to enhance the visual perception of three-dimensional stereoscopic sensation
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That Nightmare Singularity is getting so shilled on DeadFi it makes me nauseous. Eveyone i spoke to who actually listened to it for a length of time has said the same things, Pillowy bass and shouty mids. Stay clear and dont drop the $
They must have hired the marketing guys from Hidizs!
Love the hobby and the drama LOL!
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My recent post seems to have touched a nerve, which was the idea. I’m not here to rain on anyone’s parade but to illuminate the psychological influences that shape our behavior in the audiophile landscape. Trust me, I’m just as susceptible.
- Confirmation Bias: Haven’t we all tried to justify those premium purchases, scanning for the slightest inkling of evidence that says we were right?
- The Placebo Effect: The price tag alone can trick our senses into thinking there’s a difference.
- Veblen Goods: Ah, the conundrum of conspicuous consumption. Higher price points don’t always translate into superior quality. Instead, they often serve as a status symbol, encouraging us to purchase not for utility but for the prestige associated with extravagance. When we buy a high-cost item, part of what we’re buying is the exclusivity and the notion that ‘expensive is better,’ whether the performance metrics back it up or not.
- Technobabble: We’ve all been enticed by scientific lingo that seems to elevate our gear to the echelons of space-grade equipment.
And I’m not immune to these either:
- Social Proof and Groupthink: The herd mentality is real, especially when high-star reviews and popular opinion give us that gentle nudge over the financial cliff.
- Complexity and Subjectivity of Audio Perception: Our subjective experience can easily trick us into believing we’re hearing something extraordinary.
- Appeal to Tradition and Exclusivity: The siren call of artisan craftsmanship and limited editions has definitely lured me in before.
- FOMO: The ubiquitous fear of missing out on the audio elixir for eternal happiness—sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
I’m not above any of this; I’m merely inviting us to take a step back, myself included, and ponder what really influences our choices and discussions as audiophiles.
… Now, let’s engage in a brief thought experiment, shall we? Imagine I take a budget IEM like the Tripowin Piccolo—a snazzy piece that retails for around $45 and coincidentally shares the same gold and black color scheme as the Singularity. I present it with the same lavish marketing vernacular, complete with its own set of buzzwords:
- TimbreX: A proprietary tuning mechanism ensuring the Tripwin Piccolo offers a balanced yet dynamic audio experience.
- EcoFlex: A state-of-the-art pressure relief system promising hours of fatigue-free, immersive listening.
- CAvity: A customized chamber design guaranteeing an unprecedented level of soundstage depth and layering.
I’d also spruce up its web presence: a single-scroll page with gold, black, and white accents, illuminated by seductive macro shots. Throw in some exclusive, non-standard web fonts to make it all seem rarefied and high-end.
Would anyone be the wiser? Could your ears—or your prestige—really tell the difference, especially if it’s wrapped up in the same highfalutin tech jargon and ostentatious presentation?
I wager that many would not, further highlighting the power of psychology in our audiophile decisions. Again, I’m not saying this from a lofty perch—I’m as fallible as the next guy. Just food for thought as we navigate this labyrinth of high-priced chords and ornate shells.
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Love it reminds me When I worked at a car stereo shop? You’d have the guy walk in, you know, Mr. KNOW IT ALL. And he would start spoutin terms and jargon that you know kind of made sense but not really, just to show off his know how and knowledge, just full of bullshit to fluff up his feathers and show off to his buddies.
I learned a line from one of the installers and it was perfect still to be used to this day.
And it went like this.
You basically looked him in the eye and told him that to improve the sound he needed to find a "Custom Form Impact 2ohm load Spreader. - You know what i mean right? And get him to agree at that point Mr.Knowitall cant back down and admit that he doesn’t have a clue. We didn’t sell any out of stock at the moment we would say.
And that just shut him right up every time. Of course this was totally bullshit just enough words to sound right and mess with his tiny brain LOL.
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It’s like when I was in tech high school and our electronic teacher joked us with the flux capacitor when one of us didn’t know something for the lesson. 
Good old days, twenty-something years ago.
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I also tried a +12db low shelf at 200hz (q=0.5) with my OG Zetian (bought it to Scarlet level bass) playing breakk.away’s Outside, which is really bass heavy. Seemed to me it got darker, but didn’t notice artifacts. But maybe I just don’t know what to search for. Usually, I’m using a 5.5db shelf on that set which brings the bass to Singularity levels without sacrificing clarity much. I think I stay with 5.5 on that set, punchy but still balanced for my taste.
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Planars can take more pushing before they distort, maybe that’s the factor?
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Yeah, I thought it could be that.
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Yeah, they can.
But also depends on if you used a negative preamp or not, as that is needed to prevent clipping.
This is why I would LOVE if there was a blind test done with like 2 different cables, one that looks as basic as it can get and with a dirt cheap price and the other cable with an OUTWARD apperance of those kilobuck cables, EXCEPT it is the SAME CABLE on the INSIDE and of course tell them that it is priced in the kilobuck range. See how many will fall for it. 
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I’m not using any preamp, just my AutoEQ preset with the shelf in wavelet based on HBB’s measurements and generated from his squig.
hmm, I do not know if there is an automatic preamp in it or not as some EQ/PEQ apps do.
But if there is not, you should use something else that allows you to adjust that. Like UAPP, Poweramp or Neutron.
I’ve used the channel balance option of it as a preamp because it can be adjusted only in negative dB, but I don’t use high volumes also. So maybe around half volume of the phone or max at around 3/4 of the phone’s volume. Which regarding my previous set that had a built in mic on the right and a calibration app to check db levels was at around 90-95 dB, half volume was at 75-80 dB. That old set doesn’t have support now. So, I cannot check it lately.
Should be fine then.
Regarding my old set, which was a hearX x Westone dbTrack. Did anyone had that? (I know Westone’s tuning is not that good, but I always wondered if anyone in this hobby had that set)
The interesting thing was the noise generator that came with it to calibrate it with the dbTrack application and the app had features to automatically lower the volume if it hit the 80 dB limit, or just notify the user. Also, it had a hearing test built in it. Liked the idea at that time.
Here’s where car audio can be put to rest compared to portable audio - there are stores with demo rooms readily available at any decent sized city for you to hear the difference between sets of speakers.
We’re at where we’re at because a lot of us have to blind buy portable audio instead of having those same stores with demo rooms.
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TBF you don’t have to limit it to just car audio. Even Home AV systems have far more stores to demo mid-fi to high-end speaker systems lol.
Though I have to say Australia isn’t the worst place to get access to IEM/headphones demos. And whenever I go back to singapore there’s a lot of good places to demo them too. Hoping to check out crinacle’s new place when I go back next time.
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HBB, that sux about your MD experience. Of my MD purchases, I have only had one less than satisfactory experience. I would also like to commend SeeAudio for standing behind their products.
Now I need SeeAudio to give me a non-fingerprint magnet Yume II.
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Actually I just tried this with my EQ profile, had to add around -9 db pre gain lol. Actually helped a lot with the clipping and distortion issues. And I’m sure it’s still not a perfect recreation of the Scarlet, but WOW. I think I’m going to dig this sound profile a lot.
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moved below
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Any details to share on this? Always worth hearing the good stories too.
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