[theintention]

1)There was a participant at Can Jam who brought his calabash gourd like DIY creation around his neck!

Someone on the WC thread found these on AliExpress… I can’t find it now but lol ridiculous IEM.

 

[Okcerg]

I don't have much experience with tube amps. I have one, and that's the only one I have ever tried.
So, I don't consider myself as valid who can talk much about it.
But what I can tell is that the one that I have , AURIS HA-2 SF, is marvellous!
But it's not a cheap one, either. Can you get that quality of sound with the amps that cost less? I don't know.
I can also say that you can get warm sound from SS amps and DACs.
SPL Phonitor XE gives a warmer sound, and Topping E50 DAC gives a warmer sound...
I will definitely get a couple of more tube amps in the future. Is it worth it? I think it is.
And besides the sound,...tubes look cool

Cheers!

My experience is that you can affect the sound a lot with tube rolling. The sound can vary from warm, thick with polished treble to a more spacious, cleaner and holographic sound. The driver tubes makes the most difference, but I hear a big difference in my power tubes as well.
With my current tube setup I actually get a warmer thicker sound from my SS amp and a thinner but more holographic sound from my tube amp. Also getting a deeper sub bass rumble from the tube amp. The gain switches affect the sound a lot too. I got the Little Dot Mk3. For anyone interested to jump into a huge rabbit hole there's this almost 900 pages thread about Little Dot tube rolling.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/little-dot-tube-amps-vacuum-tube-rolling-guide.563884/page-895

Query to those who have tubes in their audio gear chain.

Never heard one. What does it do? Make the sound 'warmer'? More analogue-ish? Or boost certain frequency?

If you want to dip your toes into tube amping you can always buy a cheap chifi tube buffer/preamp (like Fosi Audio, FXAudio or Nobsound) and put it between your DAC and AMP. It's a fun way to test different tubes and hear how they color the sound.

Like Joshua Valor did in this vid:

 

[fidgeraldo]

Someone on the WC thread found these on AliExpress

I ordered a pair...I grabbed the last pair

 

[d m41n man]

I remember they took their sweet time with P8 too.

I still have hope for this one. It popped up in the same conversation with multi kilobuck on watercooler the last time it appeared. If they nail the tuning, it could be a bargain for an “end game”, at least for technical heads like myself (not that I need any more IEM)

Kinda bummed that we have to go from this -

To this -

The Truthears Zero Blue looks even better than that. Then they kept changing the tuning. I hope they go back to what impressed the past Canjam Socal (or was it UK) folks back then. This caught the attention of western flagship owners back then. Now, it's just meh in Canjam SG.

 

[Vonbuddy]

My experience is that you can affect the sound a lot with tube rolling. The sound can vary from warm, thick with polished treble to a more spacious, cleaner and holographic sound. The driver tubes makes the most difference, but I hear a big difference in my power tubes as well.
With my current tube setup I actually get a warmer thicker sound from my SS amp and a thinner but more holographic sound from my tube amp. Also getting a deeper sub bass rumble from the tube amp. The gain switches affect the sound a lot too. I got the Little Dot Mk3. For anyone interested to jump into a huge rabbit hole there's this almost 900 pages thread about Little Dot tube rolling.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/little-dot-tube-amps-vacuum-tube-rolling-guide.563884/page-895




If you want to dip your toes into tube amping you can always buy a cheap chifi tube buffer/preamp (like Fosi Audio, FXAudio or Nobsound) and put it between your DAC and AMP. It's a fun way to test different tubes and hear how they color the sound.

Like Joshua Valor did in this vid:

My more neutral or treble-based headphones shine with the Woo Mini. I have not tried them with my iems yet.

 

[Okcerg]

My more neutral or treble-based headphones shine with the Woo Mini. I have not tried them with my iems yet.

My Neo3 really is a great match with the sub bass rumble I get from the tubes.

 

[Dsnuts]

CAN JAM SINGAPORE 2024 IMPRESSIONS




1)There was a participant at Can Jam who brought his calabash gourd like DIY creation around his neck!



A lot of participants asked him about it, and he was very obliging to let us test out his DIY creation.

It has no name, but contains a single DD. It is quite large in terms of fit, with the IEM sticking out of the ears, but the tuning is actually very good. Huge soundstage (courtesy of the gourd), with very nice tonal balance.

Unfortunately he ain't selling it haha. I asked.








2) The Soranik Mems-3 from Vietnam was an eye-opener. This contains an xMEMs driver and 1 dd subwoofer. $2200 USD.



The xMEMS technology is very interesting, providing huge soundstage akin to an open backed headphone in an IEM. Imaging is superb with amplification.

The xMEMS driver does mids and treble very well, but needs a DD still for the bass, which is what the xMEMS driver in the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 TWS also does. Seems this driver still needs some bass reinforcement and can't be full range for now?

