Hi All, I’m new here. I’ve been following this thread for several months and thanks to this thread and Super*Review I have jumped into Chi-fi IEMs. I was looking for some purchasing advice. First let me give you my audio history.
Like many of you I have aways been a music/tech/and audio quality fan. Started when I was in high school but on a low budget I never really dived into the audio would as much as I would have liked. I initially started following wirecutter’s advice on headphone picks. I more or less was coming from ~$20 Sony headphones. I then got AKG Y20U based on wirecutter’s recommendation. I found them to be fantastic; great for my listening. I mostly listened to indie female singer song writer and indie pop. I then bought Marshall mode on their recommendation. This is where I started to question their reviews. I found them to be very good and the bass to be nice but I did not find them to be as clear as the AKGs. I then switched to another pair of AKG Y20Us (I had a history of breaking my headphones at my old job). I eventually went for over the ear headphones and got the Grado SR80s which I quite enjoy but rarely listen to. Eventually the Y20Us went out and I claimed them under warranty. Unfortunately, they did not sell them anymore so they gave me the choice (under warranty) of a few JBL models. Conveniently one was the JBL live 100 and they were again the budget pick at wirecutter. I got them and while they are good I still preferred the AKG Y20Us. The cable is the worst part of the JBL live 100 because it transfers all sound to the headphone housing so avoid zippers. I eventually could not stand it anymore so I found my way into the Chi-fi IEM world. I ended up buying KZ ATE and KZ ZST and figured they were so cheap I would take any losses. I initially found them good but a bit harsh on the treble. After hours of burnin I found the ATEs to be unenjoyable and found the ZSTs to be pretty darn good. I recently bough myself a Fiio M3K and while I certainly enjoy it I have found that either it has reduced the sound stage and depth of the music I listen to compared to my PC and phone. I can only hope it is conflicting tuning from my main headphones (ZSTs). I am iching to buy another pair of IEMs and wanted to get advice. I wanted to spend around $50 and have been eyeing the Tin T2s for the longest time but now with the CCA C12s coming out I’m conflicted on which to get. They are both about $50, one has more bass which is nice since I have been listening to more indie grunge with more bass instruments vs the traditionally more acoustic style in the past. What Say You? Tin T2s or CCA C12s or other
Music I listen to:
Sidney Gish, Shady Bug, Beach Bunny, Agnes Obel, Sharon Van Etten, Marika Hackman and my others (more of a individual song guy)
So I ended up getting the Blon BL03. So my take is that the build quality is great and they feel very comfortable but they don’t insert vert deep into the ear. The audio signature is interesting to me and I’m not sure I’m a fan. I’m still an amateur in understanding and interpreting but here is what I’m hearing. The sub bass is forward but the mid bass isn’t which is kinda weird to me and my listening. I Found the mids to be recessed and Treble seems fine. I had a cold over winter break and had fluid in my left ear. This has made it more sensitive to certain frequencies, causing the uncomfortable popping. I have found that when using the BL03s, certain voices in videos have caused this popping. I have found that these headphone are great for jazz and classical but to me lack for vocals and mid bass for indie pop/rock.
Here is my take on the Jade Audio EA3, an interesting IEM I must say. I don’t think they stand a fair chance against other sub $50 competitors, especially if your main usage is listening to music. These simply don’t meet the high standards of a audiophiles, but by no means are they a bad IEM. A great comfortable IEM with a great soundstage and sub-bass extension, which I use primarily for low volume listeningI hope you enjoy =)
EA3 is an IEM from the brand Jade Audio (a sub-brand of Fiio). EA3 features a hybrid setup: 1BA (Knowles 33518) + 1DD (13.6mm with polymer diaphragm).
Disclaimer:
This item has been sent to me through Jade Audio’s EA3 Review Tour, free of charge. I was required to write an honest review and not overstate the advantages. Everything said in this review is my opinion and how I feel about the EA3, I had no external/outside influence on my opinion.
Design:
EA3 features a stunning design.
You have to give them credit for the beautiful shell and smooth shape.
I just can’t get enough of the shine off my black version.
