Goated comment 
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/me sighs and mourns the lack of meme…
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what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
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Takes way too long sorry 
I think the thumbnail is already meme enough heh
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Oh my god yes, this legendary B2, been a while since I saw that
Alright lecture time.
The amount of mid-bass that you can have before it “bleeds” into the rest is actually also affected by the rest tuning. Example, take 2 identical iems except you have a high shelf difference of 5 db from 2k+ With a boosted bass shelf.
IEM 1
IEM 2
And you have 2 people, A being extremely sensitive to anything bright (aka mids/treble). And B being extremely INsensitive to anything bright.
When A listens to iem 1, the low amount of mids/treble will perfectly balance out with A´s hrtf (sensitiveness) and thus the amount of mid-bass will also not sound muddy.
However when B listens to iem 1, the low amount of mids/treble will be way too little for them and it will sound dark af to them, and now the bass quantity is gonna be a detriment as well and thus make it sound like it is bleeding into the none existent mids/treble to their perception.
But when A listens to iem 2, now the mids/treble will be too much for them and the bass is gonna be perceived as much lower than it was before.
When B listens to iem 2, now the bass will not be bleeding into the rest because the mids/treble is finally gonna match their HRTF and perceieved as perfectly balanced and not dark.
Is everything clear to you now?
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Question for you, I’ve always considered preference/sensitivity to be different than HRTF but you are using them interchangeably here. I always understood HRTF to be how a person translates FR into 3D space and has more to do with perceived 3D-ness, imaging and stage as opposed to purely tonal preference/sensitivity.
EDIT: I realized I never actually asked my question. Is my understanding incorrect?
Looks good to me, so what you’re saying is if I’m not that sensitive in the 3K gain, and the IEM has less gain and more 1.5K, then that would mean there would be too much 1.5K then correct?
@VIVIDICI_111 If you want to see this stuff in action grab yourself a decent Dynamic EQ VST/plug-in and play around with the parameters it’s really the easiest way to get experience of it. 
To be fair anyone who uses PEQ should try Dynamic EQing for the personalized SQ also.
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Yeah that is pretty wrong.
Your preferences are shaped by your sensitivities which are caused by your HRTF.
Assuming only a peak at 1.5k and then a dip for the 3k, then it would likely sound dull to you in the 3k since the “contrast” between them would be bigger.
Too much 1.5k would happen if you are instead sensitive to that area rather than 3k.
But all of this is relatively easy to find out if you play around with PEQ with a few different sets. (since attack/decay will also factor in and make things more complicated than my simple scenario above.)
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Makes sense. I was under the impression that we all have a similar ear gain… oh Harman brainwashing me again woohoo
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Definitely not lol.
And yeah harman kinda has brainwashed the community. Although tbf, it is a good STARTING point.
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Thanks for the response. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. From everything I have read about HRTF it’s specifically about how our ears perceive sound in space. I understand this can influence our preferences to a certain extent but I’m not sure how it relates to someone being more sensitive. Any chance you could link some reading on this relationship? It seems reasonable to me that someone may prefer super bright sound signatures even to the detriment of how they perceive sound in space.
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The space you are thinking of is not “soundstage” in particular.
Someone being more sensitive because their hrtf already boosts a particular area compared to someone that has a dip, would mean that for the one that has the dip listening to a transducer that also dip in that area would essentially make it have a “double dip” in effect and would be very lacking. While if you are someone with a peak (aka you are now sensitive to it), listening to a transducer with a peak will make it a “double peak” and is gonna be way too much for you.
This now shapes your preferences where you will want something that balances out your dip with a peak. Or your peak with a dip.
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This makes a lot of sense, thank you!
I think this is mostly where my disconnect is. If someone has a dip in 4-6k I gotta imagine that doesn’t necessarily equal that they want sets with a boost in 4-6k. Maybe they really hate 4-6k or the music they listen to sounds weird with a boost in 4-6k so they still prefer that to be flat or a dip. I totally what you mean though. If that same person listening to the same music with the same end preferences had a boost in 4-6k they would want a bigger dip in that space than the person 1.
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Yeah true I guess if you simply prefer something to sound darker that would indeed be the case.
(was thinking about neutrality a bit too much.)
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Alright guys so I finally got the Supernova… and holy crap is it super, if you novawhat I’m saying…
Special thanks to @buddhistfoolish for sending them in along with the Neon Pro and EJ07M KL. Legend 
The main standout, or the supernova’s strongest point is its treble extension. It’s just soooo smooth like this is the rare instance where the reviews are not overhyping it, they’re right, the treble is phenomenal. No peaks or jarring dips, no masking, it’s airy and just so stable is the word I would use. Cymbals have the perfect decay to them, never sharp, detailed, there’s enough sss and reverb but never fatiguing. Based off memory the only treble that might be better is the OG Symphonium Helios, it’s the supernova, but more treble, and brighter.
