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Yes, I checked seal by checking bass. Even bass is sounding fine, confirming seal is achieved, the chirpiness is still there. I think I am gonna run this hearing threshold test to see where is the problem exactly as enricoclaudio suggested.
Amazon says over 300 of these have been sold this month (through Amazon USA of course). Reviews are overwhelmingly positive as you would expect given the evidence. Unfortunately they don't ship for a week. I wonder what their profit margins really are? This might be the better way to go for these IEM companies instead of selling less than a handful of high priced jobbies (that do not perform as well) and perhaps never break. It's possible that the build quality on these is high enough that they never break if taken care of. The new Chu measure similarly as do the Hola (which I own) and the Chu 2 look to be very well made and the Hola are definitely built well enough to last for years. In any case, it would be interesting to know. The build quality doesn't have to be that great. Just good enough. This is raw material pricing and you can just order more if something goes wrong if you're disinclined to repair. Same goes for the Hola or Chu 2 for that matter. I can't wait to get mine and hear if they do the job 3% better than the Hola. Graphically they should. In all actuality, you can own all three for the price of a Moondrop Aria which was a strong budget choice 2 years ago or so. It was praised many times over and now it looks lacking--though not dramatically so. Anyway, it's nice to see high sales for all of these. The kids who are really into music sure have it easy now compared to what I had: the only thing decent I could have was a Koss (not really on this level) and I passed it over because I didn't think it was a good brand. I bought a Sony instead and I'm sure now I could have done better.
fyi amir also uses Diffuse field target to eq iem’s and not harmon’s IE target which is generally agreed as bad research and confronted to sean olive more than once
Most IEM listeners have set their own targets on 711 rigs but most bought are the ones that agree with the +10db tilt of the DF target where the treble from 2k onwards is generally sloping down. I guess you can try this yourself with an iem instead to using amir’s EQ on any one of the recommended iem’s like truthear hola or red or zero2
fyi amir also uses Diffuse field target to eq iem’s and not harmon’s IE target which is generally agreed as bad research and confronted to sean olive more than once
That’s false. For one Amir does use the Harman in-ear target. Aside from that there’s no general agreement about bad research at all. This all just stems from Crinacle personally not liking the treble of Harman IE and having some anecdotal evidence that his Professional Reviewer friends don’t like it either, from which he then reverse engineered the argument that the research must be bad. The research admittedly hasn’t been done as thorough as for over-ear, but that doesn’t make the reasoning of Crinacle any less nonsensical.
fyi amir also uses Diffuse field target to eq iem’s and not harmon’s IE target which is generally agreed as bad research and confronted to sean olive more than once
Well, you can already get $150 4TB SSDs made with domestic NAND in China. IEMs aren't even in the same ballpark in terms of manufacturing precision, why would it not be dirt cheap to make?
That's awesome insight. I guess the question becomes: why are so many IEMs so expensive? They should go away just like herpes. (bad joke, I've been drinking) There should be an actual performance advantage to spending more money. Is there? Is there some IEM that significantly out performs these? I could live with my Hola, but when you see things of this cost that should get a little closer to perfect.... why not?
That's awesome insight. I guess the question becomes: why are so many IEMs so expensive? They should go away just like herpes. (bad joke, I've been drinking) There should be an actual performance advantage to spending more money. Is there? Is there some IEM that significantly out performs these? I could live with my Hola, but when you see things of this cost that should get a little closer to perfect.... why not?
That's awesome insight. I guess the question becomes: why are so many IEMs so expensive? They should go away just like herpes. (bad joke, I've been drinking) There should be an actual performance advantage to spending more money. Is there? Is there some IEM that significantly out performs these? I could live with my Hola, but when you see things of this cost that should get a little closer to perfect.... why not?
I want to find out, honestly. I remember many people debating this when the u12t and Truthear Zero were reviewed, and when I tried them both in real life, the u12t blew the Truth Zeroes out of the water. Maybe that's not special at 40 times the price, but ever since then, that's the dragon I've been chasing.
That's awesome insight. I guess the question becomes: why are so many IEMs so expensive? They should go away just like herpes. (bad joke, I've been drinking) There should be an actual performance advantage to spending more money. Is there? Is there some IEM that significantly out performs these? I could live with my Hola, but when you see things of this cost that should get a little closer to perfect.... why not?
I want to find out, honestly. I remember many people debating this when the u12t and Truthear Zero were reviewed, and when I tried them both in real life, the u12t blew the Truth Zeroes out of the water. Maybe that's not special at 40 times the price, but ever since then, that's the dragon I've been chasing.
That's awesome insight. I guess the question becomes: why are so many IEMs so expensive? They should go away just like herpes. (bad joke, I've been drinking)
Say you manufacture a product, and it costs you $10 in bill of materials and direct manufacturing costs. Depending on your volume and fixed overheads, your average cost of goods sold can easily be double that. This will be things like the rent of your manufacturing space, amortization of the equipment you bought etc. So now you have a product that costs you on average $20 dollar a piece, and you want to sell it at 50% margin for all the trouble you went into to produce the product to make sense, meaning that the buying price of the retailer would be $40. He needs to pay shipping, customs and other transportation expenses, which is betweeen 10-35% in most cases depending on the country, but lets say 20% average, so the retailers landed cost is $50. Retailers work with 40% - 50% margins normally, so the normal price you see on the website will be around $99. That is 10 times the actual cost of manufacturing the product.
