[DaveLT]

  What would be the point of a dual driver, especially a hybrid, 'phone with no crossover? Can drivers be "tuned" to the point where they would each go up or down to a certain frequency and then just drop off? 

The legendary JVC FXT-90 has no crossover. It's possible.
 
Tuning the driver is one way by using it's natural FR and IR or relying on sonic tuning because while a dynamic is always going to be more sensitive they won't handle highs as well if put them far back (in the case of the pistons the BA is tip mounted) so if you have a BA up front that will do the job.
 
A crossover simply won't fix the fact that a dynamic is going to be drowning out the BA resulting in most of them with a mid hump and a tapering off in treble.
 

  Well, I mean, since you really can't apply for warranty outside of China, you really don't have much of a choice, do you? That, and the Pistons (as well as Chinese brands like KZ) are pretty cheap, so most people here would just buy another one in the event of a breakage.
 
My Pistons 2 (used everyday and battered without a care in the world) lasted just short of a year. I'm taking much better care of my new 3.0s, which came in sometime last month. As with just about every piece of audio gear, how long they last mostly depends on how you treat them.
 

2 years for me. Killed mine by accident on the other hand by accidentally blasting it with DC offset. The 2.1 without filter can actually take a bashing because my ones once fell into water (puddle of water, it dropped on the floor by accident) and when i dried it it's alright.

 

[adamjames37]

Is it safe to buy earphone without warranty ? Any piston 2/3 users? How long did It last ?

 
I've purchased 5 pairs of Piston 3's and so far 2 of them have experienced the same problem. One side (I believe the right side) becomes very quiet, dull and lifeless. I've heard this is due to a connection issue inside of the control module and that Xiaomi has introduced some reinforcements with the hybrid model to prevent it.
 
My first pair of P3's experienced the problem after roughly two months, although I must admit it wasn't always treated nicely.The second pair I purchased for my dad and to my surprise he started experiencing the issue after a couple hours of use. He insists he wasn't rough with them at any point.
 
One thing I also noticed from my most recent pair is that it appears to have a substantially reduced low end compared to my other sets, sounding quite flat in comparison. They haven't been properly broken in but I'm pretty sure the other pairs I received didn't sound like this out of the box. Maybe they need to be woken up with 2 watts of power!
 
Speaking of significantly overpowering earphones, how many of you run earphones like this off an amp with substantial power? I've been putting close to 2 watts into my P3's with excellent results but wonder if it will cause long term damage/degradation to the drivers. 

 

[ClieOS]

  I will sound like I am contradicting myself, but am not sure if this is a very good idea to use a dynamic and a BA driver in parallel without any crossover as each one will try to reproduce the whole gamut of frequencies not counting the sensitivity of each driver that must be matched, but Xiaomi must be knowing what they are doing... or not.
Xiaomi is trying to use the best of both worlds, dynamic for the bass and BA for the mids and high but the drivers are just dumb and the dynamic driver will NOT reproduce only the bass and the BA only the mid/high without crossover. Crossovers are called "necessary evil".  And I am not even taking account the set of compromise of putting both drivers in the same enclosure in respect of tuning needs for each type.
Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
So I wanted to have a listen but I missed the Banggood deal. too bad.

 
It is called mechanical crossover, and it is actually quite common these days in IEM. Compared to electrical crossover, this kind of implementation is easy to do but hard to get right as the drivers used must be tuned to perfectly compensate each other. Where in electrical crossover, you can tune them a bit further by playing with the crossover circuit even when the driver themselves might not perfectly aligned in frequency response. JVC, as mentioned, is famous for their mechanical crossover in all their multi-driver IEM, which can hold onto their own against IEM that uses electrical crossover - and electrical crossover has its own problem as well, as they are sensitive to the output impedance of the source and introduce phase issue that required compensation. So in a sense, there isn't one of them that is obviously better - it is all in the implementation.

 

[noobandroid]

listening to spotify on my note 4 using the hybrids seems giving me a better listening experience than on magni modi desktop setup somehow, they really match nicely

 

[tsetse7]

   
It is called mechanical crossover, and it is actually quite common these days in IEM. Compared to electrical crossover, this kind of implementation is easy to do but hard to get right as the drivers used must be tuned to perfectly compensate each other. Where in electrical crossover, you can tune them a bit further by playing with the crossover circuit even when the driver themselves might not perfectly aligned in frequency response. JVC, as mentioned, is famous for their mechanical crossover in all their multi-driver IEM, which can hold onto their own against IEM that uses electrical crossover - and electrical crossover has its own problem as well, as they are sensitive to the output impedance of the source and introduce phase issue that required compensation. So in a sense, there isn't one of them that is obviously better - it is all in the implementation.

