Very clean looking, thanks for posting the model!

That side bracket button guard alone is a brilliant idea for a print. Thanks for sharing

It drove me crazy for a while, until I adjusted the levels in windows. I just turned the left channel down to 92% and used vocals primarily to test it, since they are normally mixed in the "middle". Somewhere in the sound settings you can adjust this. I have a similar option when listening from my android phone, but not as precise, but I'm satisfied with the result

Go to an audiologist and get your hearing tested. In the newer versions of EQ APO / Peace there's a hearing test you can do which may help some.

You can easily balance a headphone L/R using EQ but hearing damage can come in different flavors so all frequencies may not have the same issues which makes things trickier to balance properly, and it may be impossible to get perfect.

Oh no, if your ears were bleeding five years ago then yup, it's probably physical trauma or hearing damage. Unfortunately there's no cure for hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis, etc. at the moment.

Visit /r/tinnitusresearch for hope though. If everything goes right, we'll probably have legit medical products/etc. for tinnitus (some versions of it), hyperacusis, etc. before or around 2030, lol.

For now, try using parametric EQ to compensate with the channel/hearing imbalance.

IEMs/headphones with PC gaming, squig.link, AutoEQ, parametric EQ: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/11n9l4u/fiio_fh3_for_tarkov/jbm9db1/

You can do (parametric) EQ with $8 Neutron Music Player or UAPP on Android. If on PC, the free (Peace) Equalizer APO. There are free apps on Android(/Apple) that can also do a good enough job, but most of them have those graphics sliders instead of parametric or just plug the numbers in EQ. EQ can also be used to help with channel or ear imbalances.

Definitely book an appointment with your local Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) doctor as they'll help you figure out your current situation. Make sure to also regularly visit the audiologist/etc. for hearing health testing and also manual earwax removal.

If you have blocked sinuses, Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, etc. then you may have to take anti-allergy (antihistamines/etc.) medicine, do certain exercises with your jaw/ears/etc.

Here's some exercises for Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, et cetera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SZ1r1dnho

Info about decibels, hearing health, et cetera here: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a4cpm/are_few_second_peaks_into_8285_db_still_safe_when/j9riw7q/

If you encounter sudden hearing loss, or random tinnitus/et cetera, maybe go to the ER for the (hearing) steroids: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11m5yc5/hypersensitivity_and_tinnitus_after_96db_sound/jbgt88m/

Here's a bit more info on IEMs, dongles, volume, hearing health, earwax cleaning, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/ul7gyx/listening_needs_with_sensitive_hearing/i7ty42g/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uk341f/er2se_ear_damage/i7ndank/

Here's more info about hearing health and hearing loss, it's mainly about IEMs, but it applies to headphones too: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/v4uuxx/tinnitus_relapse_with_kz_zsn_pro_xs/ib6kbbm/

Here's what you can maybe do directly with tinnitus intensity (I am not a medical professional so take this with precaution): https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/ul7gyx/listening_needs_with_sensitive_hearing/i7vodcu/

That seems very likely, you may have damaged your eardrum and scar tissue has made it less sensitive.

When I was a teen I was using a qtip to clean my ear and accidentally jammed it into my eardrum and it was bleeding and hurt pretty bad. But that was when i was like 16 now am 22 do you think it could actually be from then?

The evidence suggests it is a problem with your ear. Perhaps you had an ear infection and something inside was damaged, maybe you were close to a very loud bang on one side and your eardrum was slightly damaged. Or you may just have one malformed canal/drum/cochlear. Start by using the balance control on your sound source.

im using it without drivers

The reason why the volume changed is because high gain switched to low gain

Gotcha, thanks for letting me know

You don't.

I use it without drivers and the system recognizes it correctly. And yes, without the driver my listening volume is 15-25% for cans and 7-12% for IEMs. I haven't tried installing the driver, but even if you ignore the insane volume gain it's miles ahead of onboard audio (even decent codecs like ALC1220 or 4080).

Moondrop Variations

That’s good to know. I haven’t heard about differences between the V1 and V2.

Just ordered a set of filters and gonna give this a go. Thanks for the detailed reply!

I have the first version....the blue one. It's good for headphones, but I'm not thrilled with it for IEMs, the noise floor is just not quite low enough. Maybe the V2 is better in that regard.

The iFi nano is much better since it has a jack with iematch, but not as pocketable and no balanced jack. Still sounds great.

The filters come with a set of tweezers, and just hitting the side of one of the preinstalled ones is enough to remove the old ones. No disassembly except removing the ear tips. May take a few tries to do but even an adequately steady hand can manage this.

The Olina filters are a soft, gauzy thing that are easy to bend, so it’s good that they include 12 in a package. They just stick on with an adhesive ring in the same place as the metal ones you removed.

I didn’t notice much of any change to the bass. The overall tonality is certainly warmer, but that may be from a loss of some of that treble spike. That much I can definitely say is affected.

How does one go about replacing the filter? Do you have to take the housing apart? Also curious if you noticed any increase in the bass levels after using the Olina filters.

Might have to add it to my gear. Thanks for your thoughts on it!

Sincere thanks for the thoughtful and helpful response!

Interesting! I’ll look into those, appreciate it

I think it's the mid bass - the planar is so quick that the normal amount seems short. But honestly not sure, they seem to respond to EQ differently than a DD. Need to spend more time messing around with it.

Haven't heard about those.

The Ifi gryphon has surprised for the better. I started out on an IFI go blu which is great for portable uses. The gryphon has lots more features like XBass II and X Space, and my favorite feature is the switch on the back that basically balances power between 3.5mm, 4.4mm and then they have IEMatch that cuts off the hiss for higher sensitivity IEMs. Not to mention it has a Bluetooth feature too

True.

I owned the original hip-dac and the Qudelix 5K. The Qudelix is a marvelous little device, stuffed with cool features like onboard parametric EQ in such a tiny form factor.

But its wonky multifunction buttons suck compared to the simple ergonomics of the hip-dac, and music sounded much more organic and alive with the hip-dac due to the Burr-Brown DAC chip and bass boost button.