Getting lost in the conversation with your pop? That has had no price! The fact this time was about audio is the icing on the cake 
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Boston’s West end native here (Elementary school) .
Best public schools in Country.
most prolific F bombing peeps in the world.
everything and everyone is a fucking something or something.
Pop’s looks like he’s from there
Enjoy the music and times with pops
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Hell yeah, dude. I really don’t get the chance to see him too often, my work schedule is absolutely brutal when it comes to timing so yesterday was awesome. We got it all done, listened to some tunes for a little, and grabbed some Taco Bell afterwards 
just like when I was a kid. It was cool for sure.
I had literally no idea you grew up in Boston, dude that is insane. It all makes sense though, your attitude is definitely that of a Boston native 
I grew up in Eastie, so I’m not too familiar with the West End. Now a days, it’s basically all huge sky scrapers and 30 story apartment buildings, not many traditional residential houses there, if any. But my dad tells me the stories for sure!
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He’s already rocking some Sox gear 
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Ohhhhhhh dude!!’ That’s amazing!!! Kai is definitely going to be a ladies man, look at that face!
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Man I absolute cherish the times my Dad and I get lost in conversation. Same for my Mom too but, we relate more and it happens quite often. With my Dad it’s a bit harder as he’s a reserved quite guy. Doesn’t leave the house much either. Usually have to probe around a bit to get something he’ll talk about. When it clicks though we could go on for hours over the phone. When the family visits my parents I always look for a new brewery for us to hit up. Seems like most people a few good brews and some pub food open him up. My wife commented one day, in a joyful way, that she has no idea how we can ramble on about so much randomness for so long.
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Special moments, guys! Treasure every one.
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I appreciate you sharing that with us, man. My dad is the exact opposite, he’s unapologetically loud and for me, it’s normal, but for others like my wife it can get a bit embarrassing when we’re out in public, I find it a little funny for sure My wife says the same thing, though - my father and I will go from cars to politics, to science to old stories he has in a matter of 20 minutes - he’s all over the place but I have to admit, it’s always interesting. There’s nothing like striking up a conversation with your old man, that’s for sure.
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I can’t believe it’s been 10 months since I wrote in this thread…
Anyway, I hope y’all don’t mind, but I’d like to start writing some more thorough write-ups coupled with some photos of all of my current IEMs with my current tastes applied to the thought process. I recently took stock of all of the IEMs, buds, and sources I have and It’s quite a lot. I’ve acquired a lot of them recently rather quickly so I just glossed over them without saying much about them.
This is simply an exercise for me first and foremost and the goal I have in mind is to sharpen any skills I may have as a writer on the internet plus enhance my current skills as a photographer. I don’t expect much in terms of traction due to older sets being talked about like the Timeless and the Monarch MKII to name just 2. I believe I have spoken at length about the Monarchs on this forum quite a bit, but I don’t think I’ve ever given them the proper article they deserve. I do have plenty of photos of them, though. How could I not?
I have a few other IEMs at the moment like the Ziigaat Cinnos and the 7hz Sonus which, in my humble opinion, have not received much in the way of praise. I know I know, chi-fi this and that, things come and go like crazy, one week it’s one set, next week it’s the next, but honestly in the words of a great man named Wade, good audio stays good. Through checking my inventory so to speak, and also checking the comments on @VIVIDICI_111 latest video, I’ve realized that a lot of my most recent purchases are just to acquire new gear. I’m chasing some kind of high, I’ve gone ahead and justified all of these new acquisitions with hollow claims, basically talking myself into it. The more I think of it, the more I realize I should instead be talking myself out of these things. Some deeper conversations with my tour group helped me realize this, thanks, boys 
I’m hoping that re-reviewing and re-listening to all of my current sets will bring me back to the bliss I once had immediately following CanJam where I didn’t feel the need to buy anything for months.
It is so important to gain perspective in this hobby! So I’m writing this post to hold myself accountable. I know myself, and I know I’ll procrastinate on this. Having a public record saying I’m going to do it will surely motivate me
The first full review I’m expecting to accomplish is for the Ziigaat Cinno. I’ve had these in my ears for the last week every day so I’ve been gathering my full thoughts slowly but hopefully, accurately. I’m no reviewer by the way, and I’ll make sure to reiterate that in every post 
I hope everyone has an amazing day today! Take care boys, and remember, hold onto your wallets!
