Guys just read this review 😂😂🤣

The headphone zone needs to change their policy about uploading a review... But I think this review is genuine 😂😂🤣

Softears is simply one of my favourite brands to try out and hear their offerings, where I have had more hits than misses- with the Volume S, Twilight and RSV MK2 being their all time favourites; but when I got offered by one of my patrons to try out their new boxy offering, and a controversial “spiritual” successor to the Twilight in form and specs, the Edge, I simply said yes and spent a good chunk of my time, being surprised, blind sided and caught off guard by the Edge. Thank you to my good friend for making this review possible.

UNBOXING, ACCESSORIES, FIT AND COMFORT

This is the first time I have unboxed a product from Softears, and I must say this was different- none of the cringe waifu branding, no product advertisement even: straight up why they named it Edge, their brand philosophy in very minimal font in a square box of grey. Unlidding the box gives way to a translucent sheet of paper underneath which lies the shells of the Edge in foam padding. Under that is a circular case which had the cable, protective covers for the IEMs, cleaning tool and microfiber cloth; and for eartips- three pairs of Softears Ultra Clears, and three pairs of regular (generic) eartips. 

The stock cable is an abomination for the Edge, as it tangles easily, feels cheap, is not modular and the earhooks are so slim that if the Edge shells were not well balanced; this definitely would have caused so much fatigue to me but I am glad that although they weigh quite a bit, they don’t cause fatigue cause I had a 10/10 fit with these. 

Word to the wise, Softears got it too angular where the edges can definitely scrape on the eardrums, and they definitely could have been softer (or Softear, pun intended). The Edge has vents, which means no pressure buildup and those are some big vents, but I didn’t feel an awful lot of compromises on the isolation. Enough chit-chat, here’s the sound.

LOWS

Tipper : Mariscos

The Softears Edge has a wonderful start here. The opening intro has a perceived rippling effect which oozes a lot of polish and when the rest of the elements come in, the bass keeps on going with a wonderful level of separation from the rest, the beats are super strong with a lot of punch, fast attack & a decay that is not sluggish by any means. The drop has a superb, clean, precise execution where not once did the bass feel overpowering.

Rush : Limelight

If there is one way I could describe how the Edge performs on this track, COHERENT is what I would choose. Right from the beginning, both the drums and the bass know what to do and that makes me feel very nice about the Edge. Of course, the width on the perceived stage is a bit lacking but it has enough depth to beautifully capture the prodigally controlled aggression on Peart's drums, while across moments, Geddy's bass lines get so intense, I feared that it would spill over the drums but the Edge has ridiculous composure to reel it in like Nadal on a clay court. 

Daft Punk : Get Lucky

The Edge does a brilliant job on this track - be it the amount of control it needs to hold over the slam on the bass, the degree to which notes from the bass need to be enunciated in a way that doesn't diminish the track. The depth in the perceived stage is adequate, the warmth in tonality is restrained enough to not cloud over the rest of the sound, and vocals are planted in the center. But I must say again, I thoroughly enjoyed this track on the Edge.

MIDS

Tool : Lateralus

The Edge might come off a tad excessive when it comes to the intensifying drum intro as the guitar straddles through, but once all the elements join in, the Edge once again gets back in its track for keeping things auditorily fun. The Edge surprisingly manages to not humble Maynard's vocals in terms of weight and guitars have a shade of warmth that I appreciate with tons of energy. Instrument separation is fabulous and specially for an IEM which is this warm, imaging is precise while timbre remains fairly accurate. I was amazed when I heard the clarity sap through with the final rudiment of Carey and right before I could appreciate the texture of the wah-ing bass.

Queens of the Stone Age : First It Giveth

This is on a busy track with a lot of fast paced elements and the Softears Edge once again impresses me. Crisp, well separated, timbrally accurate snare hits, energetic, weighted guitars, planted vocals with adequate weight and the cymbals being audible. What I also like about the Edge is that despite this observation of such energy on the guitars, not once did the Edge feel fatiguing or shouty.

