Empire Ears - Discussion & Impressions (Formerly EarWerkz)

[KuroKitsu]

Surely you are joking right?

You must be new to the Empire thread. I'm pretty sure my ignore list is not a "top 10 comedian"

He was just the only one who constantly let it be known.

Fixed this for you "He was just the only one consistently loudly let it be known"

We have a few that seem to have stepped in with their nomination for the leadership after their ringleader's self imposed exile.

EDIT: ‘Better left unsaid

No, I think it needs to be said.

Regardless of how much you like the brand and Jack by extension, it does not give you the right to dismiss people's concerns here, regardless of how rude they may be. And even less so engage in insinuations and attacks on people's character that seems to be the latest trend.

 

[KuroKitsu]

After many months waiting, my Raven is finally in town



Excited to hear it. I can’t be bothered complaining or arguing on here anymore but I can understand peoples frustration with the long delays. IMHO I think EE have handled it pretty well all things considered. More frequent communication would’ve definitely been appreciated though. Let’s hope the end product makes the wait worthwhile.

I’m hoping the revised bass from the initial units gives it a bit more fun and engagement factor. Seeing how close the previous tuning was to Odyssey was a bit of a disappointment. Whilst I found Odyssey quite good overall, I did find its tuning a little too safe and it got boring to me pretty quickly.

Sooooo what's the cooler price gonna be

 

[zoidbb]

I'm not saying "be patient." I'm saying that clearly EE has issues with their production and if waiting isn't your thing, get a refund and stop letting it bug you. Or, if you want to wait, know that it is taking quite some time and that's the choice you made, so accept it.

I seriously doubt Jack is reading anything here at this point. To what end would he do so?

The only person he was talking to about what was happening, who was trying to let people know without violating Jack's trust, got chased out of here.

So I think EE will try to get as many Ravens out as soon as possible, get its production working satisfactorily, let the IEM speak for itself, and at some point try to rebuild its brand name.

Chased out? You mean threw a temper tantrum because people called him out on being absurdly wrong on multiple fronts, and had his account “banned?”

There are consequences for actions. His consequences were to be called out. The way he dealt with those actions was to loudly depart without ever actually learning anything.

 

[jjb3]

Decided to sell my Bravado Mkii. Just couldn't get past the bass bloat on some genres like country and folk.

 

[SoundFlow]

Happy New Years!

 

[Hoegaardener70]

Happy New Year 2024 to all of you!!

Still hoping for a belated Santa from EE before leaving the country on Jan-10. I told EE how much I’d appreciate to get the revised Raven back before then, but I was asked to be patient and that other orders have to be served as well.

I hope that the EE team has never to manage the relocation of their family to Asia, because dealing with issues in regards to a super expensive IEM is a headache I’d have liked to save myself from at this moment.

 

[javahut]

I told EE how much I’d appreciate to get the revised Raven back before then, but I was asked to be patient and that other orders have to be served as well.

EE says "be patient"... as if we haven't been or had a choice not to be. Meanwhile, hard to serve customers asap while they're on holiday for over a week.

EE has been so disappointing through this entire Raven "process". A new low.

 

[Damz87]

Raven arrived this morning. The unboxing experience was great. Definitely an improvement on Odin and Legend Evo. Lovely accessories, in particular the launch edition leather case. The stock PW cable is decent. Reminds me of the UM MEST Mk2 cable. I like it more than the Genesis cable that came with Evo but I liked the Stormbreaker more than this one. The overall build quality seems excellent. No issues removing and reinserting the cable, and I love the Satin gold faceplate. To me it’s more understated and classy compared to the shiny faceplates. No fingerprints to wipe off every time you touch it

My initial thoughts on the sound quality are positive. It’s a highly energetic type of presentation with what sounds to me like a slight U-shape tuning. It has quite an energetic top end with lots of treble extension, much more than I remember Odin or Odyssey having. Mids are clear, revealing and resolving, leaning tonally bright. I found Odyssey's upper mids to be pulled back a little too far, making it sound somewhat hazy and too relaxed for me. I feel Raven has fixed this. Bass sounds slightly north of neutral, and pretty even between mid and sub bass (maybe a touch more sub bass than mid bass). The bass quality is superb, and I wouldn’t expect anything less coming from EE. Initially I thought a smidge more bass would've been nice, although after listening a bit longer the bass has opened up and I think more bass could potentially sound disjointed from the mids and treble.

