I’ll post more complete impressions (hopefully) tomorrow, but I will say that while ymmv, to my ears, Odyssey, like other EE iems in the past, go through some not insignificant changes as they get some runtime on them. When I first listened to my Odysseys out of the box, first with spinfit c100s, then final e’s, I was a bit underwhelmed. Separation, resolution, imaging, and soundstage were all top notch and bass was ample (though a bit less than EVO as expected) but compared to EVO, it felt like bass was not as three dimensional, and also almost a little sucked out as you got into mid bass and (also) lower mids. There was rumble and impact at the primary note frequency, but it seemed like somehow I wasn’t hearing the full complement of harmonics. Treble sounded great from the start and was notably more present compared to EVO, which was welcome, but mids were further back in the mix and particularly male vocals (some lower register female vocals too) also seemed to be not as full, rich, and textured—almost as if the vocal track was coming from a higher compression file than the rest of the sound. I put them down Thursday night thinking I’d likely be returning them or being put up for sale, but things changed after letting them run in over the past two days.
When I came back to them after they were playing overnight they sounded a little better, but mostly the same as my initial impressions. However, after running for another 24 hours, I came back to them today and had a huge smile on my face. They sounded sublime. The flatness I noticed initially was gone and both mids and bass were rich and textured. Vocals are still not as forward as on EVO, but they did is just as much texture and the slightly less forward vocals helps provide a more enveloping, three dimensional soundscape. Still doing listening and comparing to both EVOs and Trailli, but don’t think these are going anywhere anymore.
I’ve also found, as others have mentioned, that different tips have a big impact on both the amount of bass, the impact (literally) of the weapon x bcd, and relative perceived level, placement, and richness of various parts of sound (bass, mids, and treble). I tried the spinfit w1s and found also found bass to be lighter with less marked bcd impact. Spinfit c100s were better, but still seemed to take away some of the bass. I listened to final es right out of the box and while bass was very ample, it almost sounded a little congested, which is something I have found with these tips in the past on wide bore iems (this could have also been compounded by, or alternatively could have contributed to some of my initial impressions above). Eartune Fidelity U elliptical tips sounded great with full base and good balance (they are often the tips that I prefer best for my ears), but they tend to slip off iems without lips on them and after having one of them slip off my Odins on a plane and having to go a 4 day vacation with a tip stuck in my ear (wasn’t able to get it out until I got home—it sucked), I don’t like using fidelity u’s with EE iems. For the moment I’ve settled on spiral dots with sound on par with the fidelity u’s, but am going to keep trying others.
I prefer the CP360 over the CP155. Although the CP360 is a little challenge to get them onto the Odyssey, it finally gives me a much better seal and more comfortable fit compared to the CP155 - and especially over the stock Final E tips.
