courierdriver
Headphoneus Supremus
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FEARLESS Audio IEM's Discussion/Impressions
- Thread starter Hawaiibadboy
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courierdriver
Headphoneus Supremus
Thanks for taking the time to post these pics. It's nice to be able to have the references with the iems and cables in the cases. And thanks to everyone else who posted advice. You have all been very helpful.Hey all, below are some pictures of my Pelican 1010/1015/1020 with my Andromedas and FiiO LC 8-core MMCX Cable! This way, you can decide how tight or loose you want to store your IEMs + cable/adapters!
As you can see from the pictures, I sometimes keep foam in the lid of the Pelican cases to keep my IEMs from bouncing around and hitting each other since they're made of metal! And ALL of the pictures are in order from 1010>1015>1020 with and without the IEM's in the cases!
jnsaudiophile
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how close is the 8f to lx?
jsmiller58
Headphoneus Supremus
You and me both! I long ago stopped celebrating my birthday and started celebrating the anniversary of my 21st birthday...!Uh Oh. Well, then. Let me grab my walker...
mr.karmalicious
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Some brief thoughts (I did listen for a while and wasn't rushed at all, but there's only so much you can say without owning an IEM for an extended time):
I listened to the Legend X with these tracks:
and I think a few others (Everyday by Weyes Blood, Why We Build the Wall (Live) by the Hadestown cast, Acid Rain by Lorn...), because I was curious how the S8F faired compared to the something traditionally considered a TOTL IEM.
The thing that stuck out to me most were the dynamic drivers—with the bass on things like the DM6 and the S8F, I could see why people might say that BAs obviate the need for DDs, but I can't agree: there really was a different quality to the bass coming from the dual DDs in the X, and I loved it. It was extremely powerful, but didn't obscure anything else in the frequency range (more on that later). MSMSMSM really drove this home; my head was rattling as you might expect from this spectrogram. I'm not sure how low bass guitars go (a cursory glance suggests "pretty dang low"), but strums on the bass and the reverb after sounded incredible on the Hadestown stuff. Lastly, Acid Rain is kind of a weird track—you can tell that the bass is There, but it doesn't seem to be having the effect that you'd imagine was intended? It's hard to explain; give it a listen. On the X, though, you could really feel the initial bass impacts in a way that the S8 can't quite replicate (even EQ'd up). So that was all very good, and it was with their stock silicone tips which probably made the bass a little less good than it ostensibly could have been.
The mids were just silk. Female vocals—in particular, the Weyes Blood tracks mentioned above (Björk as well, but Weyes stood out to me more—maybe because her voice is a bit lower?) really blew me away. I dunno what else to say about this; it was just so clean and beautiful. I love female vocals, so this was a real treat. Male vocals were great too; I didn't notice any faults at all but they didn't stand out to me as much as the female ones did. (ugh, I should have listened to michelle gurevich...)
Highs I honestly didn't focus on that much. I didn't think to add tracks that might test for sibilance, but I didn't detect any in these tracks and everything sounded airy and clear. Nothing here really surprised me or stood out to me as being better/worse than the S8F, but I also wasn't really listening for it too much.
Imaging and details sounded comparable between the S8F and X to me; the X has a wider stage, and while I don't understand how this could work, it felt like they also had a taller one. Just a feeling. The universal version that I tried out was about the same size as the S8F, though it was a little thicker in the front and a little thinner in the back. Shorter stems than the S8F; think it would fit most people for whom the S8F fit, if they were so inclined to buy a universal version for some reason. On that note:
Custom is starting to seem very alluring to me. (I may contact the person I was speaking to there and ask how much it costs to have impressions done there before I wind up leaving the state for a new job.) I'm pretty keenly aware, but for rolling tips for the S8F and feeling the inter-ear difference between the tips with the X has left me a little annoyed with my ear shape: my right one is definitely larger, and both are very deep. Not having to worry about that seems like it would be nice; not sure if it's worth the trouble, but I have the sense that it might be. The sales guy said that he's seen a lot of custom sets where people have totally different left/right ears; I'd really like if that were just, y'know, accounted for.
