Just my two cents, since ultimately it's a matter of personal taste, but I think too much warmth takes away from transparency and clarity. I enjoyed the Ares 4W with the Phantom but I was yearning for that bit more transparency and clarity. I also felt that the Leonidas has better treble extension than the Ares 4W which, paired with the Phantom, is very delightful. The Ares 4W's bass is more rumbling compared to the Leonidas's more controlled one. Both are great and maybe the solution is to have both .. although instead of the Ares 4W I have a feeling the Ares 8W is better - will try soon!
Empire Ears - Discussion & Impressions (Formerly EarWerkz)
- Thread starter Jack Vang
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Just my two cents, since ultimately it's a matter of personal taste, but I think too much warmth takes away from transparency and clarity. I enjoyed the Ares 4W with the Phantom but I was yearning for that bit more transparency and clarity. I also felt that the Leonidas has better treble extension than the Ares 4W which, paired with the Phantom, is very delightful. The Ares 4W's bass is more rumbling compared to the Leonidas's more controlled one. Both are great and maybe the solution is to have both .. although instead of the Ares 4W I have a feeling the Ares 8W is better - will try soon!
bvng3540
AKA bvng2210, dragon430
1960s 2 wires or 4 wires sounded the best with phantom, no other come close period
, I'm looking to get 1950s for it as well
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Agreed. PW-05 is not matched well with already too warm IEMs like my Angie II.
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1960s 2 wires or 4 wires sounded the best with phantom, no other come close period
But the PW-1960s or even 1950s are way too expensive cables whereas Ares II 8wire has reasonable price and sounds really really good!
bvng3540
AKA bvng2210, dragon430
You want the best, you pay the priceBut the PW-1960s or even 1950s are way too expensive cables whereas Ares II 8wire has reasonable price and sounds really really good!
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You want the best, you pay the price
Not really! I have learned enough lessons...
olddude
Headphoneus Supremus
The Ares ll 8-wire is very close to the 4-wire version. It has more space for the music to spread out, perhaps has a slight bit more bass and treble (and I mean slight), and may not be quite as good with extremely intimate music. It's a wonderful cable, so if you like the Ares ll 4-wire, you should like the 8-wire as well. The Ares ll is a copper wire that is not overly warm and delivers good treble. Since most EE IEM's for the past year have come with the Ares ll, most of you should know the Ares ll sound. The 8-wire will enhance that sound, not radically change it. If you want major changes, don't bother. If you love the 4-wire and you want more room within the soundstage for the music to spread out, then you will. I find that vocals are clearer, with voices that are layered being more individually discernible within the mix. The same goes for instruments. There is just more room to hear the music in. That's what you get for $300.
I think @olddude explained it very well. The Ares II 8W adds room for the music without changing the tone much compared to the 4W.
I am still very curious about the Phantom paired with Leonidas, but for a bit more clarity and transparency without giving up the natural tone too much there is also the Eros II 8W. Hopefully it should not be too long before I can try that one myself, but from what I have heard it is a really good pairing as well.
How long did y'all burn in your Phantoms before they sounded good? My Phantoms still sound veiled in the mids and the highs.
davidmolliere
Headphoneus Supremus
I really didn’t notice any burn in the Phantom sounded great right out of the box... now brain burn in might be required for some as it’s a unique signature...
Veiled is not an adjective I would use, which source are you running them with?
ctsooner22
1000+ Head-Fier
Mine were never veiled either. They kept scaling up to around 300 hours or so. It's incremental though. Everything became more focused and the extension widened on both ends of the spectrum. I found the imaging to also get tighter IRT instrument placement. I do notice on burn in, that some poorly recorded stuff, it won't matter. I notice it mostly on very well recorded material, but I will say that the BASS in general gets much much better, no matter what you listen to. Not trying to get into the whole is burn in real or not as many feel it's not. I have close friends who are engineers and design cables and have come up with measurements for many of the things that people feel are BS iRT to cables. Garth Powell of Audioquest has come up with measurements for his new line of power cords and is not working on speaker cables where he will have measurements. That includes before and after break in of the cable. It's pretty interesting stuff. I know enough about engineering and metallurgy to be dangerous (I used to sell dental gold and porcelain for false tooth restorations. I was the top sales person because I learned so much about the physical make up of our 40 different allows and could take grain boundaries, elongation, tencile strength etc...with the dentists and techs. I became close friends with John , the metallurgist who was also an audiophile. We spoke all the time about alloys for interconnects and speaker cables. He made some amazing stuff that was so much better than anything you could buy in the 90's. Again, I know enough to be dangerous).