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Good on you, my friend. Have some fun retracing the steps on your IEM journey and rediscovering your zen!
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Okay, here we are. The first post in this new project of mine. Going through my entire collection, diving deep, taking photos, and doing proper comparisons. Again, this really isn’t for anyone else but myself, comparing my other sets with such similar sound sigs surely should convince my brain to stop scrolling mindlessly on AliX, adding things to my cart unnecessarily
First up, I’ll be doing the Ziigaat Cinno - this set comes from the brand that seemingly has come out of nowhere, but somehow, has been here all along. Lurking in the shadows, supposedly manufacturing IEMs for other brands as the OEM. They’ve finally decided to come out of the shadows. In their own words “The name ZiiGaat originates from our core values: Zero in on Ideas, Innovate, Grow, and Achieve All Together.”
The Cinno being one of their first IEMs, it’s an interesting take on the traditional 1+4 config under the $100 price point. The two hybrids that I have in my collection to compare to the Cinno are the 7hz Sonus and the Truthear Hexa. I’ve had the Hexa for quite some time now, since they first released last year, while the Sonus I’ve had for about 2 months or so. I’ve become pretty familiar with both sets, with the Hexa being my EDC for the better part of 2 months earlier this year.
With that out of the way, here are my test tracks and my sources if you were curious and, of course, a little disclaimer
Summary
Test tracks
- Give Life Back to Music - daft punk - Overall clarity
- Infinity Repeating - daft punk - Lower mids control
- Voyager - daft punk - Bass line clarity/busy track layering
- Cthulhu Sleeps - Sub bass texture
- Overnight - Parcels - mid-bass punch
- Tieduprightnow - Parcels - bass line/sibilance test
- Everyroad -Parcels - Imaging/Sub bass @ 7-minute mark
- Daytime - Lunar Vacation - Staging/female vocals w/ heavy bass
- Days - No Vacation - Vibe test/treble energy
- Fruiting Body - Goon - Sub bass
- Wavy Maze - Goon - Midbass
- Together - Maggie Rodgers - Female Vocals
- Slide Tackle - Japanese Breakfast - Sibilance test/consonants harshness
- Decode - Paramore - Vibe test/stage depth
- Vinta - Crumb - Stage depth/layering
- Kim’s Caravan - Courtney Barnett - Female Vocals/resolution test
- Small Poppies - Courtney Barnett - Distorted Guitar
- Lifelong Song - Men I Trust - Sub/mid-bass texture
- One and Only - Adele - Female Vocals/consonants harshness test
- Waves - Wild Painting - Overall Enjoyment and stage depth/width/Bass guitar speed
- Not the One - Highnoon - Female Vocals
- Cowboy Killer - Varsity - Layering
- Alone in My Principles - Varsity - Distorted female vocals
- Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang - Treble Harshness
Sources
- Apple Music Streaming Hi-Res Lossless when available
- Topping D10s + Topping L30
- Moondrop Dawn 4.4
- Dunu DTC 500
- FiiO BTR7 BT
Disclaimer
I am not a reviewer. Positively, 100%, confidently, I will never be one or possess the ability to be one. Don’t take anything I say as an objective stance, of course, this is all my opinion, y’all, this hobby should be fun! I’m just having a bit of a laugh with all of this. This is purely my opinion after all 
I personally value timbre and tonality over everything else. If a set has a strange tonality or timbre, it’s an immediate turn-off. It stands out to me right away, and my brain locks on it for the rest of the session.
Thanks to @hawaiibadboy for providing all the graphs all the time
To me, the Cinno sounds somewhat similar to the graph here. If I had never heard them, I’d expect them to be more laid back than they are. To my ears, they come across as warm neutral, with a slight emphasis on vocals in most songs, and a slightly dark treble. I remember first listening to this set during a tour with my buddies and not falling in love, in fact, I found the tonality a bit strange. I couldn’t put my finger on it. But after a while, with some different tips, they started to settle in a bit. Fast forward to now and I own them. I found them as a 1 off solution to a warm neutral IEM for EDC, allowing me to consider selling off some other sets like the Hexa, Sonus, and the EA500.
