[OhmsClaw]

based on the comments here it would make more sense for me to get the xenon instead of the radon if I already have a monarch mark 2 and the ie600.

Honestly, this is a good call. The way I look at it, is I have a Ltd Mest mk2 and I won't take the rn6 to the gym . I was up till 5am going between the Radon, Solaris, and Mest Mk2 and painfully, the Solaris performs the worst for the same music.

 

[OhmsClaw]

N
it appears that I have joined the SERIOUS Bassheads. I also own EE EVO, VE EXT.

We are built different. But if you want to really get there, join us with the Maestro Mini

 

[aaf evo]

We are built different. But if you want to really get there, join us with the Maestro Mini

XE6, RN6, Maestro SE, and NE4 owner checking in. I love my bass.

 

[DrewVz]

Try Becoming Insane by Infected Mushroom. Some other head-fier recommended it once. It's now my go-to track for testing bass, and it's quite an experience with the Xe6.

A bit different style, but if you like electronica, try the first two tracks off of the album In Formation by Globular. There are tons of other tracks that have much better bass (sub-bass, bass texture, and impact) than Becoming Insane, honestly. It's got a nice beat, but a bit one-note and not very deep, to be honest. Also try Cosmosis & Quantica - The Sweet Side of Darkness. So many good tracks out there. EDIT: If you want to stick with IM, try Army of Mushrooms - Never Mind. Very good bass/sub-bass. Also, "See Me Now" is incredible, but honestly I haven't found a headphone or IEM that can properly reproduce the sub-bass in that track. If you have a good stereo setup with a good subwoofer, give it a try. You'll see what I mean.

 

[OhmsClaw]

@Garney Thank you for the kind compliment. Ja, the more time I'm spending Rn6's stock cable, the more I'm reluctant to recommend rolling or upgrading – perhaps I'm being lazy, LOL. If one has cables, definitely give them a roll and would enjoying hearing those impressions. I'll still plan on rolling later next week and report back.

After hibernating for 10 hours, I carefully swapping in the gold modules too. I love and appreciate how FiR incorporated reviewers and owners feedback and made accessing the ATOM XS module holder so much easier by reducing the depth of the cutout and also including all the ATOM XS modules

ATOM XS swapping process notes:
Rn6 ATOM XS module swapping seems smoother than my previous Xe6 swaps. Might be the variance in ATOM holder, but inserting the tool and removing the modules didn't require much effort – just the right amount of friction. The color ATOM XS module color markings are also more distinct – gold looks gold and distinct from silver. Extracting the red ATOM XS from Rn6 is simple as insert tool and pull out – there was just the right amount of friction. Inserting another module was also easy, inserted the gold ATOM XS part of the way and used my thumb or finger to push it flush into the shell.

Gold ATOM XS module quick impressions:
I concur with @Garney's impressions. Though, I didn’t notice much change in the stage size but instrument positioning sounds a tad closer, more impactful but still spatial and immersive. What stands out is the notable weight especially in the low end – lush and texturally detailed. As Garney noted, across the FR, everything is just a tad thicker – I could soak for hours in this thickness and warmth. Gold ATOM XS has been sublime for electronica, R&B – body and arse twerking grooviness:

• With Red ATOM XS, Massive Attack's "Angel" Mezzanine (Deluxe) sounded a bit bass light especially in its signature bass track. Gold dials back in the weight, impact and lush thickness that "Angel" is known for. Unfortunately, EVO ruins "Angel" for me with an elastic metallic reverb – could just be my pair
• Com Truise's "Ultrafiche of You" also stands out with more layered synths and weighty drum beats. The decay sounds just right allowing you to enjoy the reverb and texture
• Robert Glaspers "Why We Speak" is harmoniously soulful with gorgeous vocals layered on top of the impactful groovy bass beats
• Seals & Crofts "Summer Breeze" and "We May Never Pass this Way (Again)" brings me back to 70s with analog sounds, harmonious lyrics and strings
• Kodomo's "Concept 11" rolling sub-bass lush and subwoofer deep, you can hear and feel the air
• Late Night Alumni's "Can't Wait" – Becky Jean Williams gorgeous vocals floats on a dark background with layered enveloping synths and instruments
• Telefon Tel Aviv "Sound in a Dark Room" is an experience with sensual vocals and tickling glitches, clicks layered over a moving synth soundscape
• Roxy Music's "Avalon" and "Love is the Drug" brings me back to my college days and just needs to be heard – Bryan Ferry's vocals and female vocals are sultry and emotive
• Sam Hunt's "Outskirts", dobro intro resonates beautifully with its metallic twang and throughout the track
• Blood Orange's "Jesus Freak Light" has an ethereal airy soundstage and vocals, lovely guitar reverb
• Venbee's "Messy in Heaven" feat. Goddard has me turning down the lights out and twerking the glow sticks
• Jenevieve's "Love Quotes" soul vocals are punctuated by impactful sub-bass and reverb. Sub-bass impact and reverb of this track on Rn6 sounds on point where EVO comes off bloated and metallic.
• Skrillex's "RATATA" feat. Miss Elliot and Mr. Oizo is a f'ing head bobbing roller coaster

