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HeaDphone Discussions. (Audiophile and Gaming)

Mid-fi hell is nice and warm

this-is-fine.0.jpg
 
So I'm toying with the idea of getting a pair of Oneplus Buds Pro, because I have a Oneplus phone, and admire their offerings.
I can get a pair for around R3k.
Now... This is a lot of money, and there are many other buds out there. Also, I use them for maybe an hour a day, so really not much.

What other reccommendations are out there for max R3k?
Xiaomi buds 3 pro is also in my radar.

Hard NO's:
Beats
Skullcandy
anything with a loop around the neck.
 
So I'm toying with the idea of getting a pair of Oneplus Buds Pro, because I have a Oneplus phone, and admire their offerings.
I can get a pair for around R3k.
Now... This is a lot of money, and there are many other buds out there. Also, I use them for maybe an hour a day, so really not much.

What other reccommendations are out there for max R3k?
Xiaomi buds 3 pro is also in my radar.

Hard NO's:
Beats
Skullcandy
anything with a loop around the neck.
Check your local incredible corruption, they may have sony xm3 under 3k. I have seen this before on my side for 2.5k
 
I have jaybirds vista as I required exercise buds but here are some good alternatives



I'd jump on those Sennies ASAP! That's if I didn't already have the Sony XM3.
 
Why no love for the Samsung buds? They follow the Harman curve. Though the buds pro are in the bassier and warmer side.
 
Why no love for the Samsung buds? They follow the Harman curve. Though the buds pro are in the bassier and warmer side.
My buds+ are my daily, that battery life lasts me the whole working day. Very well tuned drivers in them, not flat and not v, somewhere in between, to my untrained ears at least.
No anc might put some people off but with a good fit they are able to block out a fair amount, and mics on each bud can pass through sound if needed.
Samsung buds definitely needs to be an option
 
Mid-fi hell is nice and warm
Says the dude with six pairs of headphones in his sig :ROFLMAO:

I do like it here though. Recently switched from HD58x to HD6xx and honestly can't really hear any difference. I think the extra impedance is making my toobs sound more tooby but that could be my imagination.

Something something diminishing returns something...
 
Also suggest looking at the Samsung Buds + for TWS options.

Good sound quality, the app provides some EQ options and I tend to prefer the bass boost.

Also good battery life and overall value.
 
I'm busy toying with the idea of switching out my close bad headies with some IEMs.
I'm pretty much set on just getting a pair of KZ's that are on takealot as I want to stay under R1000 & their price ranges are within that. I also don't need these to be anything special, but KZ seem to offer a good feature set for the price.


My question is, which is most important?

Driver unit:
Impedance: 24 Ohm
Earphone sensitivity: 112dB/mW
Frequency range: 20-40000Hz
Cable: 0.75mm, 2-pin silver-plated
Cable Length: 1.25m


My most important are:
Driver unit
frequency range
cable length as I need them to be long enough for a few different config setups. (probably will have to get an extension cable to properly accommodate this)

Most seem to be Dual/triple driver with 44000khz range & 112 ohm impedance.
Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? Some have an Armature, do those have an significant impact on the experience?
 
I know squat about IEMs but my 2c is that the numbers tell you 5% of the story. Two pairs of headphones can have identical numbers and sound completely different.
 
I'm busy toying with the idea of switching out my close bad headies with some IEMs.
I'm pretty much set on just getting a pair of KZ's that are on takealot as I want to stay under R1000 & their price ranges are within that. I also don't need these to be anything special, but KZ seem to offer a good feature set for the price.


My question is, which is most important?

Driver unit:
Impedance: 24 Ohm
Earphone sensitivity: 112dB/mW
Frequency range: 20-40000Hz
Cable: 0.75mm, 2-pin silver-plated
Cable Length: 1.25m


My most important are:
Driver unit
frequency range
cable length as I need them to be long enough for a few different config setups. (probably will have to get an extension cable to properly accommodate this)

Most seem to be Dual/triple driver with 44000khz range & 112 ohm impedance.
Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? Some have an Armature, do those have an significant impact on the experience?
Must say I'm very happy with my pair, got the ZST X. Also must be said that I know absolutely nothing about what constitutes a good setup. Also not the longest cable in the world but the ear hooks help with having them stay secure if it gets snagged on something.
 
IMO those paper specs besides the cable type and length won't mean much, especially the frequency range.

