[Leonarfd]

Don't you dare say it's the same thing. Singularity is #1 under $1500 as the latest poll suggests

You've piqued my interest in the X-One, though.

Tbh I hope it's not for Singularity sake

But we never know. Singularity is praised by many and loved.

Only some who complained on slight pillowy bass and agressive upper mids. But there will always be some who like or dislike.

 

[ToneDeafMonk]

Tbh I hope it's not for Singularity sake

But we never know. Singularity is praised by many and loved.

Only some who complained on slight pillowy bass and agressive upper mids. But there will always be some who like or dislike.

People I talked too who actually have had time on the Singularity say exactly that pillowy bass shouty mids. No thanks I will stick to my Twilight and leave this hyped set fade away once it dies down.

 

[freelancr]

Nightjar Singularity and XSL X-One

Man, you've hit the nail on the head about these Nightjar Singularities! Their marketing game is so strong, it almost reads like a cryptic prophecy, full of terms like 'Bespoke,' 'LoFlex,' 'Timbre+,' and 'CAthedral.' It's like they pulled out a thesaurus and went to town, just to make us feel like we're not just buying earphones, but investing in an 'experience.'

'Bespoke,' you say? Are these earphones individually crafted by artisan elves in a hidden forest workshop? Because that’s the level of customization the word 'bespoke' conjures up. But let’s be real—it’s probably just code for 'we’ve found another way to overcharge you.

'LoFlex,' is it? Sounds like a term you'd expect in a Yoga course rather than an IEM description. Granted, pressure relief is a legit concern in IEMs, but let’s not put lipstick on a duck. If both the budget XSL X-One and the high-end Nightjar Singularity quack the same in their frequency response graphs, then maybe it's time to call them what they are: ducks, not swans.

Then we've got 'Timbre+.' Adding a plus to anything makes it better, right? Especially when it jacks up the price 800%.

And don't even get me started on 'CAthedral.' Are we supposed to be transcending to another dimension of sound, where angels serve as backup singers?

Anodised 6000 Series Aluminium Shell? A higher series number must imply a more transcendent audio experience, no? I'm still eagerly awaiting the 7000 Series—rumored to be so exclusive, it bends space-time around your eardrums.

'Mundorf MSolder SUPREME SilverGold'—now, that’s something. Are we sure it’s just solder and not some sort of alchemic substance that transforms base metals into audiophile bliss?

And don't even get me started on the 'Spring-loaded Beryllium-copper 0.78mm 2-pin.' It’s got more adjectives than a royal title. Is it going to spring me into another universe where all sound is perfect?"

But where they really pull you in is their website. Have you seen it? A one-page scroll-down affair that’s polished to the nines, with lighting that should win some sort of award. And that color scheme—gold, black, and white—it's like they want you to feel you're in the VIP section of a high-end nightclub. And let's not overlook the font family—Archivo, Abel, and Nunito. These aren't your everyday, garden-variety web fonts. It’s like they've curated a wine list of typefaces to complement the visual feast.

Your point about the XSL X-One is a real eye-opener. $69, you say? Almost the same specs? Now that's some food for thought. It's like buying a Rolex and then finding out your buddy got a similar one from a street vendor for 20 bucks.

So yeah, when you strip away all the glitz and glam, what are we really investing in? It seems to me that the real 'experience' we're buying into is a masterclass in marketing.

Cheers

 

[Yodamanjaro]

It's like buying a Rolex and then finding out your buddy got a similar one from a street vendor for 20 bucks.

You could argue the Rolex is more about the name and less than it being a tool to display time. The rest of your breakdown of the marketing is on point.

 

[theintention]

Pretty wild that this tiny little thing MSRP is the same price as ZMF offerings? Obviously it’s all subjective, spend money how you want but man the value proposition on IEMs is getting absolutely out of control.

Sound Rhyme TOTL Flagship In-ear earphone
4EST+12 BA

Priced around 2K, out in one or two weeks time.

 

[chickenmoon]

am getting an ns3 and wonder whats the difference between bass and original versions. would it be the most cohesive/harmonious iem you listened to?

I don't know, it's been a long while since I listened to it, didn't strike me as something too special though, this I remember.

 

[Leonarfd]

Ljoma

I want to share about a IEM from my country Norway, had it for demo for some good time now.
The driver configuration is 5 BA. This is made by one man called Kåre, I recently met him and tested his IEM. This was at a local hifi show where he had booked a room to let people demo his creation. I listened for a long time and compared it to some of my own IEMs. Price is on the more expensive side, around 1400 usd. But I understand how expensive it is to manufacture in Norway, so the price is acceptable.

