Nymzreviews.com official thread

I can’t A/B atm since I no longer have Teas, but from memory (grain of salt) Mahina has the same or more 3D to me.

Again, this is very HRTF related. For instance, Tea2 has insane 3D for me, and EJ07 even more.

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I gotchya :wink:
I like my Teas still but I noticed going back to them after listening to my Kinda Lava that they come off a little plasticy sounding and I’m assuming it’s because my ears have been spoiled by the EST driver implementation vs a dynamic driver with just balanced armature drivers. Any thoughts on that?

That plasticity you are hearing is also vulgo as timbre.

Timbre is a hot topic but to be short and not stir any wasps nest, it’s a sum of parts that turn into the phenomenom you are experiencing. Basicly is a difference in attack and decay amplified by the balanced armateur’s typical speed. That effect comes out as not-so-natural to the trained or experienced human ear, as artificial/plastic/wrong. As anything, implementation matters the most and the components used such as the drivers, but also the crossovers and their capacitors.

Now, all the above aren’t the only reasons, and in fact, the tonality is one of the other major players. A great example would be raising or dipping the 5k-8k region. If you overcook it you get a sense of shrillness and too much energy, but if you dip it too much you will lose some of the harmonics that will affect female vocals (as an example, but not restricted to).

Now, with all of that said, I don’t believe ESTs are better than BA in that regard, or not always. Implementation and tuning will ditate. You pick a nice est implementation for its price, like the Variations, and compare its treble to the BAs inside the U12t and it will flip the tables.
Despite that, I’m a fan of ests for the same reason. They tend to have a smoothed out effect in the harmonics, wich then leads to a more stable balance between the attack and decay, contrary to most BAs that if they pushed will come out as shrill and less effortlessly.

Comparing the KL and Tea, it will depend also on your sensitivity area, since the Tea have more mid-treble than the KL, which will make it more evidant to you in certain tracks and regions. KL treble region is smoother, with less dips and better extesion, which is perceived as less peaky and doubling down the previous factor.

In short, do I think KL has better timbre than Tea? Yes, and that’s a common factor most of the tribids around this price range.
Do I think every EST is better than BA? No.
Do I still prefer a DD in that regard? Hell yes.

The more time goes by, I keep finding myself leaning more torwards non-hybrid solutions, like single DDs, multi BAs or even planars.

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Have you tried 7Hz Salnote Zero?
That’s another crazy set under $20 that blows minds and trades blows with sets well over $150

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I have and thought it was pretty amazing for the money. Not quite as good as the QKZxHBB, at least for rock.

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Me too. But no planars for now. Planars have a lot to improve before they reach good DDs and in years I might get a good planar :slightly_smiling_face: .
DD’s timbre can’t be beat.

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Oh depends on the bracket. As higher end, totally agree. But id take a planar over an hibrid around 100-200, and a DD over both :stuck_out_tongue:

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@nymz well, you got my attention xD

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Let’s be realistic: there’s no way this iem can be in my current price bracket :sweat_smile:

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Ahahahah

Not even on mine :joy:

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it’s such a secret we dont have even the info if it is a BA, DD, hybrid…

@nymz could give us that hint

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It’s not a DD, cause he noted a BA in there. If it’s out of even his price range, probably a tribid would be my guess. Maybe the Elysian Deva though

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Can we at least find out if it’s something that released, or not available yet? It’s no fair leaving the lid on the cookie jar, even if it is out of reach…

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Rumor has it that it’s made in China and if you calculate (1+3(2*4)-5)/2 you’d get amount of drivers per side :joy:

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Am I mathing right?

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KZ eat your heart out :sunglasses:

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So it is either qdc anole vx (this is my guess) or RSV RS10. Or KZ ASX20, seems likely

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@nymz Is it the Diva? :eyes::eyes:

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Bingo. There’s something about the lack of driver coherency of hybrids for me that I just can’t get used to. Whereas, my ears even tend to get used to BA timbre over time.

Still waiting to buy a good planar…

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Its not new.
Has been out for a good while.
It’s easy to find if you look at my links close enough.

My hint is @darkgod5

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