Preamble: Outside of QDC, I've always avoided the inevitable "giant killer" hype train that follows the locomotive of each Chifi release(s), which has devolved into outright apathy overtime. Chifi is an overly crowded market with a buckshot spread of products wider than Apple's yearly refreshes (and perhaps to Apple's envy). While those with smaller budgets might rabidly swear by the price/performance ratio of those products, those of us with slush funds to blow through (or a local store to visit) have found it to be a mixed bag. With prices...

Preamble: As much as QDC is my equivalent of Fitear is to @riverground, the cost of whatever their latest iteration is in the Anole series is hard to stomach when the Odin is in the same range, and was the primary reason that this universe was the one where this review would not exist. These impressions have been enabled by Aussie audiophile and revolving door of high end audio gear @Damz87. Who generously accepted a multi-continent trade for his meticulously maintained V14 in exchange for a slightly scratched A8000 and a demo model M4. What...

Preamble: @Jack Vang used the Weapon X driver on the LX. What?! LX is evolving? ..... Congratulations your LX evolved into the Legend Evo! If you know what I'm referencing, you're probably fairly old, as I am. My love for the Empire Ears brand is well known at this point, between my incessant outbursts as @riverground can attest to and my ownership of 8 of their items in the kilobuck and above range in the 4 years I've been at this hobby. This might be a feat only surpassed by @CL with more in a shorter period of time. My disdain for the LX is also...

Preamble: As most of us here know, Joseph Mou's iem empire has expanded to Jomo and MMR becoming the custom and universal branches (respectively). Having no prior experience (or easy access) with this maestro's work, the appearance of MMR's latest flagship tier release in the hands of a Canadian was too much to pass off. This warranted the first significant shift in my collection in almost a year (A geologic era in Headfi terms, I know) to acquire it. Not to say that I wasn't sorely tempted based on the fine photography of @ryanjsoo and the marketing...

Preamble: Despite being the flagship single DD, the A8000 (A8K henceforth) was actually my second Final ToTL. This was mostly due to an long outstanding misunderstanding of what dark and bright were describing in terms of an iemg signature. I would use dark to describe the background of an iem and I associated bright with warmth. That and I thought I was treble sensitive when in fact it was Dio (Well no, I was just a treble head). @riverground can attest to the hilarity that ensued, I swear I can still hear the laughter when I asked about those terms...

Preamble: I've long known of Final as an audio company of renown from the eastern reaches of the globe. But due to a lack of interest and perhaps even marketing, the lack of availability to their product line has relegated them to "mid-fi hell" for the longest time. Final would not pique my attention until almost 3 years into my foray into HiFi with the release of the A8000. My experience with single DDs at the time led me to wave that off, well that and having used the wrong terms to describe my audio preferences as well. Admittedly it was more the...

Preamble: Long story short, I like 64 Audio (almost as much as Empire). U18t, Trio and Fourte were always out of my reach , mostly due to the price tag. With thanks to fellow Canuck Headfiers, I conquered Trio in mid 2020 (shameless plug to read my review for that). And now in 2021 Q1, good old Tiger Ears @Vitaly2017 helped me conquer the U18t and Fourte. To make matters worse, I had forgotten my DAP so I ended up doing those on Tiger Ears 1Z (that's another story). Thankfully @riverground brought his 1A and I was able to get impressions using my...

Preamble: Get ready to go back in time to catch the captivating roar of the Greek pantheon Sky Father, Zeus (Or Jupiter if you prefer). Strap your seatbelts on ladies and gentlemen and keep your hands and feet inside the Delorean at all times! The Zeus R was my first ToTL, following on the heels of the Spartan and 64 A3 in the span of about 9 months. At the time Empire had recently retired the Olympus line and released the EP and X lines, but there was something about the Zeus that captivated me (Normally Zeus's targets would digress). I also had a...

Preamble: This comes as a well deserved apology to @Jack Vang and the Empire team. And quite honestly should have been what came out of my original demo with the Wraith at release time. All thanks to @riverground meeting up in a car for an impromptu demo session and convincing me to give the Wraith a second chance. At current count Empire is still the reigning champion with 6 models owned across 2 generations of productions. The Wraith holds the unique distinction of being one of a very exclusive (almost Phantom like) list of iems that required a...

Preamble: Before I got into depth, I'd like to point out specifically @audio123 and @mvvRAZ for their review and impressions on the DMagic respectively. Both provided accurate descriptions of it and I feel that mine will walk a similar line between the two, since there's a question of preference. Initially when starting the hobby, I was unaware of established Chinese audio brands and tended to avoid them, instead leaning on the side of American brands. My first touch with them was through Cayin & Fiio (Lotoo and others, came way later), which was a...