Now I honestly don’t know how they manage this with only BAs, like even most ESTs don’t sound this refined like the Monarchs or EJ07M for example. No BA timbre either, so they must have fine tuned the shit out of this to get treble this good and this natural, which you know makes sense now why they’re so hard to get because it might just take way too long to produce a unit. Imo, it’s the best treble under $1000, it’s not energetic or bright, but the dynamics are just so even, for example songs with high dynamic contrast like Run Away with Me will usually be too jarring because of the sudden shift in the energy from the verse to the chorus, but the Supernova plays it back smoothly - it’s just a better Variations in-terms of treble quality.
Sub-bass I would say Variations and other IEMs with a DD does that better still, like the Hype 2, the EJ07M, the Monarchs, etc. They all have a deeper rumble, more sub-bass and reverb in the decay, more energetic and engaging, but the low-end on the supernova’s are still solid. Clean, well-separated, punchy, provides enough body to the vocals, but doesn’t overcolor the sound and get in the way of the music, again not as slamming, but it does the job. Vocals are also good, not too forward nor congested - they’re a tiny bit warm, a little husky from the mid-bass and the 1.5K bump, so the supernova’s aren’t going to be sweetest or cleanest vocal wise, but it does still have a little air from the treble. It doesn’t prioritise male or female vocals, it does well in both but just not amazing in neither.
To me it sits dead in the middle between angelic and warm, so it has a nice balance from both spectrums. I never found the Supernova’s vocals to be harsh or shrill sounding, they scale very well with volume actually, sounds natural and not wonky, But I guess the vocals could use more extension and power, so referring back to my MagicOne breakdown, they could use more head voice and gain in the 3K region. Overall I would describe the supernova’s vocals as In-offensive and enjoyable - they don’t have any special sauce but most people will like them and find them “good”, although both the RSV and Monarch MK2s are still better in-terms of vocal clarity, and power, but the supernova’s would fall somewhere around the EJ07M and Studio 4 level, which is great.
Versus the Moondrop S8, the Supernova is a less clinical/not as neutral sounding version of the S8, they’re both actually fairly similar but the S8 does have slightly cleaner separation on busier tracks, where the Supernova has more body in the mid-bass and a firmer attack in kickdrums and bass guitars. However, this added boost in the Supernova’s low-end does mean that the S8 is going to have better clarity and separation, and overall feels less closed in stage wise. Treble wise they’re both very similar, but the Supernova is more even in the extension since there are some dips in the S8 which makes the Supernova also a little sharper in the end notes and imaging. On the other hand, the S8 does has more vocal gain and extension, but imo it’s a bit clinical in this case because of the S8’s leaner mid-bass, I think this added gain would’ve worked very well to cut through the Supernova’s low-end, so personally, I’d still take the Supernova because it’s just more musical, not as clinical, and a little bit more textured in the treble and more enjoyable for me.
Versus the AuR Neon Pro - I actually like the Neon Pro more than the Supernova in certain instances. For example the low-end feels firmer and has more tacility to the notes, especially with the bass switch on, but even off the Neon Pro still feels more weighted. The separation also is a little cleaner on the Neon Pros with the bass switch off, not by much, and the imaging is also slightly sharper as well. Now, the Supernova is still smoother with more air, vocals on the Neon Pros can get a bit shouty when you crank it up, but because the Supernova is so smooth it can come as too safe sometimes, whereas the Neon Pro’s firmer low-end and slightly better imaging and separation creates more engagement with the music - Which is why at mid volume I would pick the Neon Pro, and at high volumes I’d take the Supernova since it scales much better and is more immersive.
Versus the Monarchs on the other hand, the MK2 is still better in-terms of vocal clarity and detail, and the MK3s are better in-terms of bass texture and slam, but the Supernova has them beat when it comes to the dynamics and treble, again very smooth, and all three are similar when resolution wise. Overall, I would say the MK3s are still the best all-rounder for most people, if your library is mainly pop, edm, hiphop, r&b then the MK3s are more energetic and fun since the Supernova is going to lack that engaging factor.
It’s tricky because the Supernova’s aren’t a treblehead set either, like don’t get me wrong the treble quality is fantastic, but it’s not bright or super sparkly, so it’s harder to pick a niche for it. I would say, if you want an endgame “balanced” IEM that isn’t clinical sounding, get the Supernovas - it doesn’t specialise in anything for say, but it pretty much works with every genre I threw at it, just not as fun as the Neon Pro or MK3s. It’s obviously still a great IEM, not quite a kilobuck killer since it doesn’t have any special sauce or crazy technical performance, but if you want that endgame refinement without having to sell your kidneys, then these are it. Thanks for reading 
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I find you are not very impressed with KL…. 
But… in 2023, it cannot be any other way. 
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Edit: I may stand corrected, I think I got mixed up.
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