[thaslaya]

I'm big on tone, timbre and warm musicality over the ultimate in detail and imaging. The EA500 LM failed to pass that test for me. The MagicOne passes it with beautiful sonic cocolors.

I think this is a big reason the 500LM didn't resonate with me too. It's a technical marvel and crazy good for the price...if you like that tuning. MagicOne is just so easy to get lost in the musicality of it all.

 

[jsmiller58]

Graphs are easy to learn hard to master thingy. Once you spent too long with graph and read and write (measure), you'll at some point have very close perception between graph and tonality. Especially when you are playing with EQ, boost up 30hz +5db and hear with your favorite song, what sit there, boost up 1000hz and listen what the changes, for every major frequencies. I don't know but after years (actually I'm one of early adopter of this rig, not long time after crinacle before squig was created and before lot of reviewer have the measurement rigs) the FR is more like a tonality cue to compare from 1 IEM with another. It can roughly tell you like 70% how it sound, on the tonality and tuning mostly but can't tell you the rest like how tight is the bass, is it dampened or not, is it have ringing or trails of the transients (and how much), or the depth of the soundstage, nor the imaging and layering. But the proportion of frequencies are there. I just write in KZ thread too about this as response to KZ rep.
It's more like synopsis of the movie, where we can read and know roughly what kind of movie is this before we decided to buy the ticket but all the fun, action, twist, jumpscare, etc aren't showed there. More like a pre filter before we spend the money, not everyone can buy every IEM release.

Should be required reading for all audiophiles.

 

[Jaytiss]

I think this is a big reason the 500LM didn't resonate with me too. It's a technical marvel and crazy good for the price...if you like that tuning. MagicOne is just so easy to get lost in the musicality of it all.

I think that the Simgot ea500lm has this thing where it's sort crazy spicy treble and that's its charm. I really like it, but honestly would use the Aful Magic one as I think it has special vocals and is a nice tune. The market is crazy. These are both value iems, and It can be hard as a reviewer or just an audiophile to state which one is better when they are both slight variations of Harmon and both really solid values at their price looking at more expensive iems.

 

[pk4425]

I think this is a big reason the 500LM didn't resonate with me too. It's a technical marvel and crazy good for the price...if you like that tuning. MagicOne is just so easy to get lost in the musicality of it all.

Amen, my sonic brother. Well said.

 

[pk4425]

I posted this in the ISN Neo 3 thread, but I thought it might get some response here, too. Apologies if double-dipping isn't cool:

OK, Penon/ISN aficionados: I need some advice. I'm truly torn between the Penon Fan 2 and the ISN Neo 3. I have Penon coupons for both, so the price difference is only $20-30. Negligible.

I put musicality, tone and timbre above the last bit of technical detail and imaging. I like a warm-neutral sound. I don't need a warm blanket of constant sub-bass, but I like to feel mid-bass hits. The bass should be prominent when called upon by the track. I like clear, present mids but can't stand the upper-mids vocal shout of the Harman curve. Treble can be detailed but a bit of top-end roll-off is fine, almost needed. I loathe sibilance or cold treble in every way.

My preferred styles of music are rock, classic rock, alternative rock, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, with a smidge of hip-hop, hard bop jazz and progressive house EDM. Nearly all of my listening will be done at desktop through a JDS Labs Atom+ stack.

Which of these two apparently great IEMs would work best for me, the Fan 2 or Neo 3?

Thanks!

 

[thaslaya]

I posted this in the ISN Neo 3 thread, but I thought it might get some response here, too. Apologies if double-dipping isn't cool:

OK, Penon/ISN aficionados: I need some advice. I'm truly torn between the Penon Fan 2 and the ISN Neo 3. I have Penon coupons for both, so the price difference is only $20-30. Negligible.

I put musicality, tone and timbre above the last bit of technical detail and imaging. I like a warm-neutral sound. I don't need a warm blanket of constant sub-bass, but I like to feel mid-bass hits. The bass should be prominent when called upon by the track. I like clear, present mids but can't stand the upper-mids vocal shout of the Harman curve. Treble can be detailed but a bit of top-end roll-off is fine, almost needed. I loathe sibilance or cold treble in every way.

My preferred styles of music are rock, classic rock, alternative rock, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, with a smidge of hip-hop, hard bop jazz and progressive house EDM. Nearly all of my listening will be done at desktop through a JDS Labs Atom+ stack.

Which of these two apparently great IEMs would work best for me, the Fan 2 or Neo 3?

Thanks!

Let me preface by saying I haven't heard the Neo 3, but I think the Fan 2 is excellent and sounds like it would work great for the genres you listen to. It's a special iem as it has a unique tuning I haven't found elsewhere.

 

[theintention]

How is this not the same driver?

LOL collab IEMs are going well huh? We have more expensive Zeros, Raycon bass head set with the Hades, and the "the front fell off" Chopin.

