My Hiby FC6 arrived yesterday.
Really enjoying it with the Geek Wold GK200 so far.
Very much a natural and organic listening experience.
Love R2R DACs!!!
Also, my Hi-Fri Audio Barcelona (10 BA set) is completed and en route. TBH, I am completely unsure what to expect from this IEM but will share my thoughts ASAP.
2023 has been a banner year for music lovers!
Anyone here curious about the Hype4 and Hype10 at all? These IEMs are at an odd spot. Too pricy to be interesting to this thread, and too cheap and “normie” for the other thread. Still debating myself whether I should just blind buy a Hype10 or be patient and wait for AFUL Cantor.
You're right about the Hype series being in an odd spot. I think the Hype2 is already overpriced so pricing the Hype4 at $100 more is a bit much. The Hype10 is also nearing kilobuck territory. For $100 more than the Hype10, you can get a tribrid with the Monarch MKIII.
I had the Hype2 for a bit and I thought it was good, but it didn't really wow me at that price point. I guess I was expecting more low-end since it has 2x DDs. There have been a bunch of recent releases at the $200 price point that I'd take over the $300 Hype2. That could be why I haven't been too curious about the Hype4 and Hype10.
My Hiby FC6 arrived yesterday.
Really enjoying it with the Geek Wold GK200 so far.
Very much a natural and organic listening experience.
Love R2R DACs!!!
Also, my Hi-Fri Audio Barcelona (10 BA set) is completed and en route. TBH, I am completely unsure what to expect from this IEM but will share my thoughts ASAP.
2023 has been a banner year for music lovers!
Just received Conch and Nuo from 11.11. I'm not a reviewer, but I want to share some impressions. First impression of the Conch is that while the bass and treble are very good, the mids feels a bit thin. And the nozzle is not angled enough, causing the fit to be kind of weird. A deeper insertion causing the front facing part of the iem pointing outwards from the head.
So far I like Nuo better. Perfect fit with a perfect angle on the nozzle. It disappears in the ear. Very musical and lush sounding for an ultra budget iem. Guess I'm lucky, my ear canals are not picking up the treble peak that some people hear. So far my favourite budget set out of Waner, QKZ HBB, Hola, MS1 Galaxy, Castor Black, Castor Silver.
Nuo feels like a great first allrounder for beginners to start their journey with.
(I bought the Nuo + Tripowin Grace bundle for $20, crazy value.)
EDIT: Stuffed some foam into the red nozzle. Big improvement on the Conch, IMHO. Finally I can really enjoy it. It's a better iem than NUO, Better details, soundstage etc. Just couldn't enjoy it stock. NUO is still a solid budget set, with better fit. Really happy with both now.
Funny enough I might edit my review because the stock tips actually work the best lol. They seem to dampen the 9khz and push that peak back to 11khz which is A LOT more tolerable than having excess 8.5-9khz energy.
With the Dunu SS tips that was what I wrote my review on, the SS tips do not work well with this set. Also tri clarion clears I used which were pretty good, but I think stock is the best. There is not doubt, this set STILL HAS ELEVATED 9-11khz(to my ears). No matter the eartips…but it’s a lot more tolerable now with the stock tips which I should’ve tried first…doih.
Sibilance is tuned down and the elevated 10khz region does really bring out the stage a lot. They’re pretty damn good now for the 20$ I got them for. Tone and timbre is greatly improved although I still think wan’er is king of tone from all the budget crap I have.
Funny enough I might edit my review because the stock tips actually work the best lol. They seem to dampen the 9khz and push that peak back to 11khz which is A LOT more tolerable than having excess 8.5-9khz energy.
With the Dunu SS tips that was what I wrote my review on, the SS tips do not work well with this set. Also tri clarion clears I used which were pretty good, but I think stock is the best. There is not doubt, this set STILL HAS ELEVATED 9-11khz(to my ears). No matter the eartips…but it’s a lot more tolerable now with the stock tips which I should’ve tried first…doih.
Sibilance is tuned down and the elevated 10khz region does really bring out the stage a lot. They’re pretty damn good now for the 20$ I got them for. Tone and timbre is greatly improved although I still think wan’er is king of tone from all the budget crap I have.
That's funny. I had the same issue with the Nuo being way too sibilant on some tracks. I tried tip rolling with 10+ different ear tips and did not think to try the stock tips. Oh well, too late for me now. I gave it away to a friend.
Loaner set from @suman134 is the EA1000 and had a brief listening session with the latter. Impassions to follow after more burn in. Any thoughts on the filters?
So the EA1000 has 3 tuning filters/nozzles, but all are still furnishing a brighter Harman tonality. That's Simgot's house sound, with an emphasis on the upper midrange/lower treble.
Spot on! Foam in red nozzle fixed the Conch for me.
It got so much praise for the tunable nozzles, but the blue and black are so sibilant they're completely useless. TRN should've skipped the nozzles and they could have cut the prize even more.
