IEM for a stupidly small amount of money

Thank you very much. Now I understood. After I complete burning in (about 100 hours) I will do all 3 mods to compare.

 

Don't wait. The mods make way more of a difference than burn in.

 

I just applied all 3 mods... The bass has now tamed and I prefer modded bass quantity & quality now. However, sound a bit warm somehow. The sharp clear treble has also tamed after modded to my ear...

 

Found the issue. I covered the nozzle with alcohol swab too much. I made less covered and treble got sharper. Now sounds good.... I will listen further to see how much it has improved..

 

Just spent about an hour listening modded S5. I confirm that this modded version is much better. I really liking this modded S5.. Thank you all very much for recommending this IEM and helping to do modding.... I was initially skeptical since burned by many hypes in the past but this one, The hype was REAL ... I am not sure if it is TOTL killer but it is worth many times over the price for sure.

 

TZF Series 5s coming up.

Was after dynamic 'low' cost universal iems to keep me busy while working on the shells of my Custom Art customized customs ^^

All the info gathered here is excellent, much obliged.

 

Is there anywhere I can find a video of the aforementioned modifications? This is my first time modding and I'd love to not screw it up.

As @Rudra said

Thank you all for your time!

 

Mine were shipped today.

I can always shoot what I'm doing once I can go at it.

It could help you do it right if corrections are offered by our knowledgeable predecessors.

Hopefully they'll reach me while I'm still on holiday.

 

Can you please help me out man?

I received my TFZ 5 an hour ago and I did the hakiri mod as well.

Although the bass is tamed, the treble is still way too sharp and it hurts my ears when i listen to it at moderate volume.

How do you do the other 2 mods?

I literally read back and forth all of the 13 pages on this thread and i still can't find anything i can understand in regards to the remaining mods.

Removing the nozzle cap? Do I have to get pliers? They aren't coming out with my finger nails. How do I remove the grill without breaking it? :S

Silicon strip with silicon tips?????


though

The soundstage is as crazy as everyone else says.. Holy shit, amazing imaging. They sound like they could pass off as full sized headphones.

But the treble is just way too sharp for my ears :S.

Compared to my Alclair Spires, these just makes me miss the clarity and the bass on the Spires.

These are as bassy as everyone says... But compared to the Spires, the bass does sound bloated and all over the place.

Then again, it's a $80 IEM vs a $800 CIEM so really unfair to the TFZ 5.

If i can somehow tame the treble, I can honestly see why these are dethroning many expensive IEMS. If the treble can be tamed, I think these can sound even better than the Noble 3U.

 

Forgot to tag you :S

 

Please do, it would be a huge help! ^-^

 

Try prying it out with a sewing needle or safety pin.

The strips are literally strips of an alcohol swab that has been left to dry out and then sliced up with a hobby knife or razor blade.

The silicon tips are referring to replacing the stock tips that come with the S5.
When people say "wide bore" it means the width of the hole through the middle of the tip.
Basically what's wrong with the stock tips is that their bore is narrower than the hole the sound comes out of on the S5.
This results in some of the sound being reflected back at certain frequencies and that screws up the FR as heard through the tips.

@Mr_Oy_Vey_Outta_Sync liked the Penon Audio[1] tips and Ortofon[2] tips. They are likely a good starting point.

[1] http://penonaudio.com/3-Pairs-Grey-Red-Eartips
[2] http://www.ortofon.com/silicone-eartips-set-p-577

 

Thank you! I will look into getting new tips, though I will probably get something from Amazon as I can't wait for 3 weeks for the penon tips

 

These are my favorite wide-bore tips for the Series 5 (and most other wide-bore IEMs):
Small: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Ultimate-TripleFi-Silicone-replacement/dp/B00840LK52/
Medium: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Ultimate-TripleFi-Silicone-replacement/dp/B00840NJSS/
Large: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Ultimate-TripleFi-Silicone-replacement/dp/B00840PBRA/

They work very well together with the "front-mod" to bring the bass down to a reasonable level (instructions here, please ignore the "back-mod" part). As an alternative to the "front-mod", the "harakiri-mod" will also bring the bass down, and both combined will attenuate bass even more.

 

Thank you so much! The instructions were very easy to follow.

I went and bought the medium ones on Amazon, it should be arriving on Tuesday .

Really appreciate the help!

Though I still find it.. a bit too bright?

the highs/treble are still a little too much for me

maybe it will change with burn-in.

Edit:

Just did a A&B with my Valhalla 2 vs my HTC 10.

My valhalla 2 is definitely brighter than my HTC 10.

Running it off my valhalla 2, it's too bright and the treble hurts my ears.

Running it off my HTC 10, It sounds just right,slightly too bright but overall the TFZ 5 sound amazing and are living up to the hype.

Not sure what happened, either my brain burned in or the sound started to get more tame as I burned them in on my autoplay list. I did the silicon strip mod as well so that might've helped.

but WOW these sound like full-sized on-ear headphones. Bigger soundstage than my Alclair Spires. Beautiful imaging

Wonder if the new tips would make any difference.

These are definitely different in terms of sound signature to my Alclair Spires. As far as SQ goes, these are pretty amazing and can compete with the Spires.

But it will just be comparing apples to oranges.

The sound is really dependent on the dac/amp though. Running it off my Valhalla 2, it's just too bright and something sounds lacking.

Running it off my HTC 10, it sounds just right. Though, honestly every headphones i've used with my HTC 10 has sounded phenomenal due to HTC 10's amazing dac.

okayy enough ranting, will do more listening

 

I prefer the Spiral Dot wide bores. Have a set of the Penon Audio tips on order. Of note, received a set of the S5's with the 'upgrade' braided cable. Did the exact 3 same mods as on my 'floppy' cable S5's. Bottom line, the 'upgrade' cable version is shit. No and/or terrible bass. Completely unbalanced sound. Not even worth listening to.

If you have the 'upgrade' version. Forget about it. Get the original/floppy cable version and enjoy some serious sound for a seriously low price.

One note, I just compared the modded floppy S5's to my 650's (unmodded, but balanced cable). Both out of my PC/battery Audeophilleo/Gungnir Multibit/LC setup. The S5's are like a smaller (in size) but bigger (and better) sounding 650.

 

Sounds like you pierced the vent too far? I hear other users reporting no bass after piercing the vent too deep and puncturing something. I find it hard to believe that an IEM can go from oh-so-good-sounding to terrible just from a revision

 

Nope. Woodcans' experience correlates with mine perfectly. The SPC cable is just a terrible match with this phone. I've actually hacked off the MMCX connectors off the Pinnacle P1's SPC cable to graft onto a pair of modded S5's as an experiment and experienced the exact same thing. I kept thinking that maybe there was some leakage or something occuring in the shell or through the strain relief so I glued everything and it still didn't help.

In a last ditch effort, I desoldered the SPC cable and soldered the old cable back on and it sounded the way it did before. I can ran the phones with the faceplates removed and it sounded the same. It's the cable dude.

Finally, I'm running this thing off the new rig I built, Modi Multibit -> Neco V5 amp. Sounds TREMENDOUS. Super controlled, super smooth and dynamic sound. Way better control than any other DAP, DAC/amp combo I've heard. This is a seriously awesome rig for $500-ish.

 

Anyone's TFZ 5 sound leaking like crazy or are they just too big for me to put in my ears correctly to get the correct seal?

They leak like the VE Monks. Although they have amazing soundstage, everyone around you can hear what you are listening to :S

 

Are you using the stock cable or the ImpactAudio cable?
I have the 5s and noticed that they actually have the channels reversed, so this would be a good time to fix that problem too.