KB02

I have 02 version I will not upgrade then. Actually I liked 02 but fatigue from BCD is noticeable compare to normal iems

The only truly good IEMs I've come across in competitive shooter games (that have a competent audio system) are the Xenns Mangird Tea Pros. They deserve all the hype they get *for competitive gaming*. Nothing else, imo. Are IEMs just better? No. In most cases, they are subpar. They *can* offer more bang for your buck. An odd runner up with good positioning is the KBEar KB02. Surprising gaming performance at the pricepoint. The BC driver for the bass allows the DD to shine in the mids and highs and doesn't mask those frequencies.

I love my KB02. The fact that the bass is BC frees that DD up to really shine. These are stupidly good for gaming at their price point, too.

No. It is very nice, but it's not this overpowering wash of low frequency information.

I have these and listening to just speaking the bone conduction driver has a twanging sound that drives me insane, and not in a good way. For music, they are fantastic for the price and the shells are... Sexy 😂 Your mileage may vary with the bone conduction technology

I don't think it is tbh, in my experience. Just podcasts and heavy speaking shows/movies for me has this resonance that felt anxiety inducing.

I can't tell you what higher end sets with BCDs sound like, because I haven't tried any. However, following a lot of reviewers a few have remarked that the characteristics of a BCD are basically the same regardless of which IEM it's in. As I wanted to try it out without wasting loads of money, I bought the KBear KB02 to see if it's just a gimmick. You can pick one up for about $20 and I'd advise doing that just to get a sense of what it's all about, even though the higher end implementations may be a bit subtler, it will give you the basic idea of what the BCD actually does. My conclusion is that, at this time, it's a gimmick like 3DTV that will probably have died off in a year or two. The main characteristics of the KB02 are: it has a weird resonance that causes "robot voice" on some vocals, caused by the BCDs vibrating. You can also make the BCD vibrate by tapping the shell, which sounds like a spring. The BCD only kicks in within a narrow frequency range, so the effect is quite track-dependent. I believe some higher end ones have less of a contrast than the KB02 but the KB02 highlights what's *actually* going on. It can be fun on some tracks and I'd recommend buying one for $20 just to try it, but I wouldn't recommend it as a $20 IEM. It's mostly not good and sounds like you're listening to music at a party in the next room from the speaker system. There are some IEMs that say they are using bone conduction, but actually use PZT drivers (piezo-electric - same thing you get in novelty xmas cards; normally used for supertweeters & have a reputation for sounding harsh). I haven't yet seen a technical explanation of how these PZTs work, how they're different to a normal PZT or BCD, and if they're even true bone conduction in the first place. The Thieaudio Origin is the only IEM with bone conduction I'm aware of that seems to get consistently positive reviews. I believe that's a true BCD, operating over wider frequencies and at a lower level than the KB02, so it's a bit more subtle. Someone posted to say they were getting the springy noise from one earpiece but not the other, so I guess they must be doing something to reduce that effect, with some QC issues. The Penon Fan3 also tends to get good reviews, including one from Audio Amigo who I consider trustworthy, but I'm a bit suspicious of Penon/ISN. Most of their reviews come from a small group of "fans" and the Fan2, which I have, sounds nothing like the reviews that made me buy it. AFAIK there's no "old gen" and "new gen" it's just BCD vs PZT. The actual BCDs are basically a DD with the diaphragm replaced by a metal weight, which causes the shell to vibrate. I've seen a video of Hi-Fri taking one apart. Unfortunately he seems to have retired from audio, so probably isn't going to do a comparison with the PZT drivers and I'm not aware of anyone else consistently taking apart IEMs to analyse the drivers. My view on BCD is it's probably going the way of 3DTV, but I'd give it a year or so to let the dust settle and see if it ends up becoming a standard thing like subwoofers in a hifi system. It could go that way, but at this stage it's not mature enough or well-understood enough. And the effect varies a bit from person to person depending on the amount of shell contact with the ear, stiffness of eartips used, etc., so it's hard to know to what extent people are actually experiencing the BCD. Especially in cases where people say the only thing it does is make the soundstage wider (since that's just a psychoacoustic effect you can achieve with some EQ).

I've only heard one, which is the KBear KB02. It's the cheapest, but from what I've heard, most of them with the same driver type sound pretty similar. It's shit. Kind of a gimmick that doesn't work well and messes up the tuning of the IEM. The other type is a PZT driver, not true bone conduction. Apparently some of the higher end ones are better, but OTOH it's unclear if the bone conduction is actually doing anything, because it's turned down so low to avoid the negatives. I'd give them a year or two to see if the technology matures or just dies off like 3DTV. With IEMs, if it has good sub-bass extension you *will* hear it, unlike most headphones. You won't feel it in your body though and even if BCDs get good, they're still more hearing than feeling as they're only affecting the bones near your ear canal.

Try the Kbear KB02, it's great, and around $30

As someone that has the Fan3s and the Kb02, I can offer a little insight into this. Like you said, the Kb02 has the springy-ness when you tap the shell and there's some sort of resonance feedback at certain frequencies, but the Fan3s does not have that effect whatsoever. By no means am I a Penon Fan3s, quite the contrary, the Fan3s was my first purchase, but I've had nothing but issues with them to the point I had to send them back for inspection. I don't feel the BCD rattled and provided more bass, but they do provide a soundscape that is different than traditional hybrid driver IEMs. One that is more holographic and 3d, it's less apparent with music but I can tell the difference when gaming.

Kbear kb02 has a wide and holographic soundstage, much better than any IEM I've tried and I've tried quite a few. Don't let the price fool you, they beat out sets exponentially more expensive.

Aye a fellow IEM enjoyer. Glad the kb02 is working for you they have great sound stage, but I found them very bright and sibilant for my preference.

I prefer the Kunten over the kb02, its better turned and has better soundstage and imaging. Sibilant game effect such as Arthur's pistol in RDR2 and the service pistol in Control make me wince out of discomfort when shot cause the treble region isn't tuned well and peaky for my ears.

They dont have to be kz either just as long as the pins match you can use any brand of iem you want. Cause ive got one set hooked to a set of kz zax iems and one set hooked to a pair of kbear kb02.

This seems to be the problem with every bone conduction thing in an iem ive run into their all centered at about 100 hz. Not much on either side of that either. I feel like for most music and to get the like subwoofer in your head feel the center frequency needs to be lower than that and/or alot wider than 95 to 105 hz.

My kb02s hit the same 100hz plus or minus about 5 hz useing a tone generator website. 70 hz i would say would be better for music altho probly less fun for games. Which is what i use my kb02s for mostly. If these vibe-x arnt too expensive ill buy a set just for fun cause i enjoyed the kb02s alot and use them often.

It is for the kb02 but its only like that when you use the sine sweep to target the exact frequency it moves most at and turn the volume way up. Its not near as strong as that during normal use and its not a rattle its a vibration like you would hear if nothing but a subwoofer was playing a single note at 100 hz and its still pretty strong around 5hz either direction of the 100. So from 95 to 105 much farther off from that it drops off pretty fast. Its still there just not as strong as you leave that range and i honestly cant remember where it is it seems to not be doing anything at all.

I have both closed back headphones and iems and for gameing I like the iems better but that definitely seems to a minority opinion. Ive got a set of the kbear kb02s that I really enjoy for gameing along with quite a few others but I come back to the kb02s even over higher priced sets and sets that I think sound better for music than they do. So id recommend at least trying a set for gameing and music you may find you like them.