[Kerouac]

hell, I've heard almost all the IEMs in the shootout (save a few like the S-EM9) and if I had to rank them it would look very different

Now you got me curious about how your top 5 (based on the ones that you've heard and from your perspective) would look like
Btw, I like the text in your signature

 

[Kerouac]

Well, I guess food's only slightly necessary, right? *logs into PayPal account, oh wait I forgot Spiral Ears only excepts wire transfers*

Well, if you don't trust the wire transfer, I think there's also the good ol' fashioned and trustworthy 'money pigeon' option

 

[Deezel177]

Well, if you don't trust the wire transfer, I think there's also the good ol' fashioned and trustworthy 'money pigeon' option

Wow......

I went a whole 14 minutes without realizing I misspelled "accepts".

 

[Wyville]

His review of the Prelude, and I'm guessing the SE5U as well, has helped form an interest in me that instrument body and density resolves an image as well as stage cleanliness and clarity do. It's a hypothesis that I'm willing to explore, and it's just my luck that the two IEMs that exemplify this most are the only two with no demos available on the market. Well, I guess food's only slightly necessary, right? *logs into PayPal account, oh wait I forgot Spiral Ears only excepts wire transfers*

I've been talking to Nic and reading his reviews for quite a few months now because I have been exploring sound quality and signature for therapeutic purposes, in my own case to help me manage my ADHD without medication. This shootout could not have come at a better time for that and I greatly enjoy learning about new aspects of sound quality and what makes a signature engaging or immersive. Trying out the Ares II added new insights into cleanliness and clarity and the Prelude, Maestro and UE18+ Pro reviews made me increasingly interested in tonality. I think we have both fallen down the rabbit hole that Nic already went through and our kidneys are now in clear and present danger.

 

[Deezel177]

Hey @Mimouille! Just noticed you online viewing this thread. As, AFAIK, the only SE5U owner apart from Nic in this thread,

1) How would you compare it to the Zeus-XIV and Zeus-R, and the VE8?
2) Do you find statements regarding the SE5U's lack of treble or speedily-decaying treble to be true?
3) Do you find yourself listening to the SE5U with louder volumes than the aforementioned three IEMs?
4) When listening to stuff like cymbal crashes, do you find the SE5U's darkness to induce a dulled, veil-like effect?

Please do keep in mind that I'm inferring these aspects of the SE5U from other posts, but I'd love to know the answers to these questions (as would, I'm sure, most on this thread). Thanks in advance!

 

[jmills8]

Rank #1:

Flinkenick GrandMaster 3000​

​

Stayed up all night working on it, it was less hard than I thought. It costs $2500.

Its so gooood it only needs a $10 cable.

 

[Mimouille]

My answers inside.

Hey @Mimouille! Just noticed you online viewing this thread. As, AFAIK, the only SE5U owner apart from Nic in this thread,

1) How would you compare it to the Zeus-XIV and Zeus-R, and the VE8?

The VE8 is comparably enjoyable, more colored, more fun, and technically just as proficient, but in a less reference way. The R I dislike...it is like the XIV without the good stuff. The XIV is lovely but overly sensitive to me. It beats the SE5 in overall resolution I think. The SE5 sounds more refined and delicate than any, IMHO, due to unique combination of great extension, non agressive ultra detailed sound and natural tone.

2) Do you find statements regarding the SE5U's lack of treble or speedily-decaying treble to be true? Not at all

3) Do you find yourself listening to the SE5U with louder volumes than the aforementioned three IEMs?

Higher volume notch but comparable volume. The SE5 is much less sensitive.

4) When listening to stuff like cymbal crashes, do you find the SE5U's darkness to induce a dulled, veil-like effect? Not at all.

Please do keep in mind that I'm inferring these aspects of the SE5U from other posts, but I'd love to know the answers to these questions (as would, I'm sure, most on this thread). Thanks in advance!

 

[Deezel177]

My answers inside.

Thanks man! Until Nic posts his review, you're probably the only person I can ask about the SE5U (especially considering how many IEMs we've heard in common). Appreciate the responses, I'll definitely keep them in mind!

