Truthear GATE $17 IEM Review

[1066]

Try different buds, the included buds on such a cheap iem are usually poor,

You could buy these below, I have no experience of this set but there appears to be plenty of choice

LunarCharm 54 pieces replacement silicone ear tips, 3 sizes headphone ear pads, replacement ear pads, compatible with most in-ear headphones, S/M/L : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

LunarCharm 54 pieces replacement silicone ear tips, 3 sizes headphone ear pads, replacement ear pads, compatible with most in-ear headphones, S/M/L : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

www.amazon.co.uk

Or there’s the popular Dunu S&S set of eartips that I use on a few pairs of my iem’s, multipack shown below, they are decent and get a very good seal

Linsoul DUNU S&S Silicone Eartips S/M/L (3pairs) for Nozzle Diameter from 4mm-5.5mm for Stage Studio, for KZ ZS10 Pro, 7HZ Zero, Orchestra Lite, TANGZU Wan'er S.G IEM (S/M/L- Each Size 1 Pair): Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ

Linsoul DUNU S&S Silicone Eartips S/M/L (3pairs) for Nozzle Diameter from 4mm-5.5mm for Stage Studio, for KZ ZS10 Pro, 7HZ Zero, Orchestra Lite, TANGZU Wan'er S.G IEM (S/M/L- Each Size 1 Pair): Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ

www.amazon.co.uk

Thank you I’ll check out those suggestions

 

[Matt_Holland]

Thank you, I’ll have a look on Amazon uk

Even with a good seal they are a bit bass light so EQ is recommended (see Amir’s suggested settings in the OP). Even without EQ I still marvel at their incredible resolution and complete lack of resonance/group delay.

 

[zonk]

Thank you, I’ll have a look on Amazon uk

Another good set is "Fiio HS19". It contains 12 pairs of different sizes of silicon eartips, double flange and foam eartips. Cheapest offer that I saw was on AliExpress for approx 9 Euros.

Fiio HS19

 

[1066]

Another good set is "Fiio HS19". It contains 12 pairs of different sizes of silicon eartips, double flange and foam eartips. Cheapest offer that I saw was on AliExpress for approx 9 Euros.

Fiio HS19

Thank you, I’ve ordered Linsoul to try.
If they do not work I can try this set next month.

 

[kemmler3D]

I just got a pair, combined with the Tachjim Stargate II DSP dongle... gotta say, kind of shocking how good these are for the money, mine were $15 shipped from Amazon. Boosted 25hz a few dB with the DSP, and although I only listened casually so far, I'd have to do some pretty serious critical listening to find a way to improve these further. At this point I guess you can say entry-level Hifi is legit hifi.

 

[bequietjk]

Just got these in, running them right now off the L70. Ill say its really going to depend on the tips you use as you already know, fitment, seal, dadada... But once you get a fitting tip you'll get to listen to these gems. I like em'. Would have liked a bit longer of a cable but they won't be leaving the desk anyway.

 

[douteiful]

Yes, that sounds like the Huawei dongle I have -- fairly certain it's just passthrough-only for audio over USB-C. Not sure if there's a specific name for that... but yeah, no DAC as far as I'm aware.

Excuse me, could you tell me what dongle that is? My phone has a DAC and audio jack, but the port broke, so I'm looking for exactly this functionality.

So the audio from the USB-C port with audio out is already converted to analog sound in the phones USB-C port but not in the laptops USB-C port then, or am I completely misunderstanding something about how it works?

Close, but it depends on the dongle itself. If a dongle has a DAC, then it will convert digital to analog itself with its DAC chip as you would normally expect. But there was a short lived USB-C standard called "Audio Adapter Accesory Mode" which let you build simple DAC-less dongles that would just pass-through the analog audio coming from the phone's internal DAC. Of course, the device must support this (have an internal DAC + support outputting analog audio through the USB-C port). With the on-going death of internal phone DACs the standard was deprecated though, so most people don't know about it and most stores call both USB-C DACs and USB-C passthrough dongles "converters" so it's hard to find these.

 

[jbreezy5]

Based on the FR and distortion measurements seems hard to go wrong. Placed my order. Glad this kind of performance may be had on the cheap.

What do you think, subjectively, Amir? Dan Clark E3, or these?

 

[1337wafflezz]

I don’t think I’m suited to IEM’s. Getting bass leakage with all 3 bud sizes. Pressing on the IEM I can hear these are great if they sealed.

Imho they’re very shallow fit. Try double flange or deeper sealing eartips! Improves the sound for me by quite a bit. Also the gate is an IEM that benefits tremendously in measurements from deeper insertion.
Deep insertion seems to do a few things
1. Solve or at least improve most leakage problems
2. increase the “core” mids from 300-600hz
3. Reduce and upper mids -5khz glare
4. bump 10khz and smooth the upper treble

The gate is the perfect IEM to have a deeper seal imho

 

[Somafunk]

Imho they’re very shallow fit. Try

One of the few eartips that I found to work with shallow fit iem nozzles is the Dunu S&S as it holds the width of the silicone to the end of the eartip.

https://www.dunu-topsound.com/product-page/s-s-eartips

 

[Cadillacofminds]

The frequency response is changed when the length between the driver and the eardrum is changed, correct? Is there a difference betweem inserting deeper and reducing the length of the eartip (that part not surrounding the nozzle)?

