The discovery thread!

[AmericanSpirit]

An odd ball discovery.
Sound Rhyme SR5 -

—Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise —

▶︎Personal Purchase from $139 from this store. You can choose if you want IEM only or pay more for cable, of which many of audipphiles are not in need for another cable, so the $139 one is sufficient enough. Smart offer and very logical.

[2023-04 update]
Since this discovery, many headfiers joined SoundRhyme family, and Penon started to deal SoundrRhyme product at very reasonable price.

https://penonaudio.com/sound-rhyme-sr5.html

It’s $149 and is same price the shop above ($139 for IEM only, $149 for a complete set with cable)
[End of 2023-04 update]

TLDR; “Hit!”, Highly Recommendable as extremely high cost performing warm-neutral with U-hint. Has extremely wide range from sub-sub-bass to TOTL styled finesse articulation for 8-9khz, 15khz, and 20khz detail highlight, the reverb generation.
Usually vocalist-IEM doesn’t have diffusion field but this SR5 does have both, vocal richness as well as wide diffusions.

Spec:
▶︎10mm high polymer DD+Knowles ED29689x2 (Mid) + Knowles 31736 composite tweeter x2 ( Mid- High)
▶︎4 way crossover

Oh yea and same to qdc Anole V14, it glows in the dark.

Actual measurements by Akros (Blue = SR5)

Sound Impressions to follow. It’s amazing.
A hidden Gem coming out of nowhere because Sound Rhyme only sent review sample to Russian youtube reviewers.

It is widely unknown to Western market, but it somehow intrigued my interest after seeing the russian reviewer’s video. He also reviewed HEXA and metaphored HEXA as Bruce-lee, of which It made a great sense. He also praised SR5, so I knew someone knows HEXA wouldn’t recommend some utterly wrong IEMs.

▶︎A warm-neutral with U-hint. Specialized for Vocals.
Reminds me of
DUNU SA6 on bass on mode + AFUL Performer 5 + See Audio Bravery. Or Simply put, it’s Baby-Aur Audio Neon Pro. Qdc styled neutral with U-tuning.

It has very nice finesse, Bravery style air generation. It has two emphasis above 10khz, 15khz for air presentation and cymbals liveliness, 17khz for diffusion field’s border articulation. Very rare to see this level of “air” for sub$150. Closest I can refer is See Audio Bravery, then that goes to Aur Audio Neon Pro, Anole VX & Monarch.

AFUL Performer 5 class well tuned, instrument-neutral (that means not a upper mid vocal forward), but it has some colorations in upper registers to try not make sound too dull.

▶︎Very rich overtone presentation, this works great for wooden instruments as well as ”wet” touch of Jazz vocals.

▶︎One thing I found very unique aside from above of SR5: Bass DD is very very fast responding, one thing I like the most of this IEM. It doesn’t have “hybrid” syndrome cause by slow dynamic woofer. HEXA and many other IEM dealt with that by applying LCP driver, but this SR5 did it by non-LCP It reminds me of See Audio’s Yume OG DD, that sounds like BA with very low bass floor. SR5 may have applied similar Driver of Yume and retuned it with sub-bass lift. It has sub-sub-bass, below audible zone.

Detailed cross comparison post
Post in thread 'The discovery thread!'

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-discovery-thread.586909/post-17412148

 

[Vonbuddy]

Sound Blaster X5

Creative released a new desktop DAC/AMP priced at 275$.

https://sg.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x5

The site is not letting me order from United States.

 

[PhonoPhi]

Moondrop Droplet arrived!

▶︎Personal Purchase from Hifigo

It comes with the collaboration army style dog tag key chain which is extremely heavy, when I opened the box, that iron tag popped out and ”drop”ed on my feet, ouch! it seriously hurts


The shell is way smaller than I expected, smaller than ear tips. You can see USB-C DSP connector size vs droplet shell size, wow that’s small.



OOTB sound impression:
▶︎I recently came across single BA named Floaudio Lily, and enlightened by very unique characteristics; it changes behavior when amped or directly thru line-out signals.

