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Aful Performer Impressions Thread
Jan 29, 2024 at 3:31 AM Post #481 of 515
The MagicOne and the SnowyNight seems like a good match especially at moderate volume. Sharing my impressions and insights on the upcoming AFUL SnowyNight DAC amp dongle here - https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/aful-snowynight.26989/reviews

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Jan 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM Post #482 of 515
DunninLA said:
how did you find the Quintet as compared to the P5? What tips are you using on each? Have you tried powering either though a simple iphone dongle?
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Here they are side by side.

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Performer 5 is more relaxed and warmer sounding, Quintet has more bite and attack. In the bass, Quintet has more slam and impact. I really like the midrange, it sounds rich and warm yet gives some extra energy to female voices. P5 sounds veiled in comparison. However, the AFUL has smoother treble. When I first auditioned the Quintet (default tips) I noticed an annoying 7 kHz peak. Later I switched to Radius Deep Fit which made it less noticeable. The upper region is exaggerated, though.

The thing about Performer5 is that I can hear the crossover around 2kHz. There is increased distortion and phase shift in that region. Paired with a drop in SPL, it can sometimes annoy me. However, that is something I couldn't hear in the past and I trained my ears with speakers to pick these minor details up. For me, that makes the Quintet the more coherent and technically superior IEM, but I would recommend the Performer5 instead if people prefer warmth.

TL;DR
Pro Quintet:
- energy, speed, attack
- neutral-ish midrange in a balanced tuning (w-shape)

Pro Performer5:
- warmth
- relaxed presentation
- smoother treble
 
Jan 29, 2024 at 9:57 AM Post #483 of 515
Feb 2, 2024 at 3:21 PM Post #485 of 515
DunninLA said:
I have Final E tips on the way, which have a narrower bore than the tips I'm using now, and that might tame that 5k-7k tizziness I hear that I'm trying to EQ out.
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Final E tips, which I consider narrow bore, arrived. I took off the wide bore I've been using for three weeks, put the Final E on, and it was a completely different sound profile. I could listen to these flat, no EQ, with the Final Es.

Now, I think it's important to note that the tips supplied with the P5s are narrow bore, so I should have taken the hint. But, those tips didn't seal for me, and I got no bass, like zero, not sure why. As I recall medium were too large to insert enough for a seal, and small, which are like extra extra small, didn't touch my ear canal at all. Plus the narrow bore tip options from my Simgot MT3 and my Olina SE didn't help. I am using the Final E Medium, though I had the option of SS, S, M, ML and L.

Sounds great now. Tizziness, glare, hotness, whatever you want to call the sound with wide bore tips is gone.

I really think AFUL dropped the ball on their supplied tips. They got the bore right, but not the sizes. What they essentially supplied were SS, ML, and L, if you compare to the sizes supplied with most IEMs. If there had been actual Medium I think i would have found them just fine.
 
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Feb 2, 2024 at 4:31 PM Post #486 of 515
DunninLA said:
Final E tips, which I consider narrow bore, arrived. I took off the wide bore I've been using for three weeks, put the Final E on, and it was a completely different sound profile. I could listen to these flat, no EQ, with the Final Es.

Now, I think it's important to note that the tips supplied with the P5s are narrow bore, so I should have taken the hint. But, those tips didn't seal for me, and I got no bass, like zero, not sure why. As I recall medium were too large to insert enough for a seal, and small, which are like extra extra small, didn't touch my ear canal at all. Plus the narrow bore tip options from my Simgot MT3 and my Olina SE didn't help. I am using the Final E Medium, though I had the option of SS, S, M, ML and L.

Sounds great now. Tizziness, glare, hotness, whatever you want to call the sound with wide bore tips is gone.

I really think AFUL dropped the ball on their supplied tips. They got the bore right, but not the sizes. What they essentially supplied were SS, ML, and L, if you compare to the sizes supplied with most IEMs. If there had been actual Medium I think i would have found them just fine.
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Interesting. If we are pals in real life, I want to have a look at your ears. For me, I always go for the wide bore and short tips to avoid absorbing or “disturbing” high frequencies in anyway. The Type E produces some sort of resonance peak with a few IEMs I have here.

How deep you wear you IEMs also matter, as you already know. To me, sometimes it’s not about the tips, but the depth that it allows me to wear, which in turn shift the resonance peak around.
 
Feb 2, 2024 at 10:11 PM Post #487 of 515
I've had a couple of hours on the Final Es. I'm missing just a little bit of the sparkle (which was way too much with the wide bore tip) that was removed by the Final E. I asked in another thread, but it could be possible that a tip with slightly less narrow opening could restore a little bit of that sparkle. Perhaps a Spinfit W, which I have ordered just now. I need to have a Spinfit anyway, as I was curious about them. Just from visuals, it looks like the spinfit opening is a little wider than the Final Es, and that the AZLA Xelastec opeing might be slightly wider still. No interest in JVC since I already know what true wide bore does on the P5s.
 
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Feb 2, 2024 at 10:20 PM Post #488 of 515
DunninLA said:
I've had a couple of hours on the Final Es. I'm missing just a little bit of the sparkle (which was way too much with the wide bore tip) that was removed by the Final E. I asked in another thread, but it could be possible that a tip with slightly less narrow opening could restore a little bit of that sparkle. Perhaps a Spinfit W, which I have ordered just now. I need to have a Spinfit anyway, as I was curious about them. Just from visuals, it looks like the spinfit opening is a little wider than the Final Es, and that the AZLA Xelastec opeing might be slightly wider still. No interest in JVC since I already know what true wide bore does on the P5s.
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Can confirm that W1 is a bit wider than type E, and xelastic is wider than most.

For long and thin nozzles like AFUL and 64 audio IEMs, I prefer wide and short tips so that the opening of the nozzles fit deeper in the ear canals. 64 audio IEMs would punish you with sizzling 10-12kHz if you opt for a shallow fit, for example. To fit deeper, you need smaller ear tips that can contort to your ear canals. My current preference is small W1 tips.
 
Feb 2, 2024 at 10:36 PM Post #489 of 515
o0genesis0o said:
Can confirm that W1 is a bit wider than type E, and xelastic is wider than most.

For long and thin nozzles like AFUL and 64 audio IEMs, I prefer wide and short tips so that the opening of the nozzles fit deeper in the ear canals. 64 audio IEMs would punish you with sizzling 10-12kHz if you opt for a shallow fit, for example. To fit deeper, you need smaller ear tips that can contort to your ear canals. My current preference is small W1 tips.
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I'll post back here when my W1 arrive in two days. I might prefer the Final E, or the W1, who knows.
 
Feb 3, 2024 at 11:33 AM Post #491 of 515
fabio19 said:
Are you talking about Aful 14 ?
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is the what they renamed to Cantor? The new flagship? Was wondering what happened to that.
 
Feb 3, 2024 at 12:37 PM Post #493 of 515
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