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How the table “121 analogues of the best IEMs 2024-2026” was created
The table (link to the post with the table and the guide) was created based on the Soundcheck39 channel reviews (link). The author of the Soundcheck39 channel does not want to have anything to do with the table, and I also have nothing to do with the Soundcheck39 channel. Therefore, if you have a negative opinion about this post, please leave it only in the comments, votes on the post and my page on reddit. The whole table is just my cheat sheet/sh*t in varying proportions, and I personally listened to less IEMs from it than I would like. I have posted short summaries of the reviews in two separate posts (as otherwise I will exceed the 40,000 character limit) - link to BA+ IEMs, link to dynamic and planar IEMs. Do not rush to draw conclusions from the description of the sound of IEM, use Ctrl + F to find mentions of them in the descriptions of other IEMs, often opinions about them have changed over time from the author. I put my thoughts in round brackets (), where ? surprise with the thesis, ! an important thesis. There are a lot of comparisons in the original reviews, which is what attracted me to them. Due to this factor, the reviews draw a clear and consistent picture, which confirms the fact that they were created by a competent person. I don't want to hype up with reviews that aren't my own, and I also don't want to advertise the Soundcheck39 channel - it's just that the comments under the previous post got me hooked, so here we are. Therefore, if you are ready to spend time on the thoughts of a guy who listened to only some of the IEMs from the examples below, let's get started
Let's define the terms first. For me, there are 5 parameters that determine the sound (besides volume and frequency), and all further definitions are just my opinion
Air mass — turn on the audio system in the car, and then listen to the same track with headphones — the effect is clearly different, even at the same volume. The larger the speaker, the greater the air mass. The larger the air mass, the larger the soundstage. IEMs, in which a dynamic driver is responsible for the bass, differ from BA/planar ones precisely in this way - a larger air mass on the bass
Attacks — try to pronounce the letter O. For a short period of time, the sound will be different at the beginning than later — this period is the attack, that is, the volume and frequency of the voice reach the working level
Decays — try hitting the pan with a spoon. The time interval after the impact in which the sound is heard is decay. Bass decays is longer for IEMs with a large dynamic driver, open design, thick bass
Depth — try hitting the wooden seat of a chair with your knuckle. And then select the sound of the drum, played at approximately the same frequency — in the second case (in most cases) the sound will be more voluminous, informative, enveloping. Let's call the first sound dry, the second deep. What they have in common includes the basic tone, and what distinguishes them is the overtones of the basic tone. In the second case, there are more of them. Also, if you select the same volume, the effect will still be the same. Therefore, I do not call a louder sound deeper, although at bass, when the volume increases, a similar feeling of increasing depth is created — I repeat, I do not mean this depth. Depth is also sometimes referred to as a large air mass, which increases the depth of the soundstage, but not the overtonal saturation. To avoid confusion, in most cases I will refer to depth as the overtonal saturation of a single tone
Degree of sharpness — if you run a nail over a metal plate (preferably not) and then blow a whistle, you will notice that (despite the fact that in both cases the sound will be unpleasant) in the first case the sound feels more prickly, sharp, harsh, and in the second smoother, softer, although the frequency and volume of the sound they were the same (with a certain selection of things and efforts). I will call the first sound sharp, the second soft. There is a difference even at the same volume, so I don't use this term to describe the volume of treble. Sharpness is what distinguishes technical IEMs (and some universal ones) with planar (and sometimes BA) drivers and gives something that most musical ones do not have, namely aggression. If you don't like this feature, the degree of sharpness is well extinguished by foam ear tips and R2R sources
Let's take the 5 parameters I've outlined, as well as the volume and frequency, to collect the terms used by music lovers
Frequency response (FR) — graph of the dependence of the amplitude (volume) on the frequency
Basic tone — the main and lowest frequency in the sound being played
Overtones — the rest of the frequencies in the sound being played, except for the basic tone. The tail of overtones at the base tone allows us to distinguish between sounds created by different instruments
