Introduction:
A warm welcome to you all!
Well, today I shall be gracefully gliding into uncharted waters with the second of a pair of reviews of two IEMs by Periodic Audio.
For those who don’t know (and this category of reader until recently included Layman1), they are a California, USA based company, with the apparently revolutionary mission statement of producing portable audio products with “high quality audio performance”.
I’m not sure any portable audio company sets out without that goal in the forefront of their plans, but let’s see if Periodic Audio are able to deliver on this
Whilst I’d heard a bit of a positive buzz about the Periodic Audio Be a couple of years back, I had no awareness of the origins or character of the company itself.
I took a look at their website as part of my research for these reviews (Layman1 being the kind of diligent chap who views cutting corners as an activity reserved for Formula 1 drivers etc) and you certainly have to admire their chutzpah
I’ll include here a link to the ‘Customer Care’ page on their website.
I encourage you to scroll down to the ‘Returns’ section, and have a read.
It’s quite amusing, although I can see the potential for that humour to backfire somewhat, were a customer to be in the unfortunate position of having encountered a product defect or suffered a cable failure or similar.
https://periodicaudio.com/pages/customer-care
Still, I suppose it speaks volumes to the company’s faith in their products. They offer a 5-year warranty, although as ever, it pays to read the small print.
The warranty only applies if you register your product on their website within 30 days of purchasing the product. On behalf of the Layman1 Public Information Service, you’re welcome
Furthermore, the warranty period is reduced to 2 years for those outside the USA.
I’m not sure which warranty period would apply if one were to buy the IEMs whilst travelling/working in the USA but then return back to one’s home country and subsequently find cause to make a claim?
Damn it Jim; I’m a reviewer, not a lawyer! I shall leave such ruminations to those with greater legal minds than I, and pray that such a ‘test case’ never has cause to come before a court
Well, let us move on to the whole point of this endeavour, namely an IEM review.
Today, I’ll be reviewing the Period Audio Carbon.
By way of a time-saving hint, each model in their entire IEM line-up is named after the material from which the dynamic driver diaphragm is made.
In this case, carbon, which their website reliably informs me is ‘a lab-grown diamond layer (8 microns) on our own proprietary high-temperature polymer substrate’.
They go on to note that ‘The sonic signature of the Carbon IEM is an interesting mix of [the sound signatures of our] Ti and Be IEMs, with the enhanced bass response of Ti but the high-end extension of Be. It is well-suited for electronic music or anything with fast transients and extremely wide frequency response. C has the lowest THD of any IEM we have made, by a fairly wide margin’.
All details can be found on the appropriate product page of Period Audio’s website (link below), and the IEM may be able to be purchased there (it may be listed as ‘out of stock’) and delivered to locations around the globe. It can also be purchased from various other dealers of course too.
https://periodicaudio.com/products/...05965&pr_ref_pid=1435821539373&pr_seq=uniform
It would be remiss of me not to note that they sometimes have an option on the product page to purchase a ‘Blemished’ (a.k.a. ‘B-stock) version of the IEM at a substantial discount.
The RRP at time of writing for a regular unit was a $399, placing it – financially speaking - at what I suppose these days would be around the lower quadrant of mid-range pricing.
My sincere thanks to John at KS Distribution and the team at Periodic Audio, for providing me with a review unit to keep in exchange for an honest review.
For readers in the UK, the IEM can be purchased here (other stockists may be available):
https://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/co...roducts/periodic-audio-c-iem-earphones-carbon
Note that at the time of writing – Dec 2020 – these can be purchased at a 40% discount for £239.40! Offer subject to change and all the usual disclaimers. I’m just informing you all as I noticed this when I went searching for the web link
Well, a longer-than-usual preamble today, but I shall leave you waiting no longer.
Let us plough rapidly on ahead like a tractor with the turbo boost engaged (I think I watched too much Knight Rider), and see what this product actually looks like
Photos:
Unboxing, packaging and accessories:
The packaging – in keeping with the mission statement of the company – is what I would tactfully describe as ‘minimalist’, with all unnecessary bells and whistles stripped away.
