[HiFiHawaii808]

Put down an order for Custom Fusangs...so now I'm selling my Fabled Sound at a breakthrough price!

Congrats. I saw your ad and I wondered what happened. Glad it was because you were doubling down on the FS.

 

[fuhransahis]

Put down an order for Custom Fusangs...so now I'm selling my Fabled Sound at a breakthrough price!

Screenshot reads as if it's $4,588 per each earpiece, for a total of $9,176.

Plus an upgrade to a $5.5k PWAudio cable even though the stock cable is $4k.

Cool total of $15k.

Thanks for watching this preview of 2023!

 

[gLer]

Cross-post from the Axiom thread in case anyone's interested.

Hi guys, I put together a short 'unboxing' video of the Axiom. Full review coming soon. Thanks to @EffectAudio for giving me the opportunity to try it out!

​

 

[jwbrent]

Indigo in the house:

I’ll do a quick comparison against the Anole V14 in the near future …

 

[jwbrent]

Put down an order for Custom Fusangs...so now I'm selling my Fabled Sound at a breakthrough price!

I don’t see why UM can’t do a re-shell and even charge a premium to do so, still much cheaper for the customer than taking a financial hit on the FS. I believe the drivers on the FS and Fusang are identical.

 

[bigbeans]

I don’t see why UM can’t do a re-shell and even charge a premium to do so, still much cheaper for the customer than taking a financial hit on the FS. I believe the drivers on the FS and Fusang are identical.

I’m guessing it comes down to the challenges of manufacturing the Fabled Sound shell. UM has extensive experience with carbon fiber shells, so they can reshell at a moments notice with Fusangs. I will go the custom route with Mentor Fusang (or whatever it’s called haha) haha.

I’ve been watching the customs crowd for quite a while now, first time jumping in. Very excited, shipping out my impressions tomorrow morning to Musicteck.

 

[davidmolliere]

For once I have gone nuts on something else than IEMs... and found myself a recent second hand DCA Stealth... some headphone goodness for the M17, never gone flagship level on headphones...

 

[KuroKitsu]

For once I have gone nuts on something else than IEMs... and found myself a recent second hand DCA Stealth... some headphone goodness for the M17, never gone flagship level on headphones...

@riverground swears I'll love the Stealth, that's why I have yet to try it even thoufg our local store has a demo.

I have this weird thing about spending flagship prices on headphones even though I'd turn around and not bat an eye at a pair of iems that I like.

 

[gLer]

@riverground swears I'll love the Stealth, that's why I have yet to try it even thoufg our local store has a demo.

I have this weird thing about spending flagship prices on headphones even though I'd turn around and not bat an eye at a pair of iems that I like.

There are very few flagship headphones that are just as comfortable on portable sources as they are on desktop stacks. Stealth is one of them. Meze and Sony too. But you really don't want to run LCDs, Sennheisers, Hifimans or ZMFs off a DAP, even if you can get them loud enough.

 

[uckexk]

There are very few flagship headphones that are just as comfortable on portable sources as they are on desktop stacks. Stealth is one of them. Meze and Sony too. But you really don't want to run LCDs, Sennheisers, Hifimans or ZMFs off a DAP, even if you can get them loud enough.

Stealth is extremely difficult to drive. In terms of drivability it's at Susvara level, certainly requires more power than any of LCDs, Senns, or ZMFs.

 

[mvvRAZ]

There are very few flagship headphones that are just as comfortable on portable sources as they are on desktop stacks. Stealth is one of them. Meze and Sony too. But you really don't want to run LCDs, Sennheisers, Hifimans or ZMFs off a DAP, even if you can get them loud enough.

Ifi Diablo has entered the chat - gets insane performance out of the Elite, comparable with what I get off the MHA150


I also tried it with the LCD5, I didn’t like the 5 at all because of the midrange tuning but it went full range so I’d assume the Diablo did its job

 

[fuhransahis]

There are very few flagship headphones that are just as comfortable on portable sources as they are on desktop stacks. Stealth is one of them. Meze and Sony too. But you really don't want to run LCDs, Sennheisers, Hifimans or ZMFs off a DAP, even if you can get them loud enough.

Ifi Diablo has entered the chat - gets insane performance out of the Elite, comparable with what I get off the MHA150


I also tried it with the LCD5, I didn’t like the 5 at all because of the midrange tuning but it went full range so I’d assume the Diablo did its job

iBasso DX300 Max has also entered the chat. Drives my ZMF VC awesomely, actually semi-comparable to the Feliks Echo and ZMF Pendant desktop amps. Made me comfortable with selling those to keep the Max while I managed to save up again to buy another desktop amp, knowing that it was driving them to their actual (yet obviously not summit-fi-desktop-amp-level) potential.

 

[gLer]

Stealth is extremely difficult to drive. In terms of drivability it's at Susvara level, certainly requires more power than any of LCDs, Senns, or ZMFs.

Sorry you're quite right, I must have had Stealth mixed up with something else in my head for some reason. Definitely not one to be driven off a portable source.

The likes of Elite, Z1R, some of the Focals, those can be driven full range off fairly modest portable sources and DAPs, but will all still scale nicely with more powerful desktop amps.

 

[mvvRAZ]

iBasso DX300 Max has also entered the chat. Drives my ZMF VC awesomely, actually semi-comparable to the Feliks Echo and ZMF Pendant desktop amps. Made me comfortable with selling those to keep the Max while I managed to save up again to buy another desktop amp, knowing that it was driving them to their actual (yet obviously not summit-fi-desktop-amp-level) potential.

Portable sources have come a long long way, which in turn will make headphones much more accessible - I feel like having a grounded, desktop-like setup is a dealbreaker for a large part of the community, and while you still probably can't reach 100% performance off a DAP or a portable amp, I can comfortably say the same about IEMs - no DAP can do what my MHA150 can do paired with any set of IEMs, I remember plugging the Noir in and being absolutely blown away by the bass quality - nothing portable has ever been able to deliver that

 

[MaggotBrain]

Sorry you're quite right, I must have had Stealth mixed up with something else in my head for some reason. Definitely not one to be driven off a portable source.

The likes of Elite, Z1R, some of the Focals, those can be driven full range off fairly modest portable sources and DAPs, but will all still scale nicely with more powerful desktop amps.

The one thing I can say is that the quality of portable bluetooth dac/amps has improved substantially in the past year or so and they can do a lot more than they used to. The ifi Go Blu actually does a quite a remarkable job of driving demanding cans like the Diana Phi and ZMF Verite Closed. Is it desktop quality - no, but having those portable options drastically opens up the usage possibilities. Too often we audiophiles let the quest for perfection be the enemy of good. I mean I would love to listen on my desktop rig (Bartok/Primavera) all day but I have a family that needs food and house that needs cleaning and thankfully my wife puts up with my audiophile habits provided I chip in - and I get to enjoy the Diana with a iFi Go Blu - because it literally takes less than 5 seconds to grab and go. For IEMs I should state that the Shanling UP5 has less clipping issues and is generally less fiddily than the ifi so I would go that route. The Fioo BTR5 punches above its weight but is a bit bright in its presentation, but the 2.5 input and need for adapters for those with pentaconn cables means I use it far less than I used to.