QDC Anole VX Standard

About myself:
Audio enthusiastic over 20year+ with headphones/earphones/IEM/DAP, initially motivated by Sennheiser/AKG.

After spending a decade with full-size headphones, home audio speakers, I shifted my main listening environment to IEM (100+ personal inventories ) and on mobile, car audio (from Lexus’s Mark Levision system to Mercedes AMG’s Burmester System)

Sound Impression:
At the beginning I wasn’t so impressed, the sound was a bit off tone and foggy. Then I noticed it was my sealing problem & high impedance mode on the DAP. After some try&errors, here is my take:

-Non-exhausting yet sovereign technicalities , a philosophy of subtractions, I found Asian beauty within

-crazy high coherence, be it sound coordination, focusing, vector and momentum, dynamic range presentation. Layering and texturing, hard to imagine this is 10 driver package!

-out of head presentation, as far as I know only IEM could do this besides VX is Mest MKII and Softears RSV, VX handles it better

I can’t imagine how qdc managed to balance this pleasant tuning vs technicalities. Usually tonality and technicalities trades off, not the case for Anole VX.

My guess is reduced 6k concha gain and some dip on third harmonics of pinna gain around 12-13khz that makes the tonality very pleasant.

Impression after 2 years with VX:

If you further push VX with V-tuned cable, although it will divert VX away from its neutral L shaped tuning (the DUNU Studio SA6 copied this as a mini-VX), surely VX doesn’t have latest toy Sonion EST, but it has higher layering and articulating capabilities than, say Monarch.

The bass also with stock tuning does sound rather normal BA one, but once you matched a good amp and proper cable with wide bore and bass resonating ear tips (CP360, UC, M1), you will notice BA bass can knock your head just like those LCP/Planar dynamic ones.

VS DUNU Studio SA6:
Tonality wise both are tuned almost same, VX has a tad more impact for bass than SA6.
How ever when it comes to resolution and technical aspect, VX and SA6 belongs to different domain.

I love both IEMs, and have both as my personal IEMs. But in my honest opinion, SA6 and VX are two completely different IEMs.

- SA6 is “sophisticatedly tuned great sounding IEM good for all genre daily use IEM”, if representing SA6 as a car, I would like to address it as Porsche 911 Turbo S with state of the art V6 turbo engine.

- Anole VX is “tuned by genius, harp like beautifully sounding luxurious beast, with another dimension level of detail articulation, finesse presentation, it totally scales depending on who/what drives the VX”, if I was asked to address Anole VX

Lamborghini Sesto Elemento (V10)​

Both IEM and their Car avatar shares similarities (not edgy, smooth, nicely designed), but at the bottom line VX and SA6 is two different ones. SA6 is a supercar, and VX is a hypercar.

Scalability:
Yes, VX’s potential is hard to reach, the better DAP/audio source, recording quality you have the better illustration VX renders, especially VX renders dynamic range very well.

I thought L&P W2 is a good enough DAC to play with most of IEMs, but VX tells “No. the imaging is flat on W2”, so whether thats good or bad, VX is spec-hungry.

Final Thoughts:
-best tonal balance between analytical and musical
-spec beast that requires the better and better DAP/Source, it’s highly scalable
-if you are not planning to invest in DAP/Sourcing environment, SA6 ($around 5-600USD) shall handle the job, SA6 has bass-lower mid boosting EQ switch

-if you are looking a budget option of VX, Tri Starsea(around $100USD) is a little spiced up version of VX with 2 EQ switches, a baby-VX

Thanks to Concept Kart (https://conceptkart.com) for the review tour. ​

​

The unit arrived in the iem case with what looks like a silver and copper hybrid cable, with the typical qdc tips (spinfits cp100 I think). It is available at the Concept Kart site (https://conceptkart.com/.../qdc-anole-vx-standard-wired-iem)

FIT AND BUILD​

The QDC Anole VX is built like a piece of jewellery. Lots of silver specles in a clear shell, that looks very nice when worn. It brings in the bling very well. Those looking for an understated appearance, use masking tape
The shell is very nicely sized and shaped. It is very light weight and fits comfortably for me, carrying forward the good fit trend across the QDC lineup.
The review unit came with the CP100 (like?) tips in the M size. It fits me well again, and is the preferred choise of tips for the QDC range.
The cable is soft and pliable, with gold plated 2 pin connector at the earpiece end. It came with the standard 3.5mm SE termination.
The VX comes with 10 BA drivers with the crossovers expertly tuned by the engineering team and is the highlight. The VX was the previous flagship of QDC and has its name origins in the VX gas which is a very powerful nerve poison used in the military.

TUNEABILITY​

The Anole VX features 3 switches for the Low, Mids and High frequency emphasis and work to enhance the respective areas. The switches work well and allow for various combinations to tweak the sound. I preferred to keep them off for the rest of the review (purely personal sound preference, as the switches do impact the sound well)
Out of the box, the iem is almost W shaped, with near perfect mids. There is bass as well as treble extension as expected from a former TOTL.

DRIVEABILITY​

The VX is a fairly easy to drive iem, but requires a little bit more drive than say the Gemini.