Give them time. I know I didn't like the Legend X at all, but then loved them when I heard them a couple of months later with Jack. He said they weren't burned in at the show in NYC. Transformative for my ears. YMMV and for those who don't believe in it, they are enjoying them too. See it's all good.
Give them time. I know I didn't like the Legend X at all, but then loved them when I heard them a couple of months later with Jack. He said they weren't burned in at the show in NYC. Transformative for my ears. YMMV and for those who don't believe in it, they are enjoying them too. See it's all good.
Good is in the ear of the beholder. I think after about 50 hours I developed some brain burn in with the Phantoms, which led to an appreciation for the timbre and cohesiveness that they exhibit. Having said that, I personally preferred adding just a touch more sparkle to the upper mids and treble (just a smidge, mind you), which I got by changing out the Ares II with a Thor II 8 core. It's been a great match for me, sourced with a 1Z, which tends to be a slightly warmer DAP. If you are accustomed to more neutral or "sparkly" mids and highs, Phantom is maybe not the best choice. I tend to prefer a more neutral (?) sound, but I did fortunately find a sweet spot using the Phantoms with this combo. Strictly my personal taste!
I had two pairs of Phantoms in my possession over the last two weeks of July due to some creative logistics so I didn't have to go Phantomless during the warranty exchange process. Comparatively, my OOTB replacements sounded closed in, lacking depth, slightly loose mid-bass bleeding into lower-mids and a nasally quality to upper mids. No absolutes here, so I hope no one interprets my findings as claims that all Phantoms sound this way OOTB or that all Phantoms will transform into purer communicative tools within the first ~100 hours, but SN#19EE1816 happened to. Edit - A/B comparison was done with same Ares II and tips.
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I had two pairs of Phantoms in my possession over the last two weeks of July due to some creative logistics so I didn't have to go Phantomless during the warranty exchange process. Comparatively, my OOTB replacements sounded closed in, lacking depth, slightly loose mid-bass bleeding into lower-mids and a nasally quality to upper mids. No absolutes here, so I hope no one interprets my findings as claims that all Phantoms sounds this way OOTB or that all Phantoms will transform into a purer communicative tool within the first ~100 hours, but SN#19EE1816 happened to. Edit - A/B comparison was done with same Ares II and tips.
Your descriptions are exactly spot on - am experiencing the same features. Mine are fairly new probably less than 10 hours in having just gotten them. I'm pairing them with the SP1000CU which itself is new so it too may require burn in - subjective I know, but my other set of in-ears played beautifully with the SP1000CU that's why I wondered whether it was the Phantoms. It might be my brain burn in too that's required so we'll see. I'll let it run overnight.
forbiddenbeat
100+ Head-Fier
Hey folks, new head-fier here (long-tie lurker). I currently have a set of Empire Zeus-R universals and Focal Utopia headphones. I'm trying to consolidate into one set of custom IEMs, and trying to decide what to do.
I love the Zeus-R's, but the Utopia's sound appeals to me more (not a fair comparison, of course). I'd love to give EE my business, so I'm trying to decide if I should reshell my Zeus, or order a custom set of Legend-X or Phantoms. Can anyone with experience with the Utopia's and one of EE's TOTL's weigh in? Thanks!
I love the Zeus-R's, but the Utopia's sound appeals to me more (not a fair comparison, of course). I'd love to give EE my business, so I'm trying to decide if I should reshell my Zeus, or order a custom set of Legend-X or Phantoms. Can anyone with experience with the Utopia's and one of EE's TOTL's weigh in? Thanks!
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