[dharmasteve]

Hello, I would be interested in this. Do you know IF they will play well together with a FiiO UTWS5?

I don;t have the FiiO UTWS5 so I honestly don't know. I can say that all my IMR IEMs play well with the Quedelix 5K on Bluetooth. You would have to like a lot of Bass Sauce to enjoy IMR IEMs, top class bass is their forte, but the Na Le could be different although I doubt it. The IMR Dark Matter and IMR Zenith II have some of the best bass I've ever heard.

 

[Nick24JJ]

I don;t have the FiiO UTWS5 so I honestly don't know. I can say that all my IMR IEMs play well with the Quedelix 5K on Bluetooth. You would have to like a lot of Bass Sauce to enjoy IMR IEMs, top class bass is their forte, but the Na Le could be different although I doubt it. The IMR Dark Matter and IMR Zenith II have some of the best bass I've ever heard.

Thank you for your reply! The Bass is crucial in my listening experience because 90% of the time I am listening to Electronica (from Amazon Music Unlimited, YouTube and UAPP) from my phone using my UTWS5s over Bluetooth (LHDC codec). I hope Na-Le will preserve the quality of the bass you are currently experiencing. The discount price made me give them a shot. We will see in December/January...

All the best!

 

[unifutomaki]

Unfortunately the best option isn't always adopted as a standard. Remember Beta vs VHS, what wins is big companies throwing vast amounts of money into marketing. We the consumer end up with inferior and more expensive products. All this so large players can make a killing, by licensing their tech to competitors. We also see product development focusing on avoidance of intellectual property infringements, rather than product improvement. Hell, we even get corporates buying out companies with better products, simply to close down competition. Monopolies are bad for innovation.

But Ety probably doesn’t need the whole industry to settle on T2, they just need to ensure that most users will source replacement cables from either them or Linum. If you feel extra special, you could import this Onso cable from e-Earphone in Japan for 27500 yen

 

[r31ya]

Unless you don’t care about cables as long as it works (see yours truly)

Come to think about it, my current IEM collection spans across almost all available IEM connector types out there:

EVO (T2)
Acoustune RS1 (Pentaconn Ear)
Sora 2 (solder )
final A4000 (recessed 2pin with notch)
ESX (standard 2pin (ish))
Tin P1 (MMCX)

I’m only missing Audio Technica’s A2DC..

my ATH-E40 remains the biggest cable eater in my IEM line up.
i bought like 4 cable for that thing (2 broke in connector (including og cable), 1 broke in mic part, and somewhat not so good backup is the only one left)

 

[baskingshark]

New KBEAR IEM, the Rosefinch.

https://www.facebook.com/kbearoffic...TYku6ofuqWyiZ9cVk1BdCz5CZ1KoVZW8pwvfDDCrR43fl

 

[Animagus]

But Ety probably doesn’t need the whole industry to settle on T2, they just need to ensure that most users will source replacement cables from either them or Linum. If you feel extra special, you could import this Onso cable from e-Earphone in Japan for 27500 yen

That's what I just mentioned in my post above - Effect Audio, PlusSound, Satin Audio, etc. all offer cables with T2 (IPX) connectors now. 64 Audio, Ultimate Ears, Westone and other IEM manufacturers also offer their IEMs with T2 connectors now, primarily because it is a solid connector with an IP-67 rating.

T2 (IPX) connectors are not proprietary to Etymotic. They were designed and are made by a company called Estron. Yes, Etymotic does sell cables, like all other IEM manufacturers do but you are not limited in ordering just from Etymotic. You can order cables from any cable manufacturer that offers T2 connectors, like the ones I stated above, including one single EA ConX cable which you can use with any ConX connector.

 

[cqtek]

I finished my review of the TempoTec Variations V6 and left all the information here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tempotec-owners-thread.958841/page-5#post-17118199

 

[Jmop]

Has anyone tried the BGVP Melody yet?

https://hifigo.com/blogs/news/bgvp-introduces-melody-latest-flagship-single-dynamic-driver-iems

Form looks good with that smooth inside. I'll be here for the measurements!

 

[Redcarmoose]

Kinera Celest Gumiho Universal IEM goes on sale September 1st....for $49.

