I am thinking aloud.
“has anybody tried the Tinhifi T2 with CP 240 tips on an ifi/ess dac chip”…
+1. If this is how mid-fi sounds or is at least a taste of the higher end, it’s time for me to stop playing in the kiddie pool.
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That helps. I’m gonna play it cool and keep my powder dry
Everything except 2-8k ish looks better on the bluelover to me than the dt600
Here is a a write up on the Penon 10th for anyone interested
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I’m not even sure if this is going to be bold statement or I’m just going to look like a fool/novice but here goes;
Resolution and detail retrieval aren’t that important.
Alright, hear me out.
On my way to work today, I was listening to the EA500 for the first time in a long while and was happily and enthusiastically enjoying music as much as I just was at home, on my stack with the Monarch’s in my ears. Further more, in terms of details… the EA500 spits out as much as the Monarch’s it would seem. Maybe if I were to A/B them side by side, the Monarch’s would squeeze out 5% more? MAYBE.
Maybe I’m going crazy or my ears just are inept in terms of noticing this dramatic, 10x the cost difference between these two IEMs when it comes to the technicalities, but I’m just begInning to come to the conclusion that as long as the IEM has good enough overall resolution and doesn’t sound ridiculously muddy, perceiving any kind of 9/10 rating on a resolution or detail scale between two IEMs with a huge price difference just isn’t what my ears are good at.
This doesn’t have to be just regarding the EA500 either, this thought process for me can be applied to a majority of my collection of IEMs.
I guess, I just don’t hear such a huge difference.
I have no idea where I’m at in terms of this hobby, I think I’ve just been overloaded this past year or so and I am completely burnt out. I just want to enjoy my music and as long as the tuning and timbre is good, with acceptable details and resolution, I’m good. The Source rabbit hole is something I’m currently being sucked into as we speak tbh and I think researching and looking at different amps/DACs have redirected my interest away from IEMs for the most part.
This hobby is funny, man. It never ends.
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Pretty sure I feel the same way.
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BROOOOO!
The “TOTL all-BA is the end-all of resolution” crew kill me sometimes. More drivers don’t mean more technicalities. A well-tuned, quality DD can compete with any 6-8-14BA set up.
I could not tell you much difference between Vulkan and SA6, except the DD vs. BA bass, and MAYBE SA6 will dig a teeny bit deeper on hearing the grip change on the fret board you hear in a 2 second snippet of that one song.
And the “prestige” of Dunu’s Studio lineup.
With a good seal from a good set of tips, Vulkan is the tits though. I know talking someone into $320-380 is a big ask, but if you know someone who is determined to get SA6 and pay up to $600, then save them some damn money
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I generally agree which is why I don’t really focus on details and resolution in my write ups. I think soundstage and imaging are more interesting and differentiating than pure details.
My take on it is that “resolution” is tiered:
Tier 4
The bottom tier is poor tuning with any driver really. This is where things sound muddy, grainy, etc. aka “bad”. Bad tuning will sound bad and won’t be “resolving” regardless of the driver in my experience. You may hear some potential in the drivers and can EQ it to sound good and resolving but I have never heard a poor tuning sound resolving outside of crazy treble boosted sets that have “fake” resolution but then I would still argue that’s not an objectively “bad” tuning.
Tier 3
The next tier is good tuning with bad drivers. This will sound good with decent resolution but can still come off grainy or fuzzy at the very edges of notes that can mask details.
Tier 2
The next tier is where you have good tuning and decent drivers which is where you can hit ~90% of total “resolution”. There are good budget sets that hit this and can compare reasonably to TOTL sets.
Tier 1
The last tier is where you have good tuning and high quality drivers. This will squeeze out that last ~10% of resolution and is really only audible with 1) specific tunings that keep the mids really clean (analytical) and 2) when you are actually doing critical listening on tracks you have heard a billion times before with a high quality chain. This tier is one I am not super interested in spending money to achieve when the tier below it gets me close enough to enjoy the music, which is my goal.
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That’s a fact!
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its not funny though when you pay top money and get 5% or max 10% more in return compared to a 50$ set.
buy a good tws, and auto eq it to any iem you desire. your iem journey will end for ever.
no dacs needed
no amps needed
no wires needed
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Facts. “Resolution” is just how sharp/clear we perceive the notes without it being over fatiguing. It’s that fine balance that needs to be hit. As long as there’s no huge dips and masking in the tuning most IEMs will sound very similar with the breaking points being that there’s enough treble extension, vocal gain, and no mid-bass bloat.
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Well said, I had a similar kind of realisation in regards to LCP drivers. I freaking love their characteristic timbre/sound. Pretty much all LCP IEMs I own are fantastic. Even though they have different FR graphs and are no detail monsters they all tickle my synapses in the right way. If had a to choose only one IEM to keep, it would be one with a LCP driver.
- Tripowin Piccolo
- Tri HBB Kai
- Tipsy Tromso
- HBB Kahn
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And our ear anatomies.
@rattlingblanketwoman has his 5k spot that gets too hot for him, and I find many sets that nobody complains about fuzzy and lacking sharpness because I need a 7-10k boost. Which is why being able to find sets that allow you to hear many different styles that do music in their own ways is valuable.
Really I’m in the “spend $200-400 on a good portable source and a good desktop source” then get 2-3 sub $100 sets that cover your EDC and different sound styles to get a taste of what you like, then go $100-500 to get your big boy set(s).
After that, play in the hobby however you want, but you can get in and out with just that
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The different DD composites all have their strengths and that is an addendum I would add to the collection list. Cause I like having one of many different driver types and like them for different reasons:
- LCP - For generally good mids
- DLC - For treble extension (when tuned for that, hi HBB Kai)
- Titanium - For speed/decay
- Bio-diaphragms - For body in the bass/low-mids
- Various Composites - For jack-of-all-trades performance
- CNT - For Cleanliness of tuning/upper-mids bite
- Berylium - For a combination of speed/decay and bass-to-mids performance
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This where I am landing now. I got the Aure for my big boy set and then the Panda and Legato for my different sound styles. I have been itching to get/try the iFi GO pod even though its stupidly expensive. The Q5K is great but for portability its hard to beat the TWS adapters and I would like LDAC plus iFi has impedance matching and better power than the UTWS5 which would probably be good for the Aur. When Im home I can rock the long cable to my Hiby for the purest of tones.
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Well said. Tuned well, titanium driver bass is that cross in speed of a planar with the note weight of a dd. It is the ideal imho. Not sure on others.
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The q5k has ldac, and it’s a marvelous piece of equipment.
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yeah that sentence was confusing. I meant that while I love the Q5K I like the portablility of TWS adapters more for my uses and the only TWS adapter with LDAC is the iFi GO pod
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