The discovery thread!

[suman134]

I haven't been a huge fan of KZ hybrid IEMs. I stopped buying these for a good chunk of time, 2018-2024 , and when I got a few they too were suffering from tonality issues. Was unhappy about how the Hydro was tuned. A single full range DD for the mids was disappointing while the tonality issues persisted.
But, their ZS10 pro 2 impressed me in more than one scenarios, tonality has improved, it doesn't sound metallic anymore. What a relief. Phew.. Can sound slightly thin at times though but that's okay. 2ndly I m liking the wholesome tuning, it's not as bassy and has a big stage!! That's the surprise for me. Swtiches are simpler too, first 3 for bass enhancement while the 4th on means 1db less treble.. That can be the saving grace..
Very good IEM for technical abilities and details.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Massive Multi Quote


I was using the stock tips with Pheonixia , so maybe some different tips will bring some more bass.


I use the same NOS - (Non over sampling) with the Snowsky Echo Mini. This to me is Bit Perfect Playback where sample rate and bit rate switch automatically based on the track playing. (CD quality 16 bit/ 44khz or Hi-Res 24 bit / 48Khz or greater )


Glad you like H60.


Thanks for this. It’s true can mean different things for other DAP’s and DAC’s as in Filter options.


I like the Prelude faceplates. Nice impressions. Something to consider.

LOL falling asleep and purchasing on Ali Express is dangerous. I should know. Got 10 items on the way.


I like your in-depth Wan’er 2 Battle. Such a great set for so cheap.


The P7 hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves with archangel around. But I will make some time for them soon to try out TOOBs. So glad I have them, they really fit in with the rest of the AFUL Family.




I’m looking forward to this set. It may not be my preferred sounds preferences. But Kiwi Ears have been on fire lately. Well except for Airoso maybe.


Thanks. They are a smashing set.


Man, the time and effort you put into this Ear Tip post is Unbelievable. Congratulations on being pinned to the disco thread first page. This post reads like a documentary and I’m totally here for it.


Stories like this one above are so helpful , thanks for sharing.


I didn’t have the JM21. But from what I have read, I’d say the battery would outlast JM21. Hoping @FreeWheelinAudioLuv2 can give some insight into his past experience with JM21 now he has the M21.


I’m loving the terminology




Nice photos, and impressions.


I really enjoyed this clip.


What do you think of AM16? Better than Zenith?

Also what have you tried your Prism Wild Boars on so far?


It’s really is a great DAP for the price.


LOL this is so true.


Such an Awesome review. Another Penon Favourite of mine.


After seeing this graph, I’m almost glad my KB16 order didn’t work out.


Great Impressions. Agree with mostly everything you had to say here.


Might try Septet on the A&K CA1000T if isn’t to my preferences on other sources. I’ve managed to save the i3 MK III with the CA1000T.


Nice list of preferences in order. Glad I PTT on the Kiwi Ears Astral Now.

Also looking forward to your impressions of the AFUL P7.


Great Reviews.!


Thanks for this . I’ll be sure to compare when I get the Kiwi Ears Étude in.


Vzonia VP-07 is worth keeping an eye out for.


Really like your Deep Dive Comparo with Archangel and EBC80.


Awesome ! Looking forward to your impressions.


Like how you broke down the Archangel Cable and IEM cost. This is how I justified pulling the trigger on them.


I’ll look out for your comparison with the KB16. Nice!


VP-07 size and fit is better for me than the Pheonixia


Nice purchase. Congrats. Thinking it will be a good replacement for the KB16 order.


Like the prelude faceplates. Do you think having both would be complimentary ?


I read this somewhere also but can not seem to find it. Would be a blind buy for me , if it were true.


Nice first impressions and photo’s as always.. These are looking promising. I can’t wait to get these in my ears now. only a week to wait.


haha yeah just for MAY 17th. LOL.

No I’ve banned myself until June now. No more purchases until June.


I reckon the VP-07 has way more sub bass rumble vs the Phonenixia. It’s make the Pheonixia bass sound polite in comparison. But I also must try different ear tips cause they may make a big difference. When I compared them both using stock ear tips and the DC-Elite.


