[davidmolliere]

Coming back to the Solaris, everything is in its place but I could not help but wonder what happened to the 10 mm ADLC DD driver. With the Vega/Atlas, bass is something you feel but with Solaris bass is something you hear. I agree with the previous impressions that the Solaris has the Andromeda tuning but it is a much better Andromeda. I have a very strong feeling that Ken is going to retune the Solaris or come up with something different that will incorporate that visceral bass with the Solaris mid/treble sometime next year. I am not a bass head but when you hear Yo Yo Ma performs (for instance the Massenet Meditation From Thais), you want to feel it in you bosom, that low frequency has got to go through your bones and I don't think it is there yet. Don't get me wrong, technically the Solaris bass is accurate with texture but if you are looking for that low frequency being pushed by a 1000 Watts amp through a pair of Focal or Wilson speakers, the Solaris is far from being there.

That's one of the item I mentioned in my review and I agree, now I already noticed that with an amp you're getting quite better impact and the one I tried (Oriolus BA300S) is not even mid tier... I'd love to get more headfiers provide feedback on how it scales but I think it will scale beautifully. This being said, you're right this is how the Solaris is tuned. My take is that there is a softer attack on the bass notes, because the power is there really it's more the snap of the attack that is a bit "lacking" or a bit too soft to get into basshead territory (not sure that was the goal though the Atlas is there for that). I wonder though if you would not loose those magical textures along the way. And we're talking mid bass impact, because the sub bass on some tracks is downright subwooferish!

 

[Jalo]

@davidmolliere the Vega/Atlas clearly didn't need any amp to achieve impact, the ADLC DD driver is definitely capable independently to render such impact as has been demonstrated by the Vega/Atlas combo that any dap including a smart phone can do that. I don't know if it is a headphone thing, but in the headphone world headfiers seem to think if there is too much bass then it will muddy up the rest of the frequency range so too much bass is not good. Well this is not usually a concern in the two channels world. I have heard awesome bone racking sub bass and mid bass while the mid range is singing beautiful song. In fact, this is how real life music exists in the natural world with each frequency occupy their own domain. Isn't that is the goal of what all totl headphones try to become--to replicate real life music?

I think there is a big misconception when we use the words basshead or bass heavy sound, we seem to always end up blaming the wrong culprit and in this case the equipment or the headphone when the real culprit is the music. It is the headphone that is reproducing what is in the music and if the music is constantly producing high level of bass I would find them irritating also. For instant,
when Wardo783 in post 1557 talks about the Vega being "was like a wild horse in my ears that made it impossible for me to unwind" may be it is the music that needs to change and not the messenger. Imaging being in a cathedral listening to a thirty foot high organ pipes and what you hear is the sound of a harmonica and that will not be right. All I want a headphone to do is to reproduce music as I hear them in the natural environment. If the double bass or the cello shake your core let it be and if you do not like it don't listen to that kind of music but if the headphone cannot reproduce that then that is a flaw of the equipment and it has nothing to do with bass head or not, it is in the music and the equipment merely faithfully reproducing what is in the music. I think Ken will revise the Solaris in the future.

 

[davidmolliere]

@Jalo I am not saying otherwise, it's not the driver but the tuning, and I am not in the camp of those who think too much bass is a bad thing Actually I think there is plenty of bass with the Solaris just not the hard hitting kind It's all about the snap of the note attack there. The Solaris is tuned to be smooth IMHO and that extends to bass. We''ll see if the Solaris gets retuned or a new model combining Atlas and Solaris qualities. I haven't heard the Atlas, I am a bit curious there... The Vega I have owned for a long time so I see what that bass means.

 

[seamon]

@davidmolliere the Vega/Atlas clearly didn't need any amp to achieve impact, the ADLC DD driver is definitely capable independently to render such impact as has been demonstrated by the Vega/Atlas combo that any dap including a smart phone can do that. I don't know if it is a headphone thing, but in the headphone world headfiers seem to think if there is too much bass then it will muddy up the rest of the frequency range so too much bass is not good. Well this is not usually a concern in the two channels world. I have heard awesome bone racking sub bass and mid bass while the mid range is singing beautiful song. In fact, this is how real life music exists in the natural world with each frequency occupy their own domain. Isn't that is the goal of what all totl headphones try to become--to replicate real life music?

