IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

Btw JIU is out

Looking for an excellent 1 DD IEM for classic rock and indie rock music. Anybody has tried these and could compare them? :nerd_face:

  • Dunu Zen Pro
  • Sennheiser IE 600
  • Softears Twilight
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Actually, unless he has switched companies, I know he was using monitors from Ultimate Ears just a couple years ago.

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My vote would be for Twilight but try to get it secondhand because while they’re awesome the price for them is not😅

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IE600 is good for indie rock imo but I don’t think they replay classic rock as well as other genres.

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I just did a shootout a few months ago with the Twilights, Zen Pros, and Moondrop Illuminations. I ended up going with the Twilights, but the Zen Pros are damn good as well. For your musical preferences, which are a lot of what I listen to, the SoftEars Twilights are very hard to beat. I’ll try to find the post where I compares the three and link it for you.

Edit: Link to comparison I did between Twilight, Zen Pro, and Illumination:

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I’m sure I should have asked this a long time ago, but does anyone have a graphic for a digital 10 band EQ for dummies? Basically saying/showing stuff like ‘this is this and touching this will change this’ and so on and so forth? Trying to get a handle on it so I can play with the equalizer on my Sony Walkman A105 while knowing what I’m doing to anything I’m using to listen with. Apologies if this isn’t the right place to ask :sweat_smile:

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You’re right! Cheapest I found is 744 USD, which is around 1k CAD :money_mouth_face:. I wish I could try them at first.

Thanks for the comparison. That was excaclty what I was looking for. Twilights are tempting, but so expensive… I guess I’m not ready to make a 1k$ IEM buy (at least as a blind buy).

Recently bought TGXear Serratus (earbuds) and they have expectionnal technicalities. I wonder how Twilights would compare to the Serratus with indie rock

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I’m glad that was helpful! :+1::sunglasses:

I actually just sold my Serratus because I found that I wasn’t using it as much, choosing other buds from my collection instead. Serratus is definitely brighter and leaner sounding. It doesn’t have the euphonics and touch of warmth that the Twilights have. I actually found the Serratus to sound to thin and forward in the upper mids for stuff like indie to me. I play in an indie band and listen to a lot of it so that’s part of why I wasn’t using them much. I personally think the Twilights do indie in specific and rock in general better than the Serratus. I think the Serratus woukd beat the Twilights on stuff like classical/orchestral and certain solo and small ensemble instrumental styles.

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In case you want another earbud, TGXear Ripples does acoustic and indie music very well :slight_smile:

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Funny because Zen Pros are more expensive than Twilights atm, at least new. I haven’t tried a lot of buds/IEMs so far, so thanks a lot for taking the time to explain the particularities of each sets. I could help a lot of people if we were talking about other stuff like beers for example :rofl:

Thanks for the rec! I had a look at the Ripples many times. Jim from TGXear recommended Totem for rock and jazz. Might pull the trigger on them Problem is the fit with the bell shape (right side falls off easily).

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I thought the original Zens were awful. I liked just about nothing about them. They were pricey originally themselves. I have heard good things about the Pros, but hard to imagine they’re a complete turnaround.

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Word on the street is that Totem marries the good parts of Ripples and Serratus, and minimizes the weakness of both.

If you want to one-and-done it with buds, that might be the shot.

If you just want to max out on one bud to hit acoustic and indie, then yeah Ripples is great

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I’ll probably end up buying Totem… but l’ll still be very curious about the Twilights and what they can offer.

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Please tell us everything you know about BEER! :heart_eyes: :beers:

Start a beer thread off :+1:… would also help with audio purchases :joy:

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haha yes, it helps for sure…beer loosens the click finger :see_no_evil:

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Second that!

I keep forgetting that I bought the Zen Pros with store credit I had applied. I keep thinking they’re $650 because that’s what I landed them for, but it was because I had an RMA issue on a different pair of IEMs that turned into a fiasco and resulted in me getting a good chunk of store credit to use on my next purchase. That’s totally my fault. I was buying a lot of IEMs as I was trying to lockdown my lineup before I hit the road for an extended period so I have a tendency to little details like that mixed up. Sorry! :man_shrugging:

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Take all this lightly from a graphing newb. However I believe it’s accurate through my testing that I’ll cover below. Criticism and feedback are welcomed and/or encouraged to help me develop.

Here’s an interesting insight on the Mest MKII. Most individuals would say the foams would raise the bass and to my ear they do. However the graph suggests otherwise and that the changes are actually mostly being accomplished in the higher ranges.

These measurements were taking by graphing each L/R three times on each tip. If each sides three measurements were extremely close in proximity I averaged the three results as I believed it showed my measurement and testing were accurate. So each side and tip is an average of three measurements.

It’s definitely seems like a case in point of how one frequency has a possible and most likely effect to something far from it on the overall presentation/tuning.

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