perceived as reduced (but actually they are having more mids and trebles) with note the crossover are wont be affected so they are like stay on the same level (around 300hz)
See the graph here :
neutralized:
MODS
So here I'm buying the Castor for mods purpose, as I did with Krila, Hola, Pr2 and other budget sets, like I did with Blon BL-03 in the past.
I skipped all the trial and error here :
Basically I want to tame down the high mids and lower trebles, with good airflow for the bass, and still having great technicalities. I tried so many methods and after some experiences,
I found this mod is the best working method with the sounds : double the Mesh500 / Tanchjim filter with tiny needle hole in the center. Adding foam or not depends on how intense the trebles and high trebles.
For Castor, I didn't put foam (I tried with foam, but I didn't like as the foam tamed the upper trebles too much for my liking and Castor already have great timbre and non edgy, therefor absorbing edgy notes with foam aren't necessary)
Step by Step tutorial (ignore the foam photos, I took off the foam in the end):
1. uplift the original filter on the nozzle with small needle or safety pin
2. double (stack) your Mesh500 / Tanchjim Filter
3. put the stacked Mesh500 on some papers (don't pull them from the plastic base) and pinch tiny hole on center with small needle / safety pin (Very important for bass airflow)
4. put on the stacked Mesh500 with hole onto the nozzle gently (the biggest 5mm mesh500 actually is slightly smaller than Castor original filter 5.5mm) but they can be sit on the lid without problem, just patiently put them on the center.
5. do the same on other unit.
And here the result with the same 1110 setting, but I switch to 1111 for reduced bass perceival :
Grey is the default Castor with 1110 tuning
Purple is modded 1110 tuning
Orange is modded 1111 tuning, neutralize to same level with 1110 tuning for easier comparison of bass response perceiving.
More balance tuning, smooth mids, better bass because of better airflow, minimum bass bleed. Definitely better to me. I wish I could lower the pinna gain area but triple stacking Mesh500 made them overdampened even with hole, and killing the trebles too much.
Currently, this is the best mod I can think of unless you want to go deeper Mod with resistors and resolder that required some serious skills which I don't have.
I like Castor after mods, and I do feel they aren't just another beater set. The bass shelf is different, not so linear, while punchy. The timbre is so good, with decent technicalities too. I like them better than Krila (compared modded to modded sets). The PR2 though after modded still have advantage of planar driver, the details, resolution and speed, but PR2 required some serious power to wake them up.
Sorry for looooong post, thanks for reading
Cheers,
DynamicEars
*edited : typo on 3 & 4 switch
So my Castor is arrived, I bought the Bass version as they have more unique tuning for me to mod them.
I bought the Castor with my own money, $13 shipped, an IEM that anyone can buy if they are willing to. I have no affiliate with KZ nor any connection with them
and this isn't a review post, more just honest impressions from someone that already happy with his endgame things. Just because the budget segment is very interesting to me, and to fulfill my Mod hobby as how far the budgets can be better.
The usual KZ small box and accessories, just like any other KZ standars, so I didn't take photo of them as I assume all of you ever unboxing a KZ, at least once.
I just took off the L and R driver and store the box, but the unit shell are stunning, made the lazy me grabbed my camera and did little simple set up and took few photos of the Castor. The shell design and the color is elegantly beautiful, they are quite a looker, and don't look like cheapo tranduscers at all. I do think this is the best KZ design I ever had.
So my impressions out of the box, they have great timbre, sounded natural, though intense on upper mids and lower trebles, I'm using 1110 setting as reference with Faeall balanced cable, with Fiio BTR7 as the source:
(I won't use M17 as this is a budget set) and the Pentaconn Coureir Brass on the tip. I will talk about switches later, but I like the 1110 more than others (best balance to me)
Bass : sub bass can't go real deep even though they have 2 DDs with 10mm on the lower frequencies, I can hear the limitation but very capable and passable for something below $50.
Mid bass quite punchy but bleed at the same time with smear (I guess from bad airflow of the filters, as usual). The drivers are quite tactile, they are on fast type so upper bass and texture is quite good
even they are bleeding. They aren't bass head level, above neutral but don't think like Legato. Impact is good enough, better impact than Krila.
Mids : with 1110 tuning, mids are clear, decent details, intense on high mids and lower trebles that made them little bit shouty and little bit towards thinner side, but not as thin as KZ PR2 or Krila because of
big bass counter balance. What impressed me is the timbre, they sounded natural much more than Krila and PR2. Hand claps and finger snapping didn't sounded artificial.
Trebles : lower trebles are too much even for me (who listening to Mest and Z1R that have intense trebles), but I have to give score on the natural timbre presentation. They didn't sounded sibilant of high trebles,
not tizzy, just intense and shouty lower trebles on high volume. The extension on past 10khz are great, airy with great technicalities and still sounded natural.
Technicalities : like recent KZ, they have great technicalities, and I was surprised of how good the details and imaging coming from the DD. Krila and PR2 (of course) have better details and resolution, but this Castor have best balance between technicalities and naturalness, they never sounded over sharp. Soundstage is on medium size, little bit smaller than Krila and PR2. Overall technicalities isnt star of the show but very good score as budget IEMs here.
Overall on standard (non modded) maybe I like Castor than Krila and PR2 because Krila bass is more linear, and I feel castor have better tuning on the bass, and the timbre, where Castor is better than the two.
Details are best on PR2 but mids sounded thin, the Castor is ready out of the box. I mod my Krila and PR2 though, and mod my Castor also to have better sounding. Will talk about this later on post Mod section.
Another photo of beautiful Castor with another recent KZs PR2 and Krila :
Let's talk about 2023 trend now : IEM Switches, not Nintendo Switch 2.
