I did a little comparison between the Lyra and Jupiter. The caveat here is that I have been listening to the Jupiter for only about a week so I'm sure I will get better impressions once I get to hear it long-term. I have had the Lyra since back last summer.
I won't get into the semantics between dynamic vs BA, just looking at sound delivery and musicality. The sources I am using are a DX80 as a portable and MBP through Bimby and Lyr 2. Mostly FLAC/ALAC, 16/48 to 24/192 files used.
I may get poetic here so be patient. Also cables haters can stop now.
The Lyra reminds me of a warm blanket on a cold rainy day. Very lush and warm sounding with great extensions in the lower mids and bass areas. The highs suffered a little but a pure silver Therium cable from Norne Audio cured that and added some decent separation and clarity that it needed. Also replaced the Tinsel wire as it was somewhat unforgiving in that it would not behave even just sitting and was very microphonic. Loved the bass and weight to the lower mids. Very nicely transitioned and was always warm, not boomy. Vocals were equally warm and very smooth. Once the new cable was added, the highs were nice and never fatiguing.
The Jupiter is a totally different animal. To call it analytic or 'reference' is doing it it a dis-service. While it does provide a very strong mid range, it is not analytical as the HD700/800 can be. Let me explain. I found the presence of the mids exciting. I could hear things that were masked from other phones. Pronounced small details came through. Keith Jarrett's odd little mumblings were now clear. Miles Davis' breaths in between were audible. Chris Isaak's timbre is as sultry as his lyrics. Bill Evans' finger movements on the keys were there. These things are usually overshadowed by other bass or treble rich phones. Sometimes just masked due to overcrowding frequencies. The Jupiter brought these right up front. So the 'analytical' part of these is actually the revealing characteristic that comes off very nicely done (see what I did there?). It is never fatiguing and never too much in your face. There is a very nice balance between a healthy treble and decent bass. Coming from the warmth of the Lyra, I do at times miss that rich buttery bass. I just ordered a nice cable for Trevor again to see if it can add some of the lower warmth without sacrificing that wonderful mid-range detail. Instrumentation and placement are spot on. Sound stage is wide but not as tall as I would like. Maybe the new cable may add that 0.5 % that will help.
OK. I went very deep into some flowery descriptions, but just wanted you to see what kind of emotion these can evoke. I can't say one is better than the other, just different in what they present. I am glad that I have both. I get to chose the tool that suits my mood. I do own another BA driver, the Cypher Labs C6IEM. While it does approach what the Jupiter delivers, it falls a little short. It is not as focused on the mids as the the Jupiter, it is more about the lower mids/bass. It was a little dull on top but again, that silver Therium cable from Trevor really woke that area up and made it a really nice piece.
Sorry for the long-winded rambling. I just love what Ken has done here and praise him for bringing together a wonderful couple of IEMs that are sure to stay with me for a long time. I would have gone for the Andromeda but the wife got me the Jupiter for my birthday recently so I cannot complain. Maybe in the future, I'll sell some more stuff to see what the Andromeda can do...
Cheers
