[PeacockObscura]

A truly amazing DD iem, the jump in tuning
from the Nicehck TopGuy to the Himalaya is beyond comprehension. Either Nicehck bought in a new tuning Wizard or they've had a guy locked in a room for years only letting him out when he successfully produced a tuning that competes with the very best.

 

[Singaravelan]

A truly amazing DD iem, the jump in tuning
from the Nicehck TopGuy to the Himalaya is beyond comprehension. Either Nicehck bought in a new tuning Wizard or they've had a guy locked in a room for years only letting him out when he successfully produced a tuning that competes with the very best.

And this without adding nozzle shozzle etc from other iems, I hope.

 

[Singaravelan]

“Market Disruptor” & “Fake News” both hold the same amount of weight for me, NEXT!!!

More so than the possible Jake Paul vs. Iron Mike match, I would have more interest in seeing a celebrity death match between Zeos & BeGGAR. I understand vendors wanting the reviewers with the biggest subscriber listings getting their wares first, but it’s difficult wading through either one of their “impressions”.

Who is BeGGAR? Any link? And does zeos ever not like a product that's sent to him?!

 

[silent-circuit]

I think others will have their own opinions and definitions, but would also be interested in hearing what the others (and your goodselves too) have to say about bass quality in general?

Personally, for me, the definition of bass texture would be that you can hear layers and fine nuances/micro-details when bass notes are hit. So in essence, you can tell apart different instruments or tones at the same bass frequency.

Something that has bad texture in the bass = you hear a big blob of one-noted resonance in the bass, and have difficulty telling apart separate tones with overlaps. This is partially related to bass bleed and speed, perhaps also related to the bass driver and quantity of bass in the tuning.

I use a FLAC version of Sting's Englishman In New York to test bass quality:


At around 7 seconds in, you hear a double bass note here in this video - so if it is textured, you can roughly tell that the note is stretched out with a gradual decay at the end of the note, which is how stringed instruments play in real life. Something that is not textured will be just one blob all the way, no difference between the start of the note and the end.

At around 2:15 there is a fast double bass solo, and if a transducer can do texturing well, you can hear individual bass notes being plucked without smearing into the next note. Some poorer transducers will blend everything without individual definition.

Haha sorry we are committing the audiophile sin of using music to listen to audio gear, instead of using gear to listen to music LOLOL.

Anyway, so far the best texturing I have is in my Sony M9, but that is a BA bass IEM so generally they are faster in bass with less decay than a traditional DD. Another pure BA set, the EPZ 530 at $300ish USD, is quite textured in the bass.

Have you heard the Empire Ears Legend X (ideally EQ'd to flat or at least Harman curve, since its stock tuning is... Aggressive)? I've yet to find better bass in an IEM, or even over-ears for that matter. That said, my over-ears aren't anywhere near the same class, price-wise.

It feels inevitable that ZMF, Kennerton, or another higher end set of over-ears are in my future. Just not any time soon, there are far more important things to save for.

 

[silent-circuit]

Who is BeGGAR? Any link? And does zeos ever not like a product that's sent to him?!

Zeos is a joke. So. No. That's how he gets paid.

 

[pk4425]

Who is BeGGAR? Any link? And does zeos ever not like a product that's sent to him?!

Z is an online entertainer and product promoter, not a reviewer. Watching with that perspective, I still enjoy his videos.

 

[Click]

Hype train for Dusk is officially underway. How many YTubers have used the term "market disruptor" to describe Dusk already?

 

[Gah73]

Hype train for Dusk is officially underway. How many YTubers have used the term "market disruptor" to describe Dusk already?

I've seen market disruptor and industry resetter.

 

[kaeswiss]

Crossposting from the Watercooler thread:
I have the CJ SG video playing in the background and something caught my attention. Apparently, there's another version of the Elysian Pilgrim that'll be at CJ SG.

Elysian Pilgrim Noir
- Upgraded version
- 1DD+3BA (4-way crossover instead of 3-way on regular Pilgrim)
- More full bodied tonality
- Further refined treble
- Comes with an Effect Audio Eros S cable in new colorway

I wonder how much of a price increase this will be over the Pilgrim. This might be a better set for the folks who had negative impressions of the Pilgrim at CJ NY.

 

[InvisibleInk]

What do you mean by “technicalities”? Is it like detail retrieval? Perhaps I was so disappointed by the staging in normal mode that I didn’t pay closer attention to the KA17.

I have heard the lack of detail only once in my tests so far with the K7 (desktop). There was one track that I can easily hear the subtle reed sound of saxophone via the Crimson with my DX300 and Aful, but when I listened to the same track on K7, I just couldn’t hear it regardless of volume, like everything is mushed together just a bit. I was so paranoid that I had to check whether I was listening to the same FLAC

You know, those critical listeners amongst us will be able to define terms like, technicalities, texture, detail retieval, etc.. I don't claim to be one of those guys, but here's a few of my examples to chew on.

