Aminus hates everything (Or, Aminus rants and reviews stuff)
Aug 8, 2022 at 9:48 PM Post #826 of 950
So glad I found this gem, nice review. For me, I am also glad that I will not seek another endgame IEM after Z1R.

Wish you review some DAP in the future.
 
Aug 9, 2022 at 12:25 AM Post #827 of 950
Wish you review some DAP in the future.
I've been working on a two or three part article series covering a bunch of stuff I missed during my hiatus. The first part is dedicated entirely to 2 DAPs and is largely complete, the second (and possibly third) part will contain a large number of miscellaneous IEMs and portable sources sorted by brand. I just haven't had the time to turn my incoherent notes into readable articles yet.
 
Aug 10, 2022 at 11:21 AM Post #828 of 950
Will you include the new DD's from FAudio and Dita? Also very interested in multiple releases/prototypes tuned by the Subtonic team.
 
Aug 10, 2022 at 11:26 AM Post #829 of 950
Noble Kaiser Encore:
This review was requested by @Redcarmoose

Don’t think it’s ever been a secret that I’m no Noble fan. Nothing they’ve made has interested me, and their entire marketing gimmick has always felt like a form over function deal. So perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s taken so long for me to finally get around to reviewing one of their IEMs. After all, they mostly specialize in full BA setups, and my interest is in DDs. But something about the Kaiser and the Kaiser Encore seems to be worth mentioning. After all, it is one of the ex-hypetrains of Head-fi, albeit one thats mostly died down now, and is Noble’s greatest claim to fame. They haven’t seemed to have been able to live up to the original Kaiser. The Khan was mostly forgotten due to its notoriously splashy treble and horrible build and QC, and nothing else they’ve made aside from that has tried to usurp Noble’s past glories with the Kaiser. So let us consider this a trip down memory lane, of the current status of what was once one of the most beloved IEMs in the industry.

The Kaiser Encore has no bass. And yes, I get that it’s a BA and all, but even by BA standards, the Kaiser Encore’s bass is flabby, weak, impactless and just all around pathetic. Kickdrums sound like plastic caricatures of the real deal and surface level bass texture is smoothened out. Make no mistake, the Encore’s bass is not merely bad, it’s bad even by BA standards. An especially insulting reminder because there genuinely is good BA bass out there. The Encore just ain’t it.

The midrange of the Kaiser Encore is almost reminiscent of my all time favorite full BA, the Viento. Except for the fact that it sounds oddly sharp and resonant, and feels weirdly lacking in lower mids. The former seems to be an artifact of the Encore’s treble, though I can’t really explain the latter. In either case, the Encore’s pinna compensation is attempting to go for a reference-y sound, and it mostly achieves that if you ignore the dismal lower midrange. It’s weird, because the lower mids sound scooped, but at the same time the upper mids aren’t thin or boosted like such a frequency response would normally imply. I can’t explain it but it certainly threw me off at first, and it did take me quite a while to pin down what was so off about it.

But nothing on the Kaiser Encore is more distinctive than its treble, and boy do I really mean it when I say distinctive. The Kaiser Encore’s treble is sharp and sibilant, and beyond unpleasant to listen to. Cymbals are piercing and brass is violently harsh. On top of that, there is clearly a level of haziness to the Encore’s sound akin to some of the worse offenders in planar treble (looking at you, HE-6) that makes the already offensive treble on the Encore even more apparent. I really don’t know what the point of such an intense treble boost is, because it makes me strongly not want to listen to the Encore.

On the other hand though, the Encore is fairly technical. Aside from the atrocious bass detailing, the Kaiser Encore has solid detail retrieval and good resolution thanks to its upper mid and treble focus. It also layers pretty damn well. Staging is about as wide as the shell (as is typical for tubed IEMs). There do seem to be dynamic issues with the Encore, as it just feels dead boring in general. But to sum it up, there’s no denying that the Encore is a good technical performer. The tuning just sucks.

