The issue with the Truthear Hexa is it's exclusive to Shenzhen Audio, so there isn't any dealer price.

So anyone reselling it in Indonesia has to buy it from Shenzhen Audio at $80, add any import duties and VAT likely bringing it to around $90 cost and then $10 profit.

Other stuff, that is actually sold by multiple places, they can buy it at a MUCH lower dealer price (could easily be well under half the Western MSRP, as some stuff even sells to end users for under half Western MSRP) and that gives them more room to sell cheaper.

Here in Thailand, Chi-Fi is typically actually cheaper than Western countries, because it's sold cheaper to a developing market. But the Hexa isn't, because it's not distributed like this, it's Shenzhen Audio only.

You should still be able to buy directly from Shenzhen Audio yourself (either their own store or on AliExpress) for the same $80 price as everyone else. I got it from Ali on release for $65 with discounts.

For that matter this local seller on Shopee has it for 1.28m, which is $85, with discount coupons that could even possibly be below $80:

https://shopee.co.id/product/159299554/17991886433

That's a 30 day pre-order because what that seller is going to do when you order it, is go order it from Shenzhen Audio himself.

Strange you don't feel planars have rumble and sub-bass, they usually have better sub-bass extension than dynamics. The Clear is punchier than most though. And I do get what you are saying with "weight", they tend to have less of that, with maybe an exception in Audeze.

I would still pick a planar over the Clear for sub-bass in electronic music, for pure bass with no other consideration- LCD-X. It not only has the rumble, it has punch that rivals the Clear. Upper mids are much too dark and also wonky, but can be fixed up fine with EQ while keeping what is the best bass of anything I have heard.

Clear also has a clipping issue in very low sub-bass, although I don't listen loud enough for it to be an issue. It's just the last headphone I'd think of for sub-bass specifically, if anything it's a weak point. It's more mid-bass slam.

For still great sub-bass but otherwise tuned correctly through the mids (i.e. more like the Clear)- Arya Stealth, HE6SEV2, Edition XS.

Not trying to dissuade you, the Clear is a great headphone, and I think it's a better all rounder than the LCD-X, I'd take it over that. I pick it up more for rock than electronic music though. Just a different view on it.

-8dB everywhere else

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It's not that you'd be deliberately using some sort of software EQ. Rather that some audio "enhancement" (and a bass boost is one of the stock Windows enhancements) got attached to the TC44C but didn't get attached to the others.

If you literally don't hear any tonal difference across a wide range of other different devices, but hear a really distinct one on the TC44C- this really indicates that there is something messing with the sound on that one. Particularly as no other subjective review of the TC44C seems to find it "extremely bassy", they use words like neutral, flat, clean, accurate, transparent, the most I found was one review in the other direction, going with mostly neutral but "slightly bright".

You could measure it yourself, download REW and just do a tone sweep with it and record it, do the same with another DAC to make sure any variance isn't the recording device. If you do do this, don't use exclusive mode, this will ensure it goes through whatever you normally have going on. You'll either see this dramatic difference in the measurement, or you won't.

If you do- it confirms you were hearing something real. I'd suspect if it is there, it's a configuration issue. It's also possible it will measure entirely flat. Either way it's another data point, you can interpret it as you like. If I had ONE thing that sounded radically different than everything else, that sounded the same- I'd wonder why.

There are other measurements, like I linked in the first post, showing the TC44C is entirely linear and has no bass boost. I'm just doing this measurement again with an actual IEM in there (from the same company and of similar impedance to yours) in case it could be something like the effect of output impedance on the impedance curve of the headphone- although in this case the output impedance of the dongles is both extremely low, and 64 Audio as you say yourself has their LID technology with very flat impedance curves.

I'm open to there being certain differences, or interactions... like I said I have issues with the Helios on the TC44B, although I'd blame the Helios for that.

I just object to people characterizing stuff like a DAC/amp that measures entirely flat in frequency response as being "extremely bassy". It's just not. "Extremely bassy" is frequency response and it's measurable, and it's not there. Maybe there is something else that doesn't come up... but a tonal difference like that will be there in the frequency response.

One thing that sometimes can happen to cause this, is if you have some setting that is different between the two devices, like you have a bass boost APO attached to the TC44C, but not to the other devices. That is exactly the sort of thing that could cause this.

I don't have the Cayin RU6. Wolf/L7, Archimago and SBAF have measurements though. It doesn't measure well objectively. Archimago liked it though, or at least appreciated it wasn't trying to be high fidelity but was a device "with character" aiming for a certain type of sound. The others, not so much.

