prismstorm
100+ Head-Fier
I received my mojo today, here is my feedback:
I purchased a pair of Shure SE846 2 weeks ago. It was my first pair of high end iem (my other gear is Westone UM1, Q701 and SR325i).
Until now I was using the Shure on my Macbook pro retina 13 and on my Iphone 5s. After the first wow reaction I felt listening through them was actually very weird. After short listening sessions (30 min), I was really feeling sick and kinda nauseous and needed to pull them out from my ears. I don't know if it was due to the bass or something else but I was quite disappointed given the money I spent. I red the SE846 forums and didn't read any feedback expressing such feeling so I assume the problem was with me...
Anyhow, with the mojo, the listening is totally different. There is of course a little more details, more bass impact, better soundstage and clarity, but the biggest and most obvious difference to me is the "lightness" of the sound. The SE846 are now a pleasure to listen and are not tiring anymore at all.
I thought it may a psychologic feeling at first so I asked my fiancee to do a blind test between the mojo and macbook pro. I was quite anxious since in my experience blind tests often fail. However, I'm happy to say that for the five tests (one track is listened during 1 min on each device), she has been able to recognize the mojo over the mbp quite immediately. She found more clarity on the mojo but also felt physical discomfort with the macbook pro.
I'm more than happy with my purchase and also recommend to anybody who is listening the Shure on iphone or macbook pro to try them on something else.
I also got the sick and nauseous feeling for nearly a month when I got my SE846, but after getting accustomed to them through brief, controlled listening sessions I feel fine now listening to it. You just need to listen to it more and get used to the sound ("brain burn in"). I was upgrading from a Westone 4R and the sound was much more lively, visceral and mid-forward, all these contributed to an overwhelming fullness of sound flowing into my ears and I guess I got dizzy and nauseous from that initially, until I stuck with it and after a month of use it got way better. I now have the same nauseous, overwhelmed feeling listening to my new Laylas because with the comply tips they sound too 3D, warm and full.
this is one of my first posts here, but I'm a long time lurker etc, anyway I've literally tried so many headphone and DAC combos, you name it I've probably bought it and tried it. I was convinced after buying the SE846 I had found heaven, so much so that the output from a Macbook pro (which has a decent DAC built in) was as (nearly) good as the Dragonfly, Meridian, Oppo, B&O A200p, etc etc... the difference was minimal. I bought the Mojo last week and can safely say this one is a keeper, finally found a combo that makes a discernible difference to my listening thats worth the extra hassle
The only problem I would say, is with badly produced music, it can make instruments become part of the soundstage that distract me from how I remember it, there's a few tracks that now have what was once distant background guitar, made up front and loud.. this I can forgive for the pure pleasure of hearing some favs made even more rich and detailed that it adds to my original pleasure!
and all this happened just as I had resigned myself to save for the Chord Hugo to find the difference I was looking for...
Thank you Chord!
I tried my SE846 out of a Mojo connected to an AK120ii and did not find it more pleasant than simply playing it out of the DAP alone. I talked with my shop and think that due to the 846 having such a low impedance and not needing much power to drive, the Mojo simply made it way too brutal and powerful. Everything felt like it has too much energy, sounds were harsh, grazing, and overly bright. Sibilance was very apparent and more noticeable than straight out of the 120ii. I was on the blue filter and have not tried black filters with the Mojo.
My very brief impressions with the Layla out of Mojo was positive however, the bass tightened and moved faster, and improved the clarity and air. I think the Mojo has quite a clean, clear, hi-fi sound, and therefore pairs better with more warm, lush iems than bright ones.