The discovery thread!

[BS5711]

I have a few extension cables custom made by contacting GUCraftsman on their AliExpress store.

They make a beautiful job of them, are quite reasonably priced and easy to deal with if you ensure you a have nice clear simple request and provide the exact wire type required. Their delivery to my part of the world was quick and their customer service is excellent.

They actually made the first cable a foot long including the plugs and when I let them know it was shorter than I ordered they acknowledged their mistake and made a new one and sent it out within a few days, no questions asked, no cost to me and they didn’t even want the other one back, it works well in a headphone cable application.

I have them in 1/4 inch male to 4.4mm female and another in 1/4 inch male to 3.5mm female. Both at a foot long plus the plug and female socket which essentially makes the IEM cable 1.5m long which works perfectly for my set up.

A (bad) photo of the three cables for context:

 

[bithalver]

Thread '1 Dynamic Driver 4 Balanced Armature 8 Electrostatic Driver Flagship IEMs, FIIO FX17'

Mar 16, 2025

1 DD 4 BA 8 EST Flagship IEMs FX17 Is Officially Released!

* The FX17 is available at our AliExpress Official Store. Click the link to take it home right away: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808485839562.html


1 DD 4 BA 8 EST design per side.
To get the best sound quality possible, the FX17 features a design of one dynamic driver, four balanced armature drivers, and eight electrostatic drivers per side. A five-way crossover has been precisely tuned to balance energy distribution among the driver and ensures each...

• FiiO
• Replies: 215
• Forum: Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors

• 

(Who am I kidding, 8EST IEMs are reversed for oil tycoon and pals )

Sure all of'em will look only the backside ! Bold by me.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Just few images, no words:

The excellent T71.

Believe that's the Quedelix-T71 dac/amp plugged into Hiby R4

Unfortunately the last time I tried a similar combination (R4-EVA), I got a low output volume, meaning I had to dangerously increase the volume on the T71 to get a good amount of output for me.
Bug?

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Thread '1 Dynamic Driver 4 Balanced Armature 8 Electrostatic Driver Flagship IEMs, FIIO FX17'

Mar 16, 2025

1 DD 4 BA 8 EST Flagship IEMs FX17 Is Officially Released!

* The FX17 is available at our AliExpress Official Store. Click the link to take it home right away: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808485839562.html


1 DD 4 BA 8 EST design per side.
To get the best sound quality possible, the FX17 features a design of one dynamic driver, four balanced armature drivers, and eight electrostatic drivers per side. A five-way crossover has been precisely tuned to balance energy distribution among the driver and ensures each...

• FiiO
• Replies: 215
• Forum: Portable Headphones, Earphones and In-Ear Monitors

• 

(Who am I kidding, 8EST IEMs are reversed for oil tycoon and pals )

$2,999 is going to be my guess?

 

[o0genesis0o]

$2,999 is going to be my guess?

It’s FiiO. I guess $1999 or $2299. 64 audio old price.

 

[BlankName]

It’s FiiO. I guess $1999 or $2299. 64 audio old price.

I call 1500.
(Also it's up on fiio's website: https://www.fiio.com/fx17)

 

[mikaik]

$2,999 is going to be my guess?

Ouch, I hope you're wrong. 3k is such a crowded space with many heavy hitters. Think Anni...
I'm hoping it'll be more like 1999. It looks a bit like Cadenza 12. Let's see if it's as good as it.

 

[o0genesis0o]

I call 1500.
(Also it's up on fiio's website: https://www.fiio.com/fx17)

Wow, promising graph.

It seems they go all out for this one. Maybe it's time for me to sell some of the old gear.

 

[BS5711]

No doubt. And it's an important point. Our brains apply their "internal EQ" relatively quickly, so it's usually only in those first 10 secs to a few minutes where we hear the difference between one environment and another (or one set of headphones and another). But, yeah, for me the Punch might be pretty close to what my ears expect to hear. I didn't need to wait for my ears to acclimate.

Giving the Punch another full day of use with some deep grooves. Currently:
Eternal Reverie (2025), TOKiMONSTA

Oooh that does sound good, giving it a listen on the Hermit off my iFi Diablo right now.

What I actually find to be the most rewarding aspect of the increased bass and sub bass is the improvement that it provides even on old music with little natural bass content.

I have been listening to this early 70's classic from Bowie a lot lately and the Hermit just makes it sound fu..kin incredible when cranked up loud, literally gives cold shivers.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

It’s FiiO. I guess $1999 or $2299. 64 audio old price.

Yeah, but the price of EST's is very high, due to some shortages, so unless they ended up getting some somewhere, or maybe got them sourced from the same place as I/O, then 16 ESTs per set will be very expensive. Say $70 a piece for a Sonion EST, that's $1,120 just for the EST's alone. Not counting the BA's, the DD, the R&D, and the built in markup, so maybe $2,299 might me close, but I'm gonna say just a bit higher than that, but maybe FiiO will surprise?

 

[jazzzy]

I sympathize, but not because of my experience with the Punch. As mentioned above, what you describe with the AüR Hermit is what I've experienced with things like Grado headphones. At first, I was like: "No way. Huh uh." But then after a few minutes, I'm like: "Wait, what?! This is nice!" And then switching to other headphones afterward takes a while to readjust.

But the Punch was very different. I literally had zero "brain burn in" period. Sounded natural straightaway. That was what was so surprising. It was immediate. I now know to keep an eye out for other similar tunings (Thieaudio Origin, Mega5Bass, Symphonium Titan, etc).

Maybe someone here who had a chance to listen to both can share experiences in differences

 

[Hypops]

Maybe someone here who had a chance to listen to both can share experiences in differences

Based on that graph, I can see why @BS5711 might have needed some brain burn-in time with the Hermit. That's got fairly pronounced v-shape (with a pretty spicy-looking early pinna rise at 1.5k and a bass slope extending all the way to 500Hz!).

By contrast, the Punch isn't a v-shape. It's a (very) bass boosted neutral. Here it is using the same target and normalization:

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

I call 1500.
(Also it's up on fiio's website: https://www.fiio.com/fx17)

No way, Jose. 8 Knowles BA's cost about $300 on the cheap side (if they are buying BULK, which of course they are) and couple that with about $1,200 for the ESTs, a TITANIUM shell, and mixed element cable? I don't think they are gonna sell at a loss, but who knows? Maybe FiiO is CRAZY like that?!

 

[o0genesis0o]

Based on that graph, I can see why @BS5711 might have needed some brain burn-in time with the Hermit. That's got fairly pronounced v-shape (with a pretty spicy-looking early pinna rise at 1.5k).

By contrast, the Punch isn't a v-shape. It's a (very) bass boosted neutral. Here it is using the same target and normalization:

Is it some sorts of fancy graphs I am too outdated to understand?

(Saving the rest of my rant for a different time)

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Oooh that does sound good, giving it a listen on the Hermit off my iFi Diablo right now.

What I actually find to be the most rewarding aspect of the increased bass and sub bass is the improvement that it provides even on old music with little natural bass content.

I have been listening to this early 70's classic from Bowie a lot lately and the Hermit just makes it sound fu..kin incredible when cranked up loud, literally gives cold shivers.

One of my favorite classic rock albums of all time, and an excellent album for test tracking for spatial cues, male vocals, and tone.