[IEMusic]

I wonder the same thing too. Of course the UF does have a lot more extended treble, and it’s claim to fame seems to be the speed and texture of it’s bass, not just the sheer amount of it.

 

[RikudouGoku]

I wonder the same thing too. Of course the UF does have a lot more extended treble, and it’s claim to fame seems to be the speed and texture of it’s bass, not just the sheer amount of it.

Correct, the texture of the urbanfun Is just completely on another level compared to everything else I heard. The speed is on the faster side, but not the fastest out there.

 

[Makahl]

When did you order your new one?

Yesterday, the app already says it's been shipped tho.

 

[cenix]

Yesterday, the app already says it's been shipped tho.

I ordered mine yesterday as well, through the DD-Audio store on AliExpress. As I understand (from others in here), that's the same shop as Linsoul. Did you order it from the Linsoul website itself?

Hope you receive it soon

P.S. Now I have someone to compare my unit to in case something is wrong.

 

[Slater]

Listening to the ISS014 beryllium (balanced) tonight. I’ll tell you, I love these things to pieces.

The sub bass is nice and deep just how I like it. Kick drums sound like you’re literally a few rows away. Snares are crisp and snappy. And the treble is clean and bright - similar to a BA but without the fatigue and peaks that usually affect BA treble. Great sounding cymbals, which is an extremely useful yardstick for audio gear.

And the whole thing has the natural tonality that people love so much about the Blon BL-03.

If you like a more balanced sound, you really need to go with the noble metal version. The beryllium has those couple extra dB of sub bass that may not appeal to everyone (like classical fans).

The ISS014 is the upgrade that the BL-05 was supposed to be. They just get out of the way and let you enjoy the music.

Not that the stock shell isn’t comfortable, but if I could get this exact thing in an ergonomic solid resin shell (like the Blon Cardinal), it would be my endgame dynamic that I would be perfectly happy with.

Perhaps that wish will come true with the TFZ No 3 (judging by the graphs posted above). Those should be here any day now, bought for a ridiculously cheap price during the last Aliexpress sale.

 

[RikudouGoku]

Listening to the ISS014 beryllium (balanced) tonight. I’ll tell you, I love these things to pieces.

The sub bass is nice and deep just how I like it. Kick drums sound like you’re literally a few rows away. Snares are crisp and snappy. And the treble is clean and bright - similar to a BA but without the fatigue and peaks that usually affect BA treble. Great sounding cymbals, which is an extremely useful yardstick for audio gear.

And the whole thing has the natural tonality that people love so much about the Blon BL-03.

If you like a more balanced sound, you really need to go with the noble metal version. The beryllium has those couple extra dB of sub bass that may not appeal to everyone (like classical fans).

The ISS014 is the upgrade that the BL-05 was supposed to be. They just get out of the way and let you enjoy the music.

Not that the stock shell isn’t comfortable, but if I could get this exact thing in an ergonomic solid resin shell (like the Blon Cardinal), it would be my endgame dynamic that I would be perfectly happy with.

Perhaps that wish will come true with the TFZ No 3 (judging by the graphs posted above). Those should be here any day now, bought for a ridiculously cheap price during the last Aliexpress sale.

I noticed that the urbanfun is the only iem I have heard that actually turns into a basshead monster if you are using it at high volume. So depending on how loud you play stuff at, it is either gonna be similar to the blon 03 or just a bass monster. (I believe I dont use stuff at high volume, Fiio M11 + Urbanfun sitting at around 44-55 (balanced)).

 

[dharmasteve]

Listening to the ISS014 beryllium (balanced) tonight. I’ll tell you, I love these things to pieces.

The sub bass is nice and deep just how I like it. Kick drums sound like you’re literally a few rows away. Snares are crisp and snappy. And the treble is clean and bright - similar to a BA but without the fatigue and peaks that usually affect BA treble. Great sounding cymbals, which is an extremely useful yardstick for audio gear.

And the whole thing has the natural tonality that people love so much about the Blon BL-03.

If you like a more balanced sound, you really need to go with the noble metal version. The beryllium has those couple extra dB of sub bass that may not appeal to everyone (like classical fans).

