[Singaravelan]

)

One of the best rendition of four season violin concerti that I have ever listened.

---

Gorgeous recording! Loving it on miroak2 and second half now on my Trigressor.

 

[Saloboy]

Stunning Doscinco with ivipQ-129

 

[jbfps116]

The studio behind this recording is incredible. (It goes without saying that the musicians are excellent)

One of the best rendition of four season violin concerti that I have ever listened.

---

@PhonoPhi not that I’m “industry insider” or anything but I do have the pleasure to talk to a few reps here and there. Most are not that insidious they are usually as geeky and passionate as you and I, if not more.

But yeah, I always wonder where the crossover between cheap and expensive gear is, especially if the cheap(er) gear has the same drivers and technology. But someone earlier today raised a good point: it’s sometimes cheaper to reverse engineer the R&D of others.

Anyhow, there is no shortage of good stuff at any price.

WOW... good stuff! Easily one of the best side effects of participating in Head-fi is the dope music suggestions! I always loved classical music, but my older library is full of older recordings in lower quality. time to start upgrading!!

 

[baskingshark]

You know what is better than a weekly sidegrade Pokemon release?

A Star Wars Pokemon.

Presenting the KZ Vader.

The evil empire strikes back yes.

Tuning switches yes. Comes with 2 versions yes.

$34 USD

https://www.kztws.com/products/kz-vader

 

[ddlo]

just saw the local agent put this flipears artha argentum on shelf for sale today. even i've listen to the original artha in acrylic shell before briefly, there's no demo for this silver shell ver so it's really a leap of faith to make this purchase. but the price is quite reasonable and looking at the product photos, i decided to go ahead anyway.

the stunning silver shell and the etching are so beautiful that how it sounds hardly matter . . . though i've just listened only for 1 hour or so, this pair of iem in fact sounds very good - smooth, detailed and decent bass impact. nothing offensive that should appeal to most listeners.

 

[Dsnuts]

Penon Voltage. Is the newest Tribrid from Penon. These have been taking the spot light for me ever since I got a preproduction model shown here. Before you say. "Those are gonna be too expensive." Well yes these are not going to be anything close to budget level so far as price wise. But they are not going to be at the obscure reaching for the stars in pricing either. https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-voltage.27198/

I recently got a bit of an insight into what Penon will price these things at and it is more than reasonable for what they are offering here. First of all these are high end IEMs. Uses premium Sonion drivers, 2x 8mm biofilm composit dynamics using a newer design hanging system for diaphragms for bass. Uses 2x Sonion BAs for mids. 2X Sonion BAs for highs and 4x Sonion ESTs for ultra highs. All I am saying is if you are on Penons VIP mailer list. Be on the look out for the opportunity to get one of these things. This IEM is the end results of years of Penon tuning. Same tuner that did their Impact flagship IEM did this one as well. They added tuning switches on this that gives legit varability. These are for folks that don't want to mess around with OK sounding budget stuff to OK sounding Midfi stuff. These are what you get when you don't want to mess around with numerous ok IEMs but dont want to spend an arm and a kidney for high end sound. These are whats next. One of the best sounding IEMs easily at the price it will be going for and will handly beats a lot of premium IEMs anywhere close or near its price point, might actually set the bar at the asking price. Will be launched very soon on the pages of Penon.

 

[Rambone]

You know what is better than a weekly sidegrade Pokemon release?

A Star Wars Pokemon.

Presenting the KZ Vader.



The evil empire strikes back yes.

Tuning switches yes. Comes with 2 versions yes.




$34 USD

https://www.kztws.com/products/kz-vader

 

[4ceratops]

You know what is better than a weekly sidegrade Pokemon release?

A Star Wars Pokemon.

Presenting the KZ Vader.



The evil empire strikes back yes.

Tuning switches yes. Comes with 2 versions yes.




$34 USD

https://www.kztws.com/products/kz-vader

This isn't even funny anymore. Vader balanced is absolutely the same as CCA Trio (compare the company graphs). Not only is the same hardware used, but they didn't even want to mess with the tuning anymore. So if you want it more expensive, buy it as a KZ and if you want it cheaper, buy it as a CCA. At first I thought they had completely lost their minds. Then I realised that they know very well what they are doing and that this primitive business model works well for them. Not all buyers are as discerning as the participants in headphone forums...

