Special thanks to Linsoul, ShenzhenAudio, Yaoyaotiger, Unique Melody, KBEar, ikko, Shanling, and Fatfreq for daring to have their stuff ran through the gauntlet! Links in the description are based on whoever sent me whatever. Also if you aren't aware, 100K giveaway still ongoing: crinacle.com/100k2
_"because the audiophile community is a bunch of toxic douchbags"_ Spot on Crinicle, and that's why I love watching your videos because while I'm not a massive IEM listener, I am a large basshead and you have bass tunings too and aren't afraid to voice your actual opinions. Being honest I feel you've made the whole experience more enjoyable and it's now more acceptable to say you like bass or like EQ than it was before you came onto the RU-vid scene.
Probably why I left. I am closing the chapter after my last setup is done and moving on. Just don't ask for proof if changing cables really changes anything. All you'll get is testimony and no evidence.
@@thevashfan12392 you should watch the audio science review channel. Amir does cover a lot of the snake oil. It's very therapeutic to see him absolutely tear apart all the bullshit in the most polite manner
I don’t know if I can consider myself an audiophile, but the reason I don’t like most of the community is: everyone believes only they are right, while being in one of the most subjective hobbies to be in. I mean, even the size or shape of your ears may affect how you hear things, and thus having the possibility to lean towards certain sound signatures, but they will just call you and your taste trash bc you don’t like what they like or viceversa. That’s why I (personally) just try to enjoy it alone, and all I really watch/read are DankPods or Crin
At this point IEM brands are just spitting out random models with wildly varying tuning (balanced, neutral, flat, V, bass-mids-treble heavy, optimizing it for best audio technicality, etc) tuning ranging anywhere from $60 to $600 and hoping one of their half-dozen new offerings become a runaway hit. Hopefully they all cost similarly to manufacture so they'll make a profit on the 1-2 models that do end up selling well.
Much more useful than the old farts who claim you need 2000 hours of burn-in per day and at least 300 hours of listening a week for 2 centuries to know what a headphone is truly capable of.
Yep. If your IEMs sound like shit when you first listen to them, then they definitely won't miraculously become a good set with additional time. The mechanics of micro-drivers like those used in earphones basically rules out burn-in as a serious contributor to driver performance changes. It likely is a thing, but it would also happen over the first few minutes to an hour of listening. You aren't dealing with large voice coils with stiff spiders and surrounds that need time to break in. You're dealing with drivers that have diaphragms and surrounds that are measured in micrometers of thickness and there is no spider. I think the beryllium foil dynamic drivers may be one of the few that could feasibly claim burn-in as a thing, but even then I'd be skeptical as hell. Long story short, the spoiled milk analogy is his favorite for a reason. If your set sounds like shit, then don't keep trying to make them work. Just return them and get something better.
@@OnamazuKuuran Exactly. In this day and age where there are companies on AE selling pre-tuned DD and multi-BA composite drivers that already have acceptable tuning, there is no excuse for a company to do their own work to tune something and do a worse job of it.
I actually really like this idea, you’re not sure how expensive these are when you try them so it’s the most unbiased it can be and I love the surprise
I have the Aladdins. Yanyin and especially their Aladdin embodies the saying "jack of all trades, master of none". Super conservative tuning that works for pretty much all genres and can't really go wrong but nothing really stands out
I've heard that it lacks detail retrieval and dynamics compared to other sets. Might also just be that the reviewers listening to it have a really high tolerance for treble and the significantly restrained pinna gain on the Aladdin is insufficient for them to hear the treble. One of my favorite sets before it died a gruesome accidental death was the GS Audio GD7B, which has a tuning similar to the Fearless Tequila. Very, very flat with just the tiniest hint of bass and treble gain. I rather liked them, but understood that it's just because my ears are weird and I like reference flat tuning.
Crin when you mention the price and rate the IEMs, can you also mention what you feel like the price should have been for a particular iem to be a good value?
Wish there was somewhere around me that I could go and try out a bunch. I'm very happy with my current beyer/dusk combo, but I like trying stuff and having variety, and it was a huge leap of faith to just order two sets of headphones sight unseen, or rather, audio unheard.
In the best IEMs under 100$ you said you were going to make the same video but with 50$. Is that still planned and if so do you have any idea when you'll make it?
I think it would be very interesting for you to guess the price at which you think the IEM would be acceptable before you look it up, good video. Keep it up.
