JAY's audio memes (and reviews/ranking too I guess)

Dammm welp bois it’s competitively priced, rip the Pilgrim I literally just finished my review on that lol

@domq422 Id like that too, but I don’t think we’re getting 16BAs from Knowles or sonion at this price LOL

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Well…guess its not only KZ that does stealth revision…although this is a much bigger crime considering the price difference between KZ and Ziigaat…

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Eh, it has been done before.

Audiosense T800 was a 300 usd 8 BA all knowles BA from like 5 years ago.
GS Audio iirc has a 8 BA all knowles for around 250 usd.

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You mean this lol


Clearly all the funds went into the drivers :rofl:

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That one was actually one of the top iems back then.

That T800 still has the top 2 best BA bass (closest to DD) I have heard though, other one is also from Audiosense, the DT100.

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Ya make a good point, brother. I guess my brain has been trained to look for the Sonion or Knowles name once we start getting close to that $500 number. Like I said, It doesn’t really matter as long as the implementation is good, and from what you’re saying brudda, it is so all is good!

I just genuinely wonder if it’s better to go with 8 unbranded BAs rather than 4 branded BAs, tuned the exact same way? I wonder what would be better…

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Probably better for marketing I’m guessing when people see 8BAs they go woooow!!

@Rikudou_Goku lol how far we’ve gotten from those days

At the end of the day it’s just a business thing, you can probably do Knowles and Sonion with that setup but run on small margins :man_shrugging:

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Marketing, more drivers = better for sure

Cost and QC wise though, is a bit harder to tell since more drivers = more factors that can go wrong → more costly to have more matching sets and also harder to assemble.

Sound wise, this is just a guess, but I believe it should be easier for them to customize the BAs if its bellsing compared to knowles due to the cost issue which should be lower with bellsing. So it really just depends on their implementation in the end, the only BA i have heard from simgot, is the EM6L and if that is a generalization, then they do indeed know what they are doing (closest to what Sony is doing with their BA implementation).

Assuming implementation and price are all the same though, I would bet that the 8 unbranded BAs (bellsing) would be better than 4 branded (knowles) BAs.

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Another oldie, was considered one of the top budget sets.

20 usd, tribrid (DD + BA + piezo) iirc.

Iems before the aria success and the successive clones, really did whatever the hell they wanted in terms of tuning.

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Marketing definitely takes a huge roll when you’re showcasing a big driver count, for sure, especially to the general public rather than us hardcore Audio geeks that basically live on these forums on a daily basis. I personally don’t give a rats ass when it comes to driver counts, only driver configuration to a certain degree. If I see an all BA IEM, I’m a bit weary of what the bass is going to sound like unless it’s coming from Symphonium, I trust those guys more than 90% of the other companies out there with their 4 BA set up compared to the Tribrids and quadbrids out there now a days. Symphonium taught me in a hardcore way that the driver count means nothing because implementation is far more important.

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I am really curious how they fare against the Sony BAs (m7/m9), those side-firing BAs are damn good.

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Truth be told, I’ve never heard either of those Sony IEMs. All I know is that Symphonium accomplishes a lot with their BA set up. Another company that I’m fairly impressed by is 64 Audio, the U12t, no lie, sounds like it has a legit DD inside. But, it’s also $2k and instead of using 4 BAs, they’re using 12 so, ya know, hard to compare the two.

I think IEMs like the Crimson and the Meteor are very impressive with the small driver count but crazy R&D going on inside.

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Me neither, and i probably never will due to pressure build up, price and the fact that my Rikubuds Grand Alter Saber 3 is the bud version of the M9 (multiple people have said that).

Meteor vs M7, both 4 BA would be interesting (and I think they are in the same price range as well).

Another one that gets a lot of praise. I do wonder which BA iem is the closest to a DD out there…

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Oofffff, pressure build up is a no go. I know it’s more dependent on anatomy more than anything, but I can confirm that the Meteors had some nasty pressure build up for me in my left ear, to the point where it was legit painful after about 45 minutes. The Crimson on the other hand had no pressure - not sure how that works but that’s what I found. I don’t doubt that your buds go blow for blow with multiple high end IEMs for sure. Buds tuned well are just special.