 

[flre]

I posted this in the ISN Neo 3 thread, but I thought it might get some response here, too. Apologies if double-dipping isn't cool:

OK, Penon/ISN aficionados: I need some advice. I'm truly torn between the Penon Fan 2 and the ISN Neo 3. I have Penon coupons for both, so the price difference is only $20-30. Negligible.

I put musicality, tone and timbre above the last bit of technical detail and imaging. I like a warm-neutral sound. I don't need a warm blanket of constant sub-bass, but I like to feel mid-bass hits. The bass should be prominent when called upon by the track. I like clear, present mids but can't stand the upper-mids vocal shout of the Harman curve. Treble can be detailed but a bit of top-end roll-off is fine, almost needed. I loathe sibilance or cold treble in every way.

My preferred styles of music are rock, classic rock, alternative rock, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, with a smidge of hip-hop, hard bop jazz and progressive house EDM. Nearly all of my listening will be done at desktop through a JDS Labs Atom+ stack.

Which of these two apparently great IEMs would work best for me, the Fan 2 or Neo 3?

Thanks!

I have both and I think both are great choices. To me the sound signatures are quite different, both have midbass and aren't lean sounding. But I think the Fan 2 is more suited for that style of music, to be honest. The mid bass "growl" is just unreal (but never out of place) sometimes and while the Neo 3 shows bass when called for, it's sometimes masked for me by what I feel is an emphasis on or lack of attenuation in upper treble (7+ kHz, so we're on the same page). The Neo 3 works best for electronic music for me. As for sibilance, can't say any of the two got sibilant for me, ever.

 

[Dsnuts]

I posted this in the ISN Neo 3 thread, but I thought it might get some response here, too. Apologies if double-dipping isn't cool:

OK, Penon/ISN aficionados: I need some advice. I'm truly torn between the Penon Fan 2 and the ISN Neo 3. I have Penon coupons for both, so the price difference is only $20-30. Negligible.

I put musicality, tone and timbre above the last bit of technical detail and imaging. I like a warm-neutral sound. I don't need a warm blanket of constant sub-bass, but I like to feel mid-bass hits. The bass should be prominent when called upon by the track. I like clear, present mids but can't stand the upper-mids vocal shout of the Harman curve. Treble can be detailed but a bit of top-end roll-off is fine, almost needed. I loathe sibilance or cold treble in every way.

My preferred styles of music are rock, classic rock, alternative rock, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, with a smidge of hip-hop, hard bop jazz and progressive house EDM. Nearly all of my listening will be done at desktop through a JDS Labs Atom+ stack.

Which of these two apparently great IEMs would work best for me, the Fan 2 or Neo 3?

Thanks!

To be honest your gonna do fine with either one but by nature the NEO3 is using dynamics and a planar for trebles. Timbre wise I would give the leg up on the NEO3. warmth wise I would give the leg up to the Fan2. If your gonna use a desktop set up to listen to it will be the NEO3 that scales a bit better than the FAN2 hybrid set up on a desktop rig. It will be one of those things if you get one you will be curious of the other however between the two the fitment of the NEO3 will be much more comfortable in the long run as the FAN2s only real issue it its weird nozzle angle that works for most in some capacity but not all. The NEO3 universal shell shape is better in that regard. If timbre is your thing. I am leaning a bit more toward NEO3 for you.

NEO3 imo is sheer awesome sauce. Scales well to cable upgrades and amping. Nicely balanced, slightly mid forward. I said this before but for folks curious about the ISN/ Penon sound. ISN NEO3 is a poster child for their tunings.

 

[Khumbaba]

LOL collab IEMs are going well huh? We have more expensive Zeros, Raycon bass head set with the Hades, and the "the front fell off" Chopin.

And Dusk 3 is coming... go to 06:38

 

[theintention]

And Dusk 3 is coming... go to 06:38

i was being sarcastic, don't have any interest in collab iems anymore but glad people will finally get their Dusk 3, been hearing about it since i got into this hobby lol

 

[theintention]

Riding into the weekend with the Dark Phoenix, if you listen to pop music I really don’t think it gets much better for the price.

 

[Jaytiss]

Riding into the weekend with the Dark Phoenix, if you listen to pop music I really don’t think it gets much better for the price.

Nice! I made an order with Elise and they tagged on one* for review! I love that store.

 

[Imbrie]

Thanks - think I'll take the plunge!

Received the Zen Pros today. Now it's commencement of burn in time!

 

[Jaytiss]

i was being sarcastic, don't have any interest in collab iems anymore but glad people will finally get their Dusk 3, been hearing about it since i got into this hobby lol

It was funny HBB was talking smack at the end about how people are anti-reviewers. This hobby is so wild, that you don't need a good reason to not buy a set. So many iems releasing. For me, it's mainly FR graphs, if I've already demo'ed at CanJam, or stuff that is crazy high recommended in the hobby like ew200 or what not.