What are people’s opinions on using Aliexpress during 11.11?
Pretty “meh” as an overall response each year tbh. It’s hard to please someone who lives and breathes used prices though.
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FWIW, I only paid attention 11/11 “sales” beginning 2021, and I was completely underwhelmed by what AlieExpress had to offer. To be sure, this is probably tied to what a particular individual is interested in as much as anything else.
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Aliexpress can yield better pricing than Linsoul, Hifigo or Shenzen but you need to have the patience and time to use their gamified system to collect
- seller coupons & seller promotions (shop by shop basis and can vary wildly and have had discounts of up to 10% this way) (following a shop can also give direct discounts and access to more seller coupons)
- coins (usually <5%)
- spend and save promotions (€3 for every €25 spent up max €9 discount)
- Aliexpress coupons (private group coupons are usually 20% instead of 10%)
- Cashback (10% up to €100)
- Preferably not live in Europe and be subject to VAT automatically on each item (Linsoul, Hifigo & Shenzen have VAT free pricing) + the threat of customs for orders over €150 ex VAT.
- Check authenticity and reviews for the store your shopping from - I believe someone made a list of trustworthy sellers on here but I can’t recollect who or where it is…
- Prepare that some items may ship slightly late during 11.11 - but you run that same risk from Linsoul, Hifigo & Shenzen anyway.
For it to be worthwhile…
Their actual sale discounts on the headline price are usually only <5% before you apply all of the above which makes Aliexpress look less appealing on a surface skim.
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Just got a note from Joseph this morning. The EJs have been received by Letshouer and they’re doing their diagnosis. Crisis averted.
Also, just documenting here for everyone’s reference - if Letshouer prepares your shipping label for any RMAs in the future, you do not need to deal with customs whatsoever. It was a smooth and quick process. Package was dropped off at UPS on Friday Oct 28 and it was in their hands by Wednesday Nov 2.
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Speaking of AliExpress and deals, right now Audiosense store has a deal for basically every iem (most are like -50$ including T800, AQ4, DT600, but there is also AQ7 Pro for like of 250$, where MSRP was 499$ 2 months ago. I don’t know if there were a single person buying it for that, but for 250 1D+6BA is competitive 
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I’m trialing the Final E4000 as EDC for a few days to see if it can do the Serial’s job well enough as an isolating/bass boosted set. I ordered the Serratus, so between that and a decent source, if it turns out to be the sublime keeper I imagine, I’ll have to get by with less in some area or other.
While the E4000 doesn’t do anything overly magic for me, it really is a shockingly good all rounder and relaxed listen. Stage is good enough. Sub bass is good enough. Mid bass is good (drums sound great on this), vocals are smooth and emotional, there’s enough treble for someone like me, etc.
Frees up some budget room if I can pull it off.
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You went for the Serratus over the Alpha / Tantalus? I wonder if you’ll be satisfied with the bass quantity - the quality is fantastic, but it is definitely not elevated
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Moonlight vs Oracle?
Serratus has more bass than Alpha, less than Tantalus. Ripples will be between A and S.
One: budget, two: fears of drivability, three: If the Grand Archer and various over-ear headphones are any indication, when the transducer is outside my ear I can take a lot of brightness (need it actually) and can jam with a sub-bass level that might not cut it in in-ears. I prefer the Grand Archer to buds designed to have more bass in their profile.
I think the standard for in-ears bass can be as far as feeling it in your chest, jaw, (knees if we’re counting the Maestro Mini) whereas I don’t recover that level of internal vibration from my outer ear.
That plus Chris vouching for both bass regions puts me at ease.
It does mean that the set I choose to compliment it is likely to be a pretty bassy one.
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I wish I could feel IEM bass in my chest! No matter the volume the bass rumble never gets out of my head
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You could wear a subpac
Chu with 500 mesh filter and vent blocked is shaking my chest from bass. Not the cleanest but satisfying, especially for the price.
I hear showing your significant other the receipts from IEM purchases is one way IEMs can get your whole body shaken.
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Moved these comments here, probably a better place to discus them
@rattlingblanketwoman …."Already there are cases where I prefer BA treble to EST treble”
@Rikudou_Goku …"DDs, as much as I love them right now compared to all other drivers, IS an ancient tech”…
What you guys think?..
I really don’t think you can beat a DD for realistic bass…both in texture, natural impact and the realtime life and death of a bass string pluck…No Planar or BA subwoofers either?
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DD macrodynamics are better than any BA can do. I was shocked when I discovered how “dead” sounding planars and BAs sound to me.
Just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s bad, especially in audio. There’s a reason people are still using 40+ year old headphones. Drivers aren’t cell phones. They don’t become obsolete when the new model comes out, any more than my kitchen mug does.
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I mean it’s also a dynamic driver is just a concept in a sense, it’s not like there haven’t been any innovation with dynamic drivers over the years. I mean cars have existed for a long time at this point, is the general concept of a car “ancient tech” by that standard and we should abandon cars because of that?
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That is where we are at right now I think.
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