One potential deal breaker - this Mems-3 is downright the hardest IEM to drive I've ever encountered. It was hitting near 90% volume knob headroom on the provided Topping amp there LOL.

So this Soranik IEM needs its own energizer amp, which does affect portability. Definitely you can drive it off a weaker source, but driving to adequate volume is not the same as driving well, and the sound is anemic and undynamic if this IEM is underpowered.

THE APPLE DONGLE GANG WILL SURELY GNASH THEIR TEETH AND BANG THEIR HEADS ON THE WALL, BUT TRUST ME, THIS ONE CANNOT BE DRIVEN EVEN FROM MOST DONGLES AND DAPS.

Anyways, I think the xMEMS tech, like all new pioneer technology is kind of in its beta phase, even for the Creative TWS with this driver. It would take a few cycles of products (and a few months probably) to fine-tune these areas. But look forward to this technology maturing in the future - remember we are now enjoying the fruits of planar IEM tech, and now routinely see good sub$100 planar IEMs today.







3) The Eminent Ears Ruby is a Hong Kong based company, with their inaugural IEM containing 1DD, 4BA and 4EST.

Tuned quite technical, very resolving and on the brighter side. Decent timbre considering there are so many BAs.

I think it retails at $2.3K USD though!

That gourd idea, I would imagine it being fairly close to a wood housing but even larger. I would love to see that in someones ears. Would make for a nice conversation piece. As soon as I saw that. It reminded me of experiments of IEMs past. Something like the Brainwavz R3 with dual dynamic facing each other. Dont know who thought this was a good idea but it made the sound stage all mucky and trebles that sounded blurred.

They were like bombs sticking out of your ears. Absolutely goofy looking design. Even a worse SQ to go with it.

True story. Brainwavz wanted me to test out their, "new revolutionary design." I still have a prototype of these they sent me. Wow what a fail of epic proportions. I gave them my $.02 worth and I was never a fan of these. And then you want to talk about fitment issues. Lol. These things. Needless to say never gathered any steam as far as popularity goes. Chalk this one up as experiements gone wrong circa 2014.

 

[nikbr]

A new toy came! Reserving first impressions for later.

Yincrow RW2000.

 

[InvisibleInk]

A new toy came! Reserving first impressions for later.

Yincrow RW2000.

Man the battlements, boys! The earbuds roundup thread has invaded the discovery thread!

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Someone on the WC thread found these on AliExpress… I can’t find it now but lol ridiculous IEM.

Not much more ridiculous than the KEG style or the TF 10's. I wore those Frankensteiner bolts for quite some time in public. Those are considerably larger though.

 

[Someon]

i have aqcuired 90c iems

my goal is to use these for the rest of the week or at least 2 days but im beginning to hate this challange.
at least the fit is good

 

[Argha]

INTUAURA SPLENDOR II
Totally unexpected IEM showed up to my doorstep few days ago. Sounds like mini Monarch MKii. There are zero graphs I found for this IEM. The treble is something experimental. The pinna is reduced, but some ranges are slightly elevated, giving it a smooth yet spacious and sparkly.

Non Affiliated Link: https://conceptkart.com/products/intuaura-splendor-ii-iem

 

[o0genesis0o]

Sounds great! You going to save up to buy em? Or ...
Considering your orchestral listening library, this seems right in your alley

Kinda bummed that we have to go from this -


To this -


The Truthears Zero Blue looks even better than that. Then they kept changing the tuning. I hope they go back to what impressed the past Canjam Socal (or was it UK) folks back then. This caught the attention of western flagship owners back then. Now, it's just meh in Canjam SG.

Maybe there is some extensive R&D iteration going in behind the scene. The closed up shot from @baskingshark showed quite poor build quality compared to all previous IEMs from them. It’s good to hear that they are taking their time and iterate again. I passed a suggestion to them via Hifigo to stick to the Magic One tuning.

And maybe provide some better ear tips next time.

 

[Someon]

i have aqcuired 90c iems
my goal is to use these for the rest of the week or at least 2 days but im beginning to hate this challange.
at least the fit is good

i ended the chalange currently using hd559

 

[d m41n man]

Maybe there is some extensive R&D iteration going in behind the scene. The closed up shot from @baskingshark showed quite poor build quality compared to all previous IEMs from them. It’s good to hear that they are taking their time and iterate again. I passed a suggestion to them via Hifigo to stick to the Magic One tuning.

And maybe provide some better ear tips next time.

Same. I gave my inputs as well. I do hope they go back to the point of R&D when they are on the right track (Canjam SoCal inputs), it seems they’re going backward at this point. An ultra-high resolution MagicOne with midbass and totally natural timbre would be nice.