IEM for a stupidly small amount of money

just make sure you do not poke deeper than the thickness of the shell wall, @dvdasa might give info on that.
Of course it helps to have a measurement system, so I can finetune the response below 1kHz. At the moment I have Transpore over the punctured vent and make sure that I have some air-permeable part of the Transpore strip over it. This results in a bass response that shows a very gentle downward slant from 20Hz to 1khz.
@HAL9000, The Harakiri mod does not affect the response above 1kHz.

 

Actually, I would like to see/hear less energy around 2k and a little more treble sparkl with these. But that's just me and my sonic preferences.

 

Is it possible for someone to post pics with the S3 orS5 in the ears? I find that the best fit happens when the wires are pointed up and I fold them along my ears a la Shure.

 

That's exactly how they're meant to be worn, they just don't have a memory wire thing to annoy you.

 

Mate, thanks. I thought I was losing my mind

 

The top picture in the official product page is pretty much self-explanatory.
http://www.tfzither.com/works_detail-18-3.html

 

So, are these worth it over the tenores if planning to mod?

 

Couldn't agree more, thats how exactly i wear this monster now, it is the best way to wear it, the ear will keep it on the ear more secure than any way of wearing.

 

I'm writing now with Tfz S5 on my ears. I could not say enough what i thought now about this earphone . I have just received this 2 days. And i have gone from hell to heaven in just that two short days, really ? Do you believe that ? May be yes, may be no. But this is to to my experiment. The fist time i opened the box and see it. WTF ? What the hell is this ? The finish is only good on the right ear one, the left one is marked with a mark of glue (??????) and the crack on the housing is too big that i can slide a pencil tip in. What a disappointment !!! Never mind, i buy this because i buy this because of the core value: SQ not the look(this take me exactly 68$ to get this in my hand, i live in Vietnam). Let try some my favourite tracks to see if my experimence like @Rotijon did (I buy this right after reading his review of S3, this thread ). Plug in in the Iphone 6+ What, what, what........ WTF, this is so awful, i can't hear a complete song though this, just press next and next to skip, the bass just thump thump and have no detail at all even compare to the Xiaomi Piston (only 15$) and even the Monk+(10$), mid is so dry, treble is harsh and bla bla. . So disappointed. put it off and see what is the box, i see the user guide . In that i see something like: your head phone need about 100-300 hours of burn-in to read its own potential. Ok, i have no need to keep this if it keep sounding like this. Unplug it and and plug in another source, the iPhone 4s just keep playing just to burn it, Coming home and give it any try i can make. i have many sources to drive it: AK Jr, Iphone 6+, iPhone 4s, Chord Mojo, Audirvana+ on my MacbookPro, Dragon Fly RED, Topping D3, Cayin C5 and the phones to compare is VE Monk+, Sound Magic E80s, Oriveti Primacy (3 driver hybrid iem). All solution i try is just give the same lifeless sound. Too tired of try to judge how it sound. i don't believe it become much better if it just sounding like this. Burn it overnight till next day, Tonight i sit at my desk and give another try. , wtf, maybe the god replace my sh..tty earphone by a completely different one. The bass is more flexible and precise, deep. Mid is more lively and treble is so smooth and open. The sound stage is excellent, every instrument have space to play and the sound is like on live concert, not headphone. So amazing, I don't know how the engineer tune this, it sound more detail than my Olivetti Primacy ???????????. Before this in only think burn in is just a myth. But now it so evidence that this is true. And another thing i can't understand, my Topping D3(~200USD) drive it much more better than the Mojo (600USD) done. May be they have the same nationality so that work better together LOL. After all, this is really make me so temp, i may try a S7 when it release. When i buy this TFZ, i have search all the forum i know for a review of the S5 but see nothing. I see selling topic more than review topic. I see a guy that sell it after open the box and try some songs and put it on.......Ebay LOL. A bit regret when buying this. I intend to buy an Oriolus (1K $ in my country). But with my tfz 5 on my ears now i have no need to buy that pricey one. Why do you must give so much on earphones when you can get an fantastic performance/price like this. When i complete this comment, 2 album have just passed my ears through the S5, buy in with confident boys. You won't regret about it. Enjoy yours melody...................

 

P/s: Thanks you so much @Rotijon for what you share about your experiment with your S3

 

Your're welcome, try to format you impressions abit. It would be very very useful for other people who are reading through our impressions before making a decision. I personally found it very useful.

 

bought a pair of the S5 for possible gym use and see what the hype is all about. Been listening to it for the past hour while a/bing vs andromeda and ie800. To be honest, it sounds like hot garbage compared to the andro and ie800. I actually like the bass, but overall it's not anywhere close to the other 2. I'm going to let it burn in for a couple of days and retry, but kind of skeptical as to how much of a difference burn in will actually make.

 

uh, paragraphs?

 

OK, it isn't head-fi so I didn't regurgitate the whole post. Also I didn't cum in my kewl teen pants.

Hard facts:

I am almost 50 years old (and suitably disappointed and bad tempered) and am gradually coming around to accepting that almost all first impressions are worthless/inane/even more worthless than is credible.

I have spent too much on all this shit.

It doesn't matter how good something sounds if it breaks next week/month/year.

It doesn't matter how cheap something is if it breaks next week/month/year.

If you can't replace the cables and it costs more than £20, don't buy it.

What the kewl kids like this week they will sneer at next week.

My Shure SE425s sound better than 99%* of the amazing/kewl/obscure/giant-killer stuff and will continue to do so for a decade.

kthxbye (see how kewl I can be when I try).

*more likely 100% but I've had a couple of beers and glasses of brandy so feel unusually generous - it is only temporary.

 

Been using the S3's all day today off of my iPhone 6S Plus (using the stock foams which I preferred over my spin fits, I have some spiral dots coming tomorrow). Will get a couple more hours in on my desktop tonight.

Pretty impressed -- definitely not shit.

That's all the prose I'm willing to commit to for a one day listen.

 

Nice, remember to let them burn in =)

 

Have been using S5 for a while, let them burned it around 50~hours (via Gov2, volume lower than listening level)
So far i like how the bass settle down and provide more space for other instruments , the treble extension wont be that hiiiigh but they're there.
Out of curiosity, i order another pair to try the mod posted here. Will be back in a few days to report my findings...

 

Burn in time is vital. Rule of thumb: work out the playback length of your entire music collection and burn in IEMs for at least double that time. Double again for MP3. If you live in the southern hemisphere you can just about get away with half these numbers (it's a magnetic thing).

 

Dont forget to do the special burn in dance =). Room temperature must be 30c and humidity at 60%.

If you can spare the effort, make sure to do the tari mod as well.

 

Burn in really make huge different for TFZ IEMs.
My S3 sounds terrible after unboxing, even S1 that already burn-in for 2 weeks sounds much more natural.
So I started to wonder, is it because of the S3 still new? So I unboxed another new S1 for testing, and I found out that run in is absolutely important for TFZ.

After burn-in the S3 for 2 days, the improvement is noticeable. Now I can confidently say that S3 is definitely higher range than S1.