Finally a meaningful review, not just Head-Fi paid publications. It’s worth paying attention to Mооndrop, they’re good! Cheers. 
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Just wanted to add my $0.02 based on my library and the 2 tribids I own:
Variations for Techno, Trance, House, etc…
Dunu EST 112 for everything else.
Thanks for the review.
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It sounds like the best compliment IEM pair to go along with Meles (bassy, funny) + Teas (Mid-forward) that should basically cover 100% of musical library.
But 500$ for a complementary IEMs? Any other similar IEMs with that kind of resolving power (or rather 80% of that) but below 250$? I have proper full 8x BA set (Audiosense T800), but weirdly enough it is not know for resolving power, so even though I love general tuning I think it would end up in the in-between zone between Mele and Tea, so almost no usage at all.
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When you got teas, sheer resolving power around 250$ will be a pain to achieve…
In my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, I’d save the money (or invest in a source if you don’t have a nice one) and enjoy the music 
Mele + Teas will take you places.
You can take a look into planars like Timeless or P1 Plus. I have none with me yet (thanks customs) so I can’t give an opinion on that. Seems the easiest way to get a “different” signature around that price!
If you wanna step it up, I’d say go to tribids, as ESTs will bring up the resolution while playing with the tuning, and for that, I’d recommend EJ07m with Tanya filters (you can get them for around 470$ on some ali stores).
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I have Shanling Q1 as my DAP on the go and in bed where I listen to music the most. My stationary setup is also simple laptop + ifi hip dac. Honestly I don’t feel I need anything more sophisticated as my little daughter takes every minute of my life and when I have free time it is also time to go to bed most often than not.
The only important thing in source I am looking for is battery life (both play and standby) and this Q1 is almost unbeatable apart from something like Cowon Plenue D3 (with crappy limit on storage being 128GB + known problems) or Sony A55 (with stupid proprietary connector). Some streaming capability would be nice as well (but rather spotify and apple music than tidal), but it is not necessary, as the freedom of choice is often bigger problem, than having only limited amount of albums on my DAP. No dongles for me, as my phone battery sucks.
TLDR: probably you are right, I should wait up and save money. I have seen mint used MEST MK 1 on headfi for 750 Euros, so that may be the next step…
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One just sold on UK Ebay for £550 or best offer so they’re getting ‘cheap’ 
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Keep saving those bucks. Time is always on our side. Chifi gets cheaper and cheaper for the same tech of years ago.
Question: what’s the batery life of q1?
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I never get it fully discharged, so I don’t know exact timing 100%->0%. Based on some extrapolation it is something between 16-18h playback time and I do play it on high gain mostly with T800 (they are very insensitive and I hear some potential clipping in low gain) or even for some hours on line out (which is basically 100% volume, where normally I have 25%).
I have it turned on constantly on standby with Wi-fi an BT off most of the time and it holds for me for about 2 weeks of the way I use it (turning DAP off is no-go if it is to serve any purpose for me). In that period from time to time I transfer files via wifi transfer (which is really cool thing to have in my opinion).
Generally it was one of my YOLO type of buy used from local polish forum (and the unit is one from the first batch sold on kickstarted so also not quite new battery), because it was looking nice and was very cheap (like 75$).
I did not know much about DAPs at that point, but battery in my phone with spotify on was killing me, but it was really, really lucky shot. From time to time I try to convince myself to buy something better, but I cannot find anything which would be worthy upgrade (Hiby R3 Pro and R5 being probably the closest) as all good sounding mid-level DAPs like Cayin N3Pro, iBasso DX160 or Fiio M11 are having shitty battery. And the sound of mine is very satisfacting for me since I haven’t heard anything better.
On side note I want to have N3Pro in my setup anyways for the “lampy” sound and balanced out at some point.
And one thing extra - Q1 is small - when I see those bricks like DX300 I cannot believe someone is using them on-the-go apart from this guy
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Damn I make those posts always way too long 
That was simple question and the simple answer is 16-18h playback in period of 2 weeks in standby.
