Forgot to mention it while filming but the Morays get a C-. Will update it on the ranking list when the overhaul is finished: crinacle.com/rankings/iems

Can't wait for the Razer x Crinacle project then

If it sits in your ear But it's not great to hear That's a Moray!

In my experience, if you want a good set of "gaming" headphones/IEMs, just get a good set of comfortable music headphones/IEMs and a standalone mic if you need/want one. Sound is sound. Don't pay for marketing.

Putting “gaming” in the name has got to be one of the most effective marketing strategies of all time. Waiting for gaming jackets, gaming compact sedans, gaming coffee mugs, gaming leaf blowers, etc.

Razer : "We have tuned these IEMs to not be aggressive" Also Razer : Flat bass with big 2khz and 6khz peaks Yeah... Sure... Nice Job.

from what i'm understanding solely from this review, these IEMs are marketed wrong. it seems like this should be marketed as a streamer IEM, rather than a gaming IEM, made to be used for long time streaming use that isn't specifically made to be competitive all the time

Imagine the Truthear zero signature with Razer Moray comfort at $80. Razer could easily take over the gaming IEM market with that combo. Razer if you're reading this I know you don't like to listen to your consumers (the Cobra), but listen to Crin and make some magic happen.

Ah yes finally I've been waiting for so long this gonna be fun to watch

Since crinacle can't say it, I will. The closest thing to a gaming profile, funny enough, is the harman curve, which makes crinnacle's original zero the best gaming iem.

I ran through the Hexa, Hola and Zero:Red for multiple hours in CSGO and Quake and found the Hexa with AutoEQ loaded up had insane positional audio capabilities. Found myself tracking opponents through walls easier than my HD6XX somehow. The only downside is the comfort difference but the drivers found in that set are absolutely brilliant with the W1 tips installed.

I'm fairly sure the newer KZ DQS also uses that shell design (Underside looks the same at least) while costing around 10 to 15 euros and having an arguably better tuning too, Harman pinna with BLON BL-03's levels of bass which kinda makes them close-ish to the USOUND target.

Truthear x Crinacle zero (blue ones) have an amazing footstep bass aspect while still having excellent top end for glass breaking and grass rustleing! Iceman Issac the warzone streamer is how i found your channel! Thank you for your videos!

To me the most comfortable IEM will always be the one with the smallest body, not the body that most conforms to your ear. After all, you can avoid a lot of comfort issues entirely if the shell simply never touches most of the ear. Unfortunately bullet-style IEMs are pretty much ignored these days; There are some good ones, but not many in the community are asking for them and new models are sparse.

The Final E3000 and Moondrop Quarks are the most comfortable IEMs I have ever used They are so small and light, it doesn't matter the shape of the ear/iem at all

Thanks for the review Crin. I actually enjoyed your analysis of this and found it very informative and food for thought. I expected you to maybe say how bad they are but this was more interesting.

To me, someone who plays a very sound design based shooter (Hunt: Showdown), a gaming IEM is a gaming IEM when it's good in directional cues. The reason why i still use overear headphones for gaming is, its still often times easier to tell direction with them compared to IEMs (in my case the moondrop aria). Doesent really matter if i can hear foodsteps or not if i cant tell from which direction they're coming from.

Could you do a video about the best IEMs for competitive gaming (best for immersion and being able to distinguish footsteps and directions)?

Razer are real funny charging $130 for these. A couple years back I picked up a pair of Sound Magic E11 earphones for I think £25-30, and they've been absolutely stellar for both gaming and movies - despite have zero "gaming" or "streamer" branding. They're perfect for when I don't want to wear a bulky pair of headphones but still want a nice listening experience. I even purchased a second pair for my Switch. So for about £60 all in I've got two comfortable pairs of earphones with great audio - half the price of the Morays, which by Crinacle's account have weak sound quality anyway.

Great video Crin, your extensive knowledge and honest appraisal is always appreciated

I def agree on comfort. One of my first iems was the zs3 and I still miss that kind of fit 3 years later lmao Might buy a tkzk ouranos sometime soon simply for the fit lmao

The videography on this video is amazing, kudos

Thank you! Finally, someone attempts to define a "gaming IEM" while offering useful/supportive commentary around the entire debacle.

Great video as always. One of thing I would mention though regarding "gaming performance". When it comes to shooters, one thing matter more than anything else, and that is imaging. Being able to pinpoint the enemy, where they are without having to look give a massive edge. Even if the audio quality is garbage, being able to identify where you opponent is coming from is the biggest thing. Sound-stage would be right up there next to it. It is part of the reason why the Sennheiser PC38x is successful. The sound quality is not great, but the imaging on it is absurd.

That's it, we need Crinacle to team up with someone and help tune for gaming, footsteps and the such specifically.

