TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM Review

[MajoloBama]

If it sounds muffled and sort of dark, sounds like you are right....maybe not fitting your ears right....

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

If it sounds muffled and sort of dark, sounds like you are right....maybe not fitting your ears right....

While I think there is an element of that going on, I wouldn't go as far as saying its muffled and dark. As always with these subjective descriptions, it means very little to others.

 

[Groom]

It's always possible. But on multiple other systems it sounds very natural.

Edit: On these headphones it kinda sounds like all the life has been sucked out of the recording. Finding that too with other tracks. Perhaps its coming down to insertion into my ears as well. Probably tricky to get them right. I am more tempted to trust the HD800S's and my old Studio2's with the Benchmark stack.

To expect a similar performance to the extremely wide and almost overly open sounding HD-800Ss from a sub 50$ in-ear is not very realistic, imho.

They also can´t compete with my Audezes but nevertheless are incredibly good for the price and give me some kind of a "down-to-earth" presentation, I often enjoy and that translates much better than my former HD800 when mixing.

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

To expect a similar performance to the extremely wide and almost overly open sounding HD-800Ss from a sub 50$ in-ear is not very realistic, imho.

They also can´t compete with my Audezes but nevertheless are incredibly good for the price and give me some kind of a "down-to-earth" presentation, I often enjoy and that translates much better than my former HD800 when mixing.

I completely agree with you.

 

[Cote Dazur]

These are my first set of IEM's

Received my pair today

You may want to spend a little time before coming to any conclusion. I was new to IEM a few month back, my experience is that it takes a little time to place them optimally in the ears to enjoy them fully. It will be interesting to read you again in a month.

 

[Robbo99999]

Received my pair today. Bought from the Shenzhen Audio amazon option. Only took a few days in Australia, not bad.

For $72AUD they are impressive. These are my first set of IEM's and I am finding them fairly uncomfortable and cant use for extended periods, even with the smallest tips (ones at the top right of the card). Are the SpinFit ones slimmer? I must have narrow ear canals.

As for the sound, they sound pretty good for the money. I have tried with my iPhone 11 Pro Max via the apple lightning to 3.5mm adapter and also on my Benchmark HPA4/DAC3 combo. They don't really compete with my HD800S in terms of overall clarity. With acoustic music, they seem to be a bit dull. I tried Maiky76's eq but I didn't really like that tune. The bass kicks ass though. Kick drums etc are great!

For anyone playing along at home, subjectively speaking, have a listen to the following album on Tidal. It's a really well recorded acoustic album, which I love, by Tony Rice and David Grisman. I've listened to it on a lot of setups including Salon2's and Studio2's. On those speakers and the HD800S (with Oratory EQ) there is a crisp metalic sound that is true to the mandolin and Tony's guitar strings that is lost on these IEM's. I think it might be able to be EQ'd a little better to get them there. Thoughts? Subjective I know, but its just something that ive listened to a lot on various well measured speakers.

https://tidal.com/browse/album/42435579

I'm surprised you found the treble lacked "sparkle", I thought the treble on these was one of the most impressive aspects in relation to most of my EQ'd headphones. Mind you the bass on these was great too. I did find the MaikyEQ improved them to reduce shoutiness around 1-2kHz, but I'm surprised to hear about your reports re the treble. I mean, fair do's, but it doesn't match my experience - could be unit to unit variation, or maybe somekind of HRTF differences between you & me which is giving us different subjective impressions of the treble.

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

I'm surprised you found the treble lacked "sparkle", I thought the treble on these was one of the most impressive aspects in relation to most of my EQ'd headphones. Mind you the bass on these was great too. I did find the MaikyEQ improved them to reduce shoutiness around 1-2kHz, but I'm surprised to hear about your reports re the treble. I mean, fair do's, but it doesn't match my experience - could be unit to unit variation, or maybe somekind of HRTF differences between you & me which is giving us different subjective impressions of the treble.