There’s a pleasingly comprehensive array of eartips provided, two useful adaptors (a double mono airline adaptor and a 3.5 to 6.3mm adaptor) and a carrying case, which Periodic Audio describe as being ‘sized to fit inside the coin pocket of your favourite jeans’.
Layman1 being the kind of dapper gentleman-about-town who would never be caught dead slumming it in a pair of jeans* was forced to seek out an appropriately attired Everyman from amongst the proletariat in the street and beseech temporary usage of the smallest pocket of his jeans. After explaining the subsequent unfortunate misunderstanding to the very nice policeman who intervened shortly afterwards as I was forced to employ my stout stick, I can now confirm that the tin is indeed pocketable, as well as a most vivid – dare I say ‘bling bling’ - golden colour.
*NB: the entirety of this paragraph may in fact be a work of utter fiction.
The cable here is of an unspecified material, thin, glossy black and springy.
The cable feels fine in daily use and I haven’t noticed any other issues with it.
Unfortunately, the pleasant cable feelings ended at this point.
As my regular readers – hello Head-Fi moderators! – will know, Layman1 is of the opinion that a special place is reserved in hell for those manufacturers with the temerity to supply a cable with 3.5mm SE as the only choice on anything above an entry level product.
Worse still would be the cardinal sin of supplying a non-detachable cable. Could you even imagine someone committing both such atrocities?! Oh, the horror!
Regrettably, Periodic Audio flagrantly disregard such sentiments on their entire IEM line-up and so here we have a $399 IEM with a fixed, non-detachable cable, terminated in 3.5mm SE. I think I can feel my face twitching convulsively, even as my fists clench involuntarily and I tremble with barely-suppressed fury.
I try to be a self-reflective kind of person, especially when faced with something that I feel is inducing rage-face, spleen-ventage and suchlike
So, in fairness to Periodic Audio, they are trying to produce bare bones products where the focus is solely on sound, performance and value for money with all extraneous clap-trap stripped away. Furthermore, they want their IEMs to be able to work on all the most commonly used devices and they engineer them robustly such that mechanical failure should not be an issue (and back this up with the aforementioned warranty).
So, from this perspective, one could argue that the cable configuration here is not an unforgivable act. Still, I really would have liked the option to be able to try out different cable options at home, and certainly to be able to plug the IEMs into the 4.4mm balanced output of my DAP in order to extract a superior performance from them.
Finally, a note about markings. There are no external markings that enable one to determine the left earpiece from the right.
They had what probably seemed like a great idea at the time, of colouring the mesh of the right nozzle red, but I would tactfully suggest that whilst this would be a nice added touch, it cannot be the only such indicator in order for this to be practical and functional on a daily basis. Use of ear tips with built in wax filters immediately negate this functionality, as does the use of the IEMs in anything less than optimal light conditions.
Just poor design choices I feel.
The Fit:
I have now tried a staggering three different IEMs of this cylindrical-barrelled shape and form factor (I think the Flare Audio 2 Pro was the last one) and for some reason they just do not agree with my ear anatomy.
I have tried various tips including my usual go-to options of New Bee foam tips and Sedna Xelastec tips, but I found the foam tips to veil the sound of the IEMs somewhat, reducing soundstage size and separation, whilst making the low end sound somewhat flabby and undefined.
But with the Xelastec tips, I can hear quite significant differences in the sound signature depending on how deeply/tightly they are inserted, and worse still a frequent change in sound signature depending on how my head or jaw are positioned at any one time.
So this has made the review process somewhat challenging, and I trust you will take this into account – as I have – during my impressions.
The flip side of this is that for others, these may well be a perfect fit, with any and all ear tips.
The Sound:
You may or may not be a ‘believer’ of burn-in (or brain burn-in).
