IEMs Discovery & General Discussion

[Gordon_Freeman]

Thank you for this review. One thing is reading a review and deciding to buy an IEM, another is to read it AFTER you bought the IEM. Then you have a better way of understanding it, at least that is my take, as I am not that adept in the audiofile vocabulary or to use it to descibe my own experience.

I got the S8 2 months ago and it has been my daily driver ever since.
I can only agree with your review in everyway and find it the best IEM I have tried so far. I was curious to see if 8 BA’s alone could give me the sound I like, but oh yes, they could. If I need the bass to shine, I can go to my Polaris 2, but I do prefer the mids and the treble to be the heroes in my music, so the S8 is really up my alley.

One thing your reveiw made me wonder, is if an Andromeda 2020 is worth buying, now when I have the S8?

Thanks for another great review and thanks for the section where you explain your take on resolution and detail retrieval, that helped a lot

[Lothar_Wolf]

For about an hour I have been listening to one of the “wildest” in-ears ever with a big smile .

It’s such a mixture of perfection & completely out of control , which is so fascinating that you don’t even want to take these small, heavy monsters out of your ears.

Knowing that you don’t always have to spend thousands of bucks to have fun, I strongly recommend the IKKO Audio OH-10 for everyone who likes bass , lots of bass , who has no frequency curve fetish and who has no general problems with In-ears, because these plugs are relatively heavy.

Assuming all of this, fun is the determining factor that you can calculate with when you get involved in a music session with them.

[Gordon_Freeman]

I am 100% behind your statement.
IKKO OH-10 is such a gem and one all fans of IEMs should try out. They are among the favorites in my collection both re sound and build. They are heavy in both aspects.

And for the price I see them as a “must-have” IEM.

[Fc-Construct]

Just getting through my backlog of reviews. Haven’t had a chance to write a review like this in quite a while.

Introduction

For today’s review, I’m going to be looking at the Shuoer Tape Pro. It’s Shuoer’s follow up to their popular Shuoer Tape that I reviewed a while back and thought was fairly decent. At $130 IEM, the Tape Pro costs exactly the same as the regular Tape does, and I believe uses a similar “composite electrostatic dynamic driver”. Please note that this is not a true estat driver as it does not require a specialized amp to power it. Technical trifles aside, how does it sound? While Antdroid released a rather unfavorable review of these recently, having heard the Shuoer Tape, I do have some expectations that comes with the Pro moniker.

Disclaimer: I received the Shuoer Tape Pro as a review unit from Linsoul in exchange for this honest review. I am not or will be compensated in any other way.

What’s in the Box?

In an unusual turn of events, the first thing you’re greeted with in the box is… a Shuoer product catalogue. At least the booklet is rather high quality. Moving on is the IEMs themselves and a small plastic case with a number of goodies. In it is a spare set of tuning filters and nozzles, a cleaning brush, and a set of S, M, and L tips. Below the foam compartment lies the included hard carrying case with the cable, a tuning tool, and another set of tips.The cable is a straight jack 2-pin 2.5 mm cable and they do include a 3.5 mm L-shaped adapter. The cable itself is of OK quality. It tangles easily, there’s cable noise, and is rather hard to touch. But at least it does feel rather sturdy.

The build of the IEMs is a full metal shell that looks identical to the regular Tapes. There’s a vent in the middle of the shell. It does feel a little thicker than the original Tapes and has a monstrous 7 mm removable nozzle. I’m not entirely sure why the nozzle is removable as it doesn’t affect tuning. It’s just a feature that’s there. Despite the insane nozzle size, I don’t find the Tape Pros painfully uncomfortable. The fit is shallow but it does seal reasonable well and stays in place. Isolation is subpar due to the shallow fit and large vent(s) on the back. The sharper edges of the shell can get a little uncomfortable at times. I guess this just goes to show that beyond nozzle size, the actual shape of the IEM matters quite a bit too as the Tape Pros use that popular Shure-style over the ear design.