I think there is a big misconception when we use the words basshead or bass heavy sound, we seem to always end up blaming the wrong culprit and in this case the equipment or the headphone when the real culprit is the music. It is the headphone that is reproducing what is in the music and if the music is constantly producing high level of bass I would find them irritating also. For instant,
when Wardo783 in post 1557 talks about the Vega being "was like a wild horse in my ears that made it impossible for me to unwind" may be it is the music that needs to change and not the messenger. Imaging being in a cathedral listening to a thirty foot high organ pipes and what you hear is the sound of a harmonica and that will not be right. All I want a headphone to do is to reproduce music as I hear them in the natural environment. If the double bass or the cello shake your core let it be and if you do not like it don't listen to that kind of music but if the headphone cannot reproduce that then that is a flaw of the equipment and it has nothing to do with bass head or not, it is in the music and the equipment merely faithfully reproducing what is in the music. I think Ken will revise the Solaris in the future.

In my opinion, this ideology is extremely flawed. I believe that headphones are tools to do a specific thing(allow me to listen to music). A headphone should allow me listen to whatever music I want whenever I want. If a headphone does not allow me to do that, I replace said tools(headphones). An analogy would be if you can't cut your lawn with your scissors, you don't get a smaller lawn, you replace the tools - scissors with a lawnmower. Listening to whatever music I want is my privilege that I have by virtue of the gear I own. A piece of gear should not dictate me to change my listening ways.

Also @wardo783 was right, the Vega is fatiguing when you are are tired after a long day and this is with any music, not just bass heavy ones. It's just its physicality that makes its difficult to listen to when tired. I complained about it at launch in the Vega thread. I remember one conversation going like.
"I can't listen to Vega when I am relaxing because it is too physical like in a trans-continental flight".
Random Guy: "Ah I see, when I am travelling internationally, I want something that distracts me from the neighboring person so I like the physicality of the Vega"


Again, this is not meant as a offense, just constructive debate

 

[seamon]

Well I only have one hour with the Solaris so it is a bit premature to draw conclusion on the Solaris. But then when I was in the hifi room I also have no history with that set up. I will be lying if I say the Solaris can compete with the Wilson/Levinson system in terms of holographic image and I don't think I will use that as a bar to judge the Solaris. At this point in my journey, this much I can say about the Solaris that it is a much more livelier sound than many iems or even totl iems, I currently have the Utopia and the HD800 and these are classic full size headphones and I think the Solaris can definitely compete with them in terms of "life-like" factor.

I can still remember ten or so years ago when Audeze first release the LCD2, I could not get over that bass, it was a visceral bass that was never there until a bass note got pluck or some vibrating double bass notes started to rumble and they seem to come out from no where but they complete the music. Ever since the first edition of the LCD2, Audeze has never been able to replicate that signature. I asked the owner of Audeze at CES one year and he said they were not able to acquire similar planar materials.

Coming back to the Solaris, everything is in its place but I could not help but wonder what happened to the 10 mm ADLC DD driver. With the Vega/Atlas, bass is something you feel but with Solaris bass is something you hear. I agree with the previous impressions that the Solaris has the Andromeda tuning but it is a much better Andromeda. I have a very strong feeling that Ken is going to retune the Solaris or come up with something different that will incorporate that visceral bass with the Solaris mid/treble sometime next year. I am not a bass head but when you hear Yo Yo Ma performs (for instance the Massenet Meditation From Thais), you want to feel it in you bosom, that low frequency has got to go through your bones and I don't think it is there yet. Don't get me wrong, technically the Solaris bass is accurate with texture but if you are looking for that low frequency being pushed by a 1000 Watts amp through a pair of Focal or Wilson speakers, the Solaris is far from being there.

I believe @KB said that Solaris is the best he could do with the current set of tools and driver tech he has. I don't think Solaris needs re-tuning. Sure, bass is a little low but this is quality audiophile bass

 

[MidFiMoney]

Soooo... I just got the Solaris in the mail.

Straight out the box, no burn-in, from an iPhone/Mojo, they are easily best thing I’ve ever heard!

