KC Castor & CCA Pianist (Opinion/ Feedback)

[otseiTiesto]

It makes sense, the same happened with the Zero Blue too much unit to unit variation.

I don't know for the "Truthear Zero:Blue" but I wouldn't be surprised if the "Truthear xCrinacle Zero:Red" were one of the most highly correlated between samples.

 

[MayaTlab]

I don't know for the "Truthear Zero:Blue" but I wouldn't be surprised if the "Truthear xCrinacle Zero:Red" were one of the most highly correlated between samples.

The difference between the 10 samples for the Truthear Red on Crin's website, compared to the dB average, after already averaging their R and L channels. It looks really good indeed.

However, my unit's channel balance is worse than the spread above :

I haven't digitised the individual R and L channels from Crin's database, but I believe that some of the samples show a bit of channel balance issues. It doesn't too bad to me nonetheless - I am sure that there is much worse around.

This is all normalised at 500Hz, but I think that non-normalised results are also quite important if the sensitivity differs.

 

[muza_1]

I don't know for the "Truthear Zero:Blue" but I wouldn't be surprised if the "Truthear xCrinacle Zero:Red" were one of the most highly correlated between samples.

Yes all the measurements of the RED I have seen are very similar, what surprised me was that the Castor measurements (there are not that much) are also are similar for very cheap IEM and for a company with somewhat shady reputation. I ordered another set of Castor ($10.00) to gift to my nephew, I will do a quick comparison when I get them.

BTW I got curious and compared the RED (I was not supposed to use it) to the Castor both EQ to Harman for consistency, for the RED I used Oratory EQ and for the Castor I used the average in the graphs here plus "Audio Reviews News" measurements (both are similar), tonality wise they were very close (had to add a LF filter +1.5dB to the Castor to match the apparent bass on the RED) I like how both sound but the Castor although more bright it was more detailed and I think the RED was missing a bit of lower-bass, it sounded more prominent (like bookshelf with a a mid-bass hump) but in tracks that reached low it was missing some rumble.

Edit. If I had to choose one today it would be the Castor (for a fifth of the price), they sounded so similar that I could not choose one over the other, some songs were better on one and some in the other.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

I checked out the "Bassy" Castor for 19 bucks. I am not even so much into Harman but I also wanted the silicon eartips for my D-Fi, and I also thought if I dont like them I can send them to a friend who is a "basshead". Mainly just out of nerdy curiosity to be honest.

The ear tips contained a little fail: I got 2 small ear tips, 3 mid-sized ear tips and 1 big ear tip. But the mid-sizes ones are okay.

Even though KZ themselves say otherwise, the "bassy" black one seems closer to the Harman curve than the white one, as long as you switch to a lower bass level (havent checked them out yet though). For example, the UUUU tuning does not sound overly bassy to me. It is similar to how I imagine the praised Truthear Zero to sound like. You can turn the bass even a bit further if you want to, but that does harm the tonal balance (it gets too bright).

The shell of the Castor has the same fit as the shell of the D-Fi but is slightly different, as it is transparent from the inside. It is slightly lighter and feels slightly cheaper (well, it is).

Squiglink - IEM frequency response database by Practiphile

Compare hundreds of frequency response graphs between IEMs and earphones from manufacturers like Moondrop, Sony, 64 Audio, Fiio, and more.

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[otseiTiesto]

Even though KZ themselves say otherwise, the "bassy" black one seems closer to the Harman curve than the white one, as long as you switch to a lower bass level (havent checked them out yet though). For example, the UUUU tuning does not sound overly bassy to me. It is similar to how I imagine the praised Truthear Zero to sound like. You can turn the bass even a bit further if you want to, but that does harm the tonal balance (it gets too bright).

Yes, that sample is ironically very close to the Harman curve, however, there is a reason why I ruled out the BLACK version, but since (sometimes) a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go:

Unfortunately, the available measurements for these iems are very sparse, and there is no way of knowing which tips have been used (as it is not specified), but note the variability between samples for the Black version. But who knows, maybe it's the same with the Std./Silver/Harman version... As we only have a reduced set of measurements available.

 

[markanini]

If strict Harman compliance for sub $25 is the goal, Tanchjim One DSP has a preset named "Instrumental".

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Compare hundreds of frequency response graphs between IEMs and earphones from manufacturers like Moondrop, Sony, 64 Audio, Fiio, and more.

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Squiglink - IEM frequency response database by kr0mka

Compare hundreds of frequency response graphs between IEMs and earphones from manufacturers like Moondrop, Sony, 64 Audio, Fiio, and more.

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As an aside, I've found the included Castor black silicone tips included useful for pairing with some brighter sets that I enjoy more.

 

[Lighthouselp95]

BTW these were the graphs that sparked my interest.

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Valuable for IEMs selection. (y)