If you was to catwalk for a fashion show, you could easily bring the EA3 and I can assure you that they wouldn’t disappoint. I have the black version, which I prefer over the Weathet (blue) color, but it’s all about personal preference. They are very stealthy and not in your face.
The Jade Audio logo underneath the shell gives a very bold, classy and serious look to it, this is mainly due to the beautiful cursive typography of the Jade Audio logo. The design of the EA3 can be compared to that of luxury and classic cars from 40’s and 50’s. Strong and sexy. The black finish looks even better than in the digital photos.
I like what Jade Audio did with the celluloid plate (it sits underneath the shell, it’s the part where the Jade Audio logo is placed on the IEM’s) because it features subtle shimmery/satin spots which mainly react differently according to the lighting.
You can probably conclude by now that Jade Audio, from a design point of view, absolutely nailed it with the EA3. Also not to forget, both the shells themselves and the housing of the 2-pin connectors are labelled for left and right, this makes connecting them the easiest part.
Build quality:
I have to say that overall, I’m quite satisfied with Jade Audio’s job here. I didn’t find any flaws or issues which would make me say that they have a bad build quality or feel cheapish. Yes, not all the fields in terms of build quality are spot on, but it might be too much to ask for from a sub $50 set of IEM’s. What I can say, is that it’s a solid and well built product.
Can we talk about the shell for a moment? It’s as smooth as a babies bum. I think that mentioning that there are no sharp edges is a bit too obvious.
What is worthy of mentioning, is that it doesn’t have any parts and points where your fingernails get stuck on, even in the part where the two parts of the shells are connecting, my fingernail glides over it.
The nozzles are angled and made of aluminum, the grills are also metal (they aren’t going anywhere). The nozzle has a nice lip which makes sure your ear tips don’t go anywhere.
Jade Audio definitely took the overall shell’s build quality seriously.
The cable. This is the aspect which has me divided.
The build quality itself is pretty good, it features a metal housing for the 3.5mm jack, both the housing of the Y-spliter and chin slider are metal as well. And the little guy which many forget to mention, the cable tie. It is also very well done, it is soft… but it seems like it likes everything around it so much that it gets caught on everything.
Then there are the clear plastic housings of the two pin (0.78mm) connectors. It would’ve been nicer and better if they were also metal, but even in this case, the plastic used is actually of high quality, not one of those muddy and cheapish plastics used on some cables. Both of the plastic housings are labeled for Left and Right. Not only this, but they are color coded too… I don’t know for you, but for me this is a very handy feature. When you need to pick them up, you immediately know that blue goes into your left ear, red into your right. Good job here Jade Audio!
A problem which I solved my way (do at your own risk) the ear guides. They weren’t uncomfortable from the beginning, but they were too twisted inside of themselves. I did it with caution, and made sure to hold the part of the cable closest to the housing (clear plastic part) with two fingers, making sure that this part doesn’t get bent (this is because you don’t want to disconnect and damage the connection inside). After I did this, the ear guide took an ear-shape, you can see this in my video review too.
Accessories:
Nothing spectacular here. A soft carrying case which doesn’t feature any branding, and spare ear-tips.
I didn’t find the case too useful and functional due to the pure nature and shape of the IEM’s (this case would work for something like any of those earphones you get with your smartphone). I found myself using my hard case which did its job.
I found myself leaning towards the medium red tips, the black tips just made them even more harsh. The tips fit pretty well, and you have 6 pairs to pick from (S/M/L)
Comfort:
Did someone mention cozy?
These are simply 10/10 in terms of comfort. You can wear the EA3 for days, they simply melt inside your ears. When I have the EA3 in my ears, I forget they are even in. If that doesn’t tell you enough about its comfort, I don’t know what will. The comfort aspect is simply spot on, and I truly haven’t found them uncomfortable at any point. You know when you are tired after work and just melt in your sofa? Mhm that’s exactly how feel about the comfort aspect.
Functionality and convenience:
The EA3 is very functional, it truly is a great replacement for your daily drivers such as those earphones which come with your smartphone.
What do you do with your phones stock earphones? You watch videos, movies, play games and of course- listen to music, you basically do everything with them. In the same way, the EA3 is a great all-purpose IEM’s which do all of those jobs fine, I wouldn’t say that they are focused on one specific listening element or task.