After spending a considerable amount of time reading forum threads about gaming headphones/headsets and trying out different things, I've found myself largely going my own way. Firstly, not only is preference highly subjective, but sometimes your actual experience can be subjective. I've seen people revere headphones for gaming due to their huge sound stage and frequency response that helps them more easily pick out footsteps, but when I tried them, the imaging was off so that visual and audio cues didn't line up (think an object appearing to be 45 degrees sounding as if it's at 60 degrees) and there was just this disconnect between what I was seeing and what I was hearing. Regarding the subjective experience part I mentioned above: When I bought what I'd call my first pair of real headphones (not just whatever happened to be in whichever shop I was in at the time and were cheap or included free with something), they seemed to be pretty well regarded in their price bracket. For me however they had a bizarre property. They had an extremely wide sound stage, but no forward depth whatsoever. In fact, certain sounds which should sound as if they were in front of me seemed like they were passing just behind the line between my ears towards the back of my head. This was true with music too so that certain panning effects seemed to come from behind me/towards the back of my head. What works best for me are neutral headphones/IEMs with good imaging and good dynamics. I like neutral headphones/IEMs because I can build up a better mental image of the environment when different aspects of it are balanced in proportion to each other. The benefit of good imaging is obvious. Sounds line up with where they are visually. Good dynamics are not discussed nearly enough in conversations about gaming headphones. In my experience sound stage has two main contributors: 1) Dynamics and 2) Frequency response. Frequency response can be used to create the illusion of a large soundstage which can be pleasant for music but is detrimental for games because you sacrifice accuracy for a faux sense of space. If you have a neutral headphone/IEM with good imaging, dynamics is what gives you depth and a genuine sense of distance.

When comfort lights a spark But the sound is too dark That‘s a Moray

Razer x Crin collab would be insane

For $130 these days you can regularly find the Letshuoer S12 on sale, and not only will that have really big bass for those types of sounds, it also has a pretty forward and emphasized treble region as well. If you're looking for detail, clarity, resolution, sound separation in an IEM, it's basically unbeatable at that price. And it's not bad for music either. I don't know what Razer was thinking with this.

Excellent video. My first impression was I pictured these to be less for competitive gaming and more for single player experiences (specficially handhelds like the Nintendo Switch and the steam deck) so finding out that these were made for streaming is a bit of a surprise. For something like that I use Final Audio A3000s, their sound stage and compact size is great for that.

first time watching your videos. i love the entertainment, the reactions, and the timing of everything. You'll be my go to for iems for now on

THE BEST GAMING IEM is one which you've gotten used to the sound signature of XD you can argue that boosting specific frequencies can help with isolating footsteps and gunshots but if you're used to the sound signature of your iem/headphone then you're already looking for sounds in those frequencies anyways i've been gaming with several different headphones/iems (hd6xx, ksc75, kato, chu) and i've never had an issue where I couldn't hear the footsteps or gunshots or haven't been able to remember which direction it came from

I like your point of view and how you support your ideas. About the suggested lowering of the price, people nowadays just buy 'gaming' things due to the tag, and even more so with Razer products. Razer never lowers its prices.

Great review; it boggles my mind when one sells an IEM for hundreds of dollars yet the Moondrop Chu's are a fraction of that price and can do the job better.

When looking at gear to use while gaming there’s really 2 big things to look for. Comfort and Price. If I’m playing FPS: Spatial Audio is then the biggest contributor to “Competitive Advantage.” (Which lets be honest a pair of open backs headphones will be your best option here for comfort and a more “natural” spatial audio experience; not IEMs) If I’m wanting it on console, the boom mic is also wanted for convenience. A super simple concept that is just constantly being missed in the IEM market.

It's great for listening to notifications?

Your next IEM needs to use an ergo shell for sleep. Pls make it cheap. TY.

People are realizing IEM's are generally better for gaming, in semi-comp to competitive, but as you said, the lines get blurred between IEM's and Cans if you know what to listen for. But companies see this, and are just smashing lack luster IEM's into the market hoping people buy them only due to the brand name. Why does this bother me? If these are someones introduction to IEM's, they get a horrible first time experience and will probably just go back to their cans and miss out all that IEM's can offer. At the $130 price point these have, there are WAY better options available, most are cheaper too.

For my view a gaming headset (keyword being headSET) is a headphone with a boom mic, but also something with very large ear cups and drivers to make surround more noticeable, comfortable to wear for a long period of time and finaly, to a lesser extent, something compatible and customisable via a gaming software (ghub for example)

Great vid, this is actually helpful and will help eq my iems for gaming

A truthear x Crinacle Zero with the footstep and gunshot tuning bumps for 50 bucks sold as a "gaming IEM" would kill in the market. Only thing that bugs me with the current iteration is the larger nozzle after extended usage. Toss some funky cyberpunk colors on a box and ship em lol

"What is a gaming _anything_?" Let's be real, it's one thing: RGB lighting

Not gonna lie when you told me to fuck off at the end I hit that subscribe button hahaha

I've just learned over the years that anything involving audio and it has "Gaming" on it, to just ignore it. Over the years I've just ended up getting a good pair of headphones, IEM, and a good microphone. I find them just fine for games and music and anything. Good audio equipment is good for everything in my opinion.

