[drewbadour]

@crinacle just curious, which are the top 5 IEMs do you personally own and which one is your absolute favorite?

 

[alexsozon]

Hi!
What about graph of InEar ProMission X?
Thanks!!)

 

[WinterCharm]

Hey @crinacle how should I get in touch with you about sending you my personal NuForce HEM8’s to include in the list?

Motivation here is the missing gap in the NuForce / Optoma HEM# lineup and how different the HEM8’s are to the HEM 2/4/6 (I’ve heard all 4) - and would like to see the measurements for the HEM8.

 

[ljnew]

@crinacle i was wondering why you ranked empire ears evo lower than legend x?

 

[ljnew]

I have no doubt the people behind EE and CA are great people that stand behind their products. I also agree with you that they are make good quality products now. What I have issue with is specifically the very first hi-end products of them, the first product that they made and thought, "wow, people are *really* gonna like this". For EE, that's Legend R; for CA, that's Vega. I'm criticizing their past, knowing that they've grown better. If you weren't in this hobby back then, good for you for looking past that. It's like a capable politician having said some terrible things when they were young; some people can look past that, some can't.

Regarding consumer feedback: I think there's a healthy balance. Consumer buys Beats/Apple, does that mean you should tune your products that way? Consumer says Harman curve sounds good, does that mean you should tune that way? A good example of following the trend would be U18s deviating from U18t to be more Z1R/Harman-like. On the other hand, you have Vision Ears, JH, Etymotic, Westone, Ocharaku, following strictly to their house sound for decades, in their entire product range. I respect the latter more, even though I personally dislike the house sound of Etymotic, Westone, Ocharaku.

How do you compare z1r to u18s they sound nothing alike? But i agree u18s doesn't sound like the usual 64 audio tuning imho.

 

[iDesign]

How do you compare z1r to u18s they sound nothing alike? But i agree u18s doesn't sound like the usual 64 audio tuning imho.

Nothing alike. The A/U18s was given a low B+.
https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Z1R_S3,A18S_S2

 

[ljnew]

Nothing alike. The A/U18s was given a low B+
https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Z1R_S3,A18S_S2

Wow i didn't know u18s has more sub bass than z1r. I guess that dynamic driver just hits harder.

Have you heard legend x?

 

[IChen]

@crinacle i was wondering why you ranked empire ears evo lower than legend x?

probably something to do with tuning?

 

[iDesign]

Wow i didn't know u18s has more sub bass than z1r. I guess that dynamic driver just hits harder.

Have you heard legend x?

While frequency response measurements are useful, it is difficult to appreciate all the other problems with the U/A18s which I suspect are related to the "first of its kind crossover" network. With respect to bass performance, it has poor resolution and definition/control and it has the effect of reducing the impact— especially compared to the IER-Z1R which has arguably among the best bass performance of any in ear monitor.

 

[ljnew]

My opinion on Crin's opinion on Legend Evo:

This is should be common knowledge by now, but all Crin's opinion about tuning is based on stationary listening, in-door, in a dead silent environment. If you ever have to take your IEM out and about, say a walking along a quiet sidewalk, you will need more bass than what Crin considers adequate (due to cable rubbing against the back of your ears and your shirt, the fact that you can hear your own breathing, the bone conduction of your own footsteps, etc etc).

I have no problem with Crin's evaluation method; this is his job and he needs quick turnaround time. But keep in mind that when you use an IEM, most of the time you will not be using it sitting down in a dead silent environment (otherwise you should be buying headphones or speakers), and manufacturers take that into consideration when designing a product.

But he ranks the legend x highly. Also ranks the Z1R highly. Both of those iems are excellent for out door use. He also ranks mest mk2 higher which has the bone conduction driver. All those iems are excellent for outdoors imho as that's my primary use case.

Bggar and crinacle rank the evo about the same and they have different opinions and look for different things. They both love legend x.

I don't always agree with their rankings either.

I never heard the evo but i love the legend x. But Crinacle definitely has good recommendations for outdoors and i don't believe his recommendations are only good for indoor quiet usage.

 

[ljnew]

Not at all. It's his opinion, and I know how he likes his sound. EVO is way off his preference curve. I used to go by Crin's ratings until I learned the differences in our preferences. All credit to him for staying consistent.

Yeah that's just daft. Opinion or not it's just not factual.

I've heard a few people say lx is more technical than evo in the ee forum .

 

[ljnew]

Agreed, although technicalities should be less subjective than tonality, at least in terms of assessment. I mean, it should be easy enough to score resolution, stage width/depth/height, imaging, separation, dynamics on a scale. Especially if you have such a large basis for comparison.

