Bad Guy Good Audio Reviews (A Million views?) Part 3/4

giphy (3)

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thank you ill check it out

Your thinking is correct. There are many IEMā€™s with the front vent. Both DD and Planar. If you have seen Mike Bruce Letshuoer S12 mod videos he explained about this. Butastur is the only vented all BA IEM I know about. It does not have a front vent, but a tube/bore from the nozzle to some internal trickeryā€™s and then venting to air. All or more or less all DDā€™s have back venting from a chamber behind the DD. The backside of the DD itself have a small filter for tuning.

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The Tanchjim One DSP is still one of my favorite sets, and easy to recommend for new folks, because of the DSP. They donā€™t need a DAC and can play with tuning. I take it when my wife has PT appointments, and if the Steamdeck didnā€™t have a 3.5mm jack, it would probably be my goto for that too.

I think right now my pick for a single DD would be the Sivga Que. Seriously is sounds and graphs like the Falcon Ultra, but costs about $80, so you could do something else with the other $160.

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Great drawing!
Yeah it is always the front vent that makes the biggest difference for me.

This goes for all types of iem drivers I have tried.

I hope there is no iem that does NOT have a seal there lol.

Yep and I believe this is what companies are referring to when they market/mention ā€œdual chamberā€.

BA iems can be like this.

Absolutely, its why simgot is doing a great job with their iems as they are designed like that. Then we also have something like the Dunu Falcon series, but they are vented to the point where the isolation is poor and is something most people do not like (what the Dunu rep told me back then).

Absolutely, with BA drivers in particular, they do NOT want to be in a vented environment as they perform a lot better in a sealed shell.
I also believe that with less vented shells, you get a tighter/faster bass. Kinda like vented speakers vs sealed speakers (afaik, not an expert in the speaker area).

I believe the 64Audio stuff like the u12t has it.

They are mandatory to prevent driver flex in DDs. If the back of the shell does not have any visible vents though, it is likely that the connector (2pin) has a few small vents built into it.
Like this



(From GS Audio)

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The Deuce is playing very nice with one of the local groups here.

I remember these guys being one our headliners back when I was part of a group that organized some local festivals (ca 2-3k ppl per night). One of the most humble and well mannered musicians Iā€™ve ever met. That night I remember the singer Jan Paternoster taking a nap backstage when it was time for the soundcheck. The guy didnā€™t wake up, not even when were throwing things at him. His buddy said to not worry and did the soundcheck by himself. And just as we getting worried about getting him up on time for their set he suddenly got up, chugged down a beer in seconds, stepped on stage and gave a performance so good it is etched in my soul for all eternity. That moment was rock & roll incarnate for me. This is not a studio group, you need to witness these guys on stage.
My point: the Deuce gets fairly close to that feeling of a live performance and is probably my favorite part about it. Donā€™t analyze, donā€™t think. Enjoy.

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Are there quite a few FatFreq direct orders still waiting on their Deuce here in the US? I have absolutely nothing showing on any of my carrier accounts, and the official tracking is still DOA. Packages get lost all the time, and with the current state of tracking youā€™d never know it.

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I believe the 64Audio stuff like the u12t has it
[/quote]

Forgot about 64AšŸ˜…

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Iā€™ve seen a few folks on Head-Fi mentioning similar delays lately, so it sounds like youā€™re not alone. Hope yours arrives soonā€”everything Iā€™ve read says the Deuce is well worth the wait so just hang in there

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happened to check out my friendā€™s deuce (pun intended) a while ago and must say, oh man do they hit the right spotā€¦getting major FOMO

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This is going to be included from now on with Deuce deliveries. Not sure if all the retailers are getting this card too but at least direct are.

I got it with my package from them with replacement left IEM.

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Perfectly agree with you that there isnā€™t one single eartip that works on everything for me. Always tip roll heavily until I find the best one for a set, and enjoy the process. Even try different sizes depending on the nozzle.
I even dug up all the ones I had with various earphones around the house from pre-hobby times lol.
I wish I could try even more, but man some of these are priced madā€¦
One definite highlight for me are TRN-T tips, which are probably similar to MD spring tips by the looks of it, but are cheaper and some say are better. Donā€™t have spring tips though to verify.
But TRN-T are outstanding for the price. Perfect seal for me, great comfort, and feel sturdy when fitting even on some chunky nozzles.

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SemperMalum over here is a true wizard. Not only was able to get a quick response from FatFreq, but also got replacement already and even a ā€œno, youā€ card lol.
Happy that this resolved quickly for you.

