TE Zero imaging (maybe soundstage as well) vs Hexa -- am I crazy?

[Alpha XVIV]

I have both of these IEMs -- I got the Zero first. In terms of music listening from a broad selection of genres I'll still pick the Hexa (better tonality for my personal preference and excellent detail), but for gaming or just anything with positional accuracy, I picked the Zero.

Am I crazy? As someone who really wants an explanation for the difference (aka science *wink wink*) I would love to see a review from someone like Cuckoo Studio for both of these (and Amir for the Hexa, I know he has done both the Zero "Blue" and Red). Outside of ASR, I saw a review from Fresh Reviews and he picked the Zero (or the Zero:RED with the bass/impedance adapter) over the Hexa as well for gaming, linked here. Otherwise, to the people that have both of these IEMs, what do you guys think?

 

[Jean-Paul Petrosyan]

Sorry for such a late reply. You might have gotten your answers elsewhere (hopefully), but basically it comes down to frequency response differences and possibly differences in distortion levels & distribution. Neither of those are truly neutral (though the most neutrally/correctly tuned IEM won't give you the biggest/widest/deepest etc virtual soundstage and perceived sound separation anyway), but Zero's "coloration" to sound lends itself to "better" (more easily perceptible/ somewhat accentuated, though not necessarily more realistic/truthful to the source material) differentiation/separation of sounds, higher contrast between the main segments of the audible spectrum. You might have noticed that it sounds somewhat less "cohesive" and "smooth" then Hexa.

 

[Tarnith]

I have both of these IEMs -- I got the Zero first. In terms of music listening from a broad selection of genres I'll still pick the Hexa (better tonality for my personal preference and excellent detail), but for gaming or just anything with positional accuracy, I picked the Zero.

Am I crazy? As someone who really wants an explanation for the difference (aka science *wink wink*) I would love to see a review from someone like Cuckoo Studio for both of these (and Amir for the Hexa, I know he has done both the Zero "Blue" and Red). Outside of ASR, I saw a review from Fresh Reviews and he picked the Zero (or the Zero:RED with the bass/impedance adapter) over the Hexa as well for gaming, linked here. Otherwise, to the people that have both of these IEMs, what do you guys think?

I'm quite curious to get more detail on the Hexa as well.

In my experience with my mk1 Zero, the channel matching is extremely good. This could be it, or it could be that bit of treble spike that they have making positional cues standout.

For fun, try EQing your Zero to the same response as the Hexa and see if you still prefer it?

 

[thanrl]

One IEM has a better imaging than the other. I hear the Zero having better imaging too. What’s crazy about that?