IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

No idea bro haven’t gamed in years maybe ask that in…

:+1:

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See Audio Yume Ultra $229 less $10.
Hard to justify that price in current ChiFi arenas. Unless it sounds better like 2x over some upcoming IEM like the KiwiEars. I am hopeful but skeptical on this one.

And radio silence on Drivergate from the Encounter snaffoo wont get me buying this one anytime soon.

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I see the $200 - 400 market becoming irrelevant in the very near future to the point that no one will be releasing IEMs there. sub $200 is getting so closer to $500+ IEMs and I feel like the used market on 400-600 IEMs will easily out compete new IEMs in the $200-400 range

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I’m in Sierra Vista/Tucson area for a few days. Any HifiGuiders in this area and want to meet up in the later afternoon? Brought a handful of sets on the trip and would be down to meet up at a brewery for some suds and buds exchange and talk. The U4s, EST50, DTE500, SA6U and Meteor would all be available to demo.

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Calling all Olina SE owners: have any of you tried or want to try a double filter mod on them? I’m curious how that sounds :smiley:

If anyone can answer this question, please, that’d be great.

What the hell is a Capacitive Reactance Module? The NiceHCK GrayFlag has one, I have that cable, and I still have no idea what exactly it’s supposed to do and quite frankly, how it even works.

The main problem with the cable is the behavior is probably the worst I’ve ever experienced. It is as stiff as can be and can almost never just lie flat. I bought it during that crazy sale a few months back because I loved the way it looked and realized after I had it in my hands that it had this Module. I don’t hear a difference what’s so ever, and it doesn’t do a very good job at being a cable since it’s so prone to stiffening up. Making me not even use it…

If someone can justify this purchase, that’d be great :sweat_smile: otherwise, I’ll just sell this thing off at a crazy price.

Hey all, so I decided to make a new thread to post my reviews and stuff and stop clogging up this thread. Here is a link to my latest one on the IE600!

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According to this site ( https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/filter/filter_1.html ) , CRM an resistance that is tied to frequency. A “basic good cable” should have a flat FR; this cable should not. So I guess in theory it should act like changing tips or something.
According to the site I’ve just quoted, it would mainly act as a very basic high-pass filter, decreasing the bass.
According to AE where the cable is, it should “bring a darker background, a larger sound field, and a more balanced tri-frequency energy”; honnestly, I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. :man_shrugging:

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Exactly my point.

Hmm but interesting, thank you for shining some light on this. I’m not 100% sure if I can say the cable reduces bass, but maybe some additional testing is required. I hope that a bias doesn’t come into play now after reading your comment… Thanks man!

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You should send it to @MMag05! As @Erokh mentioned it does look like a very basic hi pass filter but who knows what the cutoff frequency is

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Honestly that is a great idea, Cal. Id absolutely be interested in seeing if the change is actual graphable.

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Awesome to see you with your own thread. Can’t wait for further thoughts and reviews.

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Sorry a bit behind on this thread. Is this to graph a cable of some sort? Is it with a particular IEM? Either way it would be my pleasure to graph it. I’ll pay for return shipping.

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I’ll definitely shoot you over some details on the PMs brother :handshake:

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Sharing some notes on the Juzear 41t:

What’s notable about the first 5 selections or so is they were just what came on shuffle, but that didn’t stop each track having at least one noteworthy replay factor with the 41t.

Arctic Monkeys - Star Treatment

  • Feels like there’s imbalance or that I didn’t put the right side in correctly at the start… because this set is uncannily true to panning/mixing, things fill in and move around, but it can catch you off guard at first if a song starts with mix more to one side.

  • The bass notes have the same effect as a drummer rolling around the kit and the sounds going around the headstage.

  • Vocals about as forward as I like, reminds me of Moonlight for that.

  • Happy with the mid/sub bass treatment. What I like about the Serial is I don’t feel there’s a distinction between a rubbery thump midbass section and a foggy underlying sub-bass platform, bass is all one coherent entity. The same way with the 41t, I don’t find myself picking apart sub and midbass, which I think is a plus for just enjoying music and the tech disappearing in between.

Green Day - Walking Alone

  • The punch and physicality of those first few seconds!

  • Male vocals (less amongst buch more audio interference than the last track) not pushed back or washed out at all.

  • The warmth doesn’t extend so far as to make rhythm guitars chubby, but is very welcome for what it covers.

  • Harmonica is not piercing or awkward in the mix, and has good timbre.

  • Even with a track as simple as this, a sense of separation is as much as each instrument or layer has no trouble communicating, nothing’s talking over anything.

Led Zeppelin - Brony -Yr

  • So much panning and so many imaging cues.

  • Timbre is true. Bright guitar notes stand out as they ought, but like an EST don’t seem to cause any trouble for being piercing or shrill.

  • Lots of detail but not from a crass treble spike.

  • So much panning I almost wonder if the set is making it up (probably the mastering/recording choices). I can’t feel like I’m in a room or on a stage with Jimmy because although the reverb and sounds are very realistic, according to placement he’s swinging around me in a reciprocating arc, no sitting on a stool.

