Hey, brother, I think there is always going to be trolls out there who are going to give you a hard time when you have a stance that doesn’t align with theirs. But the important thing is to handle it with grace and maturity. I think we all could have handled it differently, maybe? All I know is that I didn’t like the tone of the criticisms being thrown around yesterday.
With that being said, I hate fighting and going back and forth online, so I’ll publicly apologize to everyone for making such a mess of the thread yesterday. I just couldn’t see my boy getting beat down like that by two dudes lol
Stay up, man. All will be well, I think you’re doing a bang up job with the reviews and videos you’re putting out. We’ll all get better as time goes on as long as we put the work in!
Not. True. At. All. And KZ is not the “only brand” that actually makes quality iems for reasonable prices. That is the overgeneralization of the year so far. LOL. Charging what you think the set will fetch is one thing. That doesn’t make your product worth the price. It just means you are trying to justify the price you are charging. I just think it’s funny how you folks are jumping all over anyone who dares question Plunge Audio’s quality or price/quality ratio. Get a grip. You like them? Great. Just don’t try to convince others to do so.
I have reached out to Plunge for a review set. If they respond, I will take them for a test drive. And if that confirms what Jaytiss had to say about them, I am going to have a freaking field day with y’all. Can’t wait!
I have no problem claiming a set is not worth the price, most sets imo are not worth the money, but driver count has no bearing on price/quality. The symphonium titan is i believe one DD and 3BAs and runs circles around pretty much any set I’ve heard, under and over 1k. I still don’t think it’s worth $1k to me but damn do I love it
I never said they were. I never tied driver count to cost or quality, you did. All I’m saying is if your judge of value is based on driver count, which seems to be your only argument against Plunge since you haven’t heard it, then all companies I have seen would have some sets in their offerings that are equally poor “value”. KZ is the only company I can think of which would pass based on that barometer but please feel free to name a few companies you consider to have good value based on your criteria.
At the end of the day judging a set’s value by a graph or driver count is meaningless to me. I look forward to your impression of the unity.
Oh btw I have never heard the unity so I can’t say whether it’s worth it or not. I don’t think I would like the tuning based on impressions so Im not interested in taking the risk to buy and try.
We’re all people dude. I didn’t troll you. You shadow banned me after bassdad came in aggressive and I matched his tone.
I questioned you for 3 reasons.
I blind bought Unity before there was hype. I did so because the entire tuning philosophy is different than anything on the market. No tubes for the ba’s, No filters, not even mesh on the nozzle. Literally nothing between your ear and the driver. There’s nothing that I’ve even heard of today with more or even equal resolution because of that fact. It’s tuned via acoustic mass in a totally custom shell. The nozzle actually points the opposite way from typical iems.
The graph you posted and discussed in the video is vastly different from every other graph. With bass roll off and treble peaks. Indicative of failure to get a seal. Especially since in some cases you’re getting 10 more db of treble than anyone else. That’s not unit variation that’s user error. And no I don’t think it takes a genius to use ear buds and I’m not calling you stupid. You actually have to push them in, in the opposite way than you usually would so if you aren’t looking for it it’s easy to miss.
Lastly if you still had them and could get a seal I wanted you to experience them for real. While the tuning might not be your preference with a solid seal they are nothing short of remarkable for 4 ba. I have a stable of iems my budget set is the penon turbo and they go up to flagships. I’m not saying that to brag I’m saying that to offer context in terms what they compete with.
To the larger group - hey I’m sorry to crap in your safe space. I won’t stay, I promise - we got off on the wrong foot and I don’t mince words - I’m direct and i say what I mean. I can see that’s not really the vibe here. Y’all do you
Lastly I’ve ignored I good many insults and trolls on here, I’m not hurt by them. In fact I think it’s admirable y’all stood up for your friend even if I think he’s wrong. That’s what friends do.
Hrtf is for spatial cues - sound localization. It does not change the signature. It will affect nuances in presentation.
Also bassdad I hear you make iems - you might actually be interested in a convo with Simon about tuning via acoustic mass fascinating stuff.
Also jaytiss could you lift my shadowban? I’m gonna provide some context in the comments. If you’re up for trying it again dm me. I’ll send you my personal unit
I have a number of fundamental disagreements with your ideas behind price relating to driver count (or however you are going to quantify performance, it’s really different for everyone) but I am excited to see what you think. If you are CONUS and Plunge doesn’t offer you a demo set, hit me up and I’ll loan you my pair.
One thing you have to take into consideration when weighing a company like KZ against a company like Plunge is that one is high volume, mass-market while the other is boutique.
KZ can afford to charge bargain-basement prices because they are high-volume producers and work very closely with OEMs, if they are not OEM themselves. They also utilize very common materials and components, and often have redundancies between models being released. This allows them to charge very low prices for what they offer. Also, as a result of this model, they can take a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” approach to tuning and releases. This means minimal time spent on tuning and R&D or market research, again allowing them to pass on the savings.