HIGHS

Dave Brubeck : Take Five

The Edge first gets the shimmery almost peppy textures on the cymbals and then the snare where the timbre is remarkable. Then once the horns come in, the Edge pulls my attention to how easily it was able to capture the faint drawing of the breath on them, as well as the pressing of the keys, while not making me forget that it is leading the act. Notes of the piano are nimble and tonally warm but not warm enough that they sound different from the actual key, but the best part comes in the drum solo where the Edge caught the potency of the kicks, the crisp snares and the toms resonant enough to almost sound like how it would sound live.

Patricia Barber : Icarus

This is another track that I really enjoyed listening to the Edge but there was a blemish in my excitement levels; this is a track that is sibilant from the get go and the Edge definitely exaggerates the sibilance which surprisingly manages to keep the cymbals from being fatiguing. Through the straight note sustain, the Edge exhibited no sign of pierce, while the piano, bass and guitars supplemented the lush texture of Patricia's voice, it was just the sibilance that had to diminish what was otherwise an excellent listen.

COMPARISONS

Softears Twilight

There is no clear winner here in my juvenile opinion. The Edge brings a ferocious, energetic warmth with punchy bass and tight control, though it can get a bit spicy if a track is inherently sibilant. The Twilight drops the aggressive bite entirely- it is a midrange masterclass that gives you a much smoother, completely fatigue-free listen that just naturally sounds correct. However, the Twilight’s bass is sloppy and might feel blob-like with minimal tightness, and the Edge takes it to the cleaners when it comes to detail retrieval. Also, fit on the Edge is miles better.

Symphonium Meteor

Both of these go for a warm, cohesive vibe, but they handle the low-end very differently. The Meteor commits hard to a thick mid-bass that can sometimes overpower the lower mids and crush the details that tracks might have, which is where the Edge rules dominantly, while the Edge comes off quite sibilant in tracks where the Meteor either won’t show it or just be quite resistant to its exposure. The Edge keeps its bass way more composed. It punches hard without muddying the mix and offers significantly better instrument separation with stellar imaging, though one loses the Meteor’s totally relaxed top end.

Xenns Top Pro

If the Edge is all about rich, ferocious warmth while balancing technicalities, the Top Pro is an alternate take. The Top Pro flexes a freakishly controlled sub-bass, a wider perceived stage, and imaging that goes head to head with the Edge where the stage’s width is not quite there. On the top end however, it’s a “choose your poison” situation- where the Edge exaggerates existing sibilance, the Top Pro can get straight-up fatiguing and sibilant during high-frequency climaxes.

Softears Studio 4

This one is basically the unapologetically fun daily driver versus the disciplined monitor. The Studio 4 offers a more nuanced, more cautious take on a neutral warm signature while the Edge trades that maturity away for pure engagement, throwing in a visceral bass slam and punch, kind of equal if not better vocals, but better stage and imaging, significantly better detail, and a much peppier treble.

Elysian Pilgrim

These two sit on pretty different ends of the spectrum. The Pilgrim goes for the same presentation with a fabulous imaging, and for the most part, decent vocals but definitely felt strained in higher pitched vocals, where on busier tracks it could sound claustrophobic, instrument separation takes a good hit. The Edge completely fixes that underwhelmed feeling with its ferocious warmth, deep bass punch, and thick note weight, but you do sacrifice the Pilgrim's stage width and have to deal with the Edge's sensitivity to sibilance.

Hisenior Mega5EST

Honestly, the Edge easily outclasses the Mega5EST in almost every way. The Mega5EST struggles with an excessive mid-bass thump that tucks instruments into a blanket and messes with technical isolation. The Edge, on the other hand, shows ridiculous composure, keeping everything crisp and well-separated. The Mega5EST's only real win is its impressive restraint against sibilance, whereas the Edge delivers a vastly more energetic and polished listen at the cost of highlighting sharp sibilance.