1. For me, technicalies represents if a transducer, or other piece of audio equipment, can faithful reproduce what's on the recording. Take a flute for example. A musician knows intuitively by ear what the highest frequencies their flute is capable of reaching. If a transducer can reproduce that property, then it is technically capable. If it falls short, it lacks technicalites with respect to one that does right by the flute.
2. For me, Texture refers to descriptors associated with what physical properties make up an instrument. For example, we know a bass string is not smooth when we run our finger along its length. Same thing with the surface of a drum. So when we listen to a transducer capable of revealing "bass texture," we sense the player's fingers sliding on the string. Some reveal this property really well, others don't.
3. Detail retrieval does just that. Let's say we have a recording of someone walking or running away in a distance from a start. Intuitively, we know the first steps are louder, the furthests steps are faintest. Say we are the director of this recording. We tell the actor to run exactly 30 steps. Transducers that reveal all 30 steps are excellent at detail retrieval, whereas those that reveal only 20 steps on playback are mediocre IMO.

 

[gadgetgod]

Crossposting from the CanJam Thread.

I am going to attend my first-ever CanJam!! Waiting for boarding to start for my flight. I am just excited man, i have attended, organized, helped in organizing so many events in my country, this time i am going to attend an international event and get to meet so many faces that I have just talked over the HeadFi or other channels.

 

[thaslaya]

Crossposting from the CanJam Thread.

I am going to attend my first-ever CanJam!! Waiting for boarding to start for my flight. I am just excited man, i have attended, organized, helped in organizing so many events in my country, this time i am going to attend an international event and get to meet so many faces that I have just talked over the HeadFi or other channels.

That's so exciting! Can't wait to hear your impressions from all the great things I'm sure you'll get to hear. Enjoy!

 

[gadgetgod]

That's so exciting! Can't wait to hear your impressions from all the great things I'm sure you'll get to hear. Enjoy!

Yes broo, I haven't slept since yesterday. Maybe I will sleep in the flight

 

[Vonbuddy]

Hype train for Dusk is officially underway. How many YTubers have used the term "market disruptor" to describe Dusk already?

Has anyone here heard the Dusk, or reviewed it?

 

[nikbr]

Man I was just talking to you about it. I discussed with Aur, they may look into the shipping thing for me. Really want the Aehta. Good thing is I will be able to listen to it in the first week of April in SG(Thanks to the brand for agreeing to meet me lol).

Looking forward to your thoughts!

In the upcoming "magna opus" (I like how it sounds , including the right degree of silliness on my side) reflections on musicality vs. technicality, my limited take is that DD sound is too much imprinted/ingrained in the common perception since childhood exposure to sound reproduction. Then any other type of transducers with a different series of overtones, be it BAs, planars, piezos sound different and less common, which is equated with "unnaturalness".
To me, for strings, BAs work bettter - my ears/brain prefer short decays.
I do agree in this regard, that sustained notes are more problematic for naturalness.
At the same time, Sonions and Sony (among others) demonstrated that one can dampen BAs right (or even too much).
The last octave with BAs is a different story, as the last octave in acoustic music (both reproduction and recording).

P. S. It would be cool if Crin can dare to tune $100-150 all-BA

Very well said and I agree regarding the strings and BAs - Butastur (10BA) does them so well! Almost a tangible quality to them. As if I laid my ear right on that violin or guitar and it's weeping just for me.

Man, those are tough questions considering the endless churn in ChiFi releases. We're lucky to see a model grip the market for six weeks, let alone six months.

The constant stream of new releases is not a bad thing (except for our money clips), but it does create intense FOMO if you are the type of audiophile who can't miss the next big thing, which seems to happen about every two weeks with ChiFi IEMs.

Still, the churn is part of what makes the IEM market so much more dynamic and interesting right now than the over-ear market, which is moribund in comparison.

Struggling from FOMO and being a headfier is probably one of the worst combos of 'illnesses'.

For a quadbrid, I'm sure it'll be sensational, but these guys started out as providing bang for your buck hi end sound for midfi prices. Now they've entered Kilobuck territory, so they are no longer providing bang for your buck, because there is no "bang for your buck" in Kilobuck territory, and you won't convince me otherwise, so I'll be passing, and living vicariously through those who will buy it full price or get review units at a deep discount.

I agree that bang for buck should be reserved for sets under $50, maybe at most $100. About AüR, though, they always had a vision, I'm sure. Standing still as the market progresses was never part of that vision. Moving forward is the only way. And yet, the price of sub kilobuck for a quadbrid is, in a weird sort of way, a good deal when you check the prices for other sets sporting similar configurations.

Outside my budget by roughly $1500 but it sounds like they are amazing

I always struggled with why some collectors draw the line abruptly somewhere right in the middle of the field and collect mid-fi instead of - less frequently of course - reaching for those top fruits (as long as funds allow, but 5x500 equals 1x2500). Would you care explaining your stance on this topic?

Yeah I think it functions a bit similarly to the Senn IE80S bass dial.

Well, we will still need someone to objectively measure independent graphs though, as the last Tanchjim Origin was a gimmick with the so-called 3 tuning filters:


Hope this one will be legit in really changing the frequency response.

This Origin different-but-same nozzle drama has been swept under the rug all too swiftly, I feel. This is obvious marketing foolery and awfully disrespectful. Surely they had to think this through and realised sooner than later someone will graph all three nozzles??? I was interested in Origin when it was announced. Not anymore.