that was the issue with daybreak but crinacle addres it and fixed it, newer batches don't have this problem - people should stop saying shit as new people will get the wrong information
Daybreak is a great choice. Tonality lands between the Hexa and the EM6L. You will like the double Planar for ASMR and detail retrieval they provide. Not quite as bassy as the EM6L, but it's cleaner and faster.
The Daybreak, while more expensive, is a good Goldilocks area between the Hexa and the EM6L tonality, but is more detailed and refined than either of those, by a fair margin, and more durable, which is a big plus. And comes with a nicer cable, and better tips.
If your will to splurge a bit I’d go for the crinear daybreaks, they’re $170usd I believe, if not go for the truthear pures. I’ve used both for several 12+ hour mixing sessions. The pures are quite as flat as the daybreaks and have a bit of a midbass hump while also lacking some brightness I find is important to mix. My solution was to setup a pro q 3 preset to somewhat counter this as the last plugin on my master, just don’t forget to turn it off before bouncing. Daybreaks are much flatter and have more of a sub bass boost, definitely a much better option and I found I don’t ever need eq to mix with them as boosted sub is good for iems as you can’t feel it as much and you need to be able to perceive it well. If you can stretch $50 imo the daybreaks are hands down the best iem you can buy that I’ve tried for music production. Everything literally sounds exactly as it should sound. I’ve tried tens of iems up to ~2kusd.
Edit:typo
Edit2: I also think the daybreaks are the best value iem you can buy. I went into them pretty skeptical as most people don’t like a neutral tuning and I wasn’t sure if crinacles marketing was implying they were neutral but they were something more fun for the masses, imo they’re just dead flat with a sub bass boost.
Etymotic ER2XR / ER4XR
Mixing: Below average (soundstage is too 2D)
Critical Editing: Excellent
Monitoring: Excellent
Enjoyment: Okay
Crinacle Daybreak (surprisingly)
Mixing: Depends—more “Meta” neutral than Etymotic-style
Critical Editing: Excellent (picks up sibilance like crazy, great for catching issues)
Monitoring: Excellent
Enjoyment: High
Xuan NV (big surprise)
Mixing: No, too much bass
Critical Editing: Excellent (vocals are super accurate for both male and female)
Monitoring: Iffy—low impedance can be weird with interfaces like the MOTU M2
Enjoyment: High
Thieaudio Legacy 2
Mixing: Excellent
Critical Editing: Excellent
Monitoring: Excellent
Enjoyment: Decent
Cadenza 4
Mixing: Excellent
Critical Editing: Excellent
Monitoring: Excellent
Enjoyment: Excellent
Orchestra Lite
Mixing: Excellent (surprisingly neutral—not bright like Blessing 2/3, not warm like Dusk or Lush)
Critical Editing: Excellent
Monitoring: Excellent
Enjoyment: Excellent
Basically the Studio4 but more revealing with sibilance instead of smoothing it out.
Hexa
I don’t really recommend it—too many fit issues and inconsistent impressions.
If you do try it, use wide-bore tips (not narrow).
Video explaining why: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x-T8el9fbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x-T8el9fbs)
Hope this helps.
Going to use a grading system:
A, B, C, D, F like in school
A means excellent
B is good
C is average
D is bad
F is absolute fail
**Mixing:**
Going to avoid using the word "neutral" because then every mofo comes in the thread saying, what's neutral. Let's use the word "even-keeled'. Good iems for mixing are generally more even-keeled. If it has way too much bass you'll thin out your mix. If it's way too trebly and bright and shouty you're going to overcompensate. Ideally you want something more even-keeled.
**Enjoyability:**
Subjective. But how enjoyable it is
**Critical Editing:**
This isn't the same as mixing. But it means will it let you know if you have shit audio. If I listen to Kanye's sibilant ass tracks does he sound sibilant on them? If I listen to Lana White Dress is she sibilant on it? She better be. If I watch a DMS video from 6 years ago, does he sound sibilant on it? He better. Because he does. This is important because you need to evaluate your audio and the iem lets you know your audio is shit before thousands of people hear it.
Etymotic ERXR
Enjoyability: C to B to A. Pretty good, depending on who you ask
Critical editing: A+. Very good at letting you know areas of trouble in your audio
Mixing: D. Poor soundstage
Truthear Hexa
Enjoyability: D. I hate it
Critical editing: A+ with wide bore tips
Mixing: C. Imo actually a bit thin on lowend. You'll overcompensate. Also the soundstage on Hexa is kinda eh ngl.
