shotgunshane’s IEM (custom and universal) recommendations, favorites and classics

Here you go, @Merrick
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fanmusic-H...r+hola&qid=1702260112&sprefix=,aps,187&sr=8-3

 

Also 10pr left on Amazon Canada:

https://www.amazon.ca/Fanmusic-Truthear-HOLA-Earphone-Interchangeable/dp/B0BYCH3NPF

 

Just got them, +1

 

Wanted to try out what single MEMS-driver based IEMs can achieve, but had a hard time finding any. Soranik MEMS-2 are two-way (xMEMS Montara full range + USound Conamara supertweeter), Singularity ONI IEMs use twin xMEMS Montara drivers, and Creative, Noble and NUARL TWS are all DD + MEMS hybrids. Also, MEMS-2 and ONI are both pretty expensive.

So I went with the Linner Deluxe for $250 (early bird), which is first and foremost designed as a hearing aid, offering TWS audio streaming only as an add-on. However, it had what I was looking for: just one single MEMS driver per side (Usound Conamara full range).




Measurements:

(Linner Deluxe default EQ: DF-compensated = blue, RAW = purple)


(All DF-compensated; Linner Deluxe = blue, ER4S = green, UERM = purple)


Comments:

• Very DF-neutral. Ignore 2.5k dip, imo shallow fitting IEMs don't need as much ear canal gain compensation as, say ER4S.
• Sound quality in the same ballpark as ER4S and UERM: analytical, extremely clear and detailed.
• Max volume level rather low, not sure whether due to driver or DSP limit.

Overall I'm quite impressed with the single full-range MEMS driver, its fidelity reminds me of TOTL DDs or even electrostats. No BA-timbre and no treble sizzle like with piezo tweeters. (Probably not enough punch to achieve Harman-target bass levels though.)

That said, I can't recommend this particular Linner unit, unless you have use for the hearing aid function. Its audio streaming is very basic and featureless, no playback controls, no headset functionality, no ANC for audio.
(Edit: correction, actually there's play/pause for music and one can also answer the phone. Very basic, but it's there)

Still, I'm looking forward to more advanced implementations of single full-range MEMS drivers, as I feel they can cover the entire audible spectrum with highly impressive fidelity.

 

Having rapidly become quite intrigued with my Linner full-range MEMS TWS, I wanted to find out what makes them so damn clear and revealing, while at the same time not really fatiguing. That's when I came across this video by a pro sound engineer:



According to him it's due to extremely tight phase accuracy. Must say, I've never paid attention to phase with single driver IEMs, and I also lack the technical knowledge to judge whether he's right or wrong. But in their blog, xMEMS are tooting pretty much the same horn and offer a more in-depth explanation:

https://xmems.com/blog/phase-characteristics/

So I decided to perform an experiment, acquire the Creative Ace TWS, which are hybrids (DD for bass, MEMS for mids/highs), equalize them to match the Linner's frequency response and listen for any noteworthy differences in the low range.

(DF-compensated: blue = Linner, green = Creative stock, orange = Creative equalized)


Nice match from 20Hz to 4.5kHz. I didn't care about further up, as this would have hardly any impact on the low range, and couplers tend to be unreliable there anyway.

Result: I've done FR-matched A/B tests between DDs several times in the past, back when I was busy modding them. They always turned out sounding pretty similar, with rather minor differences. Well, this isn't the case here, as the difference between FR-matched hybrid and full-range MEMS turned out to be significant. While the EQ'd Creatives don't sound muddy in any way, it still feels like a veil is lifted when I switch to the Linners, with bass that sounds a tad less impactful, but distinctly clearer and better delineated.

To give a comparison, I think full-range MEMS sound closer to BA in clarity, but closer to DD in texture and timbre. Of course I still can't say, whether that's due to the mentioned phase accuracy, but they clearly do sound like new and different tech.

 

@shotgunshane I saw your Nair for sale. Did the Supernova bump it? (Have you given impressions on the Supernova yet? Would love to hear your take!)

 

The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Live had me content for background listening of podcasts and not so well recorded metal.
The Senn, Apple and Sammy better offerings are very competent in macro stuff. They even manage some expansive headstage. All in all they are fantastic products.
However, every once in a while I would wake up to the lack of life in the sound. The True Wireless™ stuff ultimately lack the connection (hehe) to inner life in music. Something that even cheap turd like SanDisk and RE-00 combo would give.
It cumulates and digs a hole of data deprivation - that I have to fill in a great speaker system.

I've been out of the headphone and iem stuff for years due to speakers. The problem is I can't have the speakers with me while driving car, tractor or doing other manual labour around my farm.
Then, we have @shotgunshane as excellent resource to cure this very problem of knowing what to do about it.

The cheap Zero2 was hyped here and I thought it's been a while, fine I'll try.
At first I sticked these to an OMEN laptop and had a quick listen.
What a pile of

Mid-high bass galore, a mess.

Then plugged them into a chunky HP dock.
Well-well. Not shit. Some head bobbing level of goodness.
It does not like high source resistance, apparently.