Looks like this is one of the inherent difficulties with IEM's. On the convenience side, it looks like there are pros and cons.

 

[Matias]

Truthear has a new Facebook page and already announcing a new 19 usd DD IEM HOLA, and a dongle SHIO, which utilizes dual CS43198.

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[DubbyMcDubs]

You may want to spend a little time before coming to any conclusion. I was new to IEM a few month back, my experience is that it takes a little time to place them optimally in the ears to enjoy them fully. It will be interesting to read you again in a month.

I agree, it's early days.

My general thoughts are on these are that they are a great sounding headphone, especially for $72AUD and represent incredible value. I do think they might be a little bit hyped. That does not mean I think they are garbage. They are an excellent option for on-the-go listnening. The sound isolation is great.

Last night I did a four hour listening session with them, consisting of roughly 90% Tidal, 9% gaming and 1% binaural music. Here are my conclusions, so far.

Gaming/Binaral:
For these purposes, IEM's are awesome. The game I chose to test is my favorite, Escape from Tarkov, which uses a binaral sound engine. The localization of sounds is improved and its fun to try. For gaming, I am going to keep using them some more.

Binaral music tracks were also a lot of fun, however I wouldn't find myself listening to these very often.

Tidal:
Listened on both PC with the Benchmark HPA4 and then later with the iPhone. For me, the use case with the iPhone is where these really shine. You get a great sounding on-the-go option with awesome sound isolation. If I was commuting or working in an office again, I would use these every day.

Fit:
This is the most disappointing aspect of these IEM's. It would have been nice if the nozzles where just a little smaller. I am going to try the small SpinFit's to see if it improves. Are the CP155's the correct model to buy??

 

[Spyart]

Received my pair today. Bought from the Shenzhen Audio amazon option. Only took a few days in Australia, not bad.

For $72AUD they are impressive. These are my first set of IEM's and I am finding them fairly uncomfortable and cant use for extended periods, even with the smallest tips (ones at the top right of the card). Are the SpinFit ones slimmer? I must have narrow ear canals.

As for the sound, they sound pretty good for the money. I have tried with my iPhone 11 Pro Max via the apple lightning to 3.5mm adapter and also on my Benchmark HPA4/DAC3 combo. They don't really compete with my HD800S in terms of overall clarity. With acoustic music, they seem to be a bit dull. I tried Maiky76's eq but I didn't really like that tune. The bass kicks ass though. Kick drums etc are great!

For anyone playing along at home, subjectively speaking, have a listen to the following album on Tidal. It's a really well recorded acoustic album, which I love, by Tony Rice and David Grisman. I've listened to it on a lot of setups including Salon2's and Studio2's. On those speakers and the HD800S (with Oratory EQ) there is a crisp metalic sound that is true to the mandolin and Tony's guitar strings that is lost on these IEM's. I think it might be able to be EQ'd a little better to get them there. Thoughts? Subjective I know, but its just something that ive listened to a lot on various well measured speakers.

https://tidal.com/browse/album/42435579

That's not enough description of crisp of this album imo) the guitar with some room verb little far from a listener and mandolin much closer and I can really touch its strings virtually... I don't even think any Iem can translate such experience cause all they have not enough high end emm freedom I guess. If you push up high end eq on them you May lostmant other things in that over detail chaos. Good album to test, thanks!

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

That's not enough description of crisp of this album imo) the guitar with some room verb little far from a listener and mandolin much closer and I can really touch its strings virtually... I don't even think any Iem can translate such experience cause all they have not enough high end emm freedom I guess. If you push up high end eq on them you May lostmant other things in that over detail chaos. Good album to test, thanks!

It’s a magical experience to listen to on a good setup.

 

[Cote Dazur]

This is the most disappointing aspect of these IEM's

As, like me, those IEM are the first pair you take seriously, you might find, like I did, that it gets better with time. Like you, at the beginning I was really annoyed and concern by the discomfort, a few month later, I am not sure what the issue was back then as I really got use to them, even appreciate not having to wear a head band any more or getting my ears toasty. I will be forever thankful to Amir for nudging me toward the IEM experience.

