[jelt2359]

Ahh. Yes, that's what it sounds like on high gain and the one time I tried with the Calyx PaT. Very unmistakeable hiss that was apparent even when music was playing quietly. Very obnoxious and I can see why you and Cotnijoe couldn't take it.

And I'll just sneak this in because I'm a homemade pizza aficionado. Scratch crust and all. Just about to cut it with my USS Enterprise pizza cutter.

Where can I find this pizza cutter?? Any pics?

 

[nmatheis]

Here's the one I got for Christmas a few years ago.

Or you can get the STNG version.

Got mine at Thinkgeek for $30.

 

[nmatheis]

Oh, to get back on topic...

After I settled on Hermes and Zeus as my two faves, I hadn't listened to the others for awhile. However, all the cool pics of Spartan recently made me curious to try them again.
So I popped in Spartan and gave the new Rush remaster a listen on the PAW Gold. Another solid listen. Switched over to some electronic music (Daisuke Tanabe + Kidkanevil). Better than I remembered honestly. I can see how these would make an awesome all-rounder. Bass could be a bit more extended for the electronic music, but Spartan held their own pretty darn well. Looking forward to spending some more time with these!

 

[Cagin]

  Since the Zeus is evidently very revealing of DAP shortcomings, I'm interested to hear that the Onkyo acquits itself well, on the hiss-level side of things (and the PAW Gold possibly not quite so well, which is an eye-opener).  I do wonder if this may be significantly related to output impedance...
 
Equally, I'll be interested to hear from Zeus-owners, how other new DAPs perform, in the above regard.
 
 
DAPs including:
 
www.head-fi.org/t/790462/new-cowon-plenue-s
 
www.head-fi.org/t/792354/thebit-opus-1-new-dap-from-south-korea
 
www.head-fi.org/t/791531/what-will-the-new-dx200-look-like-dec-23-new-images-on-page-1
 
 
Perhaps the Zeus will prove to be a 'Litmus test' for DAPs!

  Will it become the DAP-reviewers testing-reference CIEM?
 
 
@ Jack:
 
I'm curious - do all the EE CIEMs follow a philosophy of avoiding the use of dampers?
 
.

Some posts that going balanced gets more hiss with the Onkyo do get me apprehensive to getting my cables. Hopefully Cotnijoe can shed some light here. Since he has both the balanced Norne cables and the BTG Starlight.

 

[ReptilynSamurai]

Oh, to get back on topic...

After I settled on Hermes and Zeus as my two faves, I hadn't listened to the others for awhile. However, all the cool pics of Spartan recently made me curious to try them again.
So I popped in Spartan and gave the new Rush remaster a listen on the PAW Gold. Another solid listen. Switched over to some electronic music (Daisuke Tanabe + Kidkanevil). Better than I remembered honestly. I can see how these would make an awesome all-rounder. Bass could be a bit more extended for the electronic music, but Spartan held their own pretty darn well. Looking forward to spending some more time with these!

I definitely think I'll be very happy with my choice of the Spartan. Eagerly awaiting the refit shipping.

And I may need to look into these Rush remasters. I could never enjoy Vapor Trails properly due to the distortion / brick wall mixing. I never understood the loudness wars, if I want my music to be louder I can control the volume on my end. I'd prefer to preserve the full dynamic range of the recording. (But I imagine I'm not alone in that opinion here!)

 

[nmatheis]

ReptilynSamurai: Oh yeah, I think you're going to be very happy with Spartan. And definitely look into the Rush remasters. I'm really happy with the one I just purchased. Cheaper to get it on the Pono store than HDTracks, so don't waste time at HDTracks with these.

 

[Malevolent]

Oh, to get back on topic...

After I settled on Hermes and Zeus as my two faves, I hadn't listened to the others for awhile. However, all the cool pics of Spartan recently made me curious to try them again.
So I popped in Spartan and gave the new Rush remaster a listen on the PAW Gold. Another solid listen. Switched over to some electronic music (Daisuke Tanabe + Kidkanevil). Better than I remembered honestly. I can see how these would make an awesome all-rounder. Bass could be a bit more extended for the electronic music, but Spartan held their own pretty darn well. Looking forward to spending some more time with these!

Among the Empire Ears stable, which would you think is best for EDM? I have only auditioned 3 or 4 (I can't really remember) IEMs in the collection, but my time was mostly spent with the Zeus and the Apollo. I remember thinking that the Hermes had a slight tilt toward a bass heavy sound, but I don't recall anything else. Will definitely head down to my local dealer to try the entire set soon, but what do you think? Which is best for EDM? Thanks! 

 

 

[rwalkerphl]

 
Among the Empire Ears stable, which would you think is best for EDM? I have only auditioned 3 or 4 (I can't really remember) IEMs in the collection, but my time was mostly spent with the Zeus and the Apollo. I remember thinking that the Hermes had a slight tilt toward a bass heavy sound, but I don't recall anything else. Will definitely head down to my local dealer to try the entire set soon, but what do you think? Which is best for EDM? Thanks! 

 

I've been finding my Apollo X's are working very well for EDM - I'm currently studying Composing and Producing Electronic Music at Berklee, so I am listening to a lot right now - Buriel, Deadmau5, Mark Reeves, Zedd, Garrix, etc. I'm getting a satisfying thump, but nicely controlled. Particularly, the Apollo's really give an edge to the sawtooth synth's and stuff - lots of fun!

