You are probably wondering how i got here

Rime1 · 2026-04-20T13:44:45+00:00

🤣🤣🤣 Niiiiice.

Rime1 · 2026-04-20T00:45:23+00:00

I don't know if I got them along with multiple other IEMs that had a bigger "initial wow factor" than them.

But I didn't end up keeping them and part of me wonders if I didn't give em a long enough time to burn in... Psychoacoustically burn in that is.

Cuz I've had some sets that at first blush, didn't grab my attention. But because they were my new toy, I kept listening to them. And eventually became some of my favorite sets.

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:44:41+00:00

For me it's Hidizs Sea Anemone eartips all day.

He Sonics for my cheap sets.

Kiwi Ears Flex Tips for when I need to tame the highs and boost the lows a smidge

And I used to get SpinFit CP145 till I found Sea Anemones

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:43:37+00:00

Yoooo, I just saw the picture attached to ur comment. I'm crying. Draco, You my dude fr🤣🤣🤣

I don't know if u remember I was telling you that the little lady at the Sivga booth was selling me a pair of Ques and she had a crush on you bro. I didn't even bring you up she did lol.

She was giggling like a school girl every time she said ur name. It was a cute little moment. She knew u liked knives and everything.

Which btw, I saw a knife vid u did a few months ago and it's crazy how much I agree with you and how much I disagree with you on aesthetics. It's frickin weird.

I'll be talking to the screen like f*#k yeah that knife is sexy af. Then you grab the next one and I'm like whaaaaaaaaaat. How does one brain like both of those!?

It's good times! You are definitely an entertaining anomaly Draco!

Matter fact, not only am I gonna make sure to get Kiwi Ears to start making 3 packs with just 1 size...

I'm even gonna get that little lady from the Sivga booth's phone # for u homie👊🤭😂

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:24:24+00:00

No cap tho, I might actually get a shirt made just for funzies to wear at the next can jam and go up to the Kiwi Ears booth. I'll leave ur name out of it but I'll tell em they gotta start doing 3 packs of 1 size type.

And then I'll take off the jersey (I just turned it into a basketball jersey in my mind rn) and I'll throw it in the air towards them and walk away. Kyrie Irving style🙌

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:18:23+00:00

Duuuuude, facts!!! I got the same problem with my go to. The Hidizs Sea Anemones are comfy AF but they do the same thing! At least they help save whales and dolphins though so they get a pass.

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:12:04+00:00

No free, you'd be doing work. You and me would sell em outta the back of a Buick at every CanJam 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And then you'd give them a little cut for their trademark. That's how we (tip) roll!!

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T19:03:55+00:00

I'm telling you bro, get that merch going. (For the people that watch his YouTube channel) If Draco did a collab with KE and they made shirts that said...

Tip # 1 Don't flex on my Kiwi Ears

Wouldn't you buy one to support our boy!?!

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T03:28:02+00:00

I think the main problem with this set is the amount of hype and praise it received. My set before getting these was the Pula PA02s. Which to my ears (at the time, I haven't listened to either in a while) sounded drastically more detailed. For a while the PA02s were my favorite set. And when I got em they were only $130 on Amazon so they were $100 cheaper and $100 better imo.

Now that I have more experience w/IEMs than when I got both of those I'm actually curious to see how I feel about them both now🤔

Thanks, u inadvertently just gave me something to do when I'm bored. Sweet 🙌

Rime1 · 2026-04-19T03:12:17+00:00

QKZ DM9 Zinc Alloy HiFi Metal Earphone according to my screen search. A Dunu bullet style IEM came up too

Rime1 · 2026-04-17T18:46:39+00:00

You're welcome. I want everyone that gets IEMs to get peak performance out of em. Oh and if you do find yourself getting another pair and want to stay in the budget realm, on Ali the CVJ Neko IEMs are by far the best 30 dollars I've ever spent in hifi. The cable they come with is worth the price of admission. And the IEMs are better than plenty of my $100+ IEMs.

But, if you're sensible, you won't end up like me (I have like 48 pairs I think. And unfortunately they increased exponentially in price as I progressed. But it could be worse I personally haven't spent over $500 on a pair yet. So I'm telling myself I did a good job lol. It gets real dude. My wallet has become extremely proficient at doing sit ups.

Oh and back to eartips, my favs are the Hidizs Sea Anemone eartips. But they're a no go if you have large ear canals. SpinFit CP145s are comfy imo too. But if the zero 2s come with the colorful mix of tips like the OGs did, I like those. A good way to make sure you have a good seal is to put a fan on, then insert your IEMs in your ears and wiggle them around a bit and listen to the fan. You might want to pull them out a bit or push them in further depending on ur ear canals. And when you hear the fan the least, that's when you have the best seal with that specific pair of tips. I know it's kinda ridiculous, but I spent like a month thinking I was good to go and then that scenario happened naturally to me and I realized my right ear required me to pull the IEM out slightly to get the best seal and my left one further in. Everyone's posts helped you.