I personally feel that with dynamic-driver based IEMs, the burn-in process has an effect on the low-end performance, and with this in mind, I burned in this IEM for around 200 hours. Because I figure that even if I’m wrong, at least I have peace of mind either way, and no-one can later say “oh, but your impressions would have changed if you’d burned them in a bit longer”
I used the Sony WM1A (single-ended output, grr..) for the purposes of this review.
Similarly, I used only the stock cable (grr…).
Let’s take a look at what this all adds up to, sound-wise
Low end:
Good sub-bass extension and what seems like a fairly equal emphasis on sub-bass and mid-bass; perhaps slightly more mid-bass presence, or perhaps it’s just a bit more noticeable on certain tracks? It has a most pleasing amount of impact and rumble.
I hear it as a faster and more accurate bass than that on the Be model, more in balance with the rest of the sound signature. I suppose the only negative is that it subsequently provides less of the meaty and full-bodied sound that I did enjoy on the Be model (and other IEMs), but that’s just a matter of personal preference.
I feel on some tracks that there’s still a bit of that muddiness in the bass that I disliked on the Be, which decreases my enjoyment of the music and veils the vocals somewhat. This seems to occur on songs that are mastered in a more warm, intimate and analogue way. It’s certainly not as pronounced as I was hearing with the Be, but it’s there sometimes.
Mids:
The strings on my regular classical opera test track (Alison Lau’s performance of Handel’s Lascia la spina in 24-96 HDTracks) sounded reasonably rich and with a tasteful amount of body and weight.
Her voice, which soars very high indeed in this song, did not trigger my treble sensitivity, although it did come close at times, certainly much closer than with the Be model.
On Paul Simon’s ‘The Coast’ (again 24-96 HDTracks), the levels of detail highlighted were delightful. The imaging is fantastic, but the weak point of the IEMs here is that the somewhat limited soundstage size and separation fail to do justice to the song (or indeed to the imaging abilities of this IEM!).
On ‘Fast Times at Dropout High’ (by The Ataris, and specifically the alternative version from the ‘Silver Turns to Rust’ album) the opening electric guitar has a fair amount of body and weight. There’s a lot of detail and clarity which make for a great presentation and timbre, but still the bassline somehow conspires to add a slight bit of muddiness to the signature, although that may just be down to the mastering of the track.
Again, I find the vocals to sound slightly recessed on some tracks. I think spatially they are positioned pretty much dead centre, but again, something of that slight veil/muddiness seems to make them sound just slightly hidden in the mix on some tracks. Again, this tends not to be an issue on songs where there’s limited bass presence.
Treble:
This reminds me quite a bit of the Be model.
I hear this as being slightly better and more extended, although with some variability. On songs light on bass activity, it sounds quite extended, with a fair degree of openness and air.
There’s a more sparkle and clarity here too. However, when there’s a solid bass-line in a track that’s mastered warmly or intimately, I do feel these effects to be lessened unfortunately.
Technical Performance:
I found the soundstage size, in all directions, to be just average – or even below average for this price point. That perception is further emphasised on bassy tracks.
Similarly, I felt the layering and separation were acceptable, but nothing praiseworthy stood out to me during all of my critical listening.
Micro detail presentation seemed to be quite good though.
Timbre was a mixed bag; there was a touch of warmth and richness in the mids, which gave a little bit of body to vocals and instruments, but the intimate soundstage and small degree of separation seemed to make the mids and vocals seem a touch recessed and slightly muddy at times.
Conclusion:
This has been a tough IEM for me to review, due to the trouble I’ve had with getting a good fit.
I will be the first to put my hand up and declare that – despite trying various ear tips - I’ve never felt like I had a really secure and stable seal on anything but the foam tips, which unfortunately for me had the effect of exacerbating what I found to be the negative qualities of the IEMs, namely a weakness on warm/bassy/intimately mastered tracks, which sometimes limited the performance of the IEMs.
Conversely, with the Sedna Xelastec tips, I could get various different sound signatures depending on how deeply I inserted them or how tight the seal felt at a given moment.
