[Zerstorer_GOhren]

Guess it's no problem to feel the noize with that setup.

Both Slade and Quite Riot versions are excellent in their own right.

 

[JrOcinthepark]

This message should be pinned somewhere.

I have lost the initial excitement I had for the new Questyle CMA18. The price tag is quite tricky. We have so many good products in the range. The price tag neither satisfies a dongle's price nor does the product replace a dap. It is surely quite portable. Something like the Earmen Angel (now at a cheaper price than the CMA18) is a much better product for my use case. You get loads of power, and the sound is quite good. But for someone, it may be a very usable product. YMMV and all that.

Another question to my friends here: Now that Pula PA02 is available on HifiGo, I am confused if I should get one. After a couple of mixed reviews, I think the craze has settled down or not?? I need some pointers from people using it. If it is at least as good-sounding as something like OD200, EA1000, FalconU etc. I would like to get a pair.

I have the OD200 and the Pula. My preference lies with the Pula. The tuning, in my opinion, is excellent. Seems to work with multiple genres. I’m an audio science review guy (que the hate). In my opinion, a good dac has low noise and doesn’t color the music. I have multiple DACs with different chips and STRUGGLE to tell the difference. Quite frankly, I just collect them at this point. The CMA18 at $800-900 dollars is quite ridiculous to me. A similar product, the Q15, has more power and the flagship AKM chip at half the price. The Questyle M15 dongle is a great product that WAS hard to beat at its price on release. Admittedly, I do not own the CMA but I struggle to see the value at that price.

 

[Kallbo]

Too many new releases.

Will there be a Sale for the Chinese New Year on AE?
Or when will be the next Sale?

 

[PeacockObscura]

This message should be pinned somewhere.

I have lost the initial excitement I had for the new Questyle CMA18. The price tag is quite tricky. We have so many good products in the range. The price tag neither satisfies a dongle's price nor does the product replace a dap. It is surely quite portable. Something like the Earmen Angel (now at a cheaper price than the CMA18) is a much better product for my use case. You get loads of power, and the sound is quite good. But for someone, it may be a very usable product. YMMV and all that.

Another question to my friends here: Now that Pula PA02 is available on HifiGo, I am confused if I should get one. After a couple of mixed reviews, I think the craze has settled down or not?? I need some pointers from people using it. If it is at least as good-sounding as something like OD200, EA1000, FalconU etc., I would like to get a pair.

I have the Pula-02 and the OD200 I'm not to pleased with the Pula O2 there's something off about the playback of vocals in the upper mids lower treble the timbre is off/plasticy on first listen it's good but on longer sessions I don't like the upper frequency range it's just unnatural I much prefer the OD200 which has less detail but so much more natural playback of vocals and better bass. I think the Penon Fan2 is a better option if you're looking for a hybrid especially at the discounted prices it goes for.

 

[ChristianM]

Too many new releases.

Will there be a Sale for the Chinese New Year on AE?
Or when will be the next Sale?

I'm also waiting for a big sale on Aliexpress to get EA500LM, hope there'll be a Chinese new year sale on Aliexpress this year or I'll have to wait till AE anniversary sale.
you can get update from here if you like.

https://promossale.com/aliexpress-sale-dates-2024/

 

[Leonarfd]

Maybe I'm a tip addict, but the new Divinus Airy S got me a little excited. Big fan of Divinus Velvet.

Might be problem solver for people with ear pressure problems.

Meant for TWS, but perhaps okay for normal IEMs also.

 

[r31ya]

New HBB product
QKZ Hades (2 x 9mm LCP DD)

https://www.linsoul.com/products/qkz-x-hbb-hades
---

This "sample FLAG" might be the graph

 

[Singaravelan]

Maybe I'm a tip addict, but the new Divinus Airy S got me a little excited. Big fan of Divinus Velvet.

Just the guy i was looking for. Am about to press the button on 'Tangzu - Tang Sancai' eartips. Good, right?

 

[Leonarfd]

Just the guy i was looking for. Am about to press the button on 'Tangzu - Tang Sancai' eartips. Good, right?

They are nice I prefer the normal version instead of wide bore. Good comfort and is easy to get good seal with. For me sound quite balanced, maybe slightly warm.


Using them on my S15.

 

[fidgeraldo]

There has been tremendous hype revolving around the LM edition of the EA500 by SIMGOT AUDIO

Another one for the list...hmm...It seems I'll catch you sooner than I thought, hmm...or not
Have you tried EA2000?

Cheers!

But if you look up reviews about the R26 nearly every one of them raves about its staging.

When I started looking at headphones...there was a cult about the AKG K702 and its huge soundstage.
I already bought the Sennheiser HD560S and didn't understand what stage people were writing about.

So, I thought I would give K702 a chance. There must be something about it when so many people rave about it.

So...in short, I absolutely don't see (hear) as 99% of listeners hear. I haven't caught that soundstage fever.

I am a huge fan of speakers, headphones, and, recently, IEMs. But I will reserve my thoughts about the soundstage for the speakers.
Headphones...hmm. Yup, sound around the head, 3D illusion, yes...but soundstage...no.

Fiction, yes...I am on it. Placebo, I am also for it; I support it if people hear what they hear and others do not, and that's a plus for them (or myself).