I had a chat with Kåre about Ljoma, he clearly has a big understanding of the tech and what driver he chose to use here. He used Aroma Jewel as tuning inspiration, but with 5 balanced armatures instead. He also has worked hard to get maximum out of the drivers, as you can see on the measurement below it has very good extension in the upper treble.

The shell is slightly large in size, but even so very ergonomic. I have no problem using it for many hours without any pain spots. It's not ventilated, similar to my Neon Pro. But I guess due to the large shell it's never any pressure buildup, I know this is personal and your experience can be different. The texture of the IEM shell is quite special, it does feel more grippy due to the slightly textured surface. It's also super light, one of the things he also had marketed on the fliers outside his demo room.

The design is quite unique and looks really nice, the faceplate has a 3D effect to it. Color changes with angle and lighting. The white ring is also fluorescent and lights up in the dark if it has been under a light source. The cable and connector is very new to me, it's the T2 Estron connectors. It's like an improved MMCX, much more easy to insert or take out than MMCX. Few brands like the new models from Etymotic and Westone have started to use this style of connection.

Subjective impressions:

Bass is very nice on Ljoma, it is among the best BA IEMs in this regard. It's tuned in a way where it gives you some note weight without bleeding into the mids, some would have preferred maybe it to flat out earlier but not me personally. Bass is impactful and fast, not the soft BA bass some IEMs have. This passes for me, even if I do think it would have been even better as a hybrid with a nice DD here. As for amount, it's okay and one the more neutral side. Personally I would have liked some more, but I regard myself as slightly basshead.

Mids are forward and clear, vocals and instruments are both in focus. There is plenty of presence in male and female vocals, also instruments for that matter. I find male and female equally good, but I do think people more sensitive to midrange energy would find this too much.
Some instruments thread a thin line where they are very detailed and forward without having too much of a sharp sound. For example listening to some Miles Davis I find his trumpet clear and forward without being piercing, but still have that aggressive tone trumpet is supposed to have.

Treble is executed very impressively, with plenty of resolution and extension. For me personally maybe more than what I prefer, but I know this is sort of tuning very few IEMs do and many also lust after this. Even if it's plenty forward and extended it is not overly sharp, it just has plenty of detail and air going on. Upper mids/lower treble has a sibilance dip that is there but not too big, my kind of dip where you get all the presence and detail.

Soundstage is spherical with good depth and layering, not the best I heard but better than your average IEM.

Overall the Ljoma is very resolving, fun, energetic and musical.
Strongest positives is the extended and airy treble, few IEMs do it this well. Also being tuned coherently on the whole range, where no range is lacking. And being highly resolving.
If there is a negative it's the price, but even so it's made by one person in Norway.

ljoma.no

 

[cobrabucket]

Ljoma

I want to share about a IEM from my country Norway, had it for demo for some good time now.
The driver configuration is 5 BA. This is made by one man called Kåre, I recently met him and tested his IEM. This was at a local hifi show where he had booked a room to let people demo his creation. I listened for a long time and compared it to some of my own IEMs. Price is on the more expensive side, around 1400 usd. But I understand how expensive it is to manufacture in Norway, so the price is acceptable.

I had a chat with Kåre about Ljoma, he clearly has a big understanding of the tech and what driver he chose to use here. He used Aroma Jewel as tuning inspiration, but with 5 balanced armatures instead. He also has worked hard to get maximum out of the drivers, as you can see on the measurement below it has very good extension in the upper treble.

The shell is slightly large in size, but even so very ergonomic. I have no problem using it for many hours without any pain spots. It's not ventilated, similar to my Neon Pro. But I guess due to the large shell it's never any pressure buildup, I know this is personal and your experience can be different. The texture of the IEM shell is quite special, it does feel more grippy due to the slightly textured surface. It's also super light, one of the things he also had marketed on the fliers outside his demo room.

The design is quite unique and looks really nice, the faceplate has a 3D effect to it. Color changes with angle and lighting. The white ring is also fluorescent and lights up in the dark if it has been under a light source. The cable and connector is very new to me, it's the T2 Estron connectors. It's like an improved MMCX, much more easy to insert or take out than MMCX. Few brands like the new models from Etymotic and Westone have started to use this style of connection.

Subjective impressions:

Bass is very nice on Ljoma, it is among the best BA IEMs in this regard. It's tuned in a way where it gives you some note weight without bleeding into the mids, some would have preferred maybe it to flat out earlier but not me personally. Bass is impactful and fast, not the soft BA bass some IEMs have. This passes for me, even if I do think it would have been even better as a hybrid with a nice DD here. As for amount, it's okay and one the more neutral side. Personally I would have liked some more, but I regard myself as slightly basshead.

