Xiaomi Hybrid IEM Thread (Piston successor)
Dec 16, 2015 at 12:10 AM Post #376 of 856
The main issue with calling them "Hybrid" is that they are not the first hybrids to be made by Xiaomi and 1MORE (an audio device company established by three former Foxconn executives thanks to the investment of Xiaomi):
http://www.xiaomitoday.com/premium-quality-xiaomi-headphones-launches-for-31/
The last paragraph states "The value for this is amazing, considering the next competitor, the Iron Ring Hi-Fi headsets cost way more than what this pair of headphones are currently priced at."

http://www.1more.com/en/acoustics_list.htm
That "1MORE Multi-Unit" is the first "Hybrid" by 1MORE, Iron Ring is the second (they are also made by 1MORE to be branded as Xiaomi).
You can see that some Pistons are under the 1MORE brand (while others were branded as Xiaomi, but made by 1MORE nonetheless, because Xiaomi doesn't make audio equipment themselves, 1MORE does that for them)



"Hybrid"/"Multi-Unit" on left, "Iron Ring" on right.

Another evidence:
http://www.1more.com/product/show-218.html
The text "1MORE多单元圈铁耳机" translates to "1MORE Multi-Unit Iron Ring Earphones". Saying that it's "1MORE Multi-Unit Hybrid Earphones" makes no sense. (Multi-Unit = Hybrid).

Conclusion:
Both earphones use the Hybrid dual-driver technology, both are called "Iron Ring", the first one is 1MORE Iron Ring, the other is Xiaomi Iron Ring.

Hope I made my point.

* It is entirely possible that "Xiaomi Piston Iron" is the correct translation, because "ring" may refer to a "piston ring", even though the word "piston" isn't in the original Chinese name. The source is this official Xiaomi Czech store:
http://xiaomi-store.cz/cs/sluchatka-a-handsfree/119-xiaomi-piston-iron-6954176846044.html

* In Russia it's called just "Xiaomi Quantie":
http://store-xiaomi.ru/garnitura-xiaomi-quantie
Interesting to see the relationship between 1MORE and Xiaomi and the potential translations. I did find it strange calling them simply Xiaomi Hybrids since it wasn't really official. Quantie sounds really cool; hope we can get an official release/name in English.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 1:38 AM Post #377 of 856
Oh yeah just to let you guys know, whilst working on a review for Xiaomi Taiwan for these earbuds (originally titled simply "Xiaomi Hybrid IEMs"), they contacted me to change the name of my review.
 
 圈鐵耳機英文的正確名字是 In-ear Headphones Pro

 
Translated for you guys: The correct English name is In-ear Headphones Pro 

 
So the full official name should be: Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones Pro. The official Taiwanese URL is also: http://www.mi.com/tw/headphonespro/
 
That said, I don't know if the other international divisions of Xiaomi will use the same name, for example Xiaomi Singapore and Malaysia don't use the word "Pistons" in their product page.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 2:47 AM Post #378 of 856
  Oh yeah just to let you guys know, whilst working on a review for Xiaomi Taiwan for these earbuds (originally titled simply "Xiaomi Hybrid IEMs"), they contacted me to change the name of my review.
 
 
 
So the full official name should be: Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones Pro. The official Taiwanese URL is also: http://www.mi.com/tw/headphonespro/
 
That said, I don't know if the other international divisions of Xiaomi will use the same name, for example Xiaomi Singapore and Malaysia don't use the word "Pistons" in their product page.

 
Yep, unfortunately the name differs depending on the region. In Europe, as far as I've seen it's either called "Iron Ring" or "Piston Iron". In UK and Israel it's "Xiaomi Mi In-Ear Headphones Quantie". The name "In-Ear Headphones Pro" is usually used in Asia.
What I can be sure about is "Xiaomi Hybrid" is no where near an acceptable name, at most "Quantie" (Just like the original name for the Piston is Huosai) or the direct translation "Iron Ring" are more fitting.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 8:57 AM Post #379 of 856
I think in my email correspondence with the Xiaomi social media person asking about the IEM's English name I've probably got a response from someone authoritatively higher up.
 
早就發佈了,很久了 http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/9739798/xiaomi-mi-in-ear-headphones-fourth-generation 而且小米耳機系列,一直都是 Mi In-ear Headphones,從來都沒有改過。

Translation:
The official name has always been out. <Verge article with the name: "Mi In-ear Headphones Pro">
Also the Xiaomi headphones series has always been using the name "Mi In-ear Headphones", and has never been changed.

 
With the second line likely referring to all the different names on third-party websites.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 10:42 AM Post #381 of 856
 
I disagree. The Chinese use:
"动圈(单元)" (translates to "Moving coil (unit)") for a dynamic driver unit.
"动铁(单元)" (translates to "Iron (unit)") for a balanced armature.
 
http://www.1more.com/product/show-218.html

 
"圈铁" means exactly that, an Iron Ring. And I don't think it has anything to do with the driver units, I think they refer to the large "ring" you see externally on the housing.

 
As a Chinese who speaks and writes Chinese my whole life, I can tell you a direct translation of "圈铁" to 'iron ring' is just terrible. There are words in Chinese that should not be directly translated to another language based on their literal meaning, and "圈铁" is one of them.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 11:16 AM Post #382 of 856
As a Chinese who speaks and writes Chinese my whole life, I can tell you a direct translation of "圈铁" to 'iron ring' is just terrible. There are words in Chinese that should not be directly translated to another language based on their literal meaning, and "圈铁" is one of them.

Very well, you just forgot to mention what IS the correct translation.
Seriously, who cares? If they are being sold as Xiaomi Hybrid all over the place why not call them just that. Calling them anything different than the name they are commonly sold as is completely illogical.

