Impressions pt2:
Elysian Acoustics
Annihilator–
1DD 4BA 2EST
This is a more classic audiophile sound compared to a lot of monitors I have listened to today. It’s not lacking in solidity, but it really is a lot more linear than some of the crazy low end tunings that have been on show in the ballroom this weekend. Bass is punchy and more sub than mid focused. There is bags of slam and air movement, with a genuine ice cream headache feeling coming on when you crank the volume on “Beat It”. Cymbals on that track feel crisp and zingy, with a good presence that cuts across the vocal and guitar. Instrument weight is middling, with a lot of rawness around electric guitar. No one would ever accuse this IEM of being laid back or sleepy, it’s a high energy, high contrast journey from the word go.
“Holy Wars” by Megadeth positively roars out of the earpieces, with just a hint of splashiness in the cymbal work but otherwise plenty of heft to Mustaine’s guitar work. “Three Chords” from southern rockers Goodbye June sounds positively radiant, the space presented on the stage for sonic reflections around the simple guitar refrain giving a great “in the studio room” vibe to it. It’s one of the few IEMs that has got my foot tapping today without producing more bass than a club woofer stack, which says a lot.
The body shape of the IEM shell is middling, with a flashy gold faceplate and a very polished feel to the build. Cable is thin but obviously aftermarket, and suits the Annihilator well. I’d categorise this as a capable flagship tier stuff for all but the most mid-averse listener – it even works for bassheads like me.
Nightjar Acoustics
Another brand gathering some serious momentum at the moment is Sangaporean brand Nightjar acoustics. I spent a bit of time with the main designer (but not enough to get his name, sadly!), and they definitely have a refreshing take on what they want to produce for the IEM market in terms of tuning, and filling some gaps that are there in terms of tuning.
Singularity- 1DD
First up for me to demo was their new high end single DD model, called the Singularity – now THIS has a good sub bass kick. The Singularity provided plenty of woomph to “Heaven” by Emile Sande, definitely with a sub bass bias but the vocal still managed to sound forward and a little sweet. No harshness is apparent on Sande’s voice, which is impressive given the less than stellar mastering.
Loading up some Daft Punk, “Disc Wars” is the beefiest it’s sounded on the day, and “Get Lucky” is presented with a nice mid bass punch and a very liquid and well extended bass. The Singularity isn’t a total basshead sort of tuning, but bass is large and prominent in the signature, just without crowding or overshadowing the mids and treble on the stage. If I had to define it, it’s technically a flattish sort of tuning in terms of relative quantities between the frequency bands – it’s very far from flat when you listen, though!
Sticking with the bass tunes, “Hello, It’s Me” is again presented its a nice liquidity to the bassline, but it still manages to sound quite textured. This isn’t in the ultra detailed bracket like some flagships, but clarity is still very good overall, and very impressive for the price (somewhere a little north of 1000 pounds). The grit and growl of the electric bass in “Bad Rain” positively howls out of the IEM nozzle, with plenty of weight and physicality to the drum slams underneath – this is my sort of in ear.
“Palladio” by Escala is cavernously deep, and the bass just about manages to steer clear of the little click detail at 20 seconds in, but it’s a close run thing. “Holy Wars” sounds thick and thrashy with a really fat drum fill, but not blurriness or smearing of the sounds as the track careers forwards. Whatever they are doing with the dynamic driver, it’s working. Creamy mids – check. Nicely crisp cymbals that don’t dominate or grate – check. Fatness to guitars and bass, an an overall warmth that makes music very enjoyable – double check.
No point doing a more detailed analysis on these, they are fantastic for fans of a musical signature that still want a highly technically capable IEM. Just a shame they were completely sold out on the day (and of their entire first run). Can imagine these becoming a very popular audiophile standard on the scene shortly.
Even the design is top drawer – the shells are small, solid metal and light but very ergonomic, with the unusual singularity venting design like a textured series of 3D swirls on the faceplate in gold. it matches nicely with the cable, which is thin and very manageable. This IEM is the epitome of a pick up and play tuning taken to its logical flagship level conclusion. It’s just a shame it takes them so long to manufacture!
Duality – 2DD with pass porting design
The Duality was at the show as a demo model, and is not in production yet. They were reasonably coy about the design, but did confirm it consists of 2 dynamic drivers (one low, one mid/high). It was presented in a generic acrylic shell so I can’t comment on the intended design there, but it wil come with an optional impedance adapter to add an additional +5dB or thereabouts of bass shelf to the sub bass.