On that note, I do find Raven to sound quite cohesive considering its configuration, and the technicalities overall are strong. The stage is large, and the imaging sounds precise. There’s loads of microdetail being picked up. Dynamics seem decent but not outstanding.

Overall my initial feeling on Raven is that it’s a very good IEM and ticks pretty much all the boxes for a flagship monitor. I think people looking for a warmer, bassier or relaxed presentation will need to look elsewhere, but if you’re a fan of a revealing, high-energy type of tuning with a slight U-shape emphasis, then Raven would be a good choice in todays market. Ravens biggest problem in my opinion is that it's got some stiff competition in its price bracket that goes for a similar sound, such as Elysian Annihilator or Kinera Loki, and it's tough to recommend paying an extra ~$500 over those IEMs for Raven.

 

[SoundFlow]

Raven arrived this morning. The unboxing experience was great. Definitely an improvement on Odin and Legend Evo. Lovely accessories, in particular the launch edition leather case. The stock PW cable is decent. Reminds me of the UM MEST Mk2 cable. I like it more than the Genesis cable that came with Evo but I liked the Stormbreaker more than this one. The overall build quality seems excellent. No issues removing and reinserting the cable, and I love the Satin gold faceplate. To me it’s more understated and classy compared to the shiny faceplates. No fingerprints to wipe off every time you touch it

My initial thoughts on the sound quality are positive. It’s a highly energetic type of presentation with what sounds to me like a slight U-shape tuning. It has quite an energetic top end with lots of treble extension, much more than I remember Odin or Odyssey having. Mids are clear, revealing and resolving, leaning tonally bright. I found Odyssey's upper mids to be pulled back a little too far, making it sound somewhat hazy and too relaxed for me. I feel Raven has fixed this. Bass sounds slightly north of neutral, and pretty even between mid and sub bass (maybe a touch more sub bass than mid bass). The bass quality is superb, and I wouldn’t expect anything less coming from EE. Initially I thought a smidge more bass would've been nice, although after listening a bit longer the bass has opened up and I think more bass could potentially sound disjointed from the mids and treble.

On that note, I do find Raven to sound quite cohesive considering its configuration, and the technicalities overall are strong. The stage is large, and the imaging sounds precise. There’s loads of microdetail being picked up. Dynamics seem decent but not outstanding.

Overall my initial feeling on Raven is that it’s a very good IEM and ticks pretty much all the boxes for a flagship monitor. I think people looking for a warmer, bassier or relaxed presentation will need to look elsewhere, but if you’re a fan of a revealing, high-energy type of tuning with a slight U-shape emphasis, then Raven would be a good choice in todays market. Ravens biggest problem in my opinion is that it's got some stiff competition in its price bracket that goes for a similar sound, such as Elysian Annihilator or Kinera Loki, and it's tough to recommend paying an extra ~$500 over those IEMs for Raven.

Nailed it verbally for how I received this IEM. Great impressions. I sense this isn’t your first rodeo. I enjoy the revealing yet exciting tuning. It kind of mixes my Meze Empyrean and Elite tuning. A little guilty pleasure and flexes on the details enough to make it feel cohesive and high end.

 

[phiemon]

Raven arrived this morning. The unboxing experience was great. Definitely an improvement on Odin and Legend Evo. Lovely accessories, in particular the launch edition leather case. The stock PW cable is decent. Reminds me of the UM MEST Mk2 cable. I like it more than the Genesis cable that came with Evo but I liked the Stormbreaker more than this one. The overall build quality seems excellent. No issues removing and reinserting the cable, and I love the Satin gold faceplate. To me it’s more understated and classy compared to the shiny faceplates. No fingerprints to wipe off every time you touch it

My initial thoughts on the sound quality are positive. It’s a highly energetic type of presentation with what sounds to me like a slight U-shape tuning. It has quite an energetic top end with lots of treble extension, much more than I remember Odin or Odyssey having. Mids are clear, revealing and resolving, leaning tonally bright. I found Odyssey's upper mids to be pulled back a little too far, making it sound somewhat hazy and too relaxed for me. I feel Raven has fixed this. Bass sounds slightly north of neutral, and pretty even between mid and sub bass (maybe a touch more sub bass than mid bass). The bass quality is superb, and I wouldn’t expect anything less coming from EE. Initially I thought a smidge more bass would've been nice, although after listening a bit longer the bass has opened up and I think more bass could potentially sound disjointed from the mids and treble.

