[zmhaha]

Got the Solaris for almost a month. On an average, they sound better than all other iems I have or had owned. And compete well with the full sized cans in many aspects. (checkout the sig). Notice the key word is "on an average".

One thing seems to get talked a lot about Solaris is the hiss. I don't recommend the iematch cable from ifi as a solution based on the experience with the iematch port from the nano idsd BL, presumably based on identical or very close approximation to the cable implementation.

I can confirm the following: (assuming a very quiet room)
Samsung Note 9-> Solaris.
Very noticeable hiss. And the hiss is very uneven, almost like some kind of static interference. However this does not bother me on other genera besides Jazz and classical (only talking about the hiss here, not the SQ of Note 9).

Samsung Note 9-> Dragon fly red -> Solaris. Significant hiss reduction, and the hiss becomes very even and just some weak fine grained noise. still easily audible when there's no music playing but I'm ok with this level

Samsung note 9 -> Ifi nano idsd BL -> Solaris.
On the iematch port, the hiss is almost gone but still audible when there's no music playing. However, the iematch changes the sound too much, for the worse.
Out of the direct port, the hiss is at least as good as the Dragonfly. The sound is way better than the iematch port.

Received my new Sony ZX300A today. The hiss is almost entirely absent. On high gain, 4.4mm port, volume maxed out at 120/120, I can hear a little hiss comparable to that of Samsung Note 9-> Dragon fly red -> Solaris (at normal listening lvl, no music playing, quite room).
Notice, this is without music playing otherwise I'd kill my hearing instantly (On high gain 4.4mm, the HD650 is loud enough at 90/120 for a quite room listening, 30/120 for Solaris. For low gain, 55/120 is comparable to 30/120 on high gain in terms of volume).

 

[BeerNuts]

Received my new Sony ZX300A today. The hiss is almost entirely absent. On high gain, 4.4mm port, volume maxed out at 120/120, I can hear a little hiss comparable to that of Samsung Note 9-> Dragon fly red -> Solaris (at normal listening lvl, no music playing, quite room).
Notice, this is without music playing otherwise I'd kill my hearing instantly (On high gain 4.4mm, the HD650 is loud enough at 90/120 for a quite room listening, 30/120 for Solaris. For low gain, 55/120 is comparable to 30/120 on high gain in terms of volume).

Wow that is super loud! On My ZX300 4.4 Bal and Solaris I listen at 30 on low-gain and its plenty loud. On high-gain I listen at around 18. No hiss at all as far as I can tell but I am also using a different cable which may have affected that.

 

[zmhaha]

Wow that is super loud! On My ZX300 4.4 Bal and Solaris I listen at 30 on low-gain and its plenty loud. On high-gain I listen at around 18. No hiss at all as far as I can tell but I am also using a different cable which may have affected that.

To me, 55 on low gain is loud enough to get totally sucked into the music, this is really like a threshold for a quiet room listening, anything louder would be painful for certain tracks. 30 on low gain is ok to but don't give much impact.

 

[duaned]

Hmm. Ref 8 cable sounds popular.

I might have to retry it again (with the Solaris).

Just remember this cable has a lot of microphonics. Probably moreso that any other cable I have experienced.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Just remember this cable has a lot of microphonics. Probably moreso that any other cable I have experienced.

its ok. I have three of em.

 

[emptymt]

Just remember this cable has a lot of microphonics. Probably moreso that any other cable I have experienced.

I can confirm this, since i own one. Slightest rub on it and you will definitely hear something.

Other than that, the ergo is also bad.
It may be ok when it is new, but after a while all the kinks and bends will be stuck permanently, and the cable will not be as pliable.

The sound is excellent, at least for me.
R6 -> iematch (high) -> ref8 -> Andro

 

[Lookout57]

To remove the kinks you can use this method that Ken suggested to me:

Take the cable with no IEMs connected and hold it at the output connector (2.5mm, 3.5mm or 4.4mm) and let them hang down. Then take a hair dryer and starting at the top slowly warm up the coating on the cable. As it warms up slowly pull from the the MMCX end straighten out the kinks.