 I guess any type of crossover is very hard to get right. I would personally have preferred a pure BA IEM from Xiaomi as it would be have been easier tuned for a specific purpose, but they preferred the hype/marketing/easy route. Can't blame them though, they target volume sales not niche market.

 

[bhazard]

Xiaomi kinda sorta blew a big opportunity here.

Just got my hybrids in. With very preliminary listening through the stock tips, the sound is lacking. Constricted soundstage, bass bloat, some frequencies nearly missing which is uncommon for having an armature present..

These will need a good 50 hours of burn and some major tip swapping before I listen again.

Slightly better than the 2 and 3 and still a bargain if you love bass. These are rap/edm geared and do well with them.

 

[wega03]

Word of advice, just forget you ordered these.... Makes the wait less painful

I paid for mine on the 7th, 11th was supposed to be release date, 13th the payment was processed, 19th I received confirmation from GearBest that my hybrids had been shipped out. I'm assuming they're still processing the backend of the pre-sales, so you're probably gonna have to wait quite a bit.

Luckily my KZ ED10s arrived on Monday so I have something to play with during the wait xD

Hi I like to know if you already have your hybrids, what shipping did you pay and how many days take to arrive, because mine were shipped in the 23rd in I'll be out of town, and I'm afraid someone take it

 

[adamjames37]

Hi I like to know if you already have your hybrids, what shipping did you pay and how many days take to arrive, because mine were shipped in the 23rd in I'll be out of town, and I'm afraid someone take it

If you ordered from GearBest, or most any other Chinese retailer, expect the shipping to take the best part of a month to the US & Canada. Considering they just shipped on the 23rd, I wouldn't expect them before the week of December 14th at the absolute earliest. This only applies to the standard free shipping as I've received packages from China in as little as 4 days when choosing expedited shipping.

 

[robvagyok]

Is it safe to buy earphone without warranty ? Any piston 2/3 users? How long did It last ?

I have my P2's since a year now, no probems. My P3 arrieved in August, also problem free.
however I've seen pistons tearing the cabe hose at the jack pretty often.
I just sem to extremely care about my earphones.

 

[DaveLT]

 I guess any type of crossover is very hard to get right. I would personally have preferred a pure BA IEM from Xiaomi as it would be have been easier tuned for a specific purpose, but they preferred the hype/marketing/easy route. Can't blame them though, they target volume sales not niche market.

Hard to make a dual BA for under 100 let alone 20 mate.

A single BA lacks bass and there are tons of basshead audiophiles and I am one of them

 

[Turkleton]

Hi I like to know if you already have your hybrids, what shipping did you pay and how many days take to arrive, because mine were shipped in the 23rd in I'll be out of town, and I'm afraid someone take it

Haven't gotten mine yet, I chose free shipping so I'm expecting to get them in December around the 6th or 7th. When I ordered my pistons, got em in 15 days/10 business.

I live in the UAE so the shipping times should differ

 

[ezekiel77]

These will need a good 50 hours of burn and some major tip swapping before I listen again.

 
Do update! Hope it gets better.

 

[TwinACStacks]

Xiaomi kinda sorta blew a big opportunity here.

Just got my hybrids in. With very preliminary listening through the stock tips, the sound is lacking. Constricted soundstage, bass bloat, some frequencies nearly missing which is uncommon for having an armature present..

These will need a good 50 hours of burn and some major tip swapping before I listen again.

Slightly better than the 2 and 3 and still a bargain if you love bass. These are rap/edm geared and do well with them.

Tsk,Tsk,Tsk....  You know you have to "exercise" your 'phones before listening, Hazard.  (Notice how I avoided the B--In word?)
 
Political Correctness for the non-believers.

 

TWIN

 

[bhazard]

If you ordered from GearBest, or most any other Chinese retailer, expect the shipping to take the best part of a month to the US & Canada. Considering they just shipped on the 23rd, I wouldn't expect them before the week of December 14th at the absolute earliest. This only applies to the standard free shipping as I've received packages from China in as little as 4 days when choosing expedited shipping.

Gearbest and Geekbuying both offerred free or $1 ePacket shipping on these. 7-12 days max

 

[adamjames37]

Gearbest and Geekbuying both offerred free or $1 ePacket shipping on these. 7-12 days max

 
Thanks for mentioning that, I forgot about the ePacket option for US customers. It's unfortunately never an option for Canadian customers. I either have to choose the free standard shipping that has often taken 6 weeks+ or expedited for ~$12.00 and have to pay duties and high brokerage fees.