I warmly concur! Rn6's tuning is solid and by including all ATOMs provides the possibilities that one can fine tune to their liking and music collection. For new and potential Rn6 owners, I recommend module rolling first. Red is neutrally musically out of the box and gold adds in nicely weighted coloration.

IEMs now iced in my collection: UM Indigo/Mk2, VE EXT, EE EVO and extremely content with my FiRry duo.

You expounded and did all the work I didn't want to .

The red is bass light but an immersive technical experience like none other.
The gold adds all the weight we want back in.
Silver is Meh. And black is extra meh.
That red module is special. If they could do that for regular atoms 64 and Fir will be forever better for it (the M0 and MX module would be obsolete)

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

still listening to the Xenon 6.
and i want to underline that these are not just about bass, the mids are very beautifull, full sounding, natural and with good note weight too, so piano sound very realist and each note stroke have well felt heavyness and open up in they air with slightly warm sustain and airy resonance, magnifying musicality of tone over texture of presence. Its non fatiguing and fascinating at same time, we can say the same for female vocal which and dense, lush, wide open and smooth in presence and well layered above the bass.
About the bass, it's not a linear extension, it have thicken rumble so contrabass with perhaps lack a bit of attack bite and definition to fully follow all it's harmonies...but at same time, it's addictive due to the fact this jazz bassist have extension vibrance and density, we can feel its playing while drummer dynamic is very alive too. So, to some extend, Xe6 is better in impact and dynamism that well resolve low pitch instruments.
This is sure to be taken in account for those wanting investing in such pricey delicacy.
when it come to treble, its not what i would call completely dark, but their just a hint of extra crispness from EST that seem to extract percussions and snare very well but doesnt boost texture details nor will reveal micro details you never heard before. Instruments like harp or clavichord doesnt excell in extension, clarity and brilliance with the Xe6.
I find interesting the open BA which avoid shoutyness we can often found with tubed BA, it have a wide creamy sustain-release to it, a natural sens of resonance that is very pleasant and doesnt make center stage compressed, quite the opposite...
I might compare these to Aroma Thunder i have right now, but apart from both being rather smooth sounding and Thunder thin bassy too, the 1DD+10BA Thunder is way more boring and lean sounding, kinda warm to crisp L shape to mid centric, but it's more intimate and less spacious sounding and bass doesn't hit as hard nor have as good layering. So, as strange as it can seem, within this 2-4k$ price range i would conclude Aroma is more overpriced than Xe6 due to technicalities we can get in 500-1000$ market with an underlwhelming musicality, too safe to be truely engaging...listener need to give alot of their own psychoacoustic magnification to make it very interesting, while Xe6 is more generous in wow effect both bass and spatiality wise.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Try Becoming Insane by Infected Mushroom. Some other head-fier recommended it once. It's now my go-to track for testing bass, and it's quite an experience with the Xe6.

yes, it pound very hard...but i cant handle infected mushroom for long...not a big fan. but it sure underline the unique thumping effect of Xe6! nice choice for those that enjoy.

im deep into lotta electronic big beat music....listening right now to John Tejada and it seem he produce music for the Xe6 lol....i love when bass pound loud and round, with visceral feeling and micro details are sharp and snappy in wide spatiality...so addictive!