Just as an update, Iā€™m yet to hear a single word from them. Iā€™d even take ā€˜fk you, donā€™t care about your circumstances, no cancelations, pull out safely, peaceā€™

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iā€™m honestly still interested in the deuce (so not to be a downer,) but if that part is so fragile, what protection or securing can it really be doing?

i guess at least it will break as strain relief but it seems way more fragile than any 2-pin sockets iā€™ve ever handled

edit: not really a direct question to the reply, just thinking out loud i guess. odd situation imo

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is this the right link for your graphs now? just shows blank page for me :thinking:

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I assume now that heā€™s switched back to Squig, the GitHub one is down.

For convenience:

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Yeah, Tanchjim folks sure know how to tune a single DD, but they ask a lot for their sets. Not Softears kind of money, but still a lot in todayā€™s standards. I still have a later model Hana around here somewhere and I remember it being very on point. Apart from the cable, good lord what was that thing.

Also, thanks for the insights on the og Olina a few posts above, man. I love when you give us a peek behind the scenes. This stuff is fascinating.

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Everyone was on board.
My pitch was:

  • Offer an identical product for 30% of the original which many said was exceptional at $299 up to $350
    Essentially change the shape of the vessel only. As it turned out that driver needed a specific volume/distance so that part had to be the same. Once the seat was re milled and nozzle changed on mele shell it got nailed.

Then it happened
futurama-things-just-got-interesting

It was a perfect match. :pinched_fingers:
Then everybody backed up.
I got mails saying ā€¦ā€œthis is perhaps too much, lets considerā€¦ā€

I said if :
This driver is being publicly sold ā€¦
(it was available online and they had it in hand the day i requested it)
If the grace period has passed ( an unwritten rule)ā€¦it had passed as 02 was out well over 12 months at that point and had enjoyed a full rollout and 2 sale seasons. then we are good according to that courtesy rule.
QKZ Khan was a violator of that rule. It took ideas from a set that was still in its cycle (TE OG Zero)
I was not aware of the extent of the copying till much later. I shared my DM with QKZ during the process with a relevant person to show it wasnā€™t intentional. It was discontinued.

So there is an etiquette in Shenzen. Olina/SE was close to the line but fair. Khan was not

So the idea of offering a well tuned set for 30% of retail resulted in:

  • Enormous sales well beyond the set it imitated.

  • Brought new attention to the 02 ā€¦and boosted their sales

  • Delivered on itā€™s claims and made a set accessible to a HUGE market that could not afford $300

  • Had a QC/QA record that was within industry norms (Sub>1.0%) The Aria had same and they made a special anti condensation method that still failed. Metal shells including 02 had issues. The more you sell the more issues you will have. Since 2023 many companies have figured out how to tackle this. Itā€™s less of an issue nowadays.

LEGACY:
I have put together ā€œpackagesā€ or proposals of popular sets broken down in an autopsy and calculated real cost and proposed they be rebooted. The sets are older but regarded as some of the best. Not collab, just a final end of life reboot of a known and well recieved set. Identical drivers, tuning, shell materials.
1 is a U.S. based companyā€¦they wonā€™t touch that idea.
1 is Hong Kong/China and that is in the works.

Making stuff more affordable?
Thatā€™s a problem?
LOL
The folks who watch my channel and trust my recs donā€™t give any fucks about anything but good SQ at a good price.

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I have returned to SQUIG.
Iā€™m having a few hiccups but that will be my graph data baseā€¦again :laughing:

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You did a video a while ago in which you were explaining your Chi-fi advantage philosophy (which Iā€™m 100% on board) of making a great sounding set at the lowest price possible and profiting on volume, brand recognition etc. Bring the good stuff to a wider audience. Then you did the voice. You acted out a copying-isnā€™t-working Oxygen diehard going ā€œwuut, he thinks he can do an OĀ² at a third of the price, donā€™t let he do this, stop himā€. I remember I laughed so hard it hurt.

Still, jokes aside that made me think of when I joined this rabbit hole of a hobby, how IEMs were not really a thing back then and when the first Shure models started showing up and it was this ā€œoh wow, hi-fi in an in earā€ and they cost like a kilobuck and if weā€™re being honest I think nowadays a budget Tangzu Wanā€™er or 7Hz Zero sounds better than those did. Thatā€™s good progress.

Or as AESOP says ā€œif itā€™s out of the bag, then itā€™s out of the bagā€¦ now that is a powerful catā€

Thanks again for these posts. This honesty you have about the way you navigate the corporate BS while you bring people good audio is a big reason why most of us trust your stuff, I suppose.

I know Iā€™m never selling these two. Cheers.

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