One thing about EQ is that it only gives you a snippet of what a driver will do: if I EQ EA500 to DM, it will sound fine but won’t have the DM special sauce in the mids.
I am keeping the EA500, at any rate, so I can loan them at some point along the way
I have the feeling that my bad sense of humor AND the language barrier stroke really hard here.
Don’t worry bro: you express your feelings about the sets, and these feelings are spreading. That’s the beauty of this community. as for me, I wouldn’t blame you if I didn’t like the DM. I’m a grown man and take the responsibility for my own choices 
.
With that said, I highly doubt I would end not liking the DM because:
KBear Ormosia is more mids-focused than EA500 because it has less lower-treble. EA500 is more energetic overall, if you’re trying to be the most Dark Magician-y
And I have a feeling I absolutely took your comment completely the wrong way.
I am so sorry, brother, nothing but love 
I had a little head-fi PTSD moment right there, my bad 
I have no doubt that the vocal lovers out there will love the DM. The tuning is very flat, and vocals are the star of the show without anything masking those specific frequencies. I compare them to the Monarch MKII a lot and it’s only because in terms of mids, overall, I’d say the Monarch’s are the kings. But in terms of vocals, purely vocals, the DM has them beat. The texture, the space, the slight warmth on male vocals and the natural way female vocals are rendered … they’re untouched to really shine. The monarch’s are close, he’ll, they’re probably right on top of em - but the treble and the Bass somewhat masks the pure vocal presentation. At least to my ears - I’m sure others out there have a different HRTF so they come across differently. I digress - I’m rambling.
I sure do hope you get your hands on a pair of DMs one day - they’re worth the trouble and headaches that accompany getting ahold of imo. But I guess that’s easy for me to say 
No Problem bro. I still have to work my English skills. Re-reading my post, I should have at least added a smiley.
Maybe I’ll have the chance to taste the DM goodness, but even if I don’t, there’s plenty of good sets for vocals (tea being one of them) so there still is something to look for 
KZfication. 
At least now I feel vindicated for not slobbing all over Hola. It’s overdampened, for my tastes, clearly
All Moondrop DDs are like that.
Aria and older models were the same.
Ironically, Moondrop is overdampened and KZ is underdampened, when Moondrop x KZ for that perfectly dampened iem? 
you’re good! The one thing about the internet is you never know what the other person’s intentions are, ya know? Tone and facial expression goes a long way, and it gets lost a lot here when you’re just reading text.
All love brother! I hope that one day a pair of DMs come your way, no doubt.
BTW your english is stellar - I’m not sure what your native language is, but I’ll tell you something, I know for a fact that if I came to your country, I would have a MUCH harder time, you’re doing fantastic 
I assumed the general tone of the forum and the time I’m here for would have been enough, but the fact is I don’t post enough for you to know me. We can say that I got a bit ahead of myself.
Thank you for acknowledging my level. I’m from France, that is not the worst country to learn English , but it’s not the best either.
All love, pal 
Dude you’re French English is way better than my English English 
I can see that. 
Proved your point, is all. All we can do is be better tomorrow than we are today. Some of us have that easier than the rest of us
I needed that today!!
Ah - France - the home of my hero’s 
I love it. No worries, man / we’re all buddies here, I just have to stop hanging out on head-fi so much, that place is toxic, no doubt.
TGXear Ripples or Do I Really Have to Even Write This?
I have to admit, I had a moment where I forgot I had not written this review, and I had a moment of dread. I’m…surprisingly NOT excited to write this review. In my impressions and further thoughts about Ripples, I’ve already outright said this is my ideal set. My benchmark. I honestly don’t know what else I need to do but that. However, I figure that we need to talk a little bit about how I got there, so I’m going to suck it up and get this write-up done for you. So let’s talk about near-perfection…
Songs to Listen to and Follow Along:
As usual, I’m going to write my thoughts in generalities, but I’ll give you a sample of songs that I listen to, that will relate to the concepts I write about. Feel free to ask for specifics, if you don’t keep up with my thought processes.
War - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (For brass tonality, bass elements, layering and separation)
Holding On (Rome In Silver Remix) - Dabin (For female vocals, tonality, mid-bass response within mix From 1:12-1:36)
DISINTER MY HEART - TRAILS (For treble response and resolution, male vocals, midrange response)
When I Fall (Outta Love) - Kevin Olusola (For Imaging/detail retrieval :00-:07, tonality, timbre)
Fundamental Elements of Madness - Dax Johnson (For soundstage 1:10-1:26, piano tonality)
I Don’t Like to Gamble, But With You I’ll Roll the Dice
Ripples was a blind-buy, but it’s not like I went into this purchase thinking it was going to be bad. I just didn’t know what level of good it would be. Turns out, I mightily undersold Ripples, because these are not good. They are flawless.