The STORM. That’s not only DD like in terms of it’s presentation, but’s probably some of the best bass I’ve heard, period. Regardless of the type of driver. But ya gotta PAAAAAAY for that one, son lol

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Strange as they both dont look that different (and no vents on either) from what I can see on pics at least…

haha, its funny when you think about it. You pay MORE to have a BA sound like DD, why not just go DD to begin with then? :joy:
(DD master race)

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While it has DD-like qualities, it is unmistakably still BA IMO…but like @domq422 said, it’s still top-class stuff. I’m sure there are more technical reasons why they did what they did (splitting the BAs for the SLAM tech, crossover implementation, etc) but all’s I know is it just werks.

That’s why we love and evangelize your buds, bud!

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They’re both definitely unvented as the Titan is their first Vented IEM but the Crimson is a lot larger than the Meteor in overall volume, I assume to house the larger internals like the Cross-over and all the other fancy tech they have. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Well, I can assume like Guy said that the BAs are easier to implement their aforementioned ‘fancy’ tech but also maybe they just wanted to be able to control the speed of the bass a bit more? It is a faster mid-bass punch with less decay than a traditional DD but in the best way possible imo

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Yes that is it then. Larger volume inside should mean that the time it takes for the pressure to be “full” inside it should be longer (like how a smaller balloon will pop faster than a larger one). At least that is what I believe is happening.

Oh, yes that is indeed the case. With BAs, they can simply use FEA (finite element simulation) and to see what the end results will be with all factors inputted, so from a design perspective it is much easier. (this is what Dunu told me btw.)

From an assembling perspective though, at least IMO, it is much harder to assemble BA iems than a DD. Due to how tiny BAs (they are like the size of your fingernails) are and how hard it is to align everything perfectly and get all the tubes matching.

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Let me be just a tiny tiny smartass here as I think pressure build up is quite a misunderstood concept in our community. You have the effect right, but the cause is just a little bit wrong.

Pressure increase in a system can be caused by either pumping more air in the same volume or reducing the volume where fixed amount of air (number of particles) is placed.

As we are talking about closed system of unvented IEM + ear canal (closed by the eardrum) then there is no possibility of increasing the amount of air being trapped in it. So first option is off.

The only possibility to increase average pressure is to compress the volume of the sealed system system. And it can and will happen while inserting the IEM - just like piston in the cylinder does increase the pressure when it reduces the gap to the bottom. And this is exactly what can be called a pressure build up.
But it happens only while inserting.

And as you said - having a larger internal cavity of the shell reduces this increase as compared to a shell with smaller internal acoustic cavity given everything else in the system remains geometrically same (nozzle size etc). I can do the math if someone asks :lab_coat:

After the insertion the internal static pressure won’t increase in time and on average would remain constant. The only (very minute) fluctuations in the pressure are caused by incursion and recursion of the driver’s membrane from the equilibrium state. But every small increase of the internal static pressure is followed by decrease when the membrane retracts along with the music playback.

Here is very beautiful graph of how the pressure of unvented driver should look in time for small and large volume shell

The fact that this pressure is not felt immediately as a discomfort is due to the fact that it takes time for our neural system to be irritated enough by this abnormal state of ear drum being permanently pushed towards the inner ear. With higher initial pressure increase it takes shorter, with lower it may be even unnoticeable.

Also - breaking the seal for a second just after inserting should help a lot, it did for me with SA6 and T800 - and this is probably the most important part of this post :smiley:

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That’s still one of the main reasons I like BA bass in the IEMs I enjoy for punk and faster funk. I want that faster midbass for quick snappy bass guitar riffs and slamming fast drums. For me this is where the Meteor shines. The only DD that comes closest to it I’ve heard is the beryllium DD in the UP. Unfortunately it just doesn’t have the midbass punch I’d prefer for punk.

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