Tested on XD05 Pro with ESS dac. Helios SE on Silver Widow V3.
Playlist
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/c2668d05-b266-41c7-a4d1-c340b61aab6b
OPA1612 (stock XD05 Pro opamps)
| Imaging | Poor |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor |
| Dynamics | Poor |
| Tone Weight | Poor |
| Note Definition | Very Poor |
| Treble | Poor |
| Upper Mids | Poor |
| Lower Mids | Good |
| Mid Bass | Poor |
| Sub Bass | Poor |
| Overall | Congested, cheap sound with poor dynamics. The only reason why anyone would choose this is due to the cheap price. |
OPA627
| Imaging | Fair |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor |
| Dynamics | Poor-Fair |
| Tone Weight | Poor |
| Note Definition | Fair |
| Treble | Poor |
| Upper Mids | Fair |
| Lower Mids | Fair |
| Mid Bass | Fair |
| Sub Bass | Fair |
| Overall | Can be muddy sounding on some tracks. Missing details. Average sounding opamps. Okay as a stock if price is right. Nothing outstanding. Nothing to |
OPA828
| Imaging | Good |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor-Fair |
| Dynamics | Good |
| Tone Weight | Good |
| Note Definition | Good |
| Treble | Good |
| Upper Mids | Good |
| Lower Mids | Good |
| Mid Bass | Good |
| Sub Bass | Good |
| Overall | Imaging and precision are fairly good. Staging is not wide. Does a pretty good job overall. Able to reproduce the music, not the best I have heard. But the best for a non-discrete so far. |
Trulis 8802
| Imaging | Good |
|---|---|
| Staging | Fair |
| Dynamics | Good |
| Tone Weight | Good |
| Note Definition | Good |
| Treble | Fair |
| Upper Mids | Good |
| Lower Mids | Good |
| Mid Bass | Good |
| Sub Bass | Fair |
| Overall | Tube like sound. Not the most resolving due to the diffusion. Highly musical. Sub bass a little blunted. Treble is ample but not sparkly. As tubelike I have gotten without a tube. Drawback is some technical suffers. |
Purple (Discreet)
| Imaging | Poor |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor |
| Dynamics | Poor |
| Tone Weight | Poor |
| Note Definition | Fair |
| Treble | Fair |
| Upper Mids | Poor |
| Lower Mids | Poor |
| Mid Bass | Poor |
| Sub Bass | Poor |
| Overall | Neutral, but poor technicalities. |
5532D
| Imaging | Fair |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor |
| Dynamics | Poor |
| Tone Weight | Poor |
| Note Definition | Poor |
| Treble | Fair |
| Upper Mids | Poor |
| Lower Mids | Poor |
| Mid Bass | Fair |
| Sub Bass | Fair |
| Overall | Not the worst of the lot. But nothing stands out. No reason to buy these, or use them. |
SE5532AF
| Imaging | Good |
|---|---|
| Staging | Poor |
| Dynamics | Fair |
| Tone Weight | Fair |
| Note Definition | Good |
| Treble | Fair |
| Upper Mids | Fair |
| Lower Mids | Fair |
| Mid Bass | Good |
| Sub Bass | Good |
| Overall | Not bad. Not as good as the 828. But it’s usable. Higher resolution IEMs might make the flaws obvious. I suspect less capable IEMs will work just fine. |
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