The ISS014 is the upgrade that the BL-05 was supposed to be. They just get out of the way and let you enjoy the music.

Not that the stock shell isn’t comfortable, but if I could get this exact thing in an ergonomic solid resin shell (like the Blon Cardinal), it would be my endgame dynamic that I would be perfectly happy with.

Perhaps that wish will come true with the TFZ No 3 (judging by the graphs posted above). Those should be here any day now, bought for a ridiculously cheap price during the last Aliexpress sale.

I t will be interesting to see your comparisons with the TFZ No 3. Not all that long ago the No.3 proudly sat at the fore of all my IEMs. Life moves on and ever since the Blon 03 and the ISS014 have come on the market, they have taken over the mantle and they have been my go to's. There is no doubt that the No.3 has bass to spare although it is very different to both the Blon 03 and the UFISS014. It will be good to see your impressions of these three very capable bassed up IEMs.

 

[chickenmoon]

I've received a pair of the newly packaged YSS014 earlier today which I purchased on eBay in used (but as new) condition at a slightly lower price than retail. Before anybody asks, this is my sixth pair and I bought it because I was curious to see if there were any actual changes this time.

My initial pair had a bad MMCX connector on one side. My second one had no such issue and the only difference was that the cable came pre-plugged. I then bought another one with a grey cable this time and the only difference with the previous aside from the cable color was that the carry case lacked an embossed UF monkey head. Lastly, during the previous Ali sale, as I didn't know what else to buy, I bought two other pairs, one with pink cable and one with grey, and the only difference was that the MMCX housings on the cables were in plastic and not in metal unlike the previous three. The earpieces of all five pairs themselves look and sound all the same to me. Measurements highighted minute unit variations in sound but not anything I could hear as different, even so slightly, in tuning.

So what's up with the new one?. Well, there are changes all across the board and it's certain this is an actual new batch..

You've seen the pics posted in the thread above, packaging has changed, it's nicer and gone is the little tin box with the crap foamies it contained and some better foamies are included. Silicon tips are the same as before I believe. Carry case has now a fabric finish. Not very important stuff.

The unit I have is one with a grey cable. It's lighter in shade and also shinier and braiding seems sligtly different than the previous grey cables. It also now has a chin slider and mmcx housings are metal topped by a thin translucent plastic ring.

Moving on to the earpieces themselves there is one quite significant change, the groove on the nozzles has moved much closer to the body of the earpieces and I found this is bad when it comes to using tips that are quite short such as the AET 07 I use with the old pairs. I find it very hard if not impossible to get a proper fit with these now as the end of the nozzles and the end of the tips are at about the same level instead of the nozzles behind slightly recessed in the tips. Another bad thing about it is that it makes it much harder to insert and remove tips that have not too wide stems such as those ones included in the package, I believe I had to pull harder than I ever had to remove tips from an earphone when removing the default tips, it was kinda scary actually.

Bad news aren't over unfortunately as there are other, this time internal, changes. With the old pairs, when I have a perfect seal and I push on the earpieces in a quite strong and sudden manner I manage to get driver flex which clicks back immediately with no other incidence on the sound other than a brief faint click. These now click with much milder and less sudden force applied to them and the flex is accompanied by a loss of sound/occlusion effect which takes up to one second and a half to recede, this is quite bad really and shows we are dealing with different internals. This type of behaviour would normally happen with a strongly damped front vent which if it was the only difference should only increase the bass response/elevation I believe but they don't feel overall bassier than the old ones so what? Overall changes in all the areas tweakable with dampers, nozzle, back and front vent? Different driver? I have no idea but something has certainly changed.

So how do they sound? Take this one with a massive grain of salt and pending confirmation from other sources and measurements as I've been using them with different tips and virtually no break-in time but I believe the focus of the bass has somewhat slightly shifted to mid-bass and upper midrange might be slightly more aggressive. They still sound very good but it feels like a departure from the tuning of the old ones and not one I find better at this stage.

 

[Slater]

I've received a pair of the newly packaged YSS014 earlier today which I purchased on eBay in used (but as new) condition at a slightly lower price than retail. Before anybody asks, this is my sixth pair and I bought it because I was curious to see if there were any actual changes this time.

