Cross-posted from the Watercooler thread where I live(d):
Impressions CanJam Singapore
After a last minute-ish decision to check out the CanJam show in Singapore the floor under my feet opened yet again after some surprising demos. But by far the most memorable part was meeting up with so many Watercooler Kids; not only with regulars but also with incidental thread visitors here that have equally lost their way. And exactly like on the thread anyone who dared come too close to us was immediately embedded and became a friend of our ever growing group. It was therefore totally impossible to find everyone at the exact right moment for a group picture so I guess we'll have to rape history a bit and Photoshop Stacey and some others in
I was also very happy to spend quite a lot of time with Jim & John (Noble) and their wives, and very early this morning I had the FiRry Bros for myself for 20 minutes. Funny thing is that we didn't waste a minute talking about gear as we had so many other passions that connected us. I'm flying out with Bogdan in a couple of hours, but chances are one of us is going to end up in Business Class and for sure that won't be me! Not related, but I just received an email from Qatar Airways whether I wanted to upgrade my $450 flight for another eye-watering $1,700. I mean...
Last unexpected meet was with the owners of HeadphoneZone in Mumbai who admirably probably were the only ones that were at the show from the very first to the very last minute on both days. I caught a quick pick of his great t-shirt (which can be ordered for next to nothing on their website):
On to the show then!
Well, not so fast, as on Friday we had an overcrowded meet-up with about 10 of "us" at the tiny Jaben shop where every centimeter was occupied and I still managed to hear 2 different Storms with 3 different cables. I added yet another Storm with 2 other cables at the show so I got a fairly decent impression of all Storms out there I think. More on that later.
First my disappointments, to get that out of the way first.
After seeing this sign next to the entrance I should've known better, but I
still decided to give
Empire Ears Raven (prototype) and
Campfire Audio Trifecta some ear time. Oh boy...
My stubbornness unfortunately led to 2 one minute demos as the bass totally overpowered the rest during my acoustic music demos. Since I'm a
one-IEM-does-it-all kinda guy it didn't make sense to find out which genres they would actually shine with. Perhaps that's a missed chance but with so many other goodies around cutting corners is what kept me on track.
The most notable other disappointment was many others' show favourite
Elysian Dio which is in prototype stage with its tuning being 90% ready. I managed to get a handful of Coolers around Lee to take a pic for Jeff, and if I recall correctly it was with Jim's camera so I hope he will share later. I really admire what he manages to pull off as a mostly one-man enterprise but it's just not my kind of tuning unfortunately. It's just that I would love to support this kind of small-scale setups. Oh well...
I'm changing to my earlier used impressions format here so that I can easily find things back later. Not strictly chronological this time to keep it readable(ish).
Empire Ears Raven (prototype)
Like with Odyssey really nice mids and treble with great detail, but I felt that Raven was out of balance where I found Ody's bass shelf much more acceptable with a better focus on mids and treble.
Campfire Audio Trifecta
Unfortunately the bass was really overpowering for my very short acoustic music demo set.
Elysian Dio (prototype)
Elysian and me just don't have much synergy. I found the new prototype a bit nasal and rather squeezed sounding, and like with Annihilator 21 the timbre for the bass didn't match the timbre of the mids. Sub bass kicked in far too late for my taste and on some tracks I felt whole instruments in the mid bass / lower mids region were missing. Also like Anni 21 I found the mid bass very thumpy.
Nightjar Singularity
Of note: This is the cheapest IEM I ever listened to and I didn't know its price until after the demo when I found out it was actually 1k cheaper than I thought it would be, so take that into consideration when reading.
Too bass heavy for my liking, a bit wooly/boomy instead of tight and fast, drops a bit too fast from sub to mid bass, not really resolving, too polite, very coherent but needs to be faster/dynamic, vocals need to be a bit more forward/brighter, imaging not very good, a bit low-fi for acoustic guitar as string attack is not really there and tonality of acoustric strings was a bit off.
With
Mira 2 cable the balance improved but still too thick while slightly more treble emphasis was welcome. Vocals are slightly too lean for the rather thick bass.
With
Blue Hour cable by far the best tonal balance although a bit less less resolving. However, that cable is twice the price of the IEM.
Dita Audio Perpetua (with Violectric / Kondo / Audio Research front-end)
This was my show opener and it sounded soooo much better than the demo I had in Kuala Lumpur earlier on using RU6. This was a really great surprise, even with the price balance totally out of whack.
Much better resolution with this setup, tighter bass, and only sliiiightly tingly treble. Mids and coherence are absolutely fantastic for this single DD IEM. Although it's not a technical high-flyer at all I could easily live with this and totally get lost in music instead.
(With Lotoo PAW6000 - like most other demos)
Downscaling made it sound slightly veiled and more like I remembered it from a few months ago, less weight and impact in bass, too closed in. This one apparently scales really well and really needs some power and quality.