 

[tfenton02]

Received RN6 on Thu and spent a good 3 days tip swapping and rolling the XS modules. I concur with many of the comments above. All listening done on AK SP3000. I found the best fit and sound with the AZLA Crystal, with the included Symbio being second. The two Atom modules I gravitated to are red and gold. Red, for me, was the clear winner as it provided for a listening experience that I have not heard in any IEM. Monstrous, textured sub bass, but with the mid bass recessed I just got this out of head experience, especially with more ambient tracks where some of the synthesizers enveloped throughout the soundstage. The soundstage itself is wide, deep and plenty of height. (more like an oval). This with more clarity to the vocals and treble provided a more exotic, ethereal listening experience that I have not heard in an IEM. The Gold Atom module pushed the sound signature more toward a W tuning, which was fine, but more mainstream and close to other IEMs I own.

Since I was spending so much time with the RN6, I pulled out a few other IEMs for quick compare.

Noble Kublai Kahn: Interesting to compare bone conduction to kinetic. I found kinetic was the clear winner with sub bass and the texture of the bass, however both provided for a visceral experience. KK is def. more W shape, warm tilt, good balance of mid vs sub bass with vocals strong, clear and at front of stage. Can be a little crispy on certain tracks, but clarity in the treble region is stronger than RN6. For rock/progressive ROCK and EDM KK has things turned up to 11. The soundstage is wide and deep, but a bit less so than the RN6. I did find the KK to edge RN6 on detail retrieval. For me, The KK gave me what I felf was missing in the Odin and Evo X, so I'm delighed with this IEM.

A12t: I haven't listened to this in awhile but I quickly realized all of the reasons I fell in love with this IEM. I did swap the Apex module for the Fir Gold Atom about a year ago The A12t is more balanced than the RN6 and KK, sound stage is wide, deep and tall, perhaps on par with RN6. The imaging is superior, IMHO and macro dynamics better than both RN6 and KK. The bass is surprisingly good, both sub bass and mid bass. A12t seems to everything very well with nothing wrong. Maybe that's downside where it's not class-leading at any one thing.

A18s: These have garnered more listening time than any IEM in my portfolio over the last 18mos. It's sound signature is polarizing in the community. It's def a warmer IEM, sound stage more on the intimate side compared to above (although it's not actually an intimate sound stage). However, the depth and layering and imaging is top notch. Vocals are front of stage and texture on vocals (particularly male) is amazing. You hear the rasp of a voice, you sense vocals coming from the diaphragm, guitar plucks are richly textured. This has been my go to IEM for singer/songwriter genre (Charlie Cunningham on this IEM makes you melt) Treble is relaxed. It's a warm, romantic listening experience. There is plenty of detail in this IEM, although it's not served on a silver platter but you have to hunt for it.

So far, the RN6, with the red module, carves out it's own spot in my IEMs and compliments it's new siblings well. I think I will be holding onto this for awhile.

 

[Bret Halford]

XE6, RN6, Maestro SE, and NE4 owner checking in. I love my bass.

Hi my name is Bret, and I'm a bassaholic.

RN6, Grand Maestro, Maestro SE and Evo owner checking in.

 

[wazzupi]

Hi my name is Bret, and I'm a bassaholic.

RN6, Grand Maestro, Maestro SE and Evo owner checking in.

Hiiiii Bretttt

 

[OhmsClaw]

hehe, exactly....but we are in a special place where bass quantity meet unexpected quality....especially in term of unique dynamic heft...
its rare that bass give me ''beard goosebump'' but this track does right now...
in fact, this whole album tend to sound quite muddy with bassy IEM, strugglin to separated the bass line and chunky kick drum....here with ''All the words we don't say'' track something crazy happen, the bass line is full of grunt and density, well layered in the back of the very round kick and percussions are super crisp, fast snappy, and female vocal lush, smooth, non offensive yet very enjoyable.
very very exotic tonality....which perhaps explain the god-tier price....since as a owner of UM Mext and Final A8000, and with a loan of the Aroma Thunder too right now...i can confirm it's the funniest and most immersive listen of them all. but sure not for neutral head, or mature (and boring) audiophile!!

How do you rate the H40 tho?

 

[OhmsClaw]

@Garney Thank you for the kind compliment. Ja, the more time I'm spending Rn6's stock cable, the more I'm reluctant to recommend rolling or upgrading – perhaps I'm being lazy, LOL. If one has cables, definitely give them a roll and would enjoying hearing those impressions. I'll still plan on rolling later next week and report back.

