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Z1R sounds nothing like it, and M9 (which I personally prefer despite less technicalities) are also quite different
Aminus hates everything (Or, Aminus rants and reviews stuff)
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mvvRAZ
Headphoneus Supremus
I generally hate V-shaped curves, but from the stuff I own and have listened to, the Z1R has one of the best midranges in the industry - in terms of quality alone at least, note weight and so on. It isn't as much in quantity, but it's certainly up there in quality
Personal recommendation for a mid-centric IEM is easily the Elysium though
I’d argue you kind of lose bass texture going to M9. In the very best case you won’t gain any.
As for where to go for a direct upgrade, I’m not sure. The main difficulty will be finding a single DD or hybrid with a similar tonality. A potential option is EX1K, depending on ability to tolerate treble peaks. Or Minor, if you’re able to tolerate just a straight up bright IEM in general. FDX1 is a good option in the opposite direction (slightly dark) but you won’t really get any sparkle. In audio there are few true direct upgrades, and inevitably something has to be compromised to an extent.
ikko OH7:
ikko are a bit of a weird brand. Well, weird as of late, anyways. They started out with the OH1 and OH10, two fairly decent midfi IEMs for the price. Then there was that dongle which got what seems to be a bit of a mixed reception, and suddenly they hit us over the head with this thing. A 90ohm single DD IEM running at about a grand. Jeez. Not sure what to think of the sudden change in pace.
The bass on the OH7 is thick and midbassy. It’s heavy both tonally and in transients; decay is slow to the point of mushiness. Bass guitars and kickdrums get confused and muddled pretty much all the time, and bass texture is really not very good. I’m really surprised by this sudden deviation from their house sound, which was previously characterized by strong subbass emphasis and little to no midbass bloat. There is quite a surprising amount of slam here, which does complement its midbass heavy response nicely. But I honestly find this much bass beyond excessive and bloated, and people usually find my preference in bass to be too much. I’ll let that speak for itself.
The midrange on the OH7 is similarly thick to its bass. The whole thing sounds kind of bloated and overly dense, which is surprising given ikko’s previous models being tuned to a more upper mid slanted signature. In comparison to the tasteful V-shape and slightly recessed lower mids of the OH1 and the OH10, this feels like it needs to cut down on the lower mids. Quite unusually however, the upper midrange here is not necessarily recessed. It’s fully capable of being shrill when called for (not a bad thing, by the way. I’d call it being faithful to the recording), which indicates to me that it's not sucked out in the upper mids. It’s just... bloated. Sludgy. Dense. I would say it’s a matter of there being too much lower midrange bleed, rather than a recessed upper midrange or lack of pinna comp.
The treble response on here is near indescribable. I unfortunately did not measure this IEM, but I’d be willing to guess that it looks like a pit of spikes past 4khz. At times I want to call it lower-mid treble focused due to the tonality, but it has basically no stick impact. Calling it mid treble focused would be inaccurate as well, because cymbal crash is recessed and muffled here. And there’s also a peak somewhere past 10khz which manifests itself as a slight zing and sharpness at times which just adds to the confusing and uneven sound of this IEM. It might be the strangest treble response I have ever heard, because it somehow swerves between sounding like it has no treble and sounding like its treble is too harsh. What a mess.
In terms of intangibles, the OH7 is really not that great. Whatever detail retrieval it has is often smushed over by just how bloated the overall sound is, as well as how sludgy the transients are. Calling it congested would be a disservice, a wall of sound is more accurate. There’s also really not much to say regarding stage (within the shell, as is typical), dynamics (compressed), imaging (blurry and fuzzy) or timbre (smeared). An attentive reader might note I said something very similar about the A8000, and that’s not an inaccurate assessment of both IEMs at once. Both are bizarrely tuned single DDs that don’t really do anything right intangibly to make up for their misgivings.
I really don’t know. I’ve expressed a few times that I’d really love to see the limits of single DD engineering be pushed, but between this and the A8000, it simply isn’t there. The basic stuff, tonality, is all wrong. Nevermind intangibles, which are much, much harder to nail. This is not a tia Fourte situation where I find myself lamenting the tonality because the technical chops are that good. This is a situation where, well, nothing is good. I don’t see much of a difference between this or the tribrid craze of the last year. It’s all just incompetent design trying to obscure itself through marketing gimmickry.
All listening was done out of the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.
It’s all so tiresome.
Score: 3/10
ikko are a bit of a weird brand. Well, weird as of late, anyways. They started out with the OH1 and OH10, two fairly decent midfi IEMs for the price. Then there was that dongle which got what seems to be a bit of a mixed reception, and suddenly they hit us over the head with this thing. A 90ohm single DD IEM running at about a grand. Jeez. Not sure what to think of the sudden change in pace.