Bass — sounds with a frequency from 20 to 300 Hz, sub-bass - 20 to 80 Hz, midbass 80 to 300 Hz, mids 300 to 4000 Hz, lower mids 300 to 1000 Hz, upper mids 1000 to 4000 Hz, treble — from 4000 Hz. You can change the boundaries of these ranges, for example, sub-bass 20 - 70 Hz, midbass 70 - 150 Hz, low mids 150 - 700 Hz, mids 700 - 2000 Hz, upper mids 2000 - 4000 Hz, treble 4000 + Hz, but this will not change the essence (I use the latter option)
Extension — a higher means a greater range of clearly audible frequencies (for example, up to 20 Hz on the bass, up to 17 000 Hz on the treble). One of the important indicators of a source that is correctly selected in terms of power - is that it will be sufficient if the extension is not noticeable when the power is increased by iterating over them. The same applies to audio cables, but to a lesser extent (which have a cross—sectional area instead of power, and therefore less resistance). The extension due to these factors is especially noticeable on treble
Tune — the ratio of the volume of bass, mids and treble. If bass is higher than treble - dark sound, bass is lower than treble - light sound, bass and treble are equal, the mids is quieter than them by more than 10 dB — V-shaped sound, bass and treble are equal, the mids is quieter than them by less than 7 dB — flat sound
Punch — highlighting an area of 70 - 150 Hz with high volume. Often, the structure of a soundstage is built from such "punches"
Thick (thin) bass— the difference is more than 10 dB for the first, less than 7 dB for the second between bass and mids
Advanced, recessed mids— the difference is less than 7 dB for the first, and more than 10 dB for the second between bass and mids
Bright, pale treble — the difference is more than 10 dB for the first, and less than 7 db for the second between treble and mids. For me, this is not synonymous with sharpness
Resolution— high means fast attacks (the importance of selecting a suitable power source). The following factor also affects the resolution: often a large tail of overtones at the base tone of musical IEMs makes it difficult to clearly hear the neighboring basic tone played at the same time (on bass and mids, but not treble), for technical IEMs, on the contrary, a small tail of overtones does not prevent the neighboring basic tone from being clearly heard. Because of this, the sum of depth and resolution points for IEMs from the same price category is plus or minus equal, which is clearly visible in the table. I will provide the proof from the reviews below. Sometimes the resolution is equated to the width of the soundstage, but the width, in addition to the resolution, is also formed by decays (in my opinion). For example, it is quite possible to get a wide stage in technical IEMs (which is important because they do not have a large tail of overtones, the decrease of which will not be very noticeable) by increasing the duration of decays by opening the construction. The method is a loose fit of the ear tips or holes in the ear tips, preferably in small quantities, because the open construction is not compatible with deep bass, the overtones "leak out", as can be seen from the table. The resolution will not increase after these manipulations. That is, comparing a couple of technical BA+: the EPZ P50 soundstage will be wider, and the Kiwi Ears Quintet will have a higher resolution, and there will be no contradiction in this
Transients - attacks and decays
Micro (macro) — the sound has a high (low) resolution
Tight (plodding) bass - the bass is fast and textured (slow and rounded)
Transparent (monolithic) mids - the mids has a high (low) resolution
Airy (short-lived) treble — long (short) decays on treble
Organic (studio) sound— high (low) overtonal saturation. Organic sound is a distinctive feature of musical IEMs, while studio sound is a technical feature
Warm (cold) sound — high (low) overtonal saturation and predominance of bass (treble)
Timbre — the distribution of overtones in the spectrum of basic tone is due to the waveform of the sound (consider a peculiar mix of overtonal saturation and degree of sharpness). It is unique for each instrument and voice of the vocalist
Analog (digital) — soft (sharp) sound
Sibilance — upper mids and treble sounds that cause physical pain. They manifest themselves mainly in whistling (letters s) sounds. There are several reasons for the appearance — excessively raised treble (Sivga Que UTG), excessively sharp treble (KZ X HBB PR2), excessively flat treble (NiceHCK B80)
Metallic timbres (in the table, it is indicated by the letter M — slightly noticeable, MM — noticeable, MMM — on the verge of patience) — the sound is sharp, especially on treble. Otherwise, it is a feature of the unnatural timbre of sound, characterized by a feeling of cold, glass and synthetics
Coherency of drivers - a good one means that the timbres of the drivers used in the IEM are indistinguishable
Let's go through the terminology of music lovers using subjective associations from visual information