After hibernating for 10 hours, I carefully swapping in the gold modules too. I love and appreciate how FiR incorporated reviewers and owners feedback and made accessing the ATOM XS module holder so much easier by reducing the depth of the cutout and also including all the ATOM XS modules

ATOM XS swapping process notes:
Rn6 ATOM XS module swapping seems smoother than my previous Xe6 swaps. Might be the variance in ATOM holder, but inserting the tool and removing the modules didn't require much effort – just the right amount of friction. The color ATOM XS module color markings are also more distinct – gold looks gold and distinct from silver. Extracting the red ATOM XS from Rn6 is simple as insert tool and pull out – there was just the right amount of friction. Inserting another module was also easy, inserted the gold ATOM XS part of the way and used my thumb or finger to push it flush into the shell.

Gold ATOM XS module quick impressions:
I concur with @Garney's impressions. Though, I didn’t notice much change in the stage size but instrument positioning sounds a tad closer, more impactful but still spatial and immersive. What stands out is the notable weight especially in the low end – lush and texturally detailed. As Garney noted, across the FR, everything is just a tad thicker – I could soak for hours in this thickness and warmth. Gold ATOM XS has been sublime for electronica, R&B – body and arse twerking grooviness:

• With Red ATOM XS, Massive Attack's "Angel" Mezzanine (Deluxe) sounded a bit bass light especially in its signature bass track. Gold dials back in the weight, impact and lush thickness that "Angel" is known for. Unfortunately, EVO ruins "Angel" for me with an elastic metallic reverb – could just be my pair
• Com Truise's "Ultrafiche of You" also stands out with more layered synths and weighty drum beats. The decay sounds just right allowing you to enjoy the reverb and texture
• Robert Glaspers "Why We Speak" is harmoniously soulful with gorgeous vocals layered on top of the impactful groovy bass beats
• Seals & Crofts "Summer Breeze" and "We May Never Pass this Way (Again)" brings me back to 70s with analog sounds, harmonious lyrics and strings
• Kodomo's "Concept 11" rolling sub-bass lush and subwoofer deep, you can hear and feel the air
• Late Night Alumni's "Can't Wait" – Becky Jean Williams gorgeous vocals floats on a dark background with layered enveloping synths and instruments
• Telefon Tel Aviv "Sound in a Dark Room" is an experience with sensual vocals and tickling glitches, clicks layered over a moving synth soundscape
• Roxy Music's "Avalon" and "Love is the Drug" brings me back to my college days and just needs to be heard – Bryan Ferry's vocals and female vocals are sultry and emotive
• Sam Hunt's "Outskirts", dobro intro resonates beautifully with its metallic twang and throughout the track
• Blood Orange's "Jesus Freak Light" has an ethereal airy soundstage and vocals, lovely guitar reverb
• Venbee's "Messy in Heaven" feat. Goddard has me turning down the lights out and twerking the glow sticks
• Jenevieve's "Love Quotes" soul vocals are punctuated by impactful sub-bass and reverb. Sub-bass impact and reverb of this track on Rn6 sounds on point where EVO comes off bloated and metallic.
• Skrillex's "RATATA" feat. Miss Elliot and Mr. Oizo is a f'ing head bobbing roller coaster

I warmly concur! Rn6's tuning is solid and by including all ATOMs provides the possibilities that one can fine tune to their liking and music collection. For new and potential Rn6 owners, I recommend module rolling first. Red is neutrally musically out of the box and gold adds in nicely weighted coloration.

IEMs now iced in my collection: UM Indigo/Mk2, VE EXT, EE EVO and extremely content with my FiRry duo.

Late Night Alumni is a pseudo we'll known, hidden gem. The whole discography is phenomenal.

 

[Pansbjorne]

The suspense is killing me

 

[Tristy]

Can anyone that has owned / heard both extensively give some impressions on how KR5 stacks up against Odin? Looking for a similar detail orientated signature that leans brighter and is no less technical but has that tubeless / open BA goodness?

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

How do you rate the H40 tho?

for the price i find those H40 excellent. 9/10 in term of musical value, technical performance wise it would be 8.5 due to darkish resolution....compared to Xe6 resolution is lower in all department and layering is more compressed-mushy.
mids arent as open, wide, and natural sounding as xe6, but not bad at all for the price, pinna gain is rather low, so, warm lush mids but not mind blowing
bass is very very good, rumble is vibrant and thick, so we have hint more sub bass boost yet the punch is there too, unlike for ex...harman tuning that lack proper punch roundness and impact. this mean it thicken male vocal and offer non sibilant yet bodied female vocal.
H40 are warm basshead IEM...but its a bit strange writing about those here lol since Xe6 are well...from another league...and well...10x pricier too.