SOURCE​

People who have been reading my reviews know that I prefer a lot of portable and accessible options for selection of source. Since the iem does not require much power to drive, I selected the LG V30+ with Tidal and the AK PEE51 dac with Qobuz, Tidal and Youtube Premium as sources.
Sensitivity : 110-113dB SPL/mW
Frequency response :10Hz-20000Hz
Impedance:15-19Ω
Track selection
I used the following tracks for this review.
TR1> Ecstasy of Gold from The Good Bad and Ugly - Yo-Yo Ma (https://tidal.com/browse/track/18016422)
This track has some very fast violin/cello reproducing the legendary Good Bad and Ugly's Ecstasy of Gold, with additional embellishments from violin, trumpet etc, with a light percussion track. This is a busy track with a lot of transitions, instruments and space.
Impressions - The AnoleVX aced the speed test. Right from the word go, the violin stands out in front, with the other instruments layered at the back. The space is wide in front. The timbre of the violin comes through authoritatively. The AnoleVX breezes through the track, handling speed and transients effortlessly. There is a little bit of a bass support that makes the iem feel a bit warmish. The trumpets are layered in the center, a little behind the violin.
TR2> Why so Serious - Hans Zimmer - The Dark Knight OST (https://tidal.com/browse/track/1855831)
This is one track that keeps getting more and more intense, with a decently paced build up, the metallic droning sets this mood for the track from the workd go, with clock like sound and shepard's frequencies adding to tension.
Impressions - The droning starts from the beginning, increasing in frequency through the first minute. The droning has a lot of texture, and puts the listener in a state of suspence. The violins then take theme forward with a a more bassier plucked string, with a chorus of instruments translating the urgency in the track. The clock ticks like percussion and the thumping chorus then envelopes the user. Following it is more bassy metallic droning/drumming, with a lot of detail pickup in the AnoleVX. Incredible resolution. There is a bass rumble at near infrasonic frequencies from 3:29. The rumble is felt. No need for fancy bone conduction drivers or anything else. This is addicting. The subbass is in the background, with some more sticks on a metal tube of some sort, some foot steps and metallic sawing, before the percussion again comes back with the bass. So much happening, and the Anole presents the details wonderfully. The fantastic score by Hans Zimmer, makes you as tense as watching the movie, and is presented with all the details in a wonderful manner. I thoroughly enjoyed this track on the iems. There is speed, decay, very minor details (minor welding like sounds around the 6:40 mark, until about 7:13. You know the ominus and full blown chorus is coming. What a buildup by Hans! The bangs feel like gunshots proper, and feels like it. The clock ticks around the extreme left and right of the listener towards the end of the track indicates the soundspace and width! What a track! Take a bow Sir Hans, and Qdc
TR3> Speak to me & Breathe(Live in Gdansk) - David Gilmour - (https://open.qobuz.com/track/47026334, https://open.qobuz.com/track/47026335)
This is a track that opens the Live in Gdansk performance by David Gilmour. These tracks put you right in the centre of a phenomenal live performance by Gilmour and the band, playing the ever popular PF numbers.
Impressions - Right from the first claps to the roar of the crowd puts you right at the centre of the stadium. The energy and noise can be felt and positioned very well. This then transistions into the songs themselves, with Gilmour at the centre right of the stage. The drums and chorus are layered behind, with a wide presentation. Full marks to QDC!
TR4> Gaddar - Bloodywood (https://open.qobuz.com/track/133134251)
This is an intense heavy metal (nu-metal) track from the debut album by Bloodywood. This features heavy distortion, lots of screaming and energy. I use this track to test the ability to handle lots of instruments, brightness handling and cohesion of the iems. The benchmark for listening to this track is through the IER-Z1R. Most other iems and headphones sound a bit bright with this track.
Impressions - For this track, I enabled the bass boost on the iem. The iem feels a bit bright, due to its treble extension. The distortion guitars do sound a little faded on the treble, and having a lot of brightness on the track. Detail retrieval is very good, and a lot of the drum percussion coming through strong. I have found a few single DD iems or ones with DD handle this track a little better than most all BA iems. There is no sibilance however.

COMPARISONS​

Vs QDC Gemini
The QDC Gemini has been my reference for a perfectly implemented iem. The Anole VX, especially with all the switches off, sounds very similar to the Gemini. The fit is near identical too. The Anole has a slight extension and detail retrieval, when compared to the Gemini. The AnoleVX feels like a nice improvement in those areas. The switch on the Gemini allowed for adjustment to the sound without removal of the iems from the ears. The VX requires a supplied tool (behind the cleaning brush) to make signature changes.
Vs Sony IER-Z1R
The Z1R is tonally very different when compared to the AnoleVX. It sounds like a headphone with insane scaleup with amping (and requires amping). The AnoleVX is relatively easier to drive and does almost all frequencies right, on well recorded high bitrate songs. It does show out a poor track or source very quickly. The Z1R makes even poorly recorded tracks fairly well and is a lot more forgiving.
Vs Vision Ears VE7
The Vision Ears VE7 is the best comparable iems in the VE stable around the same pricepoint as the QDC. Both iems share the tonality, speed, cohesion and clarity near equally. One area where the QDC edges out the VE7 is the layering and stage, where there is a lot more depth cues than the VE7. I will be happy with both iems in my collection . Nothing much to differentiate the two well made and well fitting iems.
Vs 64Audio Nio
The Nio is a fantastic offering at a slightly lower list price than the QDC. It comes with tunable Apex modules instead of switches, with the M20 module sounding the best and most fun. The Nio is a more V shaped iem, with excellent subbass and V signature. The detail retrieval and extension of the Anole is better than the Nio, with Nio adding in a lot of fun factor without losing out on either resolution or soundstage.

CONCLUSION​

QDC Anole VX is one of the best resolving iems, with a very coherent sound. It has great air and space representation on an all BA iem. Some of the very best, if you provide it quality sound.