[fiascogarcia]

Just to be clear--and I'll defer to local experts to correct me if I'm wrong--as I understand it, there is no real usb-c "termination", in the sense that, traditionally when we refer to termination ends on cabling, the end goal is analog transmission via the termination to the earphones, with the conversion happening on the local player's end (hence, DAC, as in digital-analog-conversion). All of which is to say, any time any cable ends in usb-c, what you're really listening to is a dac converter built into the cable, usually meant to look as discrete as possible. But it's not, strictly speaking, a termination end the same way, say, 2.5mm balanced vs 4.4mm balanced is. The moment you add a DAC to the cable, you're adding a lot more variability besides just the cable quality. No usb-c dac cable out on the market right now is going to sound nearly as good as a dedicated player with an analog output, convenience aside. I personally wouldn't go out of my way to get a nice cable, or high-end IEMs, just to use them with a subpar usb-c dac. And unless you want to cable swap constantly between phone calls and your music player, you'd sooner be better off getting a cheap, separate Bluetooth headset just for calls. YMMV and all that, but that's my honest take.

Yep, good point. Any USB connection is going to be digital, requiring conversion via DAC of some variety, as opposed to analog connections that headphone and iem cables require.

 

[mark88888]

the technics feel solid and have held up well being tossed in my pocket or bag. I also remember seeing someone here with a set that got rather scuffed up living in his wife's purse but never had any functional issues. the technics are a safer bet imo.

Got a chance to try both today at e-earphone and I do prefer the Technics, and was happy to see them on sale new, not just used. Yeah the isolation is good but not as good as the Etys, should have brought foam tips to test them with and will next time. Anyway, for sure they are excellent. Phat bass and non fatiguing treble, fun sound but pretty balanced. Comfortable and overall a pleasure to use. I was particularly impressed with the clarity and resolution, esp. considering it's a 1DD. Thanks...

 

[Alexzander]

Does anyone know if we at least have a dedicated page for the VE Aura on Head-Fi?

Struggle to find it along with community-written review. Seems that I should be the one to create such write up if I manage to get them

 

[bigbeans]

So it begins.... Watercoolers using high end desktop equipment for IEMs, saying everybody with lesser gear doesn't go full potential on their earbuds.

tbh, DMP Z1 is all you need imho. Plus DMP has the DAC/PSU and Source w/ flash memory built in already. Small compact and transportable. This is the best move for folks wanting iems to scale to desktop perf levels.

 

[Delitia]

Does anyone know if we at least have a dedicated page for the VE Aura on Head-Fi?

Struggle to find it along with community-written review. Seems that I should be the one to create such write up if I manage to get them

There's a surprising amount of pages missing for high end gear, I had to make a Centurion page when I went to write my review.

 

[Scubadevils]

Got a chance to try both today at e-earphone and I do prefer the Technics, and was happy to see them on sale new, not just used. Yeah the isolation is good but not as good as the Etys, should have brought foam tips to test them with and will next time. Anyway, for sure they are excellent. Phat bass and non fatiguing treble, fun sound but pretty balanced. Comfortable and overall a pleasure to use. I was particularly impressed with the clarity and resolution, esp. considering it's a 1DD. Thanks...

Fantastic set, love my TZ700 and reminds me I must have a listen again!

Symbio F work really well and provide further isolation.

 

[RonaldS86]

tbh, DMP Z1 is all you need imho. Plus DMP has the DAC/PSU and Source w/ flash memory built in already. Small compact and transportable. This is the best move for folks wanting iems to scale to desktop perf levels.

I hope one day I can get those sexy golden knob to join my collection

 

[vaporsynthwave]

Got a chance to try both today at e-earphone and I do prefer the Technics, and was happy to see them on sale new, not just used. Yeah the isolation is good but not as good as the Etys, should have brought foam tips to test them with and will next time. Anyway, for sure they are excellent. Phat bass and non fatiguing treble, fun sound but pretty balanced. Comfortable and overall a pleasure to use. I was particularly impressed with the clarity and resolution, esp. considering it's a 1DD. Thanks...