Caroline Polachek - Hey Big Eyes

  • A song I’m very familiar with, so it came as a surprise to hear it any differently to what I’m used to: The vocal layer that comes in at 0:32 or 0:33 flutters between the L and R way more than I’ve ever heard, and sounds more distinct because of it. It makes it much more high contrast, and reminds me of when the Beatles do their rapid flitting in the Yellow Submarine movie when they discover/enter the Sea of Green.

  • Vocals presented beautifully. Centered for the solo verses, starts to spread apart for the chorally mixed parts of verses

  • At 1:13 when the bass comes in adds height to what was already very wide, and slight increase in intensity from that first hit before it tails off is easily heard.

Pond - The Weather

  • One of my favorite song discoveries of the last two years.

  • At 1:40 the same thing where I think everything is as wide and surrounding as it’s likely to get, but an added layer, give its own slot/place makes things bigger when it is introduced.

  • This is a song where one of the exact things I love is how the different layers glide together (example would be 1:40 again), both hitting and missing, and on these there’s no trouble hearing the bass notes, broader synth notes, drums, vocals, etc each doing their own thing no matter if they converge.

  • On some sets the vocals / odd synths can be sharp, on these they’re forward but not sharp.

Roots Manuva - Too Cold

  • Something bassier at last. I love it for the reasons mentioned earlier. Bass has a hard hitting edge but a slightly slow decay, but also bass is very controlled where needed. All Serial plusses. There are times the bass feels the least bit blunt though.

Rammstein - Amour

  • No issues with male baritone

  • Love how the drum hits sound. Almost… smooth?

  • Great imaging chops as various elements make their appearance

  • 1:00 - mids all smooth and lovely, with the perfect warm underlying reverb.

  • Good layering as things begin to, well, layer.

Kavinsky - Night Call

  • Even in the intro, I know I’ve never heard the wolf call like that. A cinematic start.

  • You need upper mids for the 80s style synths to have edge and emotion, but especially on some of Kavinsky’s tracks these can come off as very harsh and overbearing on the wrong set. Right amount of energy on 41t.

  • Good clout to the kick.

  • Distorted vocals detailed but not harsh.

  • When “ordinary” vocals come up there’s no rasp, sound great.

  • General comment: Shout out that I really love these for vocals. Meandered onto a Youtube video of London Grammar covering night call, I know it wouldn’t have moved me as much on other sets.

Emmylou Harris - Goin’ Back to Harlan

  • Exactly how I like the drums on this to sound. The full texture, bit of clout / wind on the eardrum from them.

  • Female vocals again. Seems a 5k peak can be fine if it’s not the highest peak or only peak.

  • So much right about this track. Sorry I’m definitely starting to run out of time.

  • The bass/warmth to this track on this set really seems perfect, can’t imagine the amount replayed coming across any better, and this album is one of my other favorite discoveries from the last few years.

  • This track becomes overhelming(ly good) the further I get into it.

Blur - On the Way to the Club

  • Drums have punch

  • Bass notes have presence

  • The male vocals do have an edge on this one, but I think I turned it up higher than before for the sake of drum and bass sounds. Slight volume decrease fixes things.

Buck 65 - Whispers of the Waves (ft. Gord Downie)

  • I’m sure my Canucks will appreciate the appearance of the Tragically Hip’s vocalist.

  • I screenshotted 2:42, let me check that out… well, not sure. Good song with a good replay?

  • Where different things come in, the A+ layering is there

Saint Saviour - A Word

  • I find her recordings give occassionally consonant sibilance even with sets that don’t normally raise that issue for me. But this is very smooth, airy and sweet.

  • Things expand at :33 when the bass comes in, another example of that.

Jeff Buckey - Hallelujah

  • I’m not going to quantify this one, I just almost cried, that’s all.

Radiohead - House of Cards

  • Man the sub bass in this one really completes it, with vocals as smooth and hypnotic as prior examples.

  • Really feel the echo/reverb physically each time.

TLDR: Don’t spend money on an EST hybrid like the Moonlight when you can get the same vocal smoothness, detailed but non fatiguing treble, sub/mid bass, separation and imaging from the Juzear 41t. I approve.

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Sharing in case people missed it:

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Is there any sale going on with it? Or ninja coupon

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As a matter of fact, I just saw this on FB:

Also they have a collab coming that at the least visually looks sick; Juzear Flame - not entirely sure if it’s a retuned 41T or a different model though

https://twitter.com/Angelears_audio/status/1654075396433022976?fbclid=IwAR3L0Kn2Sx8Xk7jVV2b61YB9v5MAZiE2UDE_NcEzf7wewKg4zxgzaxiXq1E

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Man, see through shells make any tech look awesome. I wish more companies would go for that kind of look.

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Wow it looks like yourself, @GooberBM and I experienced this. Seems like you really enjoyed the set.

This effect was truly amazing to hear in such a well priced IEM. For me it was a delight. It was so well done though that I could see it be distracting and unfavorable for individuals preferences or for particular songs.

You seemed to have a similar experience with treble. I liked that it gave a little bite, forwardness and some aggression to guitars compared to my usual mellower preference. Yet it was able to do it without being sharp or to overly emphasized in particular frequency that was to apparent and made them feel unnatural.

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