Just attended briefly the Beijing Hi-fi show, got to try briefly some nice TOTL iems.
- First in line OBravo Audio. It has been a long time since I wanted to check out these babes. I tried only the top ones, so EAMT-1, 0 (Ra) and Erib 1. These are not easy to fit, have limited isolation with the provided tips and must be the most power hungry iems I have tried. Lotoo Paw Gold high gain was OK but barely. They sounded much better when adding the Obravo amp in the chain (very nice little machine by the way). The verdict of this very short session, is that they are like a princess. They really do something special, sound incredibly visceral and palpable, but they are very finicky with fit, source, quality of tracks. I feel they are more for people into really high end audio then portable audio in my opinion (at least these models). The Ra in copper sound very very good, but at $10,000 I sure hope it does
- Then I tried the Hifiman RE2000, it was my main purpose for coming. They don't disappoint. It is single dynamic done right of you like the fuller, rounder sound. I don't they should cost 2k though (neither should the Dream, or any iem for that matter). I am not sure they destroy the JVC FW01...which costs 1/5
- I finally spend some time at Earphone King(耳机王)stand. He had an incredible selection as usual, so I briefly tried some things:
- Kumitate Lab Trio II : beautiful iem, very impressive with its clarity at first, but then some harshness. Might have to play with source and tips to make it really good
- Tia Fourte, very well build shell, crappy stock cable, ugly as sin. Certainly one of the best sounding iems out there, but I thought it would be much fuller. Not as full sounding as the RE2000. Anyways : spacious, well delineated and incredibly controlled sound. Nonetheless, I still think iems like these should not exceed 2k. Especially not with a vomit faceplate and crappy cable. To leave on a positive note, I have to be honest, they sound very very good
- UM Planar UM : either my fit was wrong or these are really light on the low end. Didn't understand what they're going for here