At this point, I have zero idea why companies release iems with crap frequency response whether for music or gaming. I get that in the early days of the audiophile community, it was difficult to know which sound signature is good. So they just thrown a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what stuck. However, now a days it is easy to understand which sound signature to prioritise for which use case scenario. There are many famous fr curves including Harman, Crinacle and also the fr curves of Andrew from HPS, Precog, BGGAR etc. Only abject laziness seems to be the reason for purely tuned iems these days. How much extra money or effort would it have cost Razr to tune this iem according to Harmon or similar to something like truthear Hexa??

For CSGO at LAN events you'll see players with earphones or IEMs under the tournament issued headsets, but they all seem to be pretty bog standard stuff or, as Crin says, sponsor dependent. I recall dev1ce asking for advice a while back about better IEMs - he was trying Shures at the time - and it would appear there is a target market for game tuned IEMS. Whether anybody will delve into data files or to test frequency of noises in certain games and design IEMs around that is perhaps a different matter, particularly if user hardware or set up could affect this in someway.

are you gonna make a new guide to iems at some point? since the one linked on your website is not available anymore (yes i know there is a tierlist but god damn there are a lot, and now that i see this shell design i feel like i would need to look even longer for that)

I'm loving the "That's Amore" lyric in the description

Regarding the bass, a lower bass response actually helps with competitive gaming because your ears aren't being dwarfed by excessive bass which lets you have more spatial awareness. In Apex Legends for example, the bass of gunshots is so loud it crowds out other important sounds. Not sure how treble affects competitive gaming but from my experience it's not that important

Honestly, Soundstage is king for gaming. It's why things like the AKG k712 and the SHP9500 for a budget option are incredible. They are super wide and can easily pinpoint footsteps. Excessive bass actually drowns out important audio. If you're looking to boost those you want to buy a amp/dac like the SoundBlaster g6 as an example. Plenty of other options but those will do better at boosting what you want when you want and the rest of the time having your headphones be great for movies and music.

Thanks for this information. I’m far from being competitive but I have been looking for a one and done setup.

Just a quick Headsup, InEar actually was created after Hörluchs. It is as well a German Company, but from the Music Scene.

I think the choked high range of this is particularly useful for shooting games. Competitive shooters for hours on end do get very fatiguing.

I do wonder if what razer was trying to emphasize was the material sound. Modern FPS games have really distinct (almost unrealistic) sounds for every material the player can run through and in my experience is the thing I am always looking for instead of how loud the actual footstep is since after playing a map enough you can tell where the enemy is off it

Thanks for telling me what to think crinacle!

Great video as always, we need a new gaming headphones/IEM buying guide updated to 2024! Or maybe a gaming ranking list 😄

daddy crin upload a new video!

Moray shape + made of magnesium (like the Viper SE) + Crin Zero Tuning + TruthEar Hexa driver config + a good dynamic boom mic for $130-$150 would have been Killer but instead they made this... Razer is fucking up BAD recently (the Cobra Pro mouse is such a weird release too).

Could we really say that an IEM which follow a +5db bass boost with -0.8db tilt have "limp bass"?

A slightly different point of view that even made me like the Razer proposal, ignoring the price. Made for gaming, does it necessarily need to be competitive gaming? I love gaming, video games, lounging in bed, and never, EVER, competitive gaming. I play to relax, and when I'm not playing I'm watching a movie or series. So a super comfortable headphone with non-tiring audio seemed like a super interesting proposition. Assuming, of course, that it was cheaper.

chu 2 chu2 chu2 UwU

Great review, Razer is killing it.

In my opinion a Gaming headphone or headset should have incredibly imaging. Boosting the frequencies that are of high importance for intelligibility ((1 or 2) to (4 or 5)Khz). A slight increase in sub-bass for immersion and upper treble that follows Diffuse field tuning, not to be fatiguing.

thank you for bein here for our calm asses!! :D

No RGB = Not Gaming

I have watched 2 of your videos, yes 2. Since then I have bought your Zero Red IEMS and put all my razer products in the bin. I wonder how the 3rd video will change my life? Love the content please never stop

Love the green hue theme!! It’s perfect! Gaming companies gotta do better with audio man!!

Hey crinacle, thanks for ur impressive content! I have a question now. Which iEM's would you recommend for gaming in a price range of €200 (1.024,10MYR)

Thanks for the review, I've been thinking about investing in some wired IEMs or earbuds for long hours but I want good sound, thabks for the heads up! Do you have any you really recommend?😊

Man if only Razor spoke to someone who knew how to tune IEM's specifically for the use of video games. They'd sell these like crazy if they made sound good.

