So what I am getting is there is a large variance on iems and what they are supposed to be. They are really nice looking Grats on getting them back
Thread/Reviews/Life update
Heyo, it’s your boy nymz reporting for duty. No, I’m not dead. Not fully, at least.
So, the last week and half has been a rollercoaster. I literally had zero uptime to do anything I wanted, audio related stuff or even sleep. To help the situation at work, I decided to randomly quit. Oh and I had a wedding in the middle of it.
To top it off, I am going on long deserved and anticipated vacations in less than 12 hours. This means I had to leave stuff undone, and I don’t like it. I really don’t own any explanations, but I do really think I should give them, and why haven’t I been puting out that juicy content.
So, updates:
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Sennheiser IE600 review had to be my no. 1 priority, as it is part of a tour. I just shipped it out and the review is 80-90% done, just needs some syntax and formating done. Should be out in a bit. I feel bad for the lack of continuous feedback instead of just first impressions → review, but sometimes life gives you lemons, so here we are making lemon tea.
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DUNU Zen Pro review should have been out by now, but it was physically impossible. I will adress and apolozige to DUNU directly, but there was nothing I could do, and I feel like I failed them. I’m bringing the set with me, and I will make sure to make all the notes during my trip. You can expect first impressions very soon as well.
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Hook-X was half done, but Linsoul reached out to send Tin Hifi T1 Max as well, so I decided to wait for that sweet A/B/C along with S12 and killing two birds with one stone. Turns out customs had other plans and that package has still not reach me. It also does containg TRN TA1 Max to give my impressions. These three will have to wait until I’m back.
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DUNU Vernus I decided I won’t fully review, but I will give an extensive take. Since it was a limited run, my main goal is to find where it places, so people can look out for DUNU offers in the future. This will be with me as well on my vacay, together with its bigger brother.
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64Audio Trío just got shipped back to its owner, my take on it should be out as well soon, but won’t be a full review due to lack of time. Love you Igor.
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DUNU VULKAN seems delayed and at this point, I’m kinda glad. I have too much on my plate. Will update on that later.
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Just spoke with Tgx about his models, he will be sending me something by the end of the month, as he is still waiting on materials.
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Switch my iFi Gryphon for a desktop Class-A (Singxer SA-1) and my NX7 for a Topping L30+E30 stack. This will help me with having more comon ground and great measures (lol) for reviews.
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I returned my Cayin RU-6 has it had a clicky sound with some IEMs on one of the sides. To pick back up later - love this dongle.
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Hiby R5 Gen2 will be coming with me and will be my main souce. Hoping to have great feedback on it after this trip.
Love you all, be safe, listen to the music and not the gear, etc.
Best,
nymz, the sleepless
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No variance, it’s resin vs metal. That’s why it graphs differently.
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Enjoy your Vaca. Bro now get out of here.
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Wait i don´t get it, was it not the main goal of @hawaiibadboy to add more subbass to the KL compared to the EJ07m?
Or does it have less bass because of the resin shell?
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It was, but it didnt end up like that. It is what is shown in that graph. Resin is changing upper mids/treble due to fit. I have a feeling if I measure a deeper fit, they will match better.
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Maybe I picked this up wrong, but I thought the goal for the KL was to create a smoother glide across mid-bass to mids - compared to the steeper “tuck” transition of the 07m 
love my resin KLs anyhoo 
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It was and it kinda ended up like that, the mid bass got a db boost and sub bass was subdued. Presentation is a hair warmer and sub is less overwhelming.
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Different materials have different densities and other characteristics. So they change the behavior of how the sound waves bounces/reflects inside the shell, with more reflection → higher resonance → more distortion.
This is why for example with headphones (and speakers) you stuff them with damping materials inside the shell (so they have the effect like shown in the HDSS video above.).
Stock Fostex T50RP MK3
Modded with shell damping.
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The ru-6 is a praised dongle in my French community. Several people have it and say it pairs very well with some sets (not that well with others). Especially, full ba sets and single DD sets tend to react well to the r2r circuitry. Hybrid are a mixed bag.
I’m glad you bought the L30+E30 stack: it is on my radar too, and getting your feedback would certainly be valuable to me.
Anyway, have a good vacation, take care of yourself and the one(s) you love 
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I had that stack when I was using full size cans. It is nice not sure there is not better solutions but I did like them interested in what you will think long run
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L30 has negative gain (-6dB if I remember correctly) for very sensitive IEMs
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It does and the duo played my iems just fine. The way I listen I should probably get a similar devices. I love the Qudelix but I do not do tons of portable listening.
Does anyone know the relationship or balance between power and negative gain for IEMs? E.g., is it beneficial for the sound quality to always feed more power, even if it means you use a lot of negative gain to avoid hitting the noise floor? Or is it better to just feed less power and don’t use negative gain? I mean, most non-planar IEMs are happy with power and voltage faarrrr less than full-sized headphones, right?
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No hiss. Topping sauce. No hiss on sa-1 as well and tested wirh zen pro that is a pain to not hiss.
In other news…
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Negative gain is useful for iems because you want to have more precise control over the volume. Where increasing it doesnt take it from 0 - 100db instantly.
The rule I have is to increase the gain if you use over 50% of the volume, to make it have sufficient headroom.
They need current, not much voltage specifically, when it comes to low resistance stuff like iems.
Hiss is also mostly affected by the ouput impedance, topping stuff is usually close to 0.1 ohm, so its not an issue here.
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Thanks for all the answers!
Hmm yeah, ifi ZEN DAC says <1 Ohm, while ifi ZEN CAN (amp) has been measured to be around 0.5 Ohm, so if I had the full stack then maybe it’d be better. It’s ok, just a mild hiss for Olina and Canon (nothing on S12 - planars, pretty cool).
You know which set I don’t have any issues with in terms of noise floor? 
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Cant you use the power match? Olina loves power, strange. I run it on hissy sources and it’s clean.