For those who’re budget concious, it might be worth testing different filetypes of the same recording usind ABX in foobar to see if you can tell any difference. Especially between redbook (16/44.1k) and anything hires above that. Linn has downloads of the same recordings in different formats on their website, if you don’t have your own.
2 Likes
Good stuff 
@domq422 ma man coming in clutch. I honestly might switch over to spotify since the algorithm and song suggestions are so much better than apple music ugh
Guys I’m making a playlist for the Estrella, so feel free to drop any songs on this thread that you think sounds great on them 
6 Likes
Enemies - KSHMR
1 Like
Hey , just wanted to ask knowledgeable people here
I am noticing a trend in newer IEMs where there is a big dip in 10K region ( near that )
On the HBB thread someone said that it is for depth perception but really curious about this tuning choice.
Anyone care to answer ?
Stage depth doesn’t depend on FR’s 10K, imo.
Just stream your own files then. Get the files over on a NAS and run Navidrome on it and you have your own streaming service.
2 Likes
When it comes to HRTF , I can’t say anything for sure.
If you are using iec711 graphs, then that area is highly inaccurate.
Gunship ‘Woken Furies’
Plini ‘I’ll Tell You Someday’
Wheel ‘Movement’
1 Like
Yep. No service is close to Spotify with playlists, song suggestions and the algorithm.
If that stuff is more important than sound quality (not finger pointing, not at all!), then Spotify is the way to go. Its algorithm is scary good and miles ahead of other services.
5 Likes
Honestly the algo and playlists on tidal have been very good to me. The playlists mix together songs I already have saved and new ones that are either in the same genre or genre adjacent. And the daily discovery playlist does a good job of not giving you random songs in genres that you don’t like.
3 Likes
Spotify and Tidal are similar in playlists. But if sound quality is important to you then Tidal is definitely the choice. But having buffering and it’s a bit annoying at times. Still, if you don’t find a difference in the sound quality, choose Spotify 
1 Like
According to this data some people had massive 10k dips and some people even had boosted 10k area, but around half of the people in the data had this massive boost after 10k area after the 10k dip, and this is why some people have less issue with upper treble boost but lower treble boosts cause discomfort for most, also think of u12t with its lower treble dip then massive 15k peak graph, some thought the res and tHeChNIcalZ are superior than all the iems , meanwhile some would call it earrape and trash and the data above shows why.
When i do frequency swipe or play pink noise with my speaker the 12k up to 21k regions have alot more spl than lower treble and midrange to my ears, i have to lower the volume by 15-20db when i reach 16k+ and at first i thought im sensitive to this area but seeing measured hrtfs data on the internet made me 100% sure now that my ears literally boosts this region by a large amount, and i think this is the reason when i eq the upper treble down on my in ears, i cannot experience the music/resolution like i do with my speakers and it sounds dark and very low fi when the treble is just downward sloping and smooth meanwhile others with big dips and less 15k boost would say the opposite.
6 Likes
It’s BnK 5128
What is Estella best at in your experience?
- Sub-bass
- Mids
- Female vocals
- Male vocals
- Resolution
- Separation and layering
- Soundstage
- Treble extension
- Transients
- Sound texture
- Images/pin point factor
- Putting much more expensive IEMs to shame (this is a joke but still)
0
voters
there is definitely a difference in quality after listening some hi res samples from qobuz. but seems like tidal and qobuz not available in my home country so i cant abuse the currency unlike my youtube premium lol. Paid 8€/month for youtube family currently
3 Likes
I keep digging deep. Mark might block me but I don’t care! This is my opinion. And yes - it’s not a reviewer!
I congratulate Mark on this song, magnificently performed by Estrella!
4 Likes
Jesus, brother, I was not expecting you to go so hard on this subject 
I will say, you do make 1 good point though, Mark did not make it a point to compare the Estrella to anything which he usually does. He’ll grab like 3 or 4 other like-priced IEMs and put them side by side. I wonder why he didn’t do that for the Estrella?
6 Likes
No idea what Mark thinks about IEM’s but as long as you enjoy them then…
Ain’t it 
8 Likes