Please note that I immediately swapped the cable to the Dita Truth (silver) because I hate cables with memory wire. I also love the Dita cable so I knew it couldn’t hurt. That said, I don’t even know what the stock cable sounds like. I’m also using the Final audio tips but I’ll start rolling this weekend.

- No Hype

UPDATE:
My pair is still burning in but I wanted to correct some things I said earlier.

I made a mistake swapping to the Truth cable. The Solaris pairs much better with the stock Super Litz. Noticeable difference across the whole spectrum but very apparent improvements in male and female vocals. Perhaps the copper Truth cable would be a better pairing than the silver but I’m very happy with the performance from the Super Litz. Now I just need to figure out how to remove the memory wire cleanly.

I also said the Solaris is easily the best thing I’ve heard. This was slightly overstated. I still think the Solaris is the best I’ve heard so far but the Dream competes quite well considering it is a single DD.

I’m sure this has already been said but the Solaris does not have the final word in resolution. This is quite obvious when A/B’ing with the Dream. That said, the Solaris is so smooth, musical, and immersive. I’ve yet to find any faults with it and it’s still burning in! Fitment can be a bit tricky but I think removing the wire can help with that.

 

[seamon]

UPDATE:
My pair is still burning in but I wanted to correct some things I said earlier.

I made a mistake swapping to the Truth cable. The Solaris pairs much better with the stock Super Litz. Noticeable difference across the whole spectrum but very apparent improvements in male and female vocals. Perhaps the copper Truth cable would be a better pairing than the silver but I’m very happy with the performance from the Super Litz. Now I just need to figure out how to remove the memory wire cleanly.

I also said the Solaris is easily the best thing I’ve heard. This was slightly overstated. I still think the Solaris is the best I’ve heard so far but the Dream competes quite well considering it is a single DD.

I’m sure this has already been said but the Solaris does not have the final word in resolution. This is quite obvious when A/B’ing with the Dream. That said, the Solaris is so smooth, musical, and immersive. I’ve yet to find any faults with it and it’s still burning in! Fitment can be a bit tricky but I think removing the wire can help with that.

I read somewhere that Dream has a very beautiful Treble and is very resolving.

 

[knopi]

Quite funny for me how someone trying to compare speaker vs iems. It is always here, sounds like fairytales. I can just say if someone listen quality speaker system at home with good knowledge around, these will hardly go back to headphones/iems becouse sound is just more real normal and you just listening.

But I agree in some ways, Campfire really have some atributes as speaker which is not common (why I like Campfire) even the Andromeda accurate, speed, spacious etc.. But naturally quality speakers are still different experience.

 

[MidFiMoney]

I read somewhere that Dream has a very beautiful Treble and is very resolving.

Facts! The treble on the Dream is very nicely extended. The overall presentation is extremely detailed without ever sounding analytical to me. Very capable IEMs.

 

[emptymt]

UPDATE:
My pair is still burning in but I wanted to correct some things I said earlier.

I made a mistake swapping to the Truth cable. The Solaris pairs much better with the stock Super Litz. Noticeable difference across the whole spectrum but very apparent improvements in male and female vocals. Perhaps the copper Truth cable would be a better pairing than the silver but I’m very happy with the performance from the Super Litz. Now I just need to figure out how to remove the memory wire cleanly.

I also said the Solaris is easily the best thing I’ve heard. This was slightly overstated. I still think the Solaris is the best I’ve heard so far but the Dream competes quite well considering it is a single DD.

I’m sure this has already been said but the Solaris does not have the final word in resolution. This is quite obvious when A/B’ing with the Dream. That said, the Solaris is so smooth, musical, and immersive. I’ve yet to find any faults with it and it’s still burning in! Fitment can be a bit tricky but I think removing the wire can help with that.

I believe twister6 has done this many times before, he called it "The Surgery".
Maybe you should PM him, It is actually quite straightforward, but second opinion and maybe some tips could help when in doubt.

 

[MidFiMoney]

I believe twister6 has done this many times before, he called it "The Surgery".
Maybe you should PM him, It is actually quite straightforward, but second opinion and maybe some tips could help when in doubt.

I’ll be reaching out to him. Thanks!