I've found that it takes time and multiple passes up and down to get the cable straight.

 

[Fatsosixsixsix]

Sounds like the DD overpowers the BA drivers. Interesting. Is that only for J Pop?
What about male vocals?

That's what it seems like, although as noted earlier it's only on some songs and not all of them which is what's really weird.

From what I've heard so far (since I've been primarily testing with female vocals) male vocals sound fine with no noticeable issues? Probably need to test them more

 

[candlejack]

That's what it seems like, although as noted earlier it's only on some songs and not all of them which is what's really weird.

From what I've heard so far (since I've been primarily testing with female vocals) male vocals sound fine with no noticeable issues? Probably need to test them more

So much gender bias in this thread. <Male> and <female> specifiers everywhere. Just listen to Rob Halford and report back if the phones sound "strange". :-D

 

[Fatsosixsixsix]

Not all male singers are gods like Freddie Mercury who can reach those high octaves

 

[czy6412]

Sounds like the DD overpowers the BA drivers. Interesting. Is that only for J Pop?
What about male vocals?

My impression is quite opposite, BA is dominant on Solaris as upper midrange has more volume than bass. And comparing to Vega/Atlas you will find the bass is significantly less powerful, which I think is due to the fact that DD sound is shadowed by BA sound

 

[davidmolliere]

My impression is quite opposite, BA is dominant on Solaris as upper midrange has more volume than bass. And comparing to Vega/Atlas you will find the bass is significantly less powerful, which I think is due to the fact that DD sound is shadowed by BA sound

This has nothing to do with DD or BA and everything to do with tuning IMHO, the Solaris was intently tuned to be less impactful than the Vega and Atlas, the driver itself is capable of hitting much harder but the priority was to detail and texture and a more balanced presentation.

I'd venture that the BA in the mids is there to provide detail, air and articulation on top of the texture and timbre provided by the DD (if you need to break it down, as for me it's a whole that is really coherent).

 

[czy6412]

This has nothing to do with DD or BA and everything to do with tuning IMHO, the Solaris was intently tuned to be less impactful than the Vega and Atlas, the driver itself is capable of hitting much harder but the priority was to detail and texture and a more balanced presentation.

I'd venture that the BA in the mids is there to provide detail, air and articulation on top of the texture and timbre provided by the DD (if you need to break it down, as for me it's a whole that is really coherent).

Yes the turning matters but I forgot to mention that timbre of upper midrange is so different in Solaris than in Vega/Atlas, so the only reason for that is the pronounce of BA sound in upper midrange

 

[Kitechaser]

Not all male singers are gods like Freddie Mercury who can reach those high octaves

Or Michael Jackson

 

[Fatsosixsixsix]

Or Michael Jackson

I'll give you that one

I also just tried swapping back from Peeled Symbio to Spiral Dot which was my main Andro tips and the issues I'm having with the Solaris might be all down to tips With the Symbio the Solaris sounds a lot more forward, with some vocals being so forward that it literally sounds like they're on the tip of my nose (lol) whilst for other songs the vocals can sound further away trapped behind the bass and treble. I also never really noticed until I started swapping but I felt that the soundstage was slightly smaller with the Symbio, with vocals sound more like a narrow channel than being around me

Using the Spiral Dots I find the vocals are a bit more laid back instead of nose-tip distance, but at the same time I don't notice them being lost amongst the treble and bass as much. Additionally whilst some frequencies might be slightly looser than with the Symbio I found the soundstage being back to being that enveloping feeling I got with the Andro

I only really briefly compared the Spiral Dots against the Peel Symbio back when the Solaris were not burned in and I was still learning the Solaris' sound signature hence why it's taken so long to narrow it down to the tips Going to listen to them in office to get a better feel of returning to the spiral dots