EDIT: And to be complete and objective, I consider the CCA Trio to be very good budget IEMs.

 

[Rambone]

This isn't even funny anymore. Vader balanced is absolutely the same as CCA Trio (compare the company graphs). Not only is the same hardware used, but they didn't even want to mess with the tuning anymore. So if you want it more expensive, buy it as a KZ and if you want it cheaper, buy it as a CCA. At first I thought they had completely lost their minds. Then I realised that they know very well what they are doing and that this primitive business model works well for them. Not all buyers are as discerning as the participants in headphone forums...

The face KZ made after reading this.

 

[kaeswiss]

---

Kilobuck

(It’s just a placeholder price)

That kilobuck pricing really surprised me until I scrolled down to see it's just a placeholder. What do you think the actual price will be? I'm thinking $179 USD.

just saw the local agent put this flipears artha argentum on shelf for sale today. even i've listen to the original artha in acrylic shell before briefly, there's no demo for this silver shell ver so it's really a leap of faith to make this purchase. but the price is quite reasonable and looking at the product photos, i decided to go ahead anyway.

the stunning silver shell and the etching are so beautiful that how it sounds hardly matter . . . though i've just listened only for 1 hour or so, this pair of iem in fact sounds very good - smooth, detailed and decent bass impact. nothing offensive that should appeal to most listeners.

Detailed etching on the faceplates and the shell facing your ears. That's going above and beyond. So... is there any ear irritation since it isn't smooth?

 

[theintention]

Here's the graphs as requested:



8 kHz is a coupler artefact peak. There is an actual 8 kHz peak on the Project M so it is more sibilant than the Pilgrim, with less bass as detailed above.

that Pilgrim graph is reeeeeeeeeal nice

---

question for the discovery folk -

What’s your favorite $500-$700 desktop amp/dac? I want to hear why.

Bonus points if you have an Audeze LCD series headphones and use your IEMs with the same amp!

I am looking at the JDS Labs Element III as the front runner at the moment…

 

[Hypops]

There is always the M300 which has a slimmer profile and probably generates less heat also.

Bulk is one of the few things holding me back from the R4. The idea behind my getting a DAP is to limit the number of devices and interconnects I need to manage while traveling and walking/commuting (dongles are easy to use, but awkward to carry). I'm thinking the M300 might actually be the better choice for me for this reason alone. Anyone tried both (Hiby R4 and M300) who can compare more than just size and form factor?

 

[theintention]

Bulk is one of the few things holding me back from the R4. The idea behind my getting a DAP is to limit the number of devices and interconnects I need to manage while traveling and walking/commuting (dongles are easy to use, but awkward to carry). I'm thinking the M300 might actually be the better choice for me for this reason alone. Anyone tried both (Hiby R4 and M300) who can compare more than just size and form factor?

probably not a super amount of comparisons yet but @Joe Bloggs posted this breakdown

Well if you have a look at the software feature set of our M300 vs our R4...

Feature	R4	M300
Direct Transport Architecture (systemwide bit perfect)	Yes	No
MSEB	Yes	No
PEQ	Yes	No
Systemwide audio plugins: includes DRX10K dynamics expander and convolution for e.g. headphone virtualization of HiFi rooms, +more	Yes	No
Dual headphone outs (requires OS support)	Yes	No
PCM and DSD directed to separate DAC pathways (requires OS support)	Yes	No
Switchable physical line out (requires OS support) edit: oops, my bad
Switchable DAC AA filters (requires OS support)	Yes	No

 

[Singaravelan]

Bulk is one of the few things holding me back from the R4. The idea behind my getting a DAP is to limit the number of devices and interconnects I need to manage while traveling and walking/commuting (dongles are easy to use, but awkward to carry). I'm thinking the M300 might actually be the better choice for me for this reason alone. Anyone tried both (Hiby R4 and M300) who can compare more than just size and form factor?

Is it really that bulky and heavy? Looks like it would fit in neatly in the pocket... @o0genesis0o can confirm.

Considering it's just 50 dollars more, and for lots more goodies inside, seems a winner to me. This is from a v happy M300 user here.

 

[pk4425]

There are apparently people in the world who swear they can "listen" to music by simply looking at record grooves.

What strain of weed are they smoking? I'd like to try.