And this leads me to question the following: why not just buy a Viento? Quite honestly, the Encore is just a way brighter and all around worse version of Hidition’s ex-flagship. Both are going for a reference-esque sound, yet the Encore has some of the worst bass I’ve ever heard along with some damned harsh treble. If you want this kind of pinna compensation and midrange tonality, the Viento is essentially the same concept but better. And it’s way cheaper too. The Encore’s value proposition is basically nonexistent in comparison.

All listening was done with the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.

Buy a Viento instead and use the remaining grand to buy yourself a nice source and a good cable. Seriously, this is a waste of time.

Score: 3/10
Tips used please ? :upside_down:

Cable ? (the horrible stock cable ? Except for comfort) :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Another victim of the lack of optimisation of eavesdropping ? :beyersmile:

It was the first of april, right?

Final Audio A8000:
Beryllium. If any material in DD design were a meme, it’d be beryllium. After the release of Focal’s Utopia it’s been hailed as a wonder material for diaphragm design. Many have tried to replicate this, to varying degrees of success. Final jumping on this bandwagon is, frankly, odd. The Japanese company has always been an oddball in IEM design, frequently prioritizing tonality (and by tonality I mean midrange tonality, and by midrange tonality I mean female vocals) over quite literally everything else. Final’s IEMs have quite a bit of a reputation for poor technical ability, haziness, and generally being real underwhelming for the price. That is, unless you listen to Japanese female vocals, otherwise known as weeb music, in which case you find yourself in Final’s target market.

So, one might ask, what do weeb vocals and beryllium DDs have in common? Well... I’m equally as perplexed. Beryllium DDs are prized for their speed and extremely high technical ability, yet neither of these are Final’s specialties. One questions just how much performance Final will be able to milk out of such a driver.

The answer is not a lot.

The first thing that sticks out to me with the A8000 is the flabby, loose bass. It’s got this pervasive and annoying warmth to it that doesn’t really help either. Almost like a timbral coloration similar to the CE-5, but borderline obnoxious instead of being quite nice with the right music. There’s also a really odd lack of slam to it, reminiscent of the Tanchjim Oxygen. Which is just plain odd, because it’s not even like the A8000 lacks in bass quantity. I’d argue it has too much midbass, even. It just sounds weak and lacking gravitas. Disappointing for a dynamic driver, nevermind a beryllium one.

The second thing that sticks out is the unnervingly recessed lower mids and boosted upper mids. Almost like the IEX-1 but without having gone off the deep end. Well, barely, at least. Shrill is a pretty apt descriptor here, with lead guitar and synth lines often being just plain thin and rough. Male vocals sound prepubescent at times. I can almost sort of tell what Final was going for here, this ultra-clarity super refined sort of sound. Except you can’t just conjure clarity out of thin air by recessing the lower mids to oblivion and boosting the upper mids to the point of unlistenability. It just doesn’t work like that. Everything sounds unnaturally lean and sucked out.

Treble response on the A8000 is characterized by some grit in the lower-mid treble followed by a pretty extreme rolloff. In other words, you get stick impact and cymbal crash... and not much else. Cymbal decay feels cut short and neutered, and crashes on higher pitched cymbals often feel suppressed. But at the same time, the cymbal crash that is present is often slightly harsh, and sibilance from vocals isn’t uncommon either. This treble response is just cut and dry bad, no matter how you look at it.

And it’s not even like the A8000 has the technical chops to justify its existence. Textural rendering is mediocre on a good day, and nonexistent on a normal one thanks to the horrifically recessed lower midrange. Staging is often congested and small, which is really odd considering the advertised acoustic chambering on it. Dynamics are compressed and lack punch. I struggle to write much here because the A8000 simply doesn’t have much to offer. It’s just odd sounding and lacks the resolve to rise above its tonal quirks.

What this exercise goes to show is that hype and showmanship is, well, hype and showmanship. There was never really any substance behind the A8000. Beryllium or not, it’s still tuned to Final’s target market, and that market excludes the vast majority of people. At the end of the day, implementation trumps technology, and not even the greatest of miracle materials can save a badly, or just oddly tuned transducer.