I’d have flashes where the sound signature would lose it’s bassiness and the soundstage would open up, and other times where it sounded more rich and engaging, but the moment I moved my head, or drank something, it would disappear again.
So it’s been quite a challenge to pin down a concrete description of the sound here.
Overall, based on what I've heard, I’d describe these merely as decent IEMs. They certainly aren’t bad, and for those that enjoy a more intimate sound signature, they offer a pretty solid performance.
I do feel that they outperformed the Be model, for my taste, although I did enjoy the meaty and rich mids on that one.
However at this fairly substantial price point, I can’t say that what I’ve heard is good enough for me to enthusiastically recommend these IEMs at $399, especially when I factor in the non-detachable cable and 3.5mm only connection which I personally feel are simply inappropriate for IEMs at this price point.
On top of all that, there’s the poor functionality in terms of clearly being able to identify which are the left or right earpieces due to the ‘coloured grille’ solution employed here.
As ever though, listening to a demo model prior to purchasing is highly recommended.
I’ve seen several 4.5-star glowing reviews for this IEM, so it seems it’s doing the right things for some people! It could simply be down to fit.
The company talk a good talk on their entertaining website, and it’s nice to see IEMs designed and built in the USA. Conversely though, if their latest IEMs (the Ti and Mg models) have been released since the various reviews of this one, then it perhaps shows a lack of engagement and responsiveness if they are still not employing any kind of external markers to help people to identify the left IEM from the right. Ditto the non-detachable cable and plug choice, but that’s perhaps just a design policy decision from the company that may not change.
So overall, I’d encourage you to give these a listen before buying if possible, if my (or other people’s) reviews have piqued your curiosity. And experiment with different tips
Ok, Christmas is coming (at least, it was at the time I wrote this!) and so it’s time to wrap things up.
See what I did there?
A belated gift of festive jollity for you all, from Layman1. Ho Ho Ho
If my painful attempts at humour haven’t scared you off, I’ll be back in the new year with more reviews. Until then, stay safe and all the best!
A warm welcome to you all!
Well, today I shall be gracefully gliding into uncharted waters with the second of a pair of reviews of two IEMs by Periodic Audio.
For those who don’t know (and this category of reader until recently included Layman1), they are a California, USA based company, with the apparently revolutionary mission statement of producing portable audio products with “high quality audio performance”.
I’m not sure any portable audio company sets out without that goal in the forefront of their plans, but let’s see if Periodic Audio are able to deliver on this
Whilst I’d heard a bit of a positive buzz about the Periodic Audio Be a couple of years back, I had no awareness of the origins or character of the company itself.
I took a look at their website as part of my research for these reviews (Layman1 being the kind of diligent chap who views cutting corners as an activity reserved for Formula 1 drivers etc) and you certainly have to admire their chutzpah
I’ll include here a link to the ‘Customer Care’ page on their website.
I encourage you to scroll down to the ‘Returns’ section, and have a read.
It’s quite amusing, although I can see the potential for that humour to backfire somewhat, were a customer to be in the unfortunate position of having encountered a product defect or suffered a cable failure or similar.
https://periodicaudio.com/pages/customer-care
Still, I suppose it speaks volumes to the company’s faith in their products. They offer a 5-year warranty, although as ever, it pays to read the small print.
The warranty only applies if you register your product on their website within 30 days of purchasing the product. On behalf of the Layman1 Public Information Service, you’re welcome
Furthermore, the warranty period is reduced to 2 years for those outside the USA.
I’m not sure which warranty period would apply if one were to buy the IEMs whilst travelling/working in the USA but then return back to one’s home country and subsequently find cause to make a claim?
Damn it Jim; I’m a reviewer, not a lawyer! I shall leave such ruminations to those with greater legal minds than I, and pray that such a ‘test case’ never has cause to come before a court
Well, let us move on to the whole point of this endeavour, namely an IEM review.
Today, I’ll be reviewing the Period Audio Carbon.
