[drftr]

Spot on. And then as soon as you say that out loud, you get 50 replies telling you how you're hearing it wrong.

I get more worried nowadays if they don't!

drftr

 

[drftr]

Rule #2:

Follow up blindly on all advice from all Watercooler members that have the exact same references, preferences, chain, and ears, as you have.

drftr

 

[zeroshiki]

I ran into Jriver software which happens to have that option too. Seems to be quite the process as my tablet has never run this hot.

drftr

Oh yes it is quite processor intensive when converting dsd to flac.. My pc fans go bananas too. But its not too hard on the proc if only splitting files, and quite fast too.

 

[Auricon]

A bit more expensive than plastic dust covers but couldn’t resist blinging up my Cayins

Cayin Custom Headphone Jack Dust Plug
PVD gold plated brass.

The engraved pattern is borrowed from the volume control knob on N8ii and N7

Couldn’t resist and looks like 17 others too, LOL. Comes in a set of 4.4 and 3.5.

US $14.99 | Cayin P35A P44A Custom 3.5mm and 4.4mm Headphone Jack Dust Plug for Music Players N7 N8II N3PRO and Amplifiers RU6 C9
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqQ42K6

 

[ian91]

A bit more expensive than plastic dust covers but couldn’t resist blinging up my Cayins

The engraved pattern is borrowed from the volume control knob on N8ii and N7.

Couldn’t resist and looks like 17 others too, LOL. Comes in a set of 4.4 and 3.5.

US $14.99 | Cayin P35A P44A Custom 3.5mm and 4.4mm Headphone Jack Dust Plug for Music Players N7 N8II N3PRO and Amplifiers RU6 C9
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqQ42K6

Love this. Accessories for your accessories!

 

[Skyediver]

Was going to suggest ISO2DSD (that's what I use, but keep it in DSD format beyond that). You can also get DSD2FLAC, but if you want a one-stop shop and have access to a Mac, download XLD (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xld/) which, if I'm not mistaken, will allow you to go from ISO directly to the MP3 format of your choice.

This, and why the college-jock 'humour' lately has been met with a contrarian response by many. Might seem boring and restrictive to some, but I also think it's what made this thread the success that it is and attracted so many newcomers. Without a few common courtesy checks and balances, however trivial they might seem, this place will quickly go the way of other threads, with mods stepping in to clean up the mess.

Another thumbs up for XLD if you’re a Mac user. Not spoken about much but been consistent for all my CD rips.

 

[Skyediver]

A bit more expensive than plastic dust covers but couldn’t resist blinging up my Cayins

Cayin Custom Headphone Jack Dust Plug
PVD gold plated brass.

The engraved pattern is borrowed from the volume control knob on N8ii and N7

Couldn’t resist and looks like 17 others too, LOL. Comes in a set of 4.4 and 3.5.

US $14.99 | Cayin P35A P44A Custom 3.5mm and 4.4mm Headphone Jack Dust Plug for Music Players N7 N8II N3PRO and Amplifiers RU6 C9
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqQ42K6

Soon it’ll be 18… thanks for sharing, had no idea this was our there but My Precious deserves the bling love.

 

[Tex Irie]

Ah, a kindred spirit! m100 was my entry back into headphones that started me off on this journey more than five years ago now... You'll quickly learn, like I did, that bassheads are the second-class citizens of the audiophile world, and that for many, bass should just stay in its lane (otherwise it messes up all the good stuff, apparently). Sadly when I listen to the m100 now I sort of get that (even though it's still a crazy fun headphone), but bass as the foundation of all music has been my creed since day one, and nothing is ever going to change that.

Spot on. And then as soon as you say that out loud, you get 50 replies telling you how you're hearing it wrong.

The V-Moda M100... I used to love those for so many reasons.

 

[Animagus]

You know what would be really cool: a how-to write-up on how modern IEMs are tuned (physically tuned). For example, how do you push each FR band where you want it to go, physically, inside the IEM - what parts are tweaked, etc. Not sure if you have time for it, but it's like a dark art mystery for most people. I think many of us would have a better appreciation for the final sound of an IEM if we knew how (and how easy/difficult) it was to tune it, and the actual process involved. No pressure!