CONCLUDING NOTES

At $499, the Softears Edge is an unapologetic powerhouse. It doesn't try to be a perfectly neutral studio monitor, nor does it aim for the relaxed, fatigue-free realism of something like the Twilight. Instead, it brings a controlled yet violent shade of warmth, ridiculous bass composure, and high-octane energy to almost everything you throw at it, and hits you blindside with a spear of detail and instrument separation which I didn’t expect given the lows that it has. 

However, it is not free of flaws and the exaggerated sibilance which in my opinion is a by-product of an IEM being unforgiving in terms of handling tracks can be a deal breaker, for which eartip rolling and EQ is highly recommended. But, all things said and done, I thought I knew this IEM, but I didn’t- and safe to say, unlike Adam Copeland; I was least prepared for a positive sonic whiplash. (I think you know him). 

Will I buy it at retail ? Absolutely, yeah. 

Will I buy it used ? Absolutely, yeah.

SOURCES USED

Primarily used with the SMSL Raw MDA-1 desktop DAC amp, the Shanling M9 Plus stacked with the xDuoo XD05 Pro transportable DAC amp running RoHM DAC chips, via USB-C. 

The Softears Edge is an extremely easy to drive IEM, so it’s very source friendly.

EARTIPS USED (RANKED IN ORDER OF PERFORMANCE)

• Divinus Velvet standard: Absolutely excels in controlling bass quantity with quality, doesn’t affect perceived stage, makes the Edge sound the least sibilant where some might observe a miniscule loss in textures with instruments like cymbals. 
• AZLA Origin: everything that the above does, but to a lesser degree, still beats the next eartip. 
• Softears Ultra Clear: flattens the mid-bass considerably, which hampers vocal note weight, eliminates whatever little sibilance is observed, retains perceived stage width. 
• Final E: shrinks the stage, tightens up the midrange while not reducing the perceived bloat, presents upper mids with a concerning dip, vocal textures lost. 
• KBear Coffee: Just no.

TRACKS

• Rush: Limelight, Spirit of the Radio
• Daft Punk: Get Lucky, Instant Crush
• The Police: Message in a Bottle
• Alf Linder: Cantique de Noël, Cantate Domino
• Tipper: Mariscos, Cloaked
• Dave Brubeck: Time Out
• Tool: Pneuma, Schism
• Queens of the Stone Age: First It Giveth
• Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here, Time
• Tame Impala: The Less I Know the Better
• Animals as Leaders: The Woven Web
• Rage Against the Machine: Bombtrack, Bullet in the Head
• Avicii: Levels
• Periphery: Marigold
• TesseracT: Juno
• Kanye West: Stronger, Flashing Lights, Devil in a New Dress
• Altın Gün: Goca Dünya
• Timbaland: Give It to Me
• Adele: Easy On Me (Live), When We Were Young
• Celine Dion: All By Myself
• Pavarotti: Nessun Dorma
• Mdou Moctar: Tarhatazed
• Cigarettes After Sex: Cry
• Meshuggah: Bleed
• A. R. Rahman: Tere Bina
• Alice in Chains: Down in a Hole and Nutshell (Live)
• Allen Stone: Give You Blue
• Florence + the Machine: Never Let Me Go
• The Smashing Pumpkins: Luna

Here’s a YouTube video on the same.

Might just refund this, a penny goes a long way

The OG Snowsky Echo Mini with the Kz duonics.....

I'm thinking to go for chu 3 for upgrade.. should I..?

I was also looking towards some other iems in that budget like the recently released Kefine Loric and the good o'l Roseselsa aurora ultra which should I really be looking for..? For a solid upgrade..? I like expansion soundstage, instrumental and clarity.. I know that within such a budget these are barely attained.. but still..

Should I wait and go for the Chu 3 only..? For its HTRF based JM1 tuning? Or the kefine lorics?

I'm so Confused!! From all this mixed reviews opinions!

