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Objectivist friendly and wallet friendly IEM?

Chromatischism

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After being...well not disappointed but the Moondrop Chu were okay but not great, I ordered the FiiO x Crinacle FHE:Eclipse. Looking at the bass, I think I might have overdone it, but let's see what happens when they get here :D

View attachment 208504

They are quite different to the standard FH3, and I'm a bit scared about the 3khz peak. But anyway, I'm curious. Maybe they're great.
Interesting. With the FH3 I take the treble down 1 dB and that's it. I'm generally neutral to slightly conservative with my treble and the FH3 stock has just a smidge too much for me, but is easily corrected with Wavelet. Seems close enough to my Buchardt S400 MKII's in balance.
 

Chyżwar

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My personal "ranking". Yeah, I wasted a lot of time testing tons of cheap, bad headphones :D

- Sennheiser CX300, Momentum - the worst headphones in the world?
- Sony mh1c - without boosted bass and with a normal cable, these would be good headphones. As it is, they're useless.
- QKZ VK4, KZ EDX (Pro), ZSTX, DQ6, ZEX, ZS10, CCA CSN, NRA - just bad, really bad.
- Blon 01, 03 - maybe a little better than the typical KZ, but still bad.
- Moondrop Quarks - dark, muddy, shouty (3kHz), lacking in detail. But for the price they're ok.
- Tripowin x HBB: Mele - a lot of bass, a bit muddy, no upper treble ... Not terrible, just meh.
- KBEAR Neon - it's something like a broken Etymotic. And with different ear tips they sound completely different.
- Samsung Galaxy Buds+ - unfortunately, they don't sound like the IEM version of the AKG K371 .I just don't like them, maybe because getting a good seal was a problem for me.
- Etymotic mk5 Isolator - extremely bright and shouty. They come without any filters. I've put green filters, but they're still too bright.
- A&K Billie Jean, Diana - weird, dark, muddy. In some technical aspects ("clarity", "separation") they are better than KZ or something like that. But I'm afraid tonality can't be fixed even with the EQ.
- FiiO FH3, FH5 - if you dream of a subwoofer in your head, buy these! If not, look for something else.
- Fiio FD1 - I bought these because I like the look of the cable. This cable is better than this headphones...
- Fiio FD3 - very bassy, V-shaped. Technically they are a bit better than KZ or other cheap IEMs, they have more "clarity" or whatever you want to call it. Nice accessories , as always with Fiio. If you like the V-shape...
- Moondrop Aria, Starfield - Overall, nice tuning and nice soundstage (I thought the Aria had the biggest soundstage of any cheap headphone I tried. But that's very subjective and the differences are small). The problem for me is the huge peak around 14kHz so I can't use these headphones without the EQ. I'm a bit disappointed.
- Aonic 215 - I use these all the time, they are great. Not because of the sound (although I found their bassy, warm, "soft" sound quite pleasant), but because of the amazing isolation and good comfort (with the black cable, the white cable was terrible). I live in a big city (a lot of noise) and I can use these headphones even in the subway and I can hear music with bass, it's amazing!
- Etymotic ER2SE, ER2XR, ER3XR - I just love them :)

And here's my choice:
For critical listening: ER2SE or ER3XR
For outdoor use: Aonic 215, ER2XR
If you need something really cheap but not sounding very bad: Moondrop Quarks (haven't heard the Moondrop Chu yet).

Overall it was an interesting experience. Most of these cheap headphones sound terrible! :) I couldn't believe people were buying it and using it. But then I discovered the Etymotic headphones and wow, these sound great. And some others (Moondrop, Fiio) are good with EQ.
 

alekksander

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Overall it was an interesting experience. Most of these cheap headphones sound terrible! :) I couldn't believe people were buying it and using it. But then I discovered the Etymotic headphones and wow, these sound great. And some others (Moondrop, Fiio) are good with EQ.

using kz ate/qkz v4 in my car (mostly spoken word, sometimes phone calls, rarely music) and i have to surprise you, but they do the job. never use them for home music listening though. they don't have strongest isolation so i know what's going on while driving (no foams) and i don't have to protect them from sun, heat or freeze.
 

stevenswall

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Chyżwar

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using kz ate/qkz v4 in my car (mostly spoken word, sometimes phone calls, rarely music) and i have to surprise you, but they do the job. never use them for home music listening though. they don't have strongest isolation so i know what's going on while driving (no foams) and i don't have to protect them from sun, heat or freeze.

I use cheap Faaeal Iris 2.0 for phone calls. Also for audiobooks. They are good for these purposes.