Looks like @Deezel177 covered most of the stuff for everyone interested and a lot of the basic tuning stuff and circuit design is available to read on the internet, especially the Sound Science and DIY threads here on Head-fi, so I'll only add on to what Deezel wrote and focus on the difficulties and funny stuff instead.

Since most of the BAs and some DDs are available to purchase off the shelf, it's stuff like selecting the perfect pairing of drivers, some proprietary tech implementation, prototyping and having proprietary drivers made to hit certain sections of your target curve perfectly and cool internal tech like Helmholtz resonators, horn tweeters, chamber based tuning, tube less design, internal chamber design for DDs, porting, tuning via nozzle filters in case of DDs - which is where the real magic lies in terms of innovating on top of available existing off the shelf tech. My field of expertise in audio is actually in a different area; I have a fair idea about IEM and headphone design and tuning BUT there are quite a lot of field experts of multi-driver and single DD tuning here on Head-fi - tuners of different brands who are WAY more knowledgable than I because it is their area of expertise and every day work, people who are way more qualified to write about circuit design and driver tuning. People who're fairly active here on the forum like Vitaliy/engineers from the 64 Audio team, Bogdan (FiR Audio), Piotr (CustomArt), Emil (Lime Ears), Dean/Jack Vang (Empire Ears), Dunu's team, Subtonic/Symphonium Audio team, Jed (Craft Ears) etc. who can write pages and pages on tuning, circuit design, shell design and stuff about efficient manufacturing like industrial grade CNC and 3D printing for days and days!

Here're some insights on tuning for fun - Single DD IEMs are more difficult to tune perfectly to a target than multi-drivers because you need to control one driver mostly using internal shell design and nozzle filters. You don't have the option of precise, controlled tuning using multiple drivers + crossovers, so you need to invest a lot of money experimenting and prototyping chamber designs, shell design, nozzle design, nozzle filter design, etc. Majority of DD tuning is a combination of internal shell design and nozzle filters. Just take out the nozzle filters on an IEM like Moondrop KXXS and see how weird it sounds without the filters. Also, DD development and manufacturing is a completely different field altogether and building DDs to tight tolerances takes even more R&D, time and money. Working with OEM DD manufacturers can be done but it takes a lot of back and forth for R&D to make sure you get DDs with a curve close to what you need and with extremely tight tolerances if you want to keep tight channel matching, be it single DD IEM or a DD in a hybrid. Off the shelf DDs are quite cheap to source though. You can get DDs as low as 50 cents to a dollar but investing in tech to develop and manufacture DDs from scratch yourself takes good amount of investment.

Multi-BA and hybrids are slightly easier to tune, control and easier to keep a tighter QC because you can use different drivers for different regions and control them using components, sound tubes, placement, damping, etc. Do you know there is slight unit variation in drivers even from brands like Knowles and Sonion? So, if you see brands hitting close to perfect channel matching, they're a manufacturer who ordered those drivers in big numbers, hand picked the drivers that measure close and then fine tuned the L&R channels to match closely.

Now coming to tuning - First and foremost you need to select the right drivers to match the curve you're trying to hit. If you don't want to keep using the same drivers from previous models (which a lot of brands do), it's a lot of experimentation with new drivers to see which ones go together well. Sometimes you still need to fall back to your comfort zone and use the driver you know in and out because it takes time and money to learn and experiment with the variety of drivers that are out there. Just look at Knowles or Sonions catalog and see the variety they have for you to choose from. Unlike DDs, BAs aren't cheap!

Now the quirks and problems - As you choose your drivers that can trace the FR curve fairly well, solder your circuit and set your crossovers - you start the war of fighting with each driver to control them in order to trace the curve perfectly. Controlling the gain, peaks and trying to maintain phase coherence is the first and foremost task. Once you get a decent curve, now you need to fine tune it. This is where the funny stuff starts! Whenever you change something in the circuit, stuff changes here and there. It could be a random peak being introduced, phase issues, treble extension reducing, funky artefacts cropping up, etc. Also, drivers of one FR region can have an influence on the other FR regions because even though you've decided their low cut and high cut points using crossovers, they're all still attached and connected together at the end of the day.

