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KBEar Rosefinch with some PEQ and I have the cheat code for hot fire basshead nirvana!

drewdawg999

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Been listening to these for a little while as I've been drawn to the darkside, on a soul searching quest for a cheap basshead IEM. This ain't no audiophile thing, no they are not neutral with bass boost. They're an all out bass attack meant to rattle your skull with rumbling sub-bass and roundhouse punching mid-bass. Initially in stock form, the sheer quantity of bass, especially the boomy mid-bass can drown out the mids, so vocals are of less than stellar quality without EQ. But this squig.link site with the AutoEQ is a godsend. I was able to EQ the $12 Rosefinch to resemble the $450 Kiwi x HBB Punch, the basshead set I really want but can't afford. Some mid-bass reduction along with subtle gains in the midrange and veils have been lifted, clarity is all of a sudden very good, and I can actually listen to rock and jazz, in addition to EDM and Hip-hop, and bassy pop and dance.

I have cracked the code to great basshead sound on the cheap. I am stuck with the desktop system though using my laptop as a source, since I don't have a portable solution with PEQ. I should probably look into that, but I'm a homebody anyways. When I need to be on-the-go with my DAP, then that gives me a chance to use the Zero 2, which sounds good without EQ and is easy to drive. But at home, out of my THX 789, the Rosefinch is just killing it. I'm upgrading the cable though, this stock one has bad memory problems and is totally cheep. I'm hoping it's such low quality to affect the sound, I have a pure silver one on the way, didn't get taken for too much on those (a $20 Nicehck, more than the cost of the Rosefinch). I hope it sounds better with the aftermarket cable but it's sure to feel nicer anyways.

What is this seductive, thick, luscious bass juice emitted from these little confections? And now that mids and vocals are clear and opened up with EQ, that allows Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, and much more to enter the picture. I was resigned to use the Rosefinch for Hip-hop and EDM only, as a mere specialist. But now I can rock the RAWK, and it feels so good. To have so much bottom, it provides the most solid of foundations for everything else. I'm happy music wise, excruciatingly so, so I wanted to pass along this little nugget. If you have the Zero 2, or Zero Red with Bass+ adapter, and it's just not enough bass for you, then give the Rosefinch a try. You really can't get much more bass than this. Only Fatfreq would dare go above a 15dB bass shelf, but I EQ'd to the Maestro Mini as well and got desirable results. I really love the Punch tuning though. I'm sure the actual Punch will sound better since it uses better quality drivers in a hybrid configuration, including electrostats and a balanced armatures. But I got the next best thing with such incredible value, I'm laughing on the inside and digging my stale old collection all over again, giddy as all get up.
 
View attachment 416278
Been listening to these for a little while as I've been drawn to the darkside, on a soul searching quest for a cheap basshead IEM. This ain't no audiophile thing, no they are not neutral with bass boost. They're an all out bass attack meant to rattle your skull with rumbling sub-bass and roundhouse punching mid-bass. Initially in stock form, the sheer quantity of bass, especially the boomy mid-bass can drown out the mids, so vocals are of less than stellar quality without EQ. But this squig.link site with the AutoEQ is a godsend. I was able to EQ the $12 Rosefinch to resemble the $450 Kiwi x HBB Punch, the basshead set I really want but can't afford. Some mid-bass reduction along with subtle gains in the midrange and veils have been lifted, clarity is all of a sudden very good, and I can actually listen to rock and jazz, in addition to EDM and Hip-hop, and bassy pop and dance.

I have cracked the code to great basshead sound on the cheap. I am stuck with the desktop system though using my laptop as a source, since I don't have a portable solution with PEQ. I should probably look into that, but I'm a homebody anyways. When I need to be on-the-go with my DAP, then that gives me a chance to use the Zero 2, which sounds good without EQ and is easy to drive. But at home, out of my THX 789, the Rosefinch is just killing it. I'm upgrading the cable though, this stock one has bad memory problems and is totally cheep. I'm hoping it's such low quality to affect the sound, I have a pure silver one on the way, didn't get taken for too much on those (a $20 Nicehck, more than the cost of the Rosefinch). I hope it sounds better with the aftermarket cable but it's sure to feel nicer anyways.

What is this seductive, thick, luscious bass juice emitted from these little confections? And now that mids and vocals are clear and opened up with EQ, that allows Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, and much more to enter the picture. I was resigned to use the Rosefinch for Hip-hop and EDM only, as a mere specialist. But now I can rock the RAWK, and it feels so good. To have so much bottom, it provides the most solid of foundations for everything else. I'm happy music wise, excruciatingly so, so I wanted to pass along this little nugget. If you have the Zero 2, or Zero Red with Bass+ adapter, and it's just not enough bass for you, then give the Rosefinch a try. You really can't get much more bass than this. Only Fatfreq would dare go above a 15dB bass shelf, but I EQ'd to the Maestro Mini as well and got desirable results. I really love the Punch tuning though. I'm sure the actual Punch will sound better since it uses better quality drivers in a hybrid configuration, including electrostats and a balanced armatures. But I got the next best thing with such incredible value, I'm laughing on the inside and digging my stale old collection all over again, giddy as all get up.
They really are bass cannons.
But since you are going to eq anyway probably you could get the same response eqing the Zero 2, given it's ultra low distortion on entire spectrum even at 114 dbspl.
$20 cable for a $12 iem seems a too much but ok, you can also reuse it with other iems, a very nice cheap cable to pair with cheap iems is this Kbear cable, surprisingly soft and not microphonic for it's price:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005006619307014.html
 