LOL MS13 (photoshopped tattooed IEM’s )

You are making a convincing use case for the Clarinet now.


Glad you enjoy VP-07. Your impressions are very much close to how I hear them. Love the way your describe the DD Bass - full throated., textured and elastic.

When I hear the VP-07 I almost relate it to the TSMR ARMOR with the similar elastic bass.

I was almost going to purchased the VP-03 , but stopped myself last minute. I also liked the faceplate on the 03.

Great comparison. Thanks for sharing.



So Glad you like the M21. This DAP Rocks.

Looking forward to you trying out Desktop Mode. with SUPER High Gain.

I can't wait to read your impressions in a day or so!

News on the Kiwi ears Étude:
Amazingly one of the best IEMs for the money so far this year!
I know I'm the first one here to relay this Étude information, but just like the Kiwi ears Aether, the time will come in the future when the critical and cynical minds will get a chance to hear the Étude and will come over to my side!

The Aether review:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/kiwi-ears-aether.27951/reviews#review-37221

Just careful yet dramatic bass. Plus you can feel the BCD adding extra dimensions of reality, the 10mm Beryllium DD and BCD (Kiwi ears KVT) driver add a physicality. Yet the 3 BAs add the detail, though no worry about off-timbre creeping-in as these custom BAs are the bomb!

Kiwi ears are using some of the very best custom BAs found out there today!

So after 4 days on the burn-in bench and adding the Kiwi Ears Astral modular cable the landscape totally changed. Ultimately it is also the Sony WM1A DAP added.......................as I tried the Étude with the SIMGOT AUDIO LC7 modular cable last night with the Hiby R3 II and it really wasn't in the same ballpark. What I'm trying to say is this Étude is totally tip dependent, cable dependent and source dependent to a fault. That said it offers up magic well beyond the $119.00 asking price when you get it what it needs to perform!

The really strange thing is when I pick these up I feel the BCD working in my fingers, and I don't hear the sound at medium volumes? Wild, as I have never out of four bone conduction drivers felt this crazy phenomenon. Maybe it really is a different technology than the older BCDs?

To describe my current Étude experience, the stage is medium large and the DSPs in the MrWalkman software in the Sony WM1A DAP seem to add to this staging. Meaning the Hiby R3 II was bad.........and that is the issue that some IEMs really need this exaggerated stage to come about with added thrills and always walk that line of being boring if the wrong synergy is found or placed upon the listening event.

The second greatest thing besides the great bass is this floating upper midrange and treble, that Kiwi ears really found the tuning here, going far beyond the $119.00 asking price. In so many ways I like this even better than the way more expensive Astral. What? What!

The Astral has a by-the-book sound, that while even and correct, the Étude has a magic and a flair that is still held within the constraints of what I would call a careful, even and compete tuning. It is just this KVT driver is adding a presence and a feeling.......................

I mean I keep trying my detail revealing tracks and the upper details are actually there, yet surrounded by extra amounts of cream! This cream is flowing and provocative, made even better by the DAP?

 

[r31ya]

Tanchjim Fission (1DD, DMT-5 membrane) graph from tanchjim in weibo,
the top one is the starlight/normal one and the bottom is the shadow/collab one
three different color for three different nozzle.

----

CVJ Shadow Blade by Mars-Chan
(1DD, 1 Vibration unit)
Review here, https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/cvj-shadow-blade.28182/

 

[Jaytiss]

This is what I graphed today:

Here are some hot takes, cause busy. Ok so hot takes... Harmon Decent, one of the better moondrops of late, Studio 2, more like dumpster fire 2, so bad, if you tell me softears studio 2 is your favorite softears, I will think you deaf. Kiwi Etude.... it's fun not good, but has wicked af bass that is fun. CCA CRA PRO, I mean CRAP RO, is pretty mid with reasonable tonality. Fiio JD-1 is suprisingly fun for the price (25 usd?), senn ie 600 is bright and sorta mid. That's all I got for now boys.

