TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero:BLUE2 IEM Review

[brandall10]

Crinacle is not only a tuner, he is a very well known member of the online headphone community and a very entertaining and informative YouTuber. He also has a headphone shop/demonstration room in Singapore.

Like Amir, he is one of the “good guys” in this space.

For some backstory, his rise to fame came from ranking a metric ton of IEMs starting nearly a decade back on head-fi. He had no channel/website for the first few years, I believe it was just a thread maintained on head-fi with a google sheet.

He's not alone in that, plenty of others had rolling review threads. But he was one of the earlier proponents using measurements in his assessments and he seemed to carefully reconsider and rerank things and his style of reviewing seemed to engender a bit more trust... local shops would lend him things, people would send them in, so there was a critical mass of items reviewed that his lists became the closest thing to a gold standard.

By the time his first collab came around he probably had been doing this already for 5 years or so. Just an overzealous headfier who turned it into a business op.

 

[RogerSmith]

For some backstory, his rise to fame came from ranking a metric ton of IEMs starting nearly a decade back on head-fi. He had no channel/website for the first few years, I believe it was just a thread maintained on head-fi with a google sheet.

He's not alone in that, plenty of others had rolling review threads. But he was one of the earlier proponents using measurements in his assessments and he seemed to carefully reconsider and rerank things and his style of reviewing seemed to engender a bit more trust... local shops would lend him things, people would send them in, so there was a critical mass of items reviewed that his lists became the closest thing to a gold standard.

By the time his first collab came around he probably had been doing this already for 5 years or so. Just an overzealous headfier who turned it into a business op.

Yes, the origin being a headfier is still very much present, not the least in attributing to different IEMs and headphones different levels of 'technicalities', which, by pure accident, mostly correlate with price.

 

[markanini]

Yes, the origin being a headfier is still very much present, not the least in attributing to different IEMs and headphones different levels of 'technicalities', which, by pure accident, mostly correlate with price.

No one’s trying to put Crinacle on a pedestal here. When he got traction on Head-Fi, ASR wasn’t a big hub for IEM discussion, so he used terms like technicalities that resonated with the Head-Fi crowd. That’s where he began. Before headphones.com came along with their polished corporate spin, Crinacle brought measurements to a wider audience as an independent reviewer. His rankings often are biased toward pricier IEMs. Still, he did a lot to promote budget and ultra-budget IEMs, showing they could compete with more expensive models. I've noted unlike most that followed his footsteps he states who his sponsors are. You would expect everyone in this space would do that and sadly most don't.

 

[raif71]

Finally got this two days back. I have since then tried both silicone and foam tips and I settled on the foam tips. This is the only iem that I use foam tips with and it comes with sizes of small,medium and large. I use the middle sized foams and if I'm not mistaken there are 2 pairs of the mid sized ones. One more thing, I prefer the Zero Red over this.

 

[jcarys]

I did adopt Amir's 2db cut this weekend while running and it did make a nice difference. Pulling the vocals down a bit seemed to give the mids a bit more prominence, which was a positive. Still happy with mine. I find it hard to believe that so many think $65 for an IEM is expensive. To think I used to spend hundreds of dollars only a few years ago.

 

[Rottmannash]

Nice IEM not as good as the Truthear GATE IEM
Thx Amir for the review

Yes-received the Gate last week and was impressed w/ the SQ-and sooooo inexpensive!

 

[Billy Budapest]

No one’s trying to put Crinacle on a pedestal here.

I don’t put him on a pedestal. I just think he is a good source of information and he is very entertaining.

 

[Sukie]

I've just got hold of a pair of these and they're sounding pretty good to me. I do tend to prefer foam tips over silicone and I'm a fan of Harman tuning, so that probably helps. I'm using them with SONICFOAM tips as I've got plenty of those to hand (size SF0 fits well). I wasn't too impressed with the stock foam tips. I can see why @amirm couldn't get a good seal - they're definitely on the small size. I like the slightly smaller nozzle on these, as compared to the original Truthear Zeros. All in all, a good purchase. Super fast delivery from China to the UK (but I better not dwell on this as imports/exports is a bit of hot topic at the moment ).

 

[ErinPraline]

What is the significance of “Zero” as it’s used in the naming by different brands? Same for Crinacle but I think I figured out that part, he’s a tuner who works with these shops.

I remember watching a video of his where he said the brands picked the Zero name independently of each other.

 

[gvl]

I remember watching a video of his where he said the brands picked the Zero name independently of each other.

Ok, it surely is confusing now with a mix of Crinacle, Zeroes, and numbers.

 

[Sukie]

A definite +1 on Amir's single filter. It really does improve the overall listenability.