 

[Oso Polar]

One of the few eartips that I found to work with shallow fit iem nozzles is the Dunu S&S

Surprisingly, didn't work for me AT ALL with Gate, I think Gate has way too shallow fit, Dunu tips were not long enough (even though they are pretty long). Gate I received came actually not with three but with six pairs of ear tips - three pairs of traditional shape tips and three pairs of shorter and wider tips. The biggest of these "short and wide" tips was the only one that sealed properly.

 

[1337wafflezz]

Surprisingly, didn't work for me AT ALL with Gate, I think Gate has way too shallow fit, Dunu tips were not long enough (even though they are pretty long). Gate I received came actually not with three but with six pairs of ear tips - three pairs of traditional shape tips and three pairs of shorter and wider tips. The biggest of these "short and wide" tips was the only one that sealed properly.

Oddly enough my ears are the same. Dunu SS tips work with some folks and that’s great, more power to them. They don’t fit my ears unfortunately.
The wide bores did actually work the best surprisingly since they’re very shallow.
But then I switched to triple flange and those seal and definitely sound the best. Turns them from bright-ish very Harman sound to warm full bodied.

 

[markanini]

The frequency response is changed when the length between the driver and the eardrum is changed, correct? Is there a difference betweem inserting deeper and reducing the length of the eartip (that part not surrounding the nozzle)?

Yes it interacts with the effective FR. You can experiment with lengthening the eartip with o-rings, or shortening with scissors.

 

[wingless]

Thanks for the review. The pair I ordered just showed up today. I tried almost every tip before settling with the largest ones. These sound great to me.

 

[bequietjk]

Commenting again after about 3 weeks of owning these I can game with them, watch shows, listen to music... Everything sounds good and the value is insane for sure. Really the only flaw is the cable length which would be better in my opinion 1' longer.

unoffensive, unabrasive sound & comfort.

 

[Honken]

Since to me, these are so comfortable to wear, some months ago I decided that I'd really clear up my gripes with the frequency response with EQ to make these 'just work' for me. Well, I haven't touched the FR in months after that and they've been my every day go to set ever since. I am sensitive to high frequencies so my EQ nukes that, if you are not sensitive to high frequencies you'd probably find the following EQ very dull:

Preamp: -3.5 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 25 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 2: ON LSC Fc 45 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 75 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 165 Hz Gain -0.7 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1500 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 6: ON HSC Fc 7500 Hz Gain -4.0 dB Q 0.7071
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 13000 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 0.7071

I think this set of IEMs have solidified the fact that to me, comfort is the most important part of an IEM, as long as they pass basic criteria (distortion, non-crazy FR response, etc). I can plonk them in and immediately forget about them, they even seal nicely with a very shallow insertion.

Still, I am curious. The Distortion and GD measurments of this IEM looks excellent, but I so, so want to know what a multi tone looks like. @amirm, are multi tone tests of IEMs still not happening? I see discussions at this very forum as to what may differentiate cheapo 1DD IEMs (like the Gate) to more expensive multiple driver options, with no satisfying answers. It'd be so nice to see a 1DD IEM compared to a multiple driver IEM to see what the difference is in terms of multi tone performance.

For what it is worth, I recently got the Tangzu Wan'er 2 as well. Very good IME, bulkier than the Gate by a mile, but really light weight and comfortable to me. I can easily get the FR closer to Harman 2019v2 with the Wan'er 2, but I prefer the comfort of the Gate. Still, I am going to keep the Wan'er 2 around to give my ears some needed change every now and then, I find using the same IEM and tip for too long really exhausting on the ear.

It'd be interesting to see what the Wan'er 2 performs like in a GD and distortion test - and pretty please, a MT test.

 

[Reddoc]

I bought the Gates based on ASR comments- they sound great to me.
Can anyone suggest a wireless pair that is similarly-voiced?
(I am happy if they have a wire between them, especially if they have long battery-life, just not a cable to the phone / DAP)

 

[mc.god]

I bought the Gates based on ASR comments- they sound great to me.
Can anyone suggest a wireless pair that is similarly-voiced?
(I am happy if they have a wire between them, especially if they have long battery-life, just not a cable to the phone / DAP)

Instead of native wireless iem You could consider using your Gate with something like this:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005007783577887.html?

 

[Reddoc]

Instead of native wireless iem You could consider using your Gate with something like this:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005007783577887.html?

Thanks a lot, mc.god. So these plug into the Truthears and act as Bluetooth transducers and batteries, yea?