Here are my listening notes. I'm not interested in headphones and so went to IEMs for the most part. Before I get into the impressions, I'll say that most of the fun was in getting to know other members of the community and the company staff and engineers about topics aside from headphones/IEMs as consumables, tbh. Otherwise it felt like heading to the farmer's market to get groceries.
To describe myself a little bit, I value transparency, texture/tactility, and instrument separation as intangibles in my sonic reproduction. My preferred tuning targets are the In-Ear Fidelity neutral target with a bass shelf that has a bit more midbass/body than the Harman bass shelf does for analytical listening, and something close to the Sony WF-1000XM4 stock tuning for a relaxed target.
NB/EDIT: I primarily used this playlist on the iBasso DX300 with amp11mk1 and a few songs off of this playlist to assess the transducers below. . Notably, I occasionally sampled from this playlist: .
I spent a lot of time with some IEMs and the ifi GO Blu:
Dunu Falcon Pro (reference nozzle): Thick Done Right. Very good sense of dynamic range. Lot of midbass but only gets a bit unclear in busy passages with female vocals. Otherwise it's a very chill listen with excellent sense of tactility, note weight, and surprising clarity and instrument separation, on average. The transparency nozzle helps a bit with the relaxed mids. Very eargonomic fit.
Dunu Zen Pro: IEF Neutral with Slam. As someone who owns a Prisma Audio Azul and considers the Blessing 2 mildly V-shaped, the Zen Pro sounds like neutral with excellent, detailed slam and decent extension. The bass feels like it's always there and actually underneath yet never in the way of the mids and highs. It feels like the bass is one cake layer that goes up to my mouth, above which the vocalists and cymbals and the like exist. Excellent instrument separation, in that regard. Very good microdetail and overall resolution, along with great sense of body. Pretty eargonomic fit. Out of all the items I listed here, this one was my favorite.
Dunu SA6: Very good example of laidback and detailed. Very good sense of heft to drums. Imaging is alright, but clean electric guitars stay clean sounding. Bass is nicely elevated and rounded but not quite as tactile as its DD cousins. Mids are a bit gritty but don't get in the way of actual vocal grit. Extended and non-intrusive treble. Also quite eargonomic. This is def a dead ringer for a baby u12t. Speaking of which...
64audio u12t: The step up from the SA6. Excellent example of laidback and detailed. Consonant sounds and drumkits had great body in the Zen and Falcon Pro, but here it's on another level. It's very close to a DD in tactility but comes up a bit short to how the Zen Pro slams, imo. m20 module seemed excellent for my live performance test track but the m15 module seemed best for it as an all-rounder. Great extension on both ends, with plenty of instrument separation, imaging and sense of staging distance to boot. A little big but fairly comfortable in the ear.
Symphonium Helios: Fun yet lean and clean. Fun subbass and very clean vocals at the expense of some midbass body. Not as dynamic as the U12t but solid on this front, as it makes cymbals, snares, and synths only a bit more compressed/pancake-y. Images better than the SA6, with great reproduction of vocal grit. The subbass helps makes some harmonies and beats more authoritative and satisfying than on the U12t. I actually prefer the Helios with Sedna Crystals for the additional air. It is leaner and cleaner in tonality than the U12t, I think. For better or for worse. Felt slightly bigger than the u12t and a little too tall for the Weiss cable I brought with me.
ifi GO blu: Beautiful BT DAC/amp. With the XBass and XSpace analog EQ, my copy of the Prisma Audio Azul was a perfect pairing for it. Has fewer features than my Qudelix-5k, but the knob, 4.4mm connection, and other few features it has are pretty well done, though its Bluetooth range seems to be somewhere inbetween that of the Qudelix-5k and BTR5. For sure, the Qudelix-5k easily outranges this, lasts longer, and is ultimately the better pick insofar as Bluetooth DAC/amps go imo, but that analog EQ and build is quite nice.
The following items got less ear time than the ones above. Not due to them being lower quality items, but due to fatigue, time constraints, or environmental constraints.
Auribus Acoustics Everest: Excellent all-rounder. Very well-extended into the subbass, despite being an open-back dynamic. Mids sounded spot-on, and the treble just needs to be bumped up a bit to being a great example of neutral. Satisfying rumble and slam. Comfortable to wear. Great imaging and resolution.
Philphone: Very good headphone. Bass is great, there's none of the treble peakiness I felt with the E-Mu Rosewood, and mids sound less harsh or dry. Imaging and microdetail is also great. Very lightweight.
Dunu Luna: According to Tom from Dunu, it was pretty hard to tune the beryllium driver with their patented driver design (which they have improved upon, as the Zen Pro and Falcon Pro demonstrates!) and that does seem to show. Overall, the tonality is fine but the treble is kinda sharp sounding and the mids are a bit hollow. However, the bass is tighter and punchier than on the Zen Pro, with better resolution to boot.
Moondrop Variations: Well tuned, for sure. Mids sound overly gritty. Bass is fun though could use a bit more slam. Treble is actually detailed but could use a bit more air. But busy passages make this IEM kinda average in separation, like with the Blessing 2. I had issues with the Blessing 2 bass being too forward and I'm having them here again.
Thieaudio Clairvoyance (so hard to visually tell this apart from the Monarch): Brighter than the Variations, kinda thin sounding actually. Vocal grit is smoothed over and kinda...wispy even. Nice bass. Very mixed bag imo. A pain to wear for my concha.
Thieaudio Monarch: Okay this one is way better. Leaner and cleaner than the Clairvoyance, but not lacking midbass or body for fast and slow drumkit sections. Unlike the Clairvoyance, resolution and microdetail is excellent in the mids. Also a pain to wear for my concha.
Blessing 2 Dusk: Well-tuned. My sibilance track is a bit harsh on even the HD600, so having none here at all is a job well done. However, this still sounds as smoothed over as I recall the B2 was. Nice bass.
64audio tia Duo: Dipped mids were very distracting, I didn't want listen to this one very much. With the intermediate amount of isolation, you can tell (with no music playing) that there are conversations happening next to you, but can't really make out the words.
Meze Elite: Felt as boxy and cloudy as the Focal Stellia did. Could not tolerate listening to either for more than a few seconds. I would never want to own anything with that sound signature out-of-the-box unless I got them for free.
