šŸ”¶ 7HZ Timeless Planar

Finally received my set. Unfortunately, itā€™s one of the bad QA sets

The quality control issue is the casing comes apart. Mine only happens with the left hand side

Waiting to hear back from Shen Zhen Audio to see what theyā€™ll do

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Thatā€™s a bummer. Maybe try putting them back with instant super glue?

Does it come completely apart? Would be interesting to see the driver and any acoustic filters/treatment etcā€¦

Hopefully youā€™ll get a replacement soon!

Iā€™ll wait to hear back from Shen Zhen Audio first before I put too much glue on and seize up the driver
:joy:

It doesnā€™t completely come apart, kinda stuck with that gap. I havenā€™t tried to apply force to see if it comes completely apart (yet)

Hoping they will just send a single replacement drive, so thereā€™s less going to landfill

If I get a replacement, will definitely try to crack the IEM open and take some photos for you guys

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This really hurts my feelings since i just received the Timeless 2 days ago. How much did they pay you, HOOOOW MUUUUCH :stuck_out_tongue: :slight_smile: .
Joking aside, race can be won by a milisecond, or can be lost by not finishing at all. So finding a way to quantify things imo would be better.Maybe 10 mark scale? This way looks too absolute and not fully informative.

Imaging aside since that part doesnt bother me, by how much(if you can quantify) is the i3Pro better, and do i want it given i already have the timeless?

And back on the rating topic, what if there is a price difference between 2 iems, when quantified it would be easier to decide say if the price of the better rated one is higher, do i want to pay the premium for the better rated one or do i want to save few bucks by not sacrificing much.

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That is still just a short to TLDR summary of the comparison that I have after comparing them on time specific tracks.

They are based on sound only. Price does not matter on that conclusion.

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They have arrived. No shell issues.

Iā€™m using the balanced cable with the L&P W2. They are driven with ease and with plenty of authority.

My quick first impressions are in comparison to my Aonic 5ā€™s.

They are just as detailed, if not, even more so. Very resolving.
Timbre is much more natural, more like a really clean DD than multi-BA.
Imaging and separation are excellent within the soundstage.
Soundstage is wide but shallow, like an oval rather than a sphere (see image)
Soundstage has a lot of height.
Tonality, well, just what I was looking for, much like the SE846 but with treble extension.
They are dynamic, they are energetic if they need to be. Almost a touch too forward.
Fit is fine, you donā€™t notice them after a while.
Isolation is okay, probably 1/2 as good as Shureā€™s.
Frequency range sweep Iā€™m perceiving 14Hz to 17.5Khz, Big peak at 8.5Khz and 11Khz.
(SE846, 20Hz-15.5Khz; Aonic 5, 17Hz-16.5Khz)
Bass is controlled and tight but feels a little pushed (forced, eager) at the moment but that may be noticing the effects of compression on the mix?

Overall Iā€™m impressed so far. Iā€™ll give them more time but nothing big is standing out as a problem so far.

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One quick issue, Iā€™m getting EMI buzz when I plug my Surface Pro into the charger. This is only a problem with the Timeless. Iā€™ve tried cables I know I donā€™t have the issue with on other IEMā€™s, so Iā€™m guessing this might be a planar thing? If I touch the 4.4mm Jack the buzz goes away. Iā€™ll try a USB cable with ferrite beads on it.

Anyone else such issues?

Are the cables good? Did you tried cable swapping?

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7Hertz Timeless - Reviews | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

Rank: B

Probably the first planar iem with good tonality, but oh boy is it butchered by the almost zero depth stage and a result, horrible imaging.

Skip it unless you are rich (although you would have better options to get in that case) or if you really want a planar iem without using EQ (if you can use EQ, the Tin P1 is better, or if you are ok with just it having a planar, the tribrid Tri I3 Pro will be leagues better).

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Yeah tried two other known good cables and also tried the Timeless cable on other IEMā€™s. Only the Timeless has this issue.

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Some IEMs are just more sensitive to things like that you could always try

This has helped or outright fixed buzzing or other noise floor issues on multiple IEMs I have and also allowed me to use amps that would have been too powerful to get any useful volume control. It will lower the max volume so it might not help in specific circumstances.

