[rottoman]

I have Halcyon, EDP Ace, Avalon, Elysium as well as UM Mest mk2 and Noble Sultan.

Halcyon, Ace and elysium feels like entry level, they are very good, but not the top level, by any means.

Avalon is much more refined and can be a fair competitor for Mest mk2 for IMR house sound lovers. Avalon has less details, but for my hearing, a better “lifelike” stage feel, comparing to sterile feel on Mest.

Sultan is a league of its own, very natural and technically capable, and very fun to listen to. Definitely an endgame option for IMR lovers.

You are Bang on my friend.

There is no doubt that Avalon and Seraph are worthy competitors to the mest mark2.

The mest has more detail and feels like I can hear more instruments in separate locations. Cymbals ,acoustic strumming sound better. Vocals not so strong though but good enough. There's a lot going on in the mest sound. Oh and the fit is crazy good. I can never get the imr iems to fit in my ears.

The Avalon has less detail but an amazing bass punch that far exceeds the mest. and all the instruments sound like one orchestra. Quite enjoyable i would say. And vocals are great on Avalon.
Both sound different and are almost in the same league. I enjoyed both yesterday.

Haven't compared the Seraph yet .

What i have realised though , is that there is more out there than IMR.
And mest mk2 is ancient , the newer iems must be killer .
The expensive stuff must be amazing.

IMR has given us great iems though.
But I need my Enigma or my money back now. Enough is enough.

Hopefully the ents go to war on the 3rd.

 

[rottoman]

As if the business was running smoothly and all customers were happy and satisfied before the Christmas closing time, or as if afterwards it would be any different!!

Very unhappy with IMR . Sitting on someone else's hard earned money just isn't right.

 

[galushsen]

You are Bang on my friend.

There is no doubt that Avalon and Seraph are worthy competitors to the mest mark2.

The mest has more detail and feels like I can hear more instruments in separate locations. Cymbals ,acoustic strumming sound better. Vocals not so strong though but good enough. There's a lot going on in the mest sound. Oh and the fit is crazy good. I can never get the imr iems to fit in my ears.

The Avalon has less detail but an amazing bass punch that far exceeds the mest. and all the instruments sound like one orchestra. Quite enjoyable i would say. And vocals are great on Avalon.
Both sound different and are almost in the same league. I enjoyed both yesterday.

Haven't compared the Seraph yet .

What i have realised though , is that there is more out there than IMR.
And mest mk2 is ancient , the newer iems must be killer .
The expensive stuff must be amazing.

IMR has given us great iems though.
But I need my Enigma or my money back now. Enough is enough.

Hopefully the ents go to war on the 3rd.

I hope IMR will deliver your enigma and returns back to business.

New iems are not always a better option than older generation, especially in top tier. For example, I like Sultans more than newer Viking Ragnar, or Mest mk2 more than mk3, or CA Andromeda 2017 more than 2020. Because that bit of refinement is less noticeable than change in tuning.

 

[rottoman]

I hope IMR will deliver your enigma and returns back to business.

New iems are not always a better option than older generation, especially in top tier. For example, I like Sultans more than newer Viking Ragnar, or Mest mk2 more than mk3, or CA Andromeda 2017 more than 2020. Because that bit of refinement is less noticeable than change in tuning.

I thought new tech better sound.
That's not the case then ?
But Ragnar is fairly recent and pumped up with tech and drivers
Sultan is quite ancient now.
Interesting to know this.

 

[bk123]

I thought new tech better sound.
That's not the case then ?
But Ragnar is fairly recent and pumped up with tech and drivers
Sultan is quite ancient now.
Interesting to know this.

I personally believe it's the tuning and implementation which matters more than the tech itself. A greatly tuned single DD iem can sound way better than a poorly tuned/implemented multi drivers IEM. Driver material also plays a great role

 

[lepre]

Good to see people considering alternatives to IMR! IMR still unique and am glad I have what I have. They will remain in my rotation, especially Seraph+ and Titan.

How sounds Titan compared to Seraph+ (which I only own) ?

 

[yaps66]

I thought new tech better sound.
That's not the case then ?
But Ragnar is fairly recent and pumped up with tech and drivers
Sultan is quite ancient now.
Interesting to know this.

