[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Linglong often appears at $7~8 in my place,
a default rec if you need budget bullet iem.

Tanya (different tuning and DQ) used to fill that space but Linglong seems to be abit more durable.

there is this Astrotec Vesna if you wanna look into something a bit fancier side with LCP driver (pricier too)

Also the sound is way more than the $10. Absolutely great bass and sub bass along with excellent treble and the soundstage is impressive for a micro driver.

 

[saldsald]

Hi, just want to share a discovery here but it may only be a discovery for a small group of people but not all:

This is my heavily modded TRN BAX - New DD, retuned 29689 and EST drivers, so basically it's just the shell repurposed.

Purple is BAX with the new DD.

BAX with PWAudio 1960s clone (but with a much better plug)

And it's a 10mm DD made by Huayunxin, which is my discovery here.
It simply works right out of the box (as I actually picked the impedance on purpose) so I have not done any further tuning to it.
It has a rounder and warmer sound, much improved resolution, more balanced, more reverberated, taller stage than the original. Well they sound pretty different TBH but it's harder to drive now. This is the sound I expect from a mid to upper tier IEM. The original BAX I consider it unfinished, it sounds good with some specific cables due to the current drawn by the 29689 so the bass of the DD was underpowered with most cables. The 29689 was a bit metallic and the EST was still tuned a bit wild so there's too much air which destroyed the defined shape of the stage.

IMO most DD-BA hybrids in the budget market are not properly tuned or not tuned at all due to the wrong choice of driver impedance. Also, they are never physically tuned unless they are tubed so I think at some point it is good to learn how an IEM is tuned.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Also, they are never physically tuned unless they are tubed so I think at some point it is good to learn how an IEM is tuned.

I’m interested in learning this. Where can I find out more? Is there a textbook or something?

 

[saldsald]

I’m interested in learning this. Where can I find out more? Is there a textbook or something?

Nope, but you can go to the home made IEM thread I guess. The best way to learn is still through experiments and mod some IEMs that are worth modding, test each driver systematically and separately and make sure your source, cable, tips are not the bottleneck. I am sure you will be surprised how things are overly exaggerated and overlooked.

 

[Ballheadv1]

Hi all, new to this forum and saw this great thread. Was looking for cables on Etsy for weeks, and saw there were only a few shops selling cables. Two shops caught my attention, the first one is Scandisound (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandiSound?ref=l2-about-shopname), informative thumbnails to show all the connectors and terminations, tried to search for a website but nothing could found, seems to be a pretty popular shop on Etsy as I can see lots of comments and feedbacks on their shop. The second one is NMD Audio (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/NMDAudioShop?ref=l2-about-shopname), which gets cables at different price ranges and some cables with uncommon materials like injected graphene, oil-soaked materials etc., the only thing is that it seems to be a pretty new shop. Have tried to search on Google and seems that they have an official website (nmdaudio.com).

Has anyone tried to get cables from any of these two shops by any chance before? Not sure if it is allowed to mention any specific shop name here, will remove the reply once it is not allowed. Thank you everyone and hope you guys have a good day.

Hi guys, I hope you all enjoy your weekend. After waiting for a few days, the cable Nebulous finally arrived. Since it is a brand that has never been discussed before, so I would like to share my experience here.

The cable is an 8-wire Silver-Copper alloy cable, with modular termination. The price was 109 GBP, but when I bought it, there was a 10% discount so it was around 100 USD or a bit more. For more info, please visit their website (https://nmdaudio.com/products/nebulous), as I would like to keep this review short.



This is a subjective review. It is my first time sharing a new gear on this forum. Listening experiences can vary greatly across people, so I hope you guys will take this review as a reference.

I was initially fascinated by the packaging. Based on my previous purchasing experience on Aliexpress, Etsy and other beginner cables, they usually don't invest much in packaging, especially for a new brand. Another brand that offers good packaging for entry-level cables is Fifty Strings, but that's a chi-fi brand, and that may be the reason they can keep the cost low while still providing a good package.