Odds and ends:
Included cable seems very nice. The faceplate and body options seem to be pretty similar to those offered by Fearless (et c.), where you can do wood/metal/resin/carbon fiber/and the rest; it seems like the option coverage and quality are pretty comparable. EE seems to have a few fancier options—real wood rather than resin in addition to the resin itself, real carbon fiber, as well as the abalone which was striking in person—but I think you can get ~whatever you want either way. Weight is comparable to the S8F. The 10-way crossover was explained to me in a way that clarified why you'd use a 10-way for 7 drivers: my limited and summarized understanding is that you might want to send a given range of frequencies to more than just one driver, and the two DDs aren't actually just playing the same thing. (Also, it makes sense to me that DDs could be used to generate a little wider of a frequency response, but I'm not sure if that's correct.)
Tl;dr: The Legend X is better and I want it. The S8F is remarkably close, especially for a quarter the price, but it's noticeable to me. I'll be thinking about it, much to my chagrin
oh, and: I bigly regret not listening to Neutral Milk Hotel; the sales guy Austin was super nice and was just hanging out on his phone and I didn't feel pressured at all, but I didn't want to keep adding more and more songs to the playlist after sitting there and listening to the X for like half an hour...
I listened to the Legend X with these tracks:
and I think a few others (Everyday by Weyes Blood, Why We Build the Wall (Live) by the Hadestown cast, Acid Rain by Lorn...), because I was curious how the S8F faired compared to the something traditionally considered a TOTL IEM.
The thing that stuck out to me most were the dynamic drivers—with the bass on things like the DM6 and the S8F, I could see why people might say that BAs obviate the need for DDs, but I can't agree: there really was a different quality to the bass coming from the dual DDs in the X, and I loved it. It was extremely powerful, but didn't obscure anything else in the frequency range (more on that later). MSMSMSM really drove this home; my head was rattling as you might expect from this spectrogram. I'm not sure how low bass guitars go (a cursory glance suggests "pretty dang low"), but strums on the bass and the reverb after sounded incredible on the Hadestown stuff. Lastly, Acid Rain is kind of a weird track—you can tell that the bass is There, but it doesn't seem to be having the effect that you'd imagine was intended? It's hard to explain; give it a listen. On the X, though, you could really feel the initial bass impacts in a way that the S8 can't quite replicate (even EQ'd up). So that was all very good, and it was with their stock silicone tips which probably made the bass a little less good than it ostensibly could have been.
The mids were just silk. Female vocals—in particular, the Weyes Blood tracks mentioned above (Björk as well, but Weyes stood out to me more—maybe because her voice is a bit lower?) really blew me away. I dunno what else to say about this; it was just so clean and beautiful. I love female vocals, so this was a real treat. Male vocals were great too; I didn't notice any faults at all but they didn't stand out to me as much as the female ones did. (ugh, I should have listened to michelle gurevich...)
Highs I honestly didn't focus on that much. I didn't think to add tracks that might test for sibilance, but I didn't detect any in these tracks and everything sounded airy and clear. Nothing here really surprised me or stood out to me as being better/worse than the S8F, but I also wasn't really listening for it too much.
Imaging and details sounded comparable between the S8F and X to me; the X has a wider stage, and while I don't understand how this could work, it felt like they also had a taller one. Just a feeling. The universal version that I tried out was about the same size as the S8F, though it was a little thicker in the front and a little thinner in the back. Shorter stems than the S8F; think it would fit most people for whom the S8F fit, if they were so inclined to buy a universal version for some reason. On that note:
Custom is starting to seem very alluring to me. (I may contact the person I was speaking to there and ask how much it costs to have impressions done there before I wind up leaving the state for a new job.) I'm pretty keenly aware, but for rolling tips for the S8F and feeling the inter-ear difference between the tips with the X has left me a little annoyed with my ear shape: my right one is definitely larger, and both are very deep. Not having to worry about that seems like it would be nice; not sure if it's worth the trouble, but I have the sense that it might be. The sales guy said that he's seen a lot of custom sets where people have totally different left/right ears; I'd really like if that were just, y'know, accounted for.
