IEM discussion thread (Part 2)

I think a few people have already expressed their impressions about these iems. I don’t really find anything really great to talk about. I feel it’s just an average iem. Kinera, on one side, is producing some brilliant iems as Loki, and then to compensate for the R&D there, they have produced this. I also liked the Nanna from the same brand. Freya2 a very halfhearted release from a rather reputable brand. The good looks on it are deceiving in the way they don’t complement the sound much. The technicalities in these iems are just average, which sometimes makes them sound really off. I think it still goes well with some specific genres, not with heavy and dense tracks. It fails miserably there. There are a lot of better iems in this price range. I certainly won’t use adjectives as exhilarating and captivating sound for these iems. That just sounds like some paid review or doing some favour to the brand. I am sorry if I come across as offensive or rude, but this is what I feel about these iems, more so because they’re coming from Kinera.


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Reecho Dawn…

https://penonaudio.com/Reecho-SG-01-Dawn.html

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Reecho is reliable in triggering my PTSD with their horns of dread :sweat_smile:

They sound in the same vein as the worst IEMs I ever listend to.
Welcome to my horror cabinet:

This is a recipe for disaster. Steep pinna gain followed by the 2 peaks followed by a steep decline.
I suspect Reecho has some misfortunate contract where they are obliged to manufacture a batch of 10000 crap drivers nobody else in the industry would touch?

This leads me to the question what are the worst IEMs you guys ever listened to?
Or to which band in a frequency response graph are you most sensitive?

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This is the first to come to mind.

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The only two IEMs that I’ve outright hated and could find no redeeming factors in were the Campfire IO and the Letshuoer Tape Pro. Just awful timbre and peaks and valleys in all the wrong places.

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Oh yeah that is also a candidate. Although the TP10 was unlistenable to me, its a screaming banshee and I couldnt take it more than a few seconds…

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Geekwold GK10 - absolute shitshow

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Shuoer Tape Pro - :100: with you - that was another awful purchase for me also - literally made because it had a unique look :man_facepalming: Not sure if the OG tape is worse…

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3DT. I felt it was personally attacking my ears every cymbal crash :smiling_face_with_tear:

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its a billion times better.

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Agreed, OG Tape was intense but fun and not completely overbearing. Tape Pro was just a disaster in your ear.

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For about 3 years or so the Tape pro was my only IEM :joy::see_no_evil: initially I had a few IEM’s with it and it was definitely the worst but since I love giving my good stuff away to friends and family I found myself stuck with the pro’s :joy: I think brain burn in set in and without any comparisons to have anymore I got along well with them. It’s crazy how relativity comes into play with all this. Sometimes I think we shoot ourselves in the foot by having so many IEM’s/headphones due to how it makes us compare so much.

Anyways, fortunately moved on from the tape pro’s and bought/recieved the timeless OG from @Ohmboy and absolutely love them! Will take maybe another year or 3 before the itch returns :sunglasses:

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Forgot who asked, but here’s the graph for the EPZ 620 (vs MIRAI):

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I was right about Mirai even before it came out. It doesn’t look very good to me, but whatever, I’m just someone who will never buy it. That’s just $1,100 for this gold collaboration. Cheers to DUNU, cheers to Mirai. :shushing_face:

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Agree with the Tape Pro being really bad.
The other one I absolutely despise is the ZSN Pro X. It sounds dull and harsh at the same time with metallic timbre and crappy bass.

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A few impressions…

Ziigaat Nuo: Absolutely terrible before burn-in. I kept hearing ZIIIIIGAAAAT :wink: It was very aggressive and smoothed over, but overtime that lessened and it got a little clearer. It’s still too aggressive with any treble emphasis tips and sound stage is not that great, so I have to go with tips like CP100 Or HS18. I’ll have to try EQing this.

TRN Conch: Red nozzle is obviously best without modification, but seems like stage is slightly smaller and resolution decreases a little. I put a little cotton in each with blue nozzle and used CP100 and it’s less aggressive than Nuo despite vocals being prominent. A big negative is I had condensation issues after just 1 day, and it’s not exactly that cold or hot here. The cotton seems to have helped but not completely.

CCA Rhapsody: Switches on this are meh. I think it might have to do with each still having a lot of mid-bass. Only benefit to me is mid/treble switches up let you go with tips like HS18 or CP100 and those switches down do well with Clarion, W1, Coreir, etc… I didn’t try with non-vocal tracks, so more bass may help for that. I think right now Clarion is best (I guess I just don’t really care for the drony bass on this one but I’ve had it only for a day). The mids are just okay and treble is tamed but doesn’t have extension for the sparkles and shimmer, so it’s kind of missing some excitement. I think I have just a slight preference for it over H570/W1 Cadenza mostly because stage seems a little fuller and wider. I’m surprised this was getting compared to Nova or Chopin. It seems enough to just compare to Cadenza with right tip selection.

So in all Conch > Rhapsody > H570 Cadenza > Nuo

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After first couple of hours listening to the Sonic Memory SW2 my first question is where do I get the SM2…

A tiny iem with a wood face plate and a superb quality 2pin Kimber Kable with 3.5mm termination.

I’m shocked by how much I like the SW2 as its not my usual sound signature in fact it’s quite the opposite but my god its intoxicated me the spacial positioning of instruments the vocals while recessed and slightly thin are true in tone, treble is fantastic, detailed, natural with extention. Bass is by no means big it’s very detailed with a hint of warmth, space between the layered textures. A (DF-neutral)
With a slight bass boost using the wood tuning nozzles. In summation a bright technical set with some special sauce I can’t quite put my finger on.


I’m looking forward to burning them in to see what more they can give.

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Apparently didn’t even have to EQ the Nuo. I looked back at Nubian King’s head-fi review to see why he liked it so much again and noticed that he had what appeared to be SS20s on them which makes sense since they lower mids & treble a little but give good staging. Funny how tips can be liked that. I knew this set had potential. Turned it into a $10 banger with better staging without any aggression, incisive treble, and clean bass. I like it more than Rhapsody and goes well against my current form of Conch that offers bold mids. Praise the Nubian King!

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Welp… I got tired of waiting for reviews lol

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Spring 1 + Coreir tips dem :metal:’s lol…

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