All listening was done out of the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.

As said before, this IEM is tuned for certain people, and I’m not one of them. Most (normal) people won’t be either. And it’s for that reason that I’d stay away from the A8000.

Score: 3/10

So, not a surprise too... 😅😉

Campfire Audio Andromeda:
Here it is: undoubtedly the most popular kilobuck IEM of the last half-decade, if not the last decade as a whole. Campfire’s claim to fame, and probably their only one. I recall hearing this a long time ago and was wowed by it. And then I heard better, and moved on and forgot about it. Needless to say I was somewhat curious when, all this time later, I approached it again. My tastes have changed drastically with time, so just how much would today’s Aminus agree with noob Aminus?

Apparently, not at all.

A lot has been said about the Andro’s bass response, probably more than necessary. But just to drill it in, the Andro’s bass is nothing short of atrocious. One note, nonexistent decay, nonexistent subbass, nonexistent slam, plasticky timbre... the Andro’s bass is everything wrong with BA bass. The offensively poor decay on the Andro sounds like it’s missing entire milliseconds of sonic detail. And that’s probably because it is, considering how smoothed over bass texture is on it. Kickdrums have no sort of body or weight, and sound like flabby thuds with no conviction. It really cannot be exaggerated, just how bad the Andro’s bass is.

The Andro’s midrange is characteristic for its lack of pinna compensation, and it really shows. Everything on the Andro sounds veiled and hazy, if not straight up smothered. Violins and female vocals sound incredibly buried and muffled. I get the violent mental image of someone being suffocated to death with a pillow when I hear this. Instruments in the lower mids like guitars and brass lack bite. This is perhaps tonally the most offensive part of the Andro; the upper midrange on these has effectively ceased to exist. In comparison, the lower midrange is overly thick and emphasized - I’m reminded a lot of how the Empire Ears Legend X’s tonal balance mostly consists of sub/midbass and lower treble, except in the Andro’s case it’s lower mids and mid treble. While some people enjoy such a thick and dense response, it sounds unnaturally imbalanced and fatiguing to me. Again, the suffocation metaphor comes into play. It feels... claustrophobic. I crack a lot of jokes in private about Campfire not knowing what pinna compensation is, and the Andro justifies the admittedly cruel humor. It just sounds completely sucked out thanks to what appears to be a fundamental lack of understanding of IEM design.

As for the treble, I’ve frequently heard amongst fellow Andro detractors that its treble is its only saving grace. Unfortunately I cannot agree. It has next to no stick impact leading to an uncanny and unrealistic effect where drummers sound like they’re hesitant to hit their cymbals, which is something I also noted on the tia Fourte. It also has far too much cymbal crash; while not inherently harsh or fatiguing, it’s really bizarre and fake sounding due to the lack of lower treble and poor extension. Add to that a healthy dose of consonance in male vocals thanks to the treble peak and, well, I’m frankly unimpressed by the Andro’s “sparkly” treble.

Ah yes, intangibles. No one will deny that Andro’s staging and imaging capabilities are to die for. Well, no one except me. Quite honestly, the Andro doesn’t project that far out of its shell. It does a little, which is better than most IEMs, but 3 years down the line it’s absolutely outmatched by its own older sibling the Solaris, and not to mention the Z1R or the Fourte. And sure, those IEMs are much more expensive than the Andro, but it just goes to show how much the competition has caught up to it. Image sharpness is decent, but pales in comparison to the M9, and that’s just its direct competition in price and design. The point of this is not to imply that the Andro’s staging and imaging are necessarily bad in the grand scheme of things, but more to point out that they’re dated, even amongst IEMs that directly compete with it. Time has not been kind to it in the slightest.

