Definitely, they are the ones with the most potential in my eyes.
Yeah, bassy soundstagey sets are a touch rare sub $300.
Also both Ikko and Blon need to combat the value point a touch more, in my mind. A8 is against the Aria for single DD and FH3, so it has to do something special. OH1S is a possible upgrade, but walking into a field of 2 BA 1DD realm that’s saturated to all hell with a new DD and an old BA. Aside from comfort, tuning will be the breaking point for both sets.
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yes, exactly. The market is getting tougher and tougher, so they really need to stand out. Even the Seeaudio Yume, which seems to be touted as having TOTL tuning, isnt a strong rec because of its poor/average technicalities.
We are quite the greedy bunch, demanding both excellent tonality and technicalities that punch above the price lol.
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Well, they gotta try hard. A big part of the IEM market (even bigger the higher you go with the price) is made of people with multiple sets of IEMs. So the improvements need to keep coming otherwise would people just (mostly) ignore new models.
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Isn’t this one the BLON Prometheus that @hawaiibadboy was really enthusiastic about in this pre production review?
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Should of kept the Prometheus name imo.
Yes it is. Looks like they did change the name from prometheus to A8 to make it more consistent in their lineup.
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That looks like a nice blind buy. But I don’t know if this store is able to ship it with a declared value of 8 USD, otherwise I’ll have to pay USD 60 just in taxes.
I read it but I wouldn’t trust that this would work in Brazil. If they see a declared value of USD 100 they’ll hold it until I pay 60% of taxes. I’ll send them an email.
Yeah, best to send them a mail first. I haven’t tried their priority shipping since they got that tax free aspect.
I suspect they might be using Yun express for that, since all my packages from Yun express have not been charged with extra vat and import fees that every other package gets.
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It would be nice to confirm with Chris @hawaiibadboy if Blon have chosen his preferred tuning for the final version of the Prometheus.
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Wow, the Starshine looks better lol. 500 vs 3500 usd. 
Specs are also similar, with the starshine having 2 BA + 2 EST while the Elysium having 1 BA + 1 DD + 2 EST. Although its quite strange that they used the DD for the mids instead of the bass…
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Oh nice Ikko is releasing a new IEM?! I am trying to find a substitute for the OH10 for so long now i dont even remember! lol
“Bassy and soundstagey” is exactly what it is, it is a shame comfort was so unbearable because of all the weight. I will keep an eye for reviews on this OH1S for sure, hope they keep the same sound signature as the OH10!
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The driver that the OH1S isnt the titanium coating that the OH10 got. I am guessing that they might go for a more neutral tuning compared to the OH10 based on that. All the titanium coated DDs I have heard all got one thing in common, they are VERY BASSY.
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What’s the difference between ‘bass boosted neutral’ and ‘L-shape’? Is it a difference in where the bass is boosted (upper foor bass boosted and sub for L) or is it more to do with being neutral in the treble region?
They are quite similar actually.
But for bass boosted neutral, I call iems that if they got neutral mids and treble but boosted in the bass. While with L-shaped they can have boosted mids/treble and even more elevated bass.
For example, if neutral is 0.
Then a bass boosted neutral iem would could be these:
Bass: 2
Mids: 0
treble: 0
or
bass: 5
mids: 0
treble: 0
But for L-shaped, it is like this:
bass: 4
mids: 1
treble: 1
or
bass: 2
mids: -1
treble: -1
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Makes perfect sense, thanks.
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2021-06-05: K´s Samsara K300 review is up: Ks K300 Samsara - Reviews | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
Rank: S
I actually prefer it slightly over the RW-2000, but both are benchmark buds. 
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2021-06-05: Ibasso DX160 review is up: iBasso DX160 - Reviews | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
With this, I will also mention that I will not use the DX160 as my review source and the Schiit Asgard 3 will take over. This is mainly because I sometimes run into transducers that dont have replaceable cables (stuck on 3.5mm) so when I need to compare them to others that are using the 4.4mm port instead, it is another factor of inconsistency and also not exactly fair since the 4.4mm is a lot better than the 3.5mm
With the Asgard 3, everything will be using its 6.35mm output and I just need to convert the 3.5/2.5/4.4mm jacks into the 6.35mm jack. Which is done by using these adapters:
So it will be more fair and more consistent. And the Asgard 3 is a more neutral amp and doesnt color the sound as much as the DX160 so it is also better that way.
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