Salnotes Zero Original
Enjoyability: C. I think it's ok. Or mid.
Critical editing: B. Honestly pretty good at letting you know egregious areas. The version 1 is less forgiving with sibilance than 2, so it's better for critical editing. Zero 2 blunts the sibilance out (better for enjoyers; bad for audio engineers)
Mixing: A. pretty neutral imo
Softears Studio 4
Enjoyability: A to A+. Very enjoyable IEM
Critical editing: D. Ironically. It smooths out all sibilance so you won't know sibilance is there. This is why it's so beautiful sounding.
Mixing: A+. Very neutral. I'd even say probably my closest definition of neutral
Moondrop Blessing 2
Enjoyability: D (harsh, shouty, bright, sibilant). Same with Blessing 3.
Critical Editing: A. These are very picky with harshness in vocals. I genuinely think these are the Sony MDR 7506 in iem form.
Mixing: A
Zigaat Lush
Enjoyability: B to A
Critical Editing: C You won't really find problem areas of sibilance. You really really really have to crank it to hear it.
Mixing: A. Pretty even-keeled.
Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite:
Enjoyability: B to C
Critical Editing: A. Excellent at picking out flaws.
Mixing: A+. Excellent at telling you the whole picture. Excellent for mixing. Very very even-keeled.
Letshouer Cadenza 4
Enjoyability: A to A+
Critical Editing: B to A
Mixing: A. While a bit U-shaped it's not egregious. It's enough to make decisions.
Sennheiser IE200
Enjoyability: B to A
Critical Editing: D to F (rounds out a lot of sibilance imo, which is actually a good thing for enjoyers).
Mixing: B. Kind of shocking but while people call this v-shaped this is actually not as v-shaped imo. If you monitor yourself using these iems it'll sound exactly like you down to the microphone. Most other v-shaped iems don't do that.
Crinacle Daybreak
Enjoyability: B to A-
Critical Editing: A (rofl. It's funny because it genuinely is good at picking out bad audio. If it sounds harsh it's because the original track is harsh)
Mixing: B (This is more of a "Meta" tuned iem. But imo just enough where it sounds true)
Crinacle Dusk
Enjoyability: B to A+ (depending on who you ask)
Critical Editing: C on Analogue. F on DSP. It rolls out sibilance by quite a large margin.
Mixing: A on analogue mode. Honestly pretty neutral. almost HD600ish. But about a C on DSP mode.
Tanchjim Origin
Enjoyability: C to A (depending on who you ask)
Critical editing: A (it'll definitely let you know spicy regions
Mixing: A. A bit bright-slanted but definitely capable for mixing.
Theioaudio Legacy 2:
Enjoyability: C
Critical editing: A+
Mixing: A+
Xuan NV (honorable mention)
Enjoyability: A
Critical editing: B
Mixing: D (too bassy imo)
I mention these because imo these are the Audio Technica M50x of iems but the size of 2 quarters. They basically give you accurate vocals down to the tee but thumpy bass. The vocals are very accurate on these. Not good for mixing though.
Dunu Titan S (original)
Enjoyability: C
Critical editing: D (the treble is rounded out quite a bit)
mixing: A (these are my imo pretty close to neutral)
Daybreak is already listed as high enjoyability for me (B to A-). For me, it’s a B with no EQ, and an A- if you slightly dip the highs
The issue with Daybreak isn’t that it sounds bad — it’s that it doesn’t lie. If there are harsh peaks in the recording, it will show them. That’s a common complaint, but it’s actually a good thing for mixing. It’s basically Dusk with sibilance. Very truthful, and surprisingly viable for an audio engineer.
Hexa sucks for me. If you love it, you love it — I don’t. It’s just an unpleasant listen, and I’d personally take something like Pure any day.
The circle of life.
=================================
Every Hexa thread goes like this:
1st post:
Please recommend me a neutral IEM. I want this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this,this, this.
Parrots:
(HEXA!)
https://preview.redd.it/2ow7sg1louag1.jpeg?width=764&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=748956272f2d828b4bc1c58c59645233afc82243
tHANKS GUYS.
(2 weeks later)
2nd post:
HALP! Hexa sucks!
Any-Confection-2271
