Kz dq6
Tanchjim tanya
Sony mh755/750
Are your options for quality bass in that range.
Havent heard the cra yet.
Worth noting that all of those IEMs have mic cable options, with the exception of the MH755 (MH750 has a mic).
Don’t do it, nearly every Aria craps out before it gets to 6 months. The cable connectors get loose, and eventually one of them shorts out. Moondrop didn’t bother painting the Starfield well, but at least that still made sound a year later. It is pathetic, and I can’t recommend an IEM that didn’t last 4 months for me, and never left my apartment.
There’s little direct correlation between price and quality, there are several hundred or even several thousand dollar IEMs that sound worse than £25 ones.
If you’re really looking for bass, I’d also consider the TFZ No.3, it’s a bit old but it’s $42 on AliExpress now (was $109 on launch a couple of years ago) and it certainly has bass. Can be a little piercing in the treble but better tuned than most KZ and a bargain at $42 (£31).
I would recommend the Aria over this for most people, and I prefer the Aria personally. It’s more balanced and less piercing in the treble. But for bass, specifically, the TFZ No.3 is excellent at that price, it’s a lot of fun.
The Tin HiFi T3 Plus is another option that is reportedly quite similar to the Aria, but a little cheaper, similar level (some prefer one, some the other) and more “fun” profile, with slightly more bass emphasis. This I think would be a good option if you don’t want to go all in on super boosted bass, want something a bit closer to neutral but still want a little more than the Aria. I haven’t heard it, have it on order.
I have the CCA CRA on order, I don’t have it yet. I suspect it’s going to be very decent for the money, based on what reliable reviewers have said about it. Particularly if you want something with extra bass.
Conversely, my Aria is fine. It’s a very popular IEM, so there are going to be some problems. Have you tried contacting Moondrop for warranty? I have heard suggestions they may be reasonably decent on this.
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No.3 is a basshead iem, only recommended to people that want a lot of bass. Not a good rec if they want quality.
I have and they were not reasonable, they basically said after 90 days it wasn’t their problem.
Not that I should have to, but I will probably repair them myself at some point, and when I do I will also repaint them, since the paint is chipping, just not as fast as the Starfield did.
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On Amazon they replied saying there’s one year warranty
And one month return policy stated on the listing
Can you share some of these negative reviews as I can only seem to find positive ones on the Aria
If you search on this forum or Moondrop’s thread on Head-Fi.org, you’ll definitely find negative reviews about Moondrop’s QC issue. A lot of these are discussed among enthusiasts on forums or in Discord.
I sincerely advise avoiding Amazon reviews because that’s where most of the shillers live.
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Thanks I’ve read about the QC concerns which is off putting
I’m actually now tempted to get the highly rated CCA CRA as the price is a lot more favourable:
The Aria would cost me £85 (including cable with mic
Whereas the CCA CRA is only £11 (with mic) on Ali express
I’m finding it hard to justify spending £74 more for similar rated bass/sq iems
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Try the CCA CRA then, it’s much less of an investment. Many reviewers are saying it’s very good… for $10-15. I haven’t seen many saying it’s as good as the Aria though. I have it order, haven’t heard it yet though. I don’t expect it to be as good as the Aria.
Regarding the negative reviews and QC issues, I have seen multiple people reporting the paint bubbling thing. IMO, for me, this is only an aesthetic issue. It hasn’t happened on my Aria, but if it did it doesn’t affect the sound and wouldn’t overly concern me.
I have seen I think two people reporting the internal wiring breaking. And this is one here and one on Reddit so not even 100% that it’s not the same report. I think you need to remember though that this is an extremely popular IEM. I don’t think QC issues on this are excessive, I think you’re going to get a few reports because of how many of them there are out there. I don’t get the impression there’s are widespread major QC problems with this set. This doesn’t mean that some individuals haven’t had issues, sure they have.
I’d suspect the paint bubbling thing is more common than the wiring breaking entirely thing, there have been several reports of that, it’s a thing. But again, hasn’t happened to my one.
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I’ve seen reports of one channel cutting out, sockets loosening, loose connection, faulty cable, or the faceplate falling off. These feedbacks were seen here on HFGF, discord, or HeadFi, within the audiophile community, so I don’t think it’s a “large quantity amplifies QC issues” kind of scenario.
I personally owned a Moondrop Variations, the 3.5mm modular connector came slightly faulty out of the box, and the sockets of one side became slightly wobbly after a few cable swaps. Quashed my high expectation towards Moondrop real quick.
I have four Moondrops: Starfield, Aria, Blessing 2 Dusk and Variations, none of which have had any issues.
I have had QC issues with some other IEMs, although not I think to the point I’d discount the entire brand either.