Comparing the 3 IEMs in question here, I can say the Hexas are the most comfortable, with the Cinno coming in at 2nd and the Sonus being 3rd. The Hexas fit me like a glove, and provide probably the best isolation out of most of my collection. The Cinno took some serious tip rolling to just fit, then it came down to finding the best-sounding tip, the Sonus just has strange grooves on the shells and not to mention, they’re surprisingly somewhat large IEMs between the overall shell and nozzle opening. I’m still tip-rolling with them, but I’ve landed on the Clarion tips for both the Hexa and the Sonus, with the Cinno rocking the KBear 07 tips in the smallest size. The Cinno isn’t large at all it’s the opposite problem. They’re tiny. Almost too small. The shells are incredibly compact, with the nozzle a shorter length. I have to jam them in quite deep to get a secure fit. Otherwise, they find their way out of my ears after a while. After finding the right tip, I haven’t had any issues luckily.
On to sound, and this one is weird because the Cinna, Hexa, and Sonus are like brothers in this regard. The tuning choices here are all different flavors of neutral.
Also, I know graphs don’t mean a damn thing half the time, but I like to use it as a reference. Sue me.
Allow me to summarize; These all sound pretty close to how they graph to my ears honestly. The Cinno has a more laid-back approach to the entire sound sig. They also come across as the warmest of the bunch. The laid-back pinna area most likely has a lot to do with this. The Hexa comes across as also very warm, but with more forward vocals, masking is present here, with that 3k peak coming across as somewhat harsh to me. Female vocals are smooth as silk on the Cinno, they have plenty of energy to come across as alive, whereas the Hexas can sound a little unrefined and the Sonus presents some serious masking in that area for me. The Sonus is the cleanest of the bunch, they have a sterile and maybe a little cold sound to them. Everything is almost surgical. The best thing about the Sonus to me is the way the Sub-bass comes across, due to the lack of lower mids and that sharper pinna gain, vocals seem separated from the bass frequencies. This is nice honestly, but after a while, they become fatiging. Not to mention, they can lack that mid-bass energy I can sometimes crave. Mid-bass hits aren’t as authoritative as I’d like. The bass line in Voyager is heard, but not felt all that much. Whereas in the Cinno, I can hear the bassline but also feel that beautiful French, nasty-ass bass line. I dig it. The Hexa does a good job with this too, they’re thicker in the presentation but that artificial snare hit on the 2 can be a little jarring at times. It all depends on the day.
Upper mids and treble go to the Cinno for me, hands down. Due to the tuning choice here, that relaxed Pinna is god damned buttery smooth, with little to NO masking. This is probably one of the first experiences I’ve had with a lack of masking for my HRTF. This means the Cinnos are more detailed than the other 2, regardless of what the graph might indicate. I can hear smaller, minute micro-details listening to the Cinno, and I love that. It’s what helped me decide that these are for me. The Sonus sounds more airy and thin, and the Hexas have a warmth + forwardness going on. The Cinnos are the most balanced without sounding boring to my ears.
Breaking down each aspect of the Cinno has me feeling this way;
Bass - Punchy, with plenty of energy. Slightly rounder with natural decay.
Mids - Clean, clear, and highly resolving. Not forward, not buried in the mix.
Treble - Easygoing, not fatiguing or offensive.
I don’t think the Cinno is for everyone though. I’d say a lot of folks would like some more energy in the upper mids perhaps, and the treble extension isn’t anything to write home about either. It isn’t incredibly airy or vibrant like the EA500. The Sub-bass for me is lacking somewhat as well. I think for that part of the FR, the Sonus is the winner there. It doesn’t have the best tactility or forceful playback. If these had about 3-4 dB more in the sub-bass area, it’d be damn near perfect. One thing I’d also like to point out is that the Cinno does suffer from the slightest bit of BA timbre. After the rose-colored glasses were lifted about a week after owning them, I was listening to Fruiting Body by Goon, and I definitely noticed it. Most people won’t notice it I feel, so I don’t expect it to be a huge issue.