AFAIK armatures are just different types of drivers used for highs and mids, in combo with dynamic drivers for lows. Might allow for better separation in theory.
 
This thread is my calling... Ahhhhh why have I never seen this recently :(

Bet you I posted on here some time ages ago.
 
I'm busy toying with the idea of switching out my close bad headies with some IEMs.
I'm pretty much set on just getting a pair of KZ's that are on takealot as I want to stay under R1000 & their price ranges are within that. I also don't need these to be anything special, but KZ seem to offer a good feature set for the price.


My question is, which is most important?

Driver unit:
Impedance: 24 Ohm
Earphone sensitivity: 112dB/mW
Frequency range: 20-40000Hz
Cable: 0.75mm, 2-pin silver-plated
Cable Length: 1.25m


My most important are:
Driver unit
frequency range
cable length as I need them to be long enough for a few different config setups. (probably will have to get an extension cable to properly accommodate this)

Most seem to be Dual/triple driver with 44000khz range & 112 ohm impedance.
Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? Some have an Armature, do those have an significant impact on the experience?
@naughty is the IEM GOAT. Maybe he can advise..
 
I'm busy toying with the idea of switching out my close bad headies with some IEMs.
I'm pretty much set on just getting a pair of KZ's that are on takealot as I want to stay under R1000 & their price ranges are within that. I also don't need these to be anything special, but KZ seem to offer a good feature set for the price.

Most seem to be Dual/triple driver with 44000khz range & 112 ohm impedance.
Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? Some have an Armature, do those have an significant impact on the experience?
I use the KZ ZS10 Pro as in-ears for my bass setup at the church I play at. They are specifically for drummers and bassists, though - but I must say I am very impressed with their sound as they blew my previous Fender in-ears out of the water in terms of detail.
Friends of mine who play drums and guitar in the USA in churches there said the KZ's are becoming very popular with the musicians.

I have also had a listen to them from my Audient iD4 interface, as well as my NAD Series 20 3020 (iD4 as DAC into NAD's Aux input), and I really like the sound - especially from the NAD.
Would recommend the extra memory foam tips, though - makes quite a big difference in sound and isolation.

To answer your question about the armature drivers:
Dynamic drivers give oomph and warmth (most headphones have dynamic drivers), where armature drivers give more detail.
Hence, a hybrid in-ear will combine dynamic for the bottom-end, as well as armature for better detail in the higher frequencies.
In simple terms, think of a speaker - dynamic driver is die sub/mid-woofer and armature is the tweeter. :)

If you are really interested, I can get you in contact with the guy who I bought mine from for R1100 - he's in Durban IIRC.
He might also have suggestions for your specific needs. :)
 
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I use the KZ ZS10 Pro as in-ears for my bass setup at the church I play at. They are specifically for drummers and bassists, though - but I must say I am very impressed with their sound as they blew my previous Fender in-ears out of the water in terms of detail.
Friends of mine who play drums and guitar in the USA in churches there said the KZ's are becoming very popular with the musicians.

I have also had a listen to them from my Audient iD4 interface, as well as my NAD Series 20 3020 (iD4 as DAC into NAD's Aux input), and I really like the sound - especially from the NAD.
Would recommend the extra memory foam tips, though - makes quite a big difference in sound and isolation.

To answer your question about the armature drivers:
Dynamic drivers give oomph and warmth (most headphones have dynamic drivers), where armature drivers give more detail.
Hence, a hybrid in-ear will combine dynamic for the bottom-end, as well as armature for better detail in the higher frequencies.
In simple terms, think of a speaker - dynamic driver is die sub/mid-woofer and armature is the tweeter. :)

If you are really interested, I can get you in contact with the guy who I bought mine from for R1100 - he's in Durban IIRC.
He might also have suggestions for your specific needs. :)
Thanks for the input, it sounds enticing xD
I'm not all that of a bass fanatec, rather prefer a bass presence on a neutral soundstage, most of my music taste is on the rock end & so I lean on treble & crisp clarity for individual instrument distinction. I digress somewhat though as my main reason for peering into this isn't anything too specific but rather just replace my daily closed back headies (MH751's) as I don't want the head strain anymore.

I have SHP9500's & a DAC-X6 to push some volume into those. Mostly use these to listen to music actually, for my usecase however it seems even the dynamic drivers would be enough. Hybrid would just be an added bonus for the extra clarity.