• https://www.l7audiolab.com/f/cayin-ru6/
• http://archimago.blogspot.com/2022/01/review-measurements-cayin-ru6-r-2r-usb.html
• https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/cayin-ru6-r2r-dongle-review-and-measurements-shit-happens.12671/

There are two possibilities here, either this is in your head, or you have a faulty unit.

Here's some measurements of my ddHifi TC44B vs the Moondrop MoonRiver 2, using an IEM. I used the 64 Audio Tia Trio, which is the closest I have to your Nio. It also has the Linear Impedance Design to sound the same, and it also similar very low impedance (5.5Ω Trio, 6Ω Nio).

https://imgur.com/a/oLtg0yu

There are actually two lines on that graph, although you might have to look very closely to see that. There is NO variance in the frequency response.

Like I said, I have something of an open mind on discussion on stuff sounding different. There are various ways things could possibly sound different. But this dongle is not "extremely bassy". It is entirely flat and does not change the tonal characteristics of the headphone at all, in any way.

Because their stuff sounds great and is priced very low for the sound quality, you could often double the price of a Hifiman headphone and it would still be competitive. Edition XS is under half the price of the LCD-X, and it's a better headphone. And this isn't because the LCD-X is a bad headphone, either, it's a benchmark around its price. But this is how good the Hifiman value proposition is.

It's not like other companies don't have issues either, Focal and Audeze are notorious for failures. I have stuff from all of these.

There's nothing particularly wrong with Spotify. Unlikely to notice a difference with Tidal unless you have some configuration in Spotify/Windows wrong that is making it sound bad. I subscribe to both, currently back on Spotify as Tidal is having one of its frequent... buffering... buffering...

> Feeling like I can tell exactly how much spit there was when the vocalist just did that thing with their mouth

ew

I find them dark and veiled as well. They do need a certain amount of power but they are still dark and veiled whatever you run them off, that doesn't change.

> The TC44C is an extremely bassy unit

It measures completely flat in terms of frequency response. That particular reviewer, he's just measuring with a sound card, and the slight roll off in the bass (and the larger roll off the other end) is very likely the input on that rather than the TC44C but it's enough to show it's NOT "extremely bassy".

ASR measured the TC44B which as far as I can make out is basically the same dongle in a different form factor, and with 2.5+4.4 rather than 3.5+4.4. Both use the same dual CS43131 chips. He doesn't have a linearity measurement, but he said he doesn't include these in reviews any more if the device is perfectly linear, as most are. So presumably this was for him as well.

I have the TC44B myself, and if I measure it, it is totally linear. It sounds linear as well, it is not "bassy". It's totally flat.

I can entertain at least some debate over the sound differences between these things. But specific stuff like this, where there is a specific significant tonal difference alleged, like it's "extremely bassy" - that can be measured. And it's not, it's just not.

One thing to bear in mind though with Symphonium is they are extremely low impedance, extremely low sensitivity and extremely source picky, possibly due to a combination of the low impedance and the way they implement their crossovers. They are very atypical on this point. I have the Helios (8.5Ω), and it actually doesn't sound good on the TC44B, it gets distortion and clicks and pops. It had some extremely weird almost "digital" behaviour, where it would cut out at an exact frequency and volume level, I don't think it's still doing this but when it was, it was something like a 47Hz tone, specifically, at a specific volume, it would just cut out entirely. 46Hz fine, 48Hz fine, and change the volume by one click and it was fine too. Really weird behaviour. But this is literally the only IEM I have, out of maybe 100, that is picky like this, and the TC44B isn't the only source it's problematic on, it's problematic on other sources as well, it's more the exception that I have like one dongle (E1DA 9038S) it's decent on. it's really more an issue with the way Symphonium make their IEMs than the dongle I think. So just I wouldn't use a Symphonium IEM as an example here, I could imagine the Meteor does something weird with the TC44C too, but I'd say that's on the IEM not the dongle. The Helios is the ONLY IEM I have that I hear major differences between sources, and it's because the IEM is weird.

I don't think many people are saying the Apple dongle is all you need for hard to drive planars. You do need something that has enough power. But IEMs need nowhere near as much power as a low sensitivity over-ear planar and 31mW @32Ω is actually plenty for almost any IEM.

The ER4SR is particularly low sensitivity, I think this is because Etymotic use a resistor to tune the BA in them. There are a handful of IEMs like this, Final E5000 and Symphonium Helios are two other examples, they are even lower sensitivity. These are really outliers though, the vast, vast majority of IEMs are easy to drive.

