Smabat ST-10S Gold Ear Buds Review



I am always looking for the one ear bud to define them all. My personal journey has taken me from the early 90's ear buds to present day. I've gone through so many from cheap stuff to over $300 Moondrop Chaconne ear buds. And each time, I've come back to Earth with the Yincrow X6.

They are $10 and they sound great with a nice tonal balance and good timbre. They do lack a bit of resolution but do the trick. But alas, I keep looking for the next best thing every few months. My latest journey accumulated a few more mediocre to bad IEMs including the hyped up and special collaboration bud called the Ear Buds Anonymous, which was tuned by community members from Facebook's Ear Buds Anonymous group and Penon Audio.

It sounds like mud.

That said, I am not reviewing that set today -- nope. Today I will be taking a look at the $130-150 Smabat ST-10s Gold Edition. The price fluctuates on this set based on sales and other promos, but I purchased these for about $140 on Amazon.com a few months back. 

Unboxing


The ST-10s series from Smabat has removable mmcx connectors, which allows for cable swapping, and a  design meant to be worn with cables over-the-ear instead of the traditional cables down. The metal housing is lightweight and feels well-built and attractive. The cable that came with this unit is finely braided with gold and silver colored sheathing that matches the gold-tinted metal housing. 

In addition to the cable, the ST-10s comes with a set of foam and silicone driver coverings, and a fabric carrying pouch. 




Sound Impressions


The ST-10s Gold is a special 150 Ohm version of the ST-10 which itself is an evolution of Smabat's ear bud designs from the recent past. One of the unique features of Smabat's line of ear buds is their "maze" chamber which enhances bass performance in both quality and quantity, which is typically something that traditional ear buds lack.


In actual use, I found the bass quality and quantity on the ST-10s to be quite good for ear buds. It's not as full and deep as a good set of In-Ear Monitors (IEMs), but more than enough for most all music, and similar to that of an open-back headphone.

The ST-10s has a nice open soundstage and good resolution, and a sound that does remind me more of an open-back headphone than it does an IEM, which is generally how I feel of traditional ear buds -- a cross-over and middle ground from the portable IEM and the larger headphones. 

Where the ST-10s does have some trouble is the upper mid-range, which I feel is overly exaggerated and needs to be toned down a bit. There's just too much of a sharp emphasis in the 1-3KHz region of the frequency response that some music comes off too aggressive and forward. Outside of this problematic area, I find the ST-10s Gold to sound extremely pleasant and close to a nicely tuned headphone.

All is not loss though. For some music, this emphasis isn't too bad, for others, particularly female vocals and guitar music, it can be a bit much for my ears. I worked on perfecting an EQ that I makes this a better all-arounder, while improving the subbass performance to reach deeper, and I found a nice happy medium in the settings below:





Wrap-Up

Even without EQ, I do appreciate the sound quality and general tonality of the ST-10S Gold, however with the small changes in EQ, I am very happy with using this set. I have been using them quite a bit lately, more so than my IEMs and on-par with my over-ear headphones. While the Yincrow X6 really does not require any EQ at all to sound more correct to me, the technical performance of the ST10S is on another level.

Comments

  1. I'd be interested in a comparison with the Smabat M2 Pro as well, I don't think that they have a spike but I'd be interested in seeing your measurements for this.

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    1. Hi, yea I may buy that one in the future. I was thinking about during the 11.11 sale but got busy and sale's over now.

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  2. Thanks that's a review that I can understand. I want to try earbuds as I've had my fill of iem's lately. I started doing some research and checked out head fier but I enjoy your straight to the point style. Thank you so much

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  3. Hi I don't know if this is too much to ask but did you review other earbuds in this particular review site. Or just personal. Thanks

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    1. I've reviewed a few other ear buds on this site, but not as many as the hundreds of IEMs I've done. You can find my very small amount of ear bud reviews using this tag: https://www.audiodiscourse.com/search/label/Earbuds

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  4. Thanks a lot for the review, we desperately need more critical earbuds reviews like yours.
    If I may suggest, I would love to have you review willsound earbuds like the MK32. It's an Indonesian diy earbuds and contrary to the average Chinese earbuds, the upper mids emphasis is not as strong.

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    1. Yea I hope to write a few more reviews on ear buds in the future. Getting bored of IEMs right now, and I prefer wearing ear buds in general. It's just so many of them are hyped up on the forums that it's hard to figure out what is actually good and what is just hype.

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  5. I've got the M1 Pro and original ST10 which I find to be excellent. Built quite a few buds etc as well. The M1 Pro is very natural with just a little warmth due to a slightly early rise going down into the bass, nothing muddy just a hint of warmth. The original ST10 sounds much more like a Harmon tuned bud. Very similar to my Galaxy Buds + not in the subbass but it's still got that wave guide giving it some good punch and kick. Not saying it's identical but it's very similar in tuning. Definitely agree buds make that perfect middle ground between IEMs and open back headphones. Before I got my Buds+ I used my buds all the time for work. I am really more interested in the M2 Pro than the ST10s offerings. Seems like they tamed the bass down a bit and the pinna gain was increased with this revision. I need to look back, did you measure the Moondrop buds? Keep up the good work.

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    1. So I am updating my comment here. I would hardily recommend you hunt down the original green ST10, based on your adjustments you’ve made to the St10s gold. I think you’d be really pleased. I now have the M2Pro, St10s silver, and the gold driver which has ended up being placed in the silver making it a St10s gold. I also obtained the diy M2Pro which came with the vocal centric driver, it was pulled and my 600ohm beryllium driver put in its place. So I own all the Smabat earbuds... yes I am a fan and yes I have a problem haha. I think the DIY 600ohm M2Pro is my favorite and use them all the time. Original St10 is second favorite. The others are really good too. The thing about the original sets is they hit the pinna gain a little more spot on to me. More centered around the 2.8khz area vs 2.2khz area. The new sets also have more amplitude in that area. The thing about the new sets is they sound more open and spacious. Less like you on in front of a good set of studio monitors and more like you are outside under a tree if that makes sense. Anyway I’d invest in other smabats as they are all different flavors but for general listening it is hard to beat the original st10.

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  6. Hey guys. Just a quick thing Antdroid thank you so much. I've actually been reading a lot of your work. And rambler you're absolutely right about Pinna gain.I'm going by memory so I'm probably wrong but I was almost wondering if that's what Antdroid was experiencing with that 3 to 4 I know he knows what he's talking about. Like I said I've been bored with items and I'm getting ready to dive into the earbud and I've been trying to learn as much as I can from as many people as I can taking the good stuff and leaving the rest if it matches up. LOL. Anyhow again thank you Erik

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  7. Hey it's Eric again I double checked a couple of few things and someone who was reviewing the m1 pro and they had the same problem with the 3Khz spike.and so I thought I saw something again on the pinna gainand reference to all earbuds as opposed to SMABAT only. As far as that particular issue.

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