Earbuds/Flathead Discussion

I built myself a pair using what I think is the same blue PET driver, here's the relevant listing:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005372419999.html
Use the 300 ohm version.

I used the following (quite open) enclosure:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004743300268.html

Dropped the driver in to get an idea of what to fix / tune and was surprised by a very big sound coming out of an earbud. Balance is pretty good and not dissimilar to what you are describing here, hell, I haven't been compelled to adjust anything so far. Not bad at all for ~$30 plus cables.

 

Big thanks to @shotgunshane for sending out this flathead loaner tour. The funny paradox here is: I got interested in flatheads because I was seeking very un-fussy listening, and this loaner convinced me that, at least for me, flatheads are more fit-dependent than IEMs. Less fussy, but more fit dependent. I'll explain.

My brother in law is a dentist, and he often says: in the mouth, a millimeter feels like a mile. The same is true of flatheads in my experience. Having an ear shape that pushes the transducer a millimeter or two further out can turn a very balanced or even dark-sounding earbud into something with almost no bass that also sounds like the vocals have been run through a telephone filter. I have such an ear shape. Keep that in mind as you read on.

VE Monk + : Mushy and low-fi sounding

Fiio FF1: Didn't make me want to listen any longer than a quick initial listen. Part of that was that I was looking forward to listening to others more than this one, and part of this was a not-interesting sound.

Fiio FF3: These sounded good to me. You'll notice that they sound basshead to others, but that's because they fit others better and sound more true as a result. Fit tip: if MX500-shelled flatheads sound honky/extremely bass-lite to you, the FF3 might sound balanced. There are some peaks in the upper midrange/lower treble that can make these sound piercing at certain moments in certain songs, but for the most part these sounded nicely balanced and fun to listen to.

Fiio FF5 (not part of the tour, but I own these): These are a bit more bass-lite than the FF3's and they have a somewhat more dry timbre, but they're a pleasant listen and can be tuned with foams to be more full/warm sounding, though like every flathead I've ever heard, these have no sub-bass.

Dunu Alpha 3: Not as good as the Fiio FF3. Kind of bass-lite and compressed/flat sounding, despite having a fair bit of midrange/lower treble energy.

OFC MX300 aPs 300Ω: Honky and bass-lite (dammit; I wanted to like these). Vocals sound like they've been run through a telephone filter. This is definitely a fit issue for me, and not a minor enough one that foam rolling helps. Pushing the shells of these inward with a fair bit of force makes them sound 70 or 80% normal/balanced and, oddly, using the balanced output on my Shanling M0 Pro makes them sound a bit more normal than the SE output does (probably a power/juice issue with respect to the Blur's 300 ohm driver though my DIY 300 ohm driver does just fine with the SE out).

Another fit note: if MX-500 shell flatheads sound bass-lite or honky to you, then the "showerhead" style shell of the Fiios FF1/FF3/FF5 and the Dunu Alpha 3 may get the driver closer in to your ear canal and therefore sound more balanced. Or maybe not? Who knows. These flatheads are wily beasts! I did, for the record, try the Earbud Triple Origami Vibrating Palm move (https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-flathead-discussion.3026/page-15#post-415143) to try to optimize the fit of the Blur earbuds, but that did not help with the fit issues for me.

Here's my theory about fit. Maybe this will apply to others: my intertragial notch sits a bit futher out from my concha cavum (https://healthlifemedia.com/healthy/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ear-External.jpg) than the median anatomy. On a "showerhead" style shell like the one on my DIY buds, I measure 8.7mm from the earbud stem to the face of the driver cover (pics here: https://imgur.com/a/CWaRRqC). I don't have an MX500 shell handy so I can't verify this, but I'd bet that distance is a millimeter or two less on an MX500 shell and...

...with earbuds, a millimeter sounds like a mile (less bass). I've ordered some DIY earbud parts, including some MX500 shells, so when that arrives I'll measure those and update here.