By way of a time-saving hint, each model in their entire IEM line-up is named after the material from which the dynamic driver diaphragm is made.
In this case, carbon, which their website reliably informs me is ‘a lab-grown diamond layer (8 microns) on our own proprietary high-temperature polymer substrate’.
They go on to note that ‘The sonic signature of the Carbon IEM is an interesting mix of [the sound signatures of our] Ti and Be IEMs, with the enhanced bass response of Ti but the high-end extension of Be. It is well-suited for electronic music or anything with fast transients and extremely wide frequency response. C has the lowest THD of any IEM we have made, by a fairly wide margin’.
All details can be found on the appropriate product page of Period Audio’s website (link below), and the IEM may be able to be purchased there (it may be listed as ‘out of stock’) and delivered to locations around the globe. It can also be purchased from various other dealers of course too.
https://periodicaudio.com/products/...05965&pr_ref_pid=1435821539373&pr_seq=uniform
It would be remiss of me not to note that they sometimes have an option on the product page to purchase a ‘Blemished’ (a.k.a. ‘B-stock) version of the IEM at a substantial discount.
The RRP at time of writing for a regular unit was a $399, placing it – financially speaking - at what I suppose these days would be around the lower quadrant of mid-range pricing.
My sincere thanks to John at KS Distribution and the team at Periodic Audio, for providing me with a review unit to keep in exchange for an honest review.
For readers in the UK, the IEM can be purchased here (other stockists may be available):
https://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/co...roducts/periodic-audio-c-iem-earphones-carbon
Note that at the time of writing – Dec 2020 – these can be purchased at a 40% discount for £239.40! Offer subject to change and all the usual disclaimers. I’m just informing you all as I noticed this when I went searching for the web link
Well, a longer-than-usual preamble today, but I shall leave you waiting no longer.
Let us plough rapidly on ahead like a tractor with the turbo boost engaged (I think I watched too much Knight Rider), and see what this product actually looks like
Photos:
Unboxing, packaging and accessories:
The packaging – in keeping with the mission statement of the company – is what I would tactfully describe as ‘minimalist’, with all unnecessary bells and whistles stripped away.
There’s a pleasingly comprehensive array of eartips provided, two useful adaptors (a double mono airline adaptor and a 3.5 to 6.3mm adaptor) and a carrying case, which Periodic Audio describe as being ‘sized to fit inside the coin pocket of your favourite jeans’.
Layman1 being the kind of dapper gentleman-about-town who would never be caught dead slumming it in a pair of jeans* was forced to seek out an appropriately attired Everyman from amongst the proletariat in the street and beseech temporary usage of the smallest pocket of his jeans. After explaining the subsequent unfortunate misunderstanding to the very nice policeman who intervened shortly afterwards as I was forced to employ my stout stick, I can now confirm that the tin is indeed pocketable, as well as a most vivid – dare I say ‘bling bling’ - golden colour.
*NB: the entirety of this paragraph may in fact be a work of utter fiction.
The cable here is of an unspecified material, thin, glossy black and springy.
The cable feels fine in daily use and I haven’t noticed any other issues with it.
Unfortunately, the pleasant cable feelings ended at this point.
As my regular readers – hello Head-Fi moderators! – will know, Layman1 is of the opinion that a special place is reserved in hell for those manufacturers with the temerity to supply a cable with 3.5mm SE as the only choice on anything above an entry level product.
Worse still would be the cardinal sin of supplying a non-detachable cable. Could you even imagine someone committing both such atrocities?! Oh, the horror!
Regrettably, Periodic Audio flagrantly disregard such sentiments on their entire IEM line-up and so here we have a $399 IEM with a fixed, non-detachable cable, terminated in 3.5mm SE. I think I can feel my face twitching convulsively, even as my fists clench involuntarily and I tremble with barely-suppressed fury.