The carrying case itself isn’t too functional, but is a handy case for storing other sensitive objects or earphones. Both the cable tie and the chin slider are functional.
The IEM’s themselves are easy to drive, both my Samsung S8 and Macbook Pro were able to drive them with no problem. With my S8 I can push them to around 50-68% before they become too loud and unbearable. With my Mac it’s a different story. I listen to them at 2 bars when I’m listening to people speaking (video courses), and at around 5-6 bars when I’m listening to music. When I’m watching movies I also can turn them up to 5-6 bars.
If you travel and use your smartphone as the main source for listening, you may want to pay attention to this part. I found that if you are keeping your phone in your pocket and taking it out often, it’s not very convenient. What do I mean by this? Simply the cable gets caught on the inside of the pockets (even with sweatpants). This creates a risk to damage the cable itself. The short and slim metal housing of the 3.5mm plug might be the cause. HOWEVER: if you absolutely are not a daily traveler who needs to take their phone out of their pockets every 5 minutes, this is nothing to worry about.
Sounds isolation:
Fantastic. Another element which Jade Audio got spot on. When I put these on (without music), I can barely hear somebody talking to me, when music is playing… not a single word. I haven’t tried them out in a busy public transport, however I did use them on bus and didn’t find any trouble, very pleased with their sound isolation.
Sound leakage:
Even though the EA3 has two vent holes, it has pretty minimal sound leakage, which I am pleasantly surprised with. While I cannot provide you with accurate measurements, I hope you got the basic idea. Sound leakage will not represent a problem in public transport if you keep the volumes below 50%, however if you push them louder you will get some sound leakage which might present a problem in some places, at the end of the day you have to keep in mind that this is a pair of vented IEM’s.
Sound:
Lows- Let me start this off by saying that these are sub-bass monsters. The sub-bass digs deep and rumbles.
EVEN at low volume it hits, this leaves me very satisfied with it. The sub-bass has both weight and rumble at low volumes.
However the issue is that the sub-bass is stronger than mid-bass. This creates an imbalance, which leaves me with the impression that the mid-bass lacks both weight and punch compared to the monster sub-bass which completely eats it. Sub-bass is more dominant, making it over-dominate mid-bass. The mid-bass is like a little kid compared to the sub-bass. Some people may misunderstood what I wrote above, by no means is the EA3 bass-light, and mid bass is completely fine, however if you are a basshead you will probably be left wanting more.
I found Hanz Zimmer’s “Why so serious?” at mark 3:30 to be a very good test for sub-bass, the EA3 has plenty of it, I recommend you to give this track a try (shout out to @generic over at the “The Headphones Community” from whom I discovered this track’s sub-bass)
Mids- This is an aspect which can definitely be worked on in the future. Mids sound very weird and funny.
Vocals are very boxy, and completely lack depth. It truly feels like the vocals are fixed in the nozzle of the IEM’s. The thing is that only vocals are fixed, so while the instruments and other aspects of music have great depth, imaging, and dynamics, the vocals are kind of in your face. I was really able to separate the music by vocals and instrumental part, by this I mean that the “two layers” can be separated and noticed with ease. This being said, vocals don’t sound natural, they appear to be “on top” and trapped in that space (which is fixed and separated from the rest). When music can be separated in layers, music doesn’t sound unified, which isn’t a good thing. As I mentioned in my video, they simply cut through the mix.
Besides the vocals, I found the EA3 reveling great detail and having great resolution. I truly noticed and heard elements in music which I never heard before. Suddenly music has more elements and you hear things in songs which you have never heard before, the micro detail which EA3 reveals is very enjoyable and a true different experience
Highs- There’s not much needed to be said here, they are bright. I am treble sensitive and for me even at average levels they are piercing and harsh, however this is exactly why I loved them. Treble lovers will seek for this kind of a quality, however for me, not something which MY ears appreciate(d). In all honesty, because I am treble sensitive, I kept my volumes extremely low. I actually loved these IEM’s because of their (at first harsh) treble, yes you heard that right- a treble sensitive person said it. I explained why in my video review.
