I’d be curious for you and some others to try the Zen as I enjoyed that IEM a lot. Not the most refined or neutral set but a very fun tuning IMO.
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I have not, but I’d be curious to try them. I’ve liked dunu luna and that was their higher end single dynamic, I bet the zen carries down some of that although it sounds like it’s more fun focused which is cool
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Yes, finally some IE900 impressions! I didn’t enjoy mine at the beginning. The sibilance was what bothered me the most. Then I did a bunch of experimentation and ended up finding that using narrower tips (like some Spinfits), then adding two of the foam thingies that came with it, along with setting the tips to the first position was what settled it for me. I also found they scaled pretty well. My Spring 3 came at the time and it just elevated it a whole lot whereas my IER-M9 didn’t really benefit much.
The bass reminds me of the Focal Clear in a way. It’s not as tight nor as fast but it’s very responsive if that makes sense. It’s more fun and rounded by comparison.
I was told by the guy that is loaning me them that they had a rough burn in period as well, they were very harsh with the treble until after quite awhile of playtime. I did find the silicone tips too hot though personally. Also yes I can see that with the m9
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Yeah agree with the tips. That’s why I added those foam things it came with.
Canal Works CW-U73LV - Pretty interesting, generally is very well balanced, not neutral but pretty balanced, perhaps only really dipped in lower midrange. Bass and subbass is impressive, pretty punchy and very textured and layered, no bleed whatsoever, really stand out, more prominence than I would have expected too. Another stand out area is specially the upper midrange where there’s a stronger emphasis (common in japanese iems imo) that really highlight guitar, acoustic stuff, and female vocals, really makes them pop and shine, a bit too much prominence for me given the dip in lower midrange for some music, but if you listen to a lot of japanese music this is great. Treble wise it’s fairly linear and well extended overall, great resolution and detail, not harsh at all, and presented very well to give you lots of information without being overstated. Dynamically very alive and energetic, stage is larger than average with good depth but doesn’t draw attention, timbre is very nice, reasonable smoothness, very fast and quick, very nice coherency. On the neutral side of things for density. This is a bit of a specialist iem but with the right music it’s really really good lol
Acoustune HS1697Ti - This thing took a bit of time to get it to seal/fit right but after it did it’s pretty enjoyable. Signature wise it’s more neutral slightly brighter v, but it’s a bit confusing to say that since the midrange overall still has pretty good body and prominence, the way the lower midrange is more relaxed and meaty where upper midrange is more forward and cleaner is unique, bass wise it has pretty solid low end that’s slightly elevated, pretty punchy and also nice decay and organicness. Treble wise it is a bit forward but not that overpowering that’s reasonably extended and detailed. With this weird signature it ends up having really good coherency and completeness, very nice timbre, impressive dynamics. Stage is a bit of a let down, they are wide but are vague and hazy, lack depth and accurate placement. But these are much more stand out than I was expecting, very unique as well. I almost want to grab a pair for myself. Almost lol. Might have to hold out and try a HS2000MX when it comes out
Nideon Japan (J1-TA) - A brighter leaning cable that’s also very very smooth, and well bodied. It’s pretty natural actually, surprisingly so for how it’s voiced, pretty natural placement presentation, reasonably technical without being forward about it. Pretty unique overall, harder to describe, but I actually like it. Somehow pairs well with brighter iems even though it’s already bright leaning lol
KZ ZS5 - Lots of bass, not terrible midrange, shit treble, reasonable stage and detail. Only listened to it because at first glance I thought it was a campfire in the pile, but it wasn’t and I’ve been trolled. My vision gets worse each day
Mangird Tea - Surprisingly refined for the price, well tuned, reasonably technical. Signature wise it’s a warmer smoother neutral, bass is pretty well weighted with good impact and also reasonable clarity speed and dynamics for the price point. Midrange is pretty neutral overall with a bit of warmth and slightly forward actually, surprisingly decent timbre here, treble is actually in a good spot without being too recessed or too forward, and fairly linear without any weird spikes, although slight rolloff in the air. Pretty decent resolving power, reasonable speed and separation, spatial recreation is all around average slightly smaller than normal, dynamically nice enough. Actually pretty satisfying for the money, like it for the price and it’s a good all rounder without much to complain about besides stage
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Similar impressions for me as well, glad you got to hear a set lol.