I try to be a self-reflective kind of person, especially when faced with something that I feel is inducing rage-face, spleen-ventage and suchlike
So, in fairness to Periodic Audio, they are trying to produce bare bones products where the focus is solely on sound, performance and value for money with all extraneous clap-trap stripped away. Furthermore, they want their IEMs to be able to work on all the most commonly used devices and they engineer them robustly such that mechanical failure should not be an issue (and back this up with the aforementioned warranty).
So, from this perspective, one could argue that the cable configuration here is not an unforgivable act. Still, I really would have liked the option to be able to try out different cable options at home, and certainly to be able to plug the IEMs into the 4.4mm balanced output of my DAP in order to extract a superior performance from them.
Finally, a note about markings. There are no external markings that enable one to determine the left earpiece from the right.
They had what probably seemed like a great idea at the time, of colouring the mesh of the right nozzle red, but I would tactfully suggest that whilst this would be a nice added touch, it cannot be the only such indicator in order for this to be practical and functional on a daily basis. Use of ear tips with built in wax filters immediately negate this functionality, as does the use of the IEMs in anything less than optimal light conditions.
Just poor design choices I feel.
The Fit:
I have now tried a staggering three different IEMs of this cylindrical-barrelled shape and form factor (I think the Flare Audio 2 Pro was the last one) and for some reason they just do not agree with my ear anatomy.
I have tried various tips including my usual go-to options of New Bee foam tips and Sedna Xelastec tips, but I found the foam tips to veil the sound of the IEMs somewhat, reducing soundstage size and separation, whilst making the low end sound somewhat flabby and undefined.
But with the Xelastec tips, I can hear quite significant differences in the sound signature depending on how deeply/tightly they are inserted, and worse still a frequent change in sound signature depending on how my head or jaw are positioned at any one time.
So this has made the review process somewhat challenging, and I trust you will take this into account – as I have – during my impressions.
The flip side of this is that for others, these may well be a perfect fit, with any and all ear tips.
The Sound:
You may or may not be a ‘believer’ of burn-in (or brain burn-in).
I personally feel that with dynamic-driver based IEMs, the burn-in process has an effect on the low-end performance, and with this in mind, I burned in this IEM for around 200 hours. Because I figure that even if I’m wrong, at least I have peace of mind either way, and no-one can later say “oh, but your impressions would have changed if you’d burned them in a bit longer”
I used the Sony WM1A (single-ended output, grr..) for the purposes of this review.
Similarly, I used only the stock cable (grr…).
Let’s take a look at what this all adds up to, sound-wise
Low end:
Good sub-bass extension and what seems like a fairly equal emphasis on sub-bass and mid-bass; perhaps slightly more mid-bass presence, or perhaps it’s just a bit more noticeable on certain tracks? It has a most pleasing amount of impact and rumble.
I hear it as a faster and more accurate bass than that on the Be model, more in balance with the rest of the sound signature. I suppose the only negative is that it subsequently provides less of the meaty and full-bodied sound that I did enjoy on the Be model (and other IEMs), but that’s just a matter of personal preference.
I feel on some tracks that there’s still a bit of that muddiness in the bass that I disliked on the Be, which decreases my enjoyment of the music and veils the vocals somewhat. This seems to occur on songs that are mastered in a more warm, intimate and analogue way. It’s certainly not as pronounced as I was hearing with the Be, but it’s there sometimes.
Mids:
The strings on my regular classical opera test track (Alison Lau’s performance of Handel’s Lascia la spina in 24-96 HDTracks) sounded reasonably rich and with a tasteful amount of body and weight.
Her voice, which soars very high indeed in this song, did not trigger my treble sensitivity, although it did come close at times, certainly much closer than with the Be model.
On Paul Simon’s ‘The Coast’ (again 24-96 HDTracks), the levels of detail highlighted were delightful. The imaging is fantastic, but the weak point of the IEMs here is that the somewhat limited soundstage size and separation fail to do justice to the song (or indeed to the imaging abilities of this IEM!).
