He only got the “hate” when he disappeared a few days after HBB spoke out about his problem with the Butastur and wanted a replacement set. If he didn’t disappear for over a month, replaced HBB’s set in a timely fashion like he said he would, and addressed concerns of the ridiculous origin story of this IEM, which turned out to be a lie, none of this would have happened and no “hate” would’ve been heaped on him by me, HBB, and others.
At least he came back now and is fixing the problems he caused.
I would like to pitch in about the Kilobuck level of performance as well.
While I love Butastur, and it is my gateway to have a luxury listen, it is truly beating the kilobuck iems…of yesteryears. It absolutely decimated the Andromeda. So in that sense, the Butastur does have a kilobuck level of performance.
However, currently the technology have progressed. When I compared it with the SoundRhyme SR8, I found that when well powered, the SR8 with its bass switch off condition has a more tactile mid and treble presentation with more fleshed out notes and better details, better separation compared to Butastur (also similarly powered). However, the SR8 with bass switch off does not provide a BA bass as satisfactory as Butastur. There it is completely untouchable (not considering DD or Hybrid iems since that will be unfair as DD bass is on another level.) If I turn on the bass switch of SR8, it becomes bolder than Butastur but then the other frequencies gets drowned.
I have not heard other kilobuck level BA iems recently, will get to hear the Supernova next month probably, so I am not sure where Butastur stands in that context. But for me, I really do love the balance across all three frequencies that Butastur offers. I never expected it to punch above its price point, I am just pleased it is very well tuned and more than worthy of its price tag for me.
If I ever feel the upper-mid and treble is becoming a bit hot, I turn off the Switch 2, and if I feel for more, I turn it on. Never felt that it is becoming unbearable once I turn the switch off.
Not a review, just a feedback on the whole situation and moving forward, and answering the other guy what he should watch out for since he was asking - if it was a review I would’ve posted it on my thread
@AmericanSpirit_JP Made it seem like it was a “kilobucks killer” in this day and age and it was indeed not one, so, misleading, and pretty much just hype marketing (I’m sure it would’ve been a “kilobucks killer” if you compare it to an iem 3-5 years ago lol @AceBee but of course we’re talking about the current market, so again misleading)
He made it seem like it was built from the ground up which it was not and admitted it himself - again, there’s nothing wrong with claiming it’s a retune, but he lied, and that’s the issue
Guy left for a month but was still promoting over at twitter/X lol, and then comes back to give his thoughts on some expensive iems lol
It looks to me he joined the site just to sell his stuff here because head-fi would’ve charged him a fee there but not here lol, so really not sure why you’re feeling bad for the guy after all the overhyping and false promises
@AceBee Out of curiosity, what volume were you listening at? I tested at lower, mid, and higher and ran into issues mid/higher in the vocals (DD position). Age could also be a factor as I’m sensitive to higher frequencies. If you want balance the Blessing 3 is there for $320, or even the Studio 4, or even the Chopin and Nova for $150 and $200. All better tuned imo.
He never posted on here prior to the launch/hype of NOB, he could’ve paid Head-Fi their pound of flesh and they would’ve had his back removing any negative reviews and turning a blind eye to any quality or customer service issues.
Here folk are free to have their say regarding that set or any other for that matter as long as it stays within the realms of decency. I don’t have a dog in the fight but it seems to me some are happy with their set and some not so, some didn’t like the marketing tactics some didn’t care so pretty much like any product launch tbh .
The only thing that really stands out to me was his disappearance when Chris had his problem, a problem that would’ve been an easy fix with a heart felt apology and swiftly dispatched replacement
Again, I haven’t followed the drama from beginning to end, but claiming something is a “kilobuck killer” nowadays seems pretty common. It’s all relative in this subjective hobby. There are so many flavors of the week that people claim it’s the best of the best until something new gets hyped the following week. You really can’t trust anyone wholeheartedly.
