The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.
Feb 7, 2023 at 10:48 PM Post #48,256 of 91,329
Trifecta is out of my price range. I'm a value shopper from now on🤭
For now, stick around here long enough and curiosity will lead you outta Kansas eventually. :)
 
Feb 7, 2023 at 11:33 PM Post #48,257 of 91,329
I read some reviews and said are tuned for rock and hip hop too
I was listening to Mellon Collie just the day before you asked and absolutely love the way the melody line provided by guitar floats above the rest. If the FR chart isn't lying then 1) the reduced mids output would put less of an accent on guitars and 2) the much richer tuned low end would lower that accent by a little bit more. Of course you'd totally be able to hear everything that is there and I only reacted because you specifically asked for grunge and the like; thinking you wanted reduced risk if blind buying. Perhaps try to find a place that has Tux plus Sultan charts to see what they do different. Or perhaps Ragnar. Both are chosen by "some" here just because of their outperformance for melodic guitar driven music.

P8 Socrates. Still “burning in” the P8 Socrates and hearing its signature closer a P8 Plato x Socrates / PWA FT but with darker background, revealing details and definition. I was hoping for more Socrates copper warmth but only have less than 3 hours due to medical hiatus.
I waited and waited and waited for Socrates 8, hoping for a richer and warmer sounding Socrates OG, and when it took too long bought PWA August Fun instead. Looks like I made the right choice but please do report back if your opinion changes.

Orphy takes the imaging and holographic staging prowess of the mentor to the next level, for sure.
Just don't tell @aaf evo, that wouldn't be fair.

(Storm brewing in his head and reverse scubi coming up in 3..., 2..., 1...)

drftr
 
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Feb 7, 2023 at 11:41 PM Post #48,258 of 91,329
Feb 7, 2023 at 11:47 PM Post #48,260 of 91,329
For those who are interested, my detailed review of UM Mentor Multiverse is up, including the comparison to Fabled Sound, Indigo, Traillii, Aroma, and Odin. Enjoy the read :)

um_mm-19.jpg
 
Feb 7, 2023 at 11:51 PM Post #48,261 of 91,329
For those who are interested, my detailed review of UM Mentor Multiverse is up, including the comparison to Fabled Sound, Indigo, Traillii, Aroma, and Odin. Enjoy the read :)

Dang... Gonna take a look. Can we share the financial risk though? You seem to be a very reasonable man, no?

drftr
 
Feb 8, 2023 at 12:05 AM Post #48,263 of 91,329
Dang... Gonna take a look. Can we share the financial risk though? You seem to be a very reasonable man, no?

drftr

No financial risk while window shopping, as long as you don't go in to put them in your ears. Then, sorry about your wallet :D
 
Feb 8, 2023 at 12:08 AM Post #48,264 of 91,329
Feb 8, 2023 at 12:39 AM Post #48,266 of 91,329
For those who are interested, my detailed review of UM Mentor Multiverse is up, including the comparison to Fabled Sound, Indigo, Traillii, Aroma, and Odin. Enjoy the read :)

um_mm-19.jpg
Great review!!!
 
Feb 8, 2023 at 12:42 AM Post #48,267 of 91,329
All good points, and fair to say what I assume sound engineers like isn't what some sound engineers like after all 🤷‍♂️ I guess my assumption was borne of Storm being modelled on Genelec studio speakers (or so I've heard from more than one source), and having auditioned a few of those, I had a sense of what the sound is 'supposed' to be. Ah well, maybe I'll get a chance to hear and review the Storm one day, but it's not particularly high on my wishlist.
I’ve heard some Genelec’s (8030’s and 8040’s IIRC), and they both come off clear in a natural way to me. They have rounder transients and don’t feel lean or cut in any way. I found Audeze’s MM-500 to be semi-similar to them from memory, and I found that headphone very viable as a monitoring tool. I’m personally just tired of the stereotype that engineers prefer a sound that’s cold, edgy, dry, sterile, etc. It’s as if we’re aliens that like a tone that others don’t. The point of mixing/mastering is to create a track that’s enjoyable to listen to. How can we do that with transducers that we can’t enjoy or engage emotionally with, ourselves?

But, yeah, rant over. :D I mean and take no offense with these posts, by the way. I just felt it was worth saying as someone with a foot in either camp.

Hopefully you get to try it out. It’s such a complete sounding IEM and the only place I feel I’m really able to nitpick is the stage size, unfortunately it’s a huge issue for me at this point. The stage expansion on it is simply average at best. I find it really difficult to be engaged with the sound when it feels trapped within the shells of the IEMs and confined to a certain head space. It just doesn’t expand the way I want to or the way I expect to for such a high priced IEM. Maybe my expectations are wrong here given it’s going for a “speaker like presentation” but I guess it just doesn’t resonate that much with me.

It reminds me a lot of the Erlkonig in terms of how well organized and constructed the stage is, everything feels well positioned and separated enough but the sheer space it occupies just isn’t impressive. I find myself listening to tracks and wanting certain aspects of songs to be pushed further away. Like hey, back up a bit! If this was an intention of the sound then that is whatever, but I think I'd struggle to accept this stage size even at a much lower price point.

Even going to the A12t it feels like that IEM can push the stage outside of the boundaries of an IEM shell, or has the depth to be able to make me hear stuff positioned between the front of my face and sort of the back of my head. With the Storm I feel like the sound is stuck in my ear canals.

At the end of the day I don't think musicality or musical engagement is a strong point of the Storm, or its intended purpose for that matter. It's clear the guys at Subtonic are incredibly talented, so whether or not Storm lasts for me is one thing I am unsure of just yet, but I'll be definitely on the look out for whatever else they may make next whenever that may be.
I think one of the issues is that they didn’t specify what kind of speakers they wanted to emulate. The presentation you’re describing sounds like near-field speakers, which, in my limited knowledge, are what Genelec’s are typically used as. All the Genelec speakers I saw at MusikMesse were positioned no further than the edge of the engineer’s mixing console. So, I think that’s where the discrepancy is.
 
Feb 8, 2023 at 1:00 AM Post #48,268 of 91,329
For those who are interested, my detailed review of UM Mentor Multiverse is up, including the comparison to Fabled Sound, Indigo, Traillii, Aroma, and Odin. Enjoy the read :)

um_mm-19.jpg
Fantastic review!!!! I had the Mentor tour unit for a week and you nailed the sound description perfectly, well done. :thumbsup::thumbsup::L3000:
 
Feb 8, 2023 at 1:49 AM Post #48,270 of 91,329

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