Thanks for the link, Nathan.

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/audio-quest/

Start reading from the part titled “cables … do they differ ?” to see the details.

Sunil,
I live in Singapore, a very diverse, multi-cultural and multi-religion society. Majority of citizens are of Asian descendants. However, we don’t consider ourselves as Chinese, Indian, Malay or Eurasian, etc, but rather Singaporeans as a whole.

Singapore also has the largest and highest concentration of extremely high-end audio stores in the world. What I mean by “extremely high-end” is equipment that cost way beyond US$100,000 (with US$10,000 just for cables alone), with more than 70 stores all located under one roof. (Google: The Adelphi, Singapore)

What does both of these got to do with my reply to you? You see, many of our audio enthusiasts have experienced good sound in some way or another by visiting one of these high-end stores (although not many of us can afford them). We have high-end audio products since the Second World War, mainly due to Singapore’s colonization by the British Empire and our early trade with the rest of the world. We know how good audio equipment should sound like, roughly. Many of our fathers and grandfathers own decent audio systems.

China is a different story. The Mainland Chinese are exposed to good audio system for much short time. Very high quality audio systems were smuggled into the Mainland from Hong Kong in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Prices were 3 to 5 times of what they were sold in Hong Kong. People were poor then, therefore only the very wealthy and affluent could afford such systems. Records, cassette tapes and CDs were rare… Many Mainland Chinese grew up listening to vacuum tube or transistor radios. Many broadcast stations transmitted in monaural AM frequencies then (due to China’s vast landscapes, AM signals travel further). To many Chinese audiophiles who grew up listening to such equipment and broadcast format, sharp upper-mids and treble equates to clarity. And clarity is high-fidelity to them, thus the Chinese word “发烧”, which literally translates as “fever”.

Why “fever”? Well, maybe I should write an article on this topic for Audioreviews.org if there is interest.

Bottom line is, due to different upbringing and different audio experience, Asians interpretation of “good sound” can be very broad. Most of us are exposure to audio equipment from America, Europe and Japan, have established a reference to how good audio should sound like. On the other hand, due to China’s late adaptation into this hobby, their reference to good sound is largely based on their childhood experiences.

Back to your question… What Jurgen meant by “Western ears” is, as to which sound audiophiles use as their reference. For many Asians (other than Mainland Chinese), it is either American, European or Japanese (which largely based on American tuning). “Eastern ears” does not mean audiophiles from Asia, rather it is the sound reference they use as general guide to consider as good audio – men and women alike!

Sunil, thanks for your comment. As Kopiokaya tends to say (who is a native of Singapore), Chinese like "sawtooth", that is a boosted upper midrange which creates a harsh sound that does not appeal to MY western ear [ear = taste]. Apparently, the boss of KBEAR does not like the sound of the Diamond, too boring. The Diamond is tuned to appeal to the western ear...that's between Kopiokaya and KBEAR. Crinacle speaks of "Asian signature". So I didn't make this up. You may want to talk to Kopiokaya to get his opinion.

Cheers.

Why must I get the Urbanfun? I have no interest in their earphones at all. If the company is willing to send me a sample to try, well, I don’t mind giving them my ears.

Urbanfun SS014 isn’t new. It has been on the market for almost a year, long before BLON BL-03. I have no interest then, and I have no interest now. For that price, I will get something more interesting to me like the upcoming Tanchjim model which will be announced very soon.

1. I would have a look at the Urbanfun if somebody sent me one. But I am not buying it as I have a higher end single DD in the JVC HA-FDX1.
2. I'll have a look at the Tanchjim Cora at $50.
3. We did not design the Diamond, we just helped optimize them after their physical creation. Playing with the filters only happened thereafter.I would also suggest screw-on filters but this would jack up the price.
4. I speculate the Diamonds will be available through all major aliexpress outlets and possibly even Linsoul.
5. I'm working on the Dunu DM-380: they have lots of bass and shouty, sharp upper mids.

Trident Diamond will be available through what channels/sellers come 12/12? Guess it's too costly, but NX7 Pro has 3 filters, why not do that for the 'Diamond', since all of our ears 'hear' differently/are more sensitive to certain frequency spikes? I EQ everything to my liking, so doesn't really matter about the tuning filters, if I can do more precise DSP control over music electronically from the source

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000265604736.html <FR looks hideous, naturally

might as well settle the cable debate now: only 1day left to get intro 20% off on plus sound's new BT cable with 'tri-silver' strands @$1,599USD, but then you need to order *all* of their cable permutations to know the 'truth'…will only cost you 10yrs worth of cheap Chi-Fi iems, which by that time will almost all be replaced by true wireless earphones/iems.

http://www.plussoundaudio.com/customcables/bluetooth.html