CanJam Trinity Impressions . . .
Disclaimer, neither myself or Bob actually look like this in real life
My friend took the photo. I was actualy on the way the way to pointing at the P6 with an impressed / approving look on my face
but he took the photo too soon
Firstly, it was an absolute pleasure to get to meet Bob. He has a rare combination of down to earth grounded-nous, passion and humility which along with his technical expertise should have other headphone makes frightened for the future!
> The Phantom 6 - So as we know, the PM4 wasn't there so I 'had to' go immediately for the PM6
>> Bob was at pains to explain that he felt there was still more tuning to be done which after listening I would agree with.
They came with grey filters attached which upon 1st listen did not do much to overlly impress. Then we switched over to another filter (I forget which one) *whoops* which started to bring some interesting things 'to the mix'
>> At this point Bob explained that the tuning would end up very close to the Hunter...So the sound impressions would very closely match what was heard with the Hunters, the Hunter being finished where as the PM6 is still being tuned (The main difference being in clarity and detail retreval)
To try the Hunters I played on [iBasso DX80] John Martyn - Solid Air @24/96 (vinyl rip) = BOOM Instant goosebumps / hairs standing up kind of sound
but here's the thing, not because anything particularly stood out. More that everything sounded so beautifully 'Right'
If you have a certain track that is perfectly recorded, mixed and mastered - when you play it through well tuned headphones, everything can be heard in its full, perfect,natural-nous, especially more acoustical tracks.
Anyway - All I can really say is that the balance between lows/mids/highs was just perfectly balanced with everything at a level that perfectly fit the nature of the instruments themselves
They had a wonderfully natural sound to them which I think is what you pay the real bucks for!
For me that is a characteristic of a 'reference' sounding headphone - that whatever instruments are in a tracks, each is rendered with their own unique and special characteristic
So back to the PM6 - Bob handed over an orange damped filter which should have added more low end and dampened slightly the highs. Surprising these gave me the nicest sound
I could hear the difference between the hunter and PM6 - Although they both very 'professionally tuned' the Hunter sounds, well Very professional.
One impression I had was a slight worry that a person with not much experience or a mature ear may slightly miss some of the qualities of these headphones. Like drinking and appreciating a fine Bordeaux I feel both these IEMs need a long listen and time with different filters / tips. Playing with a few different tips including my own regular set and only playing with 2/3 different filters Im left with the feeling that I am about to enter into long term relationship, where over time Im going to fall in love!
There was nothing about either of the iem's that grabbed the ear with any kind of 'gimmick' such as huge soundstage, big bass or sparkly mids etc etc - Again, I feel that for those who have some understanding of what quality sound is will appreciate these headphones deeply where as those who are more fresh to listening will be very fortunate to find something of this quality at an affordable price.
As a sound engineer I [have no choice but to!] listen in a very critical way. I say this to bring another point. I didn't find the soundstage to be particularly big. Sometimes people find they want a big soundstage but I can find this to bit distracting when the ears are being pulled too far to the left or right, to the point where you loose the ability to really immerse in and enjoy the music.
>There was something about the imaging and layering of the PM6 which I found fascinating and unique. I can't really explain as it was a bit tantalizingly subtle but....
I wish I had had more time to explore this but talking a bit to Bob about soundstage I think he is looking very much to enabling a much more mature and realistic audio/music expereince - He is about as far away from the 'Beats' experience and I think you could probably go
In conclusion: I was wondering if the PM6 would blow me away and make me regret buying the PM4 and force me to upgrade! So the funny thing is Im very happy to have bought the PM4 and am so excited to have them arrive 'fairly soon'
I can't say with any certainty whether I would upgrade to the PM6 as the PM6 is still being tuned but, if as Bob said the sound signature would be very similar to the Hunter - which I did listen to , and I had the money...I would!
So then what is the difference in sound between the Hunter , PM6 and PM4 you may wonder?
Bob said mainly in detail retrieval - Is it worth the extra money then for this? - Having listened I would say yes although for the Hunter I think its fair to say that one would need to be a more 'mature' listener to deeply and fully appreciate the qualities they offer. What they offer is sublime but its a quality of balance and tonality that I feel one matures into after listening to many different headphones and learning what it means to be well balanced etc etc. I guess Im just trying to say the overall tonality and tuning is superb and has an amazing natural-nouss that only comes with high end gear
From what I heard,Im going to be listening and exploring for a long time all that these iems can offer - Im excited to finally get to hear them
Im babbling a bit, been a looong day
Hope there might be something of interest in these thoughts/impressions . . .
but in essence
>>>There is something quite unique here, a special 'mature' tuning which was maybe one the best in the whole show - Many of the other high end headphones all seemed to kind of shout at you 'look how special I am'!! where as Trinity headphones where the quiet humble headphone in the corner that didn't need to say anything because when you put them on and respectfully listen you get such a tantalizing tease of what they are going to give you
The few words that came to me - 'professional' 'mature' 'reference' 'balanced' 'neutral' 'wonderful'
Enough!!
Pre-ordered the PM4 anyway. 