 

[Robbo99999]

Looks like this is one of the inherent difficulties with IEM's. On the convenience side, it looks like there are pros and cons.

Same sort of problems with headphones though.

 

[Robbo99999]

I agree, it's early days.

My general thoughts are on these are that they are a great sounding headphone, especially for $72AUD and represent incredible value. I do think they might be a little bit hyped. That does not mean I think they are garbage. They are an excellent option for on-the-go listnening. The sound isolation is great.

Last night I did a four hour listening session with them, consisting of roughly 90% Tidal, 9% gaming and 1% binaural music. Here are my conclusions, so far.

Gaming/Binaral:
For these purposes, IEM's are awesome. The game I chose to test is my favorite, Escape from Tarkov, which uses a binaral sound engine. The localization of sounds is improved and its fun to try. For gaming, I am going to keep using them some more.

Binaral music tracks were also a lot of fun, however I wouldn't find myself listening to these very often.

Tidal:
Listened on both PC with the Benchmark HPA4 and then later with the iPhone. For me, the use case with the iPhone is where these really shine. You get a great sounding on-the-go option with awesome sound isolation. If I was commuting or working in an office again, I would use these every day.

Fit:
This is the most disappointing aspect of these IEM's. It would have been nice if the nozzles where just a little smaller. I am going to try the small SpinFit's to see if it improves. Are the CP155's the correct model to buy??

You liked them for gaming, me too! I was super surprised to find that that they performed great to create a realistic 3D environment when combined with Virtual 7.1 Surround Sound during gaming, and very good positional localisation with them. (I don't use the IEM's anymore because of ear irritation and the whole pushing wax back in thing.....I mean I'll keep them as I might try them once in a while out of interest).

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

Same sort of problems with headphones though.

Yeh. But I would argue not to the same degree with regular headphones being more forgiving.

 

[asrUser]

Truthear has a new Facebook page and already announcing a new 19 usd DD IEM HOLA, and a dongle SHIO, which utilizes dual CS43198.

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View attachment 255106

This new IEM looks promising. The'll probably be more comfortable than ZERO and maybe even an Aria killer. Even Hexa is more comfortable.

 

[Somafunk]

Review of the hola and dongle dac below

 

[Robbo99999]

Yeh. But I would argue not to the same degree with regular headphones being more forgiving.

Maybe, I've not tried enough IEM's to know, but there's still plenty of variation & issues that can happen with headphones in terms of how they react to the anatomy of a specific person, fitment can vary from person to person, and you still get the experience of "different models of headphones EQ'd to the same target curve don't sound exactly the same, can sound quite different", so I'd be surprised to see more variability in IEM's. I'd actually be inclined to think that IEM's would offer a more consistent experience re their measured frequency response, because I'd expect the received frequency response to vary less at the eardrum between different people. But anyway, regardless of which is most variable, headphones really do vary a lot in terms of their experience and your ability to control it.

 

[Cote Dazur]

but there's still plenty of variation & issues that can happen with headphones in terms of how they react to the anatomy of a specific person,

Variation from person to person is one thing, I cannot speak about that, as I am only one person, , but as far as variation because of fitting on my self between headphones and IEM, their is no contest. Placement of headphone can somehow affect the sound I ear, a little and in no case make it like a different HP. For IEM, i get huge variations, like listening to a totally different device.
Even just opening my mouth, will make them like a totally different experience, moving my head up and down will change what I ear.
In my (short, a few month) experience with IEM, they require careful placement to sing, but when they do, they are hard to match with anything else, HP or speakers and worth any efforts to live with them.

 

[markanini]

A tip that's not well fitting can be compressed when inserted to the ends that the midrange and treble is altered. It's not that weird, it happens.