[gadgetgod]

Hello good people,

I have posted my review for the Elysian Acoustic Labs Pilgrim. Like the title says, This is my new benchmark under the $500 price bracket, amazing clarity, good-level of details, a neutral tonality, overall a complete package. I hope you guys enjoy watching my video review, don't forget to leave me a like on this video and also do subscribe to my channel if you haven't already.



For people who wouldn't spare time to watch the video, here is my take:-
Pros:-
>Excellent details. Pilgrim is one of the most detailed IEMs around this price bracket.
>Neutral and lively presentation. Elysian has nailed the tonality here with the Pilgrim. It sounds quite neutral in its tone.
>Deliciously done Treble. It is inoffensive yet has good energy and liveliness to the output.
>Well-textured, crisp, and accurate vocals. Both male and female vocals sound quite good.
>Soundstage is decently wide, i don’t hear any kind of congestion even in busy tracks.
>Clean output. Pilgrim sounds very clean and crisp. Each instrument note is well-defined and has good clarity and resolution.
>Easy to drive. Pilgrim sounds good with most sources, I personally recommend using a good quality DAC or DAP for best results.

Cons:-
>A bit thin and Lean notes.
>Pentaconn connectors(WHYYYYY).
>Shells are scratch magnets.

Thank You!!

 

[r31ya]

You can simply listen to a vocal track, for example this beautiful cover by Aurora:



Something I would pay attention to:

• Positioning of the Aurora’s voice (nearer? Further away?)
• The tonality of the voice. Usually, pushing at 1.25kHz can give voices a “nasally” tone to it.
• Do you cringe when the singer hits a high note? That’s usually 3kHz more than 5kHz.
• Now, pay attention to the entire tonal balance of the mix, notice that you might have needed to adjust the volume to avoid the upper midrange loudness, thus making the bass and lower mid weaker.

There are also some incredible youtube channels teaching mixing engineering. They can teach a lot about EQ and other arcane tricks. Crafting 3D stereo image on a two channel system is wizardry to me.

Aurora~!



One of my go to singer to check whether i'm gonna like my iem or not.
depend on whether the iem could render her voice good or not.

 

[jbfps116]

You can simply listen to a vocal track, for example this beautiful cover by Aurora:



Something I would pay attention to:

• Positioning of the Aurora’s voice (nearer? Further away?)
• The tonality of the voice. Usually, pushing at 1.25kHz can give voices a “nasally” tone to it.
• Do you cringe when the singer hits a high note? That’s usually 3kHz more than 5kHz.
• Now, pay attention to the entire tonal balance of the mix, notice that you might have needed to adjust the volume to avoid the upper midrange loudness, thus making the bass and lower mid weaker.

There are also some incredible youtube channels teaching mixing engineering. They can teach a lot about EQ and other arcane tricks. Crafting 3D stereo image on a two channel system is wizardry to me.

How the heck did I not know about this song?! I love Aurora’s music. Now I’m throwing a mini-tantrum because It’s not on Amazon music. Sounded heavenly in my old ZS6.

 

[Thieme]

How the heck did I not know about this song?! I love Aurora’s music. Now I’m throwing a mini-tantrum because It’s not on Amazon music. Sounded heavenly in my old ZS6.

It is not on Tidal either, but it is good. thanks @o0genesis0o I will do a comparison a little later

 

[r31ya]

How the heck did I not know about this song?! I love Aurora’s music. Now I’m throwing a mini-tantrum because It’s not on Amazon music. Sounded heavenly in my old ZS6.

The annoying things for singers like Aurora is often her best performance is on more stripped down live versions (instead of the more heavily "produced" album ver)
Thankfully youtube have some of those but no such luck on spotify, (Tidal have a bit more live album)

 

[Tanalasta]

Sound quality doesn't correlate with price in a scientific context because individual taste & preferences play such a large role in what we enjoy.

If you drove an MX-5 or GR86 and I showed you the latest Land Rover 4WD you might be unimpressed, complaining that the handling & acceleration are terrible. If you then used this as a justification that "spending Land Rover sort of money is a complete waste!" you'd really be kidding yourself, because spending a similar amount on something that does suit your preferences - like a Porsche - may well satisfy you more than your humble MX-5 or GR86 does.

Unfortunately, upgrading to an entry-level Porsche mightn't completely satisfy you either because sooner or later you'll start wondering how much nicer a 911 would be. Or a Ferrari.

