CrinEar Daybreak: Don’t Buy Until You Watch This! (Full In-Depth Review)

00:00:00 (Andrew Park)
Well, hello, hello. It's that time again. Time for another Crinacle IEM. This one is The Daybreak, and it comes in at $170. For this video, I've brought with me a listener to share his impressions as well, because we will probably actually disagree on this one. Maybe. You never know. You'll just have to watch the video to find out. Alright, let's get going. OK, as we're going here, a quick disclaimer. These units were provided by different sources. So this one that I have here is actually from Crinacle from Hangout . audio. It is available at Hangout. audio, as he has let me know, but is also available at Headphones. com. And that's where Listener got his unit in from. First of all, just generally, Listener, question for you: Sure. What's your general sense of Crin coming out with the Daybreak at this price point within the market?

00:00:54 (Griffin Silver)
kind of full self-done production run of IEMs. And this price is extremely competitive. It's lower than a lot of the sets with a similar tuning to this. So he kind of targeting something really accessible, but with that same kind of approach to tuning, definitely did make me perk up my ears a little bit. And yeah, if it ends up being good, it's going to be a really, really solid option for people at a really reasonable price. What are your thoughts on it?

00:01:20 (Andrew Park)
About the same. We have a number of products that are kind of like staples, price points so, like the Hexa and now the Pure, and then you know, sub 200 is where the Daybreak slots in and then things go a little bit crazy above that with all kinds of different good and bad products, sure. But um, I guess the question for me is, like, does the Daybreak really solidify itself in that sub 200 price point as kind of like the GOAT, you know, the new default? I think that's that's what we're hoping for here, and I will probably have an answer for you by the end of this video. Uh, one thing I want to note, you guys may have noticed that I'm using on here right now that are not the ones, not the standard ones that the IEM comes with. And that's intentional. And we'll be getting into that when we talk about the sound quality. And essentially, there's a reason why I am using these tips. And I imagine that, listener, you are probably also using these tips. Hell yeah. Is that correct? Yeah, no doubt. OK, we'll get there. We'll get there. But first, let's talk a little bit about the ergonomics, the visual design, everything to do with that kind of stuff. So in general, I find this one to be very comfortable. I find it to be similarly comfortable to a set like the Meta that Crin released before. I actually personally find this more comfortable than the Thieaudio style of shells, like the Hype series shells. And that's just because the whole thing feels maybe a little bit smaller for the nozzle, but that's not to say that it isn't a large-ish nozzle. I mean, for folks who are used to this kind of stuff, you'll be fine with it. It's mostly fine. I think that most people will get along with this one. What did you think?

00:02:44 (Griffin Silver)
Yeah, I mean, I think I find it close to as comfortable as the Meta. I think the general molding is similar. I'm not sure I would count it as quite as comfortable as like the Thieaudio Hype 4, was for me. I just found that one nestled a little bit more cleanly into my ear. I don't know if it's a nozzle width or nozzle angle thing, but most of my issue seems to be around the nozzle area with this one. That said, it's not uncomfortable. I'm able to make it through a few hours with this totally fine. After which, frankly, most IEMs do start to smart a little bit. But yeah, it's not an all-day wear for me. It's kind of just below that.

00:03:18 (Andrew Park)
I like the faceplate here. It's clean and simple. nobody would do this but i wish it was just daybreak and not you know with the CrinEar on the other side because daybreak's a cool thing right like daybreak but then you know you also have the CrinEar i don't know to me it would have been nice it was just just the one simple thing but i like the the visual design you know i'm more of a as everybody knows i prefer these more understated kind of designs and so this is this is hitting me in all the right spots for that what are your thoughts on the on the cable not not the biggest fan of the cable i mean it's fine for this price point i like the look of it it's pretty.