My initial pair had a bad MMCX connector on one side. My second one had no such issue and the only difference was that the cable came pre-plugged. I then bought another one with a grey cable this time and the only difference with the previous aside from the cable color was that the carry case lacked an embossed UF monkey head. Lastly, during the previous Ali sale, as I didn't know what else to buy, I bought two other pairs, one with pink cable and one with grey, and the only difference was that the MMCX housings on the cables were in plastic and not in metal unlike the previous three. The earpieces of all five pairs themselves look and sound all the same to me. Measurements highighted minute unit variations in sound but not anything I could hear as different, even so slightly, in tuning.

So what's up with the new one?. Well, there are changes all across the board and it's certain this is an actual new batch..

You've seen the pics posted in the thread above, packaging has changed, it's nicer and gone is the little tin box with the crap foamies it contained and some better foamies are included. Silicon tips are the same as before I believe. Carry case has now a fabric finish. Not very important stuff.

The unit I have is one with a grey cable. It's lighter in shade and also shinier and braiding seems sligtly different than the previous grey cables. It also now has a chin slider and mmcx housings are metal topped by a thin translucent plastic ring.

Moving on to the earpieces themselves there is one quite significant change, the groove on the nozzles has moved much closer to the body of the earpieces and I found this is bad when it comes to using tips that are quite short such as the AET 07 I use with the old pairs. I find it very hard if not impossible to get a proper fit with these now as the end of the nozzles and the end of the tips are at about the same level instead of the nozzles behind slightly recessed in the tips. Another bad thing about it is that it makes it much harder to insert and remove tips that have not too wide stems such as those ones included in the package, I believe I had to pull harder than I ever had to remove tips from an earphone when removing the default tips, it was kinda scary actually.

Bad news aren't over unfortunately as there are other, this time internal, changes. With the old pairs, when I have a perfect seal and I push on the earpieces in a quite strong and sudden manner I manage to get driver flex which clicks back immediately with no other incidence on the sound than a brief faint click. These now click with much milder and less sudden force applied to them and the flex is accompanied by a loss of sound/occlusion effect which takes up to one second and a half to recede, this is quite bad really and shows we are dealing with different internals. This type of behaviour would normally happen with a strongly damped front vent which if it was the only difference should only increase the bass response/elevation I believe but they don't feel overall bassier than the old ones so what? Overall changes in all the areas tweakable with dampers, nozzle, back and front vent? Different driver? I have no idea but something has certainly changed.

So how do they sound? Take this one with a massive grain of salt and pending confirmation from other sources and measurements as I've been using them with different tips and virtually no break-in time but I believe the focus of the bass has somewhat slightly shifted to mid-bass and upper midrange might be slightly more aggressive. They still sound very good but it feels like a departure from the tuning of the old ones and not one I find better at this stage.

That is really, truly disappointing

 

[dharmasteve]

I've received a pair of the newly packaged YSS014 earlier today which I purchased on eBay in used (but as new) condition at a slightly lower price than retail. Before anybody asks, this is my sixth pair and I bought it because I was curious to see if there were any actual changes this time.

My initial pair had a bad MMCX connector on one side. My second one had no such issue and the only difference was that the cable came pre-plugged. I then bought another one with a grey cable this time and the only difference with the previous aside from the cable color was that the carry case lacked an embossed UF monkey head. Lastly, during the previous Ali sale, as I didn't know what else to buy, I bought two other pairs, one with pink cable and one with grey, and the only difference was that the MMCX housings on the cables were in plastic and not in metal unlike the previous three. The earpieces of all five pairs themselves look and sound all the same to me. Measurements highighted minute unit variations in sound but not anything I could hear as different, even so slightly, in tuning.

So what's up with the new one?. Well, there are changes all across the board and it's certain this is an actual new batch..

You've seen the pics posted in the thread above, packaging has changed, it's nicer and gone is the little tin box with the crap foamies it contained and some better foamies are included. Silicon tips are the same as before I believe. Carry case has now a fabric finish. Not very important stuff.

