Hiby releases it’s latest 4 ba IEMs, Crystal 4.
so i stumbled on this weird chinese vioelectric knockoff.
looks like an exact copy but i also don’t know what i’m looking at. going by the name accurate audio on aliexpress and they look like they’ve knocked off a few other things lol. including r2r dac designs
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Any Fidue iem users here? How is this brand overall?
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usually it’s the DAC that can change the pin assignment
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Yes… is this the chifi V281?
A clone 281 to be precise. They also have a clone Rockna DAC and clone niimbus
do you know of anyone that has tried the clones and if they are any good?
Link to clone niimbus if you get a chance?
Has any one of reputation actually reviewed these?
I know the A1000 and D1000 are meant to be good for the price in China, compared to similarly priced stuff but I don’t know how close they are to the real thing. The A281 doesn’t get recommended as much.
Probably not, since it’s a clone so kinda like piracy
It might be, but I’m not encouraging clone products lol
Yeah kinda not cool. But hey, they’re discontinued models at least lol
Soooo cheap…
I wouldn’t bet on the quality though.
I’ll be honest I wouldn’t above paying $1600 for a knock off Niimbus US4+ If I had any confidence it would last, would sound like the product, and have appropriate protection for my cans and not starting a fire.
I wouldn’t be proud of it but I’d do it.
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All I know is the clone manufacturer is pretty well regarded (in terms of their quality, not their morality) in China. They basically reverse engineer the few products and make it themselves
While I definitely don’t approve of blatant copies, if and I mean IF they can sound just as good or better because they improved upon the design slightly, and still produce them for cheap, it really makes the original companies look pretty greedy when markup is 10,000%. I understand R&D takes money but I find it hard to believe it costs enough to justify a $20,000 DAC… or a $6,000 headphone amplifier…
Well there is way more to it than that. But even to sell a product directly in America there are specific marks you need including safety regulation etc…
I’m sure an engineer at niimbus makes $100k year equivalent thus his costs plus the owner plus sales and marketing all have to be allocated per unit.
I don’t think it’s all that questionable for a product designed in Germany made in China to cost $5k then a knock off to costs $1.5k. I digress because there could be an entire thread dedicated to supply chain and coating of an audio product.
I guess it wouldn’t bug me so much if the companies making these high end products like dropped the price drastically once they come out with a newer model. Like obviously you have the old one figured out, you’ve been selling it for 3 years. Keep making it, sell it cheap, and improve your brand