00:03:55 (Griffin Silver)
I do like the kind of silvery pairing with the kind of silver trim on the earpieces. I don't love the fact that it feels a little bit plasticky in the hand. I wouldn't say it has a ton of shape memory, but it has a little bit. And, you know, I do, when using it, swap it out for another cable I have around that's just a little bit softer. Not a huge fan of the plug on the end either. The right angle is, you know, fine for me, but it's just kind of it does have a little bit of extra mass because it is a swappable termination um so for those wondering it does come with a 4. 4 millimeter termination as well in the box, I wouldn't say it's a it's a bad cable by any stretch; it's definitely decent, um it's just not I think perfect for me.

00:04:39 (Andrew Park)
Speaking of accessories, you get this pretty nice leather case, hard hard-ish shell case, so that's good, I feel. It's a bit on the chonky side, but I like this better than the Pelican style cases that I have here. About the accessories that you only get one set of tips here, yeah fully agree; I feel like more could have been done with different tips just to provide people with different sound signatures because the tips do matter here as you guys can see we've we've put the coffee tips on which we'll get into it, could have used another set of tips just a little something there.

00:05:12 (Griffin Silver)
It would have been great, I think, if he included a wide bore tip; but again, you know, less expensive. It's gonna be a little, a little more light on the accessories.

00:05:20 (Andrew Park)
Interestingly, this one we do get a sense of what it is; where that wasn't the case for the Meta. So, do you want to talk about the configuration a bit?

00:05:30 (Griffin Silver)
Yeah, it's a single dynamic driver, two balanced armature and two micro planar. I will say just one of my own biases that is perhaps unreasonable, perhaps not, is that, you know, whenever I see micro planar, I cringe a little bit because that usually means, at least historically, planar kind of correlates to a little bit more treble brightness. And that's something I tend to. not really like in IEMs. We'll talk about if it was actually an issue later. Did you have any thoughts about the driver configuration? I mean, I'm glad it's DD bass, but like it's Crin, so it's going to be DD bass.

00:05:58 (Andrew Park)
Yeah, it's mainly that I thought it was interesting that he didn't release the information on that for the meta and then did for this one. I have to imagine that there's a reason why, though I can't really think about it right now, but I'm reminded of the video that Cameron just recently put out about, you know, how headphone drivers and IEM drivers work. And the closing message of that video is basically there are good products and bad products. Don't buy things just based on the driver configuration because you can have good and bad with all driver configurations. Let's now move on to the sound quality. But just before we get into the sound quality, I want to remind folks that these videos are made possible by Headphones. com. So if anything that we provide, any information that we provide here is useful to you guys, or if you like the graphs, or if you've read any of our articles, consider Headphones.com. Come the next time you're in the market for buying headphones or any related audio gear. DACs, amps, IEMs, that sort of thing. And Headphones . com is also great because they have a crazy, ridiculous 365-day return policy. So, you know, you can buy a product with confidence knowing that you'll be able to actually use it and test it and try it out. So all that is to say, just keep Headphones . com in mind the next time you're in the market for any of this stuff. But back to the video. Let's talk about the sound quality. When it comes to the sound quality of the Daybreak, we have some things to say. I want to talk about how it sounds with the default tips. Using the coffee tips on here right now. The default tips that you get, as mentioned, there are three sizes, but this is a narrower bore size than what you get with the coffee tips. So the coffee tips are quite wide bore. With the default tips, the sound signature that you get here is a mostly normal kind of sound signature, just with a hint of V-shape, with a bit of extra bass and a bit of extra treble. And when I heard this IEM for the first time, was that this is a bit on the clangy side, a bit on the shouty side. And spending time with this, listening to it now with the default tips again, it's kind of reinforced that impression for me. It's a bit on the edge for me, a bit too shouty, a bit too clangy in the upper mids, the ear gain, and the lower treble. That's the thing that kind of stands out to me, but the rest of it is also very well balanced. So it's not my favorite sound signature with the default tips. However, I don't dislike it completely. The region that for me was more forward around like 3. 5 kilohertz, that gets kind of pulled back a little bit to be much more balanced and less clenched sounding, less sort of like, you know, that kind of sound. So it got rid of that for me, which was really nice. It helped with vocals, electric guitars, all that kind of stuff to sound a lot less glarey and more smooth. But then it also introduced another problem, the dreaded resonance mode board tips cause more problems because they accentuate that resonance. And for anybody who doesn't know what this is, all IEMs essentially have a pattern of resonances that are the result of the air volume that is the distance between the driver and your eardrum. So if you have a larger ear canal, that changes the position and the shape of this resonance. For me, it's typically at around 6. 1 kilohertz, and it is the case with this IEM as well. Despite the fact that they make it not shouty, they make it very palatable for the vast majority of its frequency response and its tuning, there is still that one resonance at around 6. 1 kilohertz that is quite, quite, it's quite. But. This is where I have to also keep in mind that other people are not going to have ear canals like mine. Other people are going to have shorter ear canals, right? Everything about me is large, including my ear canals. So for somebody like listener, this might actually be quite a bit more palatable because that resonance that I'm getting is not even going to be present. So how did you get on with it?