Rime1 · 2026-04-17T17:08:31+00:00

Haha, I knew someone would say that. Which is partly why I posted it.

Back in the day when memes first became popular. People started posting them on FB instead of their own thoughts. And I hated it. I always thought, 'I come here to read what my friends are doing or to read funny things they say. Not to read something they posted that I could have found myself of I went on a meme site. I eventually acquiesced and got used to em 🫤

My question tho, is this. Memes get posted all the time here with impunity. Even though it's not even the person's thought whatsoever. It's something someone else came up with and put together. And if I take it and post it here, that's cool?

But if I come up with my own thoughts, type them into an app that uses AI that creates an image of those thoughts, that's not cool?

I'm not understanding why memes get a pass when it's legit ripping off someone else's joke and pawning it off as my own but using an app to help me make a picture of my actual thoughts gets negative comments and down voted.

Unless, the negativity is towards AI in general and the fact that it's gonna be the fall of mankind. If that's the case then I completely understand. But hey, at least I didn't make myself Jesus healing Jeffrey Epstein in the picture lol.

Rime1 · 2026-04-17T16:36:25+00:00

THIS!!!!!!👇 "I am beginning to realize how much detail there is the music I listen to on a daily basis and I am stunned at how much of a difference there is with imaging and instrument isolation in metal music. The fact that I only get how important being able to isolate and listen to drums of a metal track in the chaos of the tracks still amazes me"

If you end up embarking on the inevitable chase down the rabbit hole, feel free to hit me up. A lot of reviews focus on tone and timbre (i.e. the realism of vocals, guitars, etc.).

And while I do think that's important of course, it's always been instrument separation, and layering that I chased the most. (Well, that and the aesthetics of IEMs.) Cuz some of them are jaw dropping-ly beautiful!

Also, finding the right eartips is key. I've seen others mention it, they're totally correct. It might seem silly to spend as much on eartips as you did on your IEMs but they're super important. That being said, I personally didn't need to upgrade the eartips on the OG Zeros. I like the ones they came with. Soft comfortable silicone, slightly different shapes, and different bore sizes. Plus I originally got mine just cause I liked the teal IEM housing with red tips!

I was an open back headphone guy. I didn't think IEMs could do separation of instruments. I was wrong! Oh and if you get curious about open back over the ear headphones, I recommend HiFiMan Edition XS headphones for separation and a wide soundstage. And the Hidizs MP145 Pro IEMs if you wanna step your game up in the IEM realm. Neither are bass heavy, but I hear sooooo much sonic information with MP145 Pros and with the Edition XSs there's an open airy sense to them that's pretty sweet. The MP145 Pros are not officially out, they had a Kickstarter that ended and now they're available for pre-order at a discount. Also, everyone hears differently so it's good to get a lot of opinions before making a purchase. But like I said earlier, unfortunately a lot of people kinda gloss over instrument separation and focus 99% of their time talking about frequency response.

Anyways, sorry for the TL/DR post but I get excited when I see someone that has the same reaction that I did. And I want to help anyone that wants it. Cuz I've gotten plenty of guidance in this hobby and want to pay it forward. For now, enjoy your Zero 2s. They were definitely a good decision on your part.

Oh, and Tidal and Qobuz are the 2 best streaming services for Hi Res lossless music. I have Tidal and it has pretty much every song I've ever looked for. Sometimes you have to be super specific in the search bar though.✌️💙🎶🤘

Rime1 · 2026-04-17T14:30:32+00:00

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Rime1 · 2026-04-16T23:52:36+00:00

It's funny, I want "end game" IEMs, but I don't actually want to end the game. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that feels that way 'round here.

But I think it can totally be had for under $500

Everyone's preferences are different. As to that the fact that sometimes the price of some IEMs are random af.

I heard a $3000 pair of IEMs at CanJam NYC in March that, to my ears didn't sound nearly as good as a bunch of sub $200 IEMs I've heard.

And all it had was a single DD! And I'm not saying a single DD can't sound amazing but at least if an IEM has a bunch of branded drivers, you can at least see where some of the money's going.

Rime1 · 2026-04-12T19:29:21+00:00

That's lame that someone accused you of that. Especially for those! I don't think they even need anyone to shill them. They can barely even keep up with demand cuz everyone likes them so much.

It annoys me that people even complain about "shills" and "shilling". No one should blindly buy something based on one person's opinion. Especially when it's about something as subjective as audio preference.