So really the key factor in being satisfied is knowing exactly what we want (which is harder than people think) and choosing something to match our taste. Even budget IEMs can be a lot of fun if the tuning works brilliantly with genres you enjoy, but there's always more expensive IEMs out there with nearly identical tuning but even better technical performance.

I agree that better technicalities is mostly what you're getting at higher prices. Not just in IEMs, but in sources & cables. Interestingly these days I find sheer resolution has become increasingly accessible to the point where even budget IEMs & sources are surprisingly resolving. Whereas things like soundstage dimensions, dynamics, imaging, layering & background blackness are where bigger improvements are to be found by paying more.

To me the biggest difference between entry-level & TOTL gear if I had to summarise it in one word would be refinement.

So instead of getting loads detail but having to suffer shouty, edgy or shill tonality for it, you can instead get sound that's wonderfully smooth & effortless whilst enjoying the same or even higher resolution. Unfortunately putting sound into words is incredible difficult (if not fundamentally impossible) so there's no real way to know what you're missing until you actually demo some TOTL products.

Though as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. No matter how well off we are there's always something new out there we can't afford, and once we hear it our own system often sounds that little bit less intoxicating by comparison. However if you're a true lover of the hobby like I am then you'll go out of your way to hear everything you can purely for the experience, and the satisfaction of being able to say you tried it.

I agree with the popular sentiment here that entry-level gear is more amazing than it's ever been (I ordered a pair of CCA Trio last week) and that budget IEMs are really all you need to just enjoy the music, but it's also true higher-priced gear exists for a reason. Diminishing returns can be brutal and improvements often correlate poorly with the amounts you spend, but having sound improved in tiny ways can often magnify our emotional connection to the music significantly.

That's why we're audiophiles.

So true. And beautifully said. There are similar arguments for any luxury product. Whether it’s the hand-made aspects ; the technical R&D and complexity of assembly (plus failure rate in manufacture) vs mass produced off the shelf product thrown together. Complexity of detail and technical excellence in a refined, balanced and cohesive manner defines what I personally look for in a TOTL compared to its peers.

It is sometimes difficult to know what is ‘real’ and what may be ‘pure marketing BS’ when it comes to budget IEM vs higher end offerings. Finding true value is listening to that “x” factor of an IEM that just works for your own personal preferences and genre at a price that you are happy with. Transparency between reviewers and manufacturers are whatever one perceives. And how many of us understand what a magnetostatic driver ; how a complex crossover works ; dynamic phase alignments and sound tubes or what a frequency shift, piezo-electric silver palladium bone conductor adds to an IEM or how it all works?

Pandora’s box aside. Sod it. I like just listening and coming back to one important question. “Do I like it”?

Onto discovery ….



Duality prototype.

Dual dynamic driver. Tuned just to see how much the bass can be cranked up. Steep sub-bass/bass shelf followed by a more neutral mid and treble tuning that is rather cohesive. Fun and dynamic. Loosely reminded me of utopia with the mids tuning. Neutral-ish mids and treble. No peaks. Safe rather than recessed or too forward. Detail retrieval, staging and treble an obvious step up from singularity. My rating: Do I like it? Yes.

There are impedance adapters to turn the bass up even more! The stock one was more than enough for me so I didn’t try them.

Another fun discovery. Dita Project M. Like c-pop? Mids tuned for vocals? A very nice listen and A tier for the price and genre. I almost bought it. Except I realised I am waiting for Storm.

I also tried Pilgrim and Noir. I didn’t love them. Noir the more balanced and proficient IeM. But usually in these instances I will let others judge for themselves.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Another fun discovery. Dita Project M. Like c-pop? Mids tuned for vocals? A very nice listen and A tier for the price and genre. I almost bought it.

So that’s what that IEM was tuned for. Sometimes it would be great to talk to tuner and see what exactly they listen to.

I wonder what Lee Elysian listens to to choose that house sound.

My house sound might just be a DAC with built-in spatial audio DSP and Joe’s dynamic extender plugin

Except I realised I am waiting for Storm.