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ā€œhuge soundstage and fantastic imagingā€ dfā€¦ this is the total opposite of what @Rikudou_Goku says. Sounds like people are getting different units.

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Iā€™ve now had more time to A/B against the Aonic 5ā€™s and they sound unbelievably similar I was having a hard time choosing one over the other. In fact at times where I wasnā€™t paying much attention, I forgot which pair I had in!

The 7Hz bass has shown me that the Aonic does have the sub-bass and is just as linear but not quite as prominent. So that doesnā€™t bother me as I think the Aonic is a touch more detailed/faster.

The two points that swung it towards the Aonic 5 for me are:

  1. Male voices in certain situations can sound a bit thin strangely, and female voices can sometimes edge on a weird sibilance (but not really), or sort of ā€œmouseyā€ squeak. The Aonic 5 presents the voices better and where the 7Hz squeak, thereā€™s actual detail on the Shures.
  2. The soundstage just doesnā€™t cut it. I listened to a lot of Roger Waters (Pros & Cons, Amused to Death) and although things arenā€™t out of place they just donā€™t have the depth and therefore separation, but itā€™s a hard call most of the time.

These are minor complaints. Plus just the overall feel and quality of the Shureā€™s makes me feel more confident in them.

Iā€™m certain the 7Hz Timeless are a safe and confident choice for most genres except maybe orchestral stuff and music that requires a soundstage depth, otherwise hard to fault for me.

IF I didnā€™t have the Aonic 5ā€™s already (with warranty etc) and was choosing between the two just now, Iā€™d probably choose the 7Hz and save Ā£300. In fact, definitely!

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Hm. I wonder how the soundstage of my unit is gonna turn out. Letā€™s hope the QC is getting better.

Thats the I3 pro infront of his chart. I never did a video because the vocals are so completely fucked.
To give an example " The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. Really anything with female and male vocals.
I assumed it was a EDM set??

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So ive been listening 7hz Timeless for couple of days, connected to Fiio BTR3K Balanced and Shanling UP2 (LDAC 990 44/16). While the power output of those might not satisfy everyone, i can say it gets plenty loud for me, my threshold for very loud is around 72db. With fiio been running it 20-28 notches out of 32 depending on level of the song, so there is still some spare for power peaks. On shanling i cant tell exactly as it has 64 levels and no indication, but there is also spare left.

So is Timeless a detailed iem? Yes, indeed it is. In the process of listening to what not from my library, i did a quite a few tone sweeps to make sure the IEMs arent at fault :slight_smile: but its actually the planars catching few scratchy sounds and mastering inherent clipping that was in some tracks that i didnt notice previously.

Bass is plenty and more than i expected, clean, rumble is there, but some songs can sound bit veiled to my ears. Reducing 1-2 db at 250Hz with GEQ helps the situation for those tracks. That 2hz peak can be bit harsh on certain tracks, especially with female vocals and some instruments that are on the higher registers(like high brass/violin notes or similar).
Using the soft silicone tips that came on the set, as they do fit pretty nice and are sticky so dont fall off the ear. Could be possible not touching the EQ at all but alleviating this with some tip rolling, havent gotten much into this.

As for the sounstage , i find whats already been said mostly true, and was kind of bummed out as i read those comments just few hours before receiving my unit. After listening it i found said stuff to be mostly true, but after receiving it i realized its in no way a dealbreaker or reducing my enjoyment with the set. Worth noting though, is that in the process of evaluating there were some songs that made me think my bluetooth receiver disconnected and sound was comming from the speakers in front of me. So it seems theyre capable of depth, just depends on how the song was recorded i suppose. Ex. athmospheric/reverb acoustic guitar ones are there. One of those songs with depth was David Munyon - Looking at the Rain.

So bit conflicting with what others said, but this is how i understand soundstage and imagingā€¦ There is a blob that is the soundstage and it can have depth(projected at distance from you)/heigt/width, and then within that blob is the imaging that gives you cues where instruments are. Someone correct me if im wrongā€¦
So with this being said, the 7Hz can have depth in the soundstage(projecting it infront of you and giving you the feeling that sound is comming from speakers), can be felt with that song i mentioned above, and i can hear it in this test pretty clear. Im getting the impression that the sound is comming from my speakers which are about 5 feet in front of me while dong the test.