Preamble: Credit is due to @Barra for gauging Canadian interest and setting up a Canadian tour for the VE8 and Elysium. Without stuff like this, stuff like VE ends up being a fairytale. Slightly more tangible than the Toronto Maple Leafs winning a Stanley Cup. I wasn't comfortable with having so much personal info in the wild, but good friend @Colors lived close enough signed up and made some time for me to try the stuff. Getting that VE cherry popped was definitely a bucket list item. So anyhow, remember my waxing poetic about the u12t and it being...

Preamble: 64 Audio holds a unique place for me, having taken my CIEM virginity more than 3 years ago (Wow time flies when you're preoccupied with critical listening every kilobuck iem you can get your hands on) I've hands down owned more of their products (Empire taking a second place) than every other brand out there, so obviously they're doing something I really do like their house sound.Of course price has always been an issue with their higher end lineup, but it's 64 Audio. I'll buy open boxed/used if I have to.To date Trio is the highest in the...

Preamble: Imagine Aragon riding into the streets of Minas Tirith in all his splendor to be crowned as King of Gondor in the final scenes of the trilogy. The hyped (and expensive) Sultan dropped by Noble is both similar and not at the same time to that scene. Noble, known for their aesthetics in the industry with some of the best looking (and also most expensive) shells and their famous crown logo is Aragon in his splendor, the Sultan is a title of prestige for a leader likewise to King of Gondor. However unlike the King Elessar, the Noble Sultan...

Note: These are for the Viento B tuning specifically, but I think're generally applicable to the various tunings. Preamble: After seeing Crin's ranking and the updated impressions, the Viento has becoming one of those pot of gold at the end of the rainbow iems for me. Missed a couple on Headfi and CAM, and a D that was being passed around shipped to @Colors with a crack on the nozzle. I'm still on the hunt for actually, but once again @Colors delivers and snapped up one from a Quebec acquaintance who had ironically sold a u12t with QC issues to go...

Preamble: The Layla has always been one of the iems on my bucket list since my early forays into the hobby. As always, the price of a custom and the FMJ was the prohibiting factor. I dwiddled and dwaddled until Headfoneshop cleared their stock and the FMJs were consigned to the annals of audio history. I held out hope for another Layla revision since JH keeps rereleasing variants on shell shape and custom designs like KB does with the Andromeda. And that didn't really work out because they dropped the Aeon which came with a ludicirious price tag. Not...

Note: This is an odd one: It's basically a merger of 2 sets of impressions on the Odin. The first being a demo at Headfoneshop in Toronto August 2020: This was later followed up a revised/add on in December 2020 after I actually acquired the Odin myself. The result is a merger impression of sorts. Decemeber revision can be found here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/flinkenicks-17-flagship-iem-shootout-thread-and-general-high-end-portable-audio-discussion.826876/post-16050264 A link to the initial impressions can also be found there. The Odin as of...

Preamble: I had pretty high hopes for the Hero between: the marketing of it having DNA from the LX and Zeus and Jack Vang & Jude calling it an Odin Jr. Plus the price bracket it was aimed at, if it meet those claims would blow CFA out of the water and establish a place for Empire. Anyhow, I was HYPED for Hero, plus I didn't have any rich uncles or organs to sell for the Odin so if anything, the Hero would be the one entering my stable. Design + Testing stuff: I spent a bit of time looking at the shells as I got my tips on, and swapped out the 3.5 mm...

Drop in preamble from VE8 impressions Design: The Elysium has excellent faceplates, but perhaps that's more on VE's part on designing such pretty things, but I digress as usual. So the shell itself is pretty interesting, flatter than the VE8 and much wider too, though still pretty small for a 6 driver tribrid setup. Chonky nozzles (yay !), but angled nozzles (oh no). I actually found the Elysium being uncomfortable for my earlets, definitely pushing out a bit on all sides to make it uncomfortable after a long listening session. Plus I could actually...

Preamble: Like Games Workshop actually advancing the lore with 8th Edition with Gathering Storm and Dark Imperium AND actually making changes to the tabletop meta weclomed by the community, CFA's 4th revision of their ToTL benchmark after 3 revisions with 3 variant tunings through that period has been widely welcomed by the audiophile community. The 2020 is essentially the audio equivalent of Ultramarines getting their Primarch back. Hyperbole? Perhaps some Slaneeshii corruption? Read on curious Inquisitor and decide whether my soul (or ears) require...

The oft promised but delayed multiple times M4 review is here! First a UPS delay in getting this to me from France, then a trip to FiR for a grill repair, and finally a delay over the Christmas holidays (I got the wrong priorities, I know, y'all told me that enough). Then another minor readjustment to play around with volume. While FiR didn't officially drop their mascot Firry until the release of their EDC 5x5, I think it's oft to make a reference in the title here. While Elmer Fudd may have been utterly befuddled and exhausted chasing around Bugs...