The discovery thread!

[Jmop]

Yeah I’m gonna pick up that Tanchjim cable S to match with the Stargate (so single-ended) cuz they look the same and made out of the same materials, description of the cable S sound is exactly how I hear the Stargate. I just want that combo of the look plus the coherency throughout the DAC and cable.

 

[o0genesis0o]

+1 to the final audio E black tips.

The white final audio E tips are brighter, so don't get this, but get the black ones, the latter tame treble quite well.

They usually retail for $15 usd for a set, but if you buy a $20 iem like he kinera Tyr or Final E500, they come with the final E black tips, so it is like getting the tips + iem for additional five bucks.

I just realised something: Final equips Final E5000 with Type E tips. They like GIGABASS, don't they

 

[Jmop]

Would anyone be interested in a packaged deal? Continental U.S. only please. Gimlet, Shozy T1, Cadenza, Tanya, might have one or two more. Just gonna throw it out here once since I can’t post multiples in a single classified anymore.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

+1 to the final audio E black tips.

The white final audio E tips are brighter, so don't get this, but get the black ones, the latter tame treble quite well.

They usually retail for $15 usd for a set, but if you buy a $20 iem like he kinera Tyr or Final E500, they come with the final E black tips, so it is like getting the tips + iem for additional five bucks.

Yea I was thinking Final E is old school, but when tried with Performer 5, it had pretty warm and nice bass resonance. Final E still can do good job to some good matching ones.

Just like Final E = Get Final E500 $20 which comes with full set of Final E,

Moondrop Spring Tip = Get Chu$19, it comes with full set of Spring Tips if separately bought $12.99

Also if you get Moondrop’s Stellaris, around $109. It comes with full set of Softwars UC (S, M, L). If separately bought it only has Sx2 or Mx2 or Lx2 for $19. Stellaris, is questionable one from Moondrop. Sounds like KZ’s ZS10 in terms of tuning. Can handle some acoustic genre pretty well, and Planar driver’s spec is very good.

My speculation is that KZ and Moondrop sent their product design to same ODM. ODM mistakenly put KZ’s Planar design as Moondrop Stellaris, and Moondrop’s Design as KZ PR1PRO. That makes sense.

KZ curve.

Moondrop Curve

 

[warbles]

If your wife is safe and sound then it's alright isn't it? if one day you decided to go to Vietnam, i suggest Da Nang as it is well developed city and have the traditional peaceful and slowness of vietnamese

Seriously? It's actually quiet in the ciry of Da Nang? No screeching howling motor scooters buzzing in every direction, etcetera?

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Anyone tried this?
BGVP’s 2DD for $29.
https://shenzhenaudio.com/collectio...ne-dual-dynamic-driver-iem-activity-headphone

I don’t know why all IEM shop puts Dolls Frontline (JP) Girls Frontline (CN)’s G36 as their “6D Gaming” experience Ads. It’s not FPS…a map strategy game. Girls Frontline is a proper copyright app game so that makes me wonder about the compliance awareness of IEM shops, as well as Shenzhen Audio’s legal consciousness.

↓

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

HifiGo has Dunu SA 6 Ultra's on sale.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804692875757.html

 

[AmericanSpirit]

HifiGo has Dunu SA 6 Ultra's on sale.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804692875757.html

Great and SA6 for $478.

Definitely not a cheap one, but still it’s one of best tuned IEM we can find.

N5005 is good tuned too.

 

[Jmop]

Anyone tried this?
BGVP’s 2DD for $29.
https://shenzhenaudio.com/collectio...ne-dual-dynamic-driver-iem-activity-headphone

I don’t know why all IEM shop puts Dolls Frontline (JP) Girls Frontline (CN)’s G36 as their “6D Gaming” experience Ads. It’s not FPS…a map strategy game. Girls Frontline is a proper copyright app game so that makes me wonder about the compliance awareness of IEM shops, as well as Shenzhen Audio’s legal consciousness.


↓

That waifu, is killer

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Anyone tried this?
BGVP’s 2DD for $29.
https://shenzhenaudio.com/collectio...ne-dual-dynamic-driver-iem-activity-headphone

I don’t know why all IEM shop puts Dolls Frontline (JP) Girls Frontline (CN)’s G36 as their “6D Gaming” experience Ads. It’s not FPS…a map strategy game. Girls Frontline is a proper copyright app game so that makes me wonder about the compliance awareness of IEM shops, as well as Shenzhen Audio’s legal consciousness.


↓

Akros, who I trust as having a good ear, said the Scale was a waste of time. Bloaty mess. Vortex stated the exact same thing. Mid bass bleedy and not impressive. I imagine that's why they aren't talked about?

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Akros, who I trust as having a good ear, said the Scale was a waste of time. Bloaty mess. Vortex stated the exact same thing. Mid bass bleedy and not impressive. I imagine that's why they aren't talked about?

Thx. Great info!

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

So near my endgame listen. Absolutely beautiful and creamy sound. Mature, creamy, with punch and resolution. AKG N5005 + Sony A55 with Mr Walkman mod + Fiio Mont Blanc IEM Edition amp + Fiio pure silver interconnect + DD hifi gold 3.5 adapter for AKG 2.5 balanced cable + spinfit silicone tips.

The Q1 mk II is an excellent semi-budget amp ($100-$130), but it's bassy and dark. The Mont Blanc is more transparent and balanced. Less colored, so it suits the A55 and AKG N5005 much better. I also have my Cardas interconnect, which is a superior interconnect to the Fiio pure silver, but I wanted to keep it more balanced with more clarity in the highs, and the fiio does that trick, because the A55 has that thick Sony house sound.