I think I put down everything I wanted to about the Cinno.
Conclusion; these have replaced 3 of my other sets. I think these are fantastic, they work for me. They don’t come across as too thick, or too laid back like some other lower pinna sets I’ve listened to in the past, but rather, perfectly balanced.
Thank you for reading, gents 
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Nicely done, brother!
Looking forward to more of your posts, as you get comfortable with your writing
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Thank you for your words, Brandon 
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Dope write up brother 
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btw, gotta ask but the pics you take has to be from a full sized camera and not a smartphone right? Cuz they sure dont look like smartphone pics. Unless you just gotta git gud. 
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You would be coorectamundo good sir lol Full Frame mirror less backpacking my ass with the quality of these photos that and Lightroom. Editing goes a long way.
@cal_lando you are way too kind, thank you, Cal
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Hey guys!
I hope the first article in my new series was pleasant enough for a quick but informative read.
If anyone can give me some feedback on either the literature or the images, I’d be very grateful for it. This is all to better my skills so anything and everything you all can provide is much appreciated.
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Welcome to the next part of this series of never-ending IEM articles. The exercise has worked so far. I have not had the irresistible urge to embark on the journey into the deep and dark depths of the classifieds, Linsoul, Hi-Fi Go, etc. etc.
The Plunder of the Soul which the audio hobby presents is an awe-inspiring thing, isn’t it?
I’m taking some advice I received from @hawaiibadboy and I’m going to focus more so on the music with this one. I realized I didn’t do that with my Cinno article as much as I should have, so this one is a bit more detailed and the result of this is a longer length. I’ll get better at balancing both with time for sure, but I think mentioning music is so very important. So here we go.
Playlist + source breakdown with my disclaimer, as always.
Summary
Test tracks
- Give Life Back to Music - daft punk - Overall clarity
- Infinity Repeating - daft punk - Lower mids control
- Voyager - daft punk - Bass line clarity/busy track layering
- Cthulhu Sleeps - Sub bass texture
- Overnight - Parcels - mid bass punch
- Tieduprightnow - Parcels - bass line/sibilance test
- Everyroad -Parcels - Imaging/Sub bass @ 7 minute mark
- Daytime - Lunar Vacation - Staging/female vocals w/ heavy bass
- Days - No Vacation - Vibe test/treble energy
- Fruiting Body - Goon - Sub bass
- Wavy Maze - Goon - Mid bass
- Together - Maggie Rodgers - Female Vocals
- Slide Tackle - Japanese Breakfast - Sibilance test/consonants harshness
- Decode - Paramore - Vibe test/stage depth
- Vinta - Crumb - Stage depth/layering
- Kim’s Caravan - Courtney Barnett - Female Vocals/resolution test
- Small Poppies - Courtney Barnett - Distorted Guitar
- Lifelong Song - Men I Trust - Sub/mid-bass texture
- One and Only - Adele - Female Vocals/consonants harshness test
- Waves - Wild Painting - Overall Enjoyment and stage depth/width/Bass guitar speed
- Not the One - Highnoon - Female Vocals
- Cowboy Killer - Varsity - Layering
- Alone in My Principles - Varsity - Distorted female vocals
- Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang - Treble Harshness
Sources
- Apple Music Streaming Hi-Res Lossless when available
- Topping D10s + Topping L30
- Moondrop Dawn 4.4
- Dunu DTC 500
- FiiO BTR7 BT
Disclaimer
I am not a reviewer. Positively, 100%, confidently, I will never be one or possess the ability to be one. Don’t take anything I say as an objective stance, of course, this is all my opinion, y’all, this hobby should be fun! I’m just having a bit of a laugh with all of this. This is purely my opinion after all I personally value timbre over everything. If a set has a strange tonality or timbre, it’s an immediate turn-off.
Anyway, enough of the bs, the next IEM on the table is going to be the Truthear Hexa.
