GK12 just arrived. It came very quick as it's on sale in the country that I'm living (and surprisingly only on sale on that website, weird!).
Seeing that they claim it has 6 drivers (1 DD for bass + 2 seperate DDs for mids + 1 ba for high + 2 piezos for ultra highs) with a 40$ price tag made me buy it. GK10 has 5 drivers per side (with only difference having only one bigDD for mids). This is very unusual to see different types of drivers gathered together in that price range and I believe it requires an encouragement to do that. But the outcome is not always great of course.
For example, I'm one of those who like the GK10. However, I have seen that there are those who love this product as well as those who do not like it, due to the lack of quality in production. That's why I was skeptical of this brand when I was buying it.
Unboxing experience is very similar to the GK10. Two pair of silicone tips, small leather looking case and headphones itself along with a mediocre cable.
The faceplate looks nice and shares the same stabilized wood with GK10. Very nice color.
And disappointing factor is that I can't change the cables. In such case, I'd expect a mic and button on the cable at least like Xiaomi's Hybrid and Pro Hd models have.
It's nice to see the drivers from the transparent shells. I always wanted to examine the internal design of GK10 so I tried to take detailed look at those drivers from the other side.
The two mid drivers located in the center of the shell, meanwhile the bass DD is close to the nozzle. BA is right on the nozzle. It looks messy with the cables inside and the glue they used ia not applied well as I see differences between the two shells.
I guess they placed the piezos on the top of bass DD(white visible part) but I honestly don't know how there are two piezoelectric driver with 5 layers each. I don't know if they're that tiny and slim. So, I'll leave it up to the experts here.
Okay. Coming to the listening experience, I'll not keep it long, as OOTB sound experience is disappointing.
Channel division is wrong. Left is coming from right and right from the left. Seriously, Geek Wold, what's this QC issues you have... I'll try to return them tomorrow.
Bass is very similar to the GK10, rumbles well but with a mid bass emphasis that some people may not like it. Agile yet not that strong.
Mid is the weird part, it sounds recessed and lack details. I wonder if it would get better with the burn-in. I heard improvements on GK10 in time. But I won't have that chance with these.
Treble is more or less similar to the GK10. I hear the difference in the ultra high part. I think they implemented piezos better on GK10 that I don't hear that much sparkle, air on the GK12. After some tip rolling it got better but still not on the same league with GK10.
The soundstage is narrower. Imaging is worse. Tonality as well.
To summarize all, I don't see GK12 to be a better version of GK10. I wanted to see how it performs with two DDs handling the mid parts and having more doesn't mean better quality. Having it with non-replaceable cable makes it even worse for those who like to change it. I still like and enjoy my GK10 and I'll be waiting for the upcoming GK100. However, knowing that it will be more expensive, I won't be pulling the trigger early until I make sure they managed to increase the quality of the production.
, didnt do much critical listening but i have an idea now!!!