They are sold by third-parties as Hybrid BECAUSE people started calling them like that, not the other way around.

To conclude this, the most proper name would be Quantie, just as used in the MI.com url, just like Piston is actually Huosai. That's their Chinese names and it's %100 official.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 1:40 PM Post #383 of 856
Very well, you just forgot to mention what IS the correct translation.

 
'圈铁‘ is short for  '动圈动铁多单元混合耳机’, which means 'multi-driver headphone with moving coil and balanced armature hybrid configuration' - most of us here just like to call this kind of headphone 'hybrid' for short. You called it 'iron ring' (*which by the way, should have been 'ring iron') is a very literal way of misunderstanding what those words are really referring to. In other words, '圈铁‘ is the Chinese way of saying 'hybrid' - it is the difference in culture, language structure and grammatical usage that results in the difference in how English and Chinese shorten words, even though they both mean the same thing. So unless you really know your Chinese, I don't think arguing about it really helps anyone in anyway.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 1:54 PM Post #384 of 856
'圈铁‘ is short for  '动圈动铁多单元混合耳机’, which means 'multi-driver headphone with moving coil and balanced armature hybrid configuration' - most of us here just like to call this kind of headphone 'hybrid' for short. You called it 'iron ring' (*which by the way, should have been 'ring iron') is a very literal way of misunderstanding what those words are really referring to. In other words, '圈铁‘ is the Chinese way of saying 'hybrid' - it is the difference in culture, language structure and grammatical usage that results in the difference in how English and Chinese shorten words, even though they both mean the same thing. So unless you really know your Chinese, I don't think arguing about it really helps anyone in anyway.

Or your Chinese buddies Xiaomi could just give it an official international name and be done with it, so you can't complain that an English speaking person wants to understand how exaclty the product he paid for is called, and how the hell can someone "shorten" a whole sentence (or whatever you call it) to 2 characters that translate to "ring iron". Naming something by reference to something else that you need to be Chinese to understand and then selling those anonymous earphones worldwide is stupid. Isn't so hard to understand me literally right?
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 1:59 PM Post #385 of 856
Or your Chinese buddies Xiaomi could just give it an official international name and be done with it, so you can't complain that an English speaking person wants to understand how exaclty the product he paid for is called, and how the hell can someone "shorten" a whole sentence (or whatever you call it) to 2 characters that translate to "ring iron". Naming something by reference to something else that you need to be Chinese to understand and then selling those anonymous earphones worldwide is stupid. Isn't so hard to understand me literally right?

 
..and if it pissed you off that much, write to them: http://www.mi.com/en/contact/
 
case closed.
 
Dec 16, 2015 at 2:54 PM Post #387 of 856
Has anyone else been having problems with the Kevlar reinforced cable? It twists and bends a lot when I take these IEMs out of my pocket, and feels like it's going to break veey quickly.


I have the same problem with the hybrids - and I had it with the Piston 3s, too...
Although I try to leave the cables alone as best as I can and never wind them up tightly they get a 90° bend directly at the headphone jack and even manage to squeeze out from the kevlar sheath. (I would have included an image but I don't have the permission to do so, yet)
 
I preferred the Piston 3 Youth Edition for its plastic cable - no problem with that.
 
As for the sound - out of the box I found them very screechy but it has normalized since and I like them like I did the Piston 3.
 
Dec 17, 2015 at 3:20 AM Post #390 of 856
   
I knew from day one it just isn't iron ring or worse, ring iron. But this chap wouldn't budge even when we refer it to it as the hybrid.


I never asked you what you "refer it to", the question was the official name, not your "community invented" name, just like "Piston" was a literal translation as well, not an official name.
 
Me:
Hello,
There's a lot of confusion over the official international name for the new earphones. There are many variations like:
Xiaomi Hybrid
Xiaomi Iron
Xiaomi Iron Ring
Xiaomi Piston Iron
Xiaomi Quantie
 
Could you please tell me the official English name for these earphones?
Just like Housai translates to Piston, what does Quantie translates to?
 
Mi Customer Service for the USA:
Thank you for letting us know of your inquiry,
May I please know where did you find all these Xiaomi earpiece models ?
Kindly for your information,
Currently we have not yet confirm on timeline of the piston in-ear collections launching onto Euro/USA market for official selling,
Unfortunately we are truly sorry for the inconvenience you have encountered,
Hopefully we shall soon be expanding our selling market with varies items in the near future,
Please kindly keeping up with us on the facebook page for the fresh update of the launching models/colors/price,
https://www.facebook.com/xiaomichina
We are sincerely appreciated for your understanding and patience with us kindly!
 
Me:
You're evading the question. I know it's not available in Europe, I bought both Piston 3 and Quantie from AliExpress, and I'm loving these earphones, but no one knows how to call them outside of China. How would you translate Quantie?
 
<Gave him a bunch of links to Google searches>
 
Mi Customer Service for the USA:
We appreciate your interest twoard our earphones.
The links you send us we saw is the same product.
In Chinese, we called it:
 
 小米圈铁耳机
 
Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
Please understand.
 
Me:
Are you serious? Does it look like I read Chinese? As far as I can say all it says is "Xiaomi ring iron earphones", does it make sense?
 
Mi Customer Service for the USA:
We appreciate your interest toward our products.
Currently, the earphone you said haven't officially launched in your region yet.
As to English name, we called it "Mi in ear headphones pro".
Please see attached pictures.
 
Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
Please understand.

 
What a bunch of clueless slackers. Even the cheapest Chinese company gives international model numbers.
Anyway there you go - the official name is Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro, while "Piston" was never an official name anyway.
You have now:
Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones Basic = Huosai v1
Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones (2nd Gen) = Huosai v2
Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones (3rd Gen) = Huosai v3
Xiaomi In-Ear Headphones Pro = Quantie
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top