I still need to do more extensive A/Bing but in short, the FC6 has a better stage and spatial imaging.
The RU7 has an analogue-like sound [as does the FC6], but the RU7 is slightly "blunted" for lack of a better word and I feel this softens the layering and imaging.
Also, FC6 has a slightly warmer presentation. I do wish it had a 4.4 output as well.
As referenced in my signature, I struggle with describing what I am hearing and these are very early impressions, so you know...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well after a few days I feel I have a pretty good idea about what the SuperTFZ Crown is about. The switch actually makes it slightly less intense? Where I have to state after trying the included cable as well as rotating in a few cables and ear-tips that the Crown offers good stage as well as separation for the money, though vocals can be borderline too intense at times. So it is both warm and with a bass boost and slightly pushed as far as the Pinna Gain area. It goes with many styles of music and offers a form of dramatic truth in regards to different DAPs and amps......having a clear honesty about it. Where in practice of use...........the Crown can be swayed a few subtle ways into which you find maybe better playback, or lesser depending on the quality of your source. Same as cables, same as ear-tips, get it a warm amplifier with expanded stage and the Crown will transfer that information directly to you, though it will always have a portion of that bright vocal intensity. That is a section of charms where probably it is going to be subjective, if you're after that style of forwardness or not. Having said all that there is a form of value here especially with a good amplifier........as the Crown is not going to cover-up a bad signal..........as it really does offer great transparency for the money. Transparency as well as a big stage, dynamic separated bass and nice itemized treble. Probably the hardest thing about trying to nail down what sound the Crown offers, is it is so different each and every way you try to use it. Transients are fast and timbre is exactly right all the time. It is truly the flagship sound they were after as far as overall emersion and musicality, though keep in mind the level of Pinna intensity is going to be either liked or not as there is really no way around it not getting it included with your sound signature, even with the switch in the off position. The benefits are you do get vocal details and emotional interaction due to such a response. Instrumental music gets a clean and focused presentation, far better than the price-point would have you believe.
Thanks, there is some great suggestions here. Everything you are saying I completely agree with and the 2 iems you mentioned were previously recommendedfor me aswell. It's just that others are telling me that the kato are just as good as those iems with male vocals so it would not be worth getting them.
Also, I have read that male vocals in particular aren't specialised in most iems and it is difficult to get them sounding top notch. I agree with this after hearing countless iems and am still on the hunt for that perfect iem for me with dd iems being my preference. I will wait and am hearing that dunu are working on a vernus 2.0 which is exactly the type of iem I should be looking into.
Yes, I mean I'm not as experienced with vocals as I do enjoy them but in part of a song. And after another period of time, the Crown maybe could be what you are looking for, but keep in mind that female vocals are even going to be slightly more intense than male vocals, the way the Crown is tuned.
Recently I received something unexpected - a Xuelin Clear digital audio player, which I'm currently in the process of reviewing.
This is the first non Android-based player I've used in a number of years and it's led to me re-discovering my FLAC & DSD album collection anew.
More importantly, this diminutive 157 gram DAP sounds superb - far beyond what I expected, in fact to my ears it's much more impressive sonically than my Astell & Kern SR35 which is absolutely no slouch and twice as expensive. I hope to have the full review up in a week or two.
Recently I received something unexpected - a Xuelin Clear digital audio player, which I'm currently in the process of reviewing.
This is the first non Android-based player I've used in a number of years and it's led to me re-discovering my FLAC & DSD album collection anew.
More importantly, this diminutive 157 gram DAP sounds superb - far beyond what I expected, in fact to my ears it's much more impressive sonically than my Astell & Kern SR35 which is absolutely no slouch and twice as expensive. I hope to have the full review up in a week or two.
The interface is very bare bones - so the experience is similar.
Forgoing Android has obvious convenience & usability penalties but the benefits appear to be less size & bulk, lower cost and better sound. Wasn't so long ago I was lauding the SR35 for delivering sound that blew my mind for such a tiny device, but sonically the Xuelin Clear is clearly on a higher tier to my ears - amazing for 157 grams.
Perhaps omitting Android is the secret to that L&P sound? This DAP isn't R2R nor is it priced in the same stratosphere, but does have some of that same analogue magic which is absolutely not what I was expecting given it uses ESS DACs.. if anything I was expecting the usual "Sabre glare", but actually it sounds quite different.
The interface is very bare bones - so the experience is similar.
Forgoing Android has obvious convenience & usability penalties but the benefits appear to be less size & bulk, lower cost and better sound. Wasn't so long ago I was lauding the SR35 for delivering sound that blew my mind for such a tiny device, but sonically the Xuelin Clear is clearly on a higher tier to my ears - amazing for 157 grams.
Perhaps omitting Android is the secret to that L&P sound? This DAP isn't R2R nor is it priced in the same stratosphere, but does have some of that same analogue magic which is absolutely not what I was expecting given it uses ESS DACs.. if anything I was expecting the usual "Sabre glare", but actually it sounds quite different.
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