Riobuds 300Ohm LCP mini Review
A belated New Year gift to myself arrived in February. As an owner of 3 pairs of
Riobuds, I couldn't resist ordering the 300 Ohm LCP to add to the collection. The fact that all Riobuds share the same excellent shell (ergonomic and sonic masterpieces IMO) a new color was required in order for me to identify them correctly, so purple was decided upon! I paired them with the excellent 4.4 balanced XINSH4 core 6N single crystal copper cable to complete the set.
I have listened to them exclusively for the last month, without switching to other buds. They were paired with a Hiby R1 connected to a Fiio K7 DAC/amp via USB or with a Venture Electronics Devastator dongle.
Being 300 Ohm I was expecting to have to crank up the amp to get any decent volume. That wasn't the case. On the Fiio I listened to the volume at around the 2 o'clock position. That was plenty. With the Devastator around 60-70 was good.
Sound wise, my first impression was of a wide scene, great separation and excellent detail. I do like my bass and whilst these don't dig as deep as the 130 Ohm Beryllium driver, they still produce excellent bass quality within the frequency response range. In fact, I would say all the Riobuds that I have heard have excellent textured bass. Maybe this is due to the shell design optimizing bass response, or maybe I'm just making crap up. Regardless, none of them disappoint in this area.
I recently found an old collection of FSOL recording (all of their live ISDN broadcasts from the 90's - 00's) in mp3 format, so I decided to see how they sound with the 300 LCP's. I would guess I spent a good 30 hours with these. FSOL from this time consists of breakbeat techno sounds, mixed with field recordings, film samples and ambient soundscapes (with the odd voice message recording thrown in for good measure). Listening to this all again was really enjoyable. I was able to dissolve into an analogue soundscape, drifting from scene to scene, easily forgetting that I am actively listening to music. For me, these are the most comfortable shell design I have. They disappear in my ears and are quite stable. Most of the time I was able to switch off from the world and be taken on a journey.
After the initial 30 hours I moved on to more varied artists. Subterranean dub techno from CV313, psychedelic space reggae from the Ozric Tentacles, Mancunian Rock & Roll from early Oasis, American Country and Western from Sheryl Crow, Bjork, Psytrance from Hallucinogen and Techno from L.S.G to name but a few. Nothing made me feel like they couldn't handle a particular genre or that they were more suited to one style of music. I enjoyed them all and each of the albums played I know really well.
The main take away from all of this? These are great. It is fantastic what sound quality can be achieved with earbuds and these don't disappoint. If you like sitting in a room with a big pair of monitor speakers, in a big soft leather chair with maybe a glass of wine or two and where no one will disturb you for a few hours, then maybe you'll like these.