Crinacle's Project Red is here! TruthEar Zero RED review 

For those wondering about the measurements, check the thread in the description to see how the Zero Red changes with different tips. The wide opening silicone and foam tips seem to give a bit more mid treble, but less upper treble.

Also, props to Crinacle for asking actually good questions, too many people these days would have just talked shit on the internet, and expected things to change. Crinacle went straight up to Sean Olive and said "Your research was a bit shit", and Sean saying "YEEEEEEE, it kinda was". I respect that.

"Have you no respect for the man?" Honesty is true respect. I'm glad Crin was respectful enough to say it straight to Dr. Sean Olive.

Hey Resolve, I would definitely like to see a test session to see which of these sound signatures the test group would prefer most.

I'm one of those old guys who has been listening to quality sound for 50 years. My hearing was tested in an anechoic chamber by a PhD audiologist from Tufts University, who says it is still excellent. The test only goes to 8 kHz, however, with informal online testing indicating I'm still good up to 12.8 kHz, just over the top FM radio frequency, with my right ear being not quite as good as my left ear. My interest in IEMs is, I admit, recent and casual. The first thing I realized is that finding the right tip is everything. With that said, my preference is for the Truthear Zero BLUE, perhaps because it's more "exciting" to my old ears than the Zero RED. Crinacle's tuning of the RED sounds like any number of good headphones I've owned, or have heard, over the years. There's nothing new about his preferred sound signature, but having it at this price point is amazing. The RED's resistor bass boost comes across like the old "loudness" button on amps and receivers that just muddied the sound. The sub-bass on the BLUE is very impressive. Update: After a break-in period -- meaning me, not the hardware -- the RED is excellent. Without the bass booster the overall balance really works. There's plenty of bass and only a small loss of sparkle in the cymbals compared to the BLUE. Both "flavors" are keepers.

Love your reviews. Thank you for all your time. Krin himself says he collaborated on the Salnotes zero ....also I'd be interested in a review of all three especially since I own two of the Salnotes and the original. Truth.

Very interesting idea to run a blind test with both, as long as it’s a significant sample

I am getting the red to do exxactly an A/B test for myself. Great review.

Thanks Resolve, great review! The IEM is a bonus but I bought it for bass-boost adaptor. Can’t wait to try it on the rest of my IEM collection.

I did like this video. I did. But the experiment you suggest with people trying both of the Zeros would be DOPE! I'm here for it! :D

Fantastic job considering several conflicting ideas at once and giving a measured (hehe) comprehensive response

Very good breakdown, thanks.

I took your advice and bought the reds. OMG I’m loving them. These are sooooooooooo awesome. Well worth the $55, would recommend them to anyone and everyone

For sure I will get a red one! Thx for very interesting comparison

I agree with you on how important this is both for the audiophile purview of statistics and its general population meaning, but also due to the fact that so many can now also decide for themselves what direction, or signature they enjoy more and how it compares to one of the main reviewers out there. It's a good shift out of the subjective and abstract world of audio words and a more direct and objective opportunity to hear what you've heard about, while simultaneously having graphs and comparisons with the mainstream Harmon target. If I've learned anything on this journey, is what to look for to satisfy my preference. A more educated preference nowadays, which I had to pay for through trial and error :D Great video as usual Andrew! One day, it'll be 20 years that we've all been on this train wagon of audio back and forth, and I know I'll remember how you were one of the major people who steered so many of us (even though bla bla I said train before and they're usually on tracks and one doesn't steer a train waffle waffle sad analogy but I'm too committed now anyway). Oh, and a lot of money will have changed hands too in those couple of decades, money we could have eaten off :D

Very interesting if you set up a blind test and see which one people prefer. I would also divide it up between self-proclaimed audiophiles and the rest of the world. Go for it Andrew!

@Bruno Martorella . Right, but it would still depends on the taste of people doing the blind test. The really interesting blind test that would be great is blind testing both and a perfect mastering room and find which one is closer to a perfect room with speakers. The closer would be the best, and it would be less based on taste than comparing both IEMs between themselves only. I bet it would be the Red because I already have the Blue and found that EQuing to Neutral with a boost on low frequencies to bring them between Neutral and Harman gives something closer to a good room with speakers than the full Harman tuning. Having several people confirming this would be great (I'm only talking about music listening, not video games)

Would dig a video doing blind testing and thanks for the coverage. The red has my curiosity. Not an iem centric guy but still use them in some workhorse & air travel applications and this price point is quite nice.