Regardless, whether a cable is good or not should be judged by its sound quality. As this is an entry-level cable, I paired it with low-to-mid-priced gear. This time, I used the ISN Audio neo5 earphones and the Astell & Kern SR25 MKII DAP. I compared the stock cable with this cable for the neo5. I must say, the cable quality exceeded my expectations given its price point. Many reviews of the neo5 mentioned poor layering. I agree, and I believe the major factor is the limitation of the stock cable. The stock cable provided a listening experience where the low and mid ranges overlapped, resulting in a narrow soundstage. Nebulous provides a more adequate soundstage, a more solid bass, and closer but detailed vocals. The layering on the neo5 is greatly enhanced due to the soundstage improvement. The solid bass also enhances the overall atmosphere of a pop song without masking other frequencies. The bass, the drum kick, and the snare feel like they're penetrating from the back to the front.

The cable has two main shortcomings. Firstly, it is pretty thick, though not heavy. It is still portable, considering it is an 8-wire cable, so it is understandable. If you are looking for a light and soft cable, this may not be your first choice. Secondly, the high-frequency extension of this cable is acceptable, but not outstanding. It is primarily vocal-focused, or I would say it's an all-round cable for beginners. It can handle a wide variety of song genres, but if you enjoy listening to an orchestral soundtrack or something that requires very high precision on positioning and a bigger soundstage, it may not provide a perfect listening experience.

To conclude, this is my first time sharing my experience here, trying out something very new in the audio market. I hope this review can help people who are searching for the cables they want or, in another sense, encourage people not to hesitate to try out different cables. I believe this cable has the potential to be one of the contenders for entry cables with excellent price value. If anyone wants me to do more comparisons with this cable, feel free to message me, and I will try my best to share a subjective yet informative listening experience.

 

[bixby]

Depends on the user, we all have different taste.

My take is an allrounder doesn't have to mean correct sounding.

If you have heard flat sounding studio monitors in treated room, that is often not that musical. Some recordings can sound spectacular, but also many can sound outright bad.

Then if I use something like a good set of warm bookshelf speakers that's not overly resolving, I will like most music.

Studio monitors also not always reflect what the artist want you to hear, they are made to help find flaws in music.

This goes back to IEMs also. Some prefer technicalities more than musicality, also wrong to say musicality as for some musical means resolving also.

In the IEM world an allrounder for me need to be om the warmer side of tuning without being to bright any places, where all my music flows without me wanting to turn volume down or change track. Basically a set that can play my library on random.
It will also need a certain degree of technicalities, but not too resolving where I will flinch hearing my older recordings or just not as good produced music.

Very good impressions. If I understand your definition, you describe an all rounder as one that colors the sound to be warmer and less resolving, I get that, just wondering if that is universal. Perhaps your def. is kinda like the high end IEM listening test someone did on the tube where normal folks liked the Kiwi Cadenza almost unanimously over the very high priced competitors.

But I must disagree with your portrayal that studio monitors are mostly used to find flaws. On the contrary, I find that great studio monitors in a well treated room can help bring us the beautiful nuance and natural timbre of the recording session, instruments and voice. But these monitors are not generally used by consumers, unless you have a lot of $$$. Most of us poor sods get the likes of entry level JBL, Yamaha (made to sound like crap for checking how great something can sound in a 1980s car), and perhaps Adam, etc.

 

[r31ya]

Very good impressions. If I understand your definition, you describe an all rounder as one that colors the sound to be warmer and less resolving, I get that, just wondering if that is universal. Perhaps your def. is kinda like the high end IEM listening test someone did on the tube where normal folks liked the Kiwi Cadenza almost unanimously over the very high priced competitors.

But I must disagree with your portrayal that studio monitors are mostly used to find flaws. On the contrary, I find that great studio monitors in a well treated room can help bring us the beautiful nuance and natural timbre of the recording session, instruments and voice. But these monitors are not generally used by consumers, unless you have a lot of $$$. Most of us poor sods get the likes of entry level JBL, Yamaha (made to sound like crap for checking how great something can sound in a 1980s car), and perhaps Adam, etc.

the issue being not all recording are uuhh, "great"

in my first hearing of a proper neutral higher resolution headphone, i was like "woooh, i can hear much more details that i didn't hear in consumer headphone. i can hear the finger moving on the guitar strings, the breathlessness of the vocals of these grammy winning album and my favorite (smaller) band recording sounds so crap in comparison..."

one of the reason i love Tanya despite the lower res sound, my favorite metal band sounds great with it. the chunckiness of the sound elevate the vocals/songs and hides the imperfection well.
HBB also favors towards warmer musical tuning (over neutral-bright tuning) as many of his library is also an older recording that sings better with it.

but yeah, if you have great and more recent recording, high res studio monitor will be able to capture all the nuance as a great recording studio intended.

