AFUL - MagicOne

You are mighty welcome! The best photo of Greta is your photo in which you did a fine job of capturing the somewhat ethereal sound quality which the Aful MagicOne adds to the overall listening experience. The MagicOne still is the only IEM which I have been able to fall asleep to while I am listening to it. I call that magic. If you wish, please contact me privately about my Cadenza filter mod for measurements. I am really interested in what you all think.

I really like the MagicOne as a vocal focused IEM.

Yeah I went through an unhealthy amount of P7 videos yesterday and like almost all of them absolutely glazed it. At worst, they just said that it wasn't to their tastes. I've heard and liked the Aful Magicone before and they seem to be pretty close. Also played with autoeq on squiglink to eq my TE Nova to the P7 and I think Id like them based on that. Slightly bassy warm neutral with just enough treble to sound detailed and airy.

Pretty much anything in the 200+ market is going to have a significant bass boost. I think the most bass light of the mid fi hybrids is the Cadenza4. It is very bass light, and presents with lighter bass than the graph suggests. I wouldnt pay full price for it. Wait for it to go on sale, and use a 20% coupon on the official Amazon store, and you can get it for under $150. Going a lot cheaper, the EA500 (non LM) is also very bass light, but treble heavy. The DUNu Kima2 might be a better alternative, with slightly less treble energy. The Rosetechnics/Rose Elsa Star City5 is a very neutral IEM, but some have said they did a silent re-tune to it, and added, you guessed it, more sub-bass shelf. Thankfully they are not bank breaking. The AFUL MagicOne is also fairly bass lean. But its a single BA set, and its also non-vented, so it may be a bit uncomfortable to some. Also they regularly go on sale for about half off. Wait for that. As a collectors set they are SUPER unique. Also the AFUL Performer 8...its almost a flat line. Its also nearly $400. LOL! The BQEYZ Frost is another great bass light set that doesnt over emphasize the treble in an absurd way. Also most of the Softears IEM's are generally not overly bass emphasized. But I cant recall which model i listened to. OH! And i almost forgot, all things Etymotic. For a long long time they were the "studio meta". But the fit is...unique.

You can have soundstage and imaging without piercing treble, but in general, more treble will always enhance the effect, so brighter IEMs tend to have better imaging. An interesting counter-example I found is the Aful MagicOne has a very "soft" sound, especially in transients, with quite rolled-off upper treble. Transients are very important localisation cues. In spite of that, it has very good imaging. It just goes to show that these rules of thumb are simplifications of something more complicated, that just happen to work most of the time. BTW, the EA500 I was referring to is the original analogue version. Not the LM version either, which adds a lot more bass and ruins the soundstage effect with the stock tuning, though it still has good imaging. I haven't heard the DSP version. The EA500 is indeed very bright.

I have them both and the OL is great, but it gives me a lot of issues with pressure because it's unvented. For some reason the MagicOne is mildly annoying but doesn't give me as much of a problem. If you don't get any sort of pressure issues with the MagicOne then I'd say definitely go for the OL, it's probably my favourite tuning of any IEM but I just don't listen to it much because the lack of venting is too bothersome. If I don't fiddle with them for about 2 minutes to get the air pressure just right in both ears, they end up sounding wrong. Then if I move, the seal breaks and I have to start again. The OL and MagicOne are actually somewhat similar in terms of midrange tonality, but the OL has much harder-hitting bass (although it completely lacks sub-bass extension, so drums tend to sound more like anvil strikes than a fully-rounded thud - it's actually good, but definitely a colouration). The OL also has much more extended and more incisive treble. Where the MagicOne has a very "soft" sound, the OL is very sharp and very resolving, without being bright.

There's quite a broad range. For example: * Aful MagicOne - pretty, but not overdone * Ikko OH10 - good looking, nature-based & reserved * 7Hz Timeless, Timeless AE, Simgot EA500 - minimalist * Tin C2, Dunu Titan S (black/red version), Truthear Hexa/Pure - industrial There's a whole load in the middle that are just random swirly colours which has become the default low-effort design. Something like the Thieaudio Legacy 2 does that well IMO because its just one colour with a bit of texture, not all the colours, all at once. If you want a plain black cable, look at the KBear ST12. There's lots of options out there. I notice the stock cables often don't match the IEMs very well, and intentionally or not, this most likely helps sell a lot of aftermarket cables.

