IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

I think you’ll be surprised since they respond well to EQ. The bass actually responds extremely well so if your source if powerful enough you can give it as much bass as you want really :+1:

I did. Modding made it sound more muffled so I went back to EQ :person_shrugging:t2:

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All three are good - S12 OG, Pro and Z. And I find their performance as tribrids for over $500 USD.
Excluding some very expensive ones (CA Supermoon) - S12 is the best planar in my opinion.
Otherwise, for the physical mod - once I tried to modify Olina and S12 and the technical characteristics deteriorated sharply. I never use a mod or EQ. :sunglasses:

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Well that set "sold” ie offer excepted $550…now re-listed again for $610 struggling at that price me thinks :eyes: :smiley:

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If you wait a little longer, you can get it from Lеtshuоer’s or Linsoul’s site :smile:

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I forgot to send you the package number after I sent them out :sweat_smile: but I’m happy to know you got them and like them! I couldn’t really get into the planar sound myself, but is there anything that puts them above DD for you?

No problem. I’m probably a bit of an outlier with bulk of my headphone/IEM listening experience being with planar transducers. I quite literally daily-drove a pair of Mr Speakers (Dan Clark) Mad Dogs for 6~7 years before upgrading past the budget segment of IEMs & headphones, so that transducer type feels quite at home for me.

DDs come off a bit intense for me with their slam, where I prefer the softer planar and multi-BA sets. Single DDs have a lot of up-front clarity but get a bit “crowded” when there’s a lot going on. I also find it easier to hear individual lines in a busy mix with multi-driver configurations, planar, and AMT.

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After owning them for about a month now, I think I can give a fair assessment of the Tri Star River.

I’ll make this one nice and simple to read through as I don’t think there’s too much to say about the Star River. For me at least, it carried a little bit of hype when it was first announced/released. TonyTex put out a video on a Friday morning and after watching it, I decided that the dual DD configuration coupled with the tuning switches and the somewhat unique graph was enough for me to just go ahead and pull the trigger totally blind for the special price of $50 ($10 off the original MSRP of $60 if you were one of the early adopters of the set).

I’ll say this much: They are very comfortable and I love the way they look. The stock cable does leave something to be desired, but it gets the job done. These do include a full set of Clarion tips which is nice. However, the Clarion tips aren’t the best pairing for these IEMs in my opinion.

I won’t bore you with going through the different switch settings if you’re interested in that, I’ll link Tony’s video below as he does a good job going through the different settings which, quite frankly, don’t do much. But not only that, there seem to be only 2 different tuning options rather than the 4 claimed but do with that information as you may.

Long story short, I’ve had to mod my pair with a 400-density filter over the nozzle opening to tame the upper mids and treble.

Pros:

  • Comfort
  • Aesthetics (In my opinion)
  • Mid-bass quality and texture
  • Layering for different instruments seems to be above average

Cons:

  • Flat Dynamic Range
  • Not enough Midbass/lower mid energy to counteract the upper mids/treble leading to sibilance and harshness on most of my library
  • Thin note weight (Even when modded)
  • While boosted, vocal clarity and texture are not it’s strong suit

I will say, because of the layering capabilities and decent mid bass response, they work for electronic music quite well. I would definitely need more sub bass and mid bass to be completely satisfied, but I would say it is still enjoyable.

For an extra $10-$15 - just get the Simgot EA500. It is miles ahead of the Star River in terms of, well, everything really.

Thanks for reading, gents!

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Exactly my thoughts well said thank ypu for sharing much appreciated. TDM

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This is my general response to…well everything these days

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Totally agree with you on that. The EA500 is special in its own way IMO. For $65 that I paid, getting a similar sense of satisfaction as I do from my more expensive sets is quite an achievement. It’s just hard to beat in the budget sector.

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I got to try out the Noble Viking Ragnar for about an hour today. It’s a very good IEM and it does a lot of things very well, but at it’s asking price I find myself thinking that it doesn’t do anything special to justify that aditional cost. Put it out at $2k to $2.5k and it would be a different story, but once you throw on that extra cash to bring it to $3.5k it really needs to be the elite of the elite and to my ears it just doesn’t quite get there. It’s a very well made IEM that I enjoyed listening to a lot so it feels weird to call it overpriced, but it the end, that’s exactly what I walked away thinking it was. The funny thing is, I wind up thinking this same thing about at least half of the sets that are priced over that approx $3k mark and I think a lot of that has to do with just how outta control flagship IEM pricing has gotten these days, but that’s a story for another post.

Now, if you can catch a good price on a used set, that might be worth taking a swing at since the Viking Ragnar could easily be an endgame purchase for a lot of people.

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What’s it’s tuning sound like?

I feel like that’s always the same takeaway with Noble stuff, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone say they think Noble stuff is worth the asking price compared to the competition :joy:

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I’m so happy another person with trusted ears got their hands on a pair of these. Unfortunately, not my thing in the slightest from my short listening sesh at CanJam. I found that they had way too much upper mid energy, maybe somewhere in the 3k - 4k region but of course that could of been due to a not so ideal seal + the loud environment of CanJam show floor. For $3.5k I was completely and utterly disappointed but hey, if you think they are in the realm of $2.5k, J, I trust your assessment and I think mine may have been a little premature honestly.

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He still thinks folks will pay that :upside_down_face: have :pound: in hand…worth the equivalent of circa $500 to me just out of curio…

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$379 into price for Hidizs MS5 now dead in the water. = 2 weeks of fame and gone.

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Blessing 3 time :eyes::eyes:

Impressions on my thread later tonight


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Wait, why is it dead in the water?

Wait till people who actually spent money on the unit come back with thier sound impressions, after the hype dies and the rose colored glasses taken off, there will be dust and crickets. And a few or more than a few pissed off people with buyers remorse wondering why some reviewers shilled this IEM?

After the initial honeymoon phase wears off the MS5 will be sold off or sit in a drawer while we pick up something less fatiguing and more musical.

The MS5 is a poorly tuned IEM.

Lastly all the great clasics that you can find on the used market as well as some fantastic offerings lately Simgot EA500 for example and upcoming IEM for much less the tuning on the below $100 is wonderful to see.

$400 IEM with very niche tuning especially with so much treble energy is a very tough sell and a very tiny market.


The Juzears Flame is dropping soon look at this graph and tuning.
Looks like this one is going to smash the market as the older 41t is getting recognized for its tuning and the new one looks even better.

Less $ than the MS5 by alot is my guess.

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