Odds and ends:
Included cable seems very nice. The faceplate and body options seem to be pretty similar to those offered by Fearless (et c.), where you can do wood/metal/resin/carbon fiber/and the rest; it seems like the option coverage and quality are pretty comparable. EE seems to have a few fancier options—real wood rather than resin in addition to the resin itself, real carbon fiber, as well as the abalone which was striking in person—but I think you can get ~whatever you want either way. Weight is comparable to the S8F. The 10-way crossover was explained to me in a way that clarified why you'd use a 10-way for 7 drivers: my limited and summarized understanding is that you might want to send a given range of frequencies to more than just one driver, and the two DDs aren't actually just playing the same thing. (Also, it makes sense to me that DDs could be used to generate a little wider of a frequency response, but I'm not sure if that's correct.)
Tl;dr: The Legend X is better and I want it. The S8F is remarkably close, especially for a quarter the price, but it's noticeable to me. I'll be thinking about it, much to my chagrin
oh, and: I bigly regret not listening to Neutral Milk Hotel; the sales guy Austin was super nice and was just hanging out on his phone and I didn't feel pressured at all, but I didn't want to keep adding more and more songs to the playlist after sitting there and listening to the X for like half an hour...
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jsmiller58
Headphoneus Supremus
Wow. Great report out of impressions. Adds another wanna-have to my list... can’t afford it, so for now I will happily enjoy my S8F and DM6!Some brief thoughts (I did listen for a while and wasn't rushed at all, but there's only so much you can say without owning an IEM for an extended):
I listened to the Legend X with these tracks:
and I think a few others (Everyday by Weyes Blood, Why We Build the Wall (Live) by the Hadestown cast, Acid Rain by Lorn...), because I was curious how the S8F faired compared to the something traditionally considered a TOTL IEM.
The thing that stuck out to me most were the dynamic drivers—with the bass on things like the DM6 and the S8F, I could see why people might say that BAs obviate the need for DDs, but I can't agree: there really was a different quality to the bass coming from the dual DDs in the X, and I loved it. It was extremely powerful, but didn't obscure anything else in the frequency range (more on that later). MSMSMSM really drove this home; my head was rattling as you might expect from this spectrogram. I'm not sure how low bass guitars go (a cursory glance suggests "pretty dang low"), but strums on the bass and the reverb after sounded incredible on the Hadestown stuff. Lastly, Acid Rain is kind of a weird track—you can tell that the bass is There, but it doesn't seem to be having the effect that you'd imagine was intended? It's hard to explain; give it a listen. On the X, though, you could really feel the initial bass impacts in a way that the S8 can't quite replicate (even EQ'd up). So that was all very good, and it was with their stock silicone tips which probably made the bass a little less good than it ostensibly could have been.
The mids were just silk. Female vocals—in particular, the Weyes Blood tracks mentioned above (Björk as well, but Weyes stood out to me more—maybe because her voice is a bit lower?) really blew me away. I dunno what else to say about this; it was just so clean and beautiful. I love female vocals, so this was a real treat. Male vocals were great too; I didn't notice any faults at all but they didn't stand out to me as much as the female ones did. (ugh, I should have listened to michelle gurevich...)
Highs I honestly didn't focus on that much. I didn't think to add tracks that might test for sibilance, but I didn't detect any in these tracks and everything sounded airy and clear. Nothing here really surprised me or stood out to me as being better/worse than the S8F, but I also wasn't really listening for it too much.
Imaging and details sounded comparable between the S8F and X to me; the X has a wider stage, and while I don't understand how this could work, it felt like they also had a taller one. Just a feeling. The universal version that I tried out was about the same size as the S8F, though it was a little thicker in the front and a little thinner in the back. Shorter stems than the S8F; think it would fit most people for whom the S8F fit, if they were so inclined to buy a universal version for some reason. On that note:
Custom is starting to seem very alluring to me. (I may contact the person I was speaking to there and ask how much it costs to have impressions done there before I wind up leaving the state for a new job.) I'm pretty keenly aware, but for rolling tips for the S8F and feeling the inter-ear difference between the tips with the X has left me a little annoyed with my ear shape: my right one is definitely larger, and both are very deep. Not having to worry about that seems like it would be nice; not sure if it's worth the trouble, but I have the sense that it might be. The sales guy said that he's seen a lot of custom sets where people have totally different left/right ears; I'd really like if that were just, y'know, accounted for.
