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.

I have a few IEMs that I rotate depending on my mood or the music I'm listening to at the moment. When I want to focus more on the details at the top of the spectrum or listen to my favorite movies soundtracks, I reach for the KE Aether, when I want something with strings, I reach for the Aful MagicOne, for EDM, I prefer the KE Etude, but when I just want music for fun, I grab the QKZ x HBB.

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.

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!)

Overrated: * Truthear Zero / Zero Red: The nozzles are huge and the sound is just OK for the price. They were a big deal at the time for target adherence (although the "full Harman" Zero actually has terrible Harman compliance), but that's more of a technical curiosity than actually good. Fortunately there are much better options these days, so the hype has died down a lot. * Truthear Hexa: Bass is anaemic, treble is peaky and the nozzle is also huge, though not quite as bad as the Zero. * Simgot EW300: The worst Simgot I've heard for coherency, although it does have the safest tuning as long as you don't get the killer treble peak around 11kHz (that's solvable with eartips, its other issues aren't). * GK Kunten. I mean it's *OK* for the price, but it's literally just a slightly downgraded and more expensive [ZVX Pro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eQc95TR0Ls), which in turn is almost identical to about half a dozen other KZ IEMs. All of which have the same driver as the Zenith too. The hype around this one is insane. A very successful astroturfing campaign though, so I guess well done for fucking up the sub with a tsunami of spam, and congrats to everyone who fell for it (including me, because I bought one too out of curiosity). Underrated: * Moondrop LAN (the OG one): A very good bright-neutral IEM for its price, overshadowed by the Chu 2 costing half as much, and the 7Hz Zero having nearly the same tuning (but much lower build quality, comfort and less refined treble). * Dunu Titan S: it's like the Hexa if it were better in every way and also cheaper. Actually these were a very highly regarded IEM at launch but I believe the hype machine moved on to the bassier Moondrop Aria and they got a bit forgotten about. Still a very good IEM though. Unclear if they're still in production or not, but everyone seems to agree the S2 isn't tuned as well. * Ikko OH300: Just one of my favourite IEMs with a fun but mostly natural-sounding warm v-shape tuning and incredibly holographic imaging. Nobody else ever talks about them. * TRN Shell: One of the few TRN IEMs that's actually good. It's like the EW300 but better in ever possible way aside from having a more pronounced v-shape tuning (personally I like it though, especially after some tip-rolling). It's also only $40 (on frequent sale) and comes with an insane set of accessories for the price. * Aful MagicOne: It's not an all-rounder IEM, it's not for everyone, and it's probably overpriced at RRP. But it's a very unique IEM in every way and nothing else sounds quite like it. I only paid about $60 for mine on sale and it's absolutely one of the best things I've bought.

I would argue it's overrated, despite not being rated much at all. I paid ~$30 for mine on sale and still feel like it was overpriced. I much prefer the Cadenza or KBear KB01.

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

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.