 

[Redcarmoose]

First impressions ISN Neo 3

1 x 5.8mm planar driver for high frequency
1 x 6mm dynamic driver for middle frequency
1 x 6mm dynamic driver for low frequency

Basically all these drivers do is add stage size, in comparison to a single full-range DD. Yep, way way bigger with items flowing in and out of the (stage) distance, held in vivid clarity. Yet because no BA, there is no BA timbre, and while the 5.8mm Planar high frequency driver does maybe have a taste of its own timbre, any notice of that is quickly forgotten and accepted with-in this new size/stance. Really though timbre is great, come to think about it? Simply a warm and spacious relay teetering on the perfect idea of smooth, where guitars are fluid and hold a sway in pace, crisp transients and nice note weight. The treble is really dialed in here with not even an approach of peakiness. Bass is powerful as it is an ISN product no doubt, but bass is not really over bearing or too much? Just right!

Where the $199.00 goes to work here is providing a no nonsense sound that is smooth and calculated offering a value in interactiveness. It's kind like you see three drivers listed and you think you already know what this sound playback is.......but you don't really, as it sounds bigger than regularly positioned three driver IEMs. There is not a lot of reverberations which is wild as you would think that being DDs would provide such aspects, but also they are on the smaller size maybe for DDs? Plus this being a treble Planar........even less reverberations, maybe? Still what this provides is nice pace, with really no frequencies ever getting in the way of one another. Of course these are only pre-burn-in impressions.

https://penonaudio.com/ISN-Audio-NEO-3.html

Is it worth the present hype attributed to it.........yes!

 

[Singaravelan]

First impressions ISN Neo 3.
.

So, if you have to choose one this or your way cheaper reecho dawn?!

 

[Redcarmoose]

So, if you have to choose one this or your way cheaper reecho dawn?!

One is a doggy and one is a cat. Where both have attributes which propel them to show how both price points, the Dawn's price-point and this new Neo 3 price-point have somehow stepped up their value game. You know someone asked me just yesterday about the Dawn in comparison to the EA500LM...............I mean I have not even begun reviews yet of the EA500LM, and I opened the Neo 3 box just an hour ago, I really don't totally know what it is. I know some really value first impressions, but I still believe in burn-in both mental and physical. I will say one thing though.....this Neo 3 stage in bigger, of course, as it has three drivers.....and not only one.

 

[Redcarmoose]

So, if you have to choose one this or your way cheaper reecho dawn?!

One is a doggy and one is a cat. Where both have attributes which propel them to show how both price points, the Dawn's price-point and this new Neo 3 price-point have somehow stepped up their value game. You know someone asked me just yesterday about the Dawn in comparison to the EA500LM...............I mean I have not even begun reviews yet of the EA500LM, and I opened the Neo 3 box just an hour ago, I really don't totally know what it is. I know some really value first impressions, but I still believe in burn-in both mental and physical. I will say one thing though.....this Neo 3 stage in bigger, of course, as it has three drivers.....and not only one.

One thing though is for certain and that is diminishing returns, so the cheaper one is still very close to the 4 times more one.

 

[Leonarfd]

Very good impressions. If I understand your definition, you describe an all rounder as one that colors the sound to be warmer and less resolving, I get that, just wondering if that is universal. Perhaps your def. is kinda like the high end IEM listening test someone did on the tube where normal folks liked the Kiwi Cadenza almost unanimously over the very high priced competitors.

But I must disagree with your portrayal that studio monitors are mostly used to find flaws. On the contrary, I find that great studio monitors in a well treated room can help bring us the beautiful nuance and natural timbre of the recording session, instruments and voice. But these monitors are not generally used by consumers, unless you have a lot of $$$. Most of us poor sods get the likes of entry level JBL, Yamaha (made to sound like crap for checking how great something can sound in a 1980s car), and perhaps Adam, etc.