Ordered the zero’s and liked them so much I bought a backup pair. Now I have to buy these, lol. I like Crinn

I can’t wait to get my pair of Red as I ordered a pair earlier today

I would be interested in seeing a test group trying the two IEM as you mentioned. I enjoy getting people take and do make purchase based on their take. I seem to like Crin’s opinion with gear and haven’t found anything yet I disagree with.

I quite liked the original Zero, though the nozzle turned out to be too large for my ear to the point where it was actually painful, even with the smallest tips. Until I tried the Hexa I hadn't realized how I actually didn't need that much bass to really enjoy music.

I would be great if you could cover the outside and replace the cable on both and send them around to all of the headphone show review crew for a small blind test and have them report back the tips and unit 1 or 2 that they preferred

You earned a subscriber what a great review Also about the Harman IE vs ief Harman literally hurts my ears and every one I gave my iems to maybe because we where Younger but i think Harman ie is absolutely shouty and it's a fact

When I first bought the TE Zeros I didn’t even know the harman curve was different for them at the time and I did notice that they were too bright for me to comfortably listen to at a volume I preferred. Meanwhile I was enjoying my AKG k371 just fine

Yes a comparison video please

I really like how the hifi industry is evolving. We're fighting for 2 or more very good tuning style in our little bubble Do you know what this means? These bickerings create a huge amount of attention and information. This is going to push the audio gear industry forward. Just 2 years ago we were praising a bloated and somewhat ok sounding IEM and now we can get the TOTL tunings at the bare minimum price point. I look forward for this industry to swell and increase in scale; this way the higher end components like Sonion EST drivers would get cheaper. Who knows? Maybe we can get product that costs 400 bucks but competitive even against the Monarch mk2 in 2 years down the road?

I love the IEF neutral. I have now used both the Moondrop Chu and Crinacle's 7Hz Salnotes Zero, and the biggest different maker for me is the relaxed treble. And also it feels like it's a better performer but that might just be because my Chu was falling apart when I switched to the Zero and so that might have coloured my opinion a little.

Yes. I. Interested! 😊

"Cartoon child" Atleast you didn't disrespect it this time 🤣

Damn,... Now I wanna buy both sets of IEM's just to test the difference.... Touche Crincale 💸💸

Nice! I really don’t like the harman target and I think the Red curve matches almost 100% to my tunning preference. I'd like to try the Red, but I heard some people saiyng that the nozzle is too big.

The problem I had with the original TruthEar zero was the "disconnected" bass; the sound just didn't seem to transition seamlessly from the bass driver. I liked the sound further up the frequency spectrum, but to me Zeros sounded like someone had added a sub-woofer to a good pair of good stand-mount speakers but then turned up the gain of the sub too much.

absolutely do a blind video on zero red vs zero ! :)

I used the Reds EQ on the Zeros and I felt liked the Zero more but I didn't try it for more than a few minutes. I also use a Loki so if something sounds bad per song, video or whatever I can change on the fly and leave my basic Zero EQ on Peace alone. Looking to get the IE 200's next to have something more neutral to compare them both to. Maybe then I'll hear a bigger difference. Just felt like the Red had less bass

I find the whole tuning thing really interesting at the moment personally. For a long time I've held the view that it's (obviously) subjective but more recently, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's also highly contextual. Obviously, we all have different tastes so different tunings will suit different people for that reason but I'm finding that it also depends on what you're using an audio product for too. I'm someone who has used IEMs for drumming for quite a few years no and up until recently have tended to go for relatively neutral sounding sets, if anything with a mild V-shape or bass boost. It's only been the past year that I've started venturing outside of that and while it's made a massive difference in terms of listening to music with more 'fun' tunings or being able to have rumbling bass for films/TV, I've also found that some tunings are also comically bad when I'm trying to hear my electronic drum kit in particular. I know that there are targets that are followed based on individual preferences but I wonder if different use cases are considered or not. I think it's worth noting as some people might not use an IEM for listening to music most of the time.

I would like to see the video of the comparison!!!

