[FastAndClean]

My aq3 is here, will listen a bit and give my first impressions

 

[rprodrigues]

My aq3 is here, will listen a bit and give my first impressions

Waiting for your impressions...

I need to decide between the AQ3 as my first pair of mid-tier IEMs and HD6xx headphones.

 

[FastAndClean]

My aq3 is here, will listen a bit and give my first impressions

Ok first impressions of the AQ3 (take them with a grain of salt)
overall sound signature is V shaped (for me) not close to neutral like others said
sub bass is very strong but only the very low bass (under 80-90hz), they somehow managed to isolate the boost low with those tubes
the woofer is very well damped, it is snappy and there is no bloat, very good texture with smooth kind of tone (the semckarch for example has powerful and tight bass but it sounds rough like PA subwoofer)
the midrange is recessed but mostly the lower mids, that makes the male vocals less dense, they are very clean but no warmth, upper mids have more energy compared to the lower mids so female vocals are more forward in the whole sound profile, the mids are very clean indeed but a bit dry, however they are not shouty, they avoid the shoutynes because the upper mids are not overly boosted, still more upper mids than lower mids
treble is sparkly but not peaky like the T800, nice and clean treble that has similar energy to the upper mids
soundstage is wide and it has good dept, very nice soundstage, the instrument separation is very good because of the less warm cleaner profile
overall they are very good for electronic music and big orchestra (Hans Zimmer)
for female vocals they are good but for male they will not be my first choice

thats it for now

 

[rprodrigues]

Ok first impressions of the AQ3 (take them with a grain of salt)
overall sound signature is V shaped (for me) not close to neutral like others said
sub bass is very strong but only the very low bass (under 80-90hz), they somehow managed to isolate the boost low with those tubes
the woofer is very well damped, it is snappy and there is no bloat, very good texture with smooth kind of tone (the semckarch for example has powerful and tight bass but it sounds rough like PA subwoofer)
the midrange is recessed but mostly the lower mids, that makes the male vocals less dense, they are very clean but no warmth, upper mids have more energy compared to the lower mids so female vocals are more forward in the whole sound profile, the mids are very clean indeed but a bit dry, however they are not shouty, they avoid the shoutynes because the upper mids are not overly boosted, still more upper mids than lower mids
treble is sparkly but not peaky like the T800, nice and clean treble that has similar energy to the upper mids
soundstage is wide and it has good dept, very nice soundstage, the instrument separation is very good because of the less warm cleaner profile
overall they are very good for electronic music and big orchestra (Hans Zimmer)
for female vocals they are good but for male they will not be my first choice

thats it for now

Nice short impressions!

Thank you for sharing them.

Have you already heard Spring 1?
If so, which one do you prefer, Spring 1 or AQ3?

 

[FastAndClean]

Nice short impressions!

Thank you for sharing them.

Have you already heard Spring 1?
If so, which one do you prefer, Spring 1 or AQ3?

no sorry, that is my only hybrid

 

[bassboysam]

what does dry mids mean?

 

[Slater]

what does dry mids mean?

Dry - Lack of reverberation or delay as produced by a damped environment. May comes across as fine grained and lean. Opposite of Wet.

Taken from:https://www.head-fi.org/articles/describing-sound-a-glossary.12328/

 

[FastAndClean]

what does dry mids mean?

it is the opposite of full lush mids

 

[FastAndClean]

i just changed the tips from wide bore to narrow bore (Sony tips), the sound is improved in terms of musicality with narrow bore tips, a bit warmer, that will be my tip of choice

 

[niron]

Ok first impressions of the AQ3 (take them with a grain of salt)
overall sound signature is V shaped (for me) not close to neutral like others said
sub bass is very strong but only the very low bass (under 80-90hz), they somehow managed to isolate the boost low with those tubes
the woofer is very well damped, it is snappy and there is no bloat, very good texture with smooth kind of tone (the semckarch for example has powerful and tight bass but it sounds rough like PA subwoofer)
the midrange is recessed but mostly the lower mids, that makes the male vocals less dense, they are very clean but no warmth, upper mids have more energy compared to the lower mids so female vocals are more forward in the whole sound profile, the mids are very clean indeed but a bit dry, however they are not shouty, they avoid the shoutynes because the upper mids are not overly boosted, still more upper mids than lower mids
treble is sparkly but not peaky like the T800, nice and clean treble that has similar energy to the upper mids
soundstage is wide and it has good dept, very nice soundstage, the instrument separation is very good because of the less warm cleaner profile
overall they are very good for electronic music and big orchestra (Hans Zimmer)
for female vocals they are good but for male they will not be my first choice

thats it for now

Agree about the treble, soundstage and instrument separation, but all other impressions are opposite to mine. Give them around a 100 hours of burn-in time, they will grow on you.

 

[bassboysam]

Dry - Lack of reverberation or delay as produced by a damped environment. May comes across as fine grained and lean. Opposite of Wet.

Taken from:https://www.head-fi.org/articles/describing-sound-a-glossary.12328/

so how can only part of the frequency range be dry? wouldn't the housing determine how wet or dry the sound is?

sorry it just seems strange to me that the mids can be dry but the lows and highs are not.

 

[FastAndClean]

Agree about the treble, soundstage and instrument separation, but all other impressions are opposite to mine. Give them around a 100 hours of burn-in time, they will grow on you.

they already growing, with simple change of tips, they are very tip dependent, a bit more than usual

 

[Captainbeefturd]

i just changed the tips from wide bore to narrow bore (Sony tips), the sound is improved in terms of musicality with narrow bore tips, a bit warmer, that will be my tip of choice

Ok first impressions of the AQ3 (take them with a grain of salt)
overall sound signature is V shaped (for me) not close to neutral like others said
sub bass is very strong but only the very low bass (under 80-90hz), they somehow managed to isolate the boost low with those tubes
the woofer is very well damped, it is snappy and there is no bloat, very good texture with smooth kind of tone (the semckarch for example has powerful and tight bass but it sounds rough like PA subwoofer)
the midrange is recessed but mostly the lower mids, that makes the male vocals less dense, they are very clean but no warmth, upper mids have more energy compared to the lower mids so female vocals are more forward in the whole sound profile, the mids are very clean indeed but a bit dry, however they are not shouty, they avoid the shoutynes because the upper mids are not overly boosted, still more upper mids than lower mids
treble is sparkly but not peaky like the T800, nice and clean treble that has similar energy to the upper mids
soundstage is wide and it has good dept, very nice soundstage, the instrument separation is very good because of the less warm cleaner profile
overall they are very good for electronic music and big orchestra (Hans Zimmer)
for female vocals they are good but for male they will not be my first choice

thats it for now

Wow its amazing the divergence of impressions about the mids, have to say found them kind of lean, 'slightly' rescest and almost dull at first but really opened massively with a nice burn in, like all my favourite iems I didn't really rate them that much at first. Whilst I bow to your superior knowledge experience I still stand by what I'm hearing, maybe some psychoacoustics trick, either way a like. I've settled on spinfit cp100's which also have a relatively wide bore

 

[Captainbeefturd]

they already growing, with simple change of tips, they are very tip dependent, a bit more than usual

Switching to a Pure Silver cable (TRN T3-25usd) made the biggest difference for me

 

[gazzington]

I've just ordered some aq3 as I've read they have great bass. If I like them I may order t800 too