I don't say studio monitors sound bad, but they definitely not color the music when they are of good quality. And good recordings can sound awesome on good monitors

Actually have a pair of good HEDD studio monitors, but don't have as good treatment anymore. Use them much less than IEMs and headphones, due to the resolving side and lack of isolation. For some reason my wife don't like listening to my death metal or jazz

 

[o0genesis0o]

So, I have spent the last few hours listening to the Pula PA02, on loaned from my good friend @lycos (thanks, mate!). Here are some thoughts. Noted that I am going in blind, meaning I have no idea what is inside these IEM, how much they cost, how they graph. The only thing I know is that they are supposed to have similar tuning to Canpur something (very $$$$$$)

• My first impression was “uh oh, the stage is kinda weird.” It reminds me of the uncanny feeling that I had with FiiO FA7s: narrow but deep stage with stronger forward to backward imaging than left to right. Even with songs that have strong stereo pans, the instruments still do not break the headstage as much as other IEM.
• The imaging is quite impressive. Sharp and precise not unlike AFUL P8.
• Both detail retrieval and instrument separation are beyond that of a Blessing 2 class IEM.
• I can't quite pin point the sound signature of this IEM. It feels slightly U-shaped with strong lower bass and upper treble, with the midrange flat and slightly behind the other frequencies.
• Bass has clean attack, with good decay and texture. I have a feeling that this IEM has a tucked bass shelf with stronger than usual subbass, because when the track is not very bassy, the bass does not "stay around". Somewhat reminds me of symphonium helios, though not as extreme.
• The treble is energetic but not sibilant or piercing. Cymbals and hats sound good with more detail than usual.
• Concerning: timbre of vocal is slightly odd in a few track. Need further analysis.
• Nonsound: the shells are absolutely beautiful. The cable looks premium, like an Effect Audio entry level cable. The included accessories seem generous.

Quick summary: this IEM looks and sounds expensive. I would be happy to daily drive this. Without direct comparison, I think this one is a side grade of AFUL P8.

Now if you excuse me, I'm searching for graph now.

---

Edit: Got it, thanks @ToneDeafMonk

That explains the slight recessed feeling of the midrange sometimes.

I still prefer the 10dB target

---

Edit 2: Found it: https://hifigo.com/products/pula-pa02

1+4 configuration for $189. Very impressive! I thought it’s 2+6 or at least 2+4.

 

[Singaravelan]

So, I have spent the last few hours listening to the Pula PA02, on loaned from my good friend @lycos (thanks, mate!). Here are some thoughts. Noted that I am going in blind, meaning I have no idea what is inside these IEM, how much they cost, how they graph. The only thing I know is that they are supposed to have similar tuning to Canpur something (very $$$$$$)

• My first impression was “uh oh, the stage is kinda weird.” It reminds me of the uncanny feeling that I had with FiiO FA7s: narrow but deep stage with stronger forward to backward imaging than left to right. Even with songs that have strong stereo pans, the instruments still do not break the headstage as much as other IEM.
• The imaging is quite impressive. Sharp and precise not unlike AFUL P8.
• Both detail retrieval and instrument separation are beyond that of a Blessing 2 class IEM.
• I can't quite pin point the sound signature of this IEM. It feels slightly U-shaped with strong lower bass and upper treble, with the midrange flat and slightly behind the other frequencies.
• Bass has clean attack, with good decay and texture. I have a feeling that this IEM has a tucked bass shelf with stronger than usual subbass, because when the track is not very bassy, the bass does not "stay around". Somewhat reminds me of symphonium helios, though not as extreme.
• The treble is energetic but not sibilant or piercing. Cymbals and hats sound good with more detail than usual.
• Concerning: timbre of vocal is slightly odd in a few track. Need further analysis.
• Nonsound: the shells are absolutely beautiful. The cable looks premium, like an Effect Audio entry level cable. The included accessories seem generous.

Quick summary: this IEM looks and sounds expensive. I would be happy to daily drive this. Without direct comparison, I think this one is a side grade of AFUL P8.

Now if you excuse me, I'm searching for graph now.

---

Edit: Got it, thanks @ToneDeafMonk

That explains the slight recessed feeling of the midrange sometimes.

I still prefer the 10dB target

Wah! Seems a very generous positive quick reflection .

Btw what's that gorgeous looking DAP? Though the volume knob seems less of a knob and more finger-roller (Perhaps it's the angle of your pic)

 

[o0genesis0o]

Wah! Seems a very generous positive quick reflection .

Btw what's that gorgeous looking DAP? Though the volume knob seems less of a knob and more finger-roller (Perhaps it's the angle of your pic)

It’s iBasso DX300. And yup, it’s a finger roller. Can be dangerous when you slide it in the pocket.