so do i put Teas in the left and Var in the right ear lol
No, you buy Teas then Mest. Or buy teas and dinner for a couple months.
2 Likes
Maybe the ceiling for hybrids is potentially higher. But IMO a well tuned single DD will still be a match for hybrids, at least in the 0-300 usd range that I am experienced in. No clue how something like the Sennheiser IE900, Softears Turii stacks against the Sony Z1R, U12T, etcā¦
i can live with that, i can at least afford the good ramen
ya i can see that for certain qualities, i still would like to try the oxygen, illumination and zen and of course the chaconne but the IE900 is intriguing to me for fit and some of these reviews, time and money will tell i guess
And what? Did the Variations beat Tea? Or itās too early to tell;) Iām currently listening to Tea - Gojira ( Hold on ) , uncredibleā¦
You find the teas play metal well? Thatās a real question not sarcasm as I never have heard teas
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Yes. Metal sounds great on them! Maybe only a lot of dynamic songs are a little behind, everything else is amazing;)
I can appreciate this because I am not only a listener but also a musician.
There are other IEMs that I find deal with the lower frequency speed of some metal tracks better than the Teas, but the Teas do a great job at their price point for a lot of genres.
I still think the FH3 and FH7 are better suited to the replay of fast metal transients due to their beryllium DDs.
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I find the bass of FH7 to be slower than Tea. And for the tuning - very bad at FiiO! Beryllium does not save FiiO.
K, im off from work. Gonna give Variations a spinš
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So, my first impressions so far about Moondrop Variations:
Technicalities
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Clarity and overall detail are awsome, even tho, not as much as TSMR Lands but those have more treble energy and 4ESTs, so thereās that.
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Soundstage and imaging are also great. Vocals are out of your head, everything is behind that, with great separation. To me, one of Variations best traits.
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Timbre and Coherency are pretty good. Not DD-like, but one of the best youāll get as non-DD.
Tuning
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Sub-bass is great. Texture, speed and overall quantity/quality. Nothing to new here, itās a sub-bass focused tribid that mimics Monarch, so it comes as no surprise.
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Around Mid-bass and Mids is where my problem with the set starts:
If we lock my favourite IEM vs Variations around 100hz, we can easly see where my problem is. Kickdrums, male vocals, bass guitars, etc are left behind. Mids follow the story up to the upper mids region, where from there itās whatever. Coming from a midbass/midcentric library, this is a problem real quick. The way presentation and tuning is done by Teas on this region is better, for me and for my library. Of course clarity and detail are a bloobath that Variations wins.
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Treble/Upper treble: Pretty good texture, ESTs well done. Above average detail and air on there. It gets hot sometimes for me, since to get the volume on the mids I need, I raise up the volume and voilĆ”. Still, doubt this will be a problem to libraries different than mine. It has nice extension, nothing really to point here.
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Overall/First conclusions: Variations is a great IEM. They sounds more monitor-a-like that I thought, with great sub-bass emphasis. If the mids were slightly different on the tuning part, this would probably be my end-game. Pretty sure these fit any library for people that like more neutral signatures with sub-bass boosts, like Dusk. Technically they are on god tier. If your library is sub-bass based, for instance, Massive Attack or Pop, this are a gem, no doubt. S-Tier recommendation if they suit your library. Iāll give a couple more spins in the next hours.
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Well exactly what i was expecting after the techno talk, i gotta have that 100hz slam, looks like the Clairs might be the ticket but first Teaās, thanks for the impressions.
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It is what it 
dont quote me on Clair, I have yet to listen to them.
Iāll leave here one my favourites of all time. To be banged hard and loud:
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no i know just comparing graphs, almost identical to 3ās and Mest for bass and mid bass
gotta love some Garnier
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Oh yeah baby. We need to do a Techno-head thread 
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Welcome to variations family.