All I know is that the set was low on bass so it was a pass for me.
I think the biggest fault in all of this was AS not following through with replacing HBB’s faulty set when the issue was brought up by HBB and acknowledged by AS… but I guess that’s being taken care of now.
I confirm! I recently listened to old Xelento ,Rai Penta, HiFi Man silver2000 IEMs - $1000/1100 /1500 and they were completely killed by the new IEMs around $2oo–$300.
Technology has developed a lot, making the hobby unprofitable .
I mean, if you bought a Rai Penta or someone else for $1000-1500, now you can’t sell them for $300 because they’re beaten by today’s $200 IEMs. Unprofitable for owners of old IEMs.
And you’re right about the companies, yes.
Didn’t understand what you meant by “mid/higher in the vocals (DD Position)”.
I always listen at a moderate volume, never at high volume. I am moderately sensitive to high frequencies. I found Blessing 2 to be very sharp and uncomfortable.
I have not heard the Blessing 3 or Studio 4. But I heard Softears RSV, and Butastur is significantly better than that any day. I found RSV to be thick and congested sounding.
Chopin, on the other hand, was a soulless affair. Felt empty and dry. Despite having a DD for the bass, the bass was totally lackluster. Butastur has much better bass in both quality and body. Better mid and treble as well.
Haven’t heard Nova so cannot comment. But I doubt it will have a better tuning than Butastur.
May we have different preferences, and hear things differently. That is why our impressions do not align - definitely possible.
A few people (at most) have some issue with what they’re claiming to be marketing lies and false claims.
“As @hawaiibadboy and @Kenyon have pointed out the main issue people have with this release is that you heavily mislead others into thinking the Butastur was built from the ground up, which it was not, as you and Jinny admitted yourselves” …soooo… I don’t have that issue, and I’ll bet the majority of folk who own NOB don’t either. I’ve read every post here about the NOB and in no way, shape or form did I come away with that BS.
I’m way older than you and because I don’t remember all the content of the posts, will you please point me to the post/s where AS claims this is entirely built from ground up then admitted they were lying? Different drivers and tuning in W10 shell with new faceplate…is the gist of my take away, always was.
NOW THIS>>> “When fully driven, the TS-316 can explode with astonishing sound quality, easily crushing rivals of several times its price.” “The TS-316 in this show is a Ture Flagship Killer IEM”
Misspelling aside, OMG where is all the backlash at this horror of horrors? Lies, hyperbole, false marketing…when will it stop!? Please make it stop.
When, and because I read that, I dropped my consideration for that IEM, yet it’s already in the threads and no one has called it flagship killer, shouldn’t we be outraged?
I have an opinion that virtually every IEM is some form of a re-tune, reshell, reworked etc…
I cannot speak for anyone else here… BUT… when I purchase anything , and in this case the NOB, which I did, and found a defect, the very last person I considered for resolution was a designer/ producer, engineer, and again in this case, was AS. He did not sell it to me, PENON DID. Some of you should read that again. Penon resolved my issue, simple as that. Not at any time was AS in my thoughts as some villain.
Aside from all that drama, I hope 1.5 khz stays exactly where it is, not too boosted for my library, not even close. Switch up is plenty of air, so much in fact, I leave it down mostly. NOB truly lets you know the quality of the recording , that is my observation. Nothing is sugarcoated, all laid bare.
I think there is a bit of lynch mob mentality surrounding NOB, It’s okay to step back from that. Lets move on.
With what you’ve presented and the fact that we all have our own tastes, if there’s one thing I quickly realized in the audio, it’s that we don’t all hear the same thing, in the same way.
That’s why people (or audio influencers) have to be a little careful about what they say, because one person’s flaw can be another’s quality.
Overall, they had very few problems with this iems, many are satisfied, others less so, but that’s the game.
Just as with audio, you always have to be a little careful about the context you give when imagining what happened.
You can have other projects in life.