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This seems to be one of the Chi-fi pieces that has survived past the hype / flavor-of-the-month phase and retained a solid fanbase. I’ve been curious about it but haven’t really heard impressions from anybody I trust until now.
I’ve kinda gotten out of IEMs for a while but I’ll probably venture back in again at some point.
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This has been a big hmmmm for me personally. Instead of in text I’m going to do bullets since it might be easier to read that way. I will say the nicer cable helps and I don’t know if I’d like it with an average cable. I actually liked it the most with my new eletech interestingly, but stock is also good. With that said continuing on
Pros:
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More unique tuning that took some getting used to, but actually did quickly grow on me, it’s a very balanced old school reference signature with a bit of reduced treble that I think could be considered reasonably neutral. It’s almost mid centric due to whatever is happening in the middle, bass and treble aren’t as impressive in comparison, but that’s less fr related. Strikes an unusual balance between a monitor tuning and a smoother reference tuning, hard to describe.
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Lots of resolution, very good resolving power, and can easily present that resolving power without issue
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Midrange everything, it’s timbre, texture, tonality, weighting, dynamics, overall balance between everything is really nailed. Really the star of the show here. There’s something about them that I can’t put my finger on that really highlights whatever is going on in the midrange without specifically trying to draw attention to it. Perhaps it’s specifically fantastic time domain
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Speed is very very impressive and natural as well, although surprisingly separation is a bit behind the speed
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Extremely dynamic in both macro and micro, but only mainly in the midrange and sometimes in the midbass, not as impressive in the rest of the range
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Timbre is surprisingly accurate
Cons:
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Overall stage is lackluster for the price, was really expecting more here, passable but less than praiseable. On the more narrow side of things, depth is meh, placement accuracy is also meh, left wanting here
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Bass texture and weighting is on the weaker side of things, it’s fine but it could use improvement there imo. It can hit harder than I would have expected, but it’s characteristics leave it feeling a bit unnatural, it’s speedy and tight but just doesn’t sound that convincing.
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Treble is good and very linear and unoffensive, but I think there’s a lack of air and real excitement or bite that can be desired at times. Still great speed, detail, and clarity there, but I think it’s too non standout for it’s own good.
I do really like this iem in some aspects and think it surpasses some of the things I have when it comes to overall midrange, but I think there’s enough tradeoffs for me personally that I’m not as captivated by it, mainly stage related, if the stage was better I could perhaps forgive it enough to grab one myself. It almost is both a step up and step down from an infinity mk2, but currently I think unless I had a wide range of other iems to go with I’d still be picking the infinity, but I could see others going for one over an infin too
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So I’ve got the MAD24, Traillii, and UM Mason FuSang all in right now. I gotta say, of the 3, I think the FuSang is the one I would have. I think they all have their place but the clarity crazy realistic decay of the FuSang are just bonkers. Room Reverb sounds absurdly real. Ill do a proper write up later, but yah.
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Moved to here cause that’s def not chifi lol. But having actually just demoed a fusang I agree with the realism factor of the mids
I thought UM was Chinese tbh. As for your demo, have you spent extensive time with any bone conduction iems yet? It took quite a while (about a week of 6+ hours a day) for mest to finally “click” with me and to understand their staging. It seems like that click transfered to FS but I’m currioua if it will transfer to evo as well
Edit: I didn’t realize this thread was being used for general impressions. Good to know
It is, but imo chifi doesn’t mean an established chinese company, it’s something more of a label for cheaper random companies that appeal to the budget range and current trends. I do see people take it at face value being chifi = hifi from china, but more typically it’s being used to describe a specific section of the chinese hifi market at this point. If a company actually establishes itself I don’t think it’s fair to consider them chifi anymore. It’s like I wouldn’t consider cayin chifi, nor dunu, nor UM, etc, because they have actually established themselves with unique design and actual r&d, proper customer support, and reliably good products. When I think of chifi I think of random pop up companies that live and die by trends/hype with no customer service, no real r&d (throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks), and underwhelming products that don’t stay. But that’s just how I view it, if you want I can move it back if needed, just felt it would be more visible here to people who actually might consider those iems (because the people looking at this tier of iem may have those negative connotations toward the word chifi and not visit that thread)