Thx again for this tour, @shotgunshane!

 

Earbud Loaner Tour Impressions
I’d like to thank @shotgunshane and @imackler for making this tour possible; imackler very generously lent us two of his earbuds – thank you very much!

All listening was done using my MacBook Air or iPad through an iFi Go bar


VE Monk+
I’ve owned these for quite a while as I originally bought them for my wife, who doesn’t get along with IEMs, and we wanted to get her something better than the old bog-standard Apple earbuds. And for the $6 price I paid via Massdrop, they were worth a try. I remember the consensus in the Massdrop discussion posts was that they’re great value for money. That’s true. But they’re pretty crap, really, in the grand scheme of things, and especially compared with the Fiio FF1 for $16. I’d rather go a few weeks without goat milk pumpkin spice venti lattes to splurge on the Fiios instead.

The sound, with the more neutral Clear foams included in the tour, is v-shaped and muddy. The Monk is bass-heavy and, alas, that bass is flabby and lacking in pitch differentiation. There’s an emphasis and bloom in the mid- to upper-bass. The midrange is lacking, there’s some treble roll off, too, and cymbals sound awful. I suspect there’s an emphasis in the lower treble, hence the v-shaped signature. On the positive side, the Monk is reasonably open and spacious-sounding, and tone and timbre aren’t awful, but the resolution is, unfortunately. But, hey, this is a super cheap earbud.


Fiio FF1
With the Clear foam, these are much better earbuds and, in some ways, they’re among the more impressive ones, given their price. The overall signature is much better balanced than the Monk’s, and they’re more even through the entire frequency response. They’re warm and rich sounding, in large part because they’re bass heavy, and that bass is a bit flabby and loose, bloomy but fun, and it even has some sub-bass rumble. The bass isn’t completely overblown, but it’s too much for classical music. At the other end of the spectrum, the treble’s much better than the Monk's, and there’s some sparkle, but the FF1 is still a bit rolled off, and cymbals don’t sound quite right. Whereas the mids are recessed/murky on the Monk, the FF1’s are richer. The resolution is a significant step up, and these earbuds have a nice big, spacious, and bold sound. There’s not much depth, they’re quite up-front in their staging. There’s also good impact, solid macrodynamics, and nice decay to notes.

With the lighter-sounding, brighter donut foams, the FF1’s still very bassy, and a bit too boomy at times.

Overall, they’re really quite pleasant. They’re unoffensive, with a warm, easy sound. The housings are fairly small and comfy.


Fiio FF3
With the Clear foams, these are once again bassy, overly so for classical music (although cellos sound nice and woody). The FF3 are very warm. The sound is nice and rich. The FF3 are wetter and thicker than the FF1. The treble’s pretty decent but could do with more sparkle. There’s decent width to the staging but the staging is panned too hard to the sides, and is too up-front (i.e. lacking depth). There’s just not a strong enough center image.

With the Donut foams, the sound is once again too bassy and warm and rolled off. There’s no sparkle. The sound comes across as slow and cumbersome, not quite muddy, but lacking snappiness in transient attacks. These are molasses earbuds. At least the bass has a nice spacious quality. Resolution’s better than the FF1 but still nothing to applaud.


Dunu Alpha 3
With Clear foams, these are much more neutral than the Fiios offerings. As with the FF3, there’s not much of a center image, with music being panned too hard to the sides. There’s also little height to the staging, which means that layering is shallow and poor. The sound is nice and expansive, though.

The tonality is lighter than the gloopy, dense Fiios, in part because the bass is less prominent and because there’s more treble extension and emphasis. Alas, there’s a bit of an edge to the treble, and perhaps some roughness, as well as a bit of brightness from somewhere in the upper mids or lower treble. The Alpha 3 also sound less syrupy than the Fiios thanks to the snappier, faster transients.

Where the Alpha 3 fall down is in a weird recession somewhere in the mids. Certain instruments in various tracks are missing or far too faint. It’s not a matter of resolution, which is ok, but more that the presentation is missing information.