Guy's suggest based on ur personal experience and opinion A true Neutral IEM in 200$ atleast same level or even better grade overall in sound categories than the Crinear Daybreak (like Resolution, highs, mid treble, female and male vocals, natural to the track timbre, mid bass, sub bass, Soundstage width & depth, instrument separation, imaging)

I listen to a really really variety of songs from multiple languages and countries, maybe sometimes movies not gaming though so accuracy and true to the source track is important to me

Dac: cayin ru7

Iems in the picture

Final audio: a5000,e4000,e5000

7hz devine

Truthear hexa

I've been looking to buy a pair of Harmonic Empire Sonic eartips. From what I've read elsewhere, they are good for smoothing out the harsher bits of the treble and lower mids which is about what I like. I have a pair of Moondrop May's with a 3.5mm cable which I plan to use them on. I also prefer to insert my IEMs quite deep. If anyone here has any experience with these eartips, I'd like to know your opinion on them. Also, how do the galaxy ones differ?

GK kunten was my 4th IEM. I thought I have been careful enough.

Yes 4th. My first one was chu2s but I abused them way too much and it broke, I fixed them but I messed with something that made the whole thing sounds very bad. I tossed it away.

Gotta buy another one that's not as fragile. Spacetravel. The right side got dropped while I was doing chores when camping and lost within grasses. Learned that I probably have to stick with wired so this won't happen again.

Got another chu2s because I know it sounds good and I know I won't make the same mistake twice. Yes I stored them in the right place and I took care of it, but one slip up when I was doing intense physical activity, I accidentally yanked the right side of the cable with my knee and it broke. Tried to fix it but with no avail. Learned my lesson I really shouldn't do ANYTHING that could mess up with my IEM.

I changed to kunten because it's cheaper and I don't have to deal with oxidation problems with chu2s, REALLY careful this time when I'm handling the IEM. Little that I know the cable will be the bottleneck. I've bought the cable with mic thinking it'll be better, 2 months later the cable that connected with the mic broke because it's not secured quite well. Good news I still have my chu2s cable. Bad news it's not QDC. But it works. I'll wait until I get my allowance to buy a new QDC cable. 1 week later (2hours ago) I've lost the right side of my kunten because the connector isn't secure enough when I'm at campus.

For some reason it's all the right side of the driver that's either broke or gone, so I can't even use 2 different drivers to atleast enjoy listening with whatever I have. I don't think I can replace it again right now. And also I know I won't be able to get a new one even after recieving my allowance. Like hell, the reason why I'm getting budget stuff is so that I can enjoy it before I am able to upgrade, yet I somehow ruined it before I can even upgrade. Maybe this "hobby" is not for me. I realy just want to listen to music everywhere man.

I'm writing this to warn everyone to really really be careful when handling with their IEMs. Everytime I've bought a replacement I always think that "I will not mess up again this time" just to find out another new way to mess things up. If the IEM broke, fix it to someone who's capable if the only thing that you know is to solder stuff. If the cable broke, get a proper replacement and don't cheap out (or atleast if you experienced something similar with what I've wrote, then only wear it in places you are confident you'll find the driver if it ever fell down).

Thank you for reading. I don't think I'll be getting another IEMs.

Hey guys,

I’ve tried a few Tripowin cables with my Sennheiser IE200, but I noticed that none of them have that same “click” when connecting to the IEMs as the original cable does.

With some of the aftermarket cables, the connection feels a bit loose and they can actually disconnect sometimes, which is pretty annoying.

Has anyone found a replacement cable that fits the IE200 as securely as the stock cable and has that same solid click when plugging it in?

I bought the TANGZU Wan’er S.G II Red Lion on Amazon and I see them well but it seems strange to me that unlike in the reviews these do not come with the pads of the headphones with the name of the pairs, could someone help me check if they are original?
(I moved their position since I put a pair on the headphones)

Is this a good deal for first timer?

They all good. That's my review.

Hello! As the title suggests, I'm looking for recommendations for a replacement.

I love my Tanchjim Bunny. It was my first budget IEM purchase, and I got really lucky because it suits my listening needs so well. However, after a long time of use, it's slowly giving up on me.

I'm not an audiophile and English isn't my first language, so I hope you can bear with me.🥹

I have 2 pretty particulat needs (I think).

