Letshuoer (Shuoer) - Cadenza 12 (2024)

Yeah, they changed the mids and bass enough that I wouldn't call 2024 a neutral IEM either.

I demo'ed the 2024 and I think it's rather a "clarity monster" than a neutral or balanced sounding IEM.

Hard to say what's the best for "neutral" since there's almost always trade-off which is funny as I haven't found any IEM that has achieved decent neutral response (mid-treble according to IEF 2025 target and mid-low according to Harman 2019) with near-perfect diffuse field response (JM-1 target (5128 DF has certain flaws for IEMs as it overphamsizes on the pinna's contribution to the response and IEM is directly fed into the ears)). I think a near-perf. neutral would be low Harman, mid (somewhere between), and treble, IEF 2025. We also have to consider Harmonic Distortion + (Noise) of the setup (ideally at around <= 0.5% at 1 kHz, 94 dB). But honestly, having tested THIEAUDIO Monarch MK4 and Divinity, Moondrop Meteor, and Letshuoer Cadenza 12 on Moonriver 2 Ti at around 70-80 dBa, and compared the diffuse field/freq responses, group delays, and whatnot on some 32-bit 96kHz tracks (a bit pointless but want to make the details like decaying sounds, scratches, etc. are clear enough). As for instrumental separation and imaging, I'd say maybe Divinity has overall best based on how close it matches the JM-1 target, but based on my experience, I can't faithfully say I have noticed audible spatial difference between Meteor, MK4, and Divinity on imaging and instrumental separation. Though, Cadenza doesn't do too well well on treble, and the clarity is noticeable. MK4 is also amazing, but it fleshes out too much detail on high freq, and sometimes, we can hear some unnatural emphasis on breathing or air noises; we can hear those sounds neutral enough on Meteor and Divinity. Also, my hearing is not bad as I can faithfully hear up to \~19.5 kHz and down to 20 Hz with my setup, and I've cleared hearing tests. Though, for treble, I think that Moondrop Meteor really aced it the most neutral out of all of them; I think it might have the most neutral overall treble in all IEMs based on the graphs. For mid-range, honestly, I haven't noticed much difference as all of the them sound exceptionally natural and clear. Now, for the bass region, I think MK4 nailed it the best, and also I think that Meteor does better at bass region than Divinity. So, it depends what region of neutrality you care the most about as there isn't one that aces all of them... In my case, I chose Meteor as I'm way more into treble details. It's also relatively cheaper than others \~$600, and if you can get it from some Chinese stores in China, it can be reduced to around $500 USD. Also, the bass on Meteor is quite punchy and the decaying details are clearly present (if you play at around 70-80 dBa); it's just that it doesn't hit as much as the others.