Great review thank you

I've never used IEMs but I'm curious if they can provide a wide soundstage? I feel like the historical go-to was an audiophile headphone with a wide soundstage and detailed imaging . Are there IEMs capable of doing this? Again, I've never used IEMs but my brain is saying that seems hard to achieve being crammed in your earhole.

The best outro in the game. Cracks me up every time lolol

I learned a long time ago that if you want good quality products that actually provide you with value, you don't go to a "gaming" company. Buy a set of flat profile iems that have good staging, a stand alone mic so you can actually be understood instead of sounding like a broadcast from dday and you will be way better off for the same if not cheaper price.

the footsteps in videogames are usually a part of the treble ranges

Footsteps are actually not part of the bass, they belong to the mids-upper mids and depending on the surface even highs (water metal sheet ect..)and bass distracts you unnecessarily when you need focus and listen to small details. 😅 All competitive fps eq's basically have 0 bass. The response curve of the razor iem's look good to me in those regards but I should add that I don’t use "gaming" eq's 😅.

Writing this before watching. I love the design of them. I want the casing with a great driver!

Hey Crin, I just started subcribing to you and bought my very first moondrop. thx for the new addiction. I'm having a hard time knowing what to do now, like I hear you said EQ is great, but how the heck do I do it on my IEM? and what else shoud I do now?

hey @crinacle , what do u think is the best wireless headphones/headset?

Bought the Moondrop Sparks last year. Still love it till this day except comfort (that's a nightmare)

I went from CHU to OLA to CCA CRA and finally Truthear Zero... Still gaming, listen to music & podcasts and making montages with and I love them, I don't even feel the need to switch over any other pair of IEMs. Perfection (imo) 👌 RAZER "Gaming" IEMs ? Hell Nah !

Hello crinacle, can you suggest an iem that is comfortable to use for long periods of time?

I agree on all points about the FR being bad for both competitive gaming and music, but I don't think they were going for either of those markets, right? I think the entire thrust of the IEM was "long hours", so that means both comfort AND sound signature. It's not meant to be a TOTL sound; it's meant to just be something that you can play games with / listen to music / stream sounds / what-have-you for 8 hours on end without you wanting to pull them out. From my experience, there aren't many in-ears I'd want in my ears all day without wanting to take them out, so if these fill that niche then I can definitely see the reasoning. That said, I do wonder if you could just buy a KZ ZS3 and turn the volume down to the point where it's not fatiguing and get the same effect. Personally, I just use my $5 VE Monks for streaming (earbuds so I don't have to worry about physical fatigue), So the $130 price point on the Morays still seems kind of ridiculous no matter how you slice it.

btw, can you measure the Tangzu Wan'er SG if you get the chance?

Question for someone that really knows what they're talking about? 1) what frequency band do you recommend a boost in to hear footsteps better? Like 20hz to 200hz, and how much of a dB boost? 2) what frequency band do you recommend a boost in high frequency to hear gunshots better across the map? Above 10khz, and how much of a dB boost?

finally! Content

the ending was masterful

What do you recommend for comfort and sound, gaming and music

Not defending the Morays in any way, but not all games are competitive FPSes. Sure footsteps and gunshots are important in those, but if you made headphones or IEMs that focused on those frequencies, they'd likely sound weird with everything else including other game genres.

@crinacle any chance to get the Hifiman Svanar Wireless review? :) thanks for all your work as always!

I'm on the "dark" side of sound and I can tell you that when you get used to it, when you try the more "bright" and audiophile earphones, your ears hurt because of the sheer amount of treble they have. Your ears get used to earphones with "less details", but you can still hear the details in the "dark" sound.

BTW I just bought a set of Hola thanks to your advice and I'm hoping they work for gaming too when they arrive.

Tin P1 Max it's the perfect IEM for gaming, for some reason the perception of directions are simply perfect, you hear anything in the matches.

Okay, so... you got my attention mr IEM guy. I am playing a lot of Beat Saber, a vr "rythm" game, vr headset has a jack and speakers on hmd aren't that great. What would you consider an ultimate rythm games IEM?

Oddly, I've found this channel for good laugh and chuckles.

Hi Crin, long time fan. would you please review Moondrop Chu II? The original was so good at such a low price, I would like to know your thoughts on the new one before buying a bunch of them.

Excellent review.

I really want to see crinacle try skullcandy crusher headphones.

is there any reason you don't touch on imaging or stage depth for the "gaming performance"? no im not defending this i can read a graph (hi listener)

Hey! I've been using my Arctis Nova 7 headset for a little over a year and I want to try some IEMs for longer gaming sessions. I mostly play FPS games. Any recommendations. 100-500 budget. Thanks!