The 1+3 hybrid from the brand Truthear. Truthear was looking to take 2023 by storm, that is, until Kiwi Ears and Simgot entered the picture…
The Hexa was a set of IEMs that I set my eyes on from the very beginning, all the way back in 2022 when they were first released, which in this hobby, might as well be forever. I thought the tuning seemed uniquely Harman but with a few twists.
Thank you to @MMag05 for measuring a good majority of my IEMs so I can see exactly what’s going on here. As the graph indicates, my pair has fairly good channel-matching noice.
I really enjoy the Hexa, they’re a mighty fine set to my ears and I’m happy I’ve had them as my EDC for the last week or so, it’s reminded me as to why I fell in love with them in the first place. The fit is just impeccable for my ears. I mean, truly, like a glove. Even though the nozzle is quite large, there’s no lip so there’s never any discomfort for me, for reference, I have slightly smaller ear canals according to a random urgent care nurse, and quite large outer ears. Fit is truly hit or miss for me - the EA500 is a set of IEMs that I wish so very badly were a different shape, because they sound incredible, but wearing them is so annoying, that I barely reach for them anymore. The Hexa on the other hand has a medium to large-ish shell, with a lovely industrial/modernist design of sharp corners on the faceplate, with a softer, smooth resin finish on the contact point with your ear. The nozzle is sufficiently long to achieve a nice deep incersion which means isolation is off the charts. Sorry for droning on about fit, but these are super nice to have in your ears for an extended period, at least for me.
In the sound department, I can honestly summarize the Hexa as being a warm neutral, surprise surprise, just like 99% of my collection LOL but but but, I must say, the Hexa does things a little bit differently and truthfully, outside of the Cinno which I just dove deep on, the Hexa checks off lots of boxes for my preferences except maybe one, but we’ll get to that.
The bass and lower mid-range have a very smooth slope, and this has its strengths and weaknesses of course. I find the overall bass impact, like rumble in the sub-bass region and kick drum slam to be quite softer, not much overall attack in this region, but it is smooth. There is plenty of warmth here that allows the Hexa to avoid becoming thin for most of my library, most of the songs that are in my library tend to be mastered with a warmer tilt anyway. I feel as though some classical could maybe come off as thin in some cases, and maybe some classic rock as well, especially songs recorded in the 60s and early 70s like from Zeppelin 1. There’s a sub-bass emphasis, yes, but with the lack of mid-bass, where these songs emphasized, John Bonham’s drum kit can sound distant and not as authoritative as I’d like.
Referencing my test tracks, the first few daft punk songs sound fantastic, clear, and crisp. Give Life Back to Music and Infinity Repeating have awesome grove-ability, with the ending of GLBTM having plenty of spacial cues with the crowd noises representing some space in the mix, adding to the enjoyment. Voyager, my favorite daft punk track, has probably graced my ears thousands of times by now and I know how this song is supposed to sound. It’s an interesting track because The Robots really flex their musical prowess here - the beginning of the song is fairly straight forward and the star of the show is that bassline. It needs to be heard clearly but also felt as well. The Hexa does a decent job. The bassline is heard very clearly, with enough texture, but it doesn’t have as much force as I’d like. Instead, my brain focuses heavily on the artificial snare hit and clap on the 2 beat. That 3k peak from the Hexa comes into play here, it can be too harsh at higher volume for me, so I have to keep it a mid to even low volume at times. As the song goes on, Thomas and Guy add more elements to the song, stopping the drum kit and the rest of the synths to introduce us to these new elements, forcing our brains to almost focus on them before adding the rest of the songs back in the mix all at once. It gets very busy towards the end of the song and some IEMs that have messy technicalities stumble here, all the instruments sound mushed together with little to no separation. The Hexa doesn’t fail here, in fact, I’d say it accomplishes separating and layering all these different components very well. There’s plenty of air to help it feel open, and even though that 3k peak can come across as harsh at times, it seems to add some weight to the synths. It’s all very clear, crisp, and just warm enough to be a good experience.
