Crinear Reference

[zonk]

I've tried Pure and Cadenza 2 recently. No, they are not as good as the Reference.
I haven't tried the others since they're not available where I live, and I’d have to pay an additional 30% for VAT and customs. Thanks for posting.

For me the Crinear IEMs are not delivering anything new. Of course they are good, but for me it's just a clever way to make money within the flood of available IEMs.
I have over 20 different IEMs here and everyone of them sounds good to me with a bit of EQ.

 

[pier25]

I've recently tried the Pure and Cadenza 2. No, they're not on the same level as the Reference, but they offer a better price-to-performance ratio.

I own the Pure and it's a fantastic IEM for the price but yeah the Reference is simply better.

IEM manufacturing is extremely manual and more expensive models have better QC. Crinacle has a video where he mentions the Reference has a max tolerance of 1db. If you check cheap IEMs like the Moondrop Chu 2 they can have as much as 3-4db of variance between channels.

 

[gzost]

I've had the Reference for a few weeks now and I continue to be delighted every time I use it. It presents music effortlessly and I never wonder whether what I am hearing is I the recording or an artefact of headphones/IEMs. It just gets out of the way.

I own multiple excellent headphones and an unnecessarily wide selection of IEMs, including a lot of the entry-level darlings from the last couple of years. The Reference, to me, is better than any of them. Not by a huge margin, but enough that I constantly reach for it over everything else.

 

[InfiniteJester]

I have never heard these IEMs, I have never heard the Prisma Lumen either.

But using them both as targets for EQ across many of my sets, I can assure that Lumen's FR sounds much more neutral and correct for me than Reference's FR.

 

[gzost]

Everybody's HRTF is different, and Reference and Lumen fall both very much within that variability. I'll give an EQ to Lumen's FR (as far as that is possible through all the vagaries of measurements and different HpTFs) a try.

 

[InfiniteJester]

Everybody's HRTF is different, and Reference and Lumen fall both very much within that variability. I'll give an EQ to Lumen's FR (as far as that is possible through all the vagaries of measurements and different HpTFs) a try.

Yes, I'm aware that results may vary. That's why I said 'for me'. You are, of course, right to point this out.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

Just picked up a pair of these for myself. It's so funny reading all these comments that, "I'll just keep my (this or that) and use EQ."

Yeah, that's what I used to think too...

But now with these I don't need EQ at all.

That's a massive win in my book, and worth the price of admission. Plug them in, listen to music, no worry about or reliance on EQ. I use the smallest size, "standard," tips. They give me the best tuning I've heard in any IEM (and I've heard quite a lot of IEMs), likely to a great degree by virtue of the deeper insertion I can get with these--yet they sound much more natural to me than my pair of Etymotic ER4XRs.

 

[Matt_Holland]

The response looks really nice but for $350 I'll just EQ my Hexas...

I’ll just EQ my Gates….

 

[jdjung]

I'm going to tell you this destroys IEMs costing thousands more. The bass is tight and the most accurate I've heard. I also own the Daybreak's but there is a noticeable "flab" sound to the bass on the Daybreak's where this actually sounds louder because it's very tight and accurate. I didn't notice it till trying them back and forth. I listened to them at Canjam while daily driving the Daybreak's and it was an insta buy after the back and forth comparison. The things are also simplistic beauty in the design. Everything is silver with white frosted eartips. The idea that the Reference is pure, the design is pure and the price to me is fantastic just brings a smile to my face. You can tell he spent a lot of time on this and it shows.

 

[MichellViolin]

One of the best IEMs they've heard, so far. Not the best possible IEM that has ever existed.

They have multiple reviewers though. One of them gave the Reference a score of 8 in terms of sound:

listener's IEM Ranking List

listener's ranking list for audiophile in-ear monitors (IEMs), where they rank IEMs in terms of Overall performance, Sound performance, and individual metrics like Bass, Midrange, Treble, X-Factor, Comfort, and Value.

headphones.com

Do you have experience with Etymotic ER4XR?
Could you compare them to the Reference?
is it a huge upgrade for me to go from the ER4XR to the Reference?

 

[MichellViolin]

Just picked up a pair of these for myself. It's so funny reading all these comments that, "I'll just keep my (this or that) and use EQ."

Yeah, that's what I used to think too...

But now with these I don't need EQ at all.

That's a massive win in my book, and worth the price of admission. Plug them in, listen to music, no worry about or reliance on EQ. I use the smallest size, "standard," tips. They give me the best tuning I've heard in any IEM (and I've heard quite a lot of IEMs), likely to a great degree by virtue of the deeper insertion I can get with these--yet they sound much more natural to me than my pair of Etymotic ER4XRs.

Can you do a full comparison between the Reference and the ER4XR?
is it a huge upgrade ?
Specifically the resolution, details , layering, sound stage , and realism.
I have the ER4XR, I'm happy with them , but craving a much better IEM
Is that what the Reference are ?

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

Can you do a full comparison between the Reference and the ER4XR?
is it a huge upgrade ?
Specifically the resolution, details , layering, sound stage , and realism.
I have the ER4XR, I'm happy with them , but craving a much better IEM
Is that what the Reference are ?

Please see my response to you on Head-fi, Meshail. Cheers!

 

[pier25]

Do you have experience with Etymotic ER4XR?
Could you compare them to the Reference?
is it a huge upgrade for me to go from the ER4XR to the Reference?

I have the ER2XR. Personally don't use them much because it freaks me out the deep insertion will damage my ear drum accidentally.

In terms of tonality every ear is different so what I experience might be totally different to you. That said, ignoring the tonality, I do prefer the Reference but it's not massive improvement over the ER2XR honestly. If you're happy with the ER4XR I doubt it makes sense to get the Reference for the price.