I find I spend most of my time with the 13 or the 17 modules. 13 for when I want to go hyper-open/detailed, 17 for when I want lush/deep, or just more isolation for cafes and such. I think they should have packaged those two with the IEM instead of 15 and 20!

That was exactly my impression of the Fourte—weird tone. But the Noir has great balance.

Just as I was going to order my 18s, too! Who says custom IEMs aren’t “essential”!? They are to me! Seriously, I hope 64 comes out of this mess unscathed....

Dude, that pic is making me nervous all the way over here in Japan.

Just did a good cleaning of my Fourte Noirs, meticulously cleaning out all the ear gunk, then put on a new set of the same tips. Like magic, the sound is like 25% better. Speaking of which, would it be a super bad idea to take a cotton swab with a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol to clean the nozzle...

Yeah, your description kinda pushed all my buttons :)

Time to boot up the shell sim, I guess....

How similar do you think it is to the 18t? Is it the same soundstage and the same details, but with slightly warmer tuning?

now I’m sorely tempted.... cant you say they suck, just to make me feel better? ;)

Looking forward to it!

Things are quiet...Do we have any audiophile reviews or impressions of the new 18?

Define “they” :)

My opinion is that the most crucial aspect of source is the DAC, which isn’t influenced by LID at all....

Yeah, it wasn’t boomy, just deep. And my 18s put out more than I thought they were capable of. Yet more evidence that our IEMs are more capable than we think, and source is a significant bottleneck. I’d convinced myself it wasn’t worth the money to upgrade from the 1000M, but now I’m doubting...

What’s the difference? (Please don’t say 1.9 :) of course, all my cables are 2.5mm, so....

Speaking of DAP rolling, I recently spent some time with an AK SP2000 and my A18ts. A powerful combination—the bass coming out of my A18ts was incredible.

Haven’t we been over this already? DAPs and amps will still impact the sound even with LID. All LID does is eliminate impedance differences, which is one factor out of MANY.

I think listening to an iPhone on Noirs (or any other TOTL IEM for that matter) is like driving down a gravel road in a Ferrari. Sure you can do it, and sure it’ll be much nicer than driving down that same road in a Prius, but you’re still not really experiencing what the Ferrari has to offer....

I don’t know what all this talk about accentuated treble on the Noir is about. It doesn’t feel that way at all to me. If anything, my 18ts feel more treble-heavy than the Noirs... Edit: I bet it’s highly source dependent

I am still completely enamored of my A18t, but if the new version of the A18 manages to combine that bit of speaker-like Noir magic, I’ll be hard-pressed not to order a pair.

Actually, I think improvements in IEM quality have leveled out recently. Now they are more like headphones and speakers, which have had a much slower rate of technological improvement. Basically, all the “easy” tech development has been made in the past few years. Low-hanging fruit has all been...

I’m in Japan. They’re available at my local store. Maybe I should buy a few to hoard and then resell for a huge profit when the Noirs become a prestige rare luxury, like an old Ferrari hahaha....

Haven’t heard the Trios. As for the original Fourte...I only listened for a few minutes as the sound just didn’t appeal to me. I got an immediate impression of a wonky balance and just took them out. Then I tried the Noirs and that was that! :)

Hope I’m not too late. I looove Noir. It’s probably my favorite, even above the A18t, which I love. I’m listening to it right now on my home system, in fact, and I don’t regret selling my Focal Utopias for them. They scale basically infinitely well with good sources. Whereas the A18t goes wide...

Can someone explain why the LID circuit lessens effects of cables, DAPs, etc., to someone with the intelligence of a particularly inbred golden retriever?