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TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM Review

Rate this IEM

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 13 2.2%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 21 3.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 73 12.2%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 493 82.2%

  • Total voters
    600

AndreaT

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An Australian reviewer had this to say: 'Just cause Crinacle puts his name on something, doesn't make it amazing Neither bad, nor good. Doesn't make an impression, but still ok IEMs.' This was a month ago. Now we have the measurements, and we know that these are designed to be a standard IEM. There aren't many alternatives are there?
If you are super sensitive to distortion, a costly alternative is the Fiio FD5: very low distortion across the spectrum at x 6 the price. However, it might be that all that pineapple juice in Australia is deleterious to hearing and might impair judgment …
 

DarwinDaDude

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??? I don't think there is a variation with tips. Anyway, i used the medium sized one.
We are glad you tested the tips with the narrow apertures! I initially used the largest size tips with the bigger aperture and found them bass shy in comparison to my Koss PortaPros. Robbo99999 suggested I should try the one with the narrower bores. Boy did that make a big difference in bass! One would think that this difference would be measurable ;) ! Cheers!
 
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Pattern

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Oh dear, oh dear - who to believe? :facepalm: o_O

@amirm, or the guy who wrote the three-star review on Amazon reviewer with these comments:



or the guy who gave them two stars and said this:
Less low end than a 7506? Excuse me while I doubt.
 

TonyJZX

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I sort of feel like if you present the average person with a piece of equipment that does a completely linear job, no V curve, its like presenting them a bottle of distilled water.

Its neither good nor bad and it would generally leave a bad impression as its not 'enjoyable' enough compared to what they're used to.

I'm saying a lot of people want that bass boost, that treble sizzle that gets them thinking... this is "HI-FIDELTY"...

I'm thinking I should buy this just to see what the benchmark is.
 

Chromatischism

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I sort of feel like if you present the average person with a piece of equipment that does a completely linear job, no V curve, its like presenting them a bottle of distilled water.

Its neither good nor bad and it would generally leave a bad impression as its not 'enjoyable' enough compared to what they're used to.
Initially, yes. The "Showroom Sound", like Vivid mode on TV screens. But the effect does not last.

/begin monologue

The presentation should be one of "nothing offensive". Maybe the fact that nothing stands out is what they should notice. We are trying to reproduce audio, not produce it. The highs mids and lows are all in the recordings. Reproduction should look and sound completely normal. I am ok with "slight" embellishments from the playback system +/- neutral, but not much. THAT is what a careful listener would relish, as it allows them to hear all the details without masking effects.

/end monologue
 

GaryH

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Less low end than a 7506? Excuse me while I doubt.
The Truthear is a bit deficient around 50-60 Hz and from ~100-200 Hz:
graph-7.png


Whereas the 7506 has a bit of an emphasis in those regions:
Screenshot_20220920_203129.png


This, combined with the fact that IEMs lack the tactile bass of over/on-ear headphones (bass felt on the pinna and surrounding skull), could well explain their observation that the Truthear have less bass impact. (Also the overall predicted preference ratings are actually the same for both the Truthear and the 7506, at 81%, as calculated by Maiky and Oratory respectively).
 
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Robbo99999

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Initially, yes. The "Showroom Sound", like Vivid mode on TV screens. But the effect does not last.

/begin monologue

The presentation should be one of "nothing offensive". Maybe the fact that nothing stands out is what they should notice. We are trying to reproduce audio, not produce it. The highs mids and lows are all in the recordings. Reproduction should look and sound completely normal. I am ok with "slight" embellishments from the playback system +/- neutral, but not much. THAT is what a careful listener would relish, as it allows them to hear all the details without masking effects.

