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Either in the 1A/1Z or Sony custom firmware thread.
flinkenick's 17 Flagship IEM Shootout Thread (and general high-end portable audio discussion)
Either in the 1A/1Z or Sony custom firmware thread.
Vitaly2017
Headphoneus Supremus
Sony will wait at least another 1&half year till their ceo See's oh our 1z got kinda old all daps have surpassed it in many features I think its time for a new 1z successor now...
1z is still strong and I don't find sp2000 even to out do it with iems. Sony just wins, such tonality and organic sound aka just dont do it. I had both and now back to 1z again.
By the way sony made a dmp-z1 what are you not happy about??? Its the strongest and bad ass dap that ever excited and exists lmao
Probably in my archived posts in the 1z thread
snapandslide
1000+ Head-Fier
One thing which fascinates me with TOTL is how technology filters down the price points. I just saw @Dsnuts do a quick impressions on the GK10 in the discovery thread - https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-discovery-thread.586909/page-3839#post-16446768
A tribrid for.....$45 - including a DD for mids. That is just bonkers.
A tribrid for.....$45 - including a DD for mids. That is just bonkers.
Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment... 
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
mvvRAZ
Headphoneus Supremus
Fourte for Noir, Trio for U18s, U18t for FuSang? Hell of a collection though, love itUpon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
normie610
Headphoneus Supremus
Sacrilege! The Elf King should stay in his glorious wooden boxUpon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
bluestorm1992
Headphoneus Supremus
Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
Another vote for U18t for FS/Fusang.
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Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
Trio for X or Annihilator?
Nio looks so out of place with that collection lol.
Seriously impressive collection! How do you even choose what to listen to!?! And this isn't even considering your headphone collection...Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
Vitaly2017
Headphoneus Supremus
Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
Hahahaha what is that oral B toothbrush doing in there! Throw it out and add more iems!
Are you polishing your gear with it
Thanks to Andrew of MusicTeck I was able to get a demo of the MMR Balmung and have been listening with it for the last couple days. I have some thoughts I want to share with everyone, as this is an interesting offering from MMR with a very attractive and comfortable shell design.
First observation is the high efficiency of this driver, I have listened to 2 dozen driver sets in the past year, (no where near the experience of many of you), this is by far the most efficient set I have heard. Using the P6 Pro I had no choice but to switch to low gain, none of my daily drivers sound as good on Low gain so my players are set to either High or Turbo gain. I am imagining (although I did not try it) that the Balmung would be a great partner for a phone and a dongle, as the power consumption would be low for the battery in your phone, and the driver sounds as good as I think it can with the low power, and actually does not sound good to me with extra power.
The package that comes with the set is nice, adequate, I could not use the supplied tips, I already know these tips do not work for my ears. There is only one set of tips included in 3 sizes. The cable is awesome, no idea how it sounds compared to other cables, but it ergonomically is one of the best I have experienced, very supple and soft feeling, medium thickness, and does not tangle at all. There is a square zipper style carry case. Adequate.
For tips I was using the Azla SednaEarfit Short large size, which work well for me on the Traillii, Mason FS, and Thummim. They are wide bore I do not believe there is any attenuation of the treble region with these tips. I did not try a narrow bore tip or a cable change.
This is a 12BA set, I was expecting similarities to the Mason FS and the U12T that are also 12BA sets, the Mason FS has the extra BC driver as well. It surprised me that this was not the case to my ears, the Balmung sounded very different to me than either of those sets.
Overall, the clarity is excellent, the detail is abundant, the overall sound leans right, towards high Mids. Enough so that for some genres it did not work well for my ears, and on other genres it was enjoyable.
I started my listening sessions using a Gary Burton live recording this track “Hommage” is over 30 minutes long and includes a large ensemble for Jazz, many movements within, has Acoustic Bass solo, drum solo, parts with only 3 or 4 instruments, as well as the full ensemble. It hits every frequency and instrument timbre you could imagine in the Jazz genre. On this recording the Balmung was too hot on the upper register wind instruments, for my ears, at various moments during the track high frequencies became fatiguing. During sections of the track that did not have these instruments in them, the Balmung sounded great. This issue was not only creating fatigue at those times but also congestion and diminishing instrument separation. When the track becomes more stripped down, separation and space were both exemplary. Interestingly cymbal work was not an issue and presents quite well with great speed decay and clarity.
I than switched to the Riverside band, and used multiple tracks, once again, the Balmung was too hot, this time in the vocals particularly with D, CH, K, S, and SH sounds. Higher frequency guitar notes also had too much energy and were fatiguing to my ears.
Moving on to more electronic type music and here I found the best synergy to my ears, this set was great for this genre, that extra treble that was bothering my ears on the other genres was not an issue, there was enough bottom to the sound, and the mids were nicely presented. I was using the Ilan Bluestone Scars album.
Followed up after Scars with the soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I had a similar positive listening to that work.
Last night I switched from the P6 Pro to the M8 again switching to low gain, lowering the volume. I listened to the Charlie Haden album Steal Away which is a duo, double bass, and acoustic piano, this is an awesome album, very relaxing. It does not venture to far from the melody of the tracks which are all spiritual and folk standards stripped down. Both musicians in their own space always. Bass notes were clear with good attack and nice sustain, piano notes across the entire frequency range sounded balanced and coherent, there was an excellent sense of stage space, and zero harshness.