 

[Overkill Red]

I think it's important to note amidst all the excitement with the top 3 that the reviews are written from Nic's perspective - and as good of a reviewer he may be, he is susceptible to personal taste as much as the rest of us are, and his taste may not match yours. Too many variables exist - signature preferences, musical tastes, source equipment, cables, listening volumes and so forth, that I've found his reviews to be the most enlightening in his subjective descriptions and not the numerical scores and rankings; following the ranking as some sort of purchase guide from top to bottom is going to work well for some and horribly for others...hell, I've heard almost all the IEMs in the shootout (save a few like the S-EM9) and if I had to rank them it would look very different - 2 of Nic's top 5 would be fighting for last place - a testament to how much power the acronym YMMV holds in this hobby.

So, for those with the privileged ability to easily demo stuff, please do so to supplant what you read, and for everyone else in places where portable audio is hard to come across, please don't get swept up in the numbers and read the excellent reviews for the descriptions more than anything else. Remember, you listen with your preferences and tastes, not Nic's or anyone else's...

B-but my hype train! What will I do if I don't have the #1 IEM?! And what if I get it and it sounds bad?!
/s

Maybe we should go listen to them all again one day..

 

[Deezel177]

B-but my hype train! What will I do if I don't have the #1 IEM?! And what if I get it and it sounds bad?!
/s

Sell it at a loss and buy a Prelude

 

[Overkill Red]

Sell it at a loss and buy a Prelude

Or, well, buy them all..

 

[Deezel177]

Or, well, buy them all..

Well, I already own the bottom two, might as well climb the whole ladder

 

[subguy812]

Hey Guys, thanks for pinging me into the discussion I was out for the weekend so I couldn't reply earlier.

Let's start with the advantage of going dual over single driver - so we are talking for example a change from Knowles TEC (single) to DTEC (dual TEC) - in DTEC both motors are working in opposite direction canceling each others' vibrations - meaning huge improvement in THD department. Another thing to consider - if you wire that dual driver in series you get same output as TEC driver (let's simplify here), with lower THD compared to TEC, but at the cost of higher impedance and inductance, if you wire it in parallel you get 6dB higher output compared to standard TEC - so depending on designer's goal you can achieve similar things using different configurations, different drivers.

If we are talking about adding extra driver in similar range - so for example let's have a DTEC and CI (very common design) - by adding extra driver you improve headroom - more volume, less distortion, but you also change things like speed of bass, saturation etc, because each of those drivers have different outputs but also different sound signatures; strengths and weaknesses etc - you can mask weaknesses or improve upon strengths - again depends on the goal.

Talking about Harmony 8.2 - it's unique in a sense that while other manufacturers choose to have woofers working as a full-range (because of their typical natural down-slopping fr response - especially after damping) we use actual full-range driver that goes 10Hz-16kHz and we stack upon this driver to add more bass, more mids and more highs and improve upon full-range driver response - so the full range is like a core with "little helpers" in crucial frequency points. Same idea was present in previous 8 and 8 Pro and is also incorporated in Ei.3

The main thing for me when talking overall driver count of the IEM (single BA vs. multi-driver setups) is in dynamics. 8-10-12 drivers will hit you with a wall of sound, single BA's can't do that.
It's similar with speakers - If you ever heard single transducer horn loaded floor speakers you'll know what I mean.

Great post! Sorry I am a little behind in reading.

 

[flinkenick]

The best possible thing, is to read these reviews as if they were just presented in alphabetical order. Every reader will highlight what they find important and unimportant for themselves. The difference between most iems is so vast, you can rarely speak of a case of 'same, but better'. Sometimes you can say 'different, but better'; but then the 'different' part, its signature, will probably be more important than the 'better' part; for instance its performance.

And as @rushofblood mentions there is a bias in the ranking resulting from the philosophy behind the scoring, and this will automatically favor certain music over others. Acoustic or vocal-based music might fare better, such as jazz, classical or easy-listening. This is among others because of the role of naturalness and timbre throughout the individual signature aspects. If the scoring was based on listening to pop (or K-pop etc), electronic music, rock, or metal for instance, the scoring and ranking would be very different. Either way, you will have to make a choice somewhere, and you'll never get a perfect fit for the complete audience.

 

[subguy812]

Exciting things happening..