I don't go based on artist/genre so much as the overall presentation that I feel like at the time (which might also push me to listen to certain genres more than others, but not always). These days I listen to random playlists more often that specific albums, so I'm not a "this headphone for this album" sort of person. Generally if I'm going for a walk somewhere I'll pick up one, or if I want to just listen to music for a bit, I'll pick one. I won't normally change during a listening session unless I'm specifically A/B comparing them, or if I thought I was in the mood for a particular style and then realise I was wrong and swap over to something else. Occasionally I might hear something in a particular track and think "I wonder what that sounds like on such-and-such", but I keep a bunch of headphone-specific playlists so that I can just bookmark it for later. Although occasionally I will just want to hear how it sounds *right now*. The ones I'm listening to the most lately are: * QKZ HBB - these are mainly what I listen to when I'm doing something else; they have a similar warm, "wrapped in cotton wool" type of sound with recessed vocals that help to make them less distracting at lower volumes. * Ikko OH300^[1] - similar sort of warmth to the HBB, but also vocal-forward with incredible depth/layering - very relaxing but also engaging if I want to get fully absorbed into the music. * Aful MagicOne - another good one for relaxing, but more midrange focused without the bass of the HBB/OH300. I don't grab this one as often, but it's pretty unique. I'd probably listen to it a lot more if it was vented, but it doesn't bother me as much as my other unvented IEMs. * Moondrop Stellaris^[2] - Quite open and airy sounding with incredibly detailed treble and extremely linear bass, which just stays out of the way when it's not called for, and incredibly forceful when it needs to be. There is a bit of shout, but I don't really mind it and it's nowhere near as bad as they graph. Where the OH300 is for getting absorbed into the music, these are for getting absorbed into the overall soundscape, space and texture of the instruments, if that makes sense. You could call them analytical, but certainly not clinical. * Ikko OH10 - these are my main "walking around" IEM because the v-shape that combines deep, rounded bass with some good treble clarity makes them ideal for blocking outside noise. They're also incredibly comfortable. * Moondrop Kato - another mainly "out and about" IEM but they're slightly more neutral than the OH10, so I prefer these for longer trips on trains etc. They're probably the best "all rounder" IEM I have; can listen to them anytime, anywhere. I've also been listening to them more generally, since I started using my Shanling M0 Pro as my main DAC/amp instead of the Fiio BTR7. The BTR7 is a bit warm in a way that really completements the OH10, but the M0 Pro makes the Kato sound a lot cleaner. It's a really tiny difference, but it's enough to notice. Also the Simgot EA1000 remains my overall favourite IEM, but it's kind of similar to the Stellaris in a lot of ways with pretty different style of bass. There might be some recency bias that's making me grab the Stellaris more often lately. Both of them fall into the category of IEMs that can do certain things no other IEM/headphone can do (at least none that I've heard so far). ^[1] I'm not sure if the OH300 has been discontinued. I'd be recommending it to everyone if it wasn't sold out. Sounds incredible for ~$45 and it's mostly replaced the Letshuoer S08 for me (they have a lot of similarities, but the OH300 has better bass and the slight technical downgrades are barely noticeable). They dropped off Aliexpress a couple of months ago. I managed to grab a spare before all the stock disappeared from the Ikko website, but they're gone now. It now says "coming soon", so it might just be that they produce them in small batches and more will be available in the future. Not sure. ^[2] The Stellaris completely changed for me with Dunu Candy tips and quickly became one of my favourite IEMs. With most tips they are bright like a thousand suns and quite fatiguing. IDK if they'll work for everyone, so I don't recommend going out and buying a Stellaris (if you can find one: they're discontinued) but if you have one and have Candy tips lying around, I *highly* recommend giving them a try (and also let me know how it goes!)

Got mine yesterday. Very comfortable and pleasing both to the ears and eyes set. The only issue is pressure in the ears from BA. Hopefully Sencai that'll come with Wan'er 2 will help. For $65 that I paid for them at Hifigo, an excellent set.

For all BA that's probably the best you can do. I'd also recommend checking out Aful MagicOne, they go for less than a half of base price now and I really enjoy it, like bassy(but not too much) hexa, tremble exist but is rather inoffensive too.

You can have good bass without high bass levels. That said I still favor warmth in a neutral tuning; Dead-neutral flat bass like Etymotic style just sounds too thin with too many genres. And since I often find sub-bass emphasis to cause masking I prefer a mid-bass bump something like MagicOne or Tanchjim tuning. edit: pic of some lower-bass IEMs I was looking at, the only expensive one is Sonata. https://preview.redd.it/p4b61zqbezgf1.png?width=2095&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b20790faba7d922d6c529db0f9c89974e50d369

Aful MagicOne. These are about 70 bucks on AliExpress, probably the best under that sub 100$ price range, though you'll need a good dac, that'll cost you around 25-30 bucks, since these have higher impedance and power requirements. If you don't want to touch the 100$ mark and keep it relatively simple (no hassle of dac,etc) then Simgot Ew300 is a good shout. Apart from that when you access the community page, you'll find the post of list of top 5 IEMS in each category, that'll also help you explore further if you need more than these 2 suggestions.

I believe the Aful are better in my opinion since they have a wider sound stage and better in the mid range, since I listen to a lot of classical and vocal heavy songs. Though according to the community,they have always preferred the Hexa, as you might have seen in the tier list. Though probably one of the reasons might be that the Aful are generally going around 120-130 bucks on the Amazon and it's possible to get better under that price, but since the MagicOnes are under 70 for me these are the ones I prefer. Though I suggest you to still choose according to your brother's preference.

Might have to get it on sale (it does go on sale a lot though) but the MagicOne is a nice natural sounding neutral iem and its treble is very good, not too much.

The MagicOne, for real, and the Xuan Nv if you can't get it on sale.

Agreed, the Hexa really has a pretty good amount of bass, imo. Something like a 7hz Zero or Aful MagicOne are what I would actually call "lacking" bass but not the Hexa.

Aful MagicOne on sale is a solid choice.

I bought magicone over hexa because in my country hexa is 105$ and macigone 60$. How ever this will be main IEM and have tangzu waners for gym. I used original Sennheiser momentum IEM in gym like 5 years and no problems. I found waners fit pretty good because wire goes around ear (unlike sennheiser). Waners never dropped out of ear while working out. I think IEM’s are fine at gym if your ears dont sweat much. But there is still always risk they break so use only iem that you are ok with breaking.