A funny thing that @Deezel177 mentioned quickly and is very true, something I want to shine a light on because I've experienced it first hand in some projects I've been a part of - Even after days and days of tweaking, there are some peaks in the FR that just sit there like a couch potato, not wanting to move one bit. It doesn't even have to be a substantial peak. Just a minor peak you want to bring down by 1 or 2dB. You try everything, switch out the sound tubes and see if it is a weird resonance 'coz of the tube, change the dampers, move the driver placement but that effin peak does not move! You then dampen the eff out of the driver, see the driver volume reducing but that peak still sitting there smirking like a bad #$%^. You keep scratching your head wondering where it is coming from but you just can't figure it out. So, you give up and let it stay because you do not have the time, money or patience left to swap out the driver and redo the whole circuit from scratch because of budgets and launch day closing in.

BUT then spoilt with options bratty reviewers (myself included, lol!) who don't even need to lift a muscle and only need to put the IEM in their ears have a field day with that peak; bashing the crap out of the IEM sometimes just because of that one single peak, which isn't too much to begin with. While the tuner sits in one corner weeping, still wondering why that peak exists, not knowing what to do with his life and wondering if he should maybe switch careers (gif below). Lol! Exaggeration for effect and lolz.

If you see extremely well tuned FRs, graphs that look like they were drawn by a skilled painter, I highly recommend you appreciate and applaud the tuner/brand for nailing 'almost' every tiny bit to perfection, especially if you love the tuning! It's not a piece of cake. This why some of these perfectionist brands take their time to release IEMs that are as well tuned as their last one. It takes time to get the circuit right and quite a bit of trial and error to get the FR looking close to where they wanted it. Even after all that, there will always be people who completely hate the tuning and call it crap anyway! Lol! Also, most times, even with all the perfectionism and everything, there will always be that one bully of a peak that won't move and you just gotta live with it and pray that it works with 99% of the music for most users to not notice or care!

 

[drftr]

@Animagus I recently demoed some of the (single DD) Acoustune IEMs for @Ace Bee and told him the mids sounded so similar for their (dunno) $500 and $2,000 IEMs that I wondered if maybe it was the exact same driver and that they do all tuning with the acoustic chambers. Reading your wonderful write-up I'm suddenly starting to think that might actually be true. But could it be?

drftr

 

[gLer]

Looks like @Deezel177 covered most of the stuff for everyone interested and a lot of the basic tuning stuff and circuit design is available to read on the internet, especially the Sound Science and DIY threads here on Head-fi, so I'll only add on to what Deezel wrote and focus on the difficulties and funny stuff instead.

Since most of the BAs and some DDs are available to purchase off the shelf, it's stuff like selecting the perfect pairing of drivers, some proprietary tech implementation, prototyping and having proprietary drivers made to hit certain sections of your target curve perfectly and cool internal tech like Helmholtz filters, horn tweeters, chamber based tuning, tube less design, internal chamber design for DDs, porting, tuning via nozzle filters in case of DDs - which is where the real magic lies in terms of innovating on top of available existing off the shelf tech. My field of expertise in audio is actually in a different area; I have a fair idea about IEM and headphone design and tuning BUT there are quite a lot of field experts of multi-driver and single DD tuning here on Head-fi - tuners of different brands who are WAY more knowledgable than I because it is their area of expertise and every day work, people who are way more qualified to write about circuit design and driver tuning. People who're fairly active here on the forum like Vitaliy/engineers from the 64 Audio team, Bogdan (FiR Audio), Piotr (CustomArt), Emil (Lime Ears), Dean/Jack Vang (Empire Ears), Dunu's team, Subtonic/Symphonium Audio team, Jed (Craft Ears) etc. who can write pages and pages on tuning, circuit design, shell design and stuff about efficient manufacturing like industrial grade CNC and 3D printing for days and days!