Will let you know if my interest really spikes :)
 
I'm busy toying with the idea of switching out my close bad headies with some IEMs.
I'm pretty much set on just getting a pair of KZ's that are on takealot as I want to stay under R1000 & their price ranges are within that. I also don't need these to be anything special, but KZ seem to offer a good feature set for the price.


My question is, which is most important?

Driver unit:
Impedance: 24 Ohm
Earphone sensitivity: 112dB/mW
Frequency range: 20-40000Hz
Cable: 0.75mm, 2-pin silver-plated
Cable Length: 1.25m


My most important are:
Driver unit
frequency range
cable length as I need them to be long enough for a few different config setups. (probably will have to get an extension cable to properly accommodate this)

Most seem to be Dual/triple driver with 44000khz range & 112 ohm impedance.
Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? Some have an Armature, do those have an significant impact on the experience?

knowles balanced armature drivers are the things that are used for hearing aids - as correctly stated above they are best at midrange and high frequencies but you do have balanced armature bass drivers too though these will not have as much slam and impact as Dynamic drivers whch are the more conventional type of drivers used for IEM earphones (basically dynamic drivers are more-or-less small cone shaped drivers wcih is why they work well for bass

hybrid designs use dynamic drivers for bass and balanced armature for mid and high frequencies ..... and the higher end designs of iEMs use multiple drivers to carry the entire frequency range (the IEMs that i use for example use 8 drivers per side and they also use balanced aramature for bass which means that they don't have a brilliant bass response out of the box but they do respond very well to being EQed so picking the bass up a tad bit works pretty well but still wont match dynamic drivers for impact and slam)

the KZ range of IEMs are pretty decent - though many prefer the sound of Tin Audio and brands like BLON and Thieaudio and Moondrop are also fairly popular amongst people who play around with Chi-Fi IEMs locally

in fact if im not mistaken - i think that NielH was considering selling his Moondrop Starfield IEMs recently - have a chat with him - not sure how far those are from your budget - the Moondrops are totally dynamic drivers - and nothng wrong with that ie thats how they used to make IEMs for a long time before balanced armature came along

if you have to have brand new - i like the KZrange but i am biased because i tried a few from their range ie ZSN pro and also ZS10 Pro and i'm currently using the AS16

in terms of the rest of the specs - you want the impedance as low as possible and the sensitivity as high as possible since that makes them really easy to drive by any source (phones generally only have under 10mw of power from their headphone jacks so to drive them low nominal impedance with high sensitivity helps) as fo rfrequency response age and how good your hearing is will determine how important that is - i cant really hear much above 12000hz (12khz) anyway since i'm 55 years old ..... this is pretty normal for my age the guys that are younger will hear probably close to up to 20khz and anything above 20khz you wont really hear but might perceive same as whey they say that you dont really hear 20hz or other subsonic frequencies you generally feel them more than you hear them .... these dont only relate to IEMs but to anything in audio generally 🤷‍♂️

one last thing - takealot is pretty much expensive on these chi-fi IEMs ie you could go to something on or probably even two notches up in their range when you self import - for example when self importing the ZSN Pro were just over R500 and the ZS10 just under R900 fully landed ..... but if you don't like the wait and the anxiety of importing then i suppose that takealot is the only avenue open to you unless you can get someone to import for you like WhoisJOB's buddy - and yes its worth paying him some markup fo rhis time and trouble because it might be cheaper than takealots pricing anyway

in terms of of the memory foam tips - yes they make a difference and they could change exactly how the IEM sounds ie improve bass response or smoothen treble and midrange so worth playing around with those too - get the cheap e-bay or chinese generics first and see how they work before investing in the good ones (Comply etc) and what sizes work best - i use medium in Silicone tips but i need small when it comes to the foam ones - then theres also the matter of getting the right nozzle sizes

heres a nice link about tips and how to chose them :