I’m going to be disgusting, but I can even make the comparison with you who had announced that you were leaving everything (or almost), and then finally you came back. Maybe it’s passion, maybe it’s easy money, I don’t really care. At least I don’t make assumptions about what I don’t know.
I admitted nothing…yet I think you understand the hypocrisy here. But just in case…the meaning of those quotes presented is to show that the lynch mob sleeps until someone pokes em awake. Ya’ll hammering on AS or anyone else yer fav influencer has a gripe with, but do you call out these horrendous offences every time you see one? …yeah didn’t think so.
The only problem I have with any of this, is that if AS said he would rectify a defective set then didn’t.
It is highly possible he forgot to follow up, then it would take a simple apology and everyone moves on.
The implications in some of the posts surrounding that issue is AS went to hide , or run away out being caught in some act of malice…complete BS.
However, my point stands that he was not the person to go to for that issue. Period.
Lastly, you put a few carefully selected quoted posts in there to bolster your position, good for you, however there is more to it, and you know it but it really doesn’t matter does it?
Dammit Riku clicked on your notification out of habit and took me right back here
I agree with ya’ll peaks are for sure different for everyone, but imho masking is a bit different no? For example, if there’s too much mid-bass then it’s going to mask the lowermids and the rest of the FR, and similarly the 1.5K peak is going to mask parts of the vocal gain. I understand people can lose some of their hearing in the upper frequencies as we age, but I dunno if I have read anything regarding affecting the 1.5K part, I might be wrong though, open to discussing this over at my thread.
And since Riku has summoned me back I’ll quickly address this before muting:
1.
You can choose to not admit anything, but the fact is that you compared that marketing hype and linked it to what we were talking about, subconsciously exposing your own intend because you believed they were similar otherwise why bring it up? So, it’s funny you bring up hypocrisy when it was you who was doing it lol.
And yes, to answer your question, I do call out all the bs things company do if it’s within my knowledge because that’s part of my duty as a reviewer. I do this in every review like my DIVA review (and many more), so ya, that cheeky little remark didn’t age well for you did it now?
If the TS-316 also had a thread on here, and posted those same words here people would be roasting the shit out of it like they are with Mr.ASs here (lol sorry couldn’t help it). Maybe you didn’t know this, but people here do their best to expose bad practices. Many of us gave him the benefit of the doubt because we all were hoping for a genuine project until Chris, who is creditable in the community, exposed him, like he does with MANY companies. So again, please read up before you say stuff like this - just go take a look at Chris’ thread man’s got Hidizs in a headlock right now
MY GUY. AGAIN, PLEASE READ UP BEFORE YOU SAY SHIT LIKE THIS THIS WAS ALL IN HIS VERY FIRST POST. IT’S HIS OWN PRODUCT STATEMENT. I DIDN’T MANIPULATE ANYTHING OUT OF CONTEXT. IT CANNOT BE ANYMORE MORE CLEARER, OR do you prefer me to repost the entire thing for you so you can take a read yourself? Can you not take 5 minutes to scroll up and read??
It’s also HILARIOUS you say I “carefully select quotes” when you literally completely IGNORED all my other points addressing it. Why are you riding Mr.ASs so hard? (Sorry can’t help it lol). So let’s run it back one more time in case you forgot, or didn’t want to read again:
Promised TOTL, not TOTL
Claims it’s from scratch, not from scratch - reusing components
Says it’s not a retune, is a retune
Bad QC and CS
If I really wanted to “carefully select quotes” I can just go back and paste all the source and cable pushing he did, as well as flip-flopping back and forth on his stance when people didn’t vibe with the iem, but that wouldn’t even be “carefully selecting quotes” to begin with since I’m literally just reposting what he said like his OG post. So in your own words, “there is more to it, and you know it but it really doesn’t matter does it? ”… Anyhow,
.
You guys da goat 
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Unprofitable for owners of old IEMs.