Mids are forward and clear, vocals and instruments are both in focus. There is plenty of presence in male and female vocals, also instruments for that matter. I find male and female equally good, but I do think people more sensitive to midrange energy would find this too much.
Some instruments thread a thin line where they are very detailed and forward without having too much of a sharp sound. For example listening to some Miles Davis I find his trumpet clear and forward without being piercing, but still have that aggressive tone trumpet is supposed to have.

Treble is executed very impressively, with plenty of resolution and extension. For me personally maybe more than what I prefer, but I know this is sort of tuning very few IEMs do and many also lust after this. Even if it's plenty forward and extended it is not overly sharp, it just has plenty of detail and air going on. Upper mids/lower treble has a sibilance dip that is there but not too big, my kind of dip where you get all the presence and detail.

Soundstage is spherical with good depth and layering, not the best I heard but better than your average IEM.

Overall the Ljoma is very resolving, fun, energetic and musical.
Strongest positives is the extended and airy treble, few IEMs do it this well. Also being tuned coherently on the whole range, where no range is lacking. And being highly resolving.
If there is a negative it's the price, but even so it's made by one person in Norway.

ljoma.no

Very cool, Leonard. Thanks for sharing!

 

[WAON303]

Which IEM manufacturer has the best QC?

DUNU and Fiio seem to have excellent QC, never had any issues with their IEMs.

The bottom two are probably Thieaudio and Moondrop.

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Letshuoer seems good to me.

 

[SynaestheticA]

Nightjar Singularity and XSL X-One

Not saying it's the same driver, but this model XSL X-One also has 10mm in DLC. And Singularity has not mentioned what type of driver it is, only that its 10mm. Still acoustic tuning can have been done, and better cable and accessories.

But 69usd(discounted) vs 1300usd. Came out half year ago also. Would be fun if someone opened up a Singularity to see, but who would do that to such an expensive IEM.

And the XSL X-One is the same driver as the Dark Magician.

I've seen the XSL X-One mentioned a few times over the last few weeks.

Can you give a rundown of why it's being brought up? Last time it wasn't in relation to the Singularity I don't think.

Do they have some kind of legendary driver? Tuning?

Asking purely to see if I should put it on the wishlist.

 

[theintention]

Letshuoer seems good to me.

Agreed, I may not love the sound of my s12 these days but that’s such a solid IEM. A real substantial cable, great metallic build, I used those foam tips on a bunch of different IEMs too. The case holds my Q5K and spare cables lol.

 

[cobrabucket]

I've seen the XSL X-One mentioned a few times over the last few weeks.

Can you give a rundown of why it's being brought up? Last time it wasn't in relation to the Singularity I don't think.

Do they have some kind of legendary driver? Tuning?

Asking purely to see if I should put it on the wishlist.

Uses the same driver as the MiM Dark Magician, supposedly.

 

[Edric Li]

Wrote a review for the Nova in the Truthear thread:

I actually got my Nova yesterday. Thought I'd share some early thoughts.

