I said Wednesday, but it's already Saturday evening (But it's still March 2020 as far as I know). So without further ado: actual impressions of the Andromeda 2020 (Warhammer 40k references this time):
GDubs take notes!
Like Games Workshop actually advancing the lore with 8th Edition with Gathering Storm and Dark Imperium AND actually making changes to the tabletop meta weclomed by the community, CFA's 4th revision of their ToTL benchmark after 3 revisions with 3 variant tunings through that period has been widely welcomed by the audiophile community. The 2020 is essentially the audio equivalent of Ultramarines getting their Primarch back. Hyperbole? Perhaps some Slaneeshii corruption? Read on curious Inquisitor and decide whether my soul (or ears) require an exterminatus for heresy.
CFA is well known and has a cult following due to the existence of their formerly one-hit wonder: The Andromeda. Coming out of nowhere and essentially scoring the title of the benchmark for ToTLs is a huge achievement. While they've essentially stuck to their guns since then by not changing the Andromeda like the Ultramarines and their descendant chapters follow the Codex Astartes, they have released some experimental tunings in the form of LEs. Which left a lot of us scratching our heads "Why doesn't CFA update the sound on their gold mine rather than recolouring the thing?". Obviously because innovation is heresy and the Omnissiah doesn't allow that. That's more my head canon than anything else.
Regardless of that, the OG Andromeda was also my introduction in the ToTL realm. Not knowing my own preferences at the time, it was relegated to "this sounds good ,but there's something I don't like about it..." and I kinda left it at that for a while. Got lost a couple times warp jumping in the Segmentum ToTL, survived some Gellar Field failures (KHANNNNNNNNNN) and figured out what I liked. So after about 3 years I returned to the Andromeda generously by
@Colors being sparse in the wilds of Fenris (Canada, Cold and snow, yes I just made that comparison), my impressions were the same as when I heard them the first time, but this time I was well equipped with some artificer power armour. Well uh audiophile knowledge, but you get the gist. I could see why the Andromeda was widely regarded as a benchmark for the ToTL tier and also what I didn't like about it. That lead to a Crusade across the Imperium and essentially having owned/tried every Andromeda revision/variant from the forges of KB. Each were good in their own way and played around with tweaks to the baseline signature, but they were also lacking what I liked about the baseline. I wanted that punchy bass and sparkly treble, but I also wanted that soundstage and non-recessed female vocals. Badly enough that I went to Moloch and visited that gate. Time passed and nothing, shortly after Nurgle's latest plague was dropped on Holy Terra, KB dropped the released of the revised 2020 Andromeda, fresh from CFA's hidden Forgeworlds. But innovation is heresy! Not when you've essentially made an upgrade to the Baneblade!
Anyhow, I really like the Andromeda as you can tell (As much as Rogal Dorn can fortify things). While
@Colors really takes the title of Andro Lord, I follow in second place.He also graciously let me demo his which lead to some minor impressions earlier here in this very thread. Searching for a third iem with a unique driver configuration, I was able to get the 2020 for myself from a fellow Canuck audio aficionado and put it through the paces. Impressions are all off the 3.5 on the 1A (Because I don't have any 4.4 mmcx cables on hand) at a volume of 35 on low gain. Tips are Radius Deepmounts.
Onto the Bass! Subbass extension is good. Not as deep as say as some of it's more expensive peers, but more than sufficient in this range.While the OG was more punchy, the 2020 dials this a bit back, the 2020 will punch if the track calls for it, but you feel less of that impact. For me this gives me the best of both worlds: punch when needed, but not to the point where it induces fatigue. This actually extends the length of my listening sessions as fatigue sets on much later, huge difference for non vented iems. The bass is clean and there is no bleed at all, this sparks joy. Overall the bass is relatively flat and not baised or excessive in particular area, a boost in the subbass frequencies would be appreciated to make it more noticeable without having to focus too intently, but at the same time, it's not overshadowed or drowned out by the mid bass.Bassheads will connect with their inner Slanneshi and insists "this silence offends me", but without becoming a Noise Marine, they're not gonna like this too much. Quality laid back bass for long listening sessions with a variety of genres is what this is about not hedonism that births a 4th Chaos god.