Sonically, the first thing you notice about the Duality is the fact it has stunningly good timbre, faaaaaat bass and still good mid and treble extension. When this launches, it will be the real deal for people who like low end in their music. It takes on design houses like Empire Ears and IMR Acoustics for raw grunt, but there is a musicality and overall balance to the tuning that really makes it something special.
It’s always a little misleading writing about demo tunings, but for a XXx tuned monitor, this is very rich, very thick but still resolving and ultimately very enjoyable. Even though the impedance adapter that makes it harder to drive than a nuclear power plant (in IEM terms), the added 5dB of low and sub bass makes “Palladio” by Escala absolutely boom out of the earpieces. It’s like being in a concert hall near the front by the large stack of Marshalls, just facing down the wall of air. Very fun.
One point to note about both of the nightjar models I tried is that they do require a really significant amount of power from your source to get to a decent listening level. This is an intended part of the design (so they can scale with higher end or more powerful amplification), but it does mean you’ll need to pair them with something beefy to get the best out of the sonics. Fortunately my Lotoo PAW6000 had no issues on high gain, but I did notice I had to run them a good 20 points higher on the volume pot than anything else on the day I tried that wasn’t an over-ear.
Vision Ears
VE10 –
1DD 9BA
Another popular stall was the Vision Ears stall, where Marcel from VE was happy to discuss the vagaries of IEM design with anyone who happened by. I didn’t have chance to try their Aura collar with A&K, but did make sure I found time to listen to the new flagship from their VE serious, the VE10.
Firing it up, the sub bass starts out strong on the usual test tracks by Emile Sande and Daft Punk, with some notably good positional cues and incidental sounds coming through on “Disc Wars”. The signature is rich yet quote balanced, definitely leaning towards a WTO my tired ears.
The shell design and build is amazing – low profile, very unique looking and very premium metal build and feel. It feels like a real step up from the acrylic models in my opinion. Back to the music, and “Get Lucky” has a nice punch of mid bass and a low and elastic bass line which doesn’t overpower. “Palladio” is again rich but balanced, with the detail coming through cleanly and not getting swallowed up by the richness of the strings. The “Beat It” bass drums slam with intent, and the guitar tone is fat and channels pure EVH. “Cello Wars” by the Piano. Guys is a change of pace, givin a very enjoyable and dense rendition to the orchestration, balanced against some delicate plucking clearly audible on the picked string notes in the intro section.
This IEM matches up to every expectation I had for VE based on their VE8 and Erlkonig tunings, adding a slap of solid DD physicality to that rich and slightly wet balanced tonality that makes their house sound. “Holy Wars” sounds really powerful in the drum fills, and nicely bright in the cymbal work. Not a hint of congestion, and the speed of the DD driver is impressive. Similar for “Ship Goes Down” by Walking On Cars, the sub bass that drenches the track envelops the music without overpowering it.
Switching back to more acoustic intrumentation, this is another IEM that excels with the tone of “Millionaire” by Chris Stapleton and the sweetness of the jangling nylon strings on his guitar intro. Piano tone across the board also sounds very real, with “Superman” by Five For Fighting giving a very smooth but still clear rendition, with the piano overtones and richness leaving a lasting impression in the ear, along with the surprisingly chunky bass.
“Go” by The Chemical Brothers is equally as enjoyable, the VE10 rendering a bright but punchy dance along from the UK electronic duo, with a driving cymbal track and a euphoric chorus. This is again another example of a tuning that is almost “balanced for bassheads” in its execution, with a wide but not over large stage and a big sonic presentation. The VE10 is a thick, warm and resolving IEM, with plenty of punch and flagship grade tone and resolution. It’s a very accomplished in ear, and the sort of tuning a flagship should aspire to (in my humble opinion) – just damn good fun.
Noble Audio
Spartacus –
4BA, 2BC
After owning the Kublai Khan for the best part of a year until very recently as my daily driver, it’s fair to say I am a fan of the overall Noble “house sound”. Again, their booth was pretty heavily subscribed over the time I was there, so I took the opportunity to check out one of their newest models that is just going into production, which also happens to be the latest one in their range to use bone conduction trickery.
The Spartacus has a nicely hefty sound – what are they putting in the BA water these days at Knowles and Sonion?! Overall, it sounded crisp, and quite forward – I need more time to make a better assessment, but if I had to try and pin the sound down, it feels most like a W shape from my brief impressions.