I got mine last week, and I didn’t like the original…..but this….YES! I got it shortly after my performer 8 and figured I’d be underwhelmed by this, oh boy was I wrong! This is probably the best iem under $100 if you want something neutral with a bass boost. Do I like it more than my Olina se? Idk yet, the vocals are really good on that set and it’s really good for metal.

Are those the Hifiman HE6SE V2 on the new testing rig?

Also, the bass will sound different even if they kept it the same-just on account of bringing the treble down. Great review.

Nice review but I already have an IEM so it doesn't look like I'll be getting another one anytime soon.

Hi, thx for the review, just wondering, can i drive those on my smartphone ? I mean are they easy to drive ? I have a old Samsung galaxy s8 and i'm wondering if i'll be abble to enjoy those iems completely just plugged into my phone.

Yes, i would definitly like to see a blind reaction video

Does the resolution push higher than its price point?

Seems like im gonna have to buy the red although i'd still keep my zero

When are you guys gonna review elysian gaea?

Hey, how would you say these compare in the vocals department with something like the Simgot EW200s?

Yes please on blind test video

the standard zero red without the impedance adapter looks like the auto eq response target

Hello andrew, i am a sound engineer and i bought the zero red because of you, from curiosity, and i realize that has the PERFECT frequency response for mixing and mastering! I wonder if you can suggest any openback headphones with the same or similar frequency response. I have the Akg k371 (again because of you😊) but the zero red sounds way much better. Thank you very much.

The issue with IEMs in general, it's completely different vs over ears because they bypass the ear pinna. It's impossible to predict the anatomy of each individual ear pinna and canal shape out there. If I recall, Axel Grell stated in one of his presentations that perceived frequency response for different individuals can differ by as much as 20 dB in certain areas, mostly the upper midrange and treble. For my ears and preferences, even Crinacle's target sounds way too forward around 4-6 kHz, so I need to EQ most "neutral" IEMs like the Kato down like 6 dB in that area. So I for sure would prefer the Red vs the original Zero.

I'm new with IEM's so my question is that is this good for a first pair of IEM's 😊 Really looking In ear, because I live in the Philippines and with overear headset my ears gets hot if using longer preioid of time, thank you 😊

As the Salnotes Zero was always my prefered IEM I will likely not get the Red myself. There doesn't seem to be any big differences that would justify a purchase.

has the blind test been done yet? :o

I have feeling huge boom boxes are gonna make a come back. Headphones are yesterdays news.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me before - I was listening to my IEMs and was thinking the seal wasn't too good. So I folded my ears flat, forward...and the sound quality just improved. Bass was so much better. I then put on my headphones to keep my ears pressed and now I'm happy. Cost was $0. If you want to improve the sound of your IEMs and a spare set of headphones, give it a shot.

Anyone know where I can get foam tip replacements for them? Thanks!

How would this compare to say Sennheiser ie 300s? They have great clairty but lack that excoting bass. I often switch over to Sennheiser TW3s to get the exvoting bass.

I wonder if you could take the zero and red variants and swap the blue and red backplates around so you(hopefully) don't know which one is which just by looking... I mean, "zero" is blue backed, while "zero: red" is red backed, and I wonder if swapping the colors would be some way to check for bias based on "expectations". I mean, if you expect the one to be "zero: red" because it has a red back plate, but it's REALLY the original zero, and they think it's the "zero: red" model in a supposedly "blind" test, wouldn't it suggest a bit of bias? Take my postulation with a grain of salt because I'm still looking into getting my first set of IEMs, and it's a tossup between the "zero" and "red" variant right now for me... One thing I've noticed on Amazon reviews of the original "zero" model, is that most people find it requires an amp/DAC addon or specifically built "hi-fi" media players with all that built-in. Whether that's SUPPOSED to be what happens or not IDK, but I'm betting that the reds probably won't have so many complaints along those lines if what my guess on what the 10ohm adapter is for, is somewhat close to correct. Basically since it pumps the bass up, I'm guessing that the higher bass will require a little more power to drive, if I'm not mistaken, although, I'll point you back to the fact that I'm an IEM n00b, nay, a n00b in audio in general, so the previous"grain of salt" comment still applies...