Well for him it's nothing. He doesn't see those IEM's as investment nor valuable. He's just after testing and possibly roasting them. Man what a dream life :D
Another entertaining and informative video Crin! What are the most realistic sounding iem’s at different price points? Love the recentering and when there is an iem that is worth diving into ✨✨✨
I am literally binge watching your channel these past few days and this episode makes my eyes popped with dollar sign. lol. I am actually new on this shit but I have learn a lot from your channel and those iems! man they're dope! anyways I only tried the cheaper ones and they're not even mine. Awesome contents! First time commenting here Subscribed and liked 👍
Before Crinacle got his hands into the sub-$150 IEM market, the Starsea was legitimately a good option for people. Adequate bass, excellent mids, and quite a bit of detail retrieval without aggressive sibilance in the treble. But it is no longer alone in that segment and probably needs a price adjustment or a complete revamp. Personally, I'd be in favor of them taking Crin's approach to using the DD as a subwoofer and using a pretty fast DD combined with a larger full-range BA and a smaller supertweeter BA so you can get great mids and good treble extension. Don't know if that's going to happen, but I can hope, right? Regardless, I already have one and it gets very little use because I also have a GS Audio GD5, which is just a better all-around IEM compared to the Starsea.
@@-aexc- I just wish that the shell was a bit of a narrower wedge shape and a little shallower in depth. They're reasonably comfortable but stick out of my ears a bit further than my GS Audio GD5. I also wish they had done more with the tuning switches. They don't have nearly as dramatic an effect as I was hoping they would, but designing a crossover network to utilize switches that could make dramatic changes to the tuning just isn't feasible at that price point. It also just isn't that feasible in a set that doesn't have spare drivers to bypass.
Can you share what you're listening to in order to demo the IEMs; I assume you're listening to the same song the whole session? I know you have a blog post about the music you like listening, but it'd be a fun thing to know the testing track for these listening videos.
Great video as always, Crin! A little question, what do you listen to when testing these IEMs? Do you just loop the same song over and over for each one or is it anything else?
Yo crin dont call google/alexa/siri in a video plox. My phone, my tv, my sound system everything triggered at the same time. Love you and keep up the good work
I was playing a game where I was guessing the prices of all the IEM's before you said what they were, and so far the only one I got right on the money was the Yanyin Canon.
Here's a better format: 1. Aquire IEM 2. Write the name of the IEMs on stickers and stick them to the IEMs 3. Put all of them in a box and draw them randomly 4. Listen, rate, guess the price 5. Check the price, make conclusion
I feel like that if he accidentally catches sight of the label that would un-blind the blind listening (at least if the look of the IEMs didn't already do it), which you know, might lead to unconscious bias if he's heard of the hype or has preconceived notions of the brand or something. But it's still a good start! IMHO, he could make a reference sheet of what IEM looks like what, and then conveniently lose the sheet before he looks in the bag, haha
For a reason, i'm keeping my two Sony iems, and won't follow any new tendencies in the market. Sony XBA-N3 ( balanced with mezze audio Penta cable 4.4mm plug), with Spiral dot eartips, and half cut internal foams, were able to present a wider, deeper and more crisp musical presentation, while keeping their unmatch quality and most important of all, knowledge from the best brand in the world. Sony. They invented portable audio. The other iem that i also have, is the Sony IER-Z1R, also updated with Spiral dot eartips, and another cable ( the original absolutely sucks ). But the Z1R, is more a collection item. It does it's job, but by no mean worth the asking price, when compared with the much lower budget XBA-N3, which is capable of providing 90% of it's performance. Like you, i also have already tested tons of very different iems, and none, absolutely none were able to provide me with a realistic acoustic, like i'm use to get from the real thing. A high-end home audio system. It was great your review, by the way. Congratulations.
I found the Kato overrated. Felt a bit harsh on the high mids and bad ergos, the polygonal shell would bother my concha. I love my tea 2, got it for 285 😁
Watching earplug reviews makes me feel like I am living on some remote location in the arctic. Which is half true but I generally have no issues buying products I like, except.. These here "unbagged" earplugs may have presence in some alternative plane of existence, but nowhere to be found in any online store I can order from.
IEM´s with a sound profile slider? Haven´t seen that before, but some IEM´s can benefit from a different tuning I got a pair of cheap chinese Baseus Encock H07 and out of the box, they´re lagging in treble to sound good but with some extra amplification on the hights, they don´t have to hide of my 280€ Klipsch IEMs, for what was like 12€ I´ve paid that´s impressive.
Ever since my friend gave me his pair of iems I've been obsessed with iem but the problem is they are to expensive yes there are cheap ones but i already use cheap let alone its a second hand and my dream iem is moondrop aria cause i like how balance the sound it produce (according to yt reviews)
I tried a bag for headphones - just before the wireless ear buds I noticed that if I carry them in a small zip bag the cable won't tangle that much if at all.
I wish I had a bag like that just to go through them all and pick one, if its too expensive, do it again, repeat until I find the best one for me. Honestly the worst part about this hobby is that I cant test-listen these things anywhere where I live.
