Thanks again for the great info so I can plan for Hong Kong.
Here is my Perfectly Neutral Reference cable and I hope I can bring my Perfectly Neutral Reference Desktop for CIEMs too to test the JEWEL. It's a pain to travel with this gear, but the JEWEL should be worth the effort:
I don't like the degree of crosstalk of small plugs and none of the brands / quality of small plugs appeal to me. I don't like wires so close together in a tight space. So I eliminate crosstalk completely with perfect physical separation.
You can immediately hear the difference when crosstalk doesn't play a role. Huge soundstage, increase channel separation and imaging. It has speaker-like qualities in a CIEM. WBT on so many other levels.
2-channel CIEM cable:
WBT RCA = mOhms and ConX makes an effort on latency, so all good:
My Jewel arrived yesterday, not much time with it so far but enjoying.
What tips are people leaning towards the most? And cables? I had stock on at first, then Azla Short Standard, now Crystal this morning. Using Satin Audio Athena at the moment - I was going to at least try stock but the microphonics stopped me immediately.
I'm off work now for a few days and look forward to lots of listening...
Thanks for this photo. Being able to visualise it in CIEM form with a Stealthier Logo inspired me to look more into this product. I was ready to close the door until this photo popped up at me via Search feature. Fortunately, I found it again while browsing sequentially.
My Jewel arrived yesterday, not much time with it so far but enjoying.
What tips are people leaning towards the most? And cables? I had stock on at first, then Azla Short Standard, now Crystal this morning. Using Satin Audio Athena at the moment - I was going to at least try stock but the microphonics stopped me immediately.
I'm off work now for a few days and look forward to lots of listening...
Tried my favorite, the Spiral dots ++. I dislike it on the Jewel. I thought spiral dots ++ will be the endgame tip for me but seems like it does a lot better on the u12t than the Jewel. On the Jewel, bass impact is reduced, both quantity and quality seemingly is reduced too, I just don't get the same oomph from the DD.
Crystal is almost perfect, but I dislike the feeling of it after removing it from my ears, that said, I am still wanting to try Xelastec when I have the chance.
I settled on Azla Max, this is imo the perfect fit for me. Bass response is still good, overall sound is seemingly unaffected. Best of all it is very comfortable, almost as comfortable to me as the Spiral dots++. It also have a flexible wax guard that doesn't seem to affect the sound at all.
I will try the Xelastec this weekend maybe and see what happens.
Tried my favorite, the Spiral dots ++. I dislike it on the Jewel. I thought spiral dots ++ will be the endgame tip for me but seems like it does a lot better on the u12t than the Jewel. On the Jewel, bass impact is reduced, both quantity and quality seemingly is reduced too, I just don't get the same oomph from the DD.
Crystal is almost perfect, but I dislike the feeling of it after removing it from my ears, that said, I am still wanting to try Xelastec when I have the chance.
I settled on Azla Max, this is imo the perfect fit for me. Bass response is still good, overall sound is seemingly unaffected. Best of all it is very comfortable, almost as comfortable to me as the Spiral dots++. It also have a flexible wax guard that doesn't seem to affect the sound at all.
I will try the Xelastec this weekend maybe and see what happens.
Tried my favorite, the Spiral dots ++. I dislike it on the Jewel. I thought spiral dots ++ will be the endgame tip for me but seems like it does a lot better on the u12t than the Jewel. On the Jewel, bass impact is reduced, both quantity and quality seemingly is reduced too, I just don't get the same oomph from the DD.
Crystal is almost perfect, but I dislike the feeling of it after removing it from my ears, that said, I am still wanting to try Xelastec when I have the chance.
I settled on Azla Max, this is imo the perfect fit for me. Bass response is still good, overall sound is seemingly unaffected. Best of all it is very comfortable, almost as comfortable to me as the Spiral dots++. It also have a flexible wax guard that doesn't seem to affect the sound at all.
I will try the Xelastec this weekend maybe and see what happens.
Yes Spiral Dot++ can work great in some cases, the comfort is incredible too - they are my default now on Szalayi.
I have the same issue with both Xelastec and Crystal in terms of disliking the feeling, Crystal to a lesser extent. I had Azla Short Standard (large) on for a few hours last night but they were starting to hurt, definitely need to step down a size with Jewel. I'll test a few today, including stock.
As an aside, I find the higher I go with IEMs, the more I struggle with finding a preferred tip - I had the same at first with Traillii.