Anyway, there are a lot of great cheap headphones these days, Moondrop Chu, Final E500, Truthear Zero, Etymotic ER2XR, I don't see the point in buying any KZ or QKZ or stuff like that, because they have very bad tuning.
 

oscar_dziki

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Can someone explain why you would wear IEMs while sleeping. I don't get it.
Im falling asleep in earphones since I was 6. The wall between my room and my parents room was sonically transparent. This at least partly saved my childhood brain:) I find it difficult to fall asleep without music since then.
 

RHO

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Im falling asleep in earphones since I was 6. The wall between my room and my parents room was sonically transparent. This at least partly saved my childhood brain:) I find it difficult to fall asleep without music since then.
But why IEMs and not just earplugs. Seems much more logical to me to use those instead of plugging a music device in your ears for sleeping.
Anyway, it seems you're not the only one who's using IEMs to help them sleep.
 

markanini

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I believe the Sony MH750 has been on the radar among a few of those who pondered the OP. Is there any other IEM with a similar frequency balance? Subjectively it's fits my personal target perfectly. Objectively it has Harmans-IE highs with USound lows.
 

GaryH

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I believe the Sony MH750 has been on the radar among a few of those who pondered the OP. Is there any other IEM with a similar frequency balance? Subjectively it's fits my personal target perfectly. Objectively it has Harmans-IE highs with USound lows.
I prefer the MH755. The MH750 is a bit too 'thick' in the bass and subdued in the highs for me:
graph-8.png
 

oscar_dziki

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But why IEMs and not just earplugs. Seems much more logical to me to use those instead of plugging a music device in your ears for sleeping.
Anyway, it seems you're not the only one who's using IEMs to help them sleep.
Because when I was 6 I don't think there was no such thing in Poland as earplugs :) Now I find it troubling to fall asleep in silence when sober. Jazz or classical music is relaxing me beyond belief. Once when I was at the dentist I turned on some New Orlean jazz and fell asleep during root canal treatment.
 

RHO

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Because when I was 6 I don't think there was no such thing in Poland as earplugs :) Now I find it troubling to fall asleep in silence when sober. Jazz or classical music is relaxing me beyond belief. Once when I was at the dentist I turned on some New Orlean jazz and fell asleep during root canal treatment.
I understand that you are used to it now. I have no problem with it. If it works for you, that's great. :)
I find it odd, but that's just me.
 

markanini

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I prefer the MH755. The MH750 is a bit too 'thick' in the bass and subdued in the highs for me:
View attachment 232299
Oratory1990 found a different trend in his samples, the MH750 has more treble. But it's a tiny difference of a half db.
 

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GaryH

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Oratory1990 found a different trend in his samples, the MH750 has more treble. But it's a tiny difference of a half db.
I've seen talk of two different versions of the MH755 over the years, with the recent ones possibly using MH750 drivers, so I reckon Oratory might have gotten one of those. If you look at Crinacle's measurements his latter MH755 units also match more closely to the MH750, which supports this:
graph (6).png
 

oscar_dziki

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not sure if that was mentioned here but bl-03 seems to me to be a bargain.
1663829892452.png

I found them to sound great. Ironically I lost track of them so I can't directly compare them with Crinacle truths. From memory, they sounded pretty similar. However, regardless of price Blons shocked me with manufacturing quality. They are finished with high polish but they do not finger. Don't know what kind of coating that is but it's great. And they are more comfortable for sure. They are smaller and rounder. Super comfortable.
 
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Veri

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I think my blons are probably the most used audiophile item I have at home. I have done so much late night listening with them. Crazy value :) as long as the fit works and you don't mind a little sub bass hump. At low enough volumes the tuning is just excellent though, I don't mind the bassy sig.
 

oscar_dziki

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I think my blons are probably the most used audiophile item I have at home. I have done so much late night listening with them. Crazy value :) as long as the fit works and you don't mind a little sub bass hump. At low enough volumes the tuning is just excellent though, I don't mind the bassy sig.
Ok I found BLONS. spent 10 mins on AB tests. Crinacle truth seems to me just a tad more bassy in a good way. Crinacle seems overall warmer. Crinacle seem to me a nicer listen. But it's hard to tell. Hard to level them, and swapping iems isn't very fast. Plus I'm using third-party tips on blons. I will make further comparisons on Monday probably I'll receive L30 II. I also have blons A8 but they are worse than 03. :(
 

Veri

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These are mine which oratory measured for me

XrUdVNM_d.webp


Maybe it's a rather good sample but they really fit my tastes. At least for a very forgiving, allrounder/daily use IEM.
 
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