[toaster]

It’s not about being banned.

It’s about using the word, “trash” less in describing your thoughts. It’s just not that informative (we get you don’t like it,) but focus more on why you don’t like it...that’s more valuable to readers.

Shame you didn’t enjoy the Elysium.

Considering there is one ba doing the bass, to me it’s incredible, and among the best ba bass I’ve heard.

I get the feeling you like dd bass.

 

[seamon]

It’s not about being banned.

It’s about using the word, “trash” less in describing your thoughts. It’s just not that informative (we get you don’t like it, but focus more on why you don’t like it...that’s more valuable to readers.

Shame you don’t enjoy the Elysium.

Considering there is one ba doing the bass, to me it’s incredible, and among the best ba bass I’ve heard.

I get the feeling you like dd bass.

I also wrote a lot more than trash though.
Yes, I like DD bass but VE8, U12t and U18 do bass just fine with BAs

 

[toaster]

have you heard the erlky yet @seamon ?

 

[seamon]

have you heard the erlky yet?

I am actually going back to CIEMs. I tried UIEMs for a year and miss having CIEMs. I am on a search for the perfect CIEM right now. So I will probably pass on the Erlkonig

 

[toaster]

i swore i'd never buy another universal again...but then i heard the erlky.

definitely worth a listen to hear one company's interpretation of bas tuned at their absolute finest.

what ciems are you eyeing right now?

 

[seamon]

i swore i'd never buy another universal again...

...but then i heard the erlky.

I mean yeah, I only use IEMs when I am traveling. Mostly use speakers but having a great reference pair of CIEMs is useful when I am travelling and especially if I need to do some audio work.

 

[seamon]

what ciems are you eyeing right now?

Right now my very shortlist consists of:
A18s (if it's darker than A18). A18 was too bright for me.
A12t

Auditioned most of current flagship offerings and nothing caught my fancy.

 

[toaster]

love my a18t...looking forward to hearing the s myself as well.

good luck finding your perfect ciem!

 

[Rockwell75]

Elysium:

Spoiler: Hope I don't get banned from future tours for this

Some of the worst bass you can get in a flagship. Bass is straight up trash. Bass is flabby, lacks impact, lacks extension, bad to decent texture and is just generally bad. Like it astounds me - how can bass be this bad? It is so bad. So very bad. If I were an IEM maker, I would be ashamed. Bass Speed is the only thing that gets a pass.

Some of the most resolving mids I have ever heard in an IEM. That said, lower midrange sounds nasally, this is probably because of pinna compensation done wrong. Male vocals make me cringe every time I hear them on the Elysium. It's akin to the feeling when you have to sneeze but the sneeze just won't come out. Tonality is off. Upper midrange is great. Some of the best in fact. I wish the tonality wasn't so off because the midrange is actually the one good thing about this.

My Treble preference is towards the darker side so I find Elysium a little bit bright for my tastes especially the 8kHz peak which I find fatiguing but I reckon this won't be a problem for most people.
That said, Treble is super fast and airy. Treble weight is on the lighter side around the VE8 level, maybe lighter courtesy of its speed. Treble is faster than VE8.

Soundstage is decent, nothing special. This is the absolute minimum soundstage I would accept in a flagship IEM. Separation and Imaging is good. You are not getting pin point accurate Imaging you get in IEMs such as Zeus but there's nothing to complain about.

I am sorry. This is just not my thing. I hope no Elysium fans are offended. We all hear things differently, have different ear structures and prefer different sound signatures. Elysium at the end of the day was just not the IEM for me.

Edit: Source is RME ADI-2 DAC Headphones output.

Wow...this sounds like it might not be my thing after all. What are your thoughts on the VE8? It's my current favorite at the moment and I had thought that you would enjoy it.

 

[Ricky64]

Just received VE8 & Elysium yesterday,

Initial review, Elysium specialty like everyone says its vocal. Feels like in a lounge, spot is on the singer, with the spotlight shining on it, all the musical instruments play the supporting roles. Vocal seems more forward compared to the rest, vocal has greater clarity and resolution compared to the rest. It sounds like analogue kind of sound. Softer, more gentle. Vocal powerhouse iem specialty.

As for VE8, it sounds very balanced, I want to say its loud, clarity and resolution sounds pretty close to Erlkonig, except Erl has greater realism, greater emotional sway. I didn't play a lot with all the different settings with Erl, used setting #2. I really like Erl, but VE8 is very close to it. Considering price, I would probably consider getting VE8; but I think it depends on synergy with the rest of your gear. For me, VE8 matches very closely to my preference.

Hi everyone;
Thanks so much to @Barra for putting these tours together. I had my chance to compare these two, and it was very informative.
I own a 64 Tia Trio and a Sony Z1R. My listening preferences are wide ranging, but likely come down to hard bop jazz and female vocals. I do listen to classical and grunge, but the latter sound better on my home system and my Final D8000 headphones.

The more I've listened to the Z1R, the more I am amazed at its technical capabilities. IMHO, Sony went for big bass and spacious imaging; basically, trying to get an iem to sound more like conventional headphones or two channel. They did this at the expense of lower midrange warmth, in order to avoid destructive interference and bleeding in these frequencies. Whether you like this or not, it is successful.
The Elysium accomplishes the exact opposite. It has outstanding lower midrange warmth while maintaining good inner resolution in this range. Images are larger and closer.
I really liked this, and it compliments the Z1R well. The Elysium is extremely good with acoustic jazz, and music that would be played in more intimate venues.

