I have bad news: since a few days, my tea set was sounding a bit odd. I want sure and thought it was maybe a seal problem. But yesterday during a tip rolling session, it became obvious: the right DD don’t work anymore
I confirmed it with a tone generator at 90Hz and by changing cables and by inverting left and right plugs: it comes from the bud.
I put the set in rice and will wait for 2 days, but I don’t have much hope left.
I’m sorry @nymz : I could keep my promise about taking care of them. I don’t know what happened, but it must be caused by my usage; probably because I fall asleep with them…
I’ve had two sets of OG Tead fail like that. Both were the right DD. The DD on the second set still periodically comes back for brief few seconds, so it seems like a wiring or soldered connection might be the culprit.
Sorry for the loss man Where’s in the world are you? There’s a guy in the US who can probably open it up and take a look. Or you could try to sell it to him for parts?
I’m in France. It isn’t such a loss as i didn’t pay it, but it is the second time I lose my favourite set of iem (first aria, then these).
It is especially sad as @nymz himself gave it to me.
The tea helped me prevent additional expenses as any 300-ish $ set would not be worth it. Now, I’ll have to find something else, and check for its f*cking QC reports!!
I see. Dunno if you plan to return to @nymz, but if you wanna try to fix it or gift it for parts, just let me know. You could try to message Xenns but I’m not sure if they offer repairs
So thanks guys for some clarity about fundamentals and their harmonics. BUT we are missing the point here, my point anyway. Right that there is not much music down around 20 Hz (a few pipe organs can play lower) but it is part of my music. I am used to reading FR graphs for speakers (being a Home Theater guy), and nearly all of them trail off downwards when it comes to deep bass because the vertical axis is dB which means volume. As in there isn’t any volume coming from the speaker down that low. And that is exactly what I would expect to see on your graphs of my Kinda Lavas because when it gets down to 20 Hz there is almost NO volume audible, certainly nothing like 70 dB.
But your graph shows the Kinda Lava is good to something like 65 dB down at 20 Hz and the Mahina is LOUDER at 20 Hz than at any other frequency. I just don’t believe it!!!
IF I am reading these graphs wrong please explain it to me. It is tough being old and ugly and stupid too!!!
Thanks, God Bless,
Wayne
It is again complex topic. Again related to HRTF for in ear monitor listening, but what is more important related to human hearing sense being specialized and most sensitive in selected range of frequencies - see A-weighting of sound pressure for example. Subjectively you perceive some frequencies as louder than other even though the raw measured SPL by microphone is the same.
Also FR charts are inherently flawed when normalized at certain frequency. You may imagine that the measured SPL of white noise is different for different sets. And this is completely omitted in FR graph. In the end you may want to push some sets to higher volumes than other (because your perceived loudness is lower than for compared set) and sets with let’s say bass shyness based on FR are not there in reall life. I don’t know if that is understandable or not the case is that measuring based on white noise’s SPL is also kind of stupid as music is not white noise, but a sum of different frequenies in not even quantities. Maybe pink noise would be better, but still hard…
Also keep in mind that measurement is based on incremental increases in frequency for the white noise.
Example:
Whats the DB when we play 20hz?
ts 70db
Whats the db when we play 21hz?
its 69.
Whats the db when we play 22hz?
its 68.
etc…
But with music, we dont listen to a single frequency. We listen to everything, and our ears also hears stuff differently when everything is playing at once.
Sorry to hear the Tea braking down on you, but make sure to not throw the Tea away though. nymz’s Tea is an artifact of IEM history. So worst case you can still put them in a display case or something like that.
I refused to spend a lot of money on IEMs for a long time, because they would just regulary brake for me. Probably went through 1 set per year or so. But since the CCA C12 lasted for several years, I decided to go for the “very expensive” Aria. After that I got addicted and spent more and more, but still with the understanding, that my current kilobuck IEM can brake down any moment and I don’t expect a chinese company to honour any kind of warranty.
Exactly, that is what I mean, if you have 3 different sets, you set the volume for each of them at comfortable listening level for the same song and then measure each of them for FR at that volume it is very unlikely that 3 charts would be crossing at same frequency and level.
Also, you can check your personal hearing (like perceived hearing) in APO + peace for Windows where you sweep through each frequency and manually turn the level of volume down until you can’t hear the sound. You would see how uneven the chart would be (that could be a base for some further compensations in EQ)
Respectfully gentlemen, I know about different people’s ability to hear, I know different frequencies are heard differently by the human ear, the need for the Harman curve, etc. But look at that graph please. IF I bought a speaker for my listening room I would be bragging to my wife about how much money I saved because look at this speaker, we will not need a subwoofer with this baby!!!
You can choose another low frequency instead of 20 Hz and test it, there are plenty of test tones around, I used quite a few and the Kinda Lava, when it tries to play down anywhere near 20 Hz has to be cranked way up to hear anything!!!
The graph is not telling the truth for my set, don’t know about the Mahina but I doubt it.
God Bless,
Wayne
Honestly, I think that ability to hear different frequenies differently and very different compensated perceived volume for in ear monitor, headphone and speaker perfectly explains your example, but on the other hand you may have a damaged set.
Other alternative that may be implied is that all measurements of IEMs all wrong. But if you look at basically any IEM (or average IEM) it would have higher bass or less roll off than an average headphone or probably even more than basshead headphone.
If you have time I suggest comparing test on this APO + Peace for IEMs you have, headphones you have and speaker system you have (preferably close field monitors)
Also - you may not have perfect seal that is necessary for good low frequency reproduction in IEM, check if you have better results with foam tips
Sorry Wayne, I can hear fine with regular listening volume on both sets. Not sure what else can I add at this point, but I think you should try to flip the Kinda Lava as it clearly doesn’t fit your needs.
Where’s in the world are you? There’s a guy in the US who can probably open it up and take a look. Or you could try to sell it to him for parts?
the case is that measuring based on white noise’s SPL is also kind of stupid as music is not white noise, but a sum of different frequenies in not even quantities. Maybe pink noise would be better, but still hard…