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The one year warranty is from Moondrop, and they don’t stand behind it, they basically say you should have taken better care of it. My Aria never left my apartment, and my desk has a felt pad on it, ffs. I am not sure how much more I was supposed to baby the thing.
My own review is on Amazon, which is that it was a great set for the 4 months that it lasted. Most people aren’t going to bother to fix their reviews.
The Aria thread here is a tale of woe. The loose cable connectors were pretty much from the the release. I seem to recall one person who returned theirs 3 times, then gave up and bought something else. Someone here just had another one die this week here, and it isn’t like hifiguides has tons of people.
Also @blorg about the internal wiring breaking. Go look at the photos in the Aria thread, and you should wonder how they ever thought that would work long term. That isn’t a QC problem, that is a design problem. Those wires weren’t insulated, were put inside a metal case, and the cable connector wasn’t correctly mounted, what did they think would happen?
The paint issues on the Starfield were substantial enough that even the most shilly of the YouTubers even talked about it. The Aria is not their first model with a poorly mounted cable connector. Moondrop has a history of design and QC issues, it is who they are, and their warranty is worthless. That combination tells me don’t waste your money.
@blorg you are correct that I have had issues with other IEMs, but those companies actually wanted to fix the problem, not tell me to get stuffed after buying 4 IEMs from them. The only audio company worse than Moondrop is TaoTronics, and they openly buy reviews on Amazon.
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L understand,
I will buy the aria and a cheaper one
Im quite torn between the CRC CRA and BLON BL-03 , for my cheaper pair
￡6.20 32％ Off | CCA CRA Wired Hanging in-Ear Earphone HiFi Headset Noice Cancelling Sport Gameing Earbuds Sport Earphones 3.5mm With Mic
￡8.42 I’ll％ Off | New Blon BL-03 Professional 10mm Carbon Nanotube Diaphragm High Dynamic HIFI Earphone with detachable Cable zs10 Pro
Buying from Ali express does make me doubt they are genuine but do they really make replicas of such budget earphones?
The reviews are positive but I don’t really trust
Of the two, which would you buy?
Used for making calls, watching YouTube and listening to bassy hiphop and rnb music , on iPhone/ iMac
We had two people in the last week on this forum that had theirs die. The Aria thread here only has 197 replies from fewer than 50 people. Starting in September discussing the poor construction quality of the Aria is the primary topic of the thread.
From what I can tell on that thread 4 failed of 49 users, and two more have loose cable connectors that I don’t know the current status of. Only using the confirmed failures, that is a over an 8% failure rate, and this IEM is barely six month old.
That seems excessive
BL-03 is highly acclaimed, but it’s again a norm to replace the stock cables and tips with aftermarket ones. The stock cable and tips are just blatantly bad. Also, there’s no replicas of the BL-03, they should all be legit, you just need to go for more reputable shops on Ali.
Adding the replacement for cables and tips, BL-03 just more than doubled the price. KZ and CRA currently are good going stock with a decent cable with mic and some mid tier tips.
As for the Aria QC issue, I’m not trying to discredit a brand, just sharing some feedback from the forum plus my personal experience. At the end of the day, your miles may vary. If you do plan to get the Aria, I strongly suggest using Amazon for Amazon’s easy return policy and not AliEx.
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There are basically no fakes on chi-fi products. So dont worry about it. But if its a product from Japan or any other country (like Sony or apple), its highly likely to be fake.
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I don’t think they are fakes, I don’t think there are fakes. The cheaper £8.43 / $11.28for the Blons is for a cable though, not the IEMs. This is how Aliexpress works, it shows the cheapest price in the listing, and sellers often exploit that by including a cable or tips or something cheap, to make their listing stand out. It’s a bit annoying.
I have the Blon BL-03, they are good for their price. They are a set I have had a QC issue though, the connector is a little bit loose. Other people they have been fine, and mine, it’s not that loose, I have to really wiggle it to get it to disconnect, but it does.
The cable on the Blon is crap but it works. It’s no worse than KZ cables. I replaced it for aesthetic reasons but you don’t have to. Regarding the tips, I use third party tips on everything, mostly Azla Xelastec or SpinFit, so do for the Blons (currently Xelastec, have also used SpinFit CP100 and CP145). You don’t necessarily have to do this though, the fit problem with the Blons most people have is the short stubby stem has insuffient insertion depth to keep them in the ears. This isn’t ultimately really a tip problem, even replacing the tips (unless you use something like the dual flange CP240) doesn’t really fix it. What does fix it is putting a little washer under the tip, and this fixes it even using the stock tips, which are then fine, or as good as any other stock tips on a $20 IEM. I did try with stock tips and the washer, they worked for me. And were impossible before the washer.
I don’t have the CCA CRA yet so can’t say. They also look good, but are a less known phenomenon.
For the price, does it really need this much hand wringing? Try one, see if you like it.
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