That said, and as with everything else in this hobby, it seems YMMV applies to this too. Just because I'm hearing more details with one IEM over another doesn't mean others do.

No one ever says the songs or genre they listen to. I think that's where a ton of the confusion comes in. It makes a world of difference.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

But he ranks the legend x highly. Also ranks the Z1R highly. Both of those iems are excellent for out door use. He also ranks mest mk2 higher which has the bone conduction driver. All those iems are excellent for outdoors imho as that's my primary use case.

Bggar and crinacle rank the evo about the same and they have different opinions and look for different things. They both love legend x.

I don't always agree with their rankings either.

I never heard the evo but i love the legend x. But Crinacle definitely has good recommendations for outdoors and i don't believe his recommendations are only good for indoor quiet usage.

Once you get a chance to hear 20 or more of the top 20-30 IEMs and listen to several hundred hours of music in all use cases, sources and against each other, you will get a much better understanding of your own personal preferences. Crinacle is an excellent place to start when you haven't heard much because he has an internal consistent methodology for ranking IEMs. Most of his highly ranked IEMs are safe choices and are unlikely to match your own perferences exactly. You need to go thorugh a discovery process to learn what you actually like and that is the fun of being an audiophile. What you will find if you hang around long enough is that each audiophile's favorites are like finger prints. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. You can tell by looking at the top 10 ranked IEMs for everyone and try to see whose tastes are most similar to yours and watch for their impressions after hearing something new.

For me, here are my top 10. Nobody on Headfi has exactly this list. Go to the thread ranking IEMs and you will see the diversity of taste.

My current top 10 IEMs:
1. Unique Melody Red Halo FE
2. Aroma Jewel
3. Elysian Annihilator
4. Vision Ears EXT
5. Empire Ears Legend EVO
6. Empire Ears Odin
7. Oriolus Traillii
8. Unique Melody MEST Indigo
9. Sony IER-Z1R
10. Empire Ears Legend X (custom)

 

[ljnew]

Once you get a chance to hear 20 or more of the top 20-30 IEMs and listen to several hundred hours of music in all use cases, sources and against each other, you will get a much better understanding of your own personal preferences. Crinacle is an excellent place to start when you haven't heard much because he has an internal consistent methodology for ranking IEMs. Most of his highly ranked IEMs are safe choices and are unlikely to match your own perferences exactly. You need to go thorugh a discovery process to learn what you actually like and that is the fun of being an audiophile. What you will find if you hang around long enough is that each audiophile's favorites are like finger prints. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. You can tell by looking at the top 10 ranked IEMs for everyone and try to see whose tastes are most similar to yours and watch for their impressions after hearing something new.

For me, here are my top 10. Nobody on Headfi has exactly this list. Go to the thread ranking IEMs and you will see the diversity of taste.

My current top 10 IEMs:
1. Unique Melody Red Halo FE
2. Aroma Jewel
3. Elysian Annihilator
4. Vision Ears EXT
5. Empire Ears Legend EVO
6. Empire Ears Odin
7. Oriolus Traillii
8. Unique Melody MEST Indigo
9. Sony IER-Z1R
10. Empire Ears Legend X (custom)

Yes I've been following your reviews/comments as well for some time now and I appreciate your input!

I've been in this hobby since 2014 and likely before if we count less than $1000 iems. I know some things but always willing to learn more.

I developed a method for making blind purchases and i take crins and bggar rankings into consideration mainly because they will admit when they don't like something and bggar listens to some of the same genres as i do. Because of them and other reviewers, i bought legend x.

However, i don't always agree with them. Crinacle has mangird tea b or c tier with bad tuning. I disagree.

Bggar has xenns up above legend x. No way on God's Green earth where xenns up is better than lx. Lx in another league imho.

They both have z1r above lx. I can understand why, but I disagree.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Yes I've been following your reviews/comments as well for some time now and I appreciate your input!

I've been in this hobby since 2014 and likely before if we count less than $1000 iems. I know some things but always willing to learn more.

I developed a method for making blind purchases and i take crins and bggar rankings into consideration mainly because they will admit when they don't like something and bggar listens to some of the same genres as i do. Because of them and other reviewers, i bought legend x.

However, i don't always agree with them. Crinacle has mangird tea b or c tier with bad tuning. I disagree.

Bggar has xenns up above legend x. No way on God's Green earth where xenns up is better than lx. Lx in another league imho.

They both have z1r above lx. I can understand why, but I disagree.

That's great. Bggar does a good job at describing why he likes things. He tends to like classic rock music and he likes the center stage like he is around row 10. EVO sounds more like you are on stage with the musicians so he won't like it. Crin loves the Monarch mkii. It has great tuning and is decent technically, but it is boring as heck.