Casually dropping bombshell, eh? Eyeing your MEST III (maybe not now though, very much broke)

 

[Ferdinando1968]

You can simply listen to a vocal track, for example this beautiful cover by Aurora:



Something I would pay attention to:

• Positioning of the Aurora’s voice (nearer? Further away?)
• The tonality of the voice. Usually, pushing at 1.25kHz can give voices a “nasally” tone to it.
• Do you cringe when the singer hits a high note? That’s usually 3kHz more than 5kHz.
• Now, pay attention to the entire tonal balance of the mix, notice that you might have needed to adjust the volume to avoid the upper midrange loudness, thus making the bass and lower mid weaker.

There are also some incredible youtube channels teaching mixing engineering. They can teach a lot about EQ and other arcane tricks. Crafting 3D stereo image on a two channel system is wizardry to me.

One of the reasons I love discovery is musical discoveries. I didn't know, thanks.

Here we discover fuel (music) and oxidizer (hardware).

 

[r31ya]

Roseselsa
$75, ES9039Q2M, 3.5mm:240mW + 4.4mm:300mW
https://hifigo.com/products/roseselsa-rs9039

New brand?
no mention on AMP chip or whether its dual dac

 

[Ferdinando1968]

This morning's setup with the DUNU TALOS.

I loved them very much, and this morning I decided to listen to them again.

I still find them excellent, rather on the bright sound side (even with the BAs turned off).

I find them very suitable for reproducing voices.

 

[Tanalasta]

Casually dropping bombshell, eh? Eyeing your MEST III (maybe not now though, very much broke)

It’s under 12 months though not first owner. It was the blue hour cable. Very old apparently so pins worn. Mest is friction fit and the stock cable and Sov fit very well.

At least we know UM refurb!

Why UM doesn’t use spring loaded sockets are beyond me.

Hoping to pair Mest 3 with Sov 2 wire and Spartacus with OTL and I have a very *cough* well capable mid-fi setup.

 

[sgtbilko]

Depends on whether you want to go with a Latin-based (quin-) or a Greek-based (penta-) prefix.

...introducing the all new Penta-Quin Cinq-V

 

[gadgetgod]

Roseselsa
$75, ES9039Q2M, 3.5mm:240mW + 4.4mm:300mW
https://hifigo.com/products/roseselsa-rs9039



New brand?
no mention on AMP chip or whether its dual dac

It is rose technics, they have rebranded themselves I believe

 

[Thieme]

You can simply listen to a vocal track, for example this beautiful cover by Aurora:



Something I would pay attention to:

• Positioning of the Aurora’s voice (nearer? Further away?)
• The tonality of the voice. Usually, pushing at 1.25kHz can give voices a “nasally” tone to it.
• Do you cringe when the singer hits a high note? That’s usually 3kHz more than 5kHz.
• Now, pay attention to the entire tonal balance of the mix, notice that you might have needed to adjust the volume to avoid the upper midrange loudness, thus making the bass and lower mid weaker.

I tried, I can hear a little difference but it is not like either of the IEMs made it sound bad or that it felt like a huge difference? I tried with the Aurora song and also with Little Lies from Fleetwood Mac. In the end I felt the Delci sounded a tad more natural to my ears. There were no cringe moments and the difference didn't seem huge either. I didn't notice any differences in the positioning but to tell the truth I already have difficulty matching the volumes of the IEMs so maybe this analyzing is not for me? But at the same time it is still highly interesting.
Now I am going to try and AB test some tracks between my Shanling M3U and Hiby R6P2, see if I can pick up anything there. I only played around a bit trying to see if I could hear the difference between class A and AB mode on the R6P2 after receiving it yesterday and while I feel I could pick up on it, it is also not a shocking difference.

 

[Rambone]

Tonight I won a $50.00 gift card from work for finishing top satisfaction % plus top sales on my team, so instead of saving it, I used it along with $7.00 in coupons/coins and $2.00 in late ship coupons, and put $59 towards the CCA Hydro. I watched vids by @Jaytiss, PaulWasabii, and HBB, and the three of them convinced me to pick up the Hydro for what was essentially $61.00, so now I'm tapping out for the summer. No more purchases of IEMs until 11.11. Yeah, there's a bunch of really amazing IEMs coming down the pike, but I'm awaiting the KZ pro and the Hydro, and I'll be happy until the holidays roll around, especially if the Hydro live up to the hype?

Finally caved in and came to your senses . I had my Magni Unity with me at work the other day and had the Hydro and Dusk to choose from. Hydro was the obvious choice as it is so much fun and engaging to listen to. Straight 5 star tuning chef they have over at CCA. My favorite of the year so far.