The tonality from a decent source is so nice - I've grown to believe Mr Crinacle (he rec'd the Galaxy Pro2 buds for tonality) knows what he is doing. There is no weirdness, it's all normal.
The tonal balance is well done, although it is borderline bass heavy, forgiving and a bit mush up top.
It is very good with crappy recordings because it has nothing extra in trouble zones (4k, 6k 8k etc).
Sub bass is slightly sloppy and veiled. Top two octaves are not it's strengths either. Everything in between is.
Clarity, dynamics and resolution from mid bass to low treble has no place to be in a set that costs so little.
How I know?
Dug out the mighty EC 2A3 from long sleep (3 years+).
The Zero2 probably resolves high bass up to high mids as well as a HD650. Resolution wise it did not feel massive downgrade next to HD800 that I also dug out from hibernation. (digression: I was not so warm to HD800 after all these years with speakers - can't get over the lean hollow tonality)
Tonally the EC is not a great match to Zero2 - there is some extra warmth in that combo that is not that welcome. The amp with this particular toob combo into high impedance or flat impedance is lean, a bit mean resolution monster - I bet the imp hump of the Zero2 does not work in its favour here.
It is somewhat picky of sources.

Even so, the Zero2 with a old pos Xiaomi phone ( it has a freaking a headphone hole) is better sound than the true wireless stuff.

For some odd reason they fit me perfectly and comfy - I've never had the experience that a iem fresh from the box simply works without messing with the tips and whatnot.

Things have really moved on since 3..5 years ago. Now I want to try what more expensive stuff of today can do.

 

Had you been letting them bake in the figurative oven by the time you decided that the Zero 2s were ? I actually specifically got a pair becuase I got into an argument about dynamic driver burn in with some folks and wanted to see if there might not be some measurable differences on the MiniDSP EARS rig (ergo why I just gave mine to family after-- I had no real need of them). I know part of it has to be acclimatisation but I formed impressions and revisited specific aspects to songs and realised that a lot of my early negative impressions were just due to things not being fully settled.

I got hands on a Tangzu Wan'er Studio (also a single 10mm DD) yesterday for a different reason and experienced a lot of the same just now. Listening to the same passages out of the same upstream as yesterday after having left them running overnight, things are pretty drastically different. Wish I could directly compare to the Zero2 but I might like this more somehow despite FR not being dissimilar by much at all.

 

Not much - I forgot them hooked to the laptop for a few hours to play Tool in repeat before the next day when I tried the dock and it sounded good.
I noticed the usual burn in effects after a few days - not in from dogshit to great kind of way - that had to do with the weak HP laptop hole.
More like the usual stuff for dynamic driver - the micro stuff surfaced more and the clarity improved a bit.

I should get a decent ding-dong for my phone - but it is almost impossible to choose. Too bad Schiit doesn't offer one.
Presumably a honest, straight neutral (or tinge bright) low source resistance output would go well with the Zero2.

 

Sorry if this is all derailing the thread but I do wonder whether your experience with hi-fi means that you're accustomed to more drastic differences in SQ than I am whereas I might hone in on and exaggerate minutiae (hah!). It's really interesting to ponder, but yeah a lot of the changes I noted with the Zero 2 were in refinement and clarity, removing the crumpled paper filter as I called it-- even after they felt done settling down they still seemed more fatiguing to me than not.

Feels like the burning-in process has been more exaggerated with the Wan'er Studios than with the 7Hz. I hesitate to ask cuz it's more trouble and expense but I would be curious to get your opinions on the differences between them and the Zero 2s because somehow, despite FR being so close (I readily agree that FR is far from being everything of importance) I might end up rather liking the Tangzus.

FWIW I preferred the Zero 2s from the 1.2R OI of the BTR7 vs the near-0 of the Magni Unity. Desktop amp is incomparable in use of course, but the Unity seemed to exaggerate the glare and hardness I was hearing.

 

Compared to many folks here in SBAF, also compared to you, I am total IEM noob. It could easily be I am way too excited about the Zero2's.

Where I feel more comfortable to form words - I work with great speakers, where severe compromises and faults do not fly - unlike most headphones I listened to up to 3 y ago. I am exited because I recognize approachable tonality and dynamic capacity from these modest cheap portable things. They sound nothing like the sub 200 $ iems just a few years back with either weird texture/timbre, random tonality, dynamics inconsistency (great dynamics in bass and highs and nothing in between or opposite). This one is not without minor faults, yet very consistent in all regards.

Small speakers get a pass when the low bass is not that great, soft dome tweeters get a pass when the top two octaves are not 10 out of 10.
In the meat zone (70 Hz to 8 kHz) they do not get a pass when there are big compromises - this is where most music lives.
That is not even expensive flagship level stuff with esoteric drivers and artistic xo topologies.

edit:
We are laying waste in this thread with philosophy - best transferring this to some education thread.

It would be cool if someone of SBAF could round the cheap ones up and do a deathmatch and measurement race.

 

Back with some notes on Crin Zero2.


Got this extension to my phone a few weeks back.

In context of that dongle I take back some of the criticism I had for the Crin Zero2 IEMs.
Tonally they deviate from what I would call neutral by only a bit elevated bass - 2 dB back on a shelf eq is good.
From this dongle the highs and lows are not mush anymore and lows are more linear and uniform.
Not giant slayer, but good.

 

Looking for a pair of cheap iems for use with my Switch and PS Portal, since they don’t support Bluetooth. Was thinking the Aria 2. Cheap and tuning seems good, but are they easy to drive with minimal hiss out of what is probably really cheap audio ports?

 

I used the Starfield with the Switch before, it was good.