TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM Review

[PeteL]

Even for iPhone you have Neutron Player which has a fully parametric EQ. It even has all of AutoEQ's profiles pre-loaded (although I prefer Oratory's EQs). $8.99 well spent I'd say.

But for streaming services?

 

[half_dog]

I guess it's possible that I find the curve too sharp for my taste, although it's odd considering my speakers are klipsch ....
maybe I missed the bass below 200, especially in comparison to the sennheiser momentum in ear. Although I must say that they held up well with the android equalizer with the ten band "RE equalizer" software and I liked them more. but wanting to use them also with a normal mp3 without equalizations I am oriented for the restitution, I don't really know whether to try other more "full" headphones or to abandon the idea and keep my sennheiser

Salnotes Zero comes with tips of different inner bores. If I not mistaken, the orange one has a smaller inner bore and this "brings" some bass. If it fits your ear, give it a try

 

[johnhopfensperger]

I just got them today. They sound like the eartips don’t go far enough into my ear canal. See for example the various blog posts by rinchoi on this subject, such as http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-deep-do-you-insert-you-er4.html

I have the impression of peaky treble, rather than the rich harman sound I expected from the graphs. None of the eartips go deep into the canal like the etymotic sleeves.

(I have Genelec 8361 and Sennheiser hd600 for reference.)

After listening some more and looking at more measurements for comparison, I think I'm actually getting a proper seal with the smallest eartips.
I didn't realize that the Harman IEM curve has boosted treble relative to their OE curve, especially from 3khz to 6khz.
I would say Crinacle's "IEF Neutral" curve is pretty obviously closer to correct.

 

[Talisman]

Salnotes Zero comes with tips of different inner bores. If I not mistaken, the orange one has a smaller inner bore and this "brings" some bass. If it fits your ear, give it a try

I tried different rubber pads and made various cross tests, never finding a 100% satisfactory setting.
This morning I opted for a return and not even two hours later I saw that the TRUTHEARs were available with prime shipping (and therefore amazon guarantee) and arrived on Friday. So I will also try oe headphones in the subject of the review, if not even these will convince me I will know that the harman curve is not for me.

 

[Acerun]

I just got mine yesterday and I think they sound fantastic. Plenty of sub bass, Fading Sun sounds perfect.

 

[Garrincha]

I tried different rubber pads and made various cross tests, never finding a 100% satisfactory setting.
This morning I opted for a return and not even two hours later I saw that the TRUTHEARs were available with prime shipping (and therefore amazon guarantee) and arrived on Friday. So I will also try oe headphones in the subject of the review, if not even these will convince me I will know that the harman curve is not for me.

So you really need to abuse the return policy option and shipping and work and energy waste and all this to find out how a Harman tuned IEM sounds like? Ever thought about using EQ? I don´t get it.

 

[DarwinDaDude]

You'll need to the use the tips that have the smaller inner diameter to get the Harman Bass you see in the measurements. The tips with the larger inner diameter are designed to have less bass. So, you'd choose the tips with smaller inner diameter and choose the outer size that fits your ear. So you'd be wanting to choose a pair from the ones I circled in red in following pic:
View attachment 231951
And another users pics that show the same thing, to see the difference more clearly:
View attachment 231952

The narrow bore tip does increase the bass! Thanks for the 'tip' Robo99999! I naively thought that wider the aperture, easier for the larger bass wavelengths to egress (LOL)!
Both size aperture tips sound great but with different sonic signatures. A good choice to have.
The Truthear x Crinacle are now my reference headphones ;-)
Cheers

 

[Talisman]

So you really need to abuse the return policy option and shipping and work and energy waste and all this to find out how a Harman tuned IEM sounds like? Ever thought about using EQ? I don´t get it.

To abuse? sorry why? You abuse the return policy when you already know you are going to return something, and you only order to use it temporarily. That would be abuse.
The return policy is to allow you to try something and possibly return it if you are not convinced by the quality or performance, as in this case.
If I had not had this possibility I would not have bought many things on Amazon, which instead I could try with the serenity of being able to eventually return if not satisfied. Amazon made a lot more money with me with this option than it would have made if it hadn't allowed me.
So no, I did not ABUSE, I just used an option that I am given, as the product in question did not satisfy me.

 

[Phorize]

I'm using it with the Hidizs s9 and it sounds fantastic. Tried it with the Razor USB c dongle. Sounds great with that too. I think any half decent USB c dongle could drive these. You dont need a desktop amp

I use these with an Apple dongle which produces hearing damaging levels without issue.

 

[Phorize]

But for streaming services?

Nope, mainstream streaming services and eq are generally a non starter on iOS, which is why I bought these in the first place.