Update: Now after they have been with me for over a month, I can say they lean to the brighter sound, however they are not harsh anymore and the treble has tamed down. I still enjoy and prefer to use the at lower volumes as though I don’t find any reason to push the volume louder, the main reason is the bass response from the 13.6 mm DD. I used to listen to extreme volumes jut to get “enough” bass, that’s not the case with the EA3 which broke my bad habit of extreme volume listening.
Soundstage:
I was pleasantly surprised with the soundstage that EA3 offers. Vocals aside, it has both good depth and imaging. The soundstage is definitely above average and the spotlight of the EA3. I enjoyed watching movies with them, and I am sure these would be pretty handy for gaming as well, especially for games where space is important (Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six Siege…). The soundstage goes beyond the IEM’s themselves, an this is one of the biggest pro’s of the EA3. The soundstage jumps outside of the earpieces, and you are guaranteed to enjoy this new dimension to music.
I mentioned in my video review that these break the usual virtual space which is limited to the earphones themselves, EA3’s soundstage extends outside of the nozzle of the IEM’s in the same way an open-back headphone would (of course the soundstage of the EA3 and an open-back headphone cannot be compared for obvious reasons)
Conclusion:
Overall Jade Audio EA3 is a superb for low level listening, a great all-purpose IEM and an IEM which will give another dimension to your music with either it’s soundstage, sub-bass extension or the micro-detail revealing. I wouldn’t say that these wouldn’t meet the high standards of audiophiles, however for someone who is looking for a high quality daily driver which has authentic certifications, information, these are for you. Many are too skeptical to jump into Chi-Fi and you can start with these, you will find the great options which are available in the Chi-Fi world. I am enjoying them quite a lot, and am beyond satisfied. They are a noticeable upgrade from your phone’s stock earphones, and they are very comfortable.
I hope you enjoyed the read and the content. Critics and feedback are welcome. I had a lot of fun and time invested into this whole review, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it. I think I said all the details and things I wanted to say. I am aware of some areas for improvement, I will be working on making my content even better the next time.
Burn in:
I proceeded to burn my EA3 by playing two playlists, from the start to the end with no pause. The volume was around 6-7 bars on my Macbook Pro (Early 2015).
The two playlists on Spotify (~22 hours):
And then I proceeded to make a playlist out of most of my music on my phone (~20 hours)
After this, I jut used them daily for watching videos, listening to music of course, and other tasks.
I do want to recommend another playlist which I haven’t used but is definitely useful (100h and it also has silence, so you don’t have to worry about damaging your device):
Edits: Just fixed the photos, now you can see them
Thank you, I appreciate it a lot!
I did, as you can probably hear, my “speech” sounds artificial, like I am reading a script. This is mainly because I made a lot of pauses. This is why I said that I haven’t spoken English in a while, it’s hard for me to do it one take, I also run out of breath pretty quickly and have to make stops to breathe.
I like how the video content turned out, and my written review, in both of those I met my goals. The vocal and speech part are the things which I want to work on. Besides the quality of my speech also isn’t ideal but I did everything I could to make it sound acceptable. The “s” sounds are harsh and overall I am not satisfied with this part, I have a good amount of room for improvement for the future.
To me it’s the most important that people understand it’s the audio and music which I care the most about (like many of us do), I am not audiophile and only give my honest opinion about what I hear. I don’t have any measurements, I should have mentioned some songs to back up my opinion… but I forgot which songs formed my opinion. I will keep this all in mind for the next video and will try to make improvements =)
Also the video quality is not something which I am satisfied with. It was 1080p when i rendered it on my laptop, I don’t know where the process went wrong but my video got downgraded, and isn’t as clear. I know that Youtube re-encodes videos but I don’t know why it made the video unclear. Also 1080p50 doesn’t appear on my phone. If somebody knows how to fix these issues I would truly appreciate it, it’s important to me that the quality which I put in comes out in the same way.
That’s unusual. I have the BLON BL-03 and like many others I find the mid bass quite boosted. You may not be getting a good fit, which is common with the BL-03. The angled connectors and unusually-shaped supplied tips cause problems with fit and, therefore, affect the bass response. Try a different cable with straight connectors and large tips (e.g. Spiral Dots). You will get a better balance of frequencies and the mids will not feel so recessed.