In the low end, “Heaven” and “Disc Wars” are both rendered with plenty of body, ignoring the fact there is no dynamic driver in this design to give a warm, chunky bass underpin to proceedings. The bass is north of neutral but definitely not wooly or smoothed over – “We Shall Not Be Moved” by Mavis Staples is full of micro detail in the lows, with the vocals hitting that Noble sweet spot of being…. well, forward and sweet. Bass is slightly softer than a classic DD in terms of sheer physical slam factor, but has a nice textured detailing. They have also done a really nice job with the coherency of the design – sounds blend really nicely, it isn’t easy to work out when BA ends and BC begins.
This model moves in to production as we speak, and should be a pretty strong contender in the sub $2k bracket it is being aimed at by the time it hits shelves. It has that richness and thickness of tone that classic Noble models like the K10 had, but plenty of resolve behind the weight too. It’s a nicely judged tuning, reminding me of models like the MMR Balmung in the way it definitely leans to the thick and musical, but without sacrificing much if anything in terms of clarity. Even Chris Stapleton sounds whiskey soaked but smooth through these, with only a whiff of that vinegary rasp that almost ruins “Whiskey and You” in the chorus every time you listen to it.
Shell design is recent Noble, so acrylic with a nice stabilised wood look to the faceplate. I think this could be the warmer, more musical successor to the Kublai Khan, adding slightly more weight and low end to the sound in exchange for the smallest bit of flagship level detailing. This will definitely resonate with people looking for a more musical model in the Noble range, or fans of the original Kaiser that put them on the map. Very good.
Effect Audio
I popped by the Effect Audio booth to try out the other Elysian Acoustics model on my hit list for the day, their collaboration with EE called the Gaea.
Gaea – 1DD 4BA
initial impressions are that this is not the thickest sound, with a pretty zesty V shape to the tuning. It definitely feels prominent and a little thin in the upper mids / lower treble, but with a very clear nod towards musical rather than analytical though. Starting on the lows, “Disc Wars” sounds ok-ish, with enough sub presence to hold interest, but it isn’t dominating the soundscape like it should on this track. Detail retrieval sounds good to very good for the price bracket (c. $1500). The drum fill that sweeps in to the track just lacks a little weight and dynamics compared to some other IEMs I’ve heard today, almost like the traditional BA texture vs DD slam sort of difference.
There is lots of texture and dryness on the bass guitar for “Hello, It’s Me” by Sister Hazel, and the drums practically crack in the ear they are so punchy and crisp. This IEM is borderline thin and slightly upper-mid prominent overall, so not really my bag, but the detailing is undeniable (the “Palladio: click is clear as day, for instance).
There is no denying it’s visually very nicel looking, with a small and ergonomic shell and an unusual but nice looking and feeling cable. Final impression it left me with was this it is a good IEM, but just for someone else when it’s paired with the stock cable.
On recommendation from the EE team, I tried it with their show pairing of the Cadmus (referred to as “The Beast” by them for reasons that will become apparent). That cable is thicker than the rope I used to tow my car the last time it broke down, and about as ergonomic, but it does feel very luxurious and nice in the hand. It’s like the original Dunu Hulk went to finishing school. It does add a shade more weight and depth to the GAEA low end, and definitely ups the resolution across the finer micro details to my ears, which was a pleasant surprise. There is more dynamism in the bass sweep on “Disc Wars” with this pairing. Similarly, “Hello, It’s Me” feels more liquid in the bass guitar, but the snap on the snare and the crunch on the guitar is even more prominent now. More of a good thing if you are looking for a monitor that has a healthy raise and focus on the upper mids / female vocal registers, but still not quite for me. I can see how it would be an affordable flagship for someone, though (affordable in the ironic modern day audiophile sense of the word, obviously).
Only thing that left me feel like "oh, come on" moment was when he repeated the -300 dB distortion hearing story. I wish he would have a setup that he can prove that. If Charles Darwin would be with us in the room, he would be very confused with his explanation that our brain possess the capability to process some information that is not needed for a large predator like us in the evolutionary process, that doesn't need to hear the insects walking on a tree, and that our auditory receptors are also a bottle neck - which can be confirmed with the other predators like cats which need to hear the tiniest of the noises in the wild, with more sophisticated receptors in larger numbers and a more sophisticated auditory system. We didn't evolve to be audiophiles in the end, but to survive.
only a bit more zen 