 

[ToneDeafMonk]

This is what I graphed today:

Here are some hot takes, cause busy. Ok so hot takes... Harmon Decent, one of the better moondrops of late, Studio 2, more like dumpster fire 2, so bad, if you tell me softears studio 2 is your favorite softears, I will think you deaf. Kiwi Etude.... it's fun not good, but has wicked af bass that is fun. CCA CRA PRO, I mean CRAP RO, is pretty mid with reasonable tonality. Fiio JD-1 is suprisingly fun for the price (25 usd?), senn ie 600 is bright and sorta mid. That's all I got for now boys.

Kiwiears if you can read and watch through the hype, still feel to me and my ears they haven't got thier feet yet. House Sound NO
Favorite driver platform NO.

Still throwing stuff at the dart board seeing what sticks.

The Aether was not up to snuff for me.
Hopefully in the plethora of latest releases I will enjoy a gem or two.

 

[Redcarmoose]

@earmonger,
ISN Neo 1 verses the ISN H20:
The H20 physical size is noticeably bigger, thicker...the nozzles of the H20 are aluminum and larger in circumference. The ISN H20 thickness is surprisingly noticeable after getting both in my hands.

Sound:
Where yes there is a more careful yet pronounced Neo 1 midrange that is not encompassed with (as much ISN H20) lower midrange thickness, being more out-front and faster paced, coming about detail that way. In summarization the ISN H20 is slightly darker. The stage of the ISN H20 is differently focused in that the midrange holds a more integrated with the bass stance...........you could say even the midrange and treble hold a less forward stance?

Yet, within that stance is a magic in that all is accounted for and heard as real and slightly more analog. The Neo 1 is all about projecting the midrange and the H20 is more about finding a more integrated balance.

Hope this helps you?

Where the Neo 1 is gaining that midrange stage that accounts for a frequency driven occurrence, that makes the stage of the Neo 1 wide due to midrange clarity and energy, where the H20 still has clarity but a more uniform style of stage due to the imaging connected to the lower midrange and subtly subdued smoother midrange actions of projecting. The ISN H20 comes across more blended in the end! Cheers and beers!

 

[r31ya]

Supposedly Cayin RU9 sales started today.
Not sure where tough

 

[Redcarmoose]

Kiwiears if you can read and watch through the hype, still feel to me and my ears they haven't got thier feet yet. House Sound NO
Favorite driver platform NO.

Still throwing stuff at the dart board seeing what sticks.

The Aether was not up to snuff for me.
Hopefully in the plethora of latest releases I will enjoy a gem or two.

If I could suggest maybe Kiwi ears is simply not your sound. That is fine.................all the IEM companies in the world can not possibly hold your personal ToneDeafMonk sound!

That is fine, it doesn't make the company bad or wrong here, just not approaching what you as a listener are after. Nothing wrong with that. The wild part about todays listening was I actually heard the Kiwi ears Atheia full-size sound in the Étude....more on that later.

Remember Kiwi ears sells boatloads of IEMs, more than you can imagine, have you seen the Kiwi ears factory? Have you seen all the past and present IEMs that they make? They are not trowing stuff against the wall, they are selling out of 2023 IEMs and need to make more of the older models!


This factory tour is showing the company make a new batch of hundreds of the older Quartet model! Not the Quintet model, the older Quartet model that came out in way back in the month of May 2023!

Kiwi ears Atheia full-size sound in the Étude: (a little bit)
Now sure the full-size $349.00 Kiwi ears Atheia could be very much interpreted as tuned wrong. With that pornographic mid-bass bump and 2.5kHz peak, the sound sound could be very much be taken as wrong. But after listening things start to musically make sense.

The Atheia full-size is tuned just like an IEM, where just like the Étude, the sub-bass is careful and fast yet not the true focus of the bass in general. Today just now I switched up the Étude in now using the SIMGOT AUDIO LC7 and Penon PAC LS ear-tips ear-tips.

Now we are greeted with an Étude brighter and more expounded upon midrange energy! It is just crazy how tips and cable dependent this Étude is. I wouldn't go by graphs to truly understand what the frequency response is. As these Penon PAC LS ear-tips are in reality way narrower than the SIMGOT AUDIO wide-bore black silicone ear-tips I was using before. Still the Penon PAC LS ear-tips are known for this exaggerated upper midrange and treble? I just would not use a simple graph to judge the Étude, especially how it comes across way different by using different sources, ear-tips and cables!