Odds and ends:
Included cable seems very nice. The faceplate and body options seem to be pretty similar to those offered by Fearless (et c.), where you can do wood/metal/resin/carbon fiber/and the rest; it seems like the option coverage and quality are pretty comparable. EE seems to have a few fancier options—real wood rather than resin in addition to the resin itself, real carbon fiber, as well as the abalone which was striking in person—but I think you can get ~whatever you want either way. Weight is comparable to the S8F. The 10-way crossover was explained to me in a way that clarified why you'd use a 10-way for 7 drivers: my limited and summarized understanding is that you might want to send a given range of frequencies to more than just one driver, and the two DDs aren't actually just playing the same thing. (Also, it makes sense to me that DDs could be used to generate a little wider of a frequency response, but I'm not sure if that's correct.)
Tl;dr: The Legend X is better and I want it. The S8F is remarkably close, especially for a quarter the price, but it's noticeable to me. I'll be thinking about it, much to my chagrin
oh, and: I bigly regret not listening to Neutral Milk Hotel; the sales guy Austin was super nice and was just hanging out on his phone and I didn't feel pressured at all, but I didn't want to keep adding more and more songs to the playlist after sitting there and listening to the X for like half an hour...
mr.karmalicious
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Yeah, if I get this, it's definitely going to be internally considered a "good job on the PhD, you have a job now, get something nice" type of self-gift 
jnsaudiophile
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I'll just wait for the Chi-fi offerings to figure out the TOTL hybrid design. The DD technology is vast and wide and I am sure FA given how good their tech is will undoubtedly tread into proper hybrids in the future, the foundation is there with their BA tuning so clear and highly resolute and adding a proper DD in the mix would be the affordable end game we all could need.
rurika
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Just saw a feedback from a shop in SEA that got S12 for demo.
Distinctive sound with a wide sound stage Makes it feel airy and comfortable And also providing a layer of deep dimension that is good, realistic Experience the image of the singer's voice or the size of every instrument clearly. As if listening to music on the same stage as that band The base with the right amount Has a soft, pleasant listening experience The singer's position stands about a step away from the audience. Giving a feeling that is not too aggressive The sound that is clean, soft, feels natural. Treble is realistic, comfortable, not floating, no edge, no hardness, even less, suitable for listening to a wide range of music. Especially those who like Classical, Orchestra or people who like to listen to live music, want to come and listen.
Translated by google translate.
Distinctive sound with a wide sound stage Makes it feel airy and comfortable And also providing a layer of deep dimension that is good, realistic Experience the image of the singer's voice or the size of every instrument clearly. As if listening to music on the same stage as that band The base with the right amount Has a soft, pleasant listening experience The singer's position stands about a step away from the audience. Giving a feeling that is not too aggressive The sound that is clean, soft, feels natural. Treble is realistic, comfortable, not floating, no edge, no hardness, even less, suitable for listening to a wide range of music. Especially those who like Classical, Orchestra or people who like to listen to live music, want to come and listen.
Translated by google translate.
Hawaiibadboy
BANNED
I hope to have S12 in a few days. Hoping that thing kicks some azzz
rurika
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Looking forward to watch your review and graph. 
JoshG1217
Headphoneus Supremus
Hey guys,
What's a step up from the Kanas Pro that has a wider sound stage, greater clarity, the DD bass and under $500? Does it exist? Would s8 fit the bill?
What's a step up from the Kanas Pro that has a wider sound stage, greater clarity, the DD bass and under $500? Does it exist? Would s8 fit the bill?
SBranson
Headphoneus Supremus
Is the Crystal Pearl competitive with the Kanas Pro? I'm looking for something in that range.
We have to wait for hbb review of that
Hawaiibadboy
BANNED
I'll have to do some A/B between em. Gimmie a little time. Been lost in the joy of my IEM's with that XUELIN H8 player. Fell behind a bit
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