▶︎Long Story short, Droplet is another surprise, actually better than Lily… the diffusion field and internal echo inside that acoustic camber is a thing. Very nice timbre

▶︎Weirdly Droplet only comes with foam ear tips (maybe by some error or something) So I’m using the stock foam ear tips of which I’m usually not a fan of them because it basically kills sub-bass resonance. For Droplet it does match with the somehow elevated sub-bass, pretty good, of course the sub-bass imaging is blurry because of this foam tip, but the timbre itself isn’t bad.


▶︎Diffusion Magic. When you take a look at FR of Droplet, you may wonder, “heck, whats that 3khz small peak?” , it’s the same trick used for Crin’s FiiO FHE, a small 3khz peak will generate a room for notes to diffuse as well as the vocal spotlighting effect, it doesn’t work all the time, but it worked on FHE. It’s also working on Droplet. A fun factor for imaging.


I like line-out signal than amped one on Droplet as well. Unamped one is already hard hitting enough


If you are interested in how far a single BA could amaze you, Droplet is a good surprise. It doesn’t feel fully crumbled that most of single BAs do.

Moondrop did it again…I know their CEO is Ety fan and he had a dream to pursue that single BA pathway, I’s say it’s a success. Droplet is nimble, energetic and fun to listen IEM, with surprisingly nice imaging and timbre of diffusing notes.

Neutral? No. Colored for vocals, with Moondrop’s VDSF nicely implemented.

It makes me wonder why Moondrop gave a go for Stellaris… They are sane and Droplet proofed they are.

Looks nice!
Is the USB DAC hard-wired?
How do you amp it?
What about background noise from the DAC reported my several HeadFiers?
How does it compare to TRN X7, one of your recent recommendations?
Sorry for so many questions.
(I got X7 few days ago, a good speech recognition tool it may be, with condensed mids and less of the spectral ends, and nearly non-existing stage to my ears (?); reminds of X6 and that tuning approach if that tuner...; the "burning" is likely of a psycho-acoustic origin, that is where I have most of the fun with X7 and one more IEM that shall rename nameless. If I were into drama, I would write a short piece "Three TRNs and one silly man"

 

[Surf Monkey]

Alot of us in the same boat. Ordered the same day it was released and still waiting. It sucks to be USA for things coming out of China.

On the west coast it seems to be Compton that’s the bottleneck. I often have shipments come in a couple days to the sorting center there from China only to have the package sit there for weeks before it heads out to the destination.

 

[baskingshark]

My daughter's name is Kara.

Haha, so will you be getting this Tanchjim Kara IEM for her birthday?

Pro tip: you can tell her this is a custom made IEM for her, since the "Kara" name is even painted on the shells!

Jokes aside, Kara is a really classy name!

Wow lucky you! Mine not even shipped after 8days after placing order from keephifi Probably they run out of first batch and backordering from plant.

Alot of us in the same boat. Ordered the same day it was released and still waiting. It sucks to be USA for things coming out of China.

On the west coast it seems to be Compton that’s the bottleneck. I often have shipments come in a couple days to the sorting center there from China only to have the package sit there for weeks before it heads out to the destination.

I bought the TRI Star River at $49 USD from KeepHIFI 6 days ago. Up till now radio silence. They haven't even processed the order from the China side, let alone mailed it out.

Messaged them a couple of times on their site with zero response. Nada. Zilch. I'll give them another day or two, and will cancel the order then and go to another supplier to buy it if there is still poor CS.

 

[Carpet]

The site is not letting me order from United States.

Given the number of US dealers that won't ship here from the US. I have some sympathy, but am struck by the irony!

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Looks nice!
Is the USB DAC hard-wired?
How do you amp it?
What about background noise from the DAC reported my several HeadFiers?
How does it compare to TRN X7, one of your recent recommendations?
Sorry for so many questions.
(I got X7 few days ago, a good speech recognition tool it may be, with condensed mids and less of the spectral ends, and nearly non-existing stage to my ears (?); reminds of X6 and thar tuning approach if that tuner...; the "burning" is likely of a psycho-acoustic origin, that is where I have most of the fun with X7 and one more IEM that shall rename nameless. If I were into drama, I would write a short piece "Three TRNs and one silly man"

Yes USB-DAC is hardwired.
M11Pro has weird function, it let users control Line Out volume, as well as it some how sends boosted bass signals to USB when amp mode is selected, Line-Out mode cuts off that bass boost and let a pure flat one.

