Looks like an awful band-aid…these names 
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I hope I’m not bringing up a bad subject, but what did you mean when you referred to the shape your ears are in? If I did bring up a sore subject just ignore me and please accept my apology.
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To be honest - this set has very interesting tuning, but the way AFUL market their company basically everywhere in audio community as highly developed company with 2 years of R&D for that set (sic!) makes me not want to even look at this product… Not rational - I know, but this is the way I feel about them
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Because of their BA ‘tech’ probably. Price should be around $249
They are also launching their international website soon
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Marcel: “Oh, there’s something rotten in Denmark!” /Shakespeare/
^^^ This is my opinion about AFUL. Otherwise, the technology looks promising.
TOTL tuning really depends on person to person, not what the price indicates.
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New frequency division technology uses resistors and capacitors
But every crossover uses resistors and capacitor. Besides their marketing material mentions them using a RLC crossover (like speakers), they probably would’ve mentioned using inductors here? 
Anyways, this is shaping up to be a very interesting IEM.
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That’s exactly why I don’t listen to people who talk about TOTL IEMs, because the ears are different. For example, according to me, Crin has defective hearing 
. He always says things that are the exact opposite of what I hear 
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He’s more of an analytical listener with a (possibly very) slight tilt to musical if anything the more I gather from his recommendations.
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I dunno. Anyone who loves the Truthear Zero is totally valid to their experience, but it was all sub-bass to hollowed out mid-bass, to sharp upper-mids for me.
Not unpleasant, but certainly not my cup of tea at all. So I know when it comes to his tuning/recommendations, I’m going to find him lacking in the warmth and note weight I prefer
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Indeed, HBB seems to be along the lines of tuning I prefer about everytime. Hot upper mids and/or treble seems to be where I’m sensitive and die on any set.
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Even RLC filters are quite a basics in electronics if I remember my 15 year old college courses right. At least that’s definitely something I studied a lot.
I just watched the akros review about this set, and what could be interesting innovative on this set is their control on phase. But my studies are too far away for me to tell anything more on that subject.
If only I knew at the time all these signal treatment things would be of interest to me… The thing is, I don’t remember the teacher making any bridge between his classes and audio applications, it would have clicked so much more for me than these purely theoretical stuff.
That is so strange - I’m a infant in terms of this hobby but I don’t recall ever seeing a circuit board inside a wired set - that’s really interesting. Is that some kind of DSP that’s happening in real time?
No worries, man - definitely not a touchy subject. Without going into it too deeply, I’m not trying to bore anyone, but since I was a child I’ve had issues with both my ears. I suffered from chronic ear infections from 3-7 years old, which caused permanent hearing loss in both of my ears. My right ear’s hearing volume is about 30-40% of what it’s supposed to be plus, there’s a cut around 10k causing me to lose out on those upper frequencies. My left ear isn’t as bad but there’s a noticeable hearing loss there as well. Maybe in the region of about 5-10%.
It affects my perception of a lot of things unfortunately, most noticeably though, staging and imaging. Because my right is so compromised, anything coming out of the right channel is so low it’s difficult to really know where sounds are coming from.
Sorry for the rant, tried my best to keep it short 
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RLC are passive filtres. I’m not sure of the translations and all, but I think I won’t be too far with
- R = resistance
- C = capacitor
- L = coil
These filters block some frequency ranges depending on the values of each element.
I don’t remember much more about this subject, but I’ll definitely take a look on wikipedia.
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I feel for you. I had tubes in my ears as a kid and after being very near an explosion in Afghanistan (as in so near i had bleeding in my lungs from the pressure wave that picked me up and threw me 40 feet down a mountainside) my left ear was mangled and down to 25% hearing for 1.5 years until I had a surgeon from UCLA donate a three surgery process to reconstruct my ear and restore my hearing. Now I hear better out of my left than my right and both are better than average for my age (36 y/o). Point being, I understand and sympathize entirely, bro.
Thanks for being open and sharing your story. That’s a powerful love of audio you must have and I have nothing but respect for that.
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Holy Jesus Christ - your story is powerful, my friend. I won’t ask any personal questions but you being in Afghanistan leads me to believe you were in combat of some kind and if so, I appreciate your service. If that isn’t the case, you’re a brave bastard and I respect the hell out of you regardless.
I was meant to have surgery to add tubes in both of my ears when I was kid but my dad being the softy he is, when I expressed fear in doing the surgery he didn’t force me to do so. I kind of wish he did for obvious reasons.
Yeah, for whatever reason, man, I’ve always been obsessed with not only music but audio in general. Since I was probably 12 I would look into different headphones and IEMs. I really think it comes down to my own interest in hearing at a higher quality. I think I’ve always been so self conscious of my hearing loss and just knowing everyone around me hears more than I can puts me in a state of not knowing. I guess in my own weird way, when I put on the Monarch’s and they allow me to hear everything I feel like I can’t, they act like an extension of my own ears, but a better version.
It’s a strange dynamic but it’s lead me here to meet all of you guys and I couldn’t be more grateful.
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I’ll definitely take a look as well, seems like a somewhat novel piece of tech for IEMs if I’m not too out of the loop. Seems really interesting. I’m looking forward to the @nymz article on em’ for sure.
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These kind of filters are used as crossovers, but they tend to up the price of manufacturing. That’s why they aren’t used in low-cost market: using physical damping for the DD and tuning with the ba drivers that can be (if I understood correctly) inherently band-passing drivers is more cost-effective and easier to tune.
I don’t know the upper market much, but I think crossovers are more common at higher price brackets.
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