TRUTHEAR - Shell

I think you're a bit confused about what planar drivers actually are, particularly WRT the Dusk. The Dawn doesn't have any planar drivers, it has ESTs. You may have meant the Daybreak? The best way to get into real planars, with the characteristic planar sounds (both good and bad aspects - but fortunately without the excessive upper treble that some have) is the Artti T10. You can find it for around $50 and you'll want a reasonably powerful dongle DAC like the JCally JM6 Pro or similar, as it needs a bit of power to sound at its best. It's a very good IEM with the characteristic resolution that you get from a planar, especially the planar bass, which you don't get from planar tweeters. That's using a single full-size planar driver (somewhere around 14.5mm - the exact measurements vary but they mostly all use the same driver). Most planars with this type of driver sound very similar to each other. That's except the slightly smaller next-gen 13mm one (I think they call it 4th gen, but it's really 2nd gen) used in the S08, which is tuned quite differently and sounds more like a DD, but it still has some planar characteristics. Hybrids on the other hand use "micro-planars" which are based on what's known as an SPD (for Square Planar Driver, because the original ones were square). These are *technically* planar, but they aren't what most people would call a "real" planar driver, which can't currently be made that small. On an IEM like the Dusk, these are used as super-tweeters that only handle the very high frequencies, whereas a full-size planar is normally full-range, i.e., one driver handles all the frequencies. Aside from the naming of planars vs micro-planars, where some further confusion might have crept in here is that micro-planars are currently seen as an alternative to ESTs (as found in the Dawn), since ESTs are very expensive (about $100 per driver). People who have listened to lots of both say that they aren't quite at the same level as ESTs yet, but I expect them to have fully surpassed ESTs within a year or two. If you're looking for a hybrid with the best treble, ESTs are currently the way to go, but that may not be true if you are prepared to wait a bit for micro-planars to mature a bit more. There's another type of hybrid planar that's quite unusual and the only one I can think of offhand is the Simgot ET142. That uses a full-size planar driver but also adds a PZT super-tweeter to handle the high frequencies. I'm not sure why they do this when planars are known for handling high frequencies well (and often having too much treble energy), but it's possible that it allows them to make that part a bit more controlled and reduce distortion. If you're looking specifically for a hybrid type with micro-planar tweeter rather than a "true" planar like the Artti T10 then as the other comment mentioned the TRN Shell is probably the cheapest one. I just got one today so I can only give very early impressions of it, but it seems quite good. It's not the same sound as a true planar though, so it depends on what you're looking for and why.

I'm not sure about planars being better suited to headphones. I have the Edition XS which is very good, and I've tried a few Audezes as well. There's a lot of similarities in terms of the "planar sound" between those and the full-size planar IEMs (of which I have 5). It's hard to match a full-size planar IEM for resolution. The same is not true of the Shell. However, I can say that the Shell has some similarities with the Simgot EW300, which is another hybrid that includes a planar (different driver architecture though). They do have a fairly distinctive sound. I would describe it as exaggerated texturing throughout the midrange, without especially elevated treble (although the Shell is definitely quite v-shaped). Whereas a full planar is quite different, especially in how it presents bass. Planar bass gives you a lot more detail, instrument separation and quite linear extension, but it doesn't have the same mid-bass slam that you get from a DD. Planars can have a slightly metallic timbre generally (that I've tried, only the S08 doesn't, but I'd put it in a different category of planars, with afaik the only other one like it being the T10 Pro). This is something I notice on the full-size headphones like the Edition XS and Audeze LCD-X as well. It's important to realise that an SPD/micro-planar is more like a DD than a true planar and it sounds more like a DD. So if you want to hear a planar, you need to get a full-size planar. If you want to see them taken apart, there's a [teardown video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e75AUDGfGhE&t=2345s) you can watch (timestamped to the relevant bit). In fact I also have the Kinera Pandamon, which is one of the earlier SPD implementations that uses it as a full-range driver. It does sound like a DD, not like a planar. And in that case, not a particularly good DD either. Agree about the T10 being a bit ugly. It's unfortunate and I don't know why they didn't just make them in different colours like an Apple product, instead of beige. They'd be printing money if they did that. But aside from being one of the cheapest planars, it's also one of the best tuned ones and doesn't have fatiguing treble, but still has that planar resolving ability. I actually think they made it ugly on purpose to avoid cannibalising sales of the S12. BTW, my initial impressions of the Shell are that it's better than the EW300. Partly because the PZT on the EW300 adds a huge annoying treble spike. I got rid of that with tip-rolling, but ultimately returned it because of other tuning issues (that so far I haven't run into with the Shell and I did try some of the same test tracks to see if it handled them better). The Shell is definitely one of the best looking IEMs around as well.

TRN Shell is a 3 DD and 1 Planar hybrid with nice accessories and tuning nozzles for around $60 USD on Amazon.

They are great - have always recommended them in their price / class range. They're con is the shell paint job. and arriving at a time when zero, chus, waner were in Vogue. The newer MT5 is 95% I'm sure is the Orca with 111 switches config same LCP driver same shell sans switches. I learned later the orca is the MT3 shell with the new (at the time) LCP driver with switches.