7Hz Sonus

[IAtaman]

Got this quite recently based on its graphs and suggestion of @mc.god for $42 delivered same day from Amazon.

They also look very good in my opinion - smooth matte metal with minimum distractions. Like that.

How does it sound? Sounds great out of the box to me, without EQ. In fact, when EQ'ed to Harman IE2019 based on various squig.link measurements, it sounds weird and incorrect. I am not sure if that says more about the IEM, the target or the measurements, but that's what it is.

I tried a -3dB / Q1.4 filter at 1.5KHz and I guess maybe it does make a bit of a difference for the positive, but its absence does not take anything away from the IEM in my view. And, at face value, that's quite a feat I'd say as even my favorite IE200, I prefer them with a bit of EQ.

All that is contingent upon being able to achieve a good fit and seal of course. And 7Hz do best they can - they provide you with a wide variety of tips to choose from. XL tips fitted me the best as these are a thicc boy IEMs, and larger then normal tips allows them to seal well even when they are not flush with my ear due to their large shell size - at least that's my theory. For comparison I also got the Performer5 same time and they fit best with M tips. Being a good seal with XL tips also has the negative side effect of being a tad bit uncomfortable after a few hours for me but will see how that pans out in the long run.

Cable is good length but a bit of a thick, flat, unusual looking cable. Looks like these flat HDMI cables you are supposed to use to connect wall mounted TVs to the receiver that can be painted over. Or IDE cables from the previous century if anyone remembers them. Its gets the job done though.

Overall great value for money in my opinion. Even at their original $60 price I'd say. I think these are a strong contender to be new favourite IEMs.

 

[mc.god]

Very nice!
I agree on everything, I like them a lot out of the box and it's the reason I went to try them, and din't try at all with EQ, that I tend to use only in specific situation, since i like to switch between my iems enjoying their slightly different signatures.
All other FR graph from other reviewers show a bit uneven response in the 1500-5000 region, that this reviewer gets using a higher impedance source:

He is the only one pointing out this behavior even in his video review, don't know if it can be granted for sure but having dual drivers it's surely possible that impedance curve is not completely flat.

Selection of ear-tips is really complete, they seems to be Kbear 07 and Kbear 08 sets, or at least very resembling them. I didn'try with other tips for now since got a very nice fit and comfort with the white M+ size (12.8 mm). I generally need to use large tips but didn't try the largest ones since I'm afraid I'll end up loving them too much

Cable is a bit microphonic but i like it very much to te touch and feeling, but i don't use them on the move so don't know if it's still nice when walking and it's on the long side.

As I said in other threads they are my end-game, but other than 7Hz i have to thank Truthear too, since I decided to try them after returning Hexa which I couldn't find a nice fit with at all

P.S.
I have the silver one since i like the full transparent shell but sometimes considering to get a red backup unit since it's gorgeous too.

 

[nerdemoji]

CCA Trio is cheaper and better
vs the Zero Red also

 

[USER]

View attachment 359980
CCA Trio is cheaper and better
vs the Zero Red also
View attachment 359986

Be careful. Those are non-professional measurements and tend to give unreliable bass and treble results. (I have seen that many overplay bass and downplay treble and I really do think this is why many don't like Harman as they have seen only seen false measurements.) I compared a lot of these types of results to Amir's (taking into account the general margins of errors) and found some to be much more reliable with a conversion EQ than others. therollo9's results are not reliable. Paul Wasabii is more reliable than most. This is what I got with my conversion that shows good reliability when I use it across a few IEMs that he and Amir have both reviewed.

I get something like this.

I own the Trio and using a Harman EQ based on this result worked really well. I can certainly hear the boost at the bass and treble and even a simple EQ makes a world of difference, which leads me to think this more correct. It removes any muddiness I sometimes get from the most bass heavy tracks and takes away some unnecessary brightness, which I think is the worse issue, and allows me to listen to them for longer periods of time.

To see if these are more reliable results you can try something like this:

88Hz -2dB 1.5Q
4000Hz -1.6dB 1Q

Some say there is a switch setting that tames the treble and sounds better. That would make sense with these results more so than with the other ones.

Caveat emptor of course as these were never professional measurements to begin with.

 

[mc.god]

View attachment 359980
CCA Trio is cheaper and better
vs the Zero Red also
View attachment 359986

Cheaper for sure, better IF you target the Harman 2019 curve, that both Sonus and Red don't aim to (and the reason why I got both)

 

[markanini]

Cheaper for sure, better IF you target the Harman 2019 curve, that both Sonus and Red not aim to (and the reason why I got both)

Good point, and if you care about data and follow Sean Olive work you can see what something diverging from Harman 2019 in a way similar to Sonus is statistically tied in terms of measurable preference.

 

[mc.god]

Good point, and if you care about data and follow Sean Olive work you can see what something diverging from Harman 2019 in a way similar to Sonus is statistically tied in terms of measurable preference.

Nice but I'm not that much into data and research methods, it goes beyond the effort and interest i want\can put into this hobby. I'm just glad that established curves exist and that starting from them we can find out what we like most just comparing some graphs.

 

[nerdemoji]

Good point, and if you care about data and follow Sean Olive work you can see what something diverging from Harman 2019 in a way similar to Sonus is statistically tied in terms of measurable preference.

Please show me where.

 

[IAtaman]

View attachment 359980
CCA Trio is cheaper and better
vs the Zero Red also

Better how? Graphs vs the target better or sounds better?

 

[markanini]

Please show me where.

 

[nerdemoji]

He literally says in this video that Harman 2019 is still the highest preference, far above the Headphones Show target or whatever. You are entitled to your opinions about subjective preferences but Harman 2019 is still currently the highest rated target.