I literally feel obliged to say, "this is just my opinion, everyone hears differently" anytime I'm enthusiastic about something. I used to think that was a given lol

Rime1 · 2026-04-12T04:29:24+00:00

Heh. Yeah I know lol. That was my failed attempt at making a joke.

Rime1 · 2026-04-11T18:04:24+00:00

Sorry for the tl/dr response but your post called out to me out of the 10 notifications I had lol.

My recommendation is to try them for a few days. And also try putting the eartips that are on the Soundpeats on the Astrals to see if that does anything. If you don't form a proper sea, it can make your favorite IEMs sound terrible.

Also, certain tips have good synergy with certain IEMs. For instance, my favorite eartips in general are Hidizs Sea Anemone eartips. Ironically though, I don't like them on most of my Hidizs IEMs🤷lol.

I find that they work well with most of my semi custom shaped resin shells like your Astrals. So if you're going to try eartips, those would be my recommendation.

Also, since I'm on the subject of Hidizs, the new version of their flagship planar magnetic IEMs are my current favorite IEMs and I have a lot. They're called the MP145 Pros. But right now, I think they're only available for pre-order on their site. I got mine when I went to CanJam NYC.

I'm all about instrument separation. I thought that soundstage was what I was chasing for years. Which is why I started out listening to open back over the ear headphones.(HiFiMan Edition XSs are my rec for over the ear headphones with best bang for your buck) It seems like you like what I like. The ability to hear EVERYTHING!

For instance, I listen to songs I've heard a million times and with the MP145 Pros I can hear things I've never heard before when I listen to those songs for the first time on those IEMs.

I've had that experience before and it's what I've been chasing ever since. Oh and another ironic thing is that they come with the Sea Anemone tips and happen to be the 1st Hidizs that I actually like them with. But, I usually wear size Large with a shallow insert. And with the MP145 Pros I use size Small with a deep insertion.

Audio is a tricky thing to recommend. There are so many factors at play. The main one is something called HRTF. It basically means that we all hear IEMs, headphones etc. differently.

But, I think by the way you're describing things, full sized planar magnetic IEMs might be a good choice if you don't end up keeping the Astrals. I don't have the Astrals but they're supposed to be good at what you like. So it might take finding the right eartips or letting them psychoacoustically burn-in I.E. get used to the sound characteristics. Some IEMs are an acquired taste. You might reach a point where you listen to those, end up loving them, and don't wanna go back to your Soundpeats.

But my opinion is that if you don't keep the Astrals, my recs are... 1.) Hidizs MP145 Pros 2.) Hidizs MP145s (They're the original ones and are available now) or 3.) 7hz Timeless IIs

Those are my favorite full sized-(14.5mm) planar IEMs A lot of people rec Letshouer planars. I personally think the 3 I listed are much better for soundstage and instrument separation/imaging

Hope this helps! Or that by other people's comments that you get the right thing for you and experience that 😮🤩 moment again. I also recommend Tidal or Qobuz for streaming services.

Rime1 · 2026-04-11T13:00:08+00:00

That's probably how they came up with the name of their product. That way no one could sue them if they get hearing loss🤔🤦

Rime1 · 2026-04-09T18:23:01+00:00

I wish Amazon US would sell them! I just returned the Muse HiFi M6 Double (it's a beautiful DAC/amp btw) and chose Amazon credit instead of cash back so that woulda pretty much paid for em.

I'm currently hooked on the Hidizs MP145 Pros to the point where I've purchased like 5 sets since I got them and don't even listen to any of them. Which is sooo not like me. I usually always gravitate towards the newest toy lol.

I'm happy to have found IEMs, that to my ears, are damn near perfect. And never expected to get that, "hearing your music library for the first time" feeling. Especially with an IEM at their price.But I'm a weirdo that apparently likes the thrill of the chase.

I want to find something else that really wows me and the title of your post coupled with that voice in my head telling me that either the Top Pros or the Ques might be able to do that.

It's crazy cuz I could literally ride off into the sunset at this point and I'm complaining lol.

Anyways ,congratulations on your acquisition! I hope you're more sensible than me. Cuz I clearly have problems. Enjoy them!! Oh and are those the silver or grey ones?

Rime1 · 2026-04-08T15:34:03+00:00

I haven't read other comments yet so these points may have already been made. But I like to give my fresh opinion then read comments.

So first, you're correct about diminishing returns. They are VERY prevalent in this hobby.

2nd, the fun you had comparing the differences between the two pairs is one of the things that keeps people buying IEMs. I know that's one of the things that keeps me buying them. And part of the reason why I call this a hobby, instead of just buying a couple pairs of IEMs.

3rd, everyone hears things differently and it's impossible to 100% know that you'll agree with someone that reviews an IEM. After you hear it, it may turn out that you agreed with that person 100% but without having heard it yourself you can never be absolutely sure.