/end monologue
The bit where you say "nothing stands out", I think that's totally right, I remember Dan Clark over in the Stealth thread (actually it might be an educational video he did where he was recorded by one of the attendees), when once talking about his Harman Tuned (follows very very closely) Stealth headphone commenting in a very similar way to you there .....and it stayed with me......he said something along the lines of you can easily let your focus shift from one part of the music to another when using a neutral headphone like The Stealth because no one part of it is being pushed unnaturally forward......so you can delve around in the music to hear & focus on whichever part you like at that time. I do think that description is accurate, and is applicable in my experience of my best Harman EQ'd headphones. A lot of it will depend on how good the recording is, but it holds pretty true with almost all recordings, but there are some outstanding recordings where they can be really multi-layered and busy yet still retain space between the different elements, and that's where the most neutral headphones will shine to allow you to get into all those different layers.
 

dc655321

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We are glad you tested the tips with the narrow apertures! I initially used the largest size tips with the bigger aperture and found them bass shy in comparison to my Koss PortaPros. Robo99999 suggested I should try the one with the narrower bores. Boy did that make a big difference in bass! One would think that this difference would be measurable ;) ! Cheers!

The notion that tip aperture plays a role in tonality has been oft repeated in this thread. As you say, such a thing would be measurable if it’s audible.

Not sure a physical argument is sensible here…
 

Astoneroad

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The notion that tip aperture plays a role in tonality has been oft repeated in this thread. As you say, such a thing would be measurable if it’s audible.

Not sure a physical argument is sensible here…
I've just been swapping out tips myself on this to find the best fit primarily. I agree that the smaller aperture sounded fuller in the bass. I'd really like to see the measurements to see if it's all in my head or real... or both.
 

Robbo99999

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I've just been swapping out tips myself on this to find the best fit primarily. I agree that the smaller aperture sounded fuller in the bass. I'd really like to see the measurements to see if it's all in my head or real... or both.
Amir said earlier that he's not gonna measure the different internal diameter (different bore) tips, unfortunately. Does anyone here spend time in Crinacle's forums, maybe they could ask him to measure the different type of tips on there (3 types): silicon large internal bore, silicon small internal bore (already measured by Amir & Crinacle), foam tips. (or @crinacle I may as well, lol!)

EDIT: we do know that the small internal bore silicon tips have more bass than the large internal bore silicon tips, but we don't know by how much, and we don't know of affects elsewhere in the frequency range.
 
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AdamG

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Was this measured somewhere?
Just a supposition, but perhaps the narrower internal bore acts as some form of porting allowing a higher back pressure to move the subwoofer tuning lower? Completely theoretical and I don’t recall seeing any measurements. Plenty of anecdotal subjective opinions that support a lower tune is achieved with the narrower throated tips. Seems counterintuitive at first blush.
 

dc655321

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Just a supposition, but perhaps the narrower internal bore acts as some form of porting allowing a higher back pressure to move the subwoofer tuning lower? Completely theoretical and I don’t recall seeing any measurements. Plenty of anecdotal subjective opinions that support a lower tune is achieved with the narrower throated tips. Seems counterintuitive at first blush.

I’m skeptical.

I recall seeing measurements (don’t recall where) of foam tip vs silicon and the traces were on top of each other. That was prompted by similar anecdotes.
 
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AdamG

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I’m skeptical.

I recall seeing measurements (don’t recall where) of foam tip vs silicon and the traces were on top of each other. That was prompted by similar anecdotes.
I found this. If you scroll to the end of the article they do have some measurements of how different tips measure. Not specific to this case, but certainly relevant.

 

dc655321

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I agree that the smaller aperture sounded fuller in the bass. I'd really like to see the measurements to see if it's all in my head or real... or both.

Maybe there is a treble attenuation that tilts the spectral balance in favor of the bass?

I would think any effect would be more material sensitive than aperture sensitive though.
 

Vacceo

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Interesting take

I still love 7hz more for midrange and layering and less boomy bass, but with 20-30hz bass kicking hard.

It seems like people love different tunning and layerness of sound. These iem sounds flat to me, whereas 7hz timeless sounds like 5-15 different layers of music. Also speed of decay is different. Timeless is very fast, these in “speed” can be described as average, subjectively from my experience.
I guess that layerness is very dependant on the source. Playing Death Metal, you don't typically listen to it because it's not there, but perhaps in videogames or films, the proximity and intensity of the sound becomes relevant.
 

AdamG

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Here is some more measurements of varying types of ear tips:


This article seems to suggest a narrow diameter channel does effect the FR and cause a sense of increased bass. Via emphasis on treble. The more treble the less bass and vice versa.
 
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