And as for everything else, well, I don’t know what to tell you other than that it’s just as unspectacular. Detail retrieval is decent, but it too does not hold up to the modern day competition. I would argue that something like the FDX1 or the EX1000 (ironically an IEM that’s what, 10 years old now?) give the Andro a run for its money in the detail department, not to mention actually having some semblance of resolution and a decent tonal balance. In addition, thanks to the obnoxiously thick midrange response, the Andro borders on sounding congested, completely ruining clarity and layering. There also appear to be odd transient problems with the Andro, namely a blunted midrange attack. This probably has something to do with the nonexistent upper midrange, and may not be a true time domain related issue at all, but in any case it exacerbates the already borderline mushy sound. That and the fact that the Andro struggles with basic dynamics, to the point that the M9 I had sitting next to it sounded lively in comparison (and to think dynamics have always been the one thing I’ve disliked about the M9...). Unlike the Solaris, the Andro doesn’t really have all that good of intangibles, thought admittedly the tuning is less immediately offensive than the Solaris OG. Both end up being underperformers in my eyes, irregardless of price.

Really, the main part of me is appalled that I ever liked this. It’s shockingly bad compared to the last time I heard it. And yes, I know that the Andro is a picky scoundrel with impedances, and that my WM1A’s 4.4mm output (which is cited to have an impedance just under 1 ohm, though I don’t know just how accurate that is) is not an ideal source. But that’s sidestepping the fact that my main issue with the Andro is that it lacks pinna compensation. No amount of impedance meddling or source rolling will change the fundamental issue with the Andromeda: that it has next to no pinna compensation, and sounds asphyxiated and dense because of it. Not to mention, a large majority of Andro users don’t actually use 2 ohm output impedance sources with it. The number of Andro users who run it with Apple dongles or RME ADI-2 IEM outs (both under 1 ohm) far outweighs the certain clique of ZX2 toting Andro fanboys. Simply put, there is not much that can be done to change my issues with the Andromeda, and making minor tweaks to try and make it ever so slightly not as bad in irrelevant departments is not worth the effort.

And while we’re at it, allow me to make a point: having an IEM with massive impedance shifts is bad design. Ultimately, with BAs being fickle things and having varying impedances, having some level of impedance curvature is fine. But when your impedance curve shifts to such a massive degree that your IEM absolutely necessitates (according to some at least) a specific output impedance on the source, that’s just a halfassed design. And not to target or attack Campfire, but their IEMs almost universally have unusually low impedances (at 1khz, at least) and high SPL/mW sensitivities compared to more or less every other brand. One wonders why their designs are so needlessly sensitive and reactive to output impedance. But what about using impedance to tune the IEM?, you say. Well, that’s just a glorified and unpredictable EQ, isn’t it? I’m not exactly a proponent of EQ, but when you think about it, there’s really no difference save one being comparatively out of one’s control. It’s a poor justification for what’s ultimately an unrefined electrical design. But hey, that’s just my opinion.

Sorry Campfire fanboys, I just don’t see it like you do. Shame on me for not having Van Gogh’s ears.

Score: 3/10

And not a surprise here too. 😋
 
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Aug 10, 2022 at 3:22 PM Post #830 of 950
Will you include the new DD's from FAudio and Dita? Also very interested in multiple releases/prototypes tuned by the Subtonic team.
I was not aware of new DDs from Dita. While I am interested in the new FAudio, they are notoriously difficult to find distribution of. The only reason I ever got to hear the Minor was because I was in Shanghai at the time, and I don't think I ever released my review of the Major due to concerns of significant unit variance. I will certainly have to look out for one, though I can't promise anything. As for Dita, I know where to look, though the question is if they will have a demo unit.

I have heard the Subtonic stuff, and I think I will be talking about them in the future once I've collected enough information to turn it into something substantial.

Tips used please ? :upside_down:

Cable ? (the horrible stock cable ? Except for comfort) :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Another victim of the lack of optimisation of eavesdropping ? :beyersmile:

It was the first of april, right?
I don't write these reviews to please owners by attempting to roll every combination of source, tip and cable in existence in some attempt to find a combination that fixes the IEM for the company. Everything in them is largely left stock, because if it was good enough for the store showcasing them, it's good enough for me.

