TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM Review

[Chromatischism]

Wavelet is EQ for Android. That is my primary use.

 

[Jimbob54]

Have you tried it? Do these IEMs sound better to you without EQ than with Chromatischism's EQ?

P. S. Is there a quick way to toggle everything - all the changes - on and off in Equalizer APO?

Easiest way, install the peace front end, set your preamp reduction as a constant filter in eapo first, then use the toggle button (on/off) to disable all the parametric filters at once but leave overall volume similar. Or use peace to seamlessly switch between profiles.

 

[Chromatischism]

Easiest way, install the peace front end, set your preamp reduction as a constant filter in eapo first, then use the toggle button (on/off) to disable all the parametric filters at once but leave overall volume similar. Or use peace to seamlessly switch between profiles.

I actually removed the preamp reduction on mine because I think it's not needed. If one did more boosting than me, then you should use it.

 

[Jimbob54]

I actually removed the preamp reduction on mine because I think it's not needed. If one did more boosting than me, then you should use it.

More importantly for comparing profiles, the preamp needs to be the same for each.

 

[asrUser]

Switching profiles while listening to music produces annoying sounds on DD. Planars don't have that problem at all.
About comparing I'm not so sure. You have to choose a certain reference point (measurements needed for that). Crinacle and Oratory probably explain it somewhere but I didn't read it yet.

 

[Chromatischism]

Switching profiles while listening to music produces annoying sounds on DD. Planars don't have that problem at all.

Must depend on the software. With Equalizer APO and PEACE, it is a smooth and instant on/off.

With Wavelet I can get the same effect when switching the EQ profile on or off, if I have the "Graphic Equalizer" enabled as well. However if the Graphic EQ (the second toggle) is off, there is a little hiccup when turning on the AutoEQ.

 

[Robbo99999]

Yup. These IEM's do not follow Harman, Etymotic, IEF, or any other known tuning. They overshoot. That is not an opinion, it has been measured, and heard. EQ makes them far more neutral. They have all but admitted so by releasing another IEM with more of a cut (as there should be) beyond 3 kHz.

Not your EQ. That grossly undershoots the Harman target.

Maybe, just maybe, the Harman target is also a problem. I know that's hard for some people to hear, because they assume it must be "right". We have another thread going for that. Mine ends up closer to Etymotic or IEF and it sounds worlds better. The highs are all there, without being glaring or fatiguing. And the mids are much better as well. Even when the Zeros are brought down to Harman, they still sound awful to me and music is not enjoyable. You can try Crinacle's AutoEQ to both Harman and IEF to listen for yourself. More people need to do these experiments and report their findings. And they need to use the right material. Slow jazz, for example, or just a solo voice, will NOT reveal the problems. Music that is closer to full-spectrum, or pink noise, is best. In fact, Anthony Grimani just uses pink noise itself. I'm not trained with pink noise like he is so I use material that is dense and covers the full spectrum, backed up by sweeps to identify resonances. When I AutoEQ to IEF Neutral, it sounds close to mine, only you need to add the bass yourself. The bass contour of my EQ matches two subwoofers in a room, +6 dB at 20 Hz, merging down by 100 Hz. Music that reveals congested mids on some speakers and IEMs when the bass extends too high, is perfectly clear here, with bass that hits hard and goes deep when it should.

Look back a few posts where I showed what I hear with the Zero stock tuning. That Polk speaker measurement is awfully close.


I am using PEACE on top of APO and there is an ON/OFF toggle at the top right corner. If EAPO doesn't have that feature, I would try that. Also, I'd like to know if what you get from that sounds the same as Wavelet.

GaryH's reply to you there is correct. We don't take umbrage that you're using a different curve to Harman, just don't be saying stuff like "it'll be an improvement for most people" - it's just your own EQ, congrats that it works well for you, but don't be saying that it'll be an improvement for people, it's just an improvement for you and doesn't have relevance to anyone else as it's your own personalised target curve. And with your last post I quoted, we don't need to discuss the validity of the Harman Target again.....I'm sure we've discussed it already in this thread and in many other places here on ASR......and as you say there are dedicated threads discussing Harman & alternatives.

 

[Chromatischism]

it's just your own EQ, congrats that it works well for you, but don't be saying that it'll be an improvement for people, it's just an improvement for you and doesn't have relevance to anyone else as it's your own personalised target curve.

Hmm...

It does indeed eliminate that! Thank you, I definitely like your EQ more than stock sound. Especially after listening to EQ for a while, turning off those two midrange notches is painful. Still, I wonder which way is truly more linear. Could be that I'm just accustomed to a slight V shape? But this EQ definitely takes the edge off of a large number of tracks - large enough to doubt that they are supposed to sound so shouty.

It's okay headphone for the price, sound is good (for the price) but I have few nitpicks:
- bass seems to be kinda strange, feels like it's disjointed from rest of the music (?) hard to explain but definitely something is off to me about it
- there could be a bit less treble around 3-5k for my tastes

Anyway for the price I can't ask for more I guess

edit.
Yes after more listening time there is definitely a a bit to much energy around 3-5k. Voices are a bit too 'breathy', lack fundamental.

There are people who seem to be ok with the stock sound as well (maybe they like brighter speakers?), but since you seem to be on a mission to proclaim that no one, zero, other than myself, will benefit from EQ to knock down the excessive highs of this IEM, I wanted to pull these examples up as Exhibit A and B that you need to just chill and let people try it. People are exploring something new with these IEMs and it's great for them to have options if the sound doesn't work for them.