Here're some insights on tuning for fun - Single DD IEMs are more difficult to tune perfectly to a target than multi-drivers because you need to control one driver mostly using internal shell design and nozzle filters. You don't have the option of precise, controlled tuning using multiple drivers + crossovers, so you need to invest a lot of money experimenting and prototyping chamber designs, shell design, nozzle design, nozzle filter design, etc. Majority of DD tuning is a combination of internal shell design and nozzle filters. Just take out the nozzle filters on an IEM like Moondrop KXXS and see how weird it sounds without the filters. Also, DD development and manufacturing is a completely different field altogether and building DDs to tight tolerances takes even more R&D, time and money. Working with OEM DD manufacturers can be done but it takes a lot of back and forth for R&D to make sure you get DDs with a curve close to what you need and with extremely tight tolerances if you want to keep tight channel matching, be it single DD IEM or a DD in a hybrid. Off the shelf DDs are quite cheap to source though. You can get DDs as low as 50 cents to a dollar but investing in tech to develop and manufacture DDs from scratch yourself takes good amount of investment.

Multi-BA and hybrids are slightly easier to tune, control and easier to keep a tighter QC because you can use different drivers for different regions and control them using components, sound tubes, placement, damping, etc. Do you know there is slight unit variation in drivers even from brands like Knowles and Sonion? So, if you see brands hitting close to perfect channel matching, they're a manufacturer who ordered those drivers in big numbers, hand picked the drivers that measure close and then fine tuned the L&R channels to match closely.

Now coming to tuning - First and foremost you need to select the right drivers to match the curve you're trying to hit. If you don't want to keep using the same drivers from previous models (which a lot of brands do), it's a lot of experimentation with new drivers to see which ones go together well. Sometimes you still need to fall back to your comfort zone and use the driver you know in and out because it takes time and money to learn and experiment with the variety of drivers that are out there. Just look at Knowles or Sonions catalog and see the variety they have for you to choose from. Unlike DDs, BAs aren't cheap!

Now the quirks and problems - As you choose your drivers that can trace the FR curve fairly well, solder your circuit and set your crossovers - you start the war of fighting with each driver to control them and trace the curve perfectly. Controlling the gain, peaks and trying to maintain phase coherence is the first and foremost task. Once you get a decent curve, now you need to fine tune it. This is where the funny stuff starts! Whenever you change something in the circuit, stuff changes here and there. It could be a random peak being introduced, phase issues, treble extension reducing, funky artefacts cropping up, etc. Also, drivers of one FR region can have an influence on the other FR regions because even though you've decided their low cut and high cut points using crossovers, they're all still attached and connected together at the end of the day.

A funny thing that @Deezel177 mentioned quickly and is very true, something I want to shine a light on because I've experienced it first hand in some projects I've been a part of - Even after days and days of tweaking, there are some peaks in the FR that just sit there like a couch potato, not wanting to move one bit. It doesn't even have to be a substantial peak. Just a minor peak you want to bring down by 1 or 2dB. You try everything, switch out the sound tubes and see if it is a weird resonance 'coz of the tube, change the dampers, move the driver placement but that effin peak does not move! You then dampen the eff out of the driver, see the driver volume reducing but that peak still sitting there smirking like a bad #$%^. You keep scratching your head wondering where it is coming from but you just can't figure it out. So, you give up and let it stay because you do not have the time, money or patience left to swap out the driver and redo the whole circuit from scratch because of budgets and launch day closing in.

BUT then spoilt with options bratty reviewers (myself included, lol!) who don't even need to lift a muscle and only need to put the IEM in theirs ears have a field day with that peak and bash the crap out of the IEM because of that one single peak, which isn't too much to begin with. While the tuner sits in one corner weeping, still wondering why that peak exists, not knowing what to do with his life and wondering if he should maybe switch careers (gif below). Lol! Exaggeration for effect and lolz.

If you see extremely well tuned FRs, graphs that look like they were drawn by a skilled painter, I highly recommend you appreciate and applaud the tuner/brand for nailing 'almost' every tiny bit to perfection, especially if you love the tuning! It's not a piece of cake. This why some of these perfectionist brands take their time to release IEMs that are as well tuned as their last one. It takes time to get the circuit right and quite a bit of trial and error to get the FR looking close to where they wanted it. Even after all that, there will always be people who completely hate the tuning and call it crap anyway! Lol! Also, most times, even with all the perfectionism and everything, there will always be that one bully of a peak that won't move and you just gotta live with it and pray that it works with 99% of the music for most users to not notice or care!