So, not a surprise too... 😅😉
And not a surprise here too. 😋
I'm sorry someone on the internet had less than positive things to say about products that you own. It must be such a personal insult.
 
Aug 10, 2022 at 3:55 PM Post #832 of 950
Aug 10, 2022 at 4:29 PM Post #834 of 950
Ah, right. I forgot about its predecessor, A12, which indeed can be marked with title "easy tuning" more or less. Lost interest in 64 audio after that, too overpriced for what it offers.

Bassy one the u12. 😉
 
Aug 10, 2022 at 5:50 PM Post #835 of 950
I will certainly have to look out for one, though I can't promise anything.
I was talking about the Dark Sky, which is more in line with the Minor based on limited impressions (apparently, Zepp carries this particular model, along with recently released Acoustunes). Dita's current flagship is called Perpetua, that price increase though...
 
Aug 10, 2022 at 6:19 PM Post #836 of 950
I was talking about the Dark Sky, which is more in line with the Minor based on limited impressions (apparently, Zepp carries this particular model, along with recently released Acoustunes). Dita's current flagship is called Perpetua, that price increase though...
Yep, I'm aware of the Dark Sky. I did look into it after making the post and while Zepp does carry it, that doesn't always guarantee a demo unit. Won't stop me from asking for one though.

As for the Perpetua, it strangely enough does not appear on the webstores of any of the Dita distributors I know about in SG, so I may have to do a little trial and error to figure out who (if anyone) has a demo unit.
 
Aug 11, 2022 at 1:57 AM Post #837 of 950
Ah, right. I forgot about its predecessor, A12, which indeed can be marked with title "easy tuning" more or less. Lost interest in 64 audio after that, too overpriced for what it offers.

Well, same feelings about 64 audio.

The fourte (two versions) is a total mess, the u18(t) is OK but... Ok (I haven't auditioned the last version S), the u8 is super bassy, the u12(t) is good but so generic and impersonal... (tuning wise : "correct and safe" are the right words).

But... to be fair it is the case for a lot of brands too... 😉
 
Sep 21, 2022 at 11:43 AM Post #838 of 950
Portable Audio Touchdown Tour Part 1: The NW-WM1AM2 and NW-WM1ZM2

The WM1A is the DAP that I've used for the last 3 years. It's probably the single longest surviving audio product in my collection, I've sold everything I brought prior to it in one form or another. One of my fondest memories in audio is undoubtedly the first time I ever heard the 1A with my old A12t, it was likely the singular moment that converted me into a believer in sources and began my spurning of objectivist thought. Nostalgia aside though, it's also just a very good player. It has an inherent naturalness of timbre and tone backed up with surprisingly respectable dynamic performance, decay, and engagement for a portable player. I've heard more DAPs than I care to count in my time, and frankly none of them have really dethroned the WM1A in my eyes. Even its older brother, the WM1Z, offered something different as opposed to better; it was extremely warm and gooey sounding by any standards and while I can see some being enthralled with that sort of sound, I personally wasn't. And so the WM1A remained my first and only high end portable player.

Needless to say, I've been pining for an announcement of the second generation of Sony players for a minute and then some. Truth to be told, I've been aware that the project was in the works since the tail end of 2019 and poised for release the year after, but for reasons that need no mention that never came to pass and it was largely radio silence on it until the recent announcement and release. It might not be surprising that I'm more interested in the WM1AM2 than I am the WM1ZM2, but I'm no less eager to hear either regardless. So how do they stack up in practice?

Well, the WM1AM2 (or 1AM2 for short) is, to put it one way, a bit of a letdown. Sony seem to have decided that the WM1A (or OG 1A) was simply not colored enough; in this respect, the 1AM2 is a moderately warm sounding DAP, with softer transients and a somewhat manufactured and artificial sounding gloss to its timbre. With the softer transient edge comes more compression, and also lost is a fair degree of both the slam and nuance that the OG 1A had (which wasn't that much to begin with in the grand scheme of things; DAPs aren't really capable of either). As a whole, it's a bit dull sounding and unengaging; it's not quite as romantically warm and bloomy like the OG 1Z, but it's also not as clear and correct sounding as the OG 1A. What we are left with is not terrible, but not really great or even good either. It's just completely mediocre.