Tried my favorite, the Spiral dots ++. I dislike it on the Jewel. I thought spiral dots ++ will be the endgame tip for me but seems like it does a lot better on the u12t than the Jewel. On the Jewel, bass impact is reduced, both quantity and quality seemingly is reduced too, I just don't get the same oomph from the DD.
Crystal is almost perfect, but I dislike the feeling of it after removing it from my ears, that said, I am still wanting to try Xelastec when I have the chance.
I settled on Azla Max, this is imo the perfect fit for me. Bass response is still good, overall sound is seemingly unaffected. Best of all it is very comfortable, almost as comfortable to me as the Spiral dots++. It also have a flexible wax guard that doesn't seem to affect the sound at all.
I will try the Xelastec this weekend maybe and see what happens.
Fit / comfort is superb and CIEM is definitely a good option paired with Orpheus. It's a heavy cable for IEM but at no point do i feel it pulling and having to re-adjust fit.
Glad to know the fit worked out. This is my main concern as I use thick, somewhat heavy cables-only. I'll likely have a 16-wire at one point if I don't stop myself from chasing that SQ high. I'm close to checking in at the Beverly Hills / Hollywood Rehabilitation clinics, but they don't accept audio patients at this time.
2-pin doesn't do it for me. IPX/T2 is solid with 5000 insertion cycle and it rotates with movement, not stiff. 2-pin sockets loosen up over time. With heavy cables it even accelerates the pace. It's like the Russian Artillery when you overwork the barrels. Eventually, wear and tear takes over.
So I'm thinking of ordering some IPX/T2 female sockets from Estron before I go to Hong Kong. Roll the dice at that time since I'll be in no rush if I'm living there.
But all female T2 sockets are not created equal, I just gave up on JH Audio as their T2 implementation doesn't work with ConX T2. I don't really want to go back to antiquated 2-pin, but nothing else of interest besides JEWEL. Crossing fingers more T2 options in 2023.
If I could demo Jewel and I found it a decent step above then I'd probably be all over it but the lack of a possibility to demo it and its price are keeping me away at the moment. After a few years of non-stop purchases, I have been trying to take a step back and enjoy what I have.
Not long until you make the move to Jewel I think?
Yes Spiral Dot++ can work great in some cases, the comfort is incredible too - they are my default now on Szalayi.
I have the same issue with both Xelastec and Crystal in terms of disliking the feeling, Crystal to a lesser extent. I had Azla Short Standard (large) on for a few hours last night but they were starting to hurt, definitely need to step down a size with Jewel. I'll test a few today, including stock.
As an aside, I find the higher I go with IEMs, the more I struggle with finding a preferred tip - I had the same at first with Traillii.
I guess we have in mind how we expect certain IEMs to sound and tip rolling affects the sound sig quite a bit nowadays.
I find that with different iems, different types of tips as well as different sizes really affects the overall comfort and performance. For example, on my u12t, I'm using Spiral Dots++ in ML size. M sits a little deeper but slightly loose cause of the soft nature of the tips, affecting the treble and bass impact imo.
For Jewel, I'm using Azla Max, S size instead. ML sized spiral dots ++ isn't comfortable, maybe because of the stem size. M sized spiral dots ++ works for me on the Jewel. So when changing between different brands of tips, be sure to try different sizes too.
If you dislike Xelastec and Crystal's feeling, you really need to try the Max Standard. By far the best in Azla's lineup, at least for the Jewel it is.
I guess we have in mind how we expect certain IEMs to sound and tip rolling affects the sound sig quite a bit nowadays.
I find that with different iems, different types of tips as well as different sizes really affects the overall comfort and performance. For example, on my u12t, I'm using Spiral Dots++ in ML size. M sits a little deeper but slightly loose cause of the soft nature of the tips, affecting the treble and bass impact imo.
For Jewel, I'm using Azla Max, S size instead. ML sized spiral dots ++ isn't comfortable, maybe because of the stem size. M sized spiral dots ++ works for me on the Jewel. So when changing between different brands of tips, be sure to try different sizes too.
If you dislike Xelastec and Crystal's feeling, you really need to try the Max Standard. By far the best in Azla's lineup, at least for the Jewel it is.
Yeah absolutely, various sizes make huge differences - I've ended up with a few sizes of each tip. Trying some now and yet again, I'm landing on Tanchjim T300 for comfort, sound is excellent too. I'll try the Azla Max, I see they are now available from my local Amazon.
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