The bass on the OH7 is thick and midbassy. It’s heavy both tonally and in transients; decay is slow to the point of mushiness. Bass guitars and kickdrums get confused and muddled pretty much all the time, and bass texture is really not very good. I’m really surprised by this sudden deviation from their house sound, which was previously characterized by strong subbass emphasis and little to no midbass bloat. There is quite a surprising amount of slam here, which does complement its midbass heavy response nicely. But I honestly find this much bass beyond excessive and bloated, and people usually find my preference in bass to be too much. I’ll let that speak for itself.
The midrange on the OH7 is similarly thick to its bass. The whole thing sounds kind of bloated and overly dense, which is surprising given ikko’s previous models being tuned to a more upper mid slanted signature. In comparison to the tasteful V-shape and slightly recessed lower mids of the OH1 and the OH10, this feels like it needs to cut down on the lower mids. Quite unusually however, the upper midrange here is not necessarily recessed. It’s fully capable of being shrill when called for (not a bad thing, by the way. I’d call it being faithful to the recording), which indicates to me that it's not sucked out in the upper mids. It’s just... bloated. Sludgy. Dense. I would say it’s a matter of there being too much lower midrange bleed, rather than a recessed upper midrange or lack of pinna comp.
The treble response on here is near indescribable. I unfortunately did not measure this IEM, but I’d be willing to guess that it looks like a pit of spikes past 4khz. At times I want to call it lower-mid treble focused due to the tonality, but it has basically no stick impact. Calling it mid treble focused would be inaccurate as well, because cymbal crash is recessed and muffled here. And there’s also a peak somewhere past 10khz which manifests itself as a slight zing and sharpness at times which just adds to the confusing and uneven sound of this IEM. It might be the strangest treble response I have ever heard, because it somehow swerves between sounding like it has no treble and sounding like its treble is too harsh. What a mess.
In terms of intangibles, the OH7 is really not that great. Whatever detail retrieval it has is often smushed over by just how bloated the overall sound is, as well as how sludgy the transients are. Calling it congested would be a disservice, a wall of sound is more accurate. There’s also really not much to say regarding stage (within the shell, as is typical), dynamics (compressed), imaging (blurry and fuzzy) or timbre (smeared). An attentive reader might note I said something very similar about the A8000, and that’s not an inaccurate assessment of both IEMs at once. Both are bizarrely tuned single DDs that don’t really do anything right intangibly to make up for their misgivings.
I really don’t know. I’ve expressed a few times that I’d really love to see the limits of single DD engineering be pushed, but between this and the A8000, it simply isn’t there. The basic stuff, tonality, is all wrong. Nevermind intangibles, which are much, much harder to nail. This is not a tia Fourte situation where I find myself lamenting the tonality because the technical chops are that good. This is a situation where, well, nothing is good. I don’t see much of a difference between this or the tribrid craze of the last year. It’s all just incompetent design trying to obscure itself through marketing gimmickry.
All listening was done out of the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.
It’s all so tiresome.
Score: 3/10
Ollie the bear
100+ Head-Fier
Read your post, then gave my ex1k a little wink
So you're saying you felt better so you decided to come back and this abomination just sent you straight back to quarantine?
I will say it is impressive how straight up unbeatable it is 9 years down the line. But that’s also kind of a sad comment on the state of the industry, where a 9 year old product is able to reign triumphant over modern technology and modern (inflated) pricing. As for what’s left, the only recent single DD I haven’t heard is the Luna, though sooner or later I’ll get my hands on that one.Read your post, then gave my ex1k a little wink
It’s not quite that bad, but it’s not exactly the most heartening to see my own musings on driver setups and coherency get monkey’s pawed in the most underwhelming possible way.
Which is, I don't want to call it a predestination but definitely more than a sign, for you to come back to a different driver setups, maybe some good ol' 8 BAs chifi?
Max Choiral
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That's not the only one left among recent. We have very little information on Technics EAH-TZ700.
Ollie the bear
100+ Head-Fier
Simphonio Vr1 might be a contender but man - that is a steep priced iem
In Gestalt Psychotherapy, this is called the Paradoxical Theory of Change.
Soon enough. I haven’t forgotten about it.
Kind of a weird one from a traditionally less audiophile oriented company. Not sure what to think of it, or if I should even take it seriously to begin with. Well, if it’s worth relevance it’ll gain traction eventually, as things usually do.
Simphonio and Rhapsodio are two companies I keep on getting mixed up in my head, probably because both have absurdly priced single DDs that are fairly difficult to get ahold of. Don’t see myself hearing either soon, especially not with the virus.
Nabillion_786
500+ Head-Fier
What are your top 3 single DD iems?
EX1000, Minor, Xelento. Honorable mentions would be FDX1 and ER2XR.
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