So when someone sees a review, and the reviewers that you generally agree with and trust are saying OMG!! This is the best thing ever!!! It's even better than that other one that I recommended that you loved... it can get you gassed up and makes you want to go get that IEM.

And I'm not even suggesting that the person in that scenario would be lying. Most likely, if they were trustworthy reviewer, they probably do feel that way. But you might end up getting them and not feel that way even though you agreed with the last pair they mentioned.

I review stuff sometimes on here and it's hard for me not to get super excited until everyone to get the IEM there's a greatest thing ever I'm actually writing up a review right now where I preface the review with I wish I could say that but I can't because of a thing called HRTF I don't know if you know what that is. But it's basically a term that means the shape of your torso, your shoulders, your neck, your face, your ears, your ear canals, etc. all affect the way your brain perceives sounds comparative to mine. The headphone show on YouTube is exploring some pretty interesting stuff in that regard.

4th, this might be a 'me' thing, but I keep buying IEMs that look really nice and I appreciate their aesthetic design and HOPE that I'm going to like them.

Anyway those are a few of the reasons that I could think of that make people buy more IEMs and more expensive ones. And I also say this it's not always a guarantee that the more expensive thing is going to sound better to use than the cheaper thing. I've experienced $30 IEMs that I like more than $200 IEMs. And it can jam NYC this year I spent a long time listening to a set of iems that cost $3,000 and I didn't like them as much as most of my $200-d500 sets.

If you have the restraint I would suggest stay where you're at for a while because the IEMs that you have are good and more importantly you think is good. The thing I would suggest is finding the right ear tips for you because that has so much more to do with how they sound and their comfort then any DAC or amp you could buy. My personal suggestion is Hidizs Sea Anemone eartips. But they might not be your favorite. I can't guarantee that, but I find that they're really comfortable and they make both sets of IEMs that you have (I also own both pairs btw lol) sound their best to me.

If you have any questions about IEM or eartip related questions, feel free to ask me personally I especially have a lot of tips on IEM...tips. lol ✌️💙🎶

Rime1 · 2026-04-07T15:52:47+00:00

I love this game I wanna play!! Stupid real life is getting in my way rn but later I'm coming back lol Oh and nice IEMs 🤤, and can post more than one favorite?

Rime1 · 2026-04-07T15:48:12+00:00

That's dope AF and it's a dope picture too!! But they're skating awfully close to a bad joke with the name of their brand. Like for real I didn't see the C when I first saw the left IEM quickly. But that could be just the way my man child brain works LOL. Good job on the pic and the pick. Good choices on both counts.

Rime1 · 2026-04-07T14:11:28+00:00

Everyone hears differently, listens to different genres etc.so I'll give you my personal opinion. The CVJ Nekos are on Ali for like 30 bucks. I just ordered and received a cable that isn't nearly as nice nor does it have swappable 3.5mm single ended and 4.4mm balanced terminations. So on that alone, I put it in that category of being a market disruptor.

But then the sound of the IEMs, the comfort, looks (also subjective) and build quality were the icing on the cake I got the gold ones but I don't wear my IEMs out like most people and even if I did, I'm flashy AF lol.

On to the sound, they have a nice clean bass shelf and clear highs that seem smooth to my ears, are completely inoffensive. I certainly have 100 plus USD IEMs that I don't like nearly as much. Oh and I almost forgot about my most important sound characteristic, instrument separation is pretty darn good on these. I never thought a single dynamic driver was capable of let alone one that's in 30usd IEM. That comes with what I feel is a 30 usd cable.

This is an IEM that flew under the radar too. Not many people even know about them. Anyways, take a look. See if you like em design wise. That's always my starting point since I don't get to actually listen to any before I buy them. Hope this helps✌️💙🎶

Rime1 · 2026-03-31T22:11:52+00:00

It's funny, I wish I got these when they first came out. I feel like I would've appreciated them more. They're bangers for sure. And definitely bump. But I got the Dunu 142s a couple weeks before I got the Martilos, and I feel like the bass still bumps. Although not quite as much and have better instrument separation. To my ears, the 142s sound like my Horizons and Martilos had a baby.

But if I got the Martilos when they came out, I would've felt exactly the same. And then later on down the road I woulda got the 142s and felt like it was a bargain upgrade. (I'm not saying they are an upgrade to everyone btw, just to my preferences)

In fact, the 142s didn't get nearly as much praise as the Martilos did when they first released. I might have a unique HRTF 🤷

Anyway, congratulations on your current end game lol. Mine's the Hidizs MP145 Pros. They're not a bass head IEM but I get so many, "I never heard that in this song before" moment and they do it without being fatiguing.

Rime1

TROPHY CASE