The discovery thread!
Apr 29, 2024 at 9:25 AM Post #99,721 of 131,434
Indeed, very nice to hear about the Quintet again, I have not tried it yet smh, but this review rekindled that year-old wish.
Eh the Quintet is ok. I had one for awhile but the treble irritated me a bit over time. I think it's still good but maybe overpriced in today's market. Simgots offerings are lower priced and do much the same thing imo.
The Elysian Pilgrim is a hybrid which contains 1 x Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) DD and 3 x Sonion BAs.



Do take note this is the original Pilgrim, not the Noir Pilgrim version, which is more basshead (with some loss in resolution). The Noir variant is also pricier but comes with some kilobuck cable in the packaging.

So this OG Pilgrim is very light-weight and comfortable, shells are fashioned from stainless steel.

The OG Pilgrim has a U-shaped tonality, and is very clean sounding. Superb technicalities, expansive stage and solid layering. Fast, punchy and tight bass with a transparent midrange and resolving treble. Nimble transients with smooth upper mids.


8 kHz is a coupler artefact peak.

There's a whiff of BA timbre but not the biggest offender in this department. It also uses a Pentacon cable connector, which does limit aftermarket cable pairing.

Otherwise, the Pilgrim has a thicker lower midrange than the measurebator's gold-standard Moondrop Variations (Pilgrim doesn't sound so anemic there), with less upper mids glare than the Variations. The Pilgrim also has better staging and micro-details than the Variations.



This is a solid IEM from OOTB listening. Will do more A/B testing and burn-in and report back.
Looking forward to more impressions. Any chance you can show the cable that they come with?
 
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Apr 29, 2024 at 9:30 AM Post #99,722 of 131,434
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 9:54 AM Post #99,723 of 131,434
Looking forward to more impressions. Any chance you can show the cable that they come with?

Here's the OG Pilgrim's cable. Comes in 4.4mm or 3.5mm.

Pilgrim 3.jpeg


Once again, this is for the OG Pilgrim. The Noir variant comes with some expensive kilobuck Effect Audio cable.





Looks very nice, the only thing I dislike is the emphasis on nasality but that might be part of the Elysian house sound, so it is what it is.


Crinacle? And beloved by him? Or?

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the Elysian Gaea for example, found the upper mids area fatiguing. The Pilgrim's upper midrange is quite sedate though, much less shouty than the Gaea's.



Speaking about the Moondrop Variations, yeah it is upheld as the Harman measurebator's gold standard. You can see on social media and forums that some nihilistic devoted followers regard it as perfect in every way, and these folk can magically use graphs to tell 100% of the story, including timbre and technicalities. A certain reviewer even EQs his Variations to the target graph of other IEMs to review those IEMs (without hearing the actual IEM!).

These folk can get multiple eargasms daily from looking at graphs without any IEMs inside the ears. The highest level of audio nirvana.
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 9:59 AM Post #99,724 of 131,434
A certain reviewer even EQs his Variations to the target graph of other IEMs to review those IEMs (without hearing the actual IEM!).

These folk can get multiple eargasms daily from looking at graphs without any IEMs inside the ears. The highest level of audio nirvana.

Whaat da faaak! That's a dry hump of epic proportions!
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 10:02 AM Post #99,725 of 131,434
These folk can get multiple eargasms daily from looking at graphs without any IEMs inside the ears. The highest level of audio nirvana.

No. There's a whole 'nother level, bro

Reading Music.jpg
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 10:33 AM Post #99,726 of 131,434
Apr 29, 2024 at 10:46 AM Post #99,727 of 131,434
Oh yes, this is the most basic design. There are far more awesome color schemes for these IEMs. There are some pictures in the dedicated thread: here
That linked thread... Haha..a perfect example of feverish audiophile rabbithole.. How everyone sinks in as the hype keeps escalating was quite amusing to read..

Not amusing in sense of laughing at responders there, as we all do with different products repeatedly, but amusing to observe fomo and addictive quality of this hobby.
Hotel California only, this.
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:05 AM Post #99,728 of 131,434
Nope. Had to switch out from the gold nozzles to the silver with red band nozzles on the EA500LM. The gold filter makes this IEM sound like a Moondrop. Very inoffensive and polite with a bass kick. I like my women and my IEMS with a little spice and fieriness. I enjoy the sparkles. The shimmers. That was pretty much missing with the gold filter. The silver red band gives you really extended treble with some airy shimmer and shine, with still a really nice bass kick. I am really enjoying this IEM a lot.
Are all Moondrops tuned that way? Aria is the only Moondrop I bought and I feel the same way about the tuning.
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:08 AM Post #99,729 of 131,434
A certain reviewer even EQs his Variations to the target graph of other IEMs to review those IEMs (without hearing the actual IEM!).
this is insane lol what
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:13 AM Post #99,730 of 131,434
Objectively the best Dongle I’ve heard.
4E70AD20-7C04-4B34-B39E-80FA5D772605.jpeg
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:24 AM Post #99,731 of 131,434
image.jpg

Planned to finish reviewing the ACE but ended up listening and compulsively wrote down impressions of the EA1000 instead. Most of its aspects are alright and the DD being used here is quite good, but that stage is what this set interesting. It’s like there is another set of speakers outside the ear canals slightly echo the midrange notes. It’s subtle, kinda like the subtle effect of the vibrating plates (aka “bone conduction driver”) in MEST III.

Isolation is quite poor though. In louder environments, the lower mid is masked so I need to turn up the volume, and the shoutiness was unbearable with female vocal tracks.

Bass is kinda dry, but clean, hits deep, and quite textured.

I’ll keep burning in this set (aka listening every day)
Yes openess, clarity, bass. I have feel older campfire dont have that. I think ara lack openess and in bass region it is better for more people these warm thick feel but ea 1000 is in bass even clearer and it is technicaly stronger in bass. Electro music is better layered distinctive feel in ea 1 000. I actualy have hard think about sell ara.
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:52 AM Post #99,732 of 131,434
Speaking about the Moondrop Variations, yeah it is upheld as the Harman measurebator's gold standard. You can see on social media and forums that some nihilistic devoted followers regard it as perfect in every way, and these folk can magically use graphs to tell 100% of the story, including timbre and technicalities. A certain reviewer even EQs his Variations to the target graph of other IEMs to review those IEMs (without hearing the actual IEM!).

These folk can get multiple eargasms daily from looking at graphs without any IEMs inside the ears. The highest level of audio nirvana.

I always had the impression that he's evaluating tonality not only based on anatomical facts (like how certain overtones are naturally amplified by our ears, so an IEM recessing them gets minus points: cf. his evaluation of the IE900 vs IE600), but also based on how much the given set resembles its (Platonic) idea. And then all of this is somewhat filtered through his personal taste. Examples for the former that match the general idea of human hearing are the Monarch Mk II and the Hidition Viento-B he values indeed very highly in his rankings. Examples for the latter are the Annihilator or the Variations. I think there's very little disagreement about the Variations being (one of) the best Harman IE-target set(s) ever, so it's indeed superb -- for that idea. Now, if, for example, its bass driver is a floppy mess, ruining the whole thing as a complete package, that's another question.

But of course, maybe I'm giving him too much credit. Nonetheless, I think it would be beneficial for the sake of clarity and fairness to separate him, the person (Corin) from him, the public persona (Crinacle) from people who like his way of thinking, from people who are the nihilistic mob you speak of (I've met them on Discord).

As for Sharur... I'd like to believe that what he's doing is the longest troll in the history of mankind. Such a social experiment can be explained and excused later.
 
Apr 29, 2024 at 11:59 AM Post #99,733 of 131,434

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