Truthear x Crinacle Zero:RED IEM Review

[mc.god]

So my BTR3K arrived and much to my surprise the impedance on my laptop's 3.5mm jack seems to be even higher than with the Zero Red's impedance adapter. In other words: even with the impedance adapter on the BTRR3K the bass isn't nearly as strong as on my laptop's 3.5mm jack. Same for my old Windows phone btw. which seems to also have far higher impedance, resulting in equally strong bass as on my laptop.

Seems that your laptop has very high out impedance, you can get an idea with this:

as you can see 10 ohm or 75 ohm have similar effect, but at 150 ohm it get a very big bass boost, so maybe your laptop have 100 ohm or more, and you can buy a 150 ohm adapter like this:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005003262124454.html

 

[Batenxx]

So other than the Zero Reds I've also tried my Moondrop Chu IIs on the BTR3K and noticed that they have more bass than the Zero Reds (with or without impedance adapter) on the device. Question: is there a comparison between Zero Red and Moondrop Chu 2?

 

[multiformous]

So other than the Zero Reds I've also tried my Moondrop Chu IIs on the BTR3K and noticed that they have more bass than the Zero Reds (with or without impedance adapter) on the device. Question: is there a comparison between Zero Red and Moondrop Chu 2?

Squiglink - IEM frequency response database by Super* Review

Compare hundreds of frequency response graphs between IEMs and earphones from manufacturers like Moondrop, Sony, 64 Audio, Fiio, and more.

squig.link

 

[mc.god]

So other than the Zero Reds I've also tried my Moondrop Chu IIs on the BTR3K and noticed that they have more bass than the Zero Reds (with or without impedance adapter) on the device. Question: is there a comparison between Zero Red and Moondrop Chu 2?

Chu 2 FR is not affected by output impedance of the source since the iem has flat own impedance curve in the audible band so using impedance adapter with it will only affect global output level.

 

[staticV3]

Burn-in is recommended for DD IEMs.

By whom, and on what basis?

 

[multiformous]

Nothing to lose but the 100 hours you could have spent listening to the thing you bought...

 

[staticV3]

On a certain DD IEM I experienced great improvements.

"Trust me bro"

 

[Cote Dazur]

Burn-in is recommended for DD IEMs. 100 hours should be enough. Bass will become tighter and it will sound less harsh.

This is wrong, always as been. Naming yourself ASR user and claiming such non sense, is just shameful.

 

[BDWoody]

Burn-in is...

Silly to recommend here.

You also need to get a grip on that signature please.

 

[Batenxx]

So I've been playing around with equalization, but I'm a complete noob when it comes to this subject matter. I need some advice. So on squig.link you can pick various target curves and then auto equalize your IEM towards that curve, right? I've picked one from a reviewer which seems to focus on bass and imported the file into Peter's Equalizer APO. Is that all I need to do? What else do I need to take into account? Moreover: is the Zero Red an IEM which works well with this? What about picking other IEMs and equalizing the Zero Reds towards their curves? I tried some, like making the Zero Reds sound like the QKZ x HBB HADES but it sounded absolutely horrible.
Lastly: As I stated, I've picked the below reviewer target. To get more bass... And generally a warmer sound. Should I do this with or without the impedance adapter? What would be better?

 

[MayaTlab]

Sean Olive recently presented an informative seminar at CanJam NYC 2024 that has been discussed in that thread. Part (and just a part of it, the rest is fascinating too !) of that presentation dealt with target curves for the newer type 4.3 / 5128 ear simulators.

I'd like to propose an informal listening test partly inspired by this presentation. You will need a pair of Truthear Zero Red to do it - which I guess conveniently applies to quite a few of the participants in that thread.

I want to emphasise that I don't consider this a properly controlled and designed test, for reasons developed in that thread, but it could still prove useful to some of you to some capacity.

LINK

 

[KrafKloot]

Is anyone using zero reds with moondrop`s FreeDSP cable? Does it have enough power for them?
I am tempted by low price, good enough performance and my love for EQ tinkering. I have an old android for setup as the app looks a little sketchy...

 

[Jimbob54]

Is anyone using zero reds with moondrop`s FreeDSP cable? Does it have enough power for them?
I am tempted by low price, good enough performance and my love for EQ tinkering. I have an old android for setup as the app looks a little sketchy...

It's plenty.

 

[multiformous]

Is anyone using zero reds with moondrop`s FreeDSP cable? Does it have enough power for them?
I am tempted by low price, good enough performance and my love for EQ tinkering. I have an old android for setup as the app looks a little sketchy...

FreeDSP measurements here.

 

[Pe8er]

Is anyone using zero reds with moondrop`s FreeDSP cable? Does it have enough power for them?
I am tempted by low price, good enough performance and my love for EQ tinkering. I have an old android for setup as the app looks a little sketchy...

I do, they sound great.

 

[KrafKloot]

Is there a known problem with the IEMs? I have listened to them with the original cable a few hours on PC, have switched to the FreeDSP cable once and feel like there is no bass ever since...no matter which cable i use. Soundsignature tells me the bass driver completely shut off...

 

[markanini]

Is there a known problem with the IEMs? I have listened to them with the original cable a few hours on PC, have switched to the FreeDSP cable once and feel like there is no bass ever since...no matter which cable i use. Soundsignature tells me the bass driver completely shut off...

What you are hearing is the difference between the impedance interaction of the PC output. The FreeDSP output, assuming zeroed out, is the response that the manufacturer intended. Unless you aren't achieving good seal from the tips. Did you switch to FreeDSP very recently?

 

[KrafKloot]

I basically had good bass response using my Laptops headphone output. Today i switched to Freedsp to finally connect it to my phone and now there is no bass response with any cable/source
I am a little bit lost....

 

[Jimbob54]

I basically had good bass response using my Laptops headphone output. Today i switched to Freedsp to finally connect it to my phone and now there is no bass response with any cable/source
I am a little bit lost....

Not even with the original cable plugged back in to the laptop HP out? (Pretty sure that is what you are saying). Did you ever use the impedance adapter with the laptop 3.5mm and perhaps forgot to plug it back into that?

If not, either you had some sound processing on the laptop previously (now off), possibly a bad connection now or bass driver is dead. But if there is no bass on either channel then I doubt you can have killed both at the same time.

 

[KrafKloot]

Is it easy to blow those drivers? I mean i have zero bass right now, after using the FreeDSP cable once without playing any kind stupid levels. My 10y old sony headphone that came for free with an old android phone deliver more bass than those truthears...