Soundstage (virtual stage, scene, scale) — a subjective representation of music as a three-dimensional visual picture, where:
Objects in the picture — instruments and voices
The range of visible objects in the picture — sound frequency range
The brightness of the picture — sound volume
The range of brightness of the picture — dynamic range of sound
Saturation of the colors of the painting (the degree of the amount of gray in the main color) — the depth (overtonal saturation) of a sound
Picture resolution (amount of information per unit volume) - sound resolution
The width and height of the picture — width of the soundstage
The ability to determine the distance to objects — layering
Great depth, width and height of the picture - engaging, immersive, three-dimensional, holographic, 3D stage
I will give personal associations on understanding frequency response . Association through taste and touch: imagine that the frequency response is a scoop of a given shape (mirrored relative to the horizontal axis), which collects flour in the bass zone, water in the mids zone, crisp in the treble zone. Flour is the base, water is the binding element, crisp is the crispy additive. A muffin or cupcake is baked from the selected ingredients - a musical composition
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Then the air mass is the size of the scoop
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Frequency response - the shape of the scoop
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Degree of sharpness is the hardness of the crisp
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Resolution - the number of grains of flour, drops of water
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Depth is the taste of the ingredients
For me, it is in this important order that they determine the sound of IEMs. That is, for IEMs, which mostly have the same air mass, the most important parameter is frequency response. Its subjective effect on the degree of sharpness (a raised volume range of 4000 - 7000 Hz increases the pseudo sharpness), on the overall resolution (a pressed bass volume, a raised frequency range from 4000 Hz increase the pseudo resolution), on depth (a raised bass volume increases the pseudo depth) should not be underestimated. Due to the influence of frequency response, the most inaccurate parameters on the table - resolution and depth of mids
About the ratio of the sub-bass to the midbass: more of the first is more fat , more of the second is more impact. The lower mids is closer - male voices are closer, the upper mids closer - female voices are closer. Peak heights at 2500-3000 Hz and 5000 Hz: higher — the sound is brighter, but more fatiguing, lower — paller. The depth of the notch in 6000-7000 Hz: deeper - there is less chance of "sand", smaller — the sound is sharper. Peak height at 8000 — 9000 Hz: higher — the soundstage is wider, lower — more intimate
Evidence of the existence of overtonal saturation and degree of sharpness
The first thing I can say is that there are no instrumentally confirmed unambiguous facts proving the existence of overtonal saturation and degree of sharpness
As for the degree of sharpness. There are several technical planars with “MMM” on treble, which have a harmonic distortion level significantly higher than the norm of 1%, namely KZ PR1 with 3.4%, KZ PRX with 6%, Kiwi Ears Aether with 3.5%, 7hz Timeless II with 4% (data taken from the SyncerTech blog reviews on the website ixbt), but there are only 4 of them, and IEM with metal treble on “MMM” - 9. That is, a high level of harmonic distortion does not explain all cases of increased sharpness on the treble. If you fantasize, the degree of sharpness can be influenced by peaks in the tone spectrum in the 4000-7000 Hz zone, as it happens in the spectrum of various instruments. For example, in the 46 Hz basic tone spectrum of an electric bass guitar (YouTube, ФИЗИКА МУЗЫКИ | МУЗЫКАЛЬНЫЕ ЭКСПЕРИМЕНТЫ ПУШНОГО | РОК ЖИВ, timecode 9:33). The peak is surrounded by a red circle
But I couldn't find such spectrum for IEM
For example, the descriptions of the treble of the planar Kiwi Ears Aether “treble with razor separation, short decays, harsh timbres" and the dynamic INTUAURA Splendor II “treble natural, fast attacks, medium-length decays". Now let's compare their frequency response
Despite the less loud treble, Kiwi Ears Aether are perceived as “harsh ”, and INTUAURA Splendor II as “natural". There's something hiding behind the FR, and that's the degree of sharpness
Let's move on to overtonal saturation. There is a spectrum I found before warm-up (long playback at high volume of white noise or electronics) of full-size headphones HOK 80-2 (Snorry mod) by the fxsound user on the website forum.doctorhead, September 16, 2014. On the horizontal axis - frequency, on the vertical - volume