The mids of the OG definitely put me in touch with my inner Slanneshi. "these recessed mids offends me" was essentially what my second try of the OG was. That was what sparked my crusade and lead to trying every Andromeda prior to the 2020. The SS fixed that....kinda of. Mids were bought forward, but inversely it made the bass and treble much more laid back, technical preformance dropped a grade to my ears though. Plus it was super heavy because of the shell material and my left ear said no. That itch became unscratched agaun until I heard the MW. Bass and treble were upfront and lively, the sound was much more dynamic, technical performance surpassed the OG by a subgrade.Only problem? The mids were way too forward for me. So prior to 2020, I did get my mids that I was demanding from the OG, but overall it went futher from the tuning I was looking for and really wasn't it. To be fair, Khorne really doesn't care were the blood comes from, just that it flows, but I'm not like that Kharn madman. I want my mids...and my bass ....and my treble... and technical performance. Given what I had heard in the SS and the MW, my fingers were crossed that this would make it's to the baseline model in the future.Fast forward to the Plague Wars and the 2020's FR graph. Oh my! Is that pinna gain?! KB DISCOVERED PINNA GAIN!! Truly the God Emperor protects. This was the mids that I had been looking for (just not on Tatoonie I guess). Gone was that upper mid recession, my first time with the 2020, I had to make sure I was actually listening to the Andromeda. For the first time, balanced mids on the baseline. If innovation is heresy that only the Dark Mechanius can come up with, I'll take it! The mids tilt a little bit forward to avoid the bass and treble stealing the show, but both male and female vocals are well represented and balanced. It might not be forward enough for those mids fans, but again it's consistent across a variety of genres.
Treble sparkle is an interesting thing. It adds some pizzaz to the signature, some people love it. For others because of various reasons, makes an iem unlistenable for them. The treble sparkle on the OG was equally interesting. For some tracks added pizzaz, for others it was unlistenable. Treble was like playing Russian roulette in Comogorrah, you'd probably end up being tortured at the most unexpected moments. Despite that I wanted that sparkled if only a bit dialed down, gotta keep Slannesh from nomming on my soul somehow. This time, only the MW scratched that itch. For the same reasons in the section below, it made that a no go either. Looking at the removal of the peak on the FR was a mixed bag for me, what would I be getting giving up that sparkle for? Was it a compromise I could live with? Turns out it was. No sparkle, but this revealed more detail as opposed to the OG's perceived detail. This resulted in a more resolving overall sound, and was enough to drop the technical grade of the OG and give that to the 2020 instead. The treble as a result becomes smooth in a TIA kind of way given that TAEC seems similar to that based on what CFA tells us. No sparkle but at least your head doesn't turn into a Galaxy Supernova listening to that track in comparison to the OG.
Overall, dropping the treble peak to reveal more detail and make the Andromeda more resolving combined with the inclusion of pinna gain resolved the biggest issues I had with the OG. This did come at the cost of treble sparkle and a bit of mid bass impact, but it results in a balanced signature that makes the Andromeda even more of an all rounder and renewing it's grip as the defacto standard of the ToTL tier amongst the changes in the market since it's initial release. There are some minor changes that add to this as well: the grills on the nozzle from the gold, as well as the revised shells of the V3. The latter being a heaven and earth difference in fit with my very finicky left ear. To me, the 2020 seems like a natural progression of the inclusion of the best parts of the LE models with the baseline. Good job KB, making an Andro that I wanted in my permanent collection.So fellow Inquisitors, innovation really isn't heresy when done right, the God Emperor Protects.
This is more of a post-script to the original impressions before I banged them out. The 2020 does have one flaw: It's sensitivity. It hisses very very slightly on the 1A. That's not a deal breaker for me. But unfortunately it cause the Andro to be incompatible with my desktop setup. My 789 has a volume imbalance that skews to the right when the volume pot is below the 8 o'clock position. The sensitivity cause the Andro to hit my comfortable listening volume while the volume pot is in that range unfortunately, I've tried using the preamp feature on the E30 to get the Andro in the same range on the volume post as my MEST and DMagic (roughly -27.5 db), but in exchange it kills the dynamics.Sadly the silence offends Slannesh, and outside of getting a portable dac/amp (Prefer not to have a battery in the desktop chain) or the RME (Which is out of my budget), the Andro being a portable only iem means that I can't justify keeping it.