No I don’t hear noise floor at least from M11Pro, maybe some sloppy PC USB outlet would let those noise out.

Did you burned X7 for like that 160hr routine? 10khz+ will have more gains.

X7 is more of mid specialist and Droplet is more of Ety competitor, they belong to different class. The acoustic chamber of Droplet does very interesting resonance, and I do believe Moondrop has beaten Etymotic Research in single BA with Droplet.

Droplet = wide sound staged, cool and thin note weight, very clean, but if people didn’t like HEXA‘s neutral line, Droplet is thinner than HEXA. It has sub-bass, but mid-bass is very subtle, warm DD lover may feel this signature not their preferred ones. Chu has similar note weight but slightly heavier due to the dynamic driver vs BA. Maybe Moondrop only included foam ear tips to add warmth to Droplet. With Foam ear tips, it has nice balance of warmth / dryness. With regular ear tips, it’s on the dry region.

 

[552609]

Multiverse Mentor Jade/Emerald from Musicteck. Awesome.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

On the west coast it seems to be Compton that’s the bottleneck. I often have shipments come in a couple days to the sorting center there from China only to have the package sit there for weeks before it heads out to the destination.

You are correct, sir!

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Haha, so will you be getting this Tanchjim Kara IEM for her birthday?

Pro tip: you can tell her this is a custom made IEM for her, since the "Kara" name is even painted on the shells!

Jokes aside, Kara is a really classy name!








I bought the TRI Star River at $49 USD from KeepHIFI 6 days ago. Up till now radio silence. They haven't even processed the order from the China side, let alone mailed it out.

Messaged them a couple of times on their site with zero response. Nada. Zilch. I'll give them another day or two, and will cancel the order then and go to another supplier to buy it if there is still poor CS.

Thank you on behalf of my daughter! I'll probably buy it for myself lol I still haven't owned a single Tanchjim IEM, and depending on the price, I might jump on this one? Just depends on how good the Tri Star River is?

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

I'm having troubles letting go of my Sands. I know a couple of you have reached out in DM about the Sands, but I started listening to some hi res FLAC and DSD with the Sands, and they really sing with hi res thru the Sony A55. I'm so scatterbrained right now with everything going on with my mom. My apologies.

 

[baskingshark]

Thank you on behalf of my daughter! I'll probably buy it for myself lol I still haven't owned a single Tanchjim IEM, and depending on the price, I might jump on this one? Just depends on how good the Tri Star River is?

Wow an IEM connoisseur like you hasn't tried a Tanchjim IEM! No worries, there's always a first time.

I still use the 3 year old Tanchjim Oxygen on a weekly basis and use it as a midFI single DD benchmark comparison tool, that set is quite a legend, melds timbre/tonality/technicalities nicely. It sounds very natural and is kind of a palette cleanser.

Tanchjim Tanya is quite a useful daily beater set, around $15 or so. Warm thick note weight, bullet-shaped. It has non-detachable cables though. A lot of DIYers actually buy this Tanya just to get their paws on the filters inside the packaging, and use these to mod other IEMs eg Tripowin Olina.

I'm having troubles letting go of my Sands. I know a couple of you have reached out in DM about the Sands, but I started listening to some hi res FLAC and DSD with the Sands, and they really sing with hi res thru the Sony A55. I'm so scatterbrained right now with everything going on with my mom. My apologies.

Hope all is well with your mum, take care and stay strong!

Music is a good balm!

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Multiverse Mentor Jade/Emerald from Musicteck. Awesome.

Sportscar look!

Yes USB-DAC is hardwired.
M11Pro has weird function, it let users control Line Out volume, as well as it some how sends boosted bass signals to USB when amp mode is selected, Line-Out mode cuts off that bass boost and let a pure flat one.

No I don’t hear noise floor at least from M11Pro, maybe some sloppy PC USB outlet would let those noise out.

Did you burned X7 for like that 160hr routine? 10khz+ will have more gains.

X7 is more of mid specialist and Droplet is more of Ety competitor, they belong to different class. The acoustic chamber of Droplet does very interesting resonance, and I do believe Moondrop has beaten Etymotic Research in single BA with Droplet.