As alluded to previously, one of the ways the Shuoer Tape Pro distinguishes itself is through its tuning filters. It comes with these blue and silver tuning filters that you swap on the back. Here’s Shuoer’s guide to installing them with the tuning tool.

You basically unscrew the filters and swap their places. The back filter (i.e. closer to the 2-pin jack) is the important one as it acts as a tuning port to the second vent. The front filter doesn’t actually need to be there; it just screws in for convenience and aesthetics. My Shuoer Tape Pro set came with the blue filter installed in the back despite the image saying that the stock tuning is with the silver. I can confirm that the blue is the bassier of the two.

Sound

To describe the sound of the Shuoer Tape Pro, imagine witnessing a trainwreck. You see the train coming. You see the obstacle in its path. Right now it’s chugging along just fine but deep down you know that something very, very wrong is going to happen. That is the Shuoer Tape Pro. When I listened to it for the first time, I opened with rock track starring a vocally driven opening. Immediately, the vocals felt off. Not enough that it was unlistenable but enough to fill me with a sense of dread for the next passage of the song. And sure enough, as soon as the drums kicked in, the Tape Pros turns into a messy trainwreck.

Blue Filter

There are a number of problems with the Tape Pro on the blue filter. The first is that there’s pretty only two instruments. It’s vocals and everything else. The Tape Pro is so vocal forward that it completely isolates the vocals from all other instruments. Yet it doesn’t even do vocals well. Female vocals are shouty and hollow with little upper harmonics. Male vocals have a smothered veil on them despite being so forward. The second problem is the bass quality. It’s probably among the worst I’ve ever heard, topped only by cheap dollar store IEMs and headphones. It’s muddy, bloated, incoherent, sloppy, and every other negative adjective you can throw in there. There’s just no definition at all. It’s like Shrek’s bubbling swamp, where each bubble represents a nondescript drum beat somewhere. I don’t say this lightly: With the blue filter, the Tape Pro is close to unlistenable for a lot of music. Only on slower paced tracks is the driver able to keep up.

Silver Filter

Thankfully, the silver filter is much, much better. Despite measuring pretty much identically on the frequency response, it adds a much needed level of definition to the notes, partly salvaging the Tape Pro. At least the different instruments can be heard now instead of being just a smear. But it’s still quite poor overall. The bass is still muddy and low resolution. It still sounds boomy and bloated. There’s still very little dynamics and sense of impact. But at least it’s not wholly incoherent and I can look past it to begin enjoying music.

Aside from the bass, the mids and treble are pretty scuffed too. I already mentioned the vocals but the rest of the mids have a distinctly off tonality due to the Tape Pro’s midrange suckout and absolute Mount Everest for upper mids. The timbre of pretty much every instrument is wrong by some extent. The treble is completely muted and lifeless. After the 4 kHz mark where the upper mids generally ends, there’s just a cliff where the treble drops off and never recovers. If there was any less upper mids, I’d call these IEMs dark.

Presentation

On the technicalities portion, the resolution is pretty much low budget tier on the silver filter. Forget about the blue. The only saving grace for this IEM is its large horizontal soundstage. Like its predecessor the Shuoer Tape, the vents on the shell does give it a wide stage. But otherwise it has absolutely zero height or depth. There is also pretty much no imaging beyond the 3 blob left, right, center.

Should You Buy It?

No. Absolutely not. At $130 this is a travesty. I’m frankly shocked that Shuoer decided the Tape Pros were good enough to be let out of the factory, let along as a successor to the Tapes. The blue filter Tape Pros is the worst sounding IEM I’ve heard in recent memory. The silver filter is better but its a bit of a stretch to call it acceptable. Even the Kinera Freya that I reviewed a while back wasn’t this poor. It’s a real shame because clearly the person tuning this had put some thought in designing the filters. I wish the Shuoer engineers good luck with their next design but I’m not holding my breath. Of the three Shuoer IEMs I’ve tried to date, they all share a very similar V-shaped tuning. And of the three, only one was decent: the Shuoer Tapes. With the <$150 IEM market being so fiercely competitive, Shuoer has a long road ahead of them.