 

[RingingEars]

Unfortunately the best option isn't always adopted as a standard. Remember Beta vs VHS, what wins is big companies throwing vast amounts of money into marketing. We the consumer end up with inferior and more expensive products. All this so large players can make a killing, by licensing their tech to competitors. We also see product development focusing on avoidance of intellectual property infringements, rather than product improvement. Hell, we even get corporates buying out companies with better products, simply to close down competition. Monopolies are bad for innovation.

 

[SartWaiting]

New KBEAR IEM, the Rosefinch.

Is there any information in the post other than the picture? (I don't have access to fb )

 

[Carpet]

Is there any information in the post other than the picture? (I don't have access to fb )

So far that appears to be it, a picture and the name. It seems to fit into the Robin/Lark naming scheme and has a metal faceplate. The cable looks pretty basic, so it isn't likely to be an upmarket offering. KBEAR doesn't do all BA IEMs, so it's going to be a single DD or a hybrid. The Ink was a disappointment, harsh "V" tuning is hardly innovative for 2022.

Unless it's yet another planar? KBEAR has experience with I3 and I3 Pro through it's sister company TRI. The included cable looks a bit substandard for that, although CCA PLA13 comes with a cheap cable.

Edit: I forgot about the KBEAR Neon

 

[baskingshark]

So far that appears to be it, a picture and the name. It seems to fit into the Robin/Lark naming scheme and has a metal faceplate. The cable looks pretty basic, so it isn't likely to be an upmarket offering. KBEAR doesn't do all BA IEMs, so it's going to be a single DD or a hybrid. The Ink was a disappointment, harsh "V" tuning is hardly innovative for 2022.

Unless it's yet another planar? KBEAR has experience with I3 and I3 Pro through it's sister company TRI. The included cable looks a bit substandard for that, although CCA PLA13 comes with a cheap cable.

Actually KBEAR had a pure BA IEM, the KBEAR Neon (single BA). It supposedly used the same drivers as some of the Etymotics and was a bullet shaped design with deep insertion, like their Etymotic brethren.

It was a midcentric set which was quite unique, as there aren't that many pure single BA types in the budget arena. However, like most single BA types, it inherited some weaknesses which are generally inherent to single BA sets - ie sub-bass roll off, higher treble roll off, BA timbre and not the most technically proficient.

Is there any information in the post other than the picture? (I don't have access to fb )

So far no further info, but I'm sure we will find out more soon.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Being an IEM engineer for Chi-Fi manufacturers seems like a nightmare. Constant pressure to develop new stuffs that are cheap, carry unique house sound, yet audiophile-approved at the same time. Sometimes I wonder how these engineers think about the reviews that we write ("no no no, we did not design this IEMs for those criteria, you w**ker")

 

[baskingshark]

Being an IEM engineer for Chi-Fi manufacturers seems like a nightmare. Constant pressure to develop new stuffs that are cheap, carry unique house sound, yet audiophile-approved at the same time. Sometimes I wonder how these engineers think about the reviews that we write ("no no no, we did not design this IEMs for those criteria, you w**ker")

True that. If you see the weekly releases coming from CHIFI land, majority of the budget IEMs (maybe 70 - 80%) seem to be sidegrades. Around 10 - 20% are awful and are thrashed on release, and maybe only 10% really are stellar or ground-breaking IEMs that stand the test of time and are still talked about months after release.

But CHIFI IEMs are probably cheap to produce - no worries about patents/licenses, sometimes questionable QC, cheap labour/parts, not so much spent on advertising - so I guess even if the 70 - 80% don't sell well, they can reuse the parts for a next IEM release. Also they just need to hope 1 IEM makes it big; throw as much stuff on the wall, and something will finally stick and be the golden ticket for them. The west is also not their main market, as they can sell stuff back to their 1 billion strong local mainland Chinese population, who might prefer a different tuning in IEMs (? female poison boosted upper mids/treble).

There are also some ways to also "game the system" and minimize risk - eg show nice graphs pre-release so the measurebators (I'm one of em) get excited, tune stuff to the Harman curve (can't really go wrong), use waifu anime girls on their packaging, or get big name tuners to stamp their name on the IEM, or use exotic drivers (for example the planar hype of this year).