 

[julian_hughes]

But for streaming services?

If you use BubbleUPnP app you can pass lossless Qobuz and Tidal streams to Neutron (or any other audio app which accepts audio streams).

 

[PeteL]

To abuse? sorry why? You abuse the return policy when you already know you are going to return something, and you only order to use it temporarily. That would be abuse.
The return policy is to allow you to try something and possibly return it if you are not convinced by the quality or performance, as in this case.
If I had not had this possibility I would not have bought many things on Amazon, which instead I could try with the serenity of being able to eventually return if not satisfied. Amazon made a lot more money with me with this option than it would have made if it hadn't allowed me.
So no, I did not ABUSE, I just used an option that I am given, as the product in question did not satisfy me.

I am not too worried about Amazon... But they will however get their money back from the seller. It's easy to have these generous return policies if it don't ever have to cost you one cent and the seller don't have any power on it.

 

[Phorize]

Or you could just use these EQs for any of the current IEMs/headphones you already own to know what Harman sounds like for free...

Not from Qobuz or to my knowledge any other mainstream streaming service on iOS you can't. I'd love to be corrected of course as although I don't mind setting up eq at home like most users portable to me means of one device (my phone). Add this to the fact that a tiny percentage of users on any platform would ever consider eq even if it were trivial (which it isn't from a general user point of view), and the case for the Harman compliant iem or headphone is made.

 

[Phorize]

If you use BubbleUPnP app you can pass lossless Qobuz and Tidal streams to Neutron (or any other audio app which accepts audio streams).

Bubbleupnp is android only unfortunately. Apple users are screwed for eq with streaming.

Edit: above I'm talking about use on the go. On iOS Mconnect will stream tidal and Qobuz via upnp to neutrons upnp server running on the same lan. That said, these are pretty terrible solutions from a general consumer point of view.

 

[Robbo99999]

The narrow bore tip does increase the bass! Thanks for the 'tip' Robo99999! I naively thought that wider the aperture, easier for the larger bass wavelengths to egress (LOL)!
Both size aperture tips sound great but with different sonic signatures. A good choice to have.
The Truthear x Crinacle are now my reference headphones ;-)
Cheers

Excellent, glad to hear it! Just to emphasize, (for readers), the small inner diameter ones have the bass that is shown in the measurements, Harman Bass:

TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM Review

If these hold their own with my $400 Periodic Be's, I'll really have some soul-searching to do... They will sound significantly different.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Robbo99999]

I use these with an Apple dongle which produces hearing damaging levels without issue.

EU or US version of the dongle? I think the EU version maxes out at 0.5V and the US version at 1V. (I bought a cheap "no-name" dongle a while back which maxes out just below 1V according to my miniDSP EARS measurements, I probably would have bought the US version of the Apple Dongle just as it's been measured, but it seemed hard to get hold of here).

 

[Phorize]

EU or US version of the dongle? I think the EU version maxes out at 0.5V and the US version at 1V. (I bought a cheap "no-name" dongle a while back which maxes out just below 1V according to my miniDSP EARS measurements, I probably would have bought the US version of the Apple Dongle just as it's been measured, but it seemed hard to get hold of here).

I bought it from Amazon UK, so I'm assuming it's the EU version. I'll check.

 

[Robbo99999]

I bought it from Amazon UK, so I'm assuming it's the EU version. I'll check.

Yeah, it would be worth checking, just to know what your experiences are like considering it might only be 0.5V. Mind you, we can work out from the sensitivity values of the Crinacle X Zero what your max volume would be with 0.5V.

EDIT: just working out from Amir's sensitivity graph, he's saying 74mv for an equivalent 97dB at 1kHz, and using the following online headphone power calculator that means that the sensitivity of these IEM's is 120dB/V:

Headphone Power Calculator - Headphone & Earphone Audio & Reviews

How much power do your headphones need? Does your amp have enough power? Find out here with our handy calculator. Learn about voltage, current and power.

www.hear.audio

So with the 1V of of US Apple Dongle you'd be hitting 120dB, and with the 0.5V EU version you'd be hitting 114dB at 1kHz:

So it should be loud enough with EU version of the Apple Dongle (0.5V).

 

[Phorize]

Yeah, it would be worth checking, just to know what your experiences are like considering it might only be 0.5V. Mind you, we can work out from the sensitivity values of the Crinacle X Zero what your max volume would be with 0.5V.

It version MMX62ZM/A. No specs anywhere online unfortunately.

 

[Robbo99999]

It version MMX62ZM/A. No specs anywhere online unfortunately.

I think that's the EU version, I think the US version is MU7E2FE/A A2049