Plunge, on the other hand, has to manufacture in a relatively lower volume, using OEMs for anything they can’t make in-house, and (at least for the Unity) utilize a non-traditional material and design for their shells, as well as having tuned using unorthodox methods (tubeless design, filterless, etc). This means that their initial cost on producing the IEM necessitates greater initial investment, and requires cost recoupment on the price to the consumer (they don’t sell through wholesalers, so that’s also a hit on volume costs).
Another thing to consider is that KZ (and other Chi-fi brands) sell out of China, which means more lax taxation and restrictions in manufacture and sales, especially in a region like Guangdong. Canada is fairly prohibitive compared to many other countries, let alone China, so that also adds cost that consumers have to pay for.
Ultimately, everyone has to decide for themselves if any item is “worth the price” or “a complete rip-off”; there are many people that spend tons of money on things that we would scoff at, while we throw money hand-over-fist at audio products because that’s what we love and choose to value. You don’t have to buy anything you feel isn’t worth it any more than anyone else has to abide by what others decide is the limit of diminishing returns. I personally think that any audio equipment in excess of like $300 is a luxury good, and I’ve spent more money on audio than I can count. That said, I am now in a position where I’m hitting my limits in terms of what I want or need, so I have slowed down tremendously in terms of purchases. Sure, I wish I could go back and tell myself that I don’t need nearly as much as I think I do to be happy, but at the end of the day the journey was still worth it to me. I’ve met tons of wonderful, like-minded people (here and elsewhere) and I have enjoyed my music the whole way through. We may all disagree over the fine details, but at the end of the day we love what we hear and want to get the most out of it that we can.
Honestly I watched some of your other videos. I actually think I like you dude. After buying the Unity I reached out to Simon and we talked dude is so down to earth and humble and genuinely trying to make the best product he can. So when I saw you trash it without even questioning the differences in graphs or reaching out to plunge. I did what your friends did in here - I stood up for someone who I think needed support from a bully. Hearing your struggles tho - I feel bad for causing/contributing to a stressful day for you. I empathize mental health issues life is hard.
So my only feedback - if you get unit variation or find your findings don’t jive with consensus or the graph is off. Before you shred an iem reach out to the company do a little leg work in that regard. Still report your findings like I got a bad unit and they sent me another or whatever. But give everyone the opportunity you should have given Simon and I should have given you. My bad. You have a cool channel man sorry for the stress
When I walk down the street all I see is AirPods, Beats and Galaxy Buds and the occasional Sony. No wires, ever. So are you telling me that IEMs have reached their full potential as far as broad market presence goes? Now that IS funny.
I did NOT directly tie value to driver count. I merely said that 4 BA drivers for $700 has no real value. Maybe I am wrong about that. But one thing I am not wrong about is the number of companies producing amazing IEMs for well under $700. Almost everyone is. Tell me, where would you rank your Unity in comparison to say a Performer 8, or a Kinera Skuld, or a Dunu SA6 mkii or the Variations… and the list goes on. To you fans of Plunge, you feel like you have some kind of unicorn. Unicorn’s don’t cost $700. I don’t care what is inside of them. But seriously, how do you feel they stack up against the established sets? I’d like to know.
So I should not correct people if they are objectively wrong? Like how I should just ignore people throwing away hundreds of dollars of buying “upgrade” cables in hopes of improving the sound?
lol i don’t think you actually read my response because I stated I don’t own and have never heard the Unity, nor do I claim it to sound good. However, from your list I have heard the Performer 8 and while I haven’t heard the MKII I have heard the Dunu SA6 ultra. I was not really a fan of either of those though and I much prefer the EA1000 over bother which only has one driver and is $220. Maybe that’s a value to you, maybe its not
HFGF is telling me to send you a PM instead of responding since I have responded to you so much so this will just be my last one. Maybe there is a disconnect on my part but I don’t see how you can make the statement “4BA drivers for $700 has no real value” and claim that is not tying value to driver count.
you are 100% correct. There are a ton of amazing IEMs under $700. There are also a bunch of amazing IEMs over $700. In both those cases driver count is irrelevant.
I think your idea of objectivity is different from ours. And just like I ran into yesterday everyone isn’t going to agree with you. And that’s ok. We both think we’re smarter than each other. Just let it go
As a novice creator of IEM, I can say for my part, it is very difficult, from designing the case to tuning the sound, it is not as easy as it seems. There will always be people who will complain. Of course, you can leave your opinion, but you always need to be loyal and be understanding. I wish every creator the best of development and good luck! Support, even in words, strongly motivates people!
As for the cables, I completely agree, the cable does not affect the sound in any way, it is a placebo. The only reason it makes sense to take an expensive cable is aesthetic appearance and convenience. Of course, no one has canceled the role of a placebo, let everyone dispose of their money as they want, but no one forbids telling a person.