The unit I have is one with a grey cable. It's lighter in shade and also shinier and braiding seems sligtly different than the previous grey cables. It also now has a chin slider and mmcx housings are metal topped by a thin translucent plastic ring.

Moving on to the earpieces themselves there is one quite significant change, the groove on the nozzles has moved much closer to the body of the earpieces and I found this is bad when it comes to using tips that are quite short such as the AET 07 I use with the old pairs. I find it very hard if not impossible to get a proper fit with these now as the end of the nozzles and the end of the tips are at about the same level instead of the nozzles behind slightly recessed in the tips. Another bad thing about it is that it makes it much harder to insert and remove tips that have not too wide stems such as those ones included in the package, I believe I had to pull harder than I ever had to remove tips from an earphone when removing the default tips, it was kinda scary actually.

Bad news aren't over unfortunately as there are other, this time internal, changes. With the old pairs, when I have a perfect seal and I push on the earpieces in a quite strong and sudden manner I manage to get driver flex which clicks back immediately with no other incidence on the sound than a brief faint click. These now click with much milder and less sudden force applied to them and the flex is accompanied by a loss of sound/occlusion effect which takes up to one second and a half to recede, this is quite bad really and shows we are dealing with different internals. This type of behaviour would normally happen with a strongly damped front vent which if it was the only difference should only increase the bass response/elevation I believe but they don't feel overall bassier than the old ones so what? Overall changes in all the areas tweakable with dampers, nozzle, back and front vent? Different driver? I have no idea but something has certainly changed.

So how do they sound? Take this one with a massive grain of salt and pending confirmation from other sources and measurements as I've been using them with different tips and virtually no break-in time but I believe the focus of the bass has somewhat slightly shifted to mid-bass and upper midrange might be slightly more aggressive. They still sound very good but it feels like a departure from the tuning of the old ones and not one I find better at this stage.

You most certainly are the greatest fan of the ISS014. It would be a crying shame if they have changed a great recipe. In a funny way I hope you got a duff version (sorry). If it was used, could it be a return that wasn't up to it? I really love this IEM and unlike with the Blon 03, I haven't bought a 'just in case' copy. If my perfect ISS014 gets f""""" I will be in trouble.

 

[rggz]

Is there any pic comparing the old x new batch housing side-by-side?

 

[chickenmoon]

That is really, truly disappointing

It certainly is.

You most certainly are the greatest fan of the ISS014. It would be a crying shame if they have changed a great recipe. In a funny way I hope you got a duff version (sorry). If it was used, could it be a return that wasn't up to it? I really love this IEM and unlike with the Blon 03, I haven't bought a 'just in case' copy. If my perfect ISS014 gets f""""" I will be in trouble.

I don't know the origin of this unit as I didn't ask the seller so there is a tiny chance this is a, later improved, prototype of the new batch but I wouldn't count on that too much and both sides are the same so it's unlikely a faulty unit.

More people should be getting these units in the coming days/weeks, we'll see if my observations/experience gets confirmed or not.

 

[chickenmoon]

Is there any pic comparing the old x new batch housing side-by-side?

I could make make some but I won't because it's a PITA for me taking pics and transfering them to the PC with my old digicam (I don't have a smartphone/tablet so far).

The only change I can see is the position of the groove on the nozzle, on the shorter side of the nozzle it is a hair above the body of the shell on the new ones whereas it is at least a good millimeter and a half away on the old ones. It doesn't seem a lot but in practice it actually is.

 

[IEMusic]

Great , I just ordered a new pair. Hopefully it‘s okay. I get really nervous with driver flex, b/c I’m one that always likes to make sure that my IEMs are seated and sealed really tight.

Edit: Huh, my avatar pic is appropriate for this occasion!

 

[Codename john]

That is really, truly disappointing

That's sad to hear. I got mine from e bay and never had an issue. They were a little bit worn looking but nothing to complain about. 100% beryllium! I have other iems with said drivers and I cant tell straight away. It's so sad with the QC issues. A little bit of attention to detail and they would have had a cult classic! Unfortunately, they are forever going to be known for having a multitude of issues. I was one of the lucky ones!