Happy to be of some help. I think they would be pretty popular if more people got them in their ears but the price/packaging is a bit daunting for something so unassuming and Technics aren't big in this specific pocket of audio. Sure the IER-Z1R are more impressive and immersive but I can't wear those for hours on end. I make most of my audio purchases based on the cult followings around them, Z1R, Oriolus, Penon, Dethonray etc

 

[hakunamakaka]

Thank you again for taking the time and evaluating this for me!

I took the chance last night and compared again. This time SP3k and the XDuoo XD05 Pro, a rather large transportable device with insane power (2w per channel on high gain). Compared with my "hard to drive" Grand Maestro SP3k vs. XD High gain and I tried to match the volume but I have not measurement device to check so I changed volume on both devices until it was loud enough but not threatening to my ears. I think I listened to the first minute of Fragments of Time / Daft Punk on both devices so often that it now feels like a torture to do it again

I think I heard faint differences between both but wasn't able to detect those you mentioned (better defined, thinner, less separation). Most of the time even the opposite was the case and I liked the SP3000 better.

As I'm in this Möbius loop, always coming back to this, I'm now happy that higher power has not much of an effect on my chain (for me personally) and I don't feel the need to change a thing.

As Goldensound from headphones.com suggested, I used their headphone power calculator, just like he explained in his SP3000 review. This also reflects my experience. The SP3000 is easily capable of handling my IEMs and both my headphones with enough headroom. YMMV of course and I don't know how the results are with harder to drive gear or even planar headphones etc.

Just for the record, repeating myself - YMMVAAT

It's not the higher output power what makes IEM's sound better. DAC/AMP circuit designs plays the main role on how good IEM can sound. IEM's in general don't need much juice.You can basically push most of IEMS to hearing damaging levels using just apple dongle.

Pair Holo May with Tsurangi amp against Ifi diablo and Tsuranagi combo will walk over Ifi diablo which is far more powerful on paper. If all it matters is more watts audio would be very simple and lot's of high end manufactures would disappear from the market

 

[nikbr]

My money is (literally) on Timsok Ts-316.

That's a weird place to store your money.

 

[maegnificant]

That's a weird place to store your money.

It's convenient, because IEMs are so small. Perfect size to store ALL my money in one place.

 

[drftr]

Does anyone know if we at least have a dedicated page for the VE Aura on Head-Fi?

Struggle to find it along with community-written review. Seems that I should be the one to create such write up if I manage to get them

Expectations set.

drftr

 

[Scubadevils]

I had a great time today with Turii Ti and LPGT Ti - absolutely perfect synergy and Turii Ti remains my GOAT DD since August 2022… I certainly understand why those who seek deep bass won’t fully appreciate, but for the vast majority of segments of my library I reach for with this set, absolutely nothing comes close. While I love other DDs, the magic becomes apparent immediately when I revisit… Resolution, imaging, layering and timbre are absolutely captivating with genres such as ambient, modern classical, acoustic, experimental electronica etc.

I fully expect Perpetua to be a very complementary set at least!

Old photo for visual purposes

 

[ian91]

tbh, DMP Z1 is all you need imho. Plus DMP has the DAC/PSU and Source w/ flash memory built in already. Small compact and transportable. This is the best move for folks wanting iems to scale to desktop perf levels.

For those on a tighter budget, for a transportable option, Defiant has a low noise floor and plenty of finesse. I tend to use it stationary with dedicated PSU and more so with earbuds that scale a lot more than IEMs. I'm not convinced spending thousands on desktop-level amplification for IEMs is the way to go for the vast majority of people. The factor by which they scale is much less than other transducers (i.e. earbuds/headphones) in my experience. The greatest return on amplification I see is with DD-heavy / single DD IEMs with low sensitivity, warm signatures or sluggish drivers. I hear better transient control and greater extension (regardless of listening volume). Single DDs benefit more than multi-DD/hybrids where good amplification can push for maximal extension that the single DD can offer. I find BA's / all-BA's benefit the least and usually a good DAP or dongle actually handles these drivers better. Some all BA's do see more benefit than others by virtue of their impedance curve, the NP is one of those.

 

[Scubadevils]

Nostalgia Audio demo sets getting closer