Here is my "review" of the Chorus.
Its a Belle with a Nozzle Filter on the Faceplate. If you tape over it, it measures EXACTLY the same as the Belle, right down to the time domain differences on a waterfall graph.
Is the Chorus better than the Belle? Yes, i think it is. Subjectively, i think it looks better than the Belle. Objectively, it does sound SLIGHTLY better because of the slightly slower bass decay with gives it a more plush feeling on rolling bass notes, without removing impact of percussive instruments too much.
But, i literally had a Chorus in one ear and a Belle in the other, and my brain adjusted to the sound without even so much as an adjustment period. So we are talking about MINOR differences in sound here.
I would get the Chorus over the Belle for aesthetics alone, but if money is an issue, buy whatever is cheaper, unless you are a big B_Media fanboy.
Yeah, at the end of the day, its a budget set. And you picked the better looking one, so no shade there. But i was, admittedly, a little disappointed at the execution being just a Belle with a vented back design. They kind of over hyped it as some polished, updated, and retuned set, and it was just a little too gimmicky, IMHO. It did make some of the phasing cleaner on the IEM comapred to the Belle, which i do think makes it sound mildly better, but its super hair splitting.
As far as "neutral" goes. Thats an entirely loaded question. And, the biggest reason is that "neutral" is entirely made up of what people THINK neutral should sound like. And curves like JM1 and the entire 5128 HATS curve, are all somewhat based on the OG Etomytic diffuse field, which is trying to emulate an "in room speaker" target to replicate a Studio Monitor. And that signature hump is part of the room gain they experimented with to get the same feel. Its technically not anywhere close to "flat", but its what the perception of neutral is.
And now that we have Harman and JM1, and the 5128 target, "neutral" is about as far from it as ever. And the arguments about how to present bass, and mid bass presentation are just as crazy. Is it tiltied, it is gliding, it is elevated, is it tucked, does it have a peak over mids in a tilt, or is is level to mids, where does it start, etc. etc. etc.
The idea that an IEM is "neutral" is purely up to speculative and subjective preference. Remember, the only reason why the Reference is "neutral" is because it lands in the 5128 HATS target. Does your ear do that? Probably not. Is your ear going to hear it the same as a fake Head and Torso Simulator will? Not a chance.
Now, that all being said, i think there are some really good cheap introductions to "neutral", that you should consider to see if it is even on your radar.
The first is the Cadenza 2, at $50, its one of the closest "new meta" style tunings for under $75.
Of course there is the venerable Hexa. Which has that flat rising bass response. SOme people love it, some hate it.
Then you have things like the Ziigaat Lush, which is JM1 inspired, but flatter in its presentation. with a toned down treble region. But it goes onsale for under $150 regularly.
Of course there is always the Daybreak, which is also a decent introduction to the tuning of of the Reference, using 5128 targets, at $180.
So, you can kinda pick where to start. Personally i would go with the Hexa, and see if you even like 5128 target, or if its too boring and bland. As some reviewers call it "plain like water".
You'll definitely grow on the signature if you liked the sensitive areas and lush is special in its price segment. If you liked the sound then I definitely recommend it. Also if you feel like you'd want more bass the Lush reacts to impedance changes so you could add an impedance adapter to boost bass (it also boosts treble a little bit). https://hobbytalk.squig.link/?share=ZiiGaat_Lush,ZiiGaat_Lush_75
A "gaming set" is hard to pin depending on your own preferences, the question is what genre/category of gamer are you? Do you play FPS only? Do you play serious/competitive FPS? Do you play MMORPG's? All these will have different outcomes for recommendations, this way you can either have 2 sets or perhaps satisfied with one across the board.
Details will tell the tale as they say.
Explorer is on the more studio monitoring side of things like the Ziigaat Lush, people often refer to them as "flat and boring", I have the Lush and its pretty uncolored and flat.
Aciadon