Pay attention to the change in the shape of the peculiar petals - volume rises to the left and right of the reproduced frequency, which is most likely equal to 1000 Hz (the petals are circled with a red line). They are the main contenders for what is meant by the term “overtonal saturation of a single tone.” After warm-up, the shape became wider. The influence of the source on the shape of the petals is also excluded - we do not consider them separately, but compare them. And harmonic distortions are located on vertical gray lines - they are multiples of 1000 Hz, that is, 2000, 3000 ... Hz. Which peak is slightly to the right of the basic tone - f knows
I also did not find similar graphs of spectrum when measuring harmonic distortion for IEM
One could say that many were right, and volume = depth, especially on bass. Yes, but no. Therefore, nothing prevents manufacturers from changing the frequency response as they wish, even within the same model. For example, the 00 and 11 modes for Yanyin Canon Pro
As one person said: “NO ONE SHOULD HAVE AN OPINION(POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE) ON AN IEM THEY HAVE NOT HEARD THEMSELVES”. Well, until people learn to instrumentally measure and interpret these parameters, his words will make sense
Everything is more complicated with the resolution, because everything affects it at once:
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air mass - usually, when it is increased, the resolution decreases due to more blurred attacks (a sore of full-size headphones), but the 70-150 Hz zone raised in volume within reasonable limits (conditionally the midbass zone), on the contrary, increases both the air mass and the bass resolution
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attacks - the faster, the higher the resolution
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decays - the longer the duration, the more blurred the attacks and the lower the resolution. Usually, long decays on the bass is considered a bad factor, and long decays on the treble is considered a good one. I partially agree with this opinion
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overtonal saturation - the higher, the lower the resolution (for bass and mids, but not treble)
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the degree of sharpness - the higher, the higher the resolution
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volume and frequency (FR) - the quieter the bass, the higher its resolution. The more strongly the midbass dominates the volume over the sub-bass, the higher the bass resolution. The louder the 4000 - 7000 Hz range, the higher the overall resolution
One frequency response - different sound
If you fantasize, then a similar pattern (I'm talking about different sizes of petals) can be observed when measuring the spectrum of a random tone in the range of 20 - 300 Hz (bass) TRI I3 MK3 and ZiiGaat Arcanis (both models have dynamic and BA drivers, as well as all the examples below, which removes the influence of different air masses of dynamic and BA/planar on the bass), because their frequency response graphs are almost identical:
And the descriptions of the bass from Soundcheck39 are different: for TRI I3 MK3 “bass is very light (in the review) и “dry” (when compared with Elysian Pilgrim and EPZ P50)”, and ZiiGaat Arcanis “deep and rounded bass, even layered, detail 6 out of 10”. There are diametrically different definitions that are not explained by the frequency response form
You can go further and find more IEMs with almost identical frequency response
And then look at their definitions in the Soundcheck39 reviews:
Kiwi Ears Quintet - high resolution, slightly warm softened sound. The sub-bass is quite massive, the midbass does not have mega-toughness
ZiiGaat Odyssey - warm , medium resolution. Deep and not tight bass
Ziigaat Horizon - soft sound, neutrality, excellent detail, but not exemplary. Great soundstage. Bass is deep, there is very little softness
Xenns Mangird TOP PRO - the resolution is macro, holographic, the scene is larger than average in width and depth. Bass is not surprising in its texture (and midbass), but it is rich in overtones
Hisenior Mega5Est - the stage is big in width and depth, not too deep. The bass is fast, but also juicy, not too heavy
Dunu x Gizaudio DaVinci - average resolution, average width and depth of the scene. The sub-bass is deep, midbass with overtones, but tight
MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL-41 MK2 - medium depth, high resolution. The bass is medium in weight and textured
Juzear Harrier - a warm, soft, dark sound. Not a tech guy, macro. the stage is larger than average in width and depth. The sub-bass is deep, well-controlled and structural, the body and mass, the mid-bass is collected, but secondary, and therefore sometimes a little soft. Juzear Harrier midbass and treble are bad, the resolution is lower (when compared with the Sound Rhyme SR5S)
Simgot SuperMix 5 - not warm and not organic. Bass is powerful and tactile, not too overblown, cool controls, crazy informative, punchy and physical punch