So far it's been aural bliss for me and I absolutely have to thank @AmericanSpirit for the AKG recc. Had it not been for him, I wouldn't have taken the plunge. Cheers!

p.s. I'll be hooking the Mont Blanc to my DX170 with the Cardas interconnect and 3.5 termination, and see where my ears take me?

 

[o0genesis0o]

Yea your closing word, it’s not bad if you don’t have $50 good IEM. Is basically one sentence summary of cadenza. Definitely not “sub $50 king” as hyped. This is my final conclusion after tip rolls, and 100hrs of burn in to Cadenza.

Attention calling for ongoing trend of “frequent collab reviewer”.

cadenza hit HBB’s top sub 50 ranking list based on:
▶︎Tonality tuning fits on his preferred curve (warm bass, inoffensive treble, neutral mid)
▶︎Possible business incentives of potential future collaboration with Kiwi Ears. Well at least Cadenza isn’t going to depreciate his HBB brand, not a bad IEM, so there will be a good monetary motivations. (I’m not indicating he is being bribed by Kiwi Ears. It’s most likely his voluntary hype)

Same business incentive applies to Crinacle’s latest ranking list. I see some “unusual” positive/negative biased scores that could be rooted from his own collaborations motivations. Not many, but countable few of them.

From professional ethics standpoint, these conflicts of interests are not good ingredients for their reviews. As one human being it is hard to completely separate personal interest with unbiased reviews. In business world, the professional firm providing “business consulting” shall be separated from the professional firm conducting objective audits.

That’s what I see from HBB/Crinacle’s once-purely-personal review has been transformed to somewhat “95% of them sounds fair, but some questions remained” one. That 5% is a bit phony, as they are not “review amateurs” that can mistakenly assess the score with more than 10% of margin of errors in the actual performance. The positive/negative bias is beyond margin of errors, which makes me wonder if there are any intentional biases are involved.

I’m not implying
“Don’t believe Reviewer’s score who does —constant—collaborations/consultations “

Just take it with a gain of salt.
Noting that there maybe monetary/intangible motivations and incentives behind self-proclaimed unbiased review.

Then apply subjective adjectives to “potential positive/negative biases” of their review product, to estimate the realistic result. This is called “Stress Test” technical analysis. Apply stress to potentially biased dataset, salvage recap result.

Back to Cadenza, it can be used as daily IEM to watch TV shows on tablet. A good dynamic theater like sound reproduction. Technically is just average. If not a bit rough textured detail articulation and mushy bass.

Recap of Cadenza:
Not bad. Not a game changer. If you own good $50-class single DD, it’s not worth to buy. If not, it’s a fair offer. But there will be better choice, like Tripowin’s Lea that could be found as low as $23 vs Cadenza’s $35.

I have just seen this one. Boy, that’s serious

No comment on the bias thing, especially since some people make a living writing these reviews.

I think that this race to the bottom is getting out of hands. We get it, you (chi fi manufacturers) nail the tuning. No need to brag about good tuning on a budget, it’s not 2021 anymore.

Give us good technical performance, give us good build quality. Perhaps those things are not as cool as “look how nice we tune” or making a statement “you don’t need to pay for tuning” (personally, who cares? If you have poor technical performance, you still create poor listening experience even if you hit Harman 100%. If you have outstanding technical performance, you can get away with slight tuning mistakes)

 

[r31ya]

Yea I was thinking Final E is old school, but when tried with Performer 5, it had pretty warm and nice bass resonance. Final E still can do good job to some good matching ones.

Just like Final E = Get Final E500 $20 which comes with full set of Final E,

Moondrop Spring Tip = Get Chu$19, it comes with full set of Spring Tips if separately bought $12.99

Also if you get Moondrop’s Stellaris, around $109. It comes with full set of Softwars UC (S, M, L). If separately bought it only has Sx2 or Mx2 or Lx2 for $19. Stellaris, is questionable one from Moondrop. Sounds like KZ’s ZS10 in terms of tuning. Can handle some acoustic genre pretty well, and Planar driver’s spec is very good.

My speculation is that KZ and Moondrop sent their product design to same ODM. ODM mistakenly put KZ’s Planar design as Moondrop Stellaris, and Moondrop’s Design as KZ PR1PRO. That makes sense.

KZ curve.


Moondrop Curve

KZ need to go through PLA13 and PR1 Balance+Hifi before reaching PR1 Pro.
it was constant request to tune it "to be more balanced", reduce the bass to get more clarity, and finally reach PR1 Pro who still need Foams to deal with that rather harsh"clarity"

---

and oh, i was trying to spend my time with my PR1 Pro with stock setup to see whats what and its a bit underwhelming. pretty good for $42, not sure its that competitive in $80 segment.
but then i finally goes "eh lets just use balanced cable". Planar would love more juice and yuup, everything is beautiful again.
the vocal is not quite upfront but it is in the center, encircled by instrument.
bass is now somewhat impactful, bass guitar while still melds in the background in some songs is now more easily found, guitar is super sharp, vocals... detailed but not "lush". its a bit dry. pretty high in resolution, tough it came with a bit of harshness in the treble.

the staging... everything have proper "space" with noticeable "gap" between instrument which suppose to be good. especially done with 1 driver.
but the issue being the placement of instrument is a fair bit different that i used to and its not quite "grand" sounding somehow.
it feels like a band in a stage that is too big for their group and they got a bit too spaced out.

bracket redefining at @80? eeeh.
competitive sounding with balanced cable at $80. i guess yeah. not like i have alot of iem in that price bracket tough.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

KZ need to go through PLA13 and PR1 Balance+Hifi before reaching PR1 Pro.
it was constant request to tune it "better", reduce the bass to get more clarity, and finally reach PR1 Pro who still need Foams to deal with that rather harsh"clarity"

Yea, It’s a Joke. Moondrop to come up with ZS10, and KZ to come up with pretty nicely tuned one.