[prfallon69]

They are good looking iem’s. Very distinctive.

[Banbeucmas]

I haven’t posted in this forum for a while, but with my study already settled, I think I should make a return :p.

Since a lot of people tend to discuss chifi nowadays, I think I will start by introducing an IEM from my country: AYA Siren.
These IEM the latest works of AYA Studio. They are known in the Vietnamese Community but since they didn’t release anything for the global market, no one knows about them comparing to brands like ItsFit or Soranik.
I got the AYA Siren several days before my departure to Japan, and while it didn’t leave me impressed, I do think the brand itself has the potential to grow.

My review will be copied from my website with some edit to fit this forum: https://banbeu.com
Information about my music taste, source, ideology,… can be seen here: Review Disclaimer

Information:

• Driver: 4BA + 2EST
• Price: ~ 650$
• Purchase link: https://ayaworkshop.com/the-siren/

The AYA Siren was kindly provided by AYA Audio

There will be a tour of the Siren available, but I think it is limited to the SG audience for now

Build and Accessories:

• 3 pairs of wide bore tips (S/M/L)
• 1 pairs of silicon tips
• Hard case
• Unbalanced 3.5mm 2-pin 0.78mm cable
• IEM sack pouch
• Warranty & Company cards
• The IEM itself

For 650$ one would expect a more plentiful unboxing experience but since this is AYA first time, they have poured some effort into the presentation, so I will give it a pass.

Nothing much to say about the hard case, as usual, it is quite durable, the lock is snappy so I don’t think there will be any issue in the long run. It’s quite big though so for someone who usually has an intensive amount of pockets like me, it is not really ideal. The IEM pouch is a nice touch, I have known a bit that folks in my country do like this type of pouch with their exposure to Campfire Audio for a while now, but I digress. The cable is thin, but hard enough so that it doesn’t get tangled. All of the connectors and the Y-splitter are built with black-metal enclosing.
Though, one problem to note is the lack of chin-sliders. This problem usually isn’t big enough to address but due to the nature of the AYA Siren shell + light cable and Y-splitter, the over-ear part of the cable doesn’t stay on top of my ears most of the time. I often use the chin-slider for such cable for this sole reason but the lacking of that does make me irritated a bit.

The AYA Siren follows a pseudo-custom design with black shell, the faceplate follows a seashell-styled faceplate with the company logo and name on each side of the IEM. It sealed quite well into my ears with average isolation. Overall outside of the issue with the cable like I stated above, nothing that I would consider as a big problem with the Siren comfort.

This does remind me of the ThieAudio Monarch a bit honestly, due to the faceplate design.

Sound:

The AYA Siren sound signature can be described as “Neutral warm”. It is tuned towards a niches audience though I find it quite pleasing to hear overall.

First and foremost, the bass:

Bass is as good as a typical BA bass gets

This is one of the first things I noticed about the Siren’s bass upon my initial listening session with this pair of IEM. And, I think saying Siren’s bass is “as good as a typical BA” summed up what I wanted to say quite well to the IEM enthusiasts that could happen to stumble upon this article.
Though for the ones who are still clueless, I would describe the Siren’s bass as fast, but limpy and lacks articulations in the sub-bass region. In short, it is just there for the sake of existence which didn’t impress me much.

The midrange of the Siren as far as I can tell, is fine. It has some coloration going on which can be explained by the 800Hz lower shelf boost but doesn’t sound excessively warm unlike IEM like Kinera Freya which I reviewed recently. This combining with the ~12dB boost does favor female vocalists but can be seen as a bit shouty to some ears. Though I think, the drop off right after ~2700Hz seem to affect high pitched anime vocals like Nanahira (ななひら) but still okay in the zone of vocalists like Aitsuki Nakuru (藍月なくる) or Nayuta (なゆた).