That is, they are all different. Moreover, the higher the resolution, the drier (Hisenior Mega5Est, MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL-41 MK2, Simgot SuperMix 5), and the lower, the deeper (Xenns Manbird TOP PRO, ZiiGaat Odyssey, Juzear Harrier). This pattern is almost always found in reviews, especially for bass, and will become the main rule when assigning parameters for bass and midrange in the table. There's something hiding behind the graph, and it's overtonal saturation. This is how Simgot SuperMix 5 and Juzear Harrier differ, if you give the descriptions a visual character (IEMs is new, with a high probability that the parameters will change in the future with more comparisons):
Visual demonstration of the definition: “Saturation of the colors of the painting (the degree of the amount of gray in the main color) — the depth (overtonal saturation) of a sound”
But the author may be mistaken in his judgments - as say, everyone's hearing is different. You can view the opinions of other reviewers on the website iemranking. I looked at it - even one reviewer has almost always different opinions about these IEMs. Personally, I liked the reviews from a guy who likes to listen, for his honesty and criticality. As well as reviews from a guy who likes spicy, for his attention to frequency response
Next, we will find even more similar FR
They will also be different, you can see for yourself by searching for them in the two previously mentioned posts: ZiiGaat Odyssey 2, ZiiGaat Doscinco, ThieAudio HYPE 4, Simgot SuperMix 5, Simgot EM10 Dream, NiceHCK NX8 SE, MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL41 Pro, Kiwi Ears Astral, Juzear Harrier, Juzear Butterfly 61T, Juzear Defiant, Hisenior Mega7, Celest Yaksha, Aful Performer 5+2
That is, when the parameters in the table complement the frequency response (as in the example of Simgot SuperMix 5 and Juzear Harrier), when they describe FR (as in the example of Kiwi Ears x HBB Punch and Sivga Nightingale Pro), and when they contradict the generally accepted rules for reading FR (as in the example of Punch Audio Martilo and Hisenior Okavango - with isolated comparing their frequency response, where Hisenior Okavango's bass should be faster, and Punch Audio Martilo's should be deeper). It's not good, but it is
Frequency response of all IEMs in the table
You can say - and how can we compare overtonal saturation when we have an average bass spread of 10 dB and treble spread of 10 dB?
As you can see, in most cases for universal, musical, technical BA+ the spread of bass and spread of treble, the descent of the bass and the rise of the treble, as well as the rise of the bass in volume relative to the mids by 5-10 dB (for technical BA by 3 - 8 dB) and the rise of the treble in volume relative to the mids by 5-10 dB coincide, this makes, on average, comparisons of overtonal saturation between them more or less correct. Rather less (5 dB is a volume change of about 3 times), but, again, that's what it is. The author of the Soundcheck39 channel compared the IEMs within these 3 subgroups, mostly only with each other
How the table was compiled
Let's finally move on to compiling the table. Comparisons, rather than descriptions, were given priority when defining parameters, because this is a comparison table at its root. The numerical estimates provided by the author of the Soundcheck39 channel in the descriptions to the reviews were ignored. The opinions of other reviewers (and also my opinion) were taken into account last, or not at all. This will allow you to get rid of contradictions and create a table consistent with a unified database (according to the author of the Soundcheck39 channel)
I have divided the scale for myself into such conditional zones:
As you can see, the scale is divided into 4 working zones: lower average , upper average , lower high, upper high, and one rarely used - low. The quality of the treble often depends on the type of driver used (and the degree of openness of the construction). There is another rule - do not give IEMs with planar or BA drivers responsible for bass , as well as with a semi-open/open construction (2, 3 of 3 in the detailed table) overtonal saturation in the upper high zone (with rare exceptions)
The vertical line separating high resolution from average (micro from macro), as well as separating organic sound from average (musical from neutral), acts as a kind of axis on the bass and mids scales, relative to which the resolution and overtonal saturation parameters of most IEMs are balanced. This happens because the previously mentioned pattern is clearly visible in the reviews: musical sound walks by the hand with macro resolution, and technical with micro resolution. Surely it is possible to balance better without violating the meaning of comparisons in reviews, but this is no longer a human job. There are contradictions in the table that violate the meaning of comparisons - you can try to find them yourself
Here are some examples:
ZiiGaat Luna (BA)
General description: the average stage in depth and above average in width. secondary plans do not reach the level of hybrids (?)
