Fuck it bought, I’m gonna give one out to a friend using my Amazon vouchers after I try out mine. (Ali snail mail means I’ll be getting mine probably during May.)
I like the Mele but wasn’t super impressed given the weak technical performance (Not like I was expecting the Mele to be a technical Monster but was disappointed on this front given the hype, still rec the Mele if you want a well tuned bassy IEM under $50.)
Was interested in the O2, but seems like I won’t be needing this one given that I bought the Olina.
tinkering the cheap stuff with potential is also inherentlty what builds the legends due to the ikea effect IKEA effect - Wikipedia can HBB be a marketing genius delivering a half baked iem on purpose ?
I don’t mind some redundancy, plenty of IEMs have similar things about them. Under your logic the Kato is right out as well. Tripowin Lea, and a few other IEMs.
Just because they graph the same doesn’t mean they have the timber, the response speed can have a big impact on how things sound. I think that is why we talk about DD vs planar or even BA timber to a large extent. There are normal tonal qualities that we associate for each driver type.
My guess is that the graph for everything below 3k probably looks pretty similar for about half of my IEMs, but above 3k can be done in lots of different ways, and still sound pretty good.
My guess is that most people if they rank ordered their own IEMs would find some pretty common traits the ones they actually listen to, or really like. We all have a couple outliers to fill a role in our collection too.
in the Olina still keep the original mesh filter to cover the bore after inserting the tuningsponge(s). Place either one or two sponges in the bore, just based on your preference. I’m running 2 tuning sponges now and at high volume playing levels they are great, but at lower volumes some sparkle is lost. So I may go to only to one sponge filter later. I’m going to put together a high simbilance playlist and make some trial runs and see which set up I finally go with.
I would consider it but at least not now. Right now the Tin HiFi T3 Plus seems to be reasonable enough to get since I need a replacement for my Tin T2s, for I am planning to give it up soon to my little brother who in need of an IEMs that can get the job done for both music and gaming.
Moondrop. I’m into res and prat and also find a lot of these too warm for personal preference in that higher expectations category. (Not hating the added warmth in the olina. ) Was not a fan of S8 until I tried the complys. That got them to where I can accept the tonality. I even tried changing the mid filter with a low value (330) ohm BA filter cylinder and that was clearly too much. Stuck it in my ear and went eww, LOL. I had a bias against Complys but sometimes things just belong together. They lose a little pinna gain and the bass is actually closer to my preference with them. Just wish they’d last longer. PRaT is better than my Spartan Adel (s1) this way. I personally have no issue with well done BA bass or timbre.
I only use IEMs for music on the go. Using a iBasso DX240 at the moment but had Questyle QP1 when I bought the S8 and a Hiby r6 2020 in between. Have better sources at home but don’t tent to use them for earphones. Questyle CMA15 with Naim Core and using Naim Atom HE as preamp/streamer in my tv system. Headphone amp on the Atom HE is crazy good.
I was considering the s12 as my next playful purchase. I’ll have the filters ready, LOL.
you can also try 2 sponges filterless as I’ve seen some people do it on sets like CRA. it should be closer to 1 sponge + filter since filter also acts like a tuning sponge …!
Yeah, I may buy one for myself in the future. Will have to steal hers from time to time since we listen to the same music library.
I think if she can handle all the crazy spikes and sibilances of the FD5, she’ll be fine with the Olina. Her ears are more tolerant than mine in the highs
) Was not a fan of S8 until I tried the complys. That got them to where I can accept the tonality. I even tried changing the mid filter with a low value (330) ohm BA filter cylinder and that was clearly too much. Stuck it in my ear and went eww, LOL. I had a bias against Complys but sometimes things just belong together. They lose a little pinna gain and the bass is actually closer to my preference with them. Just wish they’d last longer. PRaT is better than my Spartan Adel (s1) this way. I personally have no issue with well done BA bass or timbre.
that doesn’t mean I think it was intentional though.