Treble on the Siren is a hit or miss. I think one of the good thing about it is that the EST driver on the Siren does produce noticeable air. Though, the more I listen to the Siren, the odder I feel about it. There is a “zing” that can be clearly heard with percussions but it is not to the point of offensive like the Tin Hifi P1. This combining with the warmth from the lower midrange does make instruments like Guitar sounds nice. But, it sounds so uneven somehow!
I am not sure how to write this session after few days of thinking honestly, at best I can try to describe is that there is a sense of “hollowness” in terms of energy distribution in some instruments/songs. Noticeably with Cymbal, Speedcore/ Ear rape music genre s listeners might notice this also.
This probably an effort to keep the Siren staying true to its “musical” trait while preventing it to be entirely underwhelming. I somewhat appreciate the effort of the tuner to not entirely kill off this range but still, it’s a bit weird.

Technical wise, this is where the problem somewhat begins. Noticeably with Soundstage and Imaging, the Siren struggles. There are still some senses of left and right in the visual cues, but on busy tracks, instruments repeatedly overlap onto each other, notes sound soft on the edge, giving these instruments little room for breathing. The Siren does have decent detailing capabilities but fall short with the likes of the ER4 which is my usual standard in terms of detail retrieval.

Conclusion:

As one of their supposingly “first” exposure to the western market, the AYA Siren debut by stating the company tuning style quite clear. But as much as I can see this sound signature works inside our country, the game they are about to enter is different.

Only time will tell how the Siren would be received, and more importantly, how AYA will decide from here on. Though, I am optimistic.

[Lothar_Wolf]

You hit the spot

[Lothar_Wolf]

Their appearance stands for the inner values:

—The sound is clear, the spatiality is large and the bass is heavy.—

In one of the videos, @resolve Andrew and @TylersEclectic Tyler once talked about headphones and in-ears with which they have "guilty pleasure" .

The OH-10 would be absolutely my choice.

And that, although I also have the Andromeda Gold, but they are "far too innocent" in comparison .

[rho]

This might be a strange question to ask but I’m quite new to IEMs.

Could it be that my ear-canal doesn’t allow me to hear bass when using IEMs? With over-ear headphones I often experience the opposite. Tuning to the 2018 Harman target curves generally results in too much bass to my linking. But with IEMs I hardly hear any bass at all.

After quite some time ignoring IEMs I have plugged my One+ Bullets wireless 2 (these are the only IEMs I still own) into my ears and started playing with different eartip sizes. Changing from S up to L hardly improved anything. I got a tiny bit more extension.
Then I used Wavelet to boost the lower frequencies by 6dB. That improved things marginally.
I played a bit with the positon of the IEM in my ears and at some point things improved a bit more but I could not keep the IEM in that positon without holding it there.

I have to admit I haven’t tried many IEMs but that’s because none that I tried had any bass at all. I never understood why anyone would want to listen to music like that.

Is this a common thing? Did I just listen to the wrong IEMs? Are there typed that have different geometry so they fit in the ear in a different way?

I’ve got a pair of Tin T2 plus on the way. They should sound quite neutral from what I read. So I hope those will change idea about IEMs.

[Tchoupitoulas]

I’d recommend getting a variety of tips, of different types and sizes, and experimenting a bit further.

I say this because I’ve got quite large ear canals and have found it very hard to get a proper seal with IEMs, especially shallow-fitting ones. Without a good seal, the first thing to disappear is the bass, and what you’re left with is a tinny sound.

It’s also worth noting that individual IEMs have different kinds of fit. Some, with longer nozzles, require a deep fit. In my case, I have a pair of the Massdrop Plus IEMs, which require a deep fit. For these IEMs, I use foam tips, the Comply ones typically, and I have to squeeze them for a few seconds before inserting the compressed tips into my ears. I then hold the IEM shell in place while the foam expands and creates a good seal. I can tell when the proper seal has been achieved because I experience a sensation like that of submerging myself under water - the seal isolates you from outside sounds, which become quieter and muffled, and this isolation produces a slightly closed-in, if not claustrophobic sensation. For my Massdrop Plus, and with my ear anatomy, I can’t use silicone or other kinds of tips effectively. It has to be the foam ones.

