[chinmie]

I don’t know what process or standard he uses (besides “trust me, I know stuffs”), but Talos and B2 and S8 and U12t on the same bracket is … questionable.

i just saw his new rankings.. other than him raising the IE600 up (which i agree), all other repositions seems all over the place..

but hey, it's his personal ranking after all, so he can do whatever he wants , i guess

 

[WAON303]

I only briefly checked out the list but I just wonder how much time did he spend on auditioning each of these IEMs at some shops or expos before he felt comfortable ranking them.

Crin has said he doesn't spend a lot of time on mediocre / trash IEMs.

Allegedly. he only spends many hours on good / great stuff.

 

[BigGearHunter]

I have received TangZu Wan'er today:

The package and unboxing experience are nice. Cool green shells (my main excuse of getting it).
Yet, the first impressions of sound are quite underwhelming, especially for an IEM described as a new budget reference just few month ago (??)

I am guilty of buying it for exactly that reason and my impression was exactly like yours. Same applies to the original Moondrop Chu. Though I can say nicer things about the Jiu and the Chu II.

 

[bixby]

I have received TangZu Wan'er today:

The package and unboxing experience are nice. Cool green shells (my main excuse of getting it).
Yet, the first impressions of sound are quite underwhelming, especially for an IEM described as a new budget reference just few month ago (??)

Budget reference in the same vein as the Aria was the king of the $80 IEMs and hyped beyond hyped. You either like or not like.

I owned both and I do not own either today. There are other, perhaps, more polarizing but better to my ear choices. Titan S over the Aria, even with it's over the top pinna gain and The Mecha Warrior C2 over the Waner, if you can handle the lower treble. Yet both of the aforementioned hypebot iems are safe starting points for folks to find out what they like.

As for Crin, I do respect his ratings as they lay out over a possible spectrum, with some ranked really low and some really high but distrbuted in a way that resembles reality perhaps?

So many people here rank lots of stuff 4 or higher out of 5 but find all kind of faults. Kinda like the folk at Beer Advocate rating a beer 4 out of 5 but say they would never buy it again. Kinda makes the reviewer pretty much useless.

 

[superuser1]

I've always thought that the Wan'er was pretty underwhelming, I'm not sure I can quite put my finger on it but I vastly prefer the tuning and fit of the Salnotes Zero in the single DD budget category.

It has a slowish driver and the low end decay is slower and many cant stand it. On the other hand some do prefer that kind of slow decay. Also it EQs pretty well. I think you guys should try another cable and tip roll if possible.

 

[r31ya]

Budget reference in the same vein as the Aria was the king of the $80 IEMs and hyped beyond hyped. You either like or not like.

I owned both and I do not own either today. There are other, perhaps, more polarizing but better to my ear choices. Titan S over the Aria, even with it's over the top pinna gain and The Mecha Warrior C2 over the Waner, if you can handle the lower treble. Yet both of the aforementioned hypebot iems are safe starting points for folks to find out what they like.

As for Crin, I do respect his ratings as they lay out over a possible spectrum, with some ranked really low and some really high but distrbuted in a way that resembles reality perhaps?

So many people here rank lots of stuff 4 or higher out of 5 but find all kind of faults. Kinda like the folk at Beer Advocate rating a beer 4 out of 5 but say they would never buy it again. Kinda makes the reviewer pretty much useless.

Crin avoid scoring bias (like some review who 90% of the scores are 4 out of 5) by grading on bell curve.

So illustratively, there will be 5% A ranker, 20% B ranker, 50% C ranker, 20% D ranker, 5%E ranker.

So there would be constant repositioning to keep up with overall quality status.
if a lot of a new stuff is high ranking, that that means there will be demotions in the old high rank.

---
Also to note the ranking is based on tuning and tech, agnostic from its pricing. Value/performance is given "stars" awards outside the iem capacity ranking.

 

[Redcarmoose]

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-turbo.26608/reviews#review-31534
PENON TURBO UNIVERSAL
6 Balanced Armature & 4 tuning switches
https://penonaudio.com/penon-turbo.html

 

[JEHL]

So out of curiosity, I checked the Truthear Hexa in Crinacle's ranking list just to see what the overall sound signature is. Neutral. It's just neutral.

Guess the bass boost kicks in far too late to be considered anything other than neutral after all.

 

[WAON303]

i just saw his new rankings.. other than him raising the IE600 up (which i agree), all other repositions seems all over the place..

but hey, it's his personal ranking after all, so he can do whatever he wants , i guess

IE600 was always A+/A+ I half expected him to lower the grade to A/A but that didn't happen.

I'm guessing the rank list isn't 100% finished because I saw the Clairvoyance techs downgraded to B+ but the cheaper Oracle is still A-

 

[nikbr]

I have received TangZu Wan'er today:

The package and unboxing experience are nice. Cool green shells (my main excuse of getting it).
Yet, the first impressions of sound are quite underwhelming, especially for an IEM described as a new budget reference just few month ago (??)

I find the Wan'er absolutely amazing with vocals for the price. Of course it's not the most dynamic nor resolving. It also looks nice and fits well. Stock cable isn't good.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

If i recalled it right, Crin listen to iems at relatively low volume (ear care reasons it seems),
but it might affect his tuning preferences.

If true, then Crin and I have that in common. I listen to music at quite low levels. 20-30 on the 100-120 level system or 3 on the 10 level system. I want to make sure I can listen to music well into my 70's, if I'm blessed enough to live that long?

 

[WAON303]

As much as I respect Crin's new rank list, I have to admit that the current tech grades are pretty damn wonky, (No pun intended.)

Haven't tried any TOTLs yet, but I'm sure anyone would be hard pressed to compare the IE600's techs with a significantly more expensive TOTL IEM like the EE Odin or Traiilii.

This would be pretty confusing for newcomers, they might just think multiple thousand IEMs are a complete scam.

I much prefer Antdroid, Nymz and Precog's own tier lists now which I feel are more accurate with grades in general.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

I have received TangZu Wan'er today:

Cool green shells (my main excuse of getting it).
Yet, the first impressions of sound are quite underwhelming

same for me.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

I want to make sure I can listen to music well into my 70's, if I'm blessed enough to live that long?

Good point.
I listen at about 60 out of 100.
Lower gives me much less pleasure.
I do not know why.
Am I already deaf?

 

[JEHL]

Good point.
I listen at about 60 out of 100.
Lower gives me much less pleasure.
I do not know why.
Am I already deaf?

If I understand anything about equal loudness contour is that V-shaped equipment tends to perform better at lower volume than something more neutral.

Maybe that's worth looking into.

I personally gravitate towards neutral with extra bass instead as even my BL-03 is largely perceived as bright at times.

So I wonder what's the best example of neutral with bass boost under $100 or so.

So either V shaped or extra bass may be worth considerations here.