Droplet = wide sound staged, cool and thin note weight, very clean, but if people didn’t like HEXA‘s neutral line, Droplet is thinner than HEXA. It has sub-bass, but mid-bass is very subtle, warm DD lover may feel this signature not their preferred ones. Chu has similar note weight but slightly heavier due to the dynamic driver vs BA. Maybe Moondrop only included foam ear tips to add warmth to Droplet. With Foam ear tips, it has nice balance of warmth / dryness. With regular ear tips, it’s on the dry region.

I just heard a noise floor from acoustic recording. Not sure if that’s recording’s native floor, will try with SR5.

 

[drbluenewmexico]

I have a link for the $10 off for the StarRiver until the 26th if it helps anyone.
Link says 285 in stock?

https://keephifi.com/products/tri-star-river
Or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV2BZ6YD

Thank you TonedeafMonk! I grabbed a gran one with the coupon.sounds like some carefull design!

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Bad bad news.

An odd ball discovery.
Sound Rhyme SR5
▶︎Personal Purchase from $139 from this store. You can choose if you want IEM only or pay more for cable, of which many of audipphiles are not in need for another cable, so the $139 one is sufficient enough. Smart offer and very logical.

TLDR; “Hit!”, Highly Recommendable as extremely high cost performing warm-neutral with U-hint. Has extremely wide range from sub-sub-bass to TOTL styled finesse articulation for 10khz, 15khz, and 17khz detail highlight, the reverb generation.
Usually vocalist-IEM doesn’t have diffusion field but this SR5 does have both, vocal richness as well as wide diffusions.

1DD+Knowles ED29689x2 (Mid) + Knowles 31736 composite tweeter x2 ( High)



Sound Impressions to follow. It’s amazing.
A hidden Gem coming out of nowhere because Sound Rhyme only sent review sample to Russian youtube reviewers.

It is widely unknown to Western market, but it somehow intrigued my interest after seeing the russian reviewer’s video. He also reviewed HEXA and metaphored HEXA as Bruce-lee, of which It made a great sense. He also praised SR5, so I knew someone knows HEXA wouldn’t recommend some utterly wrong IEMs.

▶︎A warm-neutral with U-hint. Specialized for Vocals.
Reminds me of
DUNU SA6 on bass on mode + AFUL Performer 5 + See Audio Bravery. Or Simply put, it’s Baby-Aur Audio Neon Pro. Qdc styled neutral with U-tuning.

It has very nice finesse, Bravery style air generation. It has two emphasis above 10khz, 15khz for air presentation and cymbals liveliness, 17khz for diffusion field’s border articulation. Very rare to see this level of “air” for sub$150. Closest I can refer is See Audio Bravery, then that goes to Aur Audio Neon Pro, Anole VX & Monarch.

AFUL Performer 5 class well tuned, instrument-neutral (that means not a upper mid vocal forward), but it has some colorations in upper registers to try not make sound too dull.

▶︎Very rich overtone presentation, this works great for wooden instruments as well as ”wet” touch of Jazz vocals.

▶︎One thing I found very unique aside from above of SR5: Bass DD is very very fast responding, one thing I like the most of this IEM. It doesn’t have “hybrid” syndrome cause by slow dynamic woofer. HEXA and many other IEM dealt with that by applying LCP driver, but this SR5 did it by non-LCP It reminds me of See Audio’s Yume OG DD, that sounds like BA with very low bass floor. SR5 may have applied similar Driver of Yume and retuned it with sub-bass lift. It has sub-sub-bass, below audible zone.

Very sad news..

Left unit failed and before it went dead, it almost punctured my left ear drum by having a maximum tone

So sad that’s such a nice sounding set that I only could enjoyed for couple of hours!

P.S.
When I flipped the polarity, the left unit starts to sound with regular volume again.

Any pro tips? Now right is regular polarity and left is negative polarity..

P.S2

I changed cable to 3.5mm SE one, now it’s back to normal A short circuit?


P.S.3

I noticed this SR5 is qdc polarity….for a regular .78 2pin When I flipped +/- the imaging center shifted forward.

Wow? Guess if I need to hook the cable in a proper direction, I may need to flip left pin to right case and right pin to left case… Or cut ”real” qdc pin to make it exposed 2pin ones…

P.S.4

Maybe one of cable I had got negative polarity, other cables do fine!