On that note, I do find Raven to sound quite cohesive considering its configuration, and the technicalities overall are strong. The stage is large, and the imaging sounds precise. There’s loads of microdetail being picked up. Dynamics seem decent but not outstanding.

Overall my initial feeling on Raven is that it’s a very good IEM and ticks pretty much all the boxes for a flagship monitor. I think people looking for a warmer, bassier or relaxed presentation will need to look elsewhere, but if you’re a fan of a revealing, high-energy type of tuning with a slight U-shape emphasis, then Raven would be a good choice in todays market. Ravens biggest problem in my opinion is that it's got some stiff competition in its price bracket that goes for a similar sound, such as Elysian Annihilator or Kinera Loki, and it's tough to recommend paying an extra ~$500 over those IEMs for Raven.

Many thanks for the impressions!

However, your enthusiasm is somehow limited. Or am I wrong? How would you compare Raven with Mentor? What about macrodynamics, resolution and soundstage?

 

[Damz87]

Many thanks for the impressions!

However, your enthusiasm is somehow limited. Or am I wrong? How would you compare Raven with Mentor? What about macrodynamics, resolution and soundstage?

Well like I said, Raven has some tough competition in its price category and I think there are IEM’s tuned similarly and compete with it for technical performance. Annihilator and Loki come to mind which are both ~$500 cheaper.

I don’t own a Mentor anymore so I couldn’t tell you how they compare directly. I’ll wait until I’ve spent more time with it before sharing any substantial impressions because I want to fully get my head around it first.

 

[MatW]

Nailed it verbally for how I received this IEM. Great impressions. I sense this isn’t your first rodeo. I enjoy the revealing yet exciting tuning. It kind of mixes my Meze Empyrean and Elite tuning. A little guilty pleasure and flexes on the details enough to make it feel cohesive and high end.

Congratulations. It is January 2 and you just made the understatement of the year.

 

[haci]

Raven arrived this morning. The unboxing experience was great. Definitely an improvement on Odin and Legend Evo. Lovely accessories, in particular the launch edition leather case. The stock PW cable is decent. Reminds me of the UM MEST Mk2 cable. I like it more than the Genesis cable that came with Evo but I liked the Stormbreaker more than this one. The overall build quality seems excellent. No issues removing and reinserting the cable, and I love the Satin gold faceplate. To me it’s more understated and classy compared to the shiny faceplates. No fingerprints to wipe off every time you touch it

My initial thoughts on the sound quality are positive. It’s a highly energetic type of presentation with what sounds to me like a slight U-shape tuning. It has quite an energetic top end with lots of treble extension, much more than I remember Odin or Odyssey having. Mids are clear, revealing and resolving, leaning tonally bright. I found Odyssey's upper mids to be pulled back a little too far, making it sound somewhat hazy and too relaxed for me. I feel Raven has fixed this. Bass sounds slightly north of neutral, and pretty even between mid and sub bass (maybe a touch more sub bass than mid bass). The bass quality is superb, and I wouldn’t expect anything less coming from EE. Initially I thought a smidge more bass would've been nice, although after listening a bit longer the bass has opened up and I think more bass could potentially sound disjointed from the mids and treble.

On that note, I do find Raven to sound quite cohesive considering its configuration, and the technicalities overall are strong. The stage is large, and the imaging sounds precise. There’s loads of microdetail being picked up. Dynamics seem decent but not outstanding.

Overall my initial feeling on Raven is that it’s a very good IEM and ticks pretty much all the boxes for a flagship monitor. I think people looking for a warmer, bassier or relaxed presentation will need to look elsewhere, but if you’re a fan of a revealing, high-energy type of tuning with a slight U-shape emphasis, then Raven would be a good choice in todays market. Ravens biggest problem in my opinion is that it's got some stiff competition in its price bracket that goes for a similar sound, such as Elysian Annihilator or Kinera Loki, and it's tough to recommend paying an extra ~$500 over those IEMs for Raven.

My unit (v1, from the way you express, they seem similar) opened further at both ends over time.. it took about 120 hours. When yours burn in, would be great to have a comparison to Amber Pearl and Storm -)

 

[SoundFlow]

Any more Ravens land? I need to validate my opinions guys! I try watercooler but it's too rapid to keep up with!

 

[silent-circuit]

I've committed to buy a pair of Legend X - as a Bravado Mk2 owner who likes them a lot but feels they're missing something, is this going to be a significant step up, or am I likely to be selling the Legend X on a week or two after receiving them?