Depending on your source, you can either use some free software, or you might need to buy a product that actually has EQ capabilities, like Qudelix 5K.
Any suggestions are welcome. Post suggestions here. I will gather the details and add them. Thanks. :D This will be organized as results come in. @sweetchaos made a guide for PEQ filter data input and operation. For crossover software go here. Windows: AutoEQ four easy steps to make your...
audiosciencereview.com
For EQ settings, Amir shared his recommendations. There are quite a lot of measurements of these, so you can also find other recommendations. Be careful though because measurement rig used might have an impact on the actual tonality and therefore the EQ settings that might be applied.
A great place to search for reliable EQ settings is AutoEQ.
Yes, the more evidences arise the cheap are good/better the more your brain will work against these evidences by elaborar ING an alternative truth. At the end you can say only like "but to me, it Sounds better/cleaner/whatever" it might make sense logically.
I ordered both the zeros and the zero:2s, the zero:2s arrived today;
I'm not someone who likes to listen with headphones, having my ears covered bothers me a lot and I would never have thought of buying earphones that go inside the ear, I hope to get used to them a bit because the sound of these zero:2 it's fantastic, transparent, dynamic, natural and balanced, I don't feel the need to equalize anything. I listen to classical music.
In all actuality, you can own all three for the price of a Moondrop Aria which was a strong budget choice 2 years ago or so. It was praised many times over and now it looks lacking--though not dramatically so.
I have the Aria and the Build quality is great as far as I'm concerned. You feel its weight in the ear, but much lighter than the JVC FDX-1. The FDX-1 is so adjustable that you can get the fit absolutely perfect and comfortable with any tip, but you still feel that weight. I'd personally take my Hola over all of them. It has a nice, but plastic build quality, and is light and comfortable in my ear. The Hola is also better balanced tonally out of the box. I might look into the Chu 2 as far as build quality and sound are concerned. The build quality is similar to the Aria but the tonal balance should be better out of the box.
I've noticed a kind of obsession with mental aberrations and similar phycological phenomena here. While it's important to bear those in mind, it's even more important to know and remember that you are (all of us) not immune to them as well.
I don't want to explicate further and go on about this issue in detail to avoid spaming the thread with more off-topic rants and embarrassing myself with bad English, so I'll limit myself to anecdotal evidence (which seems to be accepted here just fine, at least if it doesn't contravene with the general consensus) for this little argument. I've never defended an expensive purchase before others or myself if I was/eventually became dissatisfied with it. On the contrary, I try to make it known that the product/service in question is a ripoff or, in certain cases, an outright scam. All it takes is to be able to accept the fact that you can make mistakes since your knowledge, experience and abilities are always limited AND that lying to others and oneself always ultimately turns out for the worst.
In this thread we've already seen a person state that they see no point in keeping their Moondrop Variations after getting a pair of Zero 2's. I don't believe that mindset to be such an exceptional rarity characteristic of only those few who have achieved the highest degree of enlightenment. I would share the sentiment as well, if I wasn't concerned with the slightly better treble extension on Variations, looks and build didn't matter to me at all AND I haven't bought Vari already (or could sell them for at least 60% of the price I paid). I feel like Zero 2's are tuned better overall, or rather have a better tonal balance OOTB. I find Vari's treble to be executed better, though, and since I EQ anyway...
Would I pay 20x times more for Variations now? I honestly don't know.
It's also important to keep in mind that Harman IE is not universally congruent with both subjective and objective factors determining the perceived audio quality and enjoyment for every single person, e.g. individual tastes and HRTFs.
Premium headphone and earphone brands typically go for some kind of "tastefully colored" sound in their products instead of aiming for neutrality. Those who are actually competent at what they do sometimes manage to achieve just that - a pleasing and in a sense unique presentation of sound with it's own distinct character that still manages to avoid obvious faults like huge peaks/dips in FR or easily apparent overall unnaturalness. And even the latter may not be an issue for some, especially if they just end up enjoying it more.
You could argue that it's possible to achieve that yourself with EQ, but it's already a slight inconvenience in any form, and many times more so if you embark on a journey towards discovering your own preferred/optimal sound, which is ultimately endless. That can become incredibly frustrating pretty quickly.
I'd eagerly bypass that for any price if I could.
I'm not actually defending boutique audio companies here, but I both enjoy and find it highly important to play devil's advocate.
Expensive audio products have their own place and raison d'etre, at least for now, as well as the right to exist. Can't say the same about their arrogant and overbearing fanatics, but this extends to all kinds of fanatics.
I'm just glad that you don't have to pay a lot of money for a good sound these days because it brings more fun and joy to people, myself included. I don't believe it to be necessary to look down upon, mock and deride fellow hobbyists for their choices and preferences.