 

[QBoQBo]

 
Among the Empire Ears stable, which would you think is best for EDM? I have only auditioned 3 or 4 (I can't really remember) IEMs in the collection, but my time was mostly spent with the Zeus and the Apollo. I remember thinking that the Hermes had a slight tilt toward a bass heavy sound, but I don't recall anything else. Will definitely head down to my local dealer to try the entire set soon, but what do you think? Which is best for EDM? Thanks! 

 

 

 
I've been finding my Apollo X's are working very well for EDM - I'm currently studying Composing and Producing Electronic Music at Berklee, so I am listening to a lot right now - Buriel, Deadmau5, Mark Reeves, Zedd, Garrix, etc. I'm getting a satisfying thump, but nicely controlled. Particularly, the Apollo's really give an edge to the sawtooth synth's and stuff - lots of fun!

I have found Zeus leaning towards vocal and flat sound signature. Although it will do EDM, may not be what you are looking for ^v^

 

[rwalkerphl]

 
Among the Empire Ears stable, which would you think is best for EDM? I have only auditioned 3 or 4 (I can't really remember) IEMs in the collection, but my time was mostly spent with the Zeus and the Apollo. I remember thinking that the Hermes had a slight tilt toward a bass heavy sound, but I don't recall anything else. Will definitely head down to my local dealer to try the entire set soon, but what do you think? Which is best for EDM? Thanks! 

 

 

 
I've been finding my Apollo X's are working very well for EDM - I'm currently studying Composing and Producing Electronic Music at Berklee, so I am listening to a lot right now - Buriel, Deadmau5, Mark Reeves, Zedd, Garrix, etc. I'm getting a satisfying thump, but nicely controlled. Particularly, the Apollo's really give an edge to the sawtooth synth's and stuff - lots of fun!

I have found Zeus leaning towards vocal and flat sound signature. Although it will do EDM, may not be what you are looking for ^v^
 
 
Let me clarify on that - I do find Apollo X flat relatively to most other IEM's, but to me, that gives clarity to hear detail you do not normally hear. That allows me to hear the synth sounds better (bearing in mind that synth sounds have many more harmonics in them that are present for the full length of notes, unlike most acoustic instruments, where harmonics die away fairly quickly). If you notice in much EDM, there are often only 2 - 3 noted in a chord - this is generally due to all the harmonics that are held through the notes, causing a fat sound, especially with a square or sawtooth wave based patch.
 
Having said that, I'm close to pulling the trigger on a pair or Cerberis - when I heard the triple back when Jack was testing, it was a sound that made me sit up in my seat - the others followed it, but this was the starter. I'll be visiting with Jack, possibly next week to listen again

 

[nmatheis]

 
Among the Empire Ears stable, which would you think is best for EDM? I have only auditioned 3 or 4 (I can't really remember) IEMs in the collection, but my time was mostly spent with the Zeus and the Apollo. I remember thinking that the Hermes had a slight tilt toward a bass heavy sound, but I don't recall anything else. Will definitely head down to my local dealer to try the entire set soon, but what do you think? Which is best for EDM? Thanks! 

 

 
For me, yes it's Hermes. I'm going to wrap up my time with these soon with a volume-matched commentary. I typically use recent Bjork (Biophilia album) for electronic + female vocals. I'll use some metal, too. I think I like Hermes because it's got the oomph for electronic music and also fills out the lean / hot metal recordings I tend to listen to quite nicely. For the music I listen to, it's a really good fit.

 

[Cagin]

Copy/pasting this here from the DP-X1 thread as a headsup for others:
 

  PSA: the BTG Audio angled 3.5m TRS plug that comes with Starlight cable is a 100% deal breaker when used on the Onkyo DP-X1. Any slight rotating movement make it unplug by itself. 45degree rotation angle is enough to get from Left photo to Right photo where you'll notice the music paused with headphone icon notification gone.
 
What this means is you just can't use this cable at all for a portable usage. Your music will pause and you'd have to constantly push it back in. Mind you this is less than 1mm sliding upwards that causes this.
 
So while I'm waiting for my Norne Therium balanced cables with the 2.5mm TRRS Eidolic spacious barrel to arrive, I'm using the Noble stock cable that came with the Savant and use it on my Empire Zeus ciems. This works flawlessly, and stays firmly attached to the DP-X1. I can rotate its plug all I want and make wide cable movements the music won't pause.
I've tried the BTG Starlight angled plug on the Sony ZX2 and there's no issue. It's not sliding out. I don't know why this is happening with the DP-X1. Anyways, I've disliked the BTG Starlight from start so it's just a strike-3-you're-out! event for me.
 
 
 

 
I dunno if I should contact Brian Goto about this. 

 

[284033]

Since I own a DP-X1 myself, I haven't found any problems when using BTG Starlight cable equipped Zeus-XIV and Apollo-X demo units. It is very likely that the user mentioned has a lemon DP-X1 unit as I have seen a friend with a completely loose 3.5mm socket on his DP-X1 out of box.

 

[Cagin]

Since I own a DP-X1 myself, I haven't found any problems when using BTG Starlight cable equipped Zeus-XIV and Apollo-X demo units. It is very likely that the user mentioned has a lemon DP-X1 unit as I have seen a friend with a completely loose 3.5mm socket on his DP-X1 out of box.

Might be. But I've now tried the Fiio EX-1 plug as well and tested all 3 again. Only happens with the neutrik plug. Really weird it's as if it unscrew itself out with the slightest of movement.

 

[284033]

Then it might be a problem with the neutrik plug used then. The jack might be on the smaller side of manufacturing tolerances. Do you find the 3.5mm socket on your DP-X1 more loose compared to other players or even your phone? Its the case for mine.