As for the WM1ZM2 (henceforth 1ZM2), things become a lot more complicated. The 1ZM2 sounds quite different from its predecessor, and it seems like it and the 1AM2 have traded places compared to the generation prior in terms of sound signature. The new 1ZM2 is almost (but not quite) the same flavor of neutral as the OG 1A. The main differentiating factors between the two lie in its slight warmth and a similar degree of glossiness to the timbre, though also apparent on the 1ZM2 is some degree of digititus in the treble. The 1ZM2 also retains some of the transient softness from the 1AM2, though it's not nearly as pervasive. As such, the 1ZM2 has most if not all of the dynamism of its predecessors, and it's also quite musical and engaging. There is no doubt that the 1ZM2 is a good DAP.

Herein lies the real question: is it a great DAP, and does it succeed in obsoleting the prior generation sonically? Let's not even talk about being worth the price, because face it, no DAP is worth $3.7K. The answer to both of those questions, in my humble opinion, is an unfortunate and resounding no. To begin with, I really don't hear any tangible improvements in the 1ZM2 compared to either the OG 1A or the OG 1Z. Sure, it has a different flavor of coloration compared to either of the aforementioned, and that coloration might be more appealing than others to someone, but it's not an abject improvement by any metric. On the other hand, there are a greater than insignificant number of actual tangible drawbacks with the 1ZM2 compared to the OG DAPs: the slightly artificial timbre, the softened edges applied onto every transient, the mild but present treble issues that are just enough to break immersion, it all adds up.

And even despite the 1ZM2 being closer to my preferred tonality than the OG 1Z, I struggle to decide if I actually prefer it overall. Yes, I prefer the greatly lessened warmth and bloom, but the OG 1Z was one of the most characterful and unique sounding DAPs on the market. There was a clear reason to buy one compared to the OG 1A, and though I didn’t necessarily agree with it, I was fully capable of respecting it. The 1AM2 and the 1ZM2 end up coming off as more similar than different. Sure, the 1ZM2 is an actual improvement over the 1AM2, but Sony accomplishes this by actively making the 1AM2 worse. We end up with products that exist in two completely different tiers that try to accomplish the same thing, instead of two products that are relatively speaking quite similar in performance, but with opposing goals.

One gains more clarity with such a realization when the DMP-Z1 is introduced into the picture; on immediate comparison it's clear that the DMP-Z1 is in fact the primogenitor of the M2 generation's sound. And while the DMP-Z1 is certainly a very interesting sounding device, it's not one that I would consider normal sounding, though that's a topic for another time. The long and short of it is that I just think that the latest generation of Sony players was a misstep. We have gone from an expression of musicality and naturality in two equal but opposite examples, to a hierarchy of mediocrity tuned to flavor, but not to taste. In a sense, there is not very much differentiating the M2 generation DAPs and the DMP-Z1 from the vast majority of other DAPs in the market in terms of overarching philosophy; coloration and flavoring for the sake of it instead of just trying to sound correct and normal. It's not that I don't get why they've done this either, the market wants this stuff and I imagine the idea of a mini-DMP-Z1 is extremely appealing to a lot of people who aren't me. I just personally couldn't care less for it.


Part 2 & 3 will cover a whole bunch of IEMs and Part 4 will focus more on some other sources.
 
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Sep 21, 2022 at 11:48 AM Post #839 of 950
In before, a firmware modification can address all this for Sony daps.
 
Sep 21, 2022 at 12:01 PM Post #840 of 950
In before, a firmware modification can address all this for Sony daps.
I would have my doubts. Firmware plays an important part, but cannot correct the inherent sound of specific components or the sound of an OS' audio stack, especially when that OS is Android and not custom.
 

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