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I have listened to STORM a bunch of times. I try not to listen too long just so I can save my walletWould love more impressions of the Storm, and the Unique Melody higher end offerings if anyone would like to share.
So far, nothing really has come close to STORM in terms of detail retrieval or scalability. It sounds different on most sources and requires a stupid amount of power to run. THe treble is linear without too much peakiness. It can run bright and a bit lean, but the bass absolutely kicks in the subbass. A bit of a boost at 200 hz adds some warmth, but kinda messes with the timbre. Personally, I like Annihilator 2023 better because it isn't hard to drive. I am also not a producer so having a lot of bass and treble contrast is really nice for my time with music. Right now, it feels like Annihilator 2023 and STORM are at the top and then everything else has compromises I don't like.
I spent a fair bit of time at Musiktek booth getting to hear as much as I could. If I had to rank UM IEMS I would say it would be Mentor, Mest Mk3, French Duo, Amber Pearl.
Mentor had a lot of warmth and a much more unique presentation than anything else. I don't want to call it speaker like, but the treble was quite refined and crisp while the bass didn't slam super hard it had nice quality to it. The timbre of the mids was not super special to me, but certainly passable.
Mest Mk3 is the best value of UM IEMs. It's 90% of the technical IEM that all the other ones are at 1/8th the price or possibly even less. Crispy highs, easy mids and satisfying bass. If you're looking for an all rounder, this can do it all. It has some peakiness but I would sacrifice that for $1500 vs $4500.
French duo- felt lackluster in res. I don't think they were really doing anything extra compared to Mest and I just didn't really get it. Guitars had a bit of bluntness and something seemed off on the tuning.
Amber Pearl- Similair issues to the french duo, but didn't spend as much time with. I didn't really feel engaged and first impressions pushed me towards mentor which was cheaper anyway so this was an easy pass for me.
My biggest shock of the show was Icelabs Prismatica. It was only $899 and it reminded me a bit of 64audio IEMs. The bass was bloomy but also impactful, It's not as kicking as STORM, Crimson, Singularity or even Mest, but overall quite good. The treble was a bit spicy, but honestly I liked it. I was hoping for a bit more lower mid prescence, but I liked this set very much. Res was Mest levels and for half the price. My only issue is I thought the face plate of the regular edition was ugly. The special gold edition was nicer, but all of the cables has "mascots"
STEALTH EDIT: I tried Pilgrim and hated it. I think by the time I got to the show floow unit it was broken. Staging was super narrow and it was shouty, honky and thin. It was my biggest disappointment. I'm hoping it was actually broken so I can try to demo again. It had none of the Anni wow factor with all of the "flaws."
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