Perhaps more burn in would help the hotness, I have noticed that it has improved since my first listen on Tuesday, likely I am around 6-8 hours in total. Ultimately please consider these impressions as one person’s input.
(note; I am not a bass head I do love the extra bass presence of the Thummim, subbase at this point of my learning to hear is just not that valuable to me so I am not a good judge of that if this is important to you.)
I will be returning the demo today, so the Balmung can make its way to the next interested party.
First observation is the high efficiency of this driver, I have listened to 2 dozen driver sets in the past year, (no where near the experience of many of you), this is by far the most efficient set I have heard. Using the P6 Pro I had no choice but to switch to low gain, none of my daily drivers sound as good on Low gain so my players are set to either High or Turbo gain. I am imagining (although I did not try it) that the Balmung would be a great partner for a phone and a dongle, as the power consumption would be low for the battery in your phone, and the driver sounds as good as I think it can with the low power, and actually does not sound good to me with extra power.
The package that comes with the set is nice, adequate, I could not use the supplied tips, I already know these tips do not work for my ears. There is only one set of tips included in 3 sizes. The cable is awesome, no idea how it sounds compared to other cables, but it ergonomically is one of the best I have experienced, very supple and soft feeling, medium thickness, and does not tangle at all. There is a square zipper style carry case. Adequate.
For tips I was using the Azla SednaEarfit Short large size, which work well for me on the Traillii, Mason FS, and Thummim. They are wide bore I do not believe there is any attenuation of the treble region with these tips. I did not try a narrow bore tip or a cable change.
This is a 12BA set, I was expecting similarities to the Mason FS and the U12T that are also 12BA sets, the Mason FS has the extra BC driver as well. It surprised me that this was not the case to my ears, the Balmung sounded very different to me than either of those sets.
Overall, the clarity is excellent, the detail is abundant, the overall sound leans right, towards high Mids. Enough so that for some genres it did not work well for my ears, and on other genres it was enjoyable.
I started my listening sessions using a Gary Burton live recording this track “Hommage” is over 30 minutes long and includes a large ensemble for Jazz, many movements within, has Acoustic Bass solo, drum solo, parts with only 3 or 4 instruments, as well as the full ensemble. It hits every frequency and instrument timbre you could imagine in the Jazz genre. On this recording the Balmung was too hot on the upper register wind instruments, for my ears, at various moments during the track high frequencies became fatiguing. During sections of the track that did not have these instruments in them, the Balmung sounded great. This issue was not only creating fatigue at those times but also congestion and diminishing instrument separation. When the track becomes more stripped down, separation and space were both exemplary. Interestingly cymbal work was not an issue and presents quite well with great speed decay and clarity.
I than switched to the Riverside band, and used multiple tracks, once again, the Balmung was too hot, this time in the vocals particularly with D, CH, K, S, and SH sounds. Higher frequency guitar notes also had too much energy and were fatiguing to my ears.
Moving on to more electronic type music and here I found the best synergy to my ears, this set was great for this genre, that extra treble that was bothering my ears on the other genres was not an issue, there was enough bottom to the sound, and the mids were nicely presented. I was using the Ilan Bluestone Scars album.
Followed up after Scars with the soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I had a similar positive listening to that work.
Last night I switched from the P6 Pro to the M8 again switching to low gain, lowering the volume. I listened to the Charlie Haden album Steal Away which is a duo, double bass, and acoustic piano, this is an awesome album, very relaxing. It does not venture to far from the melody of the tracks which are all spiritual and folk standards stripped down. Both musicians in their own space always. Bass notes were clear with good attack and nice sustain, piano notes across the entire frequency range sounded balanced and coherent, there was an excellent sense of stage space, and zero harshness.
Perhaps more burn in would help the hotness, I have noticed that it has improved since my first listen on Tuesday, likely I am around 6-8 hours in total. Ultimately please consider these impressions as one person’s input.
(note; I am not a bass head I do love the extra bass presence of the Thummim, subbase at this point of my learning to hear is just not that valuable to me so I am not a good judge of that if this is important to you.)
I will be returning the demo today, so the Balmung can make its way to the next interested party.
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normie610
Headphoneus Supremus
It is indeed a problem….but a nice problem to have for sure!
Change the Oral-B for a Sonicare?Upon its arrival, the Elf King refused to be housed in cramped quarters unworthy of royalty, so the whole family moved to a two story apartment...
No more expansion from here on out. One in means one out... Which IEM would you replace and with what? It has to be similar in terms of sound signature.
On a more serious note, is it simple polyamory, or does each one bring something necessary to the party? I am somehat indecisive, I think, and would probably stand in front of a harem like that, and not be able to decide which one to grab for a listen..... I've done that in front of my LP collection more times than I care to admit in public, or even to myself... lol
nothing wrong with the Nio. prettiest too imo
Haha seriously. But I think I'd find myself struggling to choose amongst such a collection...
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