The successor to the BL-03 is the BL-05 which is a hybrid, 1 DD (carbon nanotube) and 1 piezo driver (ceramic). It looks very interesting and has a kind of steam punk look similar to the Revonext QT5.
Sorry for the delayed response. I was wrong. After a few weeks of trying to wrap my head around what I was missing I found it. I was having issues with cable and it’s position in my phones headphone jack and thought I might need to replace my phone. I then checked my other headphones and found them to have no issues. I thought that possibly the cable was bad so I took my kz cable and tried it with one monitor. I had no issues so I then proceeded to put the monitor on the original blon cable and I realized I had the monitors plugged in backwards. Blons monitors and cable have rectangular plug so you can easily plug it in wrong. I have also changed tips.
The blon bl03s are now my daily iem. Vocals are still not as forward and I still don’t think the clarity is there but they are pretty good. The midbass is pretty good.
My latest acquisition is the TRN ST1. I received it for review from Gina at Senlee, via Amazon USA. I have been testing it and here is my review:
Following on from the TRN BA5 and V90, the ST1 is the latest model from the company, and it is a dual-driver hybrid employing a 10mm dynamic driver for the bass region and the familiar 30095 BA for the treble.
The ST1 comes simply packaged in a small rectangular box resembling those used by KZ, CCA and KBEAR. The IEMs are displayed in a card cut-out below which you will find the detachable 2-pin cable, two sets of eartips (the medium size being pre-fitted on the IEMs) and documentation. A basic set of accessories, but as expected.
The IEMs themselves have a body made from coloured acrylic (my particular example being blue) with a shiny silver-coloured metal faceplate. The words “TRN ST1, Professional Hifi” are written on the side of the earpieces. The faceplate resembles that of the BA5 and is triangular in outline with four triangular sections meeting in the centre of the earpiece, surrounding a small vent. The cable is the same type as supplied with the V90, employing a “Type C” or QDC connector. There is no chin slider, which occasionally resulted in tangling. The supplied tips are dark grey with a red medium bore.
The IEMs were left burning in for 100 hours to settle down the components, after which they were evaluated using an Xduoo X20 connected via line out to a Fiio A5 headphone amplifier. I used the pre-fitted tips and the supplied cable, which resulted in an excellent fit and seal.
The ST1, as a dual hybrid featuring a 10mm DD and the 30095 BA, finds itself squarely in competition with the KZ ZSN Pro and the CCA CA4. The ST1 in sound has qualities of both, as well as some of its own character. It is quite strongly V-shaped in presentation, with a notably clear treble with good detail. There are some mild emphases in the upper frequencies, particularly in the upper mids/lower treble, which occasionally resulted in a harsh tonality, but this was only at certain frequencies. I would guess that this was a crossover artefact.
Bass
Bass was powerful and did dominate the overall balance, but provided a deep and solid foundation for the music. In classical music, the lower instruments were brought forward in the mix, for example, the basses in Holst’s “Moorside Suite” conducted by David Lloyd-Jones tended to place the violas and cellos a little in the shade. As a result, some of the details of the delicate counterpoint were lost, but the general tonality was warm and rather pleasing. This bass character suited electronic music much better. Jennifer Galatis’s “Interstellar Voyage” from her album “Io” hit extremely hard in the bass with subterranean sub-bass tones reaching far into the nether regions, which, set against soaring synthesiser chords and effects, resulted in a thrilling performance. The bass extension resulted in an excellent reproduction of recorded ambience, as evidenced in John Harle’s “Silencium”, a classical piece featuring female vocals, orchestral accompaniment and a deep bass drum. The decay was slow, which emphasised the character of the recording venue.
