Got 3 IEMS incoming. The Geek Wold GK10, the Audio Lokahi and the Alambic Ears Mundaka.
Prized at $45, $239 and $999 respectively.
It will be extraordinarily interesting to compare these three with the Ovidius B1 DAC/AMP dongle that I also have incoming.
Aaaah man, exciting times.
Fixed it for ya. 
I’ve been using the FD5 for the past 3 months and I’ve been loving it a lot. This iem can be a bit of a mixed bag for most but for me, it fits my music library (kpop) for the most part. The only part I didn’t like are a few vocal sibilance and recessed vocals in a few songs. Other than that, it’s pretty great for me and will continue to use it for a long time. It drives my Sony A55 very well (vol. 63/120) and on my macbook. The FD5 is a keeper for me.
It is pretty hard to find an IEM after the FD5, especially when I want to look for an upgrade. Like @Ahobaka , I’m actually looking at the Variations as well. Since I have experienced Hybrid and single DD, I’m quite curious how a tribid sounds like. But I am more on the single DD side and loved how natural it sounds.
I was looking at this IEM yesterday since it’s a single DD but due to some reviews saying it doesn’t justify the price, I have to look elsewhere. The look on this IEM does look pretty cool!
You could look into some of the single DD moondrop IEMs. If you get the Aria you can get a taste of their sound signature for not a ton of money and it also might help you decide if you want to eventually try their variations. I won’t say they are better then the FD5, but they are tuned differently to the FD5.
I actually had the Starfield and the left side unfortunately broke on me twice which led me to just replaced and upgraded it to the FD5 in the first place. I demo-ed the B2 a couple of times before and got a feel of how a neutral sounding IEM sounded like. I quite like it but was unsure at that moment and because I had bad QC experiences with the Starfield, I had to avoid Moondrop at the moment.
The B2 fits on me pretty well so I’m sure the Variations will do the same. I’m not in a rush to upgrade right now but it does look cool and based from the graph, the variations seems to be right up my alley.
I love my variations, though I just bought a dunu est112 that was being sold at a great price just so I could compare it to the variations.
Already a stack of iems! Hope you’re enjoying them!
I am, though funnily enough I keep going back to an odd IEM I bought on a whim because it was cheep and unique. The KBear Neon. It got me to trust BAs again after KZ and a few other ones had me thinking BA was not for me. Turns out badly tuned BAs are awful for me.
I honestly never tried a BA-only IEM before. The only time I tried something BA related was when I got my FH3 and that’s a hybrid iem. It sounded really really good but I still never understood the timbre sound of it.
That is probably why I keep using it off and on, it has a sound that none of my other IEMs have, but is also tuned kinda close to the ER2XR which I love. It just sounds different due to one being DD and the other being BA.
Yeah, it’s all about finding a great BA only IEM. It does make me curious how a quality BA only IEM sounds like compared to a Single DD IEM that I’m quite used to about.
I won’t recommend the Neon, personally I like it. Though I have seen others have QC issues, the nozzle is on the larger side for a bullet style, should be deep insertion IEM.
As far as the main difference. Everything is very fast and artificial. The bass has great speed, but none of the presence you would expect. It is like hearing all parts of the music but maybe not feeling all of the music.
Yeah I do heard and always read that the Bass in single DD is always the one to go with.
After using the FD5, I find myself liking the midrange slightly more forward and clear. While I like the natural midrange sound of the FD5 especially the vocals, I knew some of my usual songs sounded better if the midrange was a bit more forward. The FH3 helped me fixed that sounding. So from there, I’ll be looking for something slightly more vocal forward and since I’m not much of a basshead, even though the FD5 is quite a bass-y one, I have a sense of what kind of IEM I’ll be looking for.
That sounds like a Variation.
Sub bass domination won’t show itself much (you are not basshead means mid bass lean is no prob/desired) and more gain and 3Khz on Variation will give you that more forward vocal.
Yeah. That sounds exactly it. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Variations and I have another 2 months until I can afford it so I’ll be taking my time for now.
I’m thinking dunu zen pro might be worth waiting for
Dunu customer service is 
I got an SA6 with a faulty right side cable and asked them in Discord about it infront of everyone.
I got ignored.
Soon after buying the FD5 I felt that the midrange was somewhat out of focus. Using Spinfits cp145 fixed it for me. It is a substantial change in my case: more mid focus (especially lower mids) while still benefiting from that immense soundstage, slightly more controlled bass and surprisingly nice sparkle.
I have the Dunu EST 112, and the Shuoer EJ07m is on the way, but I doubt that either will replace my FD5 (with the CP145s) as my default go to for relaxed, long periods of listening.
I’ve been using the cp145 the first day I got the FD5, it was improved overall but something in the midrange still lacks in a way while coming from the FH3. I recently got the CP100+ and it seems to improve the overall soundstage with the midrange still feeling the same for my music library. The midrange is naturally great in the FD5, but after listening the starfield and FH3 prior to purchasing the FD5, I knew my music library certainly was able to sound better than it did in the midrange side of it.
I still love my FD5 since it sounds wonderful when I listen to some Orchestra or Jazz songs! The FD5 is definitely my go-to use for Jazz!