But there is no soundstage in headphones or IEMs

1. There is a landscape (a real one).

2. And there is an illusion of a landscape (in a painting).

Both are beautiful...but not the same

I already mentioned my thoughts on soundstage...but here I am... repeating myself...for fun.

Cheers!

 

[Redcarmoose]

No haven’t heard the EA2000, but this LM is the bees knees! The wild thing is the LM sub-bass, it is both fast and well done and maybe more (bass) than I have heard from SIMGOT AUDIO before? I will be comparing to the regular EA500 and EA1000 at some point? But there is really something the way SIMGOT LM does the mids, they are both somehow smooth yet detailed, and this detail comes from way outside in the stage, also fast?

Another one for the list...hmm...It seems I'll catch you sooner than I thought, hmm...or not
Have you tried EA2000?

Cheers!

When I started looking at headphones...there was a cult about the AKG K702 and its huge soundstage.
I already bought the Sennheiser HD560S and didn't understand what stage people were writing about.

So, I thought I would give K702 a chance. There must be something about it when so many people rave about it.

So...in short, I absolutely don't see (hear) as 99% of listeners hear. I haven't caught that soundstage fever.

I am a huge fan of speakers, headphones, and, recently, IEMs. But I will reserve my thoughts about the soundstage for the speakers.
Headphones...hmm. Yup, sound around the head, 3D illusion, yes...but soundstage...no.

Fiction, yes...I am on it. Placebo, I am also for it; I support it if people hear what they hear and others do not, and that's a plus for them (or myself).

But there is no soundstage in headphones or IEMs

1. There is a landscape (a real one).

2. And there is an illusion of a landscape (in a painting).

Both are beautiful...but not the same

I already mentioned my thoughts on soundstage...but here I am... repeating myself...for fun.

Cheers!

 

[kazinova]

New HBB product
QKZ Hades (2 x 9mm LCP DD)



https://www.linsoul.com/products/qkz-x-hbb-hades
---

This "sample FLAG" might be the graph

I'm willing to give any bass-heavy set a chance, but that graph is not tempting looking. Match the Maestro Mini and I'm game at any price below $150, otherwise it's a wait and see.

 

[baskingshark]

Friends, the hypetrain for 2024 has arrived. This is a quick out-of-the box impression of the Tanchjim Origin (AKA Tanchjim Oxygen 2).

So the Oxygen is one of the legendary midFI single DDs that is still competitive in 2024, despite releasing nearly 5 years ago. It's truly gonna be a tough ask to be a sequel to this venerable set.

First up, the Origin has a much better fit than the Oxygen, which had a super stubby nozzle that gave ergonomical issues for some consumers.

Oxygen left, Origin right:



The Origin has 3 tuning nozzles - labelled S, L and D. The tonal changes are quite subtle on graphing, we see some slight changes in the lower and upper treble mainly.

Graphs below, 8 kHz is a coupler artefact peak.

So on listening, the Origin sports a safe Harmanish tone. Very pleasant for most consumers, perhaps other than bassheads and trebleheads.

Bass is tight and fast, with no bleed, but it isn't the deepest in quantity and rumble. The lower mids are clean and transparent. Upper mids hit nearly 10 dB ear gain, which is right at the edge. At lower to moderate volumes, this is okay, but perhaps not at very loud volumes (Fletcher Munson curve). Treble is well-behaved, minimal sibilance, without too much loss of resolution.

Timbre is very natural, timbre freaks will have nothing to complain in this department.

Technicalities wise, it is at least above average for a midFI single DD. Will need to compare it against other midFI single DD benchmarks like the original Oxygen, Simgot EA1000, DUNU Falcon Ultra Pro and Oriveti OD200. Will report back after A/B testing, but FWIW, soundstage is quite spacious, with crispness in transients and decent micro-detailing and imaging.

Will report back after burn-in and comparisons!


I would like to thank Sam Audio for this loaner unit of the Tanchjim Origin: https://samaudiosg.com/products/🎶sg-tanchjim-origin-1-dynamic-driver-iem
It will be returned after the review.

 

[dharmasteve]

We all know as we build large collections of IEMs many end up away being stored someway. Well I have a lot of IEMs in watch display boxes that don't see the light of day. It just so happened that I somehow took out the HBB Olina....with a Faaeal Copper 4.4mm cable on it. What a good IEM. Sometimes when we get an IEM in a 'hype' event, we don't hear it through a natural mind, our ears are somewhat conditioned. Hearing free from the hype train, it sounds so good and clean and clear. Due to my old age the 'glare' in the upper mids/highs, that some heard, do not effect me, and the HBB Olina sounds pristine. A really good sounding IEM.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Was that the Hibiscus cable by chance?

We all know as we build large collections of IEMs many end up away being stored someway. Well I have a lot of IEMs in watch display boxes that don't see the light of day. It just so happened that I somehow took out the HBB Olina....with a Faaeal Copper 4.4mm cable on it. What a good IEM. Sometimes when we get an IEM in a 'hype' event, we don't hear it through a natural mind, our ears are somewhat conditioned. Hearing free from the hype train, it sounds so good and clean and clear. Due to my old age the 'glare' in the upper mids/highs, that some heard, do not effect me, and the HBB Olina sounds pristine. A really good sounding IEM.