• Outside of the tuning difference, Is the IEM actually better than the Zero (and Red), or is it just a better cable? I have been exclusively listening to the Nova on the Zero cable; same eartips same everything. And yes, it is a better IEM. The imaging is slightly better, deeper stage, and overall more transparent than the Zero and the Red.
• Does it sound closer to the Red or the Zero? Much closer to the Red. Only slightly brighter in the midrange and treble, but still more similar than they are different. It is a Pareto improvement over the Red, IMO.
• Is it worth the price difference? By a market standard, yes. What I'm used to seeing from IEM companies is that a Pareto improvement = a 2x price jump (not saying that it's right). Considering the significance of the improvement (this is not taking into account the further improvement by the cable), 3x the price is reasonable IMO. For if it is worth it or not, see the deal breaker below.
• What do I like about the Nova? The treble is beautiful. Seriously, every Truthear I heard has a beautiful treble. So much presence, yet so little fatigue and glare. This used to be the hardest part of IEM making (in fact, 90% of the TOTL IEMs in the US, EU and Japan market *today* don't come close to the treble of the Truthears), but Truthear does it effortlessly in $50. With the Nova, you get every goodness about the treble of the Zero and the Red, with more precision and transparency.
• The presentation of the soundstage, which is a combination of the proximity effect simulated by the tuning and the tonal balance, IMO is more correct than the Red. The slightly brighter treble lowers the midrange volume relatively, placing instruments and singers at a further distance, positioning them in the soundstage more naturally given (the lack of) the proximity effect in a Harman tuning (in most of my music). In this aspect, my preference is Zero = Nova > Red.
• What do I not like about the Nova? I need to stop considering IEMs with more sub-bass <50Hz than >50HZ. This tuning doesn't work for me (I previously had Intimes that were tuned like this). There is no bass at that frequency in the music, only distortions that even the mixing engineers couldn't hear. DD drivers' distortions being terrible at that frequency makes it worse. This is less noticeable on the Red, because the Red doesn't have the overall resolution to make the bass distortion stand out. On the Nova, this is just distracting. When deep bass hits it doesn't put a smile on my face like the Zero or my less bassy IEMs, which roll off at <50Hz.
• The deal-breaker? The nozzle. It no longer has the well-defined "teeth" in the front of the nozzle to allow wide bore eartips to claw onto, like on the Zero and the Red. I can no longer adjust (with O-rings) between fitting a smaller eartip shallower onto the nozzle and fitting a larger eartip deeper onto the nozzle, which has a significant impact on the bass performance. Every eartip would slide deep onto the nozzle as soon as I shove the IEMs in my ears. It is a deal breaker for me to not be able to use my Tennmak Whirlwind.

Overall, mixed feelings & placed a pre-order for Chopin.

 

[brsdrgn]

I've read more than 70 pages, hoping to see sth interesting. Honestly, I don't see much excitement.

Maybe mp145 sounds a little interesting and this x-one got my attention.

Kz is just classic, pumping the market with new releases that nothing seems to stand out.

Seems like Geek wold is targeting middle range and higher range with their new releases gk20-200. Honestly after purchasing gk100, I'm not sure if it's worth to give a try.

Meanwhile, I've made a new purchase after reading good reviews about realme buds air 5 pro. Air 5 pro uses 11mm DD and 6mm so called 'micro planar' diaphragm. I've seen huawei also did that trick in their tws but I've read that the bass was bloated also considering the price ticket i stayed away. I paid around 67$ on AE which is less than the half of the price what other brands ask for.

Basic features that you'd expect are all available. ANC, Ambient mode, good call quality, LDAC codec, functional app, and a battery life more than enough.

I won't dig further into such details which could be read easily and I'll simply jump onto the main point which is the sound quality.

Honestly, I'd say one thing about air 5 pro is that it is a big 'basshead dream'without any bloat in tws form. From some of the graphs I see emphasis on the mid bass but it doesn't sound like that in reality. It might scare you but the driver is very agile and handling the job is right. I hear deep, rumbling bass reaching out to lower frequencies easily. Attack/decay is very good, no pillowy bass, tasty one.

Mids are a little recessed with the emphasis on the male vocals as you might expect. They're intimate enoug. I'm a soundstage obsessed person so I always find a little recessed mids always help with the observation depth further. I hear a good amount of macro detail and micro details are there as well.

I was expecting a spicy treble region. It handles the job just fine with a slight tendency to have sibilance but that could be handled easily by equalizer - 3/4db around 7-8 khz region. From my experience I belive the crossover with planar driver takes place after 11khz adding a slight spiciness. But not that spicy as some of those piezos implemented with their ear piercing 'ziinnngs'...

Soundstage holographic. Very good amount of depth and width. Height is okay. I've heard taller soundstages so that doesn't go to that one. Imaging is good, more than enough. This is rather on the musicality side rather being pin point analytic...

The fit might be the biggest issue and I had to change the stock tips came along with it. I'm using one of the weird tips came along with lz a7 with a quite wide bore. Air 5 pro has quite big nozzle. I believe that helps with the bass quality easily passing to your ear canal right away. I could see the drivers inside if I look carefully. Due to the fit being a problem with short big nozzles, the ANC suffers due to the lack of passive isolation. ANC is quite good actually but passive isolation steals a little bit. Lastly again the call quality is great. I heard from my friends that it sound clear. Suffers slightly in windy conditions but come on 67$? I won't complain. That'd be ridiculous.

The design of the case and tws very shiny and slippery. In order to protect the case and have a better look, I've covered with the skin that I purchased for my xm4. I believe I handled a decent job with covering every place without messing up too much.

Bassheads, give a try and let me know

Edit: additionally some people were complaining about xm4 that it's not loud (for me quite enough but anyways). These are very loud really loud that I'm sure it'd also satisfy many who wants to lose their hearing earlier.