Congrats on your sobriety! Same to you, @Toecutter!
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Yo guys, got a new review out! I didnāt pull any punches with this one 
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Strange, mine has been daily driving for almost a year. Next is EPZ TP50?
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I donāt think Iāve had a harder time deciding between two IEMs than the Kefine Delci and Artti R1.
Very similar in sound signature, build, timbre. Itās going to be a fun challenge to find distinctive characteristics that will make my choice.
Both are VERY good for $60. Iāve also been testing the CCA Trio, and itās very good for $40. But the Delci and R1 are at a higher level, for sure.
More listening and analysis to come!
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For me, the Delci came and went. Male vocals can suffer, especially those that are naturally a bit thin, I found some painful moments. Never a one on Artti.
Because of the slight thinness, Delci can come across more detailed, and was a better lower volume listen.
Definitely one of the best lie in bed sets you can find.
In the end though, Artti held its place scoring a bit higherā¦
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Ah, my ears hear them differently. I hear more sub-bass on the Delci. Theyāre warmer. The R1 are less forward in the mids, which matches the lower-mids dip you can see on graphs, but are a bit less rolled-off in the lower treble.
Both are really nice. Will need to listen to a lot more tracks to decide.
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Really have no clue where to post thisā¦but @Andy_Pickard I think it was you that posted a picture of some goats(not sure is they are yours)around Christmas,I think??? But since the weather is nice out I was outside hanging with my goats Trixie and Cletus. Snapped a pictureā:goat:
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fwiw, my 2 cents having gone back and forth with the delci.
I found myself in complete alignment with your initial impressions of it but also with the caveat that @tybt mentions above.
For my tastes, Itās a very pleasing profile thatās almost perfect to me but Iād say it lacks a little refinement, which will present itself from time to time across tracks with hints of sibilance and mud. Not enough to ruin it for me but enough to notice. Iād love to see an iteration on this tuning in the future from Kefine. There was a lot done right here for musical enjoyment and Iāve found myself not wanting to take them off.
And I know EW200 is a very different tuning altogether to Delci but for the price I do think the driver in the EW200 is a little better/faster as I perceive better bass texture. When put all together, itās quite a nice package (shell design, colour, cable and case all done very well) and tuning for $59 and I think thatās a fair price for it in todayās competitive market. In fact Iāve bought 3 of them and all found happy homes!
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Aww!! 
Do you own a farm??
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Chris I had no idea you owned goats, dude!!! I fān love those little guys, such a funny animal haha thanks for Sharing that
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No we donāt. We have about 7 acres. We have an old barn that I turned into a spot for the goats on one side and are to store hay and what not on the other side. The have about an acre to roam in while there fence in. But we let them out daily and they get to roam freely. The are fucking rad animals. So gentle and loving. Remind me of dogs. The female is about 2 and the male is about 1 1/2. They are the bestš¤
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There rad! Part of the family. My little homiesš¤
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Right?! Iām from the city and Iāve always been a city boy, but every time Iām around farm animals I feel so comfortable.
I grew up taking care of horses since I was a kid, but they were racing horses at a local race track that isnāt there anymoreā¦ totally different beasts. I grew to love how beautiful and gentle they can be for being 1000+ pounds. They could kill a human so easily, but instead, theyāre patient and so incredibly smart. Goats are just goof balls and I love emā for it hahah
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Not strictly IEM related, but still very interesting vid from a perspective of Golden sound (who is source enthusiast). In the end I am not sure about the conclusions, but the approach was good
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Andy also did a blind test this week. (Not double blind though)
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Iāll have to hide mine thenā¦ 
Disclaimerā¦itās a joke
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lmao I see what you did there
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Happy to see BRCT in the audio community as well as an attempted objective approach. Headphones.com team trying to push the envelope within the audio mainstreamā¦ 
I mean otherwise it is a bit clickbaity and I also donāt follow the mental acrobatics & hoops navigated to get to the conclusion. This is more a test of reconstruction filters than DACs per se as a theoretical (not commercially available) filter is being used as an edge caseā¦ You would need to make a lot of other assumptions (which pose more questions than answers) and even then this would be quite a ālogicalā (sic) stretch in being seen as a test of DACs being distinguishable. Further, an almost super human hearing result which is very much at the upper end of the bell curve cannot really be used as reasoning to trump-up premiumly expensive DACs when the test results show that up to 20k there was no measurable differences. 
Perhaps some breakdown of average hearing and audible levels could have been provided so people understand who this exclusive SQ difference may apply to.
Thinking out loud - I would also be interested in understanding if the DAC used for the ABX was employing a filter itself when playing the upsampled files? Understanding the SPL used would also be helpful as Goldensound refers to cranking it a little to hear - and it isnāt always a case of people not being able to hear >20khz at all but instead it is the loudness required for that to happen (eg I recall a study (donāt make me look it up) which had <21 year olds needing on average <95db to hear 20k whilst the 36-45 year olds needed 102-105db (I canāt remember exactly but the deviations were also far higher)). Also it would be interesting to note if the headphones used had been eqād to flat or if there is any other employed software compensation to account for some boosted FR which with gain applied could lead to distortion. I mean I doubt it but controls be controlsā¦
Probably the bigger issue for me is the lack of congruence to past DAC reviews ie - if the only accountable difference is extension past the usual audible band then how does this account for past reviews where he has admittedly used the ABX tool to help understand SQ which subsequently gave rise to references on soundstage, tonal and technical differences being perceived through solely the DAC when music is being played instead of test tones where the occurrence of high frequency non electric instrumentation at audible levels is sparse. I mean I understand it probably is not the best look for your popularity to say DACs are for most people (save for the young and genetic hearing lottery winners) indistinguishable - especially when you either represent an audio store or when you have just released a very expensive DAC as your named product. Business is business - I get it - but it ruins credibility and gives his ASR haters actual firepower which detracts from what I feel these guys have the best intentions (if flawed/commercially interest bias with execution) on trying to do. Sensationism here is detracting from interesting results which are then rushed over. 
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He said at the beginning of the video that he was trying to prove that there IS an audible difference. He was unsuccessful in doing this because he didnāt control for all possible confounding variables, namely missing his hearing acuity. I would be surprised, for the reasons you mentioned, if he actually waits a year or two until his upper hearing limit drops below 20kHz and redoes the test because the results literally invalidate one of the core factors that allows him to make a living reviewing and selling DACs and amps (and I fully expect that he will be invalidated).
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I think we might be overthinking this a little. What I get from the video is that while there is always a place for trying to get as much objectivity into the hobbyā¦we canāt actually make this objective.
As much time as he talks about placebo, the way our brains interpret things, and explicit and implicit biases, you can invalidate any result he pulled from this experiment.
We are the most fallible variable. We overrate our preferences and devalue things we donāt like. You can find whatever answer you want to see in the video.
Love what you love and hobby however you see fit 
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