bass: the bass is punchy, deep-neutral in depth
mids: the mids are warm and detailed, slightly smoothed out due to the warmth
treble: treble is long and detailed, smooth
Сonclusion: the parameters in the table do not contradict the description, except for “mids: slightly smoothed out due to the warmth”
Comparisons: Softears Studio2 has a less textured bass and a juicier middle. Kiwi Ears Astral are somewhat similar (?), bass is less technical, treble is less extended. ZiiGaat Lush is more neutral and technical
Comparisons from other reviews:
Heartfield CU8: ZiiGaat Luna is deeper and softer
Xenns Mangird TOP PRO: ZiiGaat Luna is more technical and sharper
QOA Misty Blue: ZiiGaat Luna … versatile
ZiiGaat Odyssey 2: ZiiGaat Luna is higher resolution
Sound Rhyme SR5S: ZiiGaat Luna attacks are faster
Yanyin Baker: ZiiGaat Luna ... are colder and sharper in BA type
ZiiGaat Crescent: The ZiiGaat Luna is faster and flatter on the bass, the resolution is higher, the treble is more natural
Let's compare ZiiGaat Luna with all those listed in the table already:
Сonclusion: no obvious contradictions were found
MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V (dynamic - BA)
General description: split scene, "good enough" resolution
bass: the bass is fast and deep
mids: mids with fat
treble: treble is fast, a little unnatural
Сonclusion: the parameters in the table do not contradict the description
Comparisons: ZiiGaat Odyssey is more neutral (because of frequency response?). Aful Performer 5+2 is more neutral and technical, bass is "a little bit" tighter, less tactile, mids is drier, treble is less natural. ThieAudio Oracle MKIII is more neutral and technical, treble is "much" more informative. The EPZ P50 is more neutral than the three listed, the mids is good because of the weight and separation, treble are similar. Kiwi Ears x HBB Punch are less technical and the punch is softer, the treble is longer. The MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL-41 MK2 is drier, more simplified on bass and mids (?). MYER-AUDIO CKLVX D62 lower mids worse
Comparisons from other reviews:
Kiwi Ears Airoso: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V deeper and more precise bass, treble more detailed and extended
ZiiGaat Arcanis: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is sharper on treble and less three-dimensional
ZiiGaat Lush Studio: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is more emotional and less technical
Kiwi Ears Septet: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is also more musical, macro
Kiwi Ears Astral: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is fatter overall and less natural treble
Juzear Defiant: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is more detailed on treble and generally deeper
Punch Audio Martilo: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V less deep bass, sharper treble and more technical
MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL41 Pro: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V the scene is deeper, the treble is more detailed
MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SLA3: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is more technical, the middle is deeper, the treble is softer
Yanyin Canon Pro: MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V is juicier on bass and mids, macro-detail, treble are less extended
Let's compare MYER-AUDIO CKLVX CK2V with all those listed in the table:
Сonclusion: no obvious contradictions were found, except for “ZiiGaat Odyssey is more neutral”
Kiwi Ears Quintet (dynamic - BA)
General description: high resolution, slightly warm softened sound
bass: the sub-bass is quite massive, the midbass does not have mega-toughness(?)