I started with an InEar PP8. It was technically excellent, but ultimately too cool for my tastes. When I owned it, I would gaze longingly at conversations of the VE8, which seemed technically excellent while painting with a warmer palate. At this time, listening to the VE8 in the mix with my Tia Trio, Z1R, and the Elysium, I feel it is left behind.
Perhaps on its own over extended listening it reveals its charms, but I am not a buyer at this price. Everyone speaks of the "decay" of a DD. I am one of those that find it much better than BA. Comparing the Elysium and the VE8 reminds me also that there is a very unnatural "attack" with a BA. For those that get the kit, listen to well recorded piano.
There is a big difference in how these are transcribed by the VE8 and the Elysium with, IMHO, a big superiority to the latter.

In terms of high frequencies, I prefer the timbre of the Sony Z1R first (although it is quantitatively a bit too much in its tuning) followed by the Elysium. I find a crunchy timber to BA treble in my Tia Trio that isn't ideal, and the VE8 sounded a bit rolled off compared to the others.

The above are my takes, and not absolute truths. YMMV.

Thanks Everone!

Rick

 

[Jalo]

It's easy to compare side by side (too obvious when compared like this), but by memory, it can be a bit fuzzy. I don't believe people can recall sound qualities over a long period of time, but they can recall stuff abstractly noted when they heard the item. Comparing quality of what you immediately heard to notes from memory is difficult to have confidence in. By memory, it's probably easy to see similarities in terms of tonality, but technicalities are far apart. Technicalities are specific qualities focused in on when analyzing iems by hearing, and to be reliable, must be done quickly side by side. Elysium also surpasses VE8 in terms of technicalities, but I didn't like the way the universal's tonality was.

The following is one of my post back in 2017:

“Here is the link to the study on auditory memory.

http://www.yamahaproaudio.com/globa...ing/audio_quality/chapter4/02_audio_universe/

Where it says in the seventh paragraph, "The maximum time that humans can remember detailed audio signals in their short term aural activity image memory (echoic memory) is reported to be 20 seconds by Georg Sperling(*4L"

I find people who try to compare an iem to another iem from memory iffy at best. We have all tried doing ABAB comparison before and how many times we need to repeat a certain passages again and again just so we are sure of what we heard is accurate. Sometimes even after just one minute we have forgotten the music we hold in our memory and have to repeat the passage.

Edit: I just tried the link and it is a broken link by now. So I look up new info.

”Overview[edit]
Shortly after George Sperling's partial report studies of the visual sensory memory store, researchers began investigating its counterpart in the auditory domain. The term echoicmemory was coined in 1967 by Ulric Neisser to describe this brief representation of acoustic information. It was initially studied using similar partial report paradigms to those utilized by Sperling; however, modern neuropsychological techniques have enabled the development of estimations of the capacity, duration, and location of the echoic memory store. Using Sperling's model as an analogue, researchers continue to apply his work to the auditory sensory store using partial and whole report experiments.They found that the echoic memory can store memories for up to 4 seconds. However, different durations have been proposed involving how long the echoic memory stores the information once it is heard.[6] However, different durations have been proposed for the existing echo once the hearing signal has been presented. Guttman and Julesz suggested that it may last approximately one second or less, while Eriksen and Johnson suggested that it can take up to 10 seconds.[7]”

 

[SilverEars]

Elysium:Hope I don't get banned from future tours for this

Right now my very shortlist consists of:
A18s (if it's darker than A18). A18 was too bright for me.
A12t

Auditioned most of current flagship offerings and nothing caught my fancy.

It's an impression. It would be fascist to ban somebody from future tours from speaking out what they thought. We appreciate the freedom of expression in this country, and in forums.

I heard many people say that U18 was bright, and from the tour kit I only tried their foam tips. I wonder if that helped as I didn't hear any real annoyance with the response. It could be considered bright, but not annoying like peaks in the response. Like for example on the Elysium, there was an emphasis in the treble that reduced balance and wasn't pleasing to say the least.

Holy crap that A12t looks rolled-off!. You like dark! The Erlk is between the two. The U18t looks leveled out treble and Erlk declines downward, but not drastic like A12t!

 

[Rockwell75]

At this time, listening to the VE8 in the mix with my Tia Trio, Z1R, and the Elysium, I feel it is left behind.

I've never heard the Ely but I found the VE8 to be a substantial step up from the Trio and the Z1R in most key areas. YMMV and all that. I wish this tour was available in Canada...

 

[toaster]

@Rockwell75 - i feel like you should put a disclaimer on your ve8 thoughts. your reshelled, universal ve8 likely sounds way different than any other ve8 out there.

we often discuss slight unit variance from the factory...you've got a third-party re-shelled, universal version of a ciem!

 

[Rockwell75]

@Rockwell75 - i feel like you should put a disclaimer on your ve8 thoughts. your reshelled, universal ve8 likely sounds way different than any other ve8 out there.

we often discuss slight unit variance from the factory...you've got a third-party re-shelled, universal version of a ciem!

Fair point, and I have stated as such in my formal impressions posts. That said, from everyone I've talked to and the info I've gleaned from reading impressions my VE8 sounds very consistent with the universal demo that VE sends out. I would like to have it measured some day though.