So I headed down to my local store to audition the next round of the Fearless lineup.
Having had good impressions of the S8F the previous round, I tried pitting the former with the Y2K this time around.
Please excuse my very layman terminology as I am pretty new to this hobby.
Y2K has quite a weird fit for me, hence it wasn't as good as the S8F. Perhaps it is just a little too big for me. The connection of the proprietary cable was a little loose and the salesperson said it was because it is a demo unit and it has been heavily 'abused' so to speak.
They provided me with a sheet of instructions on how to use the system and what each knob corresponds to.
First, the unit itself is astonishing heavy! Man, this thing's a monster brick indeed! And those knobs are finished well and feels good when they turn. But that aside, whether it works wonders is the question isn't it?
First off, I started with the baseline sound signature, wanting to know what it is without all adjustments, essentially 'blank canvas' state. But alas, everything is almost whispering quiet! This means, at the usual volume of my player (30-35 for ZX300), I could not audibly hear much to discern what it sounds like! Well, you could say this means that this 'blank' state is what it supposed to be.
I began adjusting the knobs starting from the frequency volume starting the leftmost knob (number 1) to and ending with the number 7. Disappointingly, they were all just volume knobs for the lows, mids and the highs. The increments to each gradation were quite minimal and there weren't any drastic changes (to my ears).
Eventually, I just turned up all the knobs to the max and it sounded much better than before. However, this is probably just my perception of loudness. I believe these knobs reflect adjusting the gain? So, it just adds decibels along the y-axis.
Next, I began fiddling around with the crossover. If the increments of the gradation were minimal for the frequency volume, this was much less. Eventually, to my ears, shown in the photo was what I went with. Essentially though, the crossover seems to be how much the lows, mid, highs are being 'affected' in the sense that if the lows are increased, it becomes muddy and overtly boomy. I believed these knobs reflect adjusting how each frequency 'cuts' into each other, so the 3 fundamentals are adjusted along the x-axis.
Eventually, I ended up with something like shown below. Somehow, I perceive these adjustments are audibly significant enough to notice a change in the overall dynamics to suit my taste. Bumping up the mids making it forward, together with the highs and thus making it more lively and energetic. The lows are still present when called forth when needed (however, not that powerful for me).
I left the impedance knobs, 9 and 0 at their default baseline as it seems nothing much was added perceivably to my ears. The salesperson told me to just leave it as it is too, perhaps it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference.
Right after I was done with trying out the Y2K, I knew I had to do an A/B comparison with the S8F. Foremost, pricing is almost twice (former) compared to the latter. But sonically, are both competent or rather justifiable with the price tag? I was stoked to find out.
Just before doing the comparison however, the salesperson gave me this interesting little contraption. Apparently, Fearless has loaded in the recommended settings to this coupler like device attached to a 3.5mm terminated cable. Sadly, there wasn't an option for balanced. I still gave it a try though, and it turns out that my assumptions were true.
My ZX300 isn't really good with its SE jack, and I had to literally bump up to volume close to 75-80 in order to hear what is I am listening. As it turns out, it was not adjusted to my liking. The recommended settings sound meh, and it does not have the liveliness, energy, the bass and the mid forwardness like the settings I had earlier on. However, it was not that horrible. My takeaway or rather a theory is that probably the settings that they give are what they intended the Y2K would sound like slightly boosted from its baseline, a very polite and well-rounded signature to please everyone?
Well, for what it is, being 3.5 only is indeed a bummer as I really do not use SE at all. Balanced 4.4 all the way for me!
So, on towards doing a comparison.
For an easier reference for me as well as readers who happen to see this post, I usually like to stick to a couple of tracks to see if they work well enough with each specific target areas where the IEMs can exhibit their characteristics. The usual suspects are these 10 songs, however, sometimes I would throw another few more songs, especially current favourites just to hear how they sound like.
1. Daft Punk - Lose Yourself to Dance
I use this track to listen for the bass primarily and how well it performs when it comes to electronic music.
2. GEM - 泡沫
A Chinese number for this one. I specifically choose another language, 'cause from what I gather, it might be mastered differently and somehow Asian music is done differently from Western? I might be wrong or right.
This track is primarily used to listen for female vocals. Her vocal prowess is pretty awesome hence I choose this track.
3. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
A classic number. I choose this track for its 'busy-ness' and the chaos of guitar work. The pure bliss of rocking out. To test for how well and coherent IEMs play tracks like that and to test out the liveliness and how energetic it can get.
4. Conscious Marima Band - Harambe
Probably quite an unknown song to most. But this is what I use for testing out tribal instruments and music. This is a number from Africa. Male vocals and instruments predominantly. Sadly, I do not know how the instruments should sound like in real life. As long as it sounds good to me, it is good (and passes).
5. The Killers - All These Things that I've Done
Another rock number. This is to test out the energy and liveliness in a track. Also to see how well it performs in a somewhat busy track.
6. Jay Chou - 以父之名
A Chinese number. This is modern rap/pop/hip hop with tons of bassy elements thrown into it.
7. Eagles - Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over Edition)
Absolute must have for me to test out all the instruments in a methodical pace since instruments are slowly introduced right at the beginning of the track. To test bass too.
Oh, and how it is like for live performance, all those background laughter, cheers and clapping.
8. Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men - One Sweet Day
A smooth and emotional RnB number. Just to showcase the vocal prowess of Mariah and Boyz II Men.
9. Body Slam - คนที่ถูกรัก
Another Asian number. This time around, it is in Thai. This hard rock song is quite busy and has lots of bass.
10. Carabao - Made in Thailand
Same, and it is Thai (folk rock) as well. But this one I focus mostly on the more traditional Thai music elements as well as the flute.
Overall, I did say the winner would be S8F. Y2k after all those adjustments is quite competent and I would say I'd put its performance slightly better than my DM6 (which I own). However, as I was looking for an upgrade, the significance as well as the cost per performance ratio (plus waiting time), it is just not worth it.
The S8F, however, edges out the Y2K, not by a huge margin, but a perceptible and audible upgrade from DM6. The aggressiveness, mid forwardness and the detail retrieval, as well as its energy, is unmistakably better than both. I feel very energised and enjoying the music much more than the former 2.
On an interesting side note, I come to realise why I picked S8F and its sound signature. Reading from somewhere else and mentioned by a couple of fellow Head-Fiers, it seems like the requirements fundamentally change how we perceive sound in a various environment.
Sitting down in a nice library, cosy as heck, or any closed off quiet environment, all senses are elevated? Plus all minutia elements of what the IEMs throw at you are revealed? So, in that sense, from the lows to highs, one is to able to hear everything clearly, plus there is no interference from environmentally noise and the seal is perhaps not super crucial (but needed too).
However, I listen to music on to go primarily, commuting from place to place, I face a lot of environmentally changes and hence I realised that my senses are somehow not acutely attuned to what I am listening to. Hence, I realised I had to bump up in EQ everything. This means my bass, is bumped to +10, mids and highs to around +5 (I am a basshead). Yet, somehow, the bass is sometimes lost (like when I am crossing the street). I also tend to want aggressiveness, energy and liveliness from an IEM to compensate for the environmental factors.
Lastly, I found overall I still prefer such a tuning as I feel refreshed and energised when I commute as opposed to say like a more laid back sound to rest and relax when I am home or in a comfy environment.
Will I be getting the S8F? I am not sure, but from the Fearless lineup, they are perfect for me. I will be trying out other brands like qdc, UE, perhaps Fir Audio too, just to see what offerings might interest me and eventually picking up my next upgrade.