That you can get IEMs that sound this good for

I actually agree with your conclusion. This chance to do a A-B testing for relatively cheaply AND the products are good? Sounds like an easy recommendation to me for anyone interested in audio stuff

Finally someone is bold enough to say the harman target is shouty. It really is shouty and sometimes sibilance depending on the sound tracks. I keep going back to my HD600 and ask why can’t iem be tuned like it. HD600 is perfect for any kinds of song & track, without any sibilance. It’s tuned so well, except for, maybe the bass can be tuned up a little bit more for those who like more bass.

And for concole games should I upgrade with zero red? I have original ones. I feel this headphones harsh a little on highs when I put a lot volume on Apex legends games.but overall for music it's 💣💣💣 :)

Now we have an embargo in iems.

We need the blind test

I complained to crin on his channel about IEMs being way too bright. Like, its not a flashlight OEMs. its a tiny speaker. I have been stuck on the e215 for a decade almost. Might buy this.

I was really hoping for something a bit more high end.

Yes for this price it sounds good 👍(Nomax)

Make a review on kiwi orcaesta lite

Do you need an DAC/AMP for these? I'm going to use these on my PC for watching movies and TV but also to listen podcasts when I'm on the go.

Which of them is best for FPS gaming?

Please please do a blind test!

It's the Red for me

Which one is better for gaming?

I think the nozzles on these are way too big (wide) I feel slightly violated each time I use these. But they more than make up for it with the way they sound. I have the original Zero aswell and I do like them for what they are. Bass-heavy and a bit shouty. But the Red sounds so good. It's not similar to the original Zero in any way I think. I like bass and this has just enough bass for me to not loose interest =)

My theory is that changing the faceplate color changed its tonality. Very smart move from Crin 👍

3:08 I also suspect that people are more used to vshaped in ears vs overears from what is available in the market.

I have the OG Zero, but I also just got this. I’m looking forward to it.

cca cra+ vs truthear zero red which one has better sound qulity 🤔

Anyone who as the red zero, how does it compare to a galaxy buds pro2?

they did not go ahead and do any of the further videos suggested in this one, even though they could be pretty important

I can see why a neutral tune is important because we are looking to reproduce sound as natural as possible. On the flip side some music is intentionally accentuated on the highs and lows, therefore it would seem appropriate to have several IEM's for various music types, studio vs. live, etc.

its crazy that crin has possibly created the new iem target

You are reviewing a collaboration ...

I received the Reds a few days ago, I had the Original Zero's before that. The Reds are so much better in my opinion. They just sound great, much more balanced. I don't think I'll need another pair of IEMs for a long time.

Literally listening to this on the zero red's

I don’t like IEMs, they’re either uncomfortable for me… or just don’t sound good. I’ve never been terribly impressed by sub-200$ options and anything higher and I’ll buy headphones. These sound phenomenal on both my dongle and my schitt stack. I’m traveling to Europe for 2 months for work soon and I think these will be my daily drivers.

good..Thanks Much!

I still don’t get how this “makes every other IEM irrelevant” like Golden Sound said

I hope Hexa: Red is released 😀Just adding a bit more impact in the bass and a bit of warmth, not messing with detail, resolution and instrument separation and refining treble a bit, adding a bit more air and soundstage. That would be killer!

Buy 2 IEMs? What about just using EQ for Harman IE 2019 vs. IEF + bass?

Yes, that's the problem i have with the Aria, i find it too bright and can't comfortably listen to it without EQ. This IEM might be the thing for me, but idk how it compares with the Aria

Bought the original, sterile and soul less is my take . OK for podcasts but for music, not a chance. My preference is for a warmer sound, vocals more front and centre and although not a bass head some would have been nice

I regret getting the blue ones ... the angle of the nozel is not for my ears, they dont fit well :/

I wonder if, when tuning the red, should they have kept the bass the same, and just tuned down those upper mids/ lower treble. That way you can poll the audience and truly see if that range is too spicy for in-ear monitors. I understand why Crin did it this way, to see whether people like the Harman, or his target better, but I think the other way could have been more impactful, and maybe motivated the Harman people to look into revising.

Thanks for your review, I just got a pair and I have never owned anything this good! Goodbye gaming headsets

i want to color The OG into red

the question is if this is worth it over the 7hz Zero

Yes, blind A - B tests with different genres!

‘Cartoon Child’ 😂😭