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Truthear x Crinacle Zero:RED IEM Review

Rate this IEM:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 10 2.3%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 14 3.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 47 11.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 356 83.4%

  • Total voters
    427
Yeah , no offense.
I mean I wonder if they would sell more if they didn’t have that?
But maybe that is their fan base as well. Dunno.
Thanks, as I didn’t know what all this stuff is.

Ok, so whew it’s not just me who finds it super awkward.
( I just read some others comments on it)

Thank you
I'm with you.
That "art" for grown adult men rings too close to child abuse in my neighborhood.
What's with all the little girl stuff, that kind of attraction could get you 20 years. :facepalm:
 
I'm with you.
That "art" for grown adult men rings too close to child abuse in my neighborhood.
What's with all the little girl stuff, that kind of attraction could get you 20 years. :facepalm:
Would they have an incentive of selling a product using imagery that glorified something so despicable? Rationally that doesn't make sense unless unmentionable abuse against children was legal in other parts of the world, which it is not.
 
From the distortion graph visually and using https://sengpielaudio.com/calculator-db.htm the distortion at 1khz is 0.03% or sinad of -70db at the 94db spl. This beast needs decent electronics to show you its best.
 
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After I mechanically destroyed my 13y old Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi by installing, better said removing a balanced cable from its (too narrow) 2pin jacks, I ordered a pair of red Truthears for 50 bucks as some kind of short circuit reaction...

2 weeks later I was really happy about this mishap, the red Zeros are so much more precise (i.e. less distortion) and deliver just the right amount of bass and treble for my perception. Best thing is, in contrast to the UEs which I had to use with custom molds to achieve low bass and painless long hearing sessions, these are supplied with suitable standard plugs fitting airtight, w/o pain after an hour or more of listening.
A significant technological progress during the last 15y (at 1/3 of the price, not counting the custom molds)!

Testing the technical properties with audio test files, I am really suprised that they deliver a clean noticeable low bass from 20Hz onwards without distortion at a decent level (with the right plugs selected!).
Due to their low impedance I regard it as mandatory to drive them with a balanced cable to avoid crosstalk and optimize EMF damping precision a bit, due to a lower cable resistance (depending on the cable - I used cheap, but double wired KBear ST12's with a TempoTec Sonata bhd pro via UAPP).
Loudness, in that above combination, is really sufficient to harm your ears sustainably without any clipping.
I checked the clipping point, i.e. the max output current yield of the Sonata, with a full amplitude, low duty cycle 400Hz sine wave pulse signal and set that as a reference level on the Sonata's HW volume control. Much too lood for continuous listening, so the SW control of the Smartphone sets a decent listening level, which maintains an optimal & clean audio quality down to -90 to -110dB test level.
 
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Btw.:
Did someone remove the ear canal mesh and listen what effect this has???
Don't, as it affects the tuning directly. It will probably open more the high mids and ruin the balance.
 
I’m usually not a fan of planars. But I wonder if a pair of planar IEMs will be more of what I want?

Do IEMs struggle more with dynamic range? As opposed to over ear headphones?
I’m definitely hearing less dynamic range

Cheers
Maybe you are still too young for grand children, who appreciate the box and eventually the contents also...
 
Hello, I have an issue with the Truthear Zero Red. I’m a drummer, and I use them for on-stage monitoring, connected directly to my mixer, a Soundcraft Notepad 8FX. However, I have a major problem. Compared to my old KZ IEMs, the Truthear sound much quieter at the same gain and volume levels! How can I solve this issue? Thank you!
 
Hello, I have an issue with the Truthear Zero Red. I’m a drummer, and I use them for on-stage monitoring, connected directly to my mixer, a Soundcraft Notepad 8FX. However, I have a major problem. Compared to my old KZ IEMs, the Truthear sound much quieter at the same gain and volume levels! How can I solve this issue? Thank you!
Hi and welcome to ASR.
Zero Red are not the most sensitive iems around, plus their impedance is not flat and high impedance source like your mixer could easily be contributes to decrease the overall output level, best thing you can do without and additional headphones amp is to try more sensitive iems, like 7Hz Zero 2, see the graph below where lower are more sensitive:

index.php


Still, if they are less sensitive than your previous KZ, they'll be quieter anyway.
 
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Hello, I have an issue with the Truthear Zero Red. I’m a drummer, and I use them for on-stage monitoring, connected directly to my mixer, a Soundcraft Notepad 8FX. However, I have a major problem. Compared to my old KZ IEMs, the Truthear sound much quieter at the same gain and volume levels! How can I solve this issue? Thank you!
At the risk of stating the obvious , turn it up ?
 
