[d m41n man]

New Performer 8 owner here. 4.4 mm balanced cable. They landed today.

Firstly, these are the first pair of iem’s that I have ever owned or used. On opening the box, my first impression was how small the ear pieces looked. However, they look like sparkling jewels. I have to say that they are absolutely beautiful in my opinion and the workmanship is first class.

They already have a pair of blue/red tips fitted (not sure what size these are) and there are additional blue/red tips in a small plastic bag enclosed together with the standard tips in the box.

On inserting them into my ears, they fit okay as far as I’m aware. I would say I have small/medium sized ears and the face plates are almost flush with my outer ears. I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to push them in but I’m winging it here a little.

I’m driving them with a Shanling M6 Ultra (approx 30 hours playing on the DAP so far)

Have been listening now for approximately 2 hours straight out of the box.

Volume around 16-22 so far on Low gain setting. Sounds loud enough, I obviously don’t want to damage my ears.

First sound impressions on a few albums and tracks I know well:

Led Zeppelin II 96kHz 24Bit - Vocals are great, very accurate imo. Drums are mostly okay, guitars are fantastic. Sometimes a passage can sound congested but it could be the mastering/recording. However on some tracks the drums and hi hats sound excellent, stereo image is great. Cymbals really good. I’m enjoying the album as a whole. Nice tone/timbre to the drum skins too. (Hope my expressions are correct here)

Chet Baker Quartet, No Problem 44.1 kHz 16Bit - wonderful sound to all instruments and very accurate sounding imo. Great tone to the instruments. Chet really sounding great here. I can hear straight away the P8 will excel with Jazz.

Richard Tunnicliffe, Bach Cello Suites 192 kHz 24Bit - Stunning straight out of the gate! The bow moving across the strings is wonderful. Real bass in the cello and excellent reverb coming across. Very accurate cello imo. Can’t wait to listen to the whole album now.

Diana Krall, Turn Up The Quiet 44.1 kHz 16Bit - vocals immediately good as are all the instruments been played. Excellent double bass, guitar and piano. I’d say good weight to the notes here. Her delicacy in the vocal here is really impressive. Note decay also great imo.

So to sum up, my ears don’t hurt yet and the music sounds good so far. So maybe I have them inserted correctly. Looking forward to many hours/days listening to this rig and listening to the genres/artists I like. Mostly Classical, Acoustic, Rock, Jazz and Pop.

I assume the Performer 8 needs many hours of burn in so I’m not experiencing how it will eventually sound yet. However, I already don’t want to stop listening.

I’ll report back in a week or so to see if I made the right decision with my first IEM.

Congratulations! Lovin' my set as well. Smooth sounding but still with good treble sparkle and extension. Just to ask though is your box/package have chinese version printing in the front since you got the 4.4mm version?

 

[AntonD]

Congratulations! Lovin' my set as well. Smooth sounding but still with good treble sparkle and extension. Just to ask though is your box/package have chinese version printing in the front since you got the 4.4mm version?

Hi, the packaging is English on the front slip cover. The card in the box states “July 23” so I think very recent pair from factory.

Just listening to Led Zep I 96kHz 24Bit version. Wow, I know this album very well and it gets plenty of time on my hifi which is very resolving.
On the P8 and M6U rig, it sounds excellent!
Really good guitar, drums, bass and of course vocal. I’m really impressed.

 

[AntonD]

Does anyone have more details on the upcoming Cantor flagship model?
What kind of tuning can we expect?
Any price details yet?
Thanks

 

[d m41n man]

Does anyone have more details on the upcoming Cantor flagship model?
What kind of tuning can we expect?
Any price details yet?
Thanks

It seems that they're doing final tunings to the productiom based on feedback from both Canjam UK and Canjam SoCal. Though it also looks like the MagicOne is on target for a November 2023 release.

 

[AntonD]

It seems that they're doing final tunings to the productiom based on feedback from both Canjam UK and Canjam SoCal. Though it also looks like the MagicOne is on target for a November 2023 release.

I’m going to try and make CanJam London next year if the date is good for me. Seems to be lots of new gear to see/hear

 

[HuoYuanJia]

My god, Gizaudio is hyping the Aful Performer 5 too much… I just had to order one.

I love neutral IEMs, the Softears RS10 almost killed the hobby for me. To this day, it‘s the best* I‘ve heard. (*Best as in technically most transparent and accurate, e.g. comparable to near-field studio monitors.) I‘ve tried a bunch of hyped up IEMs at Singapore in April and in Japan 2 weeks ago, but as a reference IEM - I haven‘t found anything better yet. (ThieAudio V16 sounded interesting, less mid-focussed, one that I‘d check out again in the future.)

But to not lose interest in the hobby, I decided to buy a new „fun“-tuned IEM. The Kiwi Ears Quintet (though having very heavy bass) impressed me a lot for the price. I now took a gamble and ordered the P5 instead, due to Gizaudio recommending it over and over again. Let‘s see…

 

[d m41n man]

A somewhat musical Etymotic with some subbass and without the ear-rape? Yes to MagicOne -

 

[jasonb]

A somewhat musical Etymotic with some subbass and without the ear-rape? Yes to MagicOne -

Do you have any Etymotic IEM’s to compare it too?

 

[d m41n man]

Do you have any Etymotic IEM’s to compare it too?

Both with the Etymotic ER2SE and ER4XR, being more neutral, close and intimate in presentation. Needs for deep insertion as well hence creating that feeling of listening to near field monitors. The MagicOne has that similar presentation but with smoothness and having that extra subbass decay making it more of a pleasant listen.

 

[Japz77]

Currently running these with the BTR7. Changed cables because I prefer thinner cables. Compared to the previous single BAs owned: Westone um pro 1, Etymotic ER3SE, ER3XR, ER4XR. This has the best mids (ER4XR comes close but these sound more open). The magicones though sound best at mid volume up so its not for low level listening.

 

[jmwant]

There's some good deal going on for the p5

 

[GlenAppleton]

There's some good deal going on for the p5

Amazon has the P5 on sale as well, and I picked them up this week. They sound pretty amazing!

 

[jmwant]

Amazon has the P5 on sale as well, and I picked them up this week. They sound pretty amazing!

The P8 is also an amazing IEM, undoubtedly better but at a considerably higher price.

 

[GlenAppleton]

The P8 is also an amazing IEM, undoubtedly better but at a considerably higher price.

Of that, I have little doubt. If it has a decent sale sometime next year, I'll probably grab that one too.

 

[jmwant]

Of that, I have little doubt. If it has a decent sale sometime next year, I'll probably grab that one too.

That's also my plan, maybe these will be on sale when the P10 comes hehe.