I had a mest for a week at one point (although more around a few days of listening time), honestly didn’t take much time at all to understand the staging on that one, felt everything had clicked within a few hours. At this point something has to be pretty up there to really take all that time to understand, given it’s an in home demo (if it’s a show demo all bets are off there lol). So far I’ve had around 5 hours on the FuSang and felt fairly acclimated within the first 2 hours, not much has changed since then. Still listening of course, and if anything does change I will update. I have a day or two more time with it which I’ll dedicate to it and also more time on the canal works and elysian (since I really like those two as well)
Honestly I think as you move up and become experienced with the different levels of gear and performance, anything below or at what you have experienced before takes really not much time to get anymore, but if it’s a level of gear you haven’t experienced before that takes time. Like in the past as I was still moving up, each next step to the next level would take a fair amount of time to fully understand, but now things below the level of what I have been experienced with really don’t take much time at all in comparison (of course still time, but def not as much) where I can get a good grasp without as much listening
Burn in/break in/wear in/warmup can affect this though, but thankfully all the stuff I have gotten to listen to in the past days has lots of playtime in it already
That’s just what I’ve used it as since I didn’t know where else to put things, renamed to make it that lol
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Switched over to p6p->428 about an hour ago and holy shit does this help the FS immensely. Timbre and texture way way up. Got to try mad and traillii here in a few. Wonder if it will help keep the traillii with guttering overwhelmed in complex tracks
Edit: FS still get overwhelmed as disjointed from time to time on 428 
Edit2: FS very well may the best I’ve ever heard female vocals. Reaky realy realt shines there
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Nice nice, so far for all of these I’ve been swapping around with the full fat mk or oji special and desktop dacs, or the p6p direct out
But yeah as I continue to listen I would agree that out of all I have the transients and dynamics in the midrange are pretty easily the best out of what I have, and that’s really just midrange in general, I don’t think I have anything else that competes in midrange as well as the fs does. Still have the qualms about the rest of the range though
I don’t listen to IEMs very much these days, but I’ve owned the Dunu trio (SA6, EST112, Zen), and the only one I ended up selling was the SA6.
Like m0n said, the SA6 is good, but the least immediately exciting of the three, and I also remember it being the least dynamic of the three. Both the SA6 and the EST112 aren’t bad for the money, but they’re honestly both maybe a little on the boring side (though the EST112 gets a pretty decent lift out of an iFi bass boost, which I tried for a while). The EST112 for me had better bass dynamics and the treble was a bit less relaxed over the SA6, which is what I wanted at the time. (I mostly listen to IEMs in distracted/noisy environments, so I wanted something more V-feeling, something that would cut through and draw more attention to itself.)
The Zen, on the other hand, is really punchy and dynamic, but it has like no treble out of the box. Dunu’s IEMs come with a lot of stock tips, and I’d say their included white tips are the treble-y ones to try first, though I ended up pairing it with Radius Deep Mount tips.
It’s so weird, I really like Dunu and I think their IEMs are really great, but none of them are just like, I use it and I immediately love it without some major caveat or some amount of fiddling.
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I think thats a better way to use the term tbh. Just doing chinese hifi=chifi feels almost, idk, slur-ey?
Thats fair. Mest was the only one I had the level of acclimation period for but I also wonder if it was because I was kinda struggling with fit.
lol. TBH I think having just a catch all impressions thread is a good move anyways so that works
wait, do 394 and Oji actualy run iems well? Or do you need some kind of iematch? also, will AIC run IEMs?
Yah, its one of those things were im like “I 100% understand people who just ordered in 15 min of demo start, but idk if its for me”
I absolutely agree, and it discounts the companies and people that are actually putting out quality products. Doesn’t matter where something is from, what matters is what the product itself not the origin of the product
Yes
Sometimes, depends on how sensitive the iem is, moreso for the oji. But it’s more for range rather than hiss. A lot of the time instead I will just turn down my dac since both have volume controls
Yes but I’d use an iematch for volume range
Feeling similar here
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Agreed whole-heartedly
huh. Good to know. I didnt realize those even worked with IEMs tbh definately makes them more apealing
out of curiosity do you just use the IFI one or do you have a custom made one of nicer components?
EDIT: Btw, do you ever find the separation on Traillii lacking? Like detail and image placement is on point but when there are like staked voices or other images within the mix that occupy the same position (but not depth) they have been getting pretty mushed together for me.
ifi one
No, unless the recording is bad, then the traillii will show that, so it’s dependent on the music going in, it won’t artificially compensate for that like some iems