The Kennerton Rögnir Planar sounded incredibly thinn in the midrange.
Haven't tried a different Kennerton since.
Haven't tried a different Kennerton since.
Yeah i haven't tried those too, but i got the heartland and they slap hard, reviewed them, really worth every penny since they have been my daily driver beside the LCD-5The Kennerton Rögnir Planar sounded incredibly thinn in the midrange.
Haven't tried a different Kennerton since.
Ah I didn't know that. Hmm I might buy them. My wm1z is npaudio modded too so it should be an amazing match
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n8ii is shouty vocal and elevated treble. not a good source for testingFurther stuff n' things..... 25-30 hours in.....
Source: N8ii
Tips: CA Marshmallow (I like CA foam tips, don't usually swap in others early unless something sounds off/struggle for seal)
Fit: Easy like Sunday morning. Medium-ish depth insert that goes in without much fuss.....very light and comfortable in-ear.
Comparison: I had used the Z1R, Advar, and XE6 on early impressions looking to give some type of sonic landmark to the experience. After 30 or so hours of either brain or driver burn-in....whichever you pray to...still truth to that (50% Z1R, 30% Advar/DD warmth and response, 20% XE6 swirl/boom presentation). Maybe the fastest short-hand is Z1R meets Dorado 2020.
Tone: Warm, analog, boomy/roundly percussive. It's got a helping of the classic-tube gold and honey. A bit of sunshine without being bright in the sense of old school-grado/beyerdynamic. This is probably going to be the make or break for those lucky few putting ears on this set......it's an approach to tone that could be called Two Channel Heaven if you dig or the most Hi-Fi Lo-Fi sound you'll ever hear if you don't. No matter the driver type, a lot of current tone voicing tends to accentuate decay, weight, clarity, color......when I listen to the Atriums or Advars, I feel like I'm in the drum-skin. You feel the brush work, you hear the depth. On Trifecta, your experience is often the reverb-laden space right off the instrument.....the interior of the drum, the buzz over the strings of a guitar. It's expressive and evocative of an earlier style of voicing.....but may seem a little syrupy/one-note for those who most enjoy chasing depth/texture ala' BA or Planar set-ups. Not saying tone is a weakness here....it's just a different approach than most modern TOTL-style voicings. It's a E88CC Gold Lion affair.
Frequency: Mild/mid-mild V. The bass....she a boomin'. This is a wide-range and expressive bass tuning......but it's much more in the vein of a woosh-of-air thump from a two channel than the heavy, down-into-the void rumble and texture of the Z1R or XE6. Mids are a step or two back depending on the mix being feed.....not the star of the show, but a solid presentation. The most modern part of the tuning is the swell into the mid-high and treble the gives definition against the mids and a sense of some lift if not outright air.....but is not sibilant/aggressive. Think Z1R with mids pushed up a notch and treble down one or two. It presents a lot of energy without being fatiguing via tone/tuning.
Special Effect/Technical: The warm/boomy vintage tone can lead one to think that the technicals are so-so on first listen.......but the Trifecta, in my humble ear-holes, is a surprise technical powerhouse for a DD design. It's highly resolving. It images and spaces amongst the best IEM's I've heard, and handles complexity and layering with e-a-s-e. It's the widest stage I've heard in an IEM and plenty holographic. More wide than tall. Against the Z1R as an IEM touch-stone in this category, the Z1R is taller with a cathedral-like effect but not as wide. The Trifecta's presentation is most akin....in terms of what I've heard over the years....to an IEM HD800. Not tone/tuning.....but that nebulous cloud of sound staging. Like the HD800, it can seem artificially stretched on certain mixes (which may or may not be a concern to you).....but it's like nothing else I've ever heard on an IEM for complex or expansive/orchestral mixes. To me, this category is the point of the Trifecta....and like the tone it won't be for everyone. But children......it's straight f##$ing magic golden cosmic fire with certain mixes.
What does it work with?: Trifecta...for me....is working with all genres. It can into delicate....it can into rock/metal. It has plenty of speed and layering. It's really more mix dependent. The Trifecta is not the candidate to go pick apart mid-compressed rock/metal/pop tracks.....like the Z1R, you're going to feel like something is off-balance with scooped/hollow mids (though Trifecta gets you a lot further with a lot more music in this category than the Z1R). But if the mix...any genre...presents good articulation around the instruments or layers......holy hall of sound gods does the Trifecta just grab everything and explode it out into an all-detail-revealed golden cloud of sound.
Intimate solo presentations or small jazz club acoustics.......no issue, Trifecta works big and small. But let me cut to the chase......if an album is instrument-forward, has 6 tracks, and is 90 minutes long.......Trifecta is its soul mate. Prog. Doom. Orchestral. Stoner. Trifecta is like being at a laser-light show in God's planetarium. Earthless?.....MAGIC. King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard......MAGIC. Gentle Giant?.........MAGIC. Elder?.......MAGIC. Porcupine Tree?....MAGIC. Woobler?......MAGIC. Later-day Opeth?.......MAGIC. If an album plays to 70's style organic-synth electronica.......it's like Trifecta was made for it. Tangerine Dream or John Carpenter sound tracks......unbelievably awesome in presentation.
At 30 hours in/TL-DR....
For: Music as an experience ala' the northstar of the HD800 presentation. Complex, layered tracks spun into a sonic, celestial two-channel cloud of the heavens.
Not For: Special effects/"The Experience" low on your list of sonic priorities. The ever-bleeding edge of the modern neutral+technical BA and/or Planar approach is your sole desire and interest.
He just said he loved the combo. Huh? Loln8ii is shouty vocal and elevated treble. not a good source for testing
So I was wondering if anyone has tried the Raphael with the Trifecta, and if so, your impressions of it?
Just had to try it, even though my Raphael is 2 pin and I have to use adapters. I can report that, relative to stock, it nudges the mids forward a bit in the mix and tightens up the bass end, which also gives the mids more space to sing. Added Penon Orange tips to push it further in that direction. They are great for mids, timbre and soundstage and bring less bass pressure than say, Divinus Velvet. My Trifecta looks a hot mess now but it sounds good. I had trouble getting it out of my ears, which is always a good sign. May just keep the pairing on a bit longer.
I somehow managed to completely miss that whilst scanning through the last few pages! Many thanks!I posted mine a couple pages back:
I somehow managed to completely miss that whilst scanning through the last few pages! Many thanks!
Well, I'm an unashamed (audiophile) bashed, so I'm hoping it doesn't reduce the bass *too* much
But everything else sounds great; by coincidence, I'm a big mids, timbre and soundstage lover, so your descriptions are very encouraging
to go with the Trifecta, absolutely nothing beats the WM1Z.
Well, that's encouraging, because, like @gazzington my main DAP is a Nayparm-modded WM1Z+1
Trifecta has been my #1 since I first heard it but when I finally heard it with the WM1Z it basically made all the other IEMs out there irrelevant for me.