I think they are both the same, they have the same DAC and same internals. Ken Rockwell measured the lightning version and he got identical measurements on THD (0.0011%) as ASR got with the USB-C version (also 0.0011%).

Lightning version also doesn't have the volume issue the USB one has on Android, although this is a function of what you are plugging it into rather than the dongle.

Do you other have test/measurements that directly compared them?

https://imgur.com/a/IscdRiu

I have an original made in Austria K701 from well before the Samsung acquisition, it does have some redeeming features with great soundstage and good "punch" but it is also somewhat harsh and piercing. The HD600/HD650 which it competed against at release are far better tuned, and there's a reason they still get more attention today despite being even older headphones.

I also have "sound by AKG" Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, Buds 2 and Buds 2 Pro, all of which are absolutely excellent and probably about the best tuned BT TWS in existence (AKG's own N400NC TWS being another contender).

I have a AKG NC700M2 over-ear BT headphone, from after the Samsung acquisition, which is also tuned extremely well, fantastically for a BT over-ear. Samsung probably helped out with the electronic side of this, as that all "just works" as well.

Samsung brought Harman and AKG together and if anything actually significantly improved AKG's ability to tune headphones properly.

It's that, plus Oratory EQs to Harman, which AutoEQ does not, the default AutoEQ target curve you'll find in Peace, Qudelix 5K, etc has substantially less bass than Harman. This is why it kills the bass on basically all IEMs.

https://imgur.com/a/rwHJxPP

>None of these targets have bass boost seen in Harman target responses and therefore a +4dB boost was applied for all over-ear headphones, +6dB for in-ear headphones and no boost for earbuds. Harman targets actually ask for about +6dB for over-ears and +9dB for in-ears but since some headphones cannot achieve this with positive gain limited to +6dB, a smaller boost was selected.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/

It's extremely misleading that these curves are labelled as Harman, everyone thinks they are Harman but they are only Harman for the upper mids.

AutoEQ has also historically EQed too high up, and too much high up. This has been addressed in a more recent revision and the precomputed presets now limit themselves to a high shelf above I think 10,000Hz which is a big improvement. Oratory has historically taken a lighter touch in the treble.

Oratory's EQs also tend to be smoother and less extreme, with broader peaks, you can see there is a broad theme but the Oratory curve is smoother.

It's great software and works very well if you use it yourself manually but the precomputed target curves are junk, especially for IEMs. Took me ages to figure out exactly what it was doing. They are getting better, the introduction of low and high shelves is great. But Oratory1990's EQs still better.

This is likely due to Chinese New Year, everyone is on holidays for at least a week, possibly longer. The entire place shuts up shop.

if it competes with the Variations for $59 I'm in

Or the PFR-V1, although they actually sort of propped up on your ear.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Sony+PFR-V1&tbm=isch

I have the SR125e, it's utterly unlistenable stock but it's really just that loony 2kHz spike, bring that down with EQ and the rest of it is pretty well tuned.

Good headphones I keep for Sundays, the rest of the week I'm on Grados

Other tips worth trying, particularly if you have issues with retention, are Azla Xelastec, Azla Crystal and Moondrop Spring Tips.

These are all wide bore tips like Spiral Dots but at least for me, all have substantially better retention. Spring Tips are my overall favorite, and they are also much cheaper than Spiral Dots ($6 here for 3 pairs, $12 for international). They are all somewhat "tacky" in terms of the material and this helps keep it in, if I pull them out they resist a bit while Spiral Dots are quite slippery for me.

Xelastec actually change shape with body temperature and mold to your specific ear shape.

With any of these, getting the right size and something that fits well with the specific IEM (and this varies by IEM) is essential.

DT 770 250Ω are quite hard to drive, substantially harder than something like the Sennheiser HD600, and I would think you probably should be using something more powerful than the single ended out of a KA3, yes.

You could mod them to balanced, or get a more powerful desktop amp. The Douk U3 at $30 might be a good option, it does 1.3W and you can use the KA3 as a DAC into it.

It's scientific that you can push an amp into clipping if it doesn't have the current, although it more typically happens with lower impedance headphones than higher ones.

Volume controls voltage and with low impedance headphones you usually can turn the volume up higher than the amp's capability to supply current, if you do this you do get clipping and a huge spike in distortion.

You can see this in the 16Ω measurements for the KA3 unbalanced, and the 32Ω as well with the balanced. It's not apparent in the 68Ω or 300Ω though, that goes to max voltage without clipping, although distortion does start to rise again above 20mW (not to the level it would likely be audible).

https://www.l7audiolab.com/f/fiio-ka3/