KZ bringing back their 4 Switches, non gimmicky switches that alter the sound tuning? kinda agree, BUT actually they don't have 16 permutations. I observed the switch tuning and measured them and have my conclusion here:
The crossover between 1st DD and 2nd DD is roughly at 300hz, so I neutralize the graph on this frequency, easier to look at.
the number 1 and 2 are BASS tuning (or affecting the Bass DD only, the 10mm driver)
1 for adding sub bass level, and 2 for adding high sub bass level. When you turn on the no 2 switch, which is high sub bass level it will ignore the switch no 1, so ON the 1 or off the 2 will
results the same : High sub bass gain. Turn on the switch 1 and 2 together will result same as turning switch 2 only, they dont sum the bass quantity.
See the graph here :
1 = Sub bass gain
2 = sub bass High gain
00 = bass switch off
10 = adding sub bass level
12 = 02 = adding High sub bass level, see the graph show no differences at all between 0100 and 1100
the Next Switches are number 3 and 4, they are MIDS & TREBLES tuning (or affecting the 2nd DD, the 8mm driver, 300hz above)
3 for adding Mids (after 300hz) and trebles at the same time (can't boost mids only or trebles only)
4 for adding High level boost of Mids and Trebles
again, they behave like the first 2 switches so if switch 4 is on (Mids and trebles High boost) the switch 3 is ignored, wheter you on or off, doesn't make any differences.
See the graph here :
3 = Mids & Trebles gain
4 = Mids & Trebles High gain
0000 = all switch off
0030 = adding mids and treble level
0004 = 0034 = adding mids and treble High level, see the graph show no differences at all between 0001 and 0011 (exactly overlapped but actually purple line is there)
Playing around with Switches, I feel that the 1110 setting (1 on, 2 on, 3 on, 4 off) is more suitable to me, because 1 and 2 are on, they have more sub bass, so not only mid and upper bass focused and on the 3 switch will perceived as more balanced tuning, the bass will perceived as reduced (but actually they are having more mids and trebles) with note the crossover are wont be affected so they are like stay on the same level (around 300hz)
See the graph here :
neutralized:
MODS
So here I'm buying the Castor for mods purpose, as I did with Krila, Hola, Pr2 and other budget sets, like I did with Blon BL-03 in the past.
I skipped all the trial and error here :
Basically I want to tame down the high mids and lower trebles, with good airflow for the bass, and still having great technicalities. I tried so many methods and after some experiences,
I found this mod is the best working method with the sounds : double the Mesh500 / Tanchjim filter with tiny needle hole in the center. Adding foam or not depends on how intense the trebles and high trebles.
For Castor, I didn't put foam (I tried with foam, but I didn't like as the foam tamed the upper trebles too much for my liking and Castor already have great timbre and non edgy, therefor absorbing edgy notes with foam aren't necessary)
Step by Step tutorial (ignore the foam photos, I took off the foam in the end):
1. uplift the original filter on the nozzle with small needle or safety pin
2. double (stack) your Mesh500 / Tanchjim Filter
3. put the stacked Mesh500 on some papers (don't pull them from the plastic base) and pinch tiny hole on center with small needle / safety pin (Very important for bass airflow)
4. put on the stacked Mesh500 with hole onto the nozzle gently (the biggest 5mm mesh500 actually is slightly smaller than Castor original filter 5.5mm) but they can be sit on the lid without problem, just patiently put them on the center.
5. do the same on other unit.
And here the result with the same 1110 setting, but I switch to 1111 for reduced bass perceival :
Grey is the default Castor with 1110 tuning
Purple is modded 1110 tuning
Orange is modded 1111 tuning, neutralize to same level with 1110 tuning for easier comparison of bass response perceiving.
More balance tuning, smooth mids, better bass because of better airflow, minimum bass bleed. Definitely better to me. I wish I could lower the pinna gain area but triple stacking Mesh500 made them overdampened even with hole, and killing the trebles too much.
Currently, this is the best mod I can think of unless you want to go deeper Mod with resistors and resolder that required some serious skills which I don't have.
I like Castor after mods, and I do feel they aren't just another beater set. The bass shelf is different, not so linear, while punchy. The timbre is so good, with decent technicalities too. I like them better than Krila (compared modded to modded sets). The PR2 though after modded still have advantage of planar driver, the details, resolution and speed, but PR2 required some serious power to wake them up.
Sorry for looooong post, thanks for reading
Cheers,
DynamicEars
*edited : typo on 3 & 4 switch
Last edited:
Not saying as good or anything like that. But if someone had a $200 budget but wanted something like Aurora, I’d tell them to get 41T all day. I haven’t gotten ears to Aurora yet but an opinion I trust signed off on that upgrade path so I’m willing to share it
Tried a new cable on the Butastur, the Hisenior WhiteWhale.
I did about 12 swaps between this and the stock cable and my findings - which I fully acknowledge might be placebo talking and are marginal at best - are that WhiteWhale presents upper midrange more naturally, more mature. Details come to life and female vocal is brought a bit more to the forefront. Other thing that seemingly improved is bass texture. Overall signature stays very similar.
Here are the three songs I used:
• Creep by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox feat. Haley Reinhardt
• Summer by Emeli Sandé
• Animali in Marcia by Gianluigi Trovesi
I did about 12 swaps between this and the stock cable and my findings - which I fully acknowledge might be placebo talking and are marginal at best - are that WhiteWhale presents upper midrange more naturally, more mature. Details come to life and female vocal is brought a bit more to the forefront. Other thing that seemingly improved is bass texture. Overall signature stays very similar.
Here are the three songs I used:
• Creep by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox feat. Haley Reinhardt
• Summer by Emeli Sandé
• Animali in Marcia by Gianluigi Trovesi
