Looks like the midrange is going to be my favourite thing.

MD went nuts with S8, still getting compared.

I enjoyed reading your review. The bass is the best that I have ever heard in terms of texture and details. The DaVinci does have a dip at 6 kHz which prevents female vocals from having harsh "s" and "sh" sounds. This dip is perhaps a bit too deep and perhaps a bit too broad, and is somewhat affecting the timbre. The sub bass and bass is 2 dB too strong for my personal preferences. There also is a mid bass tuck which is centered at around 200 Hz. I have completed a couple of quick rounds of simple parametric EQ to address these issues. I removed half of the mid bass tuck and reduced the intensity of the sub bass and bass. Even without EQ, the DaVinci noticeably outperforms the Performer 5 in terms of transparency. When I say "noticeably," I don't mean that it is a night and day difference at all. I simply mean that I notice the difference. I will play around with additionally tweaking the 6 kHz dip after having a good breakfast. I want to make the 6 kHz dip less deep.

Some corrections for my earlier post. I initially was using Tri Clarion eartips with the DaVinci since I knew that the DaVinci inherently has a bit of extra sub bass and bass response. I decided to change those eartips to the Azla SednaEarfitLight Short eartips. The sub bass and bass now is close to spot on for me without EQ. It turns out that the Tri Clarion eartips somehow and somewhat muddied up the sub bass (I really noticed this for kick drums) such that I had to use EQ to reduce the sub bass and somewhat reduce the bass. This is perhaps because the inner bores of the Tri Clarion eartips are made from significantly softer material in comparison to the Azla eartips. With the Azla eartips, the sub bass and bass now is remarkably tight and textured and detailed, and is not too much except for possibly and perhaps 1 dB more energy in the sub bass versus what I personally prefer. With the Azla eartips, I also now do not see a need to tweak the DaVinci's 6 kHz dip in the upper midrange.

@atechreviews Yes bro, waiting for the SM4 myself haha.

Nice review!

I feel like either there's QC variance or people are genuinely listening to these at different volumes or smth that can affect their judgement on these..

There's a lot of praise, but all that don't like them all mention the same things - better at low to mid volume, shouty..

Hi! Thank you for the review! I am sold and eagerly awaiting for my pair to arrive!

Out of these three dongle/dac/amp would you think will best pair up with the AFUL Explorer?

Apple Lightning to 3.5mm
FiiO KA11
iFi Go Link

Hi @domizz

The Explorer is essentially easily driven, so even a weaker Apple dongle should do the job IMO. Don't really need big power.

These risk-taking tunings always impress me