IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

Yea as far as consumers are notified and YT tagged “Promotion” on their vid, I see no issues too. We do enjoy watching advertisements and commercials sometime. It’s entertaining.

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Yea that video’s moondrop /truthear products were so out of place.

I was under an impression that this guy has some motivations (personal or commercial) to promote those products.

Literally, a bashing and criticism video is a negative minded, and involving a third party product is simply shortsighted IMHO.

That’s the core reason I feel those Moondrop and Truthear products were so out of place.

It’s like Policemen arrived to the scene, a domestic violence ( the husband and wife issues) , then suddenly noticed there is a random pizza delivery guy at the scene.

I’d suspect what role the pizza delivery guy would be?

As a reviewer I know those two mentioned products are “cash-cow” the little
Gems. Red / Aria generate huge traffic and impressions despite those two are not the only thing in this world that sound pretty nice.

We have S12Pro, Titan S, Tripowin Lea, Z300, DS4, AS24, HEXA, EA500, and the list goes on. They all fall somewhere near B to faint A grades. But Aria and Red earns general public “number of views”.

As a youtuber yes that’s a motivated promotional social move, but hey promoting a third party’s product in a bashing and defaming video? Probably need to think twice.

But also, this is not a conspiracy theory but what if all this was plotted on DMS move?

-add a controversial item to obviously flame sparking bashing video, in a hope to involve third parties for more “internet spotlight”?

If that’s the case, wow what a talented guy.

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Probably the dirty works. Not necessarily has to come out from [email protected] , could be one of their dirty works affiliate.

It’s not a new finding, KZ’s affiliates are well known in challenging to publish a promotional reviews, a positive one, to many reviewers.

I guess the main purpose is to risk hedge overly critical reviews, like the one I did for KZ CRN.


Not necessarily someone is trying to practice a tyranny though.

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The SSR has no sub-bass ( it rolls off hard around 200hz ), and has a pronounced peak that carries from 3k-8k. The SSP is the same set with a tiny bit more bass. There was a point not that long ago, those were a good under $50 IEM, but in 2023 they should be avoided.

I am not surprised given the amount of power that thing has, and at only 3.5 inches long.

  • Unbalanced output max. 3.8V RMS (3.5mm)
  • Balanced output max. 7.6V RMS (2.5 & 4.4mm)

Said like you missed the last two years of shady practices by KZ. The post release PR2 changes, and the silent driver fiasco ( on both HBB and Crin collabs ). That last one was followed up by paid people to shout down bad reviews for added bonus.

Do you play Raid: Shadow Legends by chance?

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@Timmy-Gizaudio , I can’t unsee this graph.
I really enjoy the Galileo, but not as much Moondrop seems to.

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Thanks to @rattlingblanketwoman for the demo of HiFri Aphex. HiFri put out an amazing set here.

Gave it a go before graphing and really enjoying it. It’s not what I would have expected on the graph as something I’d enjoy. It’s a super musical fun set with just enough flair in the treble yet the bass cuts through it just fine. Seems more elevated than the graph displays. Imaging and staging are on point, and if it’s $75 as I’m seeing, one of the best sub $100 sets I’ve heard. It’s even punching up at sets like Glamdring and Aurora in this department. If HiFri is here please someone let me know his tag he deserves a massive shoutout for this set.

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He doesn’t even review iems… at least not really. I wouldn’t even put him in a top 10 list for reviewers I trust to buy an iem from.

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Promotors and reviewers are two different kind of people indeed.

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Doesn’t seem like a tall bar to clear or at least trade blows if the comparison is Red, Galileo, and the like. But that’s expected as companies are concerned with segmentation/upselling, and some of that is a cut to the reviewer.

To be fair on DMS, he did actually say the Krilla was a pretty decent iem for its price, just not better than other more expensive ones.

As for what he chose to compare them against, I’m not sure he actually has that many low end iems. Certainly if you watch his YT he has very few reviews on them, sticking mainly to headphones or higher end kit.

I also don’t buy in to the ‘DMS is doing this to raise his profile’ idea. Low cost iems aren’t his main area, and he’s got a pretty good following already through his work with The Headphones Show. Whether you like him as a reviewer or not, he hasn’t (to my knowledge) done anything like this before or been shown to have done anything subversive in the industry either.

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He works (worked?) for Audeze. Dude is entrenched in the high-end headphones side of things. He doesn’t need to flex on KZ for clout. I’m not particularly interested in this controversy but if I’m giving one side a benefit of the doubt over the other in this, I’m giving it to DMS, not KZ

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He is still Admin here but I think it was/is Abyss? @DMS

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:man_shrugging:t5:

It’s some headphone maker, you know what I mean :slight_smile:

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DMS did video editing for Abyss, but it might be past tense. Last I knew he working for Headphones.com, so I don’t know if he still works for Abyss.

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Well, it’s just my impression.

I still don’t think to bring a totally unrelated third party products to “defaming” a negatively oriented video is a smart move. Unless otherwise intentional.

The way I see :

Audience (responding Police )

Wife (DMS)

Husband (KZ)

Handsome Romeo 1( Truthear)

Handsome Romeo 2 (Crin)

How it started:
It sparked by husband (directly or indirectly) conducted unethical act to Wife. Pretty sure this happened. Then wife called police officer to the scene.

Police (We) showed up.

Wife(DMS) “my husband punched me in the face. Please arrest him. Meanwhile I will stay at handsome Romeo’s house they are nicer”

Husband(KZ) “ wait what? I didn’t punch you. And who the heck is that Romeo guy?”

Romeo1 (Truthear) : “don’t get us involved into your domestic violence problem dude. I know you occasionally expressing your aggressive behaviors”

Romeo2 (Crin) : “F off. We are no longer friends. “

This is what I see what’s happening.

Why did wife pulled out handsome romeo’s to this scene? It will highly likely to cause a drama and Internet traffic. Cui Bono?

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I think this is overthinking it a bit - the two IEMS he compared them two are relatively relevant in the given price range and comparing them doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive with calling out KZ’s product. Too bad they got wrapped up in the drama too.

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Haha yes, it’s just a speculation for the trending internet dramas.

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The imagery from your write-up was great :joy:

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Crazy Japanese portable(?) stack

Hmmmm this is a hobby

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Tangzu announced a new “earphone stand”

Interesting concept.

I’d personally add a clear case around that stand as a dust and moisture proof.

One thing this wired earphone hobby lacking when compared to others is “showcasing”

Hope Tangzu to push this idea further to a new culture.

Showcasing your favorite earphones.

IMG_9618
+
IMG_9617

I’m practicing this for my other hobbies, sadly earphones are stored in the box and displaying those boxes doesn’t excite me enough.

Home interiors:

Bike:

Headphones and neckbands

Booze:

Statue figures

As I see the cables are so very unorganized and needs to be stored. For wireless TWS, unfortunately they needed to be seated to charging box.

For waifu concept IEMs, hope they make an acrylic stand that actually holds the product like this

For tangzu’s stand it seems you can store it underneath that stand compartment. Sleek.

Tangzu also claims the acrylic stand part is interchangeable, a brilliant idea so that each earphones have got a permanent showcasing canvas!

Only thing they need is a protective clear case for dust and moisture proof, and possibly mini LED spotlighting solution. If possible a solar-powered.

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