Flawless doesn’t mean perfect, mind you. Ripples isn’t perfect, nothing is. But if you’ve followed my journey for any amount of time, I’m not really looking for perfection. What I am looking for is a headphone, IEM, or earbud that can play anything back. Whether it’s hip-hop, rock, classical, J-pop, R&B, lo-fi, pop, and everything in between, I want my sets to be able to play it all back. If I lose my immersion, have to adjust volumes or EQ, if I have to press skip because a set can’t play a playlist back on shuffle, these are things that ding a set for me. Whether it’s at $20, $200, or $2000, I want a set that can play back all the music I throw at it. It’s gotta be able to dig and give me the bass I need for Armin Van Buuren or bang out the drums and bass on Fearless Flyers; have mids that let instruments and vocals alike shine; I also want treble that complements the frequency and brings forward the best resolution, technicalities, and soundstage a set is capable of. I’m a very demanding music-listener, and I’m very demanding of my sets. Most sets are good but have flaws. Some are unforgivable and some I can live with. Very few sets I’ve heard would I call flawless. Ripples is one of them.
The bass performance is good enough. Let me explain: This is not a sub-bass set. Even within the TGXear line, Serratus runs circles around Ripples in terms of sub-bass quantity and quality. Ripples is okay with being adequate in sub-bass because it is phenomenal in mid-bass. It has excellent emphasis, very good quantity for being musical, and amazing texture. It has some slam, but it feels tight. Serratus has a bit of a boomy bass, but Ripples is precise. That precision follows into the lower-midrange where Ripples carries warmth but zero bleed. A set like Grand Rider 1 has an exceptionally clean midrange, but it is at the cost of warmth and occasionally note-weight. Serratus produces it’s midrange by being airy and open. It has good weight and warmth but it’s a little embellished in it’s timbre and tonality. Ripples has pitch perfect performance in the midrange, it’s as natural as I’ve heard. It’s got clarity rivaling Grand Rider, but doesn’t sound overly cleaned up. There’s still texture in the midrange that plays with the clarity. The interplay of the mid-bass-to lower-mids-to upper mids are as good as I’ve heard. Vocals are as good as I’ve heard in this style. Serratus has a more ethereal sound to them, they can get bigger and more grand. Ripples stays forever grounded. For my ear and library, Ripples never tries to give you what isn’t there. Serratus wants to be more bombastic, Grand Rider wants to be more neutral. Ripples is more natural. Treble continues in this vein; Serratus is more boosted, above neutral, in order to give the airiest, sparkliest sound possible. Grand Rider is mostly-neutral with some emphasis, in order to produce the most clarity possible. I think Ripples is actually the most neutral of the three treble presentations: certainly it is the most analogue sounding of them all.
In terms of the intangibles, Ripples is playing a different game than Serratus or Grand Rider; the latter two are tuned and focused to emphasize soundstage and presence. Both have monster soundstages (Serratus more wide, Grand Rider more deep), and that space is used to it’s full advantage to allow both sets to shine. Their imaging, layering and separation, and detail retrieval are superior. Ripples isn’t playing the same game they are playing. Ripples is content to have a more intimate and condensed soundstage. It is by no means cramped, but it is not as expansive as Serratus or Grand Rider. What Ripples does inside that soundstage, though, is produce some of the most dynamic sound I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. The second song I ever listened to on Ripples was “Fundamental Elements” because I knew that Ripples had a smaller soundstage and I wanted to get a handle on how that would play. As I listened to the song, I heard Dax Johnson’s piano playing mostly center, as he worked the midrange keys. Then as he started rolling with his left hand and bringing the lower keys into the mix, something crazy happened. In a set like Serratus, the stroke of the keys will grow wider as more of the piano is played: lower registers go further left, and upper registers go further right. That’s what I was expecting but that isn’t what I heard. For me, it sounded like there was one piano in the center of the image, and then there was a second piano to the left, playing the lower registers. Then when the uppers came in, it sounded like 3 pianos were being played concurrently, not one piano playing up and down the piano. I have never heard that before on headphone, IEM, or earbud before Ripples. It’s ability to push details is top-notch, and it’s ability to go from piano to forte is peerless.
What Does This All Mean?
I think you can figure out that this means Ripples is an immaculate earbud and if you are inclined to want it, you would not be disappointed. Still though, Ripples is not perfect, and how much you would love it is dependent on your library and listening style.
Who Is This For?
Who Should Pass?
If you’re reading this and think for any reason that Ripples isn’t for you, I’m going to tell you that you’re wrong. Ripples is for everybody. HOWEVER, I cannot answer the question of whether Serratus is more your style or not. If you lean towards natural sound with an exceptionally high floor of competence, then you cannot go wrong with Ripples. If you’re looking for a “grander” experience, something large, airy, and ethereal then you should run to Serratus. But as I was making my choice, I knew that if one was going to speak to me, not just that it is amazing and wonderful and all of the pretty words everyone has said, but that it was going to turn into an experience for me, as much as Serratus is a godly set, my heart was always going to be with Ripples. And so it is. That’s going to be it for this review. Enjoy your days, and take care till next time!
Rank For Ripples: S
Rank With Personal Bias: S+
Rank As a Food: Seared Scallops over Risotto
Great write up Can’t wait to try them someday. Based on your description I’m pretty sure I’m more of a Serratus man, but nevertheless Jim’s really putting out bangers left and right.
Another banger of a review, my brother
I feel like I know I prefer Serratus due to the airy nature of the sound, crazy spacious stage and vocal emphasis, but I just don’t know. You did a fantastic job describing the sound with music tied in and I have to say, your review style is evolving to a point where you’re probably one of my personal top favorites in this space. Top 3 at least.
Thanks for the work, brother - happy listening