Cthulhu Sleeps by the Mau5 is next and this is the song I use to test EDM sub-bass. The bass line in this song is not just one blob of bass, it’s a pulsating line with plenty of texture behind all those nutso synths and distortion. The Hexa does an okay job here, I give it a C, maybe a C+. EDM is not this IEMs strong suit. This song is fatiguing within about 20 seconds and the sub-bass rumble is heard, but you gotta focus on it. 3k is just pushed up too much for this song to sound balanced, however, the mid-bass hits are quite nice. It does have a rounder body on the individual hits but it’s just enough to pass.
The Parcels are next on the playlist, and they really know how to master and produce their tracks. All of their songs are fantastic on the Hexas, very enjoyable, and very groovy. But again, when things get a touch busy in the track, the upper mids knocks on the proverbial door right in the middle of disco night and reminds you there’s something not quite right. It’s too boosted and there isn’t quite enough mid-bass to get the party passed the living room. You’re not spilling into the streets, waiting for the cops to arrive. The volume stays at a respectable, inner-city level.
Using the next few tracks, Daytime by Lunar Vacation, and Days by No Vacation, I can say that female vocals are very clear with proper timbre. There’s also plenty of texture as well, they aren’t the most forward and I believe that is due to the little divot between 2-3k. Masking is the name of the game here, ssss and tssss are emphasized so my brain starts to focus on them a bit more, not to mention the god damned snare hits… Layering and separation are very good and imaging is a strong suit of the Hexas. Starting at around 3:10 in the song Daytime, there’s this revolving synth that circles your head going counterclockwise. I can pretty easily track the sound with the Hexas, whereas other sets can sometimes sound 2 dimensional, only going from the left channel and immediately to the right channel.
Fruiting Body by Goon is one of my favorite songs from the past year, it’s an amazingly haunting song with airy female vocals, busy instrumentation, and a nasty ass sub-bass line that hits during the chorus. I have been obsessed with this song for months, along with the rest of their discography, and while the Hexas does an okay job with this song, the sub-bass just ain’t hitting the way I expect it to. Wavy Maze is the next song by them on the playlist and I expect a pretty hard-hitting kick drum on this one and again, while it’s there, it ain’t rocking my world as I’d expect. There’s also a hint of BA timbre present in the vocalist’s vocals. There’s something to the way it’s been produced for sure, but I can clearly hear a BA sheen when the note is stretched a little.
There isn’t much notable that’s any different going through the rest of my playlist here, so I think I’ll wrap this up here in an effort not to drone on here too much longer.
I can summarize the Hexa this way;
They are an extremely comfortable, well built and well-designed Hybrid IEM in the under $100 price-point for anyone who’d like something Harmen-ish tuned, but with a better body to the lower mids, no tuck in the mid-bass, and an emphasis on being accurate. They stumble a bit in some areas like the upper-mid refinement and a lack of mid-bass punch. The DD in this unit is of decent quality, but it isn’t anything special. The same goes for the BAs - I can tell Truthear put some thought into this tuning and I still enjoy them being in my collection, but I think the Cinno replaces these quite handily, with more natural upper-mids, a stronger mid-bass slam and less BA timbre, although, it’s present on both IEMs. I know this isn’t a totally fair comparison, with one being a whole year newer and $20 more expensive, but it’s helpful for me to finally conclude that the Hexa can be put on the chopping block. What I have now in the under $100 range makes them obsolete for me and I’d almost say, for a majority of the market.
It’s bittersweet, I love the Hexa, it has a soft spot for me because I acquired them somewhat early on in my friendship with @Sonofholhorse.
I can only appreciate looking back on the listening time but accept it’s time for them to go.
Thanks so much for reading again, have an incredible day, Gentleman 
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Morning Y’all!
Spending some much-needed time with the OG Teas this morning. I haven’t given these a proper listen in quite some time, I almost had forgotten how special these were.
I woke up to something pretty dope today - I should be getting my first ‘reviewer’ unit directly from a brand sometime in the near* future. I’m looking forward to building these relationships with other brands as well, hopefully, this will allow me to get my foot in the door and really stretch out and buckle down on this writing exercise thing.
I hope everyone has a beautiful day today, cheers!
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