 

[Auricon]

Looks like @Deezel177 covered most of the stuff for everyone interested and a lot of the basic tuning stuff and circuit design is available to read on the internet, especially the Sound Science and DIY threads here on Head-fi, so I'll only add on to what Deezel wrote and focus on the difficulties and funny stuff instead.

Since most of the BAs and some DDs are available to purchase off the shelf, it's stuff like selecting the perfect pairing of drivers, some proprietary tech implementation, prototyping and having proprietary drivers made to hit certain sections of your target curve perfectly and cool internal tech like Helmholtz resonators, horn tweeters, chamber based tuning, tube less design, internal chamber design for DDs, porting, tuning via nozzle filters in case of DDs - which is where the real magic lies in terms of innovating on top of available existing off the shelf tech. My field of expertise in audio is actually in a different area; I have a fair idea about IEM and headphone design and tuning BUT there are quite a lot of field experts of multi-driver and single DD tuning here on Head-fi - tuners of different brands who are WAY more knowledgable than I because it is their area of expertise and every day work, people who are way more qualified to write about circuit design and driver tuning. People who're fairly active here on the forum like Vitaliy/engineers from the 64 Audio team, Bogdan (FiR Audio), Piotr (CustomArt), Emil (Lime Ears), Dean/Jack Vang (Empire Ears), Dunu's team, Subtonic/Symphonium Audio team, Jed (Craft Ears) etc. who can write pages and pages on tuning, circuit design, shell design and stuff about efficient manufacturing like industrial grade CNC and 3D printing for days and days!

Here're some insights on tuning for fun - Single DD IEMs are more difficult to tune perfectly to a target than multi-drivers because you need to control one driver mostly using internal shell design and nozzle filters. You don't have the option of precise, controlled tuning using multiple drivers + crossovers, so you need to invest a lot of money experimenting and prototyping chamber designs, shell design, nozzle design, nozzle filter design, etc. Majority of DD tuning is a combination of internal shell design and nozzle filters. Just take out the nozzle filters on an IEM like Moondrop KXXS and see how weird it sounds without the filters. Also, DD development and manufacturing is a completely different field altogether and building DDs to tight tolerances takes even more R&D, time and money. Working with OEM DD manufacturers can be done but it takes a lot of back and forth for R&D to make sure you get DDs with a curve close to what you need and with extremely tight tolerances if you want to keep tight channel matching, be it single DD IEM or a DD in a hybrid. Off the shelf DDs are quite cheap to source though. You can get DDs as low as 50 cents to a dollar but investing in tech to develop and manufacture DDs from scratch yourself takes good amount of investment.

Multi-BA and hybrids are slightly easier to tune, control and easier to keep a tighter QC because you can use different drivers for different regions and control them using components, sound tubes, placement, damping, etc. Do you know there is slight unit variation in drivers even from brands like Knowles and Sonion? So, if you see brands hitting close to perfect channel matching, they're a manufacturer who ordered those drivers in big numbers, hand picked the drivers that measure close and then fine tuned the L&R channels to match closely.

Now coming to tuning - First and foremost you need to select the right drivers to match the curve you're trying to hit. If you don't want to keep using the same drivers from previous models (which a lot of brands do), it's a lot of experimentation with new drivers to see which ones go together well. Sometimes you still need to fall back to your comfort zone and use the driver you know in and out because it takes time and money to learn and experiment with the variety of drivers that are out there. Just look at Knowles or Sonions catalog and see the variety they have for you to choose from. Unlike DDs, BAs aren't cheap!

Now the quirks and problems - As you choose your drivers that can trace the FR curve fairly well, solder your circuit and set your crossovers - you start the war of fighting with each driver to control them and trace the curve perfectly. Controlling the gain, peaks and trying to maintain phase coherence is the first and foremost task. Once you get a decent curve, now you need to fine tune it. This is where the funny stuff starts! Whenever you change something in the circuit, stuff changes here and there. It could be a random peak being introduced, phase issues, treble extension reducing, funky artefacts cropping up, etc. Also, drivers of one FR region can have an influence on the other FR regions because even though you've decided their low cut and high cut points using crossovers, they're all still attached and connected together at the end of the day.