 

[markanini]

He literally says in this video that Harman 2019 is still the highest preference, far above the Headphones Show target or whatever. You are entitled to your opinions about subjective preferences but Harman 2019 is still currently the highest rated target.

No disagreement about the Hps.com target being inferior, I questioned it a year ago here on ASR when it was introduced.

Look at the confidence bars. This is why Sean Olive said they were statically tied. There's no one best target here, but two that are equally better than the rest.

Look at the orange vs. Red graph, look how they diverge from each other throughout the frequency range, the most at 6kHz.

Look at Sonus FR from in the original post. Aside from a litlle excess energy at approximately 1.5kHz the response is somewhere in-between the two highest rated targets, which are statistically tied.

 

[mc.god]

No disagreement about the Hps.com target being inferior, I questioned it a year ago here on ASR when it was introduced.

Look at the confidence bars. This is why Sean Olive said they were statically tied. There's no one best target here, but two that are equally better than the rest.

Look at the orange vs. Red graph, look how they diverge from each other throughout the frequency range, the most at 6kHz.


View attachment 360207

Look at Sonus FR from in the original post. Aside from a litlle excess energy at approximately 1.5kHz the response is somewhere in-between the two highest rated targets, which are statistically tied.

I can see your point and I'm nor surprised that Sonus curve can fall in the largest group of preference, in the end we are talking about variations on theme.
I can't see precisely at which frequency the curves are crossed in the graph, but in rough term I can say that the red curve (Soundguys) remember me in most point the Zero:Red graph, while I can relate the yellow one (Harman 2024 beta) to 7Hz Zero, all IEM that i like a lot, and crossing all of them at 500 Hz we have this:

Harman 2019: hot pinna balanced out by greater bass boost --> balanced but "fun" at the same time -> preferred by many (not me)
Soundguys: more neutral and balanced --> still "fun" but more "hi-fi", less impactful --> preferred by many (me) but can see how some prefer Harman
Haman 2024 beta: still fun but brighter --> preferred by many (me) but some say too bright-weak bass.

Again, no surprise at all.

 

[MayaTlab]

If you compare the 3+ IEMs that both Wasabii and Amir have measured you'll see that the former generally overplays bass a little and downplays treble a bit more. This is likely the result of the cheap 3rd party coupler he uses.

It could be, as clone couplers vary quite a bit, from being for all intents and purposes similar to genuine RA0045 to wildly off the 711 tolerance bands, but in addition to this, there are other reasons why that could be the case :

a) Amir uses a KB50x0 pinna instead of the metal canal extension, and that too will affect the results.

This is extracted from SoundStageSolo's comparison of the KB500x0 pinna and metal canal extension, plotting the former over the latter :

Some of that could be related to length modes, but I don't think that this can be the case for all of it given how ear canal length affects IEMs' response ceteris paribus.

b) Amir uses a RA0402 coupler instead of a RA0045 (or a RA0045 clone), which will also introduce differences from the equipment Harman used.

c) And the usual, given the small sample size for the comparison : sample variation and operator variation.

That said I wouldn't make much of a fuss out of all of it in terms of "which IEM is closer to Harman IE 2019", this is a bit of a pointless endeavour when variations of that magnitude are involved, given how IEMs transfer between 711 test fixtures and humans, or vary across individuals.
But if you really want to know what Harman IE 2019 is meant to sound like, find a pair of Momentum iei, have your own sample measured in a RA0045 coupler, seated in it like Harman did it, apply EQ the way Harman did it, and then you'll really know what you would have experienced if you had been part of their listening panel .

 

[mc.god]

Surely I'd also like to see Sonus measured on a more reliable rig, but this is what we have now.

That said I wouldn't make much of a fuss out of all of it in terms of "which IEM is closer to Harman IE 2019", this is a bit of a pointless endeavour when variations of that magnitude are involved, given how IEMs transfer between 711 test fixtures and humans, or vary across individuals.

Agree, all measurements have to be interpreted with a grain of salt.
Furthermore i got Sonus exactly because they slightly differ from Harman in a way that from graph I imagined would be preferred by me, and indeed they do.
I don't intend to eq them to Harman or any other curve, I already said that I like to switch iems to enjoy their slightly different signature.
Moreover, other than how much bass and presence region are boosted, a characterizing point of Harman curve is the transition from bass to mids around 150-250 Hz that gives it a touch of "sobwoofer-like disattached" bass, while Sonus (and Zero) have a more gentle transition to around 800 Hz that I prefer:

It's subtle but audible, especially in male vocals "body".
And I think that in that region even 711 clones can be considered reliable enough.

 

[Jimbob54]

Mine arrived today. Agree with the first 2 posts. These sound good with the right tips (largest azla xelastec for me currently). Nice comfy shape, not feeling the need to eq.

Not bothered for the stock cable, have my own preferences there.

The shape works for my ear shape.

Don't think anyone for whom they fit and are comfy for should have a problem with these. Not the bassiest, sound pretty balanced to me.

 

[Jimbob54]

Actually just swapped tips for the Moondrop Spring tips (Black L for me) - better suited for longer listening than the Azla (in the size I had them) mentioned above. The Azla were sitting at (but blocking) the entrance to my ear canal, the Moondrop tips go in a bit for a more stable seal.

 

[Jimbob54]

OK, tried a few times now and noticed compared to other iem I use (with eq to roughly Crinacles 2020 pinna hump) these were sounding a bit rough with no eq.

Added a 1500hz q1.2 dip and it smoothed it out a lot. And a small high shelf of - 1db and couple of other minor tweaks that are definitely to personal taste.

But I'd be interested if anyone else would try that 1500hz dip filter compared to stock and give their observations. I know I'm quite sensitive to that 1k to 2k area. I used 2db but appreciate others might want to shave less off.