Gotta chase that diminishing return with big amp
After plenty A/B tests, I can say with confidence that these IEMs are as resolving, nuanced, with as accurate imaging as my U12t, beating everything else I have on those aspects. The soundstage is not as vast as U12t when listening to large orchestral music, so there is space for improvement. The bass quality is high-end. It’s fast, bouncy, detailed, and can slam when the music calls for. I wishes for a bit more quantity of that good bass, though.
Tonality wise, this is not a Harman-inspired IEM that is thin and sharp to intensify the impression of resolution. It is tuned closed to U12t with
MX M15 module. The treble quantity is closer to Tia Fourte and MEST II. The first time I put these P8 in my ears after days of listening solely to Meteor, my impression was "ouch, these have treble". The midrange is brought forward, which is good for most vocal music, but does reduce the illusion of space with orchestral music. This is the key difference comparing to my U12t. The edginess of upper midrange is minimised thanks to minimal ear-gain at only 8dB.
Soundstage is an interesting aspect of these IEM. I find the soundstage to be able to expand far into the surrounding environment, thanks to the treble extension. It means that when I listen to an orchestral soundtrack, the elements that are supposed to be in the background would sound like they come from further away, in the background, with a clear contrast to the bulk of the actions happening at the centre of the stage. This illusion gives soundstage uncanny sense of 3D and depth that only a few IEM with high-end treble performance can do. However, most of the soundstage is tightly focused around the centre, likely due to the tuning that pushes the 800Hz to 2kHz forward. Therefore, when I listen to a large orchestral piece, I find the orchestra to be more tightly packed around the centre of the stage rather than being distributed across the soundstage like, say, how U12T or Andromeda 2020 handle the staging. From this angle, I can totally understand the complaints about the lack of depth of P8.
Imaging accuracy, however, is outstanding. Left-right, front-back, higher-lower, everything is done very. It works like a radar in FPS game like CSGO. For example, the sound does not simply comes from the left. I can easily distinguish left-front and left-back. When teammate runs around the back, I can track them as they run from right-back to left-back to left, to front.
In summary, if you judge an IEM first and foremost by its “technical performance” like me, this IEM breaks the value scale
.
