When I started this journey Crin was the first I came upon via Reddit. Went through a good handful of his picks. One of them being the Blessing 2. Anyway, came to a similar conclusion as you and for me about gave up on IEMs. Don’t remember exactly how I came across @hawaiibadboy or this forum but, it lead me to trying a few more. The Hana 2021 was my first IEM that got me back on track and restored hope. Then came @nymz with the Tea Cult and I was hooked into a world of audio enjoyment and an empty wallet.
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Very similar experience as well. It was sorta my introduction to this hobby in addition to my friend who also really enjoys what crin likes. I kept buying what crin was making as well as trying some of his top picks (monarch 2, z1r, odin/u12t) but I kept finding myself moving further and further away from his picks (with the exception of his truthear collab which I think was his best work/recommendation but I also like truthear stuff). Not saying his picks are horrible in any way… Just partially or fully not my taste.
At the same time that experience did help me discover what I didn’t like to align better with what i do like. I’m still learning and loving what I’m hearing but knowning more or less where these reviewers are coming from can help you make a partial decision as long as they are not all over the place with their recs. Ultimately though I do find you have to hear it for yourself to have a fair judgment.
Reviewers perspective to me can be helpful as long as there is some familiarity with what they like. Their perspective is even clearer when you try some of their recs and your can align their description of the sound with what you are hearing. Graphs help too for sure but ultimately hearing believing 
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Had a very similar experience like you. Don’t regret it one bit though, haven’t enjoyed music as much as I do now, maybe ever.
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https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404882468615618682
pretty funny, Softears patented the idea I showed for my buds some months ago. 
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Well well well. I just got notification that it will be at more door in 1-4 hours. So worth the expedited shipping!
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A bunch of your sources, again, agree with me to say that measuring headphones (not even IEMs which is what we’re talking about here, remember) is inconsistent with user’s auditory findings. Perhaps you are the one that needs to read your own sources before you cite them, friend. 
Also just FYI it’s poor form to cite paywalled sources (unless it’s some breakthrough current year research which none of your sources are)
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They arrived. Im still gathering more detailed impressions but below are initial out of the box thoughts
- Legato is better than Rosefinch in all aspects. How much better I need to do some A/Bing
- Legato is pretty far from the Maestro Mini but its hard to compare because the MM was much more sub bass focused and the cleaner mids gave it a lot of clarity. Legato elevation extends way more into the midbass
Physical comparisons between the Rosefinch and Legato
- Legato is smaller width wise but is a chonky boi and sticks out of my ears like crazy.
- Legato feels nicer and cable is like 1000x better
More to come
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Better than ROSEFINCH?? Woah…
You rock the stock cable on the Rosefinch? You’re a savage, Cal - I love it 
Looking forward to more impressions, man!
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I wouldn’t be shocked that Legato is better than Rosefinch. As much as I love the Rosefinch driver as a budget driver, I’d expect Legato to have better drivers and the dedicated tweeter should help with the upper ranges cutting through all the bass.
I’m curious about how much better Legato would be, in A/B testing
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Yeah, I’m with you on that stock Rosefinch cable, no doubt
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That tweeter is doing everything above 800hz.
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It should help vs. 1 (probably lesser quality DD) doing full range with that much bass
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yeah, the additional driver and also bigger woofer (iirc), should help.
Although the driver is probably just a PET based one as they didnt mention anything specifically.
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I’m sorry you feel that way and I’m genuinely sorry if I upset you. If you do feel like doing a bit of reading this is relevant to if someone is making a claim which is not not obvious fact nor industry standard:
Take care, friend.
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hahaha this one got me! I don’t have any cables compatible with the Rosefinch and don’t want to buy another cable
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Fair play to you sir - I slap on a regular 2 pin and call it a day - I cannot live with that stock cable 
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I got no dog in this fight but you provided claims without proof. I think Crin is a great resource for reviews but 1) he rarely talks about technicalities in his reviews (he barely does reviews anymore) and his ranking is opaque. Also I don’t know where you got that he has an acoustic sciences background because I could not find anything to back that up.
I also am in the camp that believes that while its true everything that hits our ears is just soundwaves and thus should be able to be captured in a frequency response the graphs we use can not be used to decipher everything we hear so 
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I’ve chosen to stay out of this but I will say it’s pretty disingenuous of you to demand a burden of proof of someone else when your argument has amounted to “nuh uh”
But I’ll just sit here and sip my tea
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I just have to say… I’m loving my new Penon Serials. Such a fun , but detailed iem. Pure enjoyment! I cant find a decent graph, but the elevated bass, eesolving mids, and easy treble reminds me of the Z1R. I’ll have to A/B them with the maestro mini and Z1R.
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