00:09:51 (Griffin Silver)
I kind of agreed in terms of the stock tuning. So I will say, I think the one that I have here is less shouty than I found the one that we heard at CanJam New York. It does sound like it has less in that kind of one to three kilohertz band than that prototype unit at the show did. I didn't really notice too much of the three and a half, four kilohertz glare, but I definitely did notice a pretty strong resonance around like 10, 11 kilohertz, which was a problem with the stock tips. That's already one of my pain points. And it seems like this IEM does also just measure with a spike there. So my first course of action was really attacking that peak however I could. Yes, going to reduce the lower treble below the length mode relative to a narrow-bore tip like the ones that come stock. But it's also going to shift the resonances above the length mode. So the 6. 1k peak for you is around 7. 5k for me with this IEM. But the peaks above that kind of get shifted up in frequency. And that means that the peak that is sitting around 11 kilohertz with the stock narrow-bore tips gets pushed to like 12, 12. 5, maybe even 13 kilohertz. sound of the IEM just kind of opens up and becomes less specifically mid-treble focused when I use the coffee tips. So, in terms of its overall bass, treble, mid-range balance, this is probably the first one of the kind of new meta type of tuning where I've really felt like a certain tip nailed a treble presentation for me while still, you know, having that kind of editorialization in the uppermost treble. This is the one that's been least fatiguing for me up there. I think it's partially due to the fact that the coffee tips are doing some heavy lifting when it comes to that kind of 10, 11 kilohertz area and really making that area palatable. Below that, the lower treble, even with the narrow bore tips, was great for me. The mid-range on this is exceptional. I already really liked the mid-range of the meta. The treble and the bass were really what killed that thing for me. But I actually might like the mid-range on this one even more. And then the bass, I actually found with the stock tips, was kind of unimpressive, overshadowed by the treble because again when I moved to the coffee tips, the bass kind of came forward in a really satisfying way. Now it is more bass than my preference but because there is more upper treble than my preference those two forces do balance against each other and I'm not getting the harshness I usually get with treble on a lot of IEMs so I can actually kind of enjoy the the extra air and kind of shimmer there because I'm not getting any harshness or kind of stabbies. So yeah, I gotta be honest, I really do like the sound of it.

