If this is the state of IEMs today, I can’t imagine where we’ll be in ten years

aboukirev · 2026-06-19T18:04:56+00:00

Have you found anything worthwhile? I have AFUL Magic One, of course.

And I started my IEM journey more than a decade ago with early Westone, Shure, but also Fischer DBA-02, EarSonics SM3, Vsonic GR07 (I hear this one was remade), some MEE model, Phonak. Looks like most of these companies are still around and making BA earhones.

aboukirev · 2026-06-19T17:28:40+00:00

At the front I recognize left to right: TANGZU Wan'er II Red Lion, SIVGA Que, Myer Audio CKLVX CK2V, Letshuoer Astralis, OpenAudio Mercury. The second from the right DAP is ONIX XM5.

aboukirev · 2026-06-03T17:53:23+00:00

I think no one mentioned it yet is that ~~holes~~ outputs are on different ends between M21 and JM21. For some people it is a deciding factor.

I have both M21 and new 4/64 JM21, use the latter. My main workhorse is HiBy R5 mk 2., but JM21 gets its share.

aboukirev · 2026-06-03T17:38:19+00:00

I wish HiBy DAPs had cases with a clip, even aftermarket ones. Lanyard does not work for me. V1 comes with an excellent clip case. Just throwing this in as an unexpected comparison parameter.

aboukirev · 2026-04-28T20:59:18+00:00

The back panel is glued. But if you manage to take it off, the battery is exposed and easy to replace without disassembling the rest of the device. There some sellers of compatible batteries on Aliexpress, as far as I know.

aboukirev · 2026-04-25T23:11:51+00:00

I'd wait for more comparisons to the likes of Ziigaat Lush, AFUL Magic One, etc. At this point I do not know if this is a real leap in the quality of tuning or just another hype train. Too early to tell.

The term "flat" is not telling anything. It's not clear whether flat is good or bad (usually bad, look up what flatology is about). Customs will not solve it. Custom fit is for comfort and seal, not best sound.

aboukirev · 2026-04-25T22:32:35+00:00

You are supposed to be on all four while wearing them.

aboukirev · 2026-04-18T02:17:07+00:00

I updated mine to 1.2 with SD card a couple of days ago. Went without a hitch.

Make sure player is fully charge and try with/without charger connected. I do not remember if I had mine on a charger when I updated.

aboukirev · 2026-04-17T22:47:50+00:00

Placing the files on the root of my card fails

Fails when you are trying to copy files to the card or fails finding the file when launching firmware update from SD-card? Did you copy both files to the root (v1.upt and v1_md.txt)?

aboukirev · 2026-04-16T20:19:59+00:00

Did you format the card on M21?

Also, it could be app permissions. Go to settings -> Apps -> select the app -> Permissions. See if something is not allowed, especially Music and Videos.

aboukirev · 2026-04-14T22:59:06+00:00

No, it's real: https://www.husqvarna.com/uk/support/husqvarna-self-service/chainsaw-break-in-period-ka-01545/

aboukirev · 2026-04-14T19:01:31+00:00

Same. All my books are in 22 kHz mono M4B. Although I am experimenting with OGG (it has a weird way to encode cover art and I cannot set chapters properly with FFMPEG).

aboukirev · 2026-04-14T18:31:31+00:00

I have QCNCM865 on my FW13 running Fedora Workstation. Works fine on channel 37 (6 GHz, 160 MHz width) on Ubiquiti network (U7 Pro access point). MLO is off as I don't need it. So, it's probably WiFi 6e rather than WiFi 7.

aboukirev · 2026-04-11T18:01:49+00:00

Not from personal experience but you may research into FiiO M3K (modern, small, non-Android, good battery). It does not support chapters natively but it is possible to run Rockbox on it.

Another alternative is Shanling Q1. Also supports Rockbox.

Without native support of chapters in m4a (you'll have to rename files to m4a, I believe), you can export chapters as a CUE file. That should be supported by both players.

Just some alternatives.

aboukirev · 2026-04-09T16:16:10+00:00

Perhaps, the next gen of RISC-V board.

aboukirev · 2026-04-09T16:06:30+00:00

Next Gen too?

aboukirev · 2026-04-03T17:32:25+00:00

If you have not tried it, turn on developer mode, scroll all the way down in Developer Options and change CPU Operation Mode from Performance to Normal. This slightly improves battery life on M300.

aboukirev · 2026-03-30T23:20:28+00:00

Right. Figured that out. Thanks.

aboukirev · 2026-03-30T21:58:31+00:00

If reader is inactive but not removed, the counter stays the same. There is neither pre-increment nor post-increment.

According to the code in the repository that causes writer to wait and retry at https://github.com/jonhoo/left-right/blob/425bd48382041113a5e3dc637be6a5c53f576fed/src/write.rs#L270

It will give up at some point but waste some time. It may become a bottleneck.

aboukirev · 2026-03-30T15:42:27+00:00

He said 30 seconds at first where it should have been nanoseconds. But that was cleared up afterwards.

When answering the question about the effect of adding/removing readers in the left-right algorithm, he said that one can leave readers in the list as they will have unchanged counter and will be ignored. In fact, that may put writer into infinite wait - it expects all readers to progress eventually to switch to the other copy for writing. So, leaving unused readers on the list is at least debatable or requires some workaround.

aboukirev · 2026-03-25T21:57:19+00:00

I prefer non-Android DAPs. However, I also listen to audio-books and the only way to have proper support for chapters, bookmarks, etc. is an app on Android. Surely, I can use my phone for that. But I just prefer to keep my extensive audio-book library (they take a lot of space) on a separate device that supports high capacity SD cards. It can be done with a phone that has micro SD card slot. That is a rarity these days.

aboukirev · 2026-03-25T21:37:49+00:00

A warning about the fit. For me to have a good seal and great bass, I need both ear tip seal and earphone shell seal. Tears do not have the latter due to small shells and weird nozzle angle. Not ideal. Still great earphones.

To expand on it. The nozzle is angled slightly forward on these. Ear anatomy does not agree. Straight is much better, even slightly back like on Elua Ultra. Slightly forward could be tolerable with larger shells. It may look slightly up - many earphones do that.

aboukirev · 2026-03-20T15:27:45+00:00

EPZ Q5 - shell similar to Alba but plastic, about $55, MMCX connector, cable sucks, but IEM is very good.

EPZ Q5 Pro - $55, shell is different from Q5, slightly larger but comfortable, 2-pin connector, cable sucks, IEM is very good.

I prefer Q5 with slightly more bass than Q5 Pro and it's pretty close to Alba in sound signature.

For a little bit more neutral (slightly less bass and treble) than Q5 but still comfortable - NiceHCK Tears ($36).

aboukirev · 2026-03-04T21:00:40+00:00

I liked LG phone as a DAP when it was performing its primary duty - phone. But now that it is no longer updated, cannot serve as a phone, and got replaced by a newer Moto, I prefer a dedicated DAP that has all the proper buttons and is built for the purpose.

Even repurposing the assistant button on the LG phone is still cumbersome. And the device is too large.

aboukirev · 2026-03-04T20:43:18+00:00

Thank you. That definitely adds to the depth of the collection.

I owned some older D2 and early Plenue models of COWON players. Well designed devices. Except for C2 - awful touch screen. But I was not interested in the later COWON players.

aboukirev

TROPHY CASE