 

[nikbr]

I got my Simgot EW300s this weekend. After spending time burning and tip rolling in addition to nozzle swaps and foam inserts, they are just not for me. Biggest complaint is a lack of meat on the bones and lack of lower mid dynamics. I did appreciate the presence region and some of the treble sparkle, yet it did not sound natural on female vocals like Alison Kraus, too thin and pinched. The gold nozzle was a mess, for me.

Bass was pretty good but still had some of the DD softness that steered me to planars.

What the heck do I do now, under $70 or so for a backup IEM may just not be feasible or do I go for a "fun" sig like the Sivga Que or ????

For now the Heydays are happily back in my ears.

Okay, while that surprised me it also gives us a better view of what you might prefer.

Sivga Que might be interesting, but I'm unsure what you mean with EW300's lack of lower mid dynamics, cause those felt pretty responsive and eager to my ears and I'm sensitive to boominess or poor low mid resolution, whereas Que is indeed a more dreamy, slow, thick, non-dynamic set, but perhaps a more natural and 'musical' one - either a pro or a con. Que also has a fair bit of pinna, which you said you're not a fan of.

---

For today's work, I'm back to BGVP NS10 Pro. Bass is a bit flat (but clean), especially after listening to Prelude recently, but I enjoy the mids and treble, so as long as I pick the right tunes it's a sweet set. I'm back on Yaima - Ceremonia, such a cool chill album.

 

[WAON303]

This is what I graphed today:

Here are some hot takes, cause busy. Ok so hot takes... Harmon Decent, one of the better moondrops of late, Studio 2, more like dumpster fire 2, so bad, if you tell me softears studio 2 is your favorite softears, I will think you deaf. Kiwi Etude.... it's fun not good, but has wicked af bass that is fun. CCA CRA PRO, I mean CRAP RO, is pretty mid with reasonable tonality. Fiio JD-1 is suprisingly fun for the price (25 usd?), senn ie 600 is bright and sorta mid. That's all I got for now boys.

That Studio 2 FR is AWFUL, I think you might have a dud.

Softears is known for tuning, hard to imagine they'd release something that graphs like a decade+ old IEM.

IE600 is overpriced and comes with questionable QC, the right side on my unit died after owning a pair for 15 months.

It's poor value at $800 and still not good value when it goes for $600 during sales, fit was insanely good tho, nothing else I've tried comes close to how comfortable the IE600 was to my ears.

 

[perrew]

Thanks for additional ideas. I am an anti KZ guy, so none of those for me. Yes, listening to my Heydays has me happy for now. I'll have to keep my eyes open and create a shortlist for ebay for used older stuff. Good value there.

I had not noticed before that you are from NZ. I really enjoyed the people and my time there for only a few days about 30 yrs ago. Auckland looked like a small US city from the '70s when I visited. Probably not the same now.

Might try the Juzear x Z

 

[sistoz]

Tanchjim Fission (1DD, DMT-5 membrane) graph from tanchjim in weibo,
the top one is the starlight/normal one and the bottom is the shadow/collab one
three different color for three different nozzle.

I asked Hifigo if there's a difference in tuning between the champagne gold and black colours, and they told me that they are the same. They also informed me that the price is $129.99 and that the official release date is June 10th, in case anyone is interested.

 

[bithalver]

You weren't lying! I think you may have stolen the crown from @bithalver for most quotes in a single post! No easy feat I assure you

It was a honor to wear that crown until now; I gladly pass it to @Ozboyblu ! I just need a new avatar image.

 

[jazzzy]

So in 2020 the ES9080 was the first 8 channels by itself but grey hairs (deep pockets targets) can ear sound differences if you multiply dacs.

What about Denafrips DAC-8 PRO DAC ?

 

[GREQ]

This is what I graphed today:

Here are some hot takes..... Studio 2, more like dumpster fire 2, so bad.....

I was talking with the people at the Softears table in Munich, and they said its more for monitoring than music.

That said, I thought it was also quite decent, none of that glaring midrange plaguing so many IEMs.