00:12:36 (Andrew Park)
You are smitten. I completely agree with the bass, by the way. And moving over to the coffee tips also had an effect there just because it affected the overall balance a little bit. And that had an impact on how I hear the bass as well. The bass has that kind of satisfying sense of thump and impact and authority. And it's ordinarily, I think even with the default tips, it may not have had that same kind of like textural qualities, that roundness that I tend to look for in, you know, tonally rich kind of bass that I like. It was more thump than tonally rich. And when I moved to the coffee tips, that I'm not sure if this is just because it changed everything, you know, above that or if it changed something to the base in situ as well for me. But I noticed that there was more of that kind of tonal richness and texture going on for the base with the coffee tips. So this is just me once again, like in a rare moment of shilling for the coffee tips, extolling the virtues of these tips with this IM. No, I normally hate the coffee tips because of that length mode exacerbation problem that they give you that they cause. Right. Fixed so much else with the IEM that it's such an easy thing for me to recommend. And by the way, no, we are not sponsored by the coffee tips. We probably should be, but we will link them in the description below. Yeah, I was going to invoice you for the $10 that I wasted on these, but it turns out that I didn't waste them because they're actually quite good on this IEM length modes notwithstanding. Let's dive into some comparisons here. Sure. So what immediately jumps out to you as a point of comparison for the Daybreak?

00:14:04 (Griffin Silver)
So what's interesting about the Daybreak, is that there have been parts I have liked about all of the kind of new meta IEMs up to this point more than other ones. So like, for example, I really enjoyed the KE4's approach to midrange. Didn't love the bass and treble. Couldn't really stand the treble with anything but the stock tips. The DaVinci, I liked the treble quite a bit more than all of the other new meta sets because it had a kind of dip in that 9-10 kilohertz region. But the bass was just crazy. So I couldn't really listen to that for extended periods of time and enjoy it. 5 EST or the Dusk DSP in its default preset again, it was kind of that issue where, like you know, the mids are solid but there's just too much bass and treble. While there's still too much bass and treble with this one, I feel like it kind of combines my favorite aspects of the ones I like most, like it has with the coffee tips at least, that kind of more relaxed mid-treble presentation of the Da Vinci, while also seemingly having that kind of, uh, warmer kind of, at least in my ear, with the coffee tips, more relaxed and kind of just right down the middle mid-range presentation of the KE4. It has kind of the same bass issues I think a lot of the other ones have, but it's easily my favorite treble presentation out of any of them. It's kind of wild that the one I like the most is actually the least expensive of this approach to tuning that's come out yet.

00:15:21 (Andrew Park)
Some would say you're price biased, just in reverse.

00:15:24 (Griffin Silver)
I mean, I think I am price biased actually to, you know, find less expensive things more reasonable. And, you know, I am open to criticism on that fact, but the fact remains: Like I tested this against the DaVinci and the KE4 and the DSP default Dusk and the Mega 5 EST because I have them all here still. And yeah, I just found that with the coffee tips, this was the best match for me in the treble. Again, it's still got a little bit extra there, but much more reasonable for me than any of the others.

00:15:53 (Andrew Park)
To me, again, I go back to that thought process of like, how does this fit in sort of the landscape of competent default products, you know, at their various different price points. default under $200 that most people should be looking at for me under $100 it's still something along the lines of like Hexa or Pure, right then under $200 it's like this very clearly and I think this is enough better than the stuff that is under $100 that it makes sense to save up a bit more even though it's like twice as much as the Hexa, I think this is enough better that I it's it's an it's a sufficient step up and it's also better than at least to me most things above that, especially for anybody trying to find something that is still with a reasonable, sensible mid-range tuning, because it's very difficult to find. I've been thinking about this, like I can't think of much else that has a better mid-range tuning than this with the coffee tips. Without the coffee tips, like with the default stock tips, I can think of better tunings out there. And I would even include Chronicle's other IEMs like the Meta or the Dusk Default DSP. Obviously, you can't buy them anymore, but you get the idea. There are other sets that are in the new Meta kind of category that I think do a better job of the mid-range than this, with the default stock tips or like mid-range to lower treble transition specifically is what I'm thinking of. The rest of the mid-range on this is exceptional. So for me, past the daybreak, this is where it becomes actually kind of difficult for. Many of the new meta sets, unless you're looking for something like the Duda Da Vinci, specifically because you want that extra warmth and base that it has. Or if you want something like the Megafest, which similarly, like it's different enough. There's really nothing else other than something like the Dusk Default DSP that I would want to choose over this. With that said, this is where it starts to make sense to start considering IEMs that do have some more tasteful colorations or specific qualities and characteristics that a person might want, and this is where I have to suggest looking at products like the Soft Ears Volume S because it has that very unique kind of character for the bass and the low mids, or products like the Mangred Top Pro right where there is very clearly some coloration going on there but it's done in a way that you know for a lot of music can be very enjoyable, and that's where a price and sound quality really fly out the window, this really is kind of a bit of a watershed product or a benchmark product. I don't know what we want to call it, but it's something where like, yes, this is the default at this price point. It's the one that makes the most sense to get, but it's also, you know, better than many of the ones that are significantly, you know, higher priced such that it becomes difficult to consider those higher priced IEMs without also considering this one. So that's kind of where I would say, like, as far as for me, where it fits, yeah, it fits behind the Dust Default DSP. It fits behind the Megafest for sound quality, barely. But also, the fit on this is better than the Megafest, so I would take this over the Megafest and same thing with the Meta; right, I know you can't buy it anymore, but like I, I would still prefer the Meta over the Daybreak personally.