1. Shape/Size - the Bunny is perfect for my small ears. I'm looking for something similar in terms of size and fit. I have a Roseselsa Ceramics MK2, but I regret getting it because it doesn't fit properly in my ears, evrn if I paired it already with different eartips.😭

2. Treble sensitivity (pls correct me if I'm wrong) - with some earphones, certain parts of some songs cause a sort of "pinging" sensation in my ears, but I don't experience that with the Bunny even when listening to the same music.

I'm not really into expensive IEMs. I want to be intentional with what I buy. Maybe a ceiling of $50? Replaceable cables will be a great addition, too.

I'd really appreciate recommendations for IEMs that can cater the above.

Thank you!🥹

I was in a beyblade tournament and a beyblade flew out of the arena and struck my pocket and my AFUL Explorer was there (it was in a case so I didn't think much of it and now I see that the cover is destroyed

I'd like to share some photos I took at SIAS. I've been a few audio exhibits before, like CanJam New York, Singapore, and Indonesia, but this was my first time at SIAS and in China. I expected a large number of iems, but there were many more. I saw iems and not only saw them, but also tried them: headphones, earbuds, daps, dacs, desktop amps, headphone amps, speakers, and all kinds of insane audio gear.

Several brands present, including FiiO, MOONDROP, HiBy, iBasso, DUNU, HIFIMAN, Cayin, LETSHUOER, AFUL, Tangzu, Hidizs, STAX, Tanchjim, CVJ, and many others. The range was something I truly enjoyed. Try something about $25, then take a few steps and you're listening to a system costing $1,000, $2,000, or even $4,000+ 😂 Iems/Daps/DACs, I've tried, few of them are... Kasier, OMPHE, MD3, QoA models, Simgot EG280,ET142, DEW4x, Hidizs AP80 PRO MAX titanium, MK12xDucbloke, MS2 PRO, Sonata, Catenza12+Ember, Juzear defiant, light shuttle, Fiesta,Nebula,Nimbus,Dunu eclipse dynamic, Sony walkman, Ibassoo, Flipears Arion, BGVP Herculas, NS10 PRO and much more

Compared to other exhibitions I've seen, SIAS offered me a different impression because of the large number of Chinese audio brands there. And, honestly, the amount of audio technology produced in China is rather astounding. There is some very high-end hardware here, too, ranging from different speaker technologies to daps, dacs, desktop systems, tube amps, planar and electrostatic headphones, and so on. Furthermore, trying this stuff in person is always different from reading reviews or looking at graphs. Some of the stuff I expected to adore didn't really excite me, while some much cheaper gear shocked me a lot.

I also got few extremely fascinating gears at the exhibit that I'd like to spend more time with. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some observations, photographs, and possibly more in-depth writes with the community here and on Head-Fi soon.

Quill Karma! 🔥🔥 Amazingly tuned by Leo MusicTeck. Hard to Beat the bass on this at 2k. Worth the Hype

I went to Shenzhen International Audio Show '26, and I bought this T-Shirt from Moondrop. Their sales representative didn't speak much English but I managed to buy this T-shirt using some RMB cash. I asked all my friends from both from Mainland & HK and no one can understand what it means.

Is it some audiophile-only reference? Some bonus pics from Moondrop booth attached.

EDIT / UPDATE: I got an official response from moondrop:

Hi,

Thank you for asking.

The full term is: "I am the unstable factor in this gaming competition."

It describes oneself as a factor that may affect the outcome of an FPS game, potentially leading to either a win or a loss. However, in the Chinese context, it is more often used as a form of self-mockery, implying that one might be the reason this FPS match ended in a loss.

(Just for random word, don't overinterpret.)

Nice that they took the time to reply to me!

So, I have been using the eg280 for a few months now. I got it on sale for $45. There're no issues from my experience (Except that the cables broke down, so I gotta buy the Moondrop MC2 cable to replace them). Recently, the Juzear Nimbus caught my eyes because of its looks, but I don't know which performce better? (I mainly use iem for competitive fps like R6S and Valorant)