So depth for the soundstage is there, just within that soundstage theyre not doing pretty good job of giving you the depth position of the instruments(like hints that singer/gutars are in front, drums in back).
Important thing to remember is that soundstage is also a brain thing, what your eyes see your brain will expect and your ears will hear. Since music is sort of an esoteric thing, expectations, mood, blood pressure in your pumpkin will have effect on how you interpret music also. Sometimes some song can sound harsh to you while other times it wont. Same with soundstage.
Ive had times when i was under an impression that iems lost soundstage which was previously there, to have it back at a different point. Im middleaged, so age might have to do something with it, idk, but these observations stand true in my case.

Someone mentioned that they wouldnt be good for watching movies, forgive me for not remembering who it was, but i have bit different oppinion on that subject. Deem them good for the purpose though not without some added help from sound processing. Namely Convolver with following impulses - Dolby Headphone Cinema/Room/Studio and HXR Theater Pro, give pretty good results for my taste, with depth being present and giving impression that youre hearing things comming from your speakers.

The Doors - Riders on the Storm, is imo pretty good demonstration of planar vs BA difference. My first planar set, so it was intersting to hear some pretty stark difference in this example. The second overdubbed track of Jims vocal where he whispers the lyrics sound just in place, smoother and much more coherent with first vocal track, while with BA its raspier/ghostlier and separated. I find do prefer the way planar sounds over BA.

All in all pretty satisfied, though its not without some gripes. Like missing nozzle tuning foam in the package. Ive seen them in some unboxing video, and then there was another unboxing that also didnt have them. Mine already have foam in the nozzle. So did anyone that got them with the foam in the baggy with the spare grills already has the foam in the nozzle? Or those that got the foam dont have it installed, and was left as option to the user?
There were some scratches on the metalic case i got. Same issues were present on the one unboxing available on youtube of the set, the guy had some dings on the iems too which couldnt be from the shipping due to the light weight, and them fitting pretty tightly in the case with the cable.
My case also had some pretty sloppy glue application and streaks of it near the hinge. Material inside is soft enoug and will do the job for protecting the iems, but its pretty thin and will wear out quickly if used frequently imo, also pretty cheap looking. They could have done a better job there.
While not big problem in the larger picture, still brings up some concerns regardind QC, that might or might not affect the iem itself after period of usage. Not the most expensive product, but not cheap either, and for the price i would expect bit more care taken. 7Hz has some space to grow in that area.

Oh, and almost forgotā€¦ First IEM with MMCX(been avoiding it successfuly so far), and i hate it from the bottom of my soul. And its not that its too stiff, it just doesnt inspire confidence in me, every time i unplug/plug im expecting something to break :slight_smile: as compared to 2 pin still much greater force is needed, 2 pin is so muuuch better imo. But maybe ill grow into trusting it, or even liking it, who knows. One of the mmcx connectors on the iem is bit looser on my set.

Havent used the stock cable at all, but switched straight away to, so cant comment on it.

Fit might be a problem for people with small ears, as with my medium ones, the shell touches the inner back part of the ear(is it ear labia?) and causes some pain after long wearing(5+ hours). Imo nicely rounding the edges would have been a much better choice instead of going with the slightly chamfered edges.
Though its not a problem wearing them for 3-4 hours for me, and this is with the small tips that came on the set, so they go in pretty deep. Putting on tips that would make it sit differently/more shallow could potentially eliminate that issue entirely.

With all said, would have i bought them knowing beforehand all the cons i mentionedā€¦ Yes.

Dont consider this a review in no shape or form, but just few observations that jumped in my face in the short period i had them. Im still high on my iem fix :), so best for few weeks to pass for potentially revised or unchanged oppinions and conclusions.

Pretty short post, EH? :slight_smile:

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Best review in balance so farā€¦and by a cash paying owner.
Bravo dude. :raised_hands:

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Due to polarity of opinions, Iā€™m on a market to buy a set I donā€™t need lolā€¦

Do we know anything about the stock on these? Are they coming back?

@hawaiibadboy do you know if Linsoul will have new batches?

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