Joho Alpha Ti (limited edition)
Again I didn't know the price before demoing.
Pretty good! Could use a little warmth in bass and mids but that's it really, mids are a bit on the lean side but very natural sounding, not very resolving in bass and misses bit impact, can become slightly upfront/aggressive which I think is because of the cable. Really liked it. Until I found out the price. This one plays in the 2.5-3k league for me; not 4k.
Vision Ears Phönix LE
This is one of the brands that unfortunately don't do it for me, no matter how excellent some of the aspects of the 6 models that I've listened to are. Case in point:
Superb tonal balance but in the end too lean with too little body in bass and mids, overall (not just in the bass) missing the timbre I'm looking for so unfortunately for me in this case BA mids is a thing, slightly too bright, fantastic dynamics, fantastic imaging, and fantastic detail level. I still don't know what exactly is missing in Vision Ears IEMs for me and discussing this with the very nice crew didn't solve the mystery. My best guess was it's the relative lack of note weight in combination with some timbre shortcomings but I really can't tell. Such a pity as I liked everything else to pieces.
The following IEMs I demoed a few times and on the last day they were the only thing I focussed on. From (relatively!) worst to best for me:
Subtonic Storm
With HiBy RS8 and PW Audio Orpheus
Mid bass not articulate enough, both mid bass timbre and (surprisingly) tonality are a bit off, too much focus on mid bass, vocals great with a perfect front positioning but a bit veiled, lower treble sounded a bit squeezed, superb dynamics and imaging.
With HiBy RS8 and OG cable
Misses a little weight in mid bass, vocals veil is lifted, bit flatter sound overall, now misses warmth in mids, sliiightly too bright and a bit aggressive.
With HiBy RS8 and PW Audio 1950s
Perfect except still missing a bit of warmth, timbre in sub and mid bass greatly improved but still not there. Despite being much cheaper than Orphy this was my preferred combination.
With Lotoo PAW6000 and 2 more cables
Bit too nasal and squeezed, not very open sounding, resolution in mids doesn't match treble, now more problems with timbre of the mids than of the bass, making me think this front-end is simply not good enough for Storm.
In the end Storm and I didn't become friends; mostly because of the tonality/timbre issues I had with its mid bass. In absolute terms I think Storm should be priced around 3.5k-4k to be truly competitive. Please don't tell me I didn't try hard enough to make it work...
Unique Melody Multiverse Mentor
With stock cable
Like with my earlier demos in Ho Chi Minh City Mentor didn't completely convince me timbre-wise. Having demoed it after the next 2 IEMs made me realize even more that I find it:
A bit too closed in sounding, lacking some air and perhaps life (as in breathing?), sliiightly boomy bass, bit strident upper mids / lower treble. And maybe a quality issue some won't be surprised about, but when lifting them from the table one of the shells simply fell off. Can't have it all at that giveaway price I guess...
And yep! A shared number one position that I really have to give some thought should I want to divorce Sultan.
After I was really dissapointed with earlier demos of Kr5 and Xe6 Simmy insisted I gave Radon 6 a try as
"You will simply love it! Really your kind of tuning". Yeah, right...
But Holy Moly, he hit the nail on the head! The third time
is a charm. I just don't know whether some of its superb qualities during the demo would bite me in the back during long-term listening.
FiR Audio Radon 6 (limited edition)
Excellent balance but quite (and perhaps too) bright, very dynamic, very resolving, great imaging, all the time discovering new instruments on demo tracks that I have possibly used 500 times before. Imaging is fantastic with a huge stage even for small acoustic ensembles, and lots of space around instruments and vocalists that are very 3D/palpable on top of that.
With PW Audio August Fun the brightness problem was quickly solved but the bass becomes sliiiightly boomy and vocals lose some weight. The solution is probably the "same as always": PW Audio 1950s but I couldn't check. But me thinks that both imaging and the way new details are discovered all the time might lead to first distraction and later fatigue. On the other hand: Those details
were recorded for a reason and that reason was
to be heard.
I think I may have to go through Bogan's hand luggage tonight when he's asleep
at the wheel in the plane.
Noble Audio Ronin
Again, during my 2nd and 3rd demo Ronin showed off its perfect tonal balance, but without being able to swap cables it still needs a slightly better tonal richness in my opinion, and it could also use slightly fuller bass and mids, ever so slightly better timbre, and better dynamics. But overall I find Ronin the very best compromise out there - as it really isn't one - and I think all imperfections can be cured with a better cable pairing. It's just that apart from its top position in literally all fields it doesn't outshine all others in any single aspect. And that weakness may be its ultimate strength.
Now it's finally time to catch up with the thread again and before signing off I really like to read the CanJam impressions from much Cooler friends!
drftr
haha 
.
Do you know the price and where to order it?