For shallow-fitting IEMs, the opposite is the case: I can’t use foam tips and instead rely on silicone tips. But it’s essential to experiment in order to find the right kinds of tips, of the right size, that work well for you. At CanJam this past February, I auditioned 14 different high-end IEMs, and I tried each of them with three or four different tips. Of the 14, I had no success whatsoever in getting a proper seal with 10 of them, and all ten sounded too thin, lean, and tinny.

I was about to give up on getting a decent pair of IEMs because of this. But then I discovered the various Azla Sedna tips and ever since, I’ve not had a problem getting a good seal with shallow-fitting IEMs. The Azla Sedna tips can be pricey, though, and I also picked up a pair of cheap, generic silicone tips from Penon Audio that I’d seen someone recommend, and these also worked well for me. In both cases, the Azla Sedna and the Penon, the tips worked because they were wide enough for my ear canals.

So, tl;dr - it’s worth getting a wide range of tips, of varying sizes, and taking the time to experiment with them. You may find differences in your preferences for tips according to whether you have shallow- or deep-fitting IEMs, and, if after experimenting a good amount with different tips and not getting the kind of bass response you’d like (or expect to hear), then the problem might have something to do with your ear’s anatomy. Some people just don’t get on with IEMs.

Edit: one last point. The investment in a bunch of tips is worthwhile over the long run, even if it’s a bit pricey at first, since a tip that works for one IEM may not for another, and having a good collection of tips could help you out in the years to come if you get different IEMs.

[Lothar_Wolf]

Unfortunately, in-ears have the property of only developing their sound properties when the auditory canal is, so to speak, “sealed” from the outside.

To achieve this, a little tinkering is sometimes necessary.

1.) Finding the right tips is very important for the tonal tuning; Silicone, foam, double or triple flange, the size of the hole, the diameter of the outer shell, the length of the hole …

2.) The length of the outlet opening of the IEMs that protrudes into the ear.
If this is too short, you may be able to help yourself in other ways.

3.) The cable, especially with IEM’s, can on the one hand influence the sound due to its properties (copper, silver coating, etc.)

Or a “stiff ear hook” or a too “big” connector to the IEM can cause a bad fit and thus negatively influence the sound

---

Now I hope that I didn’t scare you.

But at the beginning of my hobby, I often read or saw various reviews of IEMs on the internet, but occasionally I couldn’t understand the sometimes extremely good reviews.

Then the ambition seized me and I really wanted to know more precisely whether I could not tune these plugs until I got the best result for me personally.

In some cases, the results have been astonishing, which is why I still have to “pimp” these earplugs .

[rho]

I think I’ll wait for the Tin’s to arrive and experiment with the supplied eartips. If these don’t give satisfying results I’ll go shopping for some foam tips from Comply.
I don’t know how far I will take it because I do enjoy listening trough my full size headphones quite a bit.
But I have the feeling I need to give IEMs a fair chance.

[rho]

That’s quite a collection of eartips!
Got any favorite brands and/types?

From your name I deduced you’re … German? I’m Belgian … so any good (EU) online shops would be helpful too.

[Lothar_Wolf]

For example:

INAIRS Foam Tips for Noise Isolation

Silicone ear tips - Catalog - The Case Market

SpinFit | Replacement Silicone Eartips

You can also order this stuff via Amazon

[antdroid]

As some of these IEMs/brands get more “discovered” and have more reviews/thoughts, I’ll be moving some of the content over to their own dedicated threads. I just moved Dunu SA6 over to the new SA6 topic for example.

[NickZ]

With most IEMs being easy to drive and requiring little power are there any amps specifically for IEMs?

I know gain switches are not uncommon but It seems like avoiding the “usable volume range” issue altogether might be useful.

[antdroid]

Yea its a tricky one. Some amp’s low gain work with IEMs but some arent great. The ones Ive found to work well with IEMs are:

RME ADI-2 DAC
Topping A90 and assuming other topping gear
Schiit stuff esp Asgard 3!
Chord stuff.
And of course, any DAP