A funny thing that @Deezel177 mentioned quickly and is very true, something I want to shine a light on because I've experienced it first hand in some projects I've been a part of - Even after days and days of tweaking, there are some peaks in the FR that just sit there like a couch potato, not wanting to move one bit. It doesn't even have to be a substantial peak. Just a minor peak you want to bring down by 1 or 2dB. You try everything, switch out the sound tubes and see if it is a weird resonance 'coz of the tube, change the dampers, move the driver placement but that effin peak does not move! You then dampen the eff out of the driver, see the driver volume reducing but that peak still sitting there smirking like a bad #$%^. You keep scratching your head wondering where it is coming from but you just can't figure it out. So, you give up and let it stay because you do not have the time, money or patience left to swap out the driver and redo the whole circuit from scratch because of budgets and launch day closing in.

BUT then spoilt with options bratty reviewers (myself included, lol!) who don't even need to lift a muscle and only need to put the IEM in theirs ears have a field day with that peak and bash the crap out of the IEM because of that one single peak, which isn't too much to begin with. While the tuner sits in one corner weeping, still wondering why that peak exists, not knowing what to do with his life and wondering if he should maybe switch careers (gif below). Lol! Exaggeration for effect and lolz.



If you see extremely well tuned FRs, graphs that look like they were drawn by a skilled painter, I highly recommend you appreciate and applaud the tuner/brand for nailing 'almost' every tiny bit to perfection, especially if you love the tuning! It's not a piece of cake. This why some of these perfectionist brands take their time to release IEMs that are as well tuned as their last one. It takes time to get the circuit right and quite a bit of trial and error to get the FR looking close to where they wanted it. Even after all that, there will always be people who completely hate the tuning and call it crap anyway! Lol! Also, most times, even with all the perfectionism and everything, there will always be that one bully of a peak that won't move and you just gotta live with it and pray that it works with 99% of the music for most users to not notice or care!

Your tuning ideology post and this follow-up makes for great Head-Fi morning breakfast reading – needs to be stickied

 

[Animagus]

@Animagus I recently demoed some of the (single DD) Acoustune IEMs for @Ace Bee and told him the mids sounded so similar for their (dunno) $500 and $2,000 IEMs that I wondered if maybe it was the exact same driver and that they do all tuning with the acoustic chambers. Reading your wonderful write-up I'm suddenly starting to think that might actually be true. But could it be?

drftr

Hey Joop! Not really! You can tune different drivers to sound a certain way using all that's available to you. Easiest example are the successors of Moondrop Kanas Pro. KP, KXXS and Kato are all tuned in the same ballpark, use different types of DDs (supposedly) but still sound fairly different. In fact, Tanchjim Hana 2021 and Oxygen are tuned similarly too but they all have different shells and different drivers. They were all tuned to follow a Harman-ish curve, so they sound in the ballpark in the larger scheme of things but have different DDs and shell design.

IEMs very well could use the same driver too unless someone opens it up to check. But since Acoustune are a fairly popular big brand, I don't think they'd do that.

Here's an industry deal that some might not know - When you develop a proprietary DD with an OEM, most times you sign an exclusive proprietary contract with them which lasts a year or two. After that contract expires, the OEM is free to sell that exact same driver to whoever is interested in buying.

 

[Rockwell75]

I often see this sticker/logo on different products. What is it exactly, and is it actually a valid award? If it's an award how often does it happen?

 

[Dbriv]

Tnx for letting me know on the day I need to decide on P6k! GRRR...


I compared it with my RU6 just last week and it's an equally nice R2R sound that sounds a little bit warmer than RU6. However... (see further below)


But you saved us a lot so it balanced out nicely!





I've downloaded a few DSD .iso files. Do you know how to convert them to lossy quality? Do I need to mount the file since there's no physical disc or so?


Meet your radical opposite: For the sake of portability I had always lowered SQ to 192 or 320 max. That's not necessary anymore but 95% of my library is like that already.


You may want to check the rather cumbersome scrolling on RS2 plus the track number limitation. I don't know the ins and outs but have read about it in reviews and it might be a problem for you.




drftr

To convert DSD .iso files there is a program called dsd2flac that I use for OSX. Not sure if it is available for pc.