 

[Jackpot77]

Just to weigh in on the bass, I suspect it's a definite tuning decision to keep the best balance with the two BA drivers. Atlas is capable of incredible viscerality, but I wonder if that woould have overwhelmed the BA party of the tuning and unchanged the sound, given that the DD and midrange driver are both firing pretty much fill range, with the only crossover being implemented where the TAEC dual BA setup takes over the highs.

Also, from chatting to Ken in Canjam London recently, I know he's a HUGE fan of the Cascade (without filters) and Atlas tuning for his own personal preferences, so guessing he's a man who loves his bass. If the Solaris is tuned this way, there must be a good reason.

With regards to detail, it isn't a absolute monster - it does have excellent texture and detail down low, but I suspect the slight dip after the vocal ranges before the treble picks up accounts for some of that, as it doesn't "push" details in that frequency range into the foreground. You can still head them if you listen carefully, but just not as emphasised as something with a more accentuated peak or presence in that range.

Judas my take on it - whatever it is, the Solaris is still up there for me as one of the best things I've ever heard - been putting some serious hours in this all working on review notes and I am just finding myself drifting into the music rather than writing about it. Placement, layering, that sense of "realism" people keep taking about - it's all there in the music. Outstanding.

Also, if people think the Solaris could do with more bass, try listening to "Reptile" by Skrillex - the Solaris nails this perfectly for me, with plenty of low end in the mix (as there is in the track itself). I am a bass fan (Atlas is another persona favourite, and I cut my teeth on the legendary old Aurisonics ASG 2.5), but I don't feel that the Solaris is lacking on this track.

 

[seamon]

With regards to detail, it isn't a absolute monster - it does have excellent texture and detail down low, but I suspect the slight dip after the vocal ranges before the treble picks up accounts for some of that, as it doesn't "push" details in that frequency range into the foreground. You can still head them if you listen carefully, but just not as emphasised as something with a more accentuated peak or presence in that range.

So it just isn't pushing detail on your face like some IEMs(Zeus, U18). It's still there but not shoved in your face?

 

[Womaz]

Wow this thread has me captivated. When is the UK release for the Solaris?
I am fairly new to the world of in ears and over last 3 years I have went from a £30 pair of Sennhesers to some 1More triple divers and finally to my CA Lyra 2......or I thought it was finally.
I have this bizarre trait that I tend to treat myself around xmas time and I think I have decided that a quality pair of in ears is my xmas gift to myself
I was originally looking at the new RHA CL2 as I was considering a planar in ear as I love my full size HEKs so much. I dont get a chance to audition as I am up in Newcastle and no local dealers so I read a lot and then take the plunge.....therefore I think it makes more sense to stick to the CA brand.
I originally was trying to decide between the Vega or Andomeda and then up pops this thread.
I love my Lyras. I like the bass and the rich smooth sound......thats what I hear anyway. I am not good at describing what I hear so my apologies for that. I do like bass who doesnt but not in that it overpowers everything else. To my ears the Lyra does bass really well, but obviously I appreciate I have not listened to a lot of other IEMs.
So guys when is the UK release date for the Solaris as I may just take the plunge.......WAY MORE than I intended to spend, but I got the HEKs about 3 year ago and thought the same then,,,,,and I have not regretted it.

 

[davidmolliere]

Also, if people think the Solaris could do with more bass, try listening to "Reptile" by Skrillex - the Solaris nails this perfectly for me, with plenty of low end in the mix (as there is in the track itself). I am a bass fan (Atlas is another persona favourite, and I cut my teeth on the legendary old Aurisonics ASG 2.5), but I don't feel that the Solaris is lacking on this track.

Indeed, when bass is called for the sub bass in particular can be really amazing and plenty of punch!
Try Oi-1 from Biosphere or Sharpness by Jamie Woon and you'll get what I mean, I have plenty of examples I meant to add to the review.

That's why I believe there is no lack of bass but rather sub and mid bass are tuned for maximum textures and not impact. I am not sure you can get this level of textural detail with more impact... guessing it was a choice.
This shows less with sub bass as it's inherently more impactful but listen to the sub bass textures, they're off the charts I'd never heard such quality sub bass