mids: mids stand out for their mass, more in width than in depth
treble: trebles are quite informative, decays are average, and they are a bit ringing because of the PZT
Сonclusion: the parameters in the table do not contradict the description, except for “the sub-bass is quite massive, the midbass does not have mega-toughness”
Comparisons: The Yanyin Canon II bass is softer, the lower mids are less voluminous (because of the frequency response?), the treble is richer, and the depth is well felt. The Raptgo Bridge is less massive on bass and mids. Kiwi Ears Quartet resolution is smaller, thicker
Comparisons from other reviews:
ThieAudio HYPE 2: treble is similar to the treble Kiwi Ears Quintet
Kiwi Ears KE4: Kiwi Ears Quintet is colder and wider
EPZ P50: he Kiwi Ears Quintet is noticeably (!) drier and rougher, the treble is less extended and detailed, the midbass and lower mids are colder, and the sub-bass is similar
Kiwi Ears Septet: Kiwi Ears Quintet is faster on bass, mids are leaner, treble are shorter
Let's compare Kiwi Ears Quintet with all those listed in the table:
Сonclusion: no obvious contradictions were found, except for “The Yanyin Canon II … the lower mids are less voluminous”
Where is the soundstage in the table?
Well, we have determined that the resolution of the bass is its tightness and speed, the depth of the bass is its density and fat, the resolution of the mids is its transparency and splitting, the depth of the mids is its juiciness and warmth, the resolution of the treble is their precision, the length of the treble decays is their airiness. In which corner of the table is the soundstage then? In this regard, we'll find those IEMs in the short summaries that had a positive soundstage, as well as compare the parameters of these IEMs
Yanyin Carmen - holographic
Xenns Mangird TOP PRO - the resolution is macro, holographic, the scene is larger than average in width and depth
ThieAudio HYPE 2 - smooth character, holographic and detail visualization
Simgot EM10 - the stage is larger than average in depth and width
MYER-AUDIO Sliivo SL224 - they are holographic . Micro-contrast and neutrality
Kiwi Ears Astral - they are good for metal. Analog timbres, multi-layered stage
Ziigaat Horizon - soft sound, neutrality, excellent detail, but not exemplary. Soundstage is great
Aful Performer 5+2 - a "three-dimensional" scene
MYER-AUDIO CKLVX D62 - the stage is large in width and depth
Sound Rhyme SR5S - texturality and decent detail, fast attacks. the stage is equal in width and depth, larger than the average
Kiwi Ears Septet - not for bass lovers. The detail is quite high, does not dry the timbres. The stage is large-scale and open
EPZ P50 - the resolution is high, but not too high. The scene is scaled in width and depth
Raptgo Bridge - an airy and wide stage with a huge number of clearly defined images
BQEYZ Frost - an airy and large-scale scene
Sivga QUE - a warm character. They are holographic
*the numbers in the left column indicate the degree of openness of the construction
What observations can we make:
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they are all dynamic - BA IEMs, except Yanyin Carmen, BQEYZ Frost and Sivga QUE
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they are in the "universal" group, with the exception of Raptgo Bridge, BQEYZ Frost and Sivga QUE
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they are all with precise treble (except Sivga QUE and Sound Rhyme SR5S), and 6 out of 15 of them are treble with metallic notes, or sharp
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12 out of 15 has deep bass, and 10 out of 15 has technical mids
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3 out of 15 has semi-open or open construction
We can create an average portrait of IEM with a cool and large-scale soundstage: it has dynamic and BA drivers, its bass is deep, but not too softened, its mids is transparent and treble is precise and extended, a little sharp
As a result, you have a unified database and a way to “compress” its contents. Theoretically, it is possible to create similar tables based on other reviewers, if they are honest enough to criticize technical IEMs for dryness, and musical ones for low resolution, are attentive to frequency response, and make enough comparisons. Again, the “overtonal saturation” parameter will be inextricably linked to the “volume” parameter until the compared IEMs are brought to a common reference target. That is, under normal conditions, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker
Posted Mar 4, 2026, 10:31 PM UTC