 

[asrUser]

I'm thankful for people posting alternative EQ profiles. Sometimes I also prefer the Oratory Target over Harman. Now what?

 

[Jimbob54]

I'm thankful for people posting alternative EQ profiles. Sometimes I also prefer the Oratory Target over Harman. Now what?

 

[antcollinet]

I'm thankful for people posting alternative EQ profiles. Sometimes I also prefer the Oratory Target over Harman. Now what?

Now continue to enjoy whatever target (or no target) works for you. It's as simple as that.

 

[Alexium]

There are people who seem to be ok with the stock sound as well

I was OK with the stock sound of TCZ. I immediately noticed a small degree of "shoty" character, but proceeded to listen for two evenings, just enjoying music, it didn't bother me - that's 5 to 10 hours of listening over two days. But then I tried your EQ and don't want to go back.

BTW, do IEMs "burn in"? A joke question, but bass and midbass drivers do change parameters after a couple hours of exercise.

 

[oleg87]

More subjective nonsense incoming: although I don't find these very pleasant to listen to stock, man, EQ-to-taste turns them into stupendously good performers for $50. I've been comparing them to a few Moondrop and Etymotic IEMs in the sub <$100 price range, and while these are dead-last for me in their stock tuning, for some reason they take to EQ much better to my ears. Once I get the general tonality dialed in, there's not much hard-to-EQ funny business going on in the treble. Too bad my most common use case for IEMs is when EQ is not available

 

[Oso Polar]

I ordered the Qudelix 5K for these. Balanced 2.5mm or unbalanced 3.5mm cable ?

Stock unbalanced cable is 100% fine. Cable itself seems to be of a good quality and with Qudelix-5K there is way more than enough power available in unbalanced mode. And with regular laptop headphone output (LG Gram) the same. It is so strange to read that some people say they require lots of power - they do not!

 

[Phantomuser]

I have the qudilix too, it has more than enough power for the zeros in single ended out , even set to 1 volt out is enough to deafen
Actually I have 2 pairs of zeros here and was pleased and surprised to find the qudilix will drive them Both in parallel without a worry .

 

[SalutaryGraveness]

Stock unbalanced cable is 100% fine. Cable itself seems to be of a good quality and with Qudelix-5K there is way more than enough power available in unbalanced mode. And with regular laptop headphone output (LG Gram) the same. It is so strange to read that some people say they require lots of power - they do not!

I don't think it requires lots of power where a balanced connection is needed. I've been using it with my cellphone and laptop just fine.
However, since its sensitivity is not that "great" I was just wondering if the unbalanced/normal connection requires to set the volume rather high to get loud.
Probably not, but the balanced output provides so much headroom with the potential to eliminate any noise and distortion (that I might not hear anyway)
that why not? Perhaps there's a reduction of battery life that is not worth it, idk

So I wasn't really trying to imply that a balanced output is needed with this iem. Of course unbalanced output should be fine, if that wasn't the case I wouldn't buy it.

 

[pkane]

As discussed last night, if you were having trouble with sibilance from my last EQ, try this. I was hearing too much high frequency air in John Williams' violins in Star Wars, I was hearing cymbals in rock music being too loud, and I was hearing sibilance from male voices where I normally would not.

Overall, when switching this EQ on, the improvements over stock are dramatic.

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain 2.4 dB Q 2.200
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 80 Hz Gain -3.6 dB Q 0.800
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 100 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 2.000
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 175 Hz Gain 1.8 dB Q 1.800
Filter 5: OFF PK Fc 1100 Hz Gain -0.6 dB Q 2.000
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 2750 Hz Gain -3.2 dB Q 1.000
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain -5.5 dB Q 2.000
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 7500 Hz Gain -4.2 dB Q 5.000

There is now 1 inactive filter at 1100 Hz. I don't think it is needed anymore, but I'll leave it for now. So in all, the 1100-2750 region gets a little boost, and the region above that gets a cut. Because that's where the problem is!

Truthear x crinacle Zero Filters EX7 are the basic filters. Can be imported into EAPO.
Truthear x crinacle Zero EX7 is for Wavelet.

EX stood for experimental...but it's now mature.

The graph tells the story.

View attachment 241509

No claims are being made as to "perfection" for anyone but myself. But by fixing the flaws, it should be closer for most.

Note: I am still having trouble getting this to sound the same on the PC. In EAPO, I need to increase the bass filters quite a bit, around +1 on both the 20 Hz and 80 Hz filters. Any idea why?

Out of curiosity just tried it. Very good overall but a bit too bright for me compared to Maiky’s EQ. Better than stock tuning, though. Used Neutron player PEQ correction that lets me switch between different profiles in real time, without interruption.

 

[Oso Polar]

I was just wondering if the unbalanced/normal connection requires to set the volume rather high to get loud

Nope, nothing unusually high - about the same volume level as with other IEMs, plenty of headroom left.

 

[Oso Polar]

a bit too bright for me compared to Maiky’s EQ

This is very funny as this EQ cuts a ton of high frequencies compared to Maiky’s which is 100% Harman.

 

[SalutaryGraveness]

I have the qudilix too, it has more than enough power for the zeros in single ended out , even set to 1 volt out is enough to deafen
Actually I have 2 pairs of zeros here and was pleased and surprised to find the qudilix will drive them Both in parallel without a worry .

I've reading more about the capabilities of this dac/amp and my head is spinning. I just found out they also implemented crossfeed which is a feature I love for iems.
That blown me away. Along with the PEQ that makes it 100% platform/source agnostic for me. With this I don't need platform specific software to get what I want.