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Ahah, I get that. I need ultra long bateries since I use them all day during work. That’s the reason I bought M3X - 19h batery with android. I wanna try non android daps tho, and I’m not in love with Shanling sound signature. But Q1 seems good to transport with a DAC/AMP
19h with android? How could I miss out on that DAP? That is super strange value, as M2X is like 9h tops. How is the standby time in yours?
So that is my next step apparently not Cayin - if you would be willing to get rid of that let me know 
For me DAP needing extra DAC/AMP does not work, phone + DAP + IEMs are enough for my pockets 
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I think the 19 hr claim (on bal output) is when in ‘Prime Mode’ which only loads the Shanling music app. It drops when switching to full Android mode (and further with wifi on and streaming) but still pretty good. I can get through 2/3 days easy but I turn it off when not using it.
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This is correct. I run FLAC 99% of the time, and that is the reason I’m looking for more options also outside android. I thought I was going to use the stream a lot more, but guess what? I’m dumbo and I don’t.
I LOVE M3X and I rec it all the time. I just wish the sound coloration was a little bit less. Shanling sounds like some honey was put into your music, which seems to help some of my sets and hit on some other. I still love it anyway and most of my listen is made through it.
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+1 …10 char
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Just to add regarding sources I use:
Variations - Shanling M3X
Dunu EST 112 - Ibasso DX-160
P1 - Moto G Play+Xduoo XD-05 Basic
Kbear Believe - Sony NW-A55+Fiio Q3
These are just personal choices based on my perception of synergy.
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Yes!! Great combo
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I just want to do a quick feedback on the audiosense dt300 I recurved yesterday.
I listened to it and compared to the Aria (that is my current reference set).
The first impression was “it is warmer than aria”
The second impression was “my temporal region hurts”
So yeah, I discovered pressure build-up. I have to find info about that, because it can be very painful, disturbing and fatiguing.
Compared to aria, the sub-bass is rolled off so there I less slam. The mid-bass though is more elevated, giving this impression of warmer sound.
The dt300 have better mids than aria: I find they have pretty much the same balance (male VS female vocals), but the mids on the dt300 are more forward and more resolving.
Concerning the treble, it is less elevated for the dt300.i noticed it because I hear less sibilance on some tracks and because piano and the instruments with cymbals (like tambourines) are less up-front. On the tracks I tested this (the Zelda medley by koji kondo, IIRC), I even find this more balanced: these instruments are too invasive with aria.
On the technical stuff, the stage is clearly smaller on the dt300. The noises on the track buzzcit season by Lordie are an excellent example of that. I didn’t really test the other technicalities yet.
So at the end of the day, the dt300 is not as bad as I feared it to be: it improves the mids and allow me to have my first taste of BA. I didn’t notice any BA timbre. For the 90€ I paid (I got it used), it is a honest set. For 180€(its official price), I can’t say as I never listened to any other 150+ set.
The ugly thing for me really is pressure build-up: it destroys my ears. If I can’t find a way around this, I can’t keep this set.
Welcome to the life of unvented sets. Some are worse than others, some people are more sensitive. I guess your last resort is foamies 
This unpleasant feeling is coming straight from eardrum being stressed by the air compressed while inserting the IEM.
2 simple methods that need (like based on laws of nature) to work:
-
break the seal after inserting the IEM to the canal by wiggling the earpiece. You would feel the release definitely - air in the canal would reach the equilibrium with the air in the Eustachian tube behind the eardrum (which is in most cases equal to atmospheric). By breaking the seal you would even the pressure in canal to atmospheric.
-
make a tiny hole in the silicon eartip with a needle. It would work as a valve letting the air out of the canal also to reach pressure equilibrium (or a little bit less, as the material need to deform elastically because of the pressure difference and it has some inherent rigidness, so would resist to do so at some point). Won’t affect the sound quality if not too large
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Interestingly, FiiO FH9 abandon the beryllium driver and install DLC. Will it help with tuning 
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