Thanks. Is the cayin n7 warm sounding?
It leans on warmer side but not overly warm. Very musical and pleasant sounding.
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Thanks man. What type of source do you think goes well it the sm4? Warm, neutral or bright?
Slight warmer sources will go well with the sm4 in my opinion.
Showing some love to budget iems today. Man i have to say. “Good iems are getting cheap and cheap iems are getting good” i know i stole it from mkbhd
. Today i am comparing epz q1 pro and kinera celest wyvern abyss/ wyvern black.Excellent iems for the price. Thinking of making a short and simple video on YT as well.
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Don’t forget to leave a link of the video.
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Sure, i will do that 
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I would appreciate not having the thread I created for my reviews hijacked by another reviewer. Please do not do so again.
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Truthear Gate In-Ear Monitor Review
Introduction and Disclaimer:
The Truthear Gate is an in-ear monitor (IEM) with a single dynamic driver in each earpiece. The Gate is currently on sale for $16.99. ShenzhenAudio sent me a review unit in exchange for my evaluation.
Unboxing and Accessories
The Truthear Gate comes in a square black cardboard box with a white slipcover. The front face of the slipcover features a samurai-inspired waifu. The rear face of the slipcover showcases the Gate’s frequency response and lists the Gate’s technical specifications.
The Gate includes six pairs of eartips in two varieties. Each variant comes in small, medium, and large sizes. One variant has a more conventional bulbous shape with a longer stem, and the other is shorter and wider, with a more open bore. In terms of feel and quality, both varieties are a step down from the white silicone used in the eartips included with earlier Truthear IEMs. I used a pair of the Celest 608 eartips included with the Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0 I recently reviewed during my evaluation instead.
The Gate also includes a Truthear-branded square black pleather carry pouch with a magnetic closure, which works well and is appreciated at this price point.
Design, Build, Comfort, Fit, and Isolation
The earpieces have a scale-shaped cross-section with a pseudo-custom fit. The faceplates are transparent, providing a clear view of the internal wiring and the 10mm dynamic driver. The Truthear logo is printed in white on the left faceplate and “GATe” is printed in white on the right faceplate. There is a medium-sized bean-shaped vent near the edge of the inner face of each housing as well as a smaller circular vent right next to the nozzle. There is no directional labeling on the earpieces. The nozzles have a medium-sized lip to secure eartips. The earpieces are on the thicker side and are not quite as comfortable as other Truthear IEMs I have reviewed. They are low-profile enough to wear while lying on one’s side but are probably not the best choice for this use case. Isolation is poor. On the other hand, the earpieces fit securely but provide minimal isolation.
The cable is flexible but prone to tangling. There is a chin-adjustment choker, which I recommend making use of. The cable has an L-shaped 3.5mm jack with robust strain relief. There is no strain relief at the Y-split, marked with the Truthear logo in white. The cable has pre-formed ear guides, and the 2-pin connector housings have raised directional markings. The 2–pin connectors are deeply recessed. The cable is not very microphonic even without using the chin-adjustment choker.
Sound
Truthear Gate — Bedrock Reviews (squig.link)
The Truthear Gate has a U-shaped tuning with a gentle sub-bass elevation and a plateau-style ear gain region emphasis. There is also an audible peak in the upper treble that adds a bit of an unpleasant bite to treble transients.
Sub-bass extension is good, with a fair amount of rumble, and the sub-bass to mid-bass transition is smooth and gradual. While cleanly articulated, percussion is lacking a little in impact. Bass resolution is fairly average and bass texture is poor. There is no mid-bass bleed.
Compared to a similarly-priced IEM like the Moondrop Chu II, the Gate sounds flat. The Chu II sounds more three-dimensional, with greater separation between vocals and midrange instrumentation and greater contrast between the bass and treble. With that said, both male and female vocals are quite intelligible on the Gate. Male vocals have body and some texture but suffer from what I can only describe as glare along their trailing edge. This seems to be an artifact of the upper treble peak. Female vocals do not seem to be as affected by this. I love how the Gate renders female vocals, which come across as rich, vibrant, and detailed without being breathy or sibilant. The measured dip in the presence region helps to prevent distorted electric guitars from sounding too overdriven, though there is a tiny bit of analog percussion compression. Midrange timbre is just slightly on the dry side.
While one-dimensional bass, some degree of percussion compression, and dry timbre are ubiquitous with budget single dynamic driver IEMs, I find the Gate’s uneven treble harder to overlook. Ultimately, the root of my issues with the Gate is that the balance of the treble sub-regions is off. Ideally, each treble peak should be slightly less prominent than the last, even if the upper treble has good extension. The Gate has an appropriate amount of lower treble relative to the upper midrange, but there is an audible dip in the mid-treble immediately followed by a significant upper treble peak. This peak overshadows the lower treble. The result is the glare that follows male vocals as well as the biting sensation that accompanies the excess air. On the other hand, overall detail retrieval is great, as are soundstage width and instrument separation.
Conclusion
As recently as a year ago, I would have been delighted to have an IEM that sounded like the Truthear Gate to arrive on the market for such a low price. However, competition at the $20 price point is cutthroat, and while any IEM at this price point comes with compromises, the ones that the Gate makes are suboptimal for my priorities.
The Truthear Gate is available for purchase at the link below:
TRUTHEAR GATE 10mm Dynamic Driver In-Ear Headphone (shenzhenaudio.com)
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I’ve made the jump over to Youtube for my formal reviews:
I will probably continue doing written impressions for Head-Fi meets, but we shall see.
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