At the risk of stating the obvious , turn it up ?
It’s not that simple!!!
To achieve a listening experience similar to the KZ ZSX, I have to turn both the headphone volume and the monitor input volume to the maximum. Which is absurd, in case I need more volume of my drums, I can’t!!! This doesn’t happen when I use the Zero Red with my smartphone.
 
Hi and welcome to ASR.
Zero Red are not the most sensitive iems around, plus their impedance is not flat and high impedance source like your mixer could easily be contributes to decrease the overall output level, best thing you can do without and additional headphones amp is to try more sensitive iems, like 7Hz Zero 2, see the graph below where lower are more sensitive:

index.php


Still, if they are less sensitive than your previous KZ, they'll be quieter anyway.
So, is there no other solution? Keep in mind that the output of the Soundcraft is 165mW (150 ohms). Isn’t that enough? For now, I’d like to avoid purchasing other IEMs.
 
So, is there no other solution? Keep in mind that the output of the Soundcraft is 165mW (150 ohms). Isn’t that enough? For now, I’d like to avoid purchasing other IEMs.
No, no other way without additional hardware\other iems. And ok, so you have the ZSX, that are very very sensitive as you can see in the graph, so you'll have the same issue with almost any other iems.
165 mW at 150 ohms tell us nothing about how it performs at very low ohm load like iems generally are, if it's output impedance is fairly high, as i presume, the voltage drop can be important, so very sensitive iems will be needed. Smartphones usually have low output impedance so they matches better with iems.
 
No, no other way without additional hardware\other iems. And ok, so you have the ZSX, that are very very sensitive as you can see in the graph, so you'll have the same issue with almost any other iems.
165 mW at 150 ohms tell us nothing about how it performs at very low ohm load like iems generally are, if it's output impedance is fairly high, as i presume, the voltage drop can be important, so very sensitive iems will be needed. Smartphones usually have low output impedance so they matches better with iems.
I understand. The truth is, I bought the Zero Red after reading many positive reviews and after my trusty KZ stopped working. At this point, I have IEMs that are useless to me!!! So, even if I bought the 7Hz, I would have the same problem….
 
I understand. The truth is, I bought the Zero Red after reading many positive reviews and after my trusty KZ stopped working. At this point, I have IEMs that are useless to me!!! So, even if I bought the 7Hz, I would have the same problem….
Unfortunately, your usage case is not common so the issues you had won't be experienced by everyone. I suggest seeking out a high sensitivity 1DD IEM with a tuning that's suitable for monitoring, usually less bassy than what's used for enjoyment listening. Of the ASR-reviewed IEMs that would be Tanchjim Origin, but Moondrop Aria 2 should be a fine alternative. A number of retailers offer free returns which will be risk free as far as spending money on something potentially unusable.
 
In case you know an electronics engineer, you could open the mixer and look for 150Ohm series resistors at the headphone output stage and, say, solder another 150Ohm resistor in parallel to the existing one (yields 75Ohms output impedance). Chance is that the output opamp drives more current into the low impedance IEM. In best case this would yield almost double volume at the IEM and also optimize frequency response of the Zero Reds.
(Background is that the designers of the mixer probably had regular headphones in mind, but not IEMs. You could also try to lower the output impedance even further, up to a point where the max. current capability of the output opamp is reached. That would need some experimentation or circuit analysis...)
 
It's true that mixer HP outs are designed with higher impedance headphones in mind, rather than lower impedance IEMs. BTW @Hp01 if the TE Red was satisfactory as far as fit goes you could optionally add a Topping NX7 between them and the mixer, and you will gain your own volume knob. Or a used Fiio A3 for much less than the Topping.
 
In case you know an electronics engineer, you could open the mixer and look for 150Ohm series resistors at the headphone output stage and, say, solder another 150Ohm resistor in parallel to the existing one (yields 75Ohms output impedance). Chance is that the output opamp drives more current into the low impedance IEM. In best case this would yield almost double volume at the IEM and also optimize frequency response of the Zero Reds.
(Background is that the designers of the mixer probably had regular headphones in mind, but not IEMs. You could also try to lower the output impedance even further, up to a point where the max. current capability of the output opamp is reached. That would need some experimentation or circuit analysis...)
That’s interesting…. I’ll try asking a friend of mine.
 
It's true that mixer HP outs are designed with higher impedance headphones in mind, rather than lower impedance IEMs. BTW @Hp01 if the TE Red was satisfactory as far as fit goes you could optionally add a Topping NX7 between them and the mixer, and you will gain your own volume knob. Or a used Fiio A3 for much less than the Topping.
I have a behringer p1,
But I would need to make too many connections to be able to use it….
 
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