Advar worth it over Blessing 2?

[BatBoyP]

The title says it all. I haven't listened to either, but I'm looking for a fairly balanced sound. If V-shaped, then more subtle is better. The Meze Advar is getting rave reviews. Is it worth 2x the price of the Moondrop Blessing 2?

 

[GrBm]

What other IEMs/headphones do you have? Or a decent well implemented home or car stereo? It’ll more or less come down to what you have to compare it to/whether or not you’d notice/appreciate an improvement over the Blessing.

If you were coming from AirPods and a boombox/stock car system (I’m assuming that isn’t you, but,…) there’d be no point getting something much better than the blessing at this point.

Edit: the Blessings are notorious for their wide nozzle being a fit issue for some, so there’s that.

 

[BatBoyP]

What other IEMs/headphones do you have? Or a decent well implemented home or car stereo? It’ll more or less come down to what you have to compare it to/whether or not you’d notice/appreciate an improvement over the Blessing.

If you were coming from AirPods and a boombox/stock car system (I’m assuming that isn’t you, but,…) there’d be no point getting something much better than the blessing at this point.

Edit: the Blessings are notorious for their wide nozzle being a fit issue for some, so there’s that.

I currently don't have IEMs, but I have an Audeze LCD-2 Closed Back which is great, but much too large to travel with. I picked it over an Aeon Noire after a lengthy comparison because it's much more neutral in the bass and the soundstage is much wider. As for speakers, I usually work with my studio monitors (DMax Super Cubes 5 - extremely linear). I would be using the IEMs more for listening to music than for production, so while I would appreciate a more linear sound over a V shape, it doesn't need to be horizon flat.

 

[o0genesis0o]

It depends a great deal on what you want and how you index different aspects of an IEM. Personally, I prefer Advar by a wide margin comparing to Blessing 2 because it is more resolving across the spectrum, and it projects a soundstage with more height, depth, and layering than Blessing 2. Advar also does micro dynamic very well, making piano solos like Goldberg Variations a treat. Whether these aspects matter to you is a different story.

I have some comparisons with Blessing 2 in my Advar review.

 

[BatBoyP]

Thanks for your summary here and your link to the review. Looking at the graphs, the bass would be more pronounced on the Advar, and then there's the 6-8K peak. I was going to say I'd pick a Blessing 2. But then this little thing happened. I know of exactly one shop in Europe that had it, but they ran out of stock. On Amazon, you can buy it directly at €320 from Shenzen. But in the customer questions, they state explicitely that there will be around €300 import tax (!). Which makes it the price of the Advar. I guess the choice was made for me then...

 

[GrBm]

Advar also does micro dynamic very well, making piano solos like Goldberg Variations a
treat. Whether these aspects matter to you is a different story.

And here I thought I was done buying IEMs. Ah well. At least I have nieces and nephews to give excess gear to. That’s a semi joke but I still don’t have IEMs that play back Winterreise etc. as well as I’d like.

Congratulations on that import tax issue, the perfect excuse not to worry about cost benefit. If it’s at all possible I’d suggest demoing IEMs before buying (isn’t an option where I live). Especially the ThieAudio Oracle would be worth looking into, but it’s one of those you have to demo or you might end up with something that won’t fit in your ear.

Don’t underestimate how much fit is a factor. I use my Clairvoyance over the Nio most of the time purely because they fit perfectly despite the fact that I like the latter much more sonically.

 

[BatBoyP]

And here I thought I was done buying IEMs. Ah well. At least I have nieces and nephews to give excess gear to. That’s a semi joke but I still don’t have IEMs that play back Winterreise etc. as well as I’d like.

Congratulations on that import tax issue, the perfect excuse not to worry about cost benefit. If it’s at all possible I’d suggest demoing IEMs before buying (isn’t an option where I live). Especially the ThieAudio Oracle would be worth looking into, but it’s one of those you have to demo or you might end up with something that won’t fit in your ear.

Don’t underestimate how much fit is a factor. I use my Clairvoyance over the Nio most of the time purely because they fit perfectly despite the fact that I like the latter much more sonically.

I am in no position to try out any IEMs here in Belgium. I don't know of any shop who carries them where I can demo them. Best guess is read a lot, then buy blind. Still, everything I read about the Advar sounds good, and the Bach reference is important to me as I listen to classical a lot.

oOgenesisOo mentions in his review that wider tips work better against the treble peak. I'm kinda fascinated by that but I'm not finding too much on the shops where I'd buy the Advar from. Are i-Planet Memory Foam tips any good? They also have Comply Isolation/TrueGrip "for XYZ IEM" and Audeze Groovy.

 

[o0genesis0o]

I just have a chat with another review who is also writing about Advar. He mentioned that Advar is too small that fit can be tricky for him sometimes. If the fit is not right, the whole lower frequency range would drop and you will hear only treble peak. Personally, I found Advar locking to my ears like an old school Shure or Westone IEM.

For me, switching away from Final ear tips reduces the peakiness of the mid treble. Most of the time, the mid treble is not troublesome. Only when I listen to some flute or piccolo concerti by Vivaldi when the treble might become too much. However, if you can EQ, fixing is easy because the peak is right at 8k.

Edit: another approach is physically mod the Advar by putting micropore tape on the nozzle. 1 minute fix that is harmless and reversible. You can dampen the entire upper frequency range.

 

[BatBoyP]

Thanks for your help, Genesis. I just ordered the Advar with a Go Bar. I also ordered a pure copper only (no silver anywhere) XINHS balanced 4,4mm cable on AliExpress, which could help smoothing out the mid treble. And then there's the micropore tape hack as well. So I have no worries that I'll love it to death. I prefer not using EQ as I also work with headphones directly into a synth where I cannot apply the EQ. That would mean a difference between producing the music, then listening back to it afterwards, which is quite undesirable.

 

[GrBm]

If you have issues with resonance peaks like genesis was talking about you can experiment with insertion depths, the deeper the higher the peak’s frequency will be. And tips do make a difference. But I wouldn’t worry too much about that until you have the IEMs. But if it comes to it it would probably be a good idea to try some foam tips, the longer the better. And, Moondrop’s Spring tips are supposedly designed to reduce treble peaks. But finding them in the EU might be problematic. However, this is all hypothetical at this point as there’s a good chance peaks won’t be an issue.