people in usa who ordered the mini, how long are they taking to reach you?
It was super quick for me at the end of August considering Singapore->USA transit. It sounds like there's been a surge in demand thanks to Canjam, so their mini inventory ran out but should start shipping this week (just relaying what
@mashuto noted a few posts back).
They are a very small company and I think interest has really, really amped up quickly... have to be realistic about these things. I just put in an order for a pair of customs with them, naturally that'll take lot longer than the minis!
Is the proprietary bass chamber on the product description a gimmick?
I just tried to EQ my B2 Dusk w/wavelet to make it sound like the Maestro Mini.
This is a silly amount of bass, way too much for regular music listening but fun as all hell.
I'm going to take a gander and assume the limited resolution of the Maestro Mini is mostly because of the giant bass shelf.
The crazy thing is that after a while, the bass level starts to sound
normal lol
Seriously though, I'm not sure I'd use the word gimmick but they sure pull off a magic trick of sorts keeping things coherent up top. There's 2 factors used to accomplish this as far as I can glean. First the bass shelf is really tightly contained sub ~250 Hz, and it doesn't get REALLY crazy until sub 50 Hz. A lot of music and content doesn't reach that low, and there really is no mid bass blow out to speak of so you're left with a capable and clean sound. They've also been clever in the highs, there's just a bit of overemphasis to keep things above water in the tsunami when the bass does kick in.
As far as the mini's resolving limits, they are just a bit pushed back in the upper mids and run just a bit hot north of 3K. It gives a bit of a hot crunch and sizzle that is quite satisfying for electronic content, but it does color things slightly. My guess is that there may be some concessions in keeping the tuning balance intact while stretching out the 2 BA's in the mini. The Maestro proper and SE look to have quite good mid tracking with extra driver elements in play, but I've not heard them (yet).
Cloning IEMs via EQ is an interesting exercise. I've splurged on a few new IEMs these past few months, and in each case I'd generate an auto EQ for my ER2s that tracked quite well on paper ahead of time before I heard the new IEM. The success varied a fair bit, but generally the closer the tunings were to start, the more convincing the prediction was... perhaps not surprising, but it's a limitation to bear in mind when adding ~15-20 dB (lol) of Bass boost!
Normally with eq, you have to subtract, not add. Because of the distortions introduced.
Interestingly, this is largely the approach Fatfreq have taken to achieve their bass boost. While the resonant cavity and filter are boosting things a bit, my understanding is they are heavily damping the mids and treble as well. The mini is really nice and easy to drive as a result, not too sensitive like a lot of multi-driver IEMs, no risk of amp hiss and I'm sure you could have fun with some higher power sources for a bit more kick.
How fast i can get something has a huge impact with my purchasing decision.