With the Donut foams, weirdly, the sound gets muddier. There’s also more shimmer and glare to the treble, which is now too bright.

The Bass foams tame the treble and make for a more mellow listening experience. The Alpha 3 lose some incisiveness and bite, though, but they’re still lively enough, and not as slow as the Fiios. There’s also good mid-bass punch. In fact, the bass is really good now, with a nice balance between bloom and tightness, giving bass guitars nice heft and texture, without them becoming sloppy.


Blur OFC MX300
With the Clear foams, the sound is strangely distant, hazy, and with super low resolution. I’m not sure if my dongle is driving them adequately. The bass is nice and authoritative. The mids, however, are thin. And the treble’s screechy.

With the Bass foams, the presentation becomes v-shaped in a bad way, with recessed mids and edgy treble. The lower mids are too thin. The sound, then, comes across as weird, unnatural, and unbalanced. The earbuds also pick up quite a lot of hiss from my setup, which is usually close to silent, even with my OG Campfire Solaris. Weird. Male vocals are ok, but not really forward enough; female vocals are strident, and sparkles are stabby. The bass has good depth and strength, though. I guess I just didn’t drive them adequately.


Conclusion
Well, the Fiios are good for bassheads, I suppose. But none of these earbuds made me want to reach for my wallet. The FF1 were the most appealing, but that’s only from a bang-for-buck perspective. The best thing about these earbuds is that they’re a damn sight better than the old Apple ones, from memory at least, and they inspired me to look further for a pair of earbuds that might suit my preferences better. I thus snagged a pair of TGXear Serratus, which are awesome and just as shotgunshane described them above. I’ll add some impressions of them soon.

Thank you again for the opportunity to hear these earbuds, it's been a great learning experience, and I'm stoked to have found earbuds I like as they've always appealed to me.

 

Anyone know an earbud that sounds like a KSC75? Seems like this could be possible. What I like about KSC75 is microdynamics, speed, timbre, clarity and air. To me KSC75 has good bass too as it's fast and neutral. Might not have subbass but it has nearly perfect PRAT that makes it great for hip hop too.

I was hoping to try an earbud, something that's a bit more discrete looking than a KSC75..

 

Why are there no ortho earbuds yet?

 

Sorry for the bother but I got thrown a curveball question about flatheads and I've got zero experience with them since VE Monks an age ago. Would you say that the FF1 were sensitive to hiss e.g. out of a USB microphone, laptop headphone jack, or front panel PC audio or nah? Been looking at reasonable earbud recommendations for friends and others who ask but I haven't yet bothered trying any.

 

I don’t recall the FF1 suffering from hiss, but I can’t say my recollection is trustworthy.

Your post reminded me that I never posted my impressions of the Serratus. They were easily the best of the ones I’ve heard (all listed above in my impressions) and my take on them aligns with shotgunshane’s. Really beautifully tuned. If not for the slightly painful fit, over time, I’d have kept them.

 

I do feel that flatheads are a bit of an unfortunately slept-on category cuz sometimes a lack of external noise attenuation can actually be beneficial. Hoping that the really good models stay relatively affordable and don't go down the mad route that IEMs have over the last decade.

I do remember *really* liking the Apple Earpods ages ago relative to those Samsung IEMs that came bundled with the original Galaxy S (way before they acquired Harman/AKG)-- I had trouble admitting that I preferred the sound of those Apple Earpods though, cuz they were a relative's and not mine haha.

Hmm, in hindsight I wonder how those measured.

 

Thank you! Appreciate the time. In hindsight might actually be worth testing IEMs and flatheads out of objectively bad sources since I feel that's what a lot of folks shopping around this price point will be pairing with their transducers. I can't actually remember if I've wired up front panel audio on my PC (probably have). Might be fun to look into how that sounds.

 

are you getting these for review?

 

Is there any flats that won’t hurt your ears?