Midrange
Generally recessed, the lower midrange did suffer from a little bass bleed, giving extra warmth to this region but at the same time blunting transients. Tony O’Connor’s beautiful “Looking through my Window” is a piece for piano and cello and the initial attack of the instruments was softened. The tonality was rich and full, becoming brighter with frequency. The upper mid region was elevated and occasionally displayed a little edginess. Thomas Newman’s “Come Back to Us” from the soundtrack to the film 1917” features a prominent cello solo. This was nicely delineated by the ST1 with attractive tonality, and the balance between the solo instrument and the orchestra well-judged. The timbre brightened a little in the upper ranges and lent extra clarity to the melody line. The feeling in this piece came over very well. Male vocals gained a little extra warmth while female vocals possessed a little extra brightness. Moya Brennan’s beautiful voice in “Newgrange” from Clannad’s “Magical Ring” displayed excellent diction and personality, but also occasionally displayed some sibilance
Treble
After being impressed by the neutral and detailed tuning of the three 30095 BAs in TRN’s previous model, the BA5, and the 30019s in the V90, I was hoping for a similar tuning of the BA here. However, the tonality more resembled that of earlier KZ and CCA designs like the ZSN, ZSN Pro and CA4, with a rising profile in the lower treble, a few peaks which helped with detail and sparkle, and a smooth roll-off higher up. There was occasional sibilance where present in the recording. Clarity, however, was excellent, and separation also very good. Isao Tomita’s “The Old Castle” from “Pictures at an Exhibition” was a good example with the copious detail in the higher regions contrasting well with the accompaniment, but occasionally sounding a little harsh at higher volumes. Musicality was nice, though, with the character and emotion of the music well-preserved. Classical music also benefited fom this clarity, with the solo cor anglais in Sibelius’s “The Swan of Tuonela”, performed by the London Festival Orchestra under Sir Alexander Gibson nicely delineated against the orchestral backdrop. The detail of the violins playing “col legno”(with the wood of the bow) near the conclusion of the piece was very well portrayed.
Soundstage,
Unsurprisingly for a vented design, the staging was very spacious. Coupled with the V-shaped profile and good clarity in the treble, the overall effect of this was entertaining and enjoyable. “Boisterous Bouree”, from Benjamin Britten’s “Simple Symphony” showed good separation allowing the counterpoint to be appreciated, whilst the powerful bass response emphasised the resonance of the Snape Maltings. Vangelis’s “Antarctic Echoes” is a perfect track to display the staging. Set in a huge acoustic space, synthesised bell-like sounds echo into the distance. The ST1 did very well here, preserving the atmosphere of the piece perfectly and presenting a vast open vista of sound with a holographic quality.
Conclusion
The ST1 measures up well against its closest rivals, CCA’s CA4 and KZ’s ZSN Pro. It has a V signature with a somewhat recessed midrange and an upper range with good clarity and which becomes brighter through the mids and lower treble before rolling off smoothly. It has a very wide soundstage courtesy of its vented earpieces (the CA4 and ZSN Pro being closed designs) and gives a solid performance, especially at the price. The CCA CA4 departs from the traditional CCA neutral/bright sound. It has a more prominent sub-bass than the ST1 with a faster decay, a similarly recessed midrange and a slightly smoother treble with a little less detail, and its soundstage is not so spacious. It has a better build quality with its solid metal faceplate and a chunkier feel. The ZSN Pro has a more W-shaped profile with a mid-bass emphasis (though still possessing good sub-bass), more prominent mids and a bright treble. The soundstage has good width but has a flatter perspective. The choice between the three will depend on personal preference but the ST1 probably offers the best compromise with its extra detail, wide and spacious staging and all-round ability.
Good afternoon. I have Kbear KB06 and NiceHCK DB3. Now I want to buy some more headphones. I choose between CCA C12, Senfer DB6 Pro or TRN v90… Please help with the choice…
Hi! If you like the KB06, that is a well balanced sounding IEM. The TRN V90 is strongly V shaped, the DT6 Pro less so, and better balanced but still V shaped. The CCA C12 is also V shaped but with a brighter top end. It depends on your favoured sound profile. Of those you mentioned I would personally choose the DT6 Pro as it is the most accomplished of them (based on my own preferences, of course!)
It depends which one you get. If you choose the DT6 Pro you will maximise the sound you get if you use an amplifier, as piezo drivers are power hungry. You will also benefit from wide bore tips on them. In this configuration you should experience a wider stage, more detail and refinement and an extended response at both ends of the spectrum.
I am not sure if this qualify but I just got Moondrop Starfield about three weeks ago. Love them for the price! You can get them on special for about 90 dollars on Amazon. 109 regular price.