Choosing the Perfect IEM Ear Tips - Ultimate Guide - Audiosolace

hope that this answers some of yyour questions and reinforces some of the other relies up there and good luck with whatever you decide to get (y)
 
knowles balanced armature drivers are the things that are used for hearing aids - as correctly stated above they are best at midrange and high frequencies but you do have balanced armature bass drivers too though these will not have as much slam and impact as Dynamic drivers whch are the more conventional type of drivers used for IEM earphones (basically dynamic drivers are more-or-less small cone shaped drivers wcih is why they work well for bass

hybrid designs use dynamic drivers for bass and balanced armature for mid and high frequencies ..... and the higher end designs of iEMs use multiple drivers to carry the entire frequency range (the IEMs that i use for example use 8 drivers per side and they also use balanced aramature for bass which means that they don't have a brilliant bass response out of the box but they do respond very well to being EQed so picking the bass up a tad bit works pretty well but still wont match dynamic drivers for impact and slam)

the KZ range of IEMs are pretty decent - though many prefer the sound of Tin Audio and brands like BLON and Thieaudio and Moondrop are also fairly popular amongst people who play around with Chi-Fi IEMs locally

in fact if im not mistaken - i think that NielH was considering selling his Moondrop Starfield IEMs recently - have a chat with him - not sure how far those are from your budget - the Moondrops are totally dynamic drivers - and nothng wrong with that ie thats how they used to make IEMs for a long time before balanced armature came along

if you have to have brand new - i like the KZrange but i am biased because i tried a few from their range ie ZSN pro and also ZS10 Pro and i'm currently using the AS16

in terms of the rest of the specs - you want the impedance as low as possible and the sensitivity as high as possible since that makes them really easy to drive by any source (phones generally only have under 10mw of power from their headphone jacks so to drive them low nominal impedance with high sensitivity helps) as fo rfrequency response age and how good your hearing is will determine how important that is - i cant really hear much above 12000hz (12khz) anyway since i'm 55 years old ..... this is pretty normal for my age the guys that are younger will hear probably close to up to 20khz and anything above 20khz you wont really hear but might perceive same as whey they say that you dont really hear 20hz or other subsonic frequencies you generally feel them more than you hear them .... these dont only relate to IEMs but to anything in audio generally 🤷‍♂️

one last thing - takealot is pretty much expensive on these chi-fi IEMs ie you could go to something on or probably even two notches up in their range when you self import - for example when self importing the ZSN Pro were just over R500 and the ZS10 just under R900 fully landed ..... but if you don't like the wait and the anxiety of importing then i suppose that takealot is the only avenue open to you unless you can get someone to import for you like WhoisJOB's buddy - and yes its worth paying him some markup fo rhis time and trouble because it might be cheaper than takealots pricing anyway

in terms of of the memory foam tips - yes they make a difference and they could change exactly how the IEM sounds ie improve bass response or smoothen treble and midrange so worth playing around with those too - get the cheap e-bay or chinese generics first and see how they work before investing in the good ones (Comply etc) and what sizes work best - i use medium in Silicone tips but i need small when it comes to the foam ones - then theres also the matter of getting the right nozzle sizes

heres a nice link about tips and how to chose them :

Choosing the Perfect IEM Ear Tips - Ultimate Guide - Audiosolace

hope that this answers some of yyour questions and reinforces some of the other relies up there and good luck with whatever you decide to get (y)
Great write up.
I'm also currently in the market.
Check this local site for KZ IEMs. Cheapest new ones I've seen so far.
 
Great write up.
I'm also currently in the market.
Check this local site for KZ IEMs. Cheapest new ones I've seen so far.

brilliant prices - i would use these guys - because pricing is pretty similar to landed self import prices - as long as they don't try to scam you and are a legit operation - the ZSN pro is around pretty much how much i paid on a self import - the most they would be adding as a markup is around 100 bucks per model from what i can see (still a brilliant service for guys who cant do the imports themselves or who don't have the patience or the inclination (y))
 
I'm looking at either the ZS10 Pro or the ZSX.

Can anyone weigh in on either?
 
i haven't heard the ZSX so cannot say much about it - the ZS10 pro isn't bad but maybe some reviews can help you decide :

ZSX review - Headphone honesty

ZS10 pro review Headphone honesty

from what i heard the ZS10 pro has lots of bass and low bass - so very dominant in that aspect of the tonal range - from the review above of the ZSX they say the ZSX tames that bass a bit - so that could be one important factor in deciding ie are you a basshead or do you like the sound more balanced ..... (i prefer it balanced but that shouldn't matter to anyone else but this is why i like the AS16 ie it really doesn't let anything dominate and is pretty much balanced across the board though to be perfect for my ears it does need a slight bit of EQ)
 

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