Some people to prefer Ragnar over Sultan. Different strokes for different folks; YMMV and all that. Ragnar is very source dependent, sensitive to tips as well as cables. I love Ragnar for classical music.

 

[yaps66]

How sounds Titan compared to Seraph+ (which I only own) ?

I love the sound from both. The USP of the Seraph+ is the MEMs implementation and how this gives a very unique treble flavour. Titan is a warmer set and very musical/organic sounding.

 

[Jackpot77]

I thought new tech better sound.
That's not the case then ?
But Ragnar is fairly recent and pumped up with tech and drivers
Sultan is quite ancient now.
Interesting to know this.

General rule - tuning beats technology every time. New tech means more potential capability, but not necessarily a better output.

Best analogy is a race car - put an F1 driver in a Porsche or even just a decent Audi versus a "normal" driver in a supercar and 99 times out of 10 0they will beat them round a race track.

 

[rottoman]

I love the sound from both. The USP of the Seraph+ is the MEMs implementation and how this gives a very unique treble flavour. Titan is a warmer set and very musical/organic sounding.

I have a feeling the seraph + is going to sound very similar to the enigma+ de. That is it the Enigma is ever delivered.
Everything other than the AmT driver is the same.
Anyone else thinks the same?

 

[rottoman]

General rule - tuning beats technology every time. New tech means more potential capability, but not necessarily a better output.

Best analogy is a race car - put an F1 driver in a Porsche or even just a decent Audi versus a "normal" driver in a supercar and 99 times out of 10 0they will beat them round a race track.

What exactly does tuning mean ?
Tuning the dd ba est mems ?

 

[rottoman]

Some people to prefer Ragnar over Sultan. Different strokes for different folks; YMMV and all that. Ragnar is very source dependent, sensitive to tips as well as cables. I love Ragnar for classical music.

I understand. Thanks for ymmv had to look that up !

 

[rottoman]

I personally believe it's the tuning and implementation which matters more than the tech itself. A greatly tuned single DD iem can sound way better than a poorly tuned/implemented multi drivers IEM. Driver material also plays a great role

How's a single dd sound so good ?
Is it expensive dd hardware ?
Dita perpetua etc ?

 

[bk123]

How's a single dd sound so good ?
Is it expensive dd hardware ?
Dita perpetua etc ?

I am afraid I am not that technical to explain how single DD may sound better than multidrivers IEM. But as I said earlier the driver material matters alongwith your preferred tuning. Some of us are bassheads, some are treble head and some of us like the balanced one across all frequencies. There are many flagship single DD iems out there which will cost you arms and legs

 

[Pylaczynski]

How's a single dd sound so good ?
Is it expensive dd hardware ?
Dita perpetua etc ?

Think about all high end headphones - those are basically either single Planar driver or Single dynamic driver and they can sound absolutely lifelike.

In IEMs there is plenty of technical limitations to the way that single DD can be tuned though (as compared to full-size transducers), which you can workaround easier with use of multiple drivers and crossovers (so in short making the particular driver cover particular frequency range). The drawback is that when you add different drivers you are loosing thing called coherency - a way that the sound coming from the earphone sounds even across the range. With multi driver sets each driver would have it's own acoustic-mechanical characteristics - some would decay faster, some would decay slower making the sound kind of eerie and uneven. Then there is also the phase timing differences between sound reproduction of all drivers (which are in milliseconds, but still may be perceivable).
There are examples of multidriver IEMs that sound very coherent, which is especially surprising for example in last year favorite Kiwi Ears Quintet which has 4 different types of drivers though.

I would say something that may be quite controversial - it is the easiest to make a decent sounding single DD IEM in the cheapest price bracket (<50$)
In all the rest of categories it is easier/cheaper to make good sounding multiple driver IEM as you have much more flexibility in fine-tuning of the way the sound is represented - you can easily shift focus on particular frequency etc. You cannot easily make "mid-bass tuck" in single DD for example, which you can do with crossover PCB and already with 2 drivers.
Saying that - out of all IEMs I have heard in the world my absolute favorite is single DD Softears Twilight - and that by far - even over Unique Melody Mest, Craft Ears Aurum and several more expensive sets I have heard. Just because the way it playbacks music seem the most natural, even and engaging.