00:19:01 (Griffin Silver)
Yeah, it has less year gain, so I think that i think it has exactly that's why...

00:19:06 (Andrew Park)
Like the rest of the trouble on the on the Daybreak, I actually prefer like the upper trouble; I like this better, so it is very difficult to really think of other items that are as well-tuned across the board as this one at any price and I think that's something to be proud of. Still, there's still some room to grow; we vocalized it in this video, there are definitely some changes that we would suggest uh moving forward, but it is difficult to find.

00:19:29 (Griffin Silver)
Something that is like, outright better than this at any price, yeah, I, I, I can't be mad at this for 170 dude, especially because like, yeah, as you said, now I don't like the Dusk DSP default nearly as much as you did and you know, frankly with all of the other new meta sets Treble has just been bad enough that I, I haven't really been able to listen to them for any long period of time without you know needing to take a break. This is the first one where that's not the case, so it's like, very easy for me to say I like it over most of the other ones, Mega 5 Est is kind of the only one where the treble is actually similar enough to this um with wide bore. Tips that I feel like they're kind of trading blows. I really just prefer the mid-range of this to the mega 5 est. I feel like it kind of coheres with the base a little bit better, again with these tips, but I really think you know for 170 dollars, this does make it a lot harder to justify those more expensive options so you really do think about what you want before you consider spending more money than the Daybreak.

00:20:24 (Andrew Park)
Just to give a couple of final thoughts here. Generally, one of the most solid IEM releases of the year, even though there are things that don't quite work for me. I think, listener, for you, it probably works a little bit better. So do you have any final thoughts?

00:20:35 (Griffin Silver)
Yeah. So with all of Crin's releases, there have been things that, you know, they did well or that I acknowledge that they did well, but none of them were ever really something I could see myself using in my daily life. This is the first one where I could see a legitimate argument to use it myself on a day-to-day basis as a daily driver. I think full credit to Crin. I think he's really done an exceptional job with this IEM. It's incredibly accessible in terms of the price. And you know, there are things I would change about it. It is still a little too V-shaped for me, but not nearly as bad as all of the other ones I have still given positive reviews to in the past. So yeah, I think solid IEM. If you're looking for something under $200 or even over $200, this is one you need to be considering.

00:21:15 (Andrew Park)
And that's going to do it for this video. For folks who want to see all the graphs and squiggly lines the Daybreak and other IEMs as well, check out forum. headphones. com where we will be posting that and other folks will be chiming in as well. And of course, if you want to chat with me and Griffin, and if you want to fight with us, you can do so in the Discord also linked below. And until next time, we'll see you guys later. Thanks for watching.

00:21:36 (Griffin Silver)
Bye, guys!