The new UM flagship priced at $8499 isn’t that crazy. Their previous flagship was already $7999, a new flagship that is replacing their Mason Red Halo, which announced all the way back in Jan 2022. (Le Jardin is just a different color design to the Red Halo, more about that later). The Mentor...

I found that with music genres like oldies and orchestral soundtracks, there is really no IEM that can do it all perfectly. They are just so different. As I mentioned earlier, with some of these busy soundtracks, I will want more upper mids and less lower mids, give the different instruments...

The Bonneville short impressions First thing that I noticed about this IEM is the size, maybe after spending months listening to big IEMs such as the Fei Wan, Mentor, Grand Maestro, I had forgotten how “normal sized” IEM fitted. It felt weird that the IEM isn’t sticking out of my ears. This...

That is the way to go. Some people think they make a difference, some people doesn’t. At the end of the day it’s just subjective preference, there’s no right or wrong. Best to just ignore people than to start a debate over it.

Obviously the inability to adhere to the Harman Target and play at 114dB indicates Susvara is just a piece of junk that is not worth your time! Might as well trade it for the chi fi IEMs, obviously they are just that much better, there is no room for debate. Science has it, the Susvara is...

That is not the point. Susvara isn’t the best in terms of measurements and does not adhere to the Harman target well. This is has been public information for as long as Susvara exists. But that’s fine, another source of measurements is always good in that we can see over the time if the...

That could be an issue in low latency environment, but for music listening, it really doesn’t matter.

This is a question I wondered a lot as well. Especially in the Susvara thread. The amps just getting more and more expensive. At which point it stops scaling and people saying it is so they don’t have to deal with buyer’s remorse for the purchase of a(nother) 5 figure amplifer. I own the...

On a positive note, ECT HK has made a post on social media with the expected dates for when RAVEN will be in stock. Limited edition RAVEN (Mirrored gold faceplates and satin gold faceplates) are expected to be in stock by Janauary 2024 Normal RAVEN ( Satin Black Faceplates) expected to be in...

There are 2 factors for this. First factor is Impedance matching. Ideally you want the output impedance of the source (amp) to be 8x less than the IEM/headphones, otherwise you will not be able to drive the IEM/headphones properly. In the case of the Storm, ideally you will want a source that...

Speaking of bad designs, the font of the Grand Maestro is hideous imo. The font doesn’t scream “grand”. If anything the FatFreq font on their minis looks more premium. My wallet has sensed the end is near.

I’d say if the conditions of the used Susvara is good, then just go for it. Susvara sound better with nicer amps but it’s not like it’s unlistenable without them. I had a month where I powered the Susvara out of my DX300 MAX before I got my hands on my current desktop setup, I still enjoyed...

Early impressions but I quite like the tuning of Kinera Imperial Loki. I think it hits the sweet spot for where to start the bass boost. There is more mid bass / lower mids compared to GM, but not so much that the overall sound becomes noticeably warm. For rock music, I honestly prefer this...

If someone likes a certain IEM, they tend to talk about it more. And vice versa. That's why on these forums, most of the time you will see positive reviews or comments about an IEM. Most people wouldn't bother to write much about gears that they don't enjoy. Probably just leave a couple comments...

Not sure in your case. But in Daniel's case, FF has mentioned on several occasions the import taxes has been included with the purchase. And if Daniel does receive a tax receipt, they will communicate with DHL to solve the issue. But it is always best to communicate with FF themselves to...

If DHL tried to charge 50%, tell FF to sort it for you. It is not your problem, it's theirs. If they don't, you have all the evidence on hand already.

I originally written an 8k words review for Grand Maestro, but Windows decided to restart itself for a Windows update without any prompt and head-fi didn't save the draft after I click save, so all that went down the drain. But I still have some of my notes, specifically the bass section on the...

Depends on the music you listened to. Generally I wouldn't say the XE6 has that good of a sub bass, and I will stretch it out to say it won't be your first option if you want to listen to bass. The kinetic bass is fun to listen to, but the thick lower mids just takes the spotlight away from...

Almost all cable makers will tell you what wires they are using, such as copper, silver, palladium, gold plated copper etc. Some will even tell you more specifically the kinds of copper, silver they use, such as OFC or OCC. Or the AWG (e.g. 24AWG) , purity of cables (e.g. 6N) they use. And...

Agreed on the transparency. No reason for FF to not disclose driver counts and sensitivity information. That's same as asking people to buy your amp without knowing how much power your amp has. Or buying a computer without knowing any of its specs. Does not make sense to me.

This will be really interesting. Treble is the biggest weakness of Mentor to me. It could be the perfect IEM. That pricing though.

Does that mean my order will be delayed as well?

Yeah, I ordered an IEM from them earlier. And today it is supposed to be the last day to ship the product. There's no information whether it is shipped, when is it going to be shipped, or an email saying if it is going to be delayed.

1. Poor fit 2. Overly dark / warm / bright / cold 3. Sudden big dips / peaks in certain frequencies 4. Poor overall package - especially with multi kilobuck IEM. It is an instant no for me if it completely falls apart in certain areas, even if it really excels at others. 5. No tuning direction...

A bit late here 1. Mentor Multiverse 2. Ronin 3. Annihilator