On ‘Fast Times at Dropout High’ (by The Ataris, and specifically the alternative version from the ‘Silver Turns to Rust’ album) the opening electric guitar has a fair amount of body and weight. There’s a lot of detail and clarity which make for a great presentation and timbre, but still the bassline somehow conspires to add a slight bit of muddiness to the signature, although that may just be down to the mastering of the track.
Again, I find the vocals to sound slightly recessed on some tracks. I think spatially they are positioned pretty much dead centre, but again, something of that slight veil/muddiness seems to make them sound just slightly hidden in the mix on some tracks. Again, this tends not to be an issue on songs where there’s limited bass presence.
Treble:
This reminds me quite a bit of the Be model.
I hear this as being slightly better and more extended, although with some variability. On songs light on bass activity, it sounds quite extended, with a fair degree of openness and air.
There’s a more sparkle and clarity here too. However, when there’s a solid bass-line in a track that’s mastered warmly or intimately, I do feel these effects to be lessened unfortunately.
Technical Performance:
I found the soundstage size, in all directions, to be just average – or even below average for this price point. That perception is further emphasised on bassy tracks.
Similarly, I felt the layering and separation were acceptable, but nothing praiseworthy stood out to me during all of my critical listening.
Micro detail presentation seemed to be quite good though.
Timbre was a mixed bag; there was a touch of warmth and richness in the mids, which gave a little bit of body to vocals and instruments, but the intimate soundstage and small degree of separation seemed to make the mids and vocals seem a touch recessed and slightly muddy at times.
Conclusion:
This has been a tough IEM for me to review, due to the trouble I’ve had with getting a good fit.
I will be the first to put my hand up and declare that – despite trying various ear tips - I’ve never felt like I had a really secure and stable seal on anything but the foam tips, which unfortunately for me had the effect of exacerbating what I found to be the negative qualities of the IEMs, namely a weakness on warm/bassy/intimately mastered tracks, which sometimes limited the performance of the IEMs.
Conversely, with the Sedna Xelastec tips, I could get various different sound signatures depending on how deeply I inserted them or how tight the seal felt at a given moment.
I’d have flashes where the sound signature would lose it’s bassiness and the soundstage would open up, and other times where it sounded more rich and engaging, but the moment I moved my head, or drank something, it would disappear again.
So it’s been quite a challenge to pin down a concrete description of the sound here.
Overall, based on what I've heard, I’d describe these merely as decent IEMs. They certainly aren’t bad, and for those that enjoy a more intimate sound signature, they offer a pretty solid performance.
I do feel that they outperformed the Be model, for my taste, although I did enjoy the meaty and rich mids on that one.
However at this fairly substantial price point, I can’t say that what I’ve heard is good enough for me to enthusiastically recommend these IEMs at $399, especially when I factor in the non-detachable cable and 3.5mm only connection which I personally feel are simply inappropriate for IEMs at this price point.
On top of all that, there’s the poor functionality in terms of clearly being able to identify which are the left or right earpieces due to the ‘coloured grille’ solution employed here.
As ever though, listening to a demo model prior to purchasing is highly recommended.
I’ve seen several 4.5-star glowing reviews for this IEM, so it seems it’s doing the right things for some people! It could simply be down to fit.
The company talk a good talk on their entertaining website, and it’s nice to see IEMs designed and built in the USA. Conversely though, if their latest IEMs (the Ti and Mg models) have been released since the various reviews of this one, then it perhaps shows a lack of engagement and responsiveness if they are still not employing any kind of external markers to help people to identify the left IEM from the right. Ditto the non-detachable cable and plug choice, but that’s perhaps just a design policy decision from the company that may not change.
So overall, I’d encourage you to give these a listen before buying if possible, if my (or other people’s) reviews have piqued your curiosity. And experiment with different tips
Ok, Christmas is coming (at least, it was at the time I wrote this!) and so it’s time to wrap things up.
See what I did there?
A belated gift of festive jollity for you all, from Layman1. Ho Ho Ho
If my painful attempts at humour haven’t scared you off, I’ll be back in the new year with more reviews. Until then, stay safe and all the best!