They really are bass cannons.
But since you are going to eq anyway probably you could get the same response eqing the Zero 2, given it's ultra low distortion on entire spectrum even at 114 dbspl.
$20 cable for a $12 iem seems a too much but ok, you can also reuse it with other iems, a very nice cheap cable to pair with cheap iems is this Kbear cable, surprisingly soft and not microphonic for it's price:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005006619307014.html
Okay I'm trying it right now, I EQ'd the Zero 2 to the Punch, it's actually doable, mostly just 5dB boost at 150Hz on down. I don't know though, something's missing, perhaps it's too much of a struggle to EQ that much bass into the Zero 2. The mids are lacking a certain quality, seem slightly shouty. Perhaps there's some bass bleed with that much boost, and that's affecting instrument separation. I'm preferring the EQ'd Rosefinch, they're super smooth and nice this way. Here's the 2 EQ curves, perhaps they might tell a story:
Screenshot (7).png

Screenshot (8) crop.png

Thanks for the AE link. Funny, that cable doesn't look so soft in the picture. But I tend to err on the side of jewelry for these things, so I sprang for nicer cables. I have a KBEar ST12 for my KZ PRX, and I got a ST16 for the KZ ZAR I just ordered. They were both 10 bucks, the ST16 being on deep discount. I couldn't hold off on the ZAR, I just had to have it, want some BA timbre in my collection. At $48 it will be my most expensive recent IEM, save for my ancient Ety ER4S, but that's not bad for a flagship hybrid. 1DD+7BA on each side, hope I can run that one off my DAP without EQ.
 
Okay I'm trying it right now, I EQ'd the Zero 2 to the Punch, it's actually doable, mostly just 5dB boost at 150Hz on down. I don't know though, something's missing, perhaps it's too much of a struggle to EQ that much bass into the Zero 2. The mids are lacking a certain quality, seem slightly shouty. Perhaps there's some bass bleed with that much boost, and that's affecting instrument separation. I'm preferring the EQ'd Rosefinch, they're super smooth and nice this way. Here's the 2 EQ curves, perhaps they might tell a story:
View attachment 416288
View attachment 416289
Thanks for the AE link. Funny, that cable doesn't look so soft in the picture. But I tend to err on the side of jewelry for these things, so I sprang for nicer cables. I have a KBEar ST12 for my KZ PRX, and I got a ST16 for the KZ ZAR I just ordered. They were both 10 bucks, the ST16 being on deep discount. I couldn't hold off on the ZAR, I just had to have it, want some BA timbre in my collection. At $48 it will be my most expensive recent IEM, save for my ancient Ety ER4S, but that's not bad for a flagship hybrid. 1DD+7BA on each side, hope I can run that one off my DAP without EQ.
Don't know about this mathaudio eq usage, from the only squig where i could find all three units, Zero 2 seems the closer one to Punch and so needing less intervention, as your curves already confirm

graph.png

all crossed a 800 Hz - 60 db

Maybe you can try generating peq preset from here for both and try with PEACE-EQ APO (or maybe they can be imported in your tool) and check for differences.
But in the end if you are plenty satisfied with what you get from Rosefinch, you are already good to go.
 
Don't know about this mathaudio eq usage, from the only squig where i could find all three units, Zero 2 seems the closer one to Punch and so needing less intervention, as your curves already confirm

View attachment 416293
all crossed a 800 Hz - 60 db

Maybe you can try generating peq preset from here for both and try with PEACE-EQ APO (or maybe they can be imported in your tool) and check for differences.
But in the end if you are plenty satisfied with what you get from Rosefinch, you are already good to go.
I'm using MathAudio with Foobar2k, since I'm using an ASIO driver for my DAC. Only way I know to get PEQ with ASIO. Don't know why I'm preferring the Rosefinch to the Zero 2 when EQ'd to the same target, maybe subtracting bass yields better results than adding it. (I know my AKG K701 will never have enough bass, and it can't be EQ'd in.) But I'm kind of shocked (and thrilled) that the Rosefinch sounds so good with this EQ. Steely Dan with this much bottom end, that's not bleeding into the midrange, is mighty fine indeed. I got poor man's Punch, probably will never have the real thing, don't see myself shelling out hundreds of dollars for an IEM these days. If a used Punch turns up someday I'd be all over it, but that won't be for a while.
 
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