There are plenty of IEMs with a similar tuning that you should be able to match the DM’s FR with EQ (off my head EA500, Vortex, Ola), and none of them sound like the DM. I also tried EQ with higher end tri-brids with more and better drivers, but they just sound different. The acoustic housing, dampening, fit/shell, and all the little things adds up. When I EQ the Vortex (which has a very good driver) it still doesn’t sound as spacious and airy as the DM. It would be nice for sure if there’s a budget DM, but I think that’s highly unlikely with a simple EQ and driver - you’ll need to copy the design down to the shell size and chamber etc.
And like @GooberBM said there’s no point in not being nit picky since most IEMs sound very similar So either nitpick or forget about it imho.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that whatever physical tuning that’s being done via vents or machining done in the shell, unless that shell is made out of titanium I don’t think one could justify that price increase alone when the alternative exists not in a vacuum.
What if you would do EQing iteratively in feedback loop? Measure one → EQ to the target,
→ measure again of what is the output and correct. Rinse and repeat until close enough.
I think autoEQ based on subtraction B minus A (target) is always flawed because change in the input signal is not always linearly aligning along the whole frequency with the change of the output signal.
A solution exists in theory. No solution currently exists in practice.
I can give you two observations from my own experience with OG Dark Magician, and all of the thoughts/opinions I e heard on it from others who have experience with it too:
I don’t think it’s worth $500-600 but it is worth that because people will pay it. Our feelings don’t decide value, the market does
SOMETHING in the OGs manufacturing is special because MIMs own revision of DM cannot be changed to replicate the OGs sound.
If nobody who has tried to mod/EQ the DM V2 can get it close enough to approximate the OG DM, then EQing this cheaper set with the driver “to sound like DM” isn’t going to work either.
But again, feel free to try to EQ it to a midcentric tuning in the style of the DM. Because that’s completely valid.
If you reduce most things in this space to the BOM, lots of it likely aren’t even close to being representative of the actual value for return. It’s all about what the market will pay, absolutely. In this instance, I’m sure the tuning is great; it’s just right there, right on the nose.
Example, a tri-brid EQ to DM with BETTER drivers than the DM was still not spacious sounding. If I literally shove the DM too deep into my ears it affects the sound drastically and becomes way bassier with less stage, hence my point is even little things like insertion - not even including more drastic changes like housing, vent location, shell design/fit, acoustic chambers, dampeners etc etc can affect the sound, so you’ll never be able to recreate the DM 100% unless it’s a carbon copy.
I’d be down to try and EQ that set, but just saying we shouldn’t set our hopes too high.
When Dom loaned me his DM for a month, I tried a bunch of experiments. I reported multiple options that got in the ballpark and did midcentric tunings similarly to DM.
There seems to be a point in the treble where EQ is unreliable even though the graph might show your EQ to be correct. And I’m not talking about the 8K resonance peak and beyond but even before that trying to smooth out peaks doesn’t appear to give the result you’re looking for unlike with headphones.
It’s why I only EQ below 2.5K to a target and above 2.5K I’ll just use a high shelf to get rid of some shout or sibilance
I got bad news for most folks (not sure why it is a surprise??)
There are only a few major factories supplying the entire hobby
Many expensive brands based outside of China source their actual drivers from these facilities.
The connections claimed (For ex: KZ is related to QKZ) is so far from the truth and the bigger shockers…(Big brand owns little brand…and other not really shockers) … it’s almost like bots/simps are parroting fake info just so you don’t look harder.
OEM is a taboo topic…can you imagine?
Most hobbies know and accept that
ohh for ex: ,most flat panels came from (for a time) Samsung even though they were rebranded and sold under a Japanese brand in Japan.
Graphics cards…everything.
But somehow tiny little earphones that fit on your fingernail and cost pennies are a shocker
And a company you love doesn’t take part in that cuz overheads and profits don’t matter to them
It could be a different dupe and graph differently, but it’s worth remembering that companies that are overtly doing this have no overwhelming reason to post graphs that are true or accurate when they’re saying “this is how close our variation graphs”.
They cold just graph two real ones and slight unit variations would be enough to use that as the perfect “look how close we got it” graph. I doubt they’re the best companies to get refunds from if they don’t measure as closely when received and put in a coupler.
Some Beats by Dre were copied by the same factory that produced the real ones.
Working “Off the clock”
Sold domestically for quite a while and only leaked into Western market later.
This isn’t about China.
It will be another country in 10 years as the wages in China grow and make another workforce more practical.
So either nitpick or forget about it imho.
apologies to HBB for shitting up the thread
