[KuroKitsu]

My go to cable, a Hansound Audio Aurora with Rhodium plating lost a lot of its rhodium plating. It was causing the left channel of my in ears to have clicking noises. I wasn't a huge fan of the ergonomics of the stock cable so I just spent 4 hours using a swiss army knife to shave down the connectors on a cable from a Simgot en700 pro so that they could fit the recessed sockets on my iems. In the process, my left hand has gone completely numb and my swiss army knife has gone completely dull. I plug the cable in and I'm listening to them, and they sound like ass.

I am now dead inside. I also should have been studying for finals. I now need a new cable too. Happy new years everyone!

Any chance Hansound would be willing to fix that at a reasonable price or have it covered under their warranty terms?

crappy day still. I remember somehow damaging the shrink wrapped connectors on my Plusssound Exo Tri-Copper the 4th day I got it, then accidently sliced off a chunk of the insulation with a Xacto knife. Figured it wouldn't be covered under warrranty and I was forced to go back to my falling apart Lionheart at the time. This is worse.

 

[Mimouille]

I'll just leave that here.

 

[491326]

Will there be Solaris customs?

 

[papa_mia]

I'll just leave that here.

No man, take this outta here.......

Please?

 

[Deezel177]

Will there be Solaris customs?

It’s extremely unlikely. The only customs they’ve made are the Equinox and those are in limited order as they are.

 

[491326]

I started eqing stuff finally. I noticed that when I raised stuff too much, I can start hearing a buzzing or rattling noise. Is this like "meeting a limit" too how much you can change the frequency response of a driver?

 

[Deezel177]

I started eqing stuff finally. I noticed that when I raised stuff too much, I can start hearing a buzzing or rattling noise. Is this like "meeting a limit" too how much you can change the frequency response of a driver?

It’s either distortion or noise that’s inherently baked into a recording, esp. older ones. But, the former is highly more likely.

 

[Kerouac]

During the past weeks I had (and still have) 3 interesting loaners over at my house, thanks to Nic (and @Wyville for forwarding them to me). The following is just a basic impressions trilogy of those loaners. As they were the only items that I listened to during that period, it felt as if there was some kinda connection between the three, while logically there wasn’t any, besides that they’re expensive items on a loan. Anyway, here we go...


1) EarSonics Grace: The ‘French’ connection


Now, there’s a movie called The French Connection (1971) with Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. This was a raw and 'in your face' kind of movie. I would say that the EarSonics Grace, although they’re made in France, are almost the opposite of that. They have a very sophisticated and elegant (not raw at all) way of bringing you lots of detail and the soundstage is impressive. A beautiful and gracefull (name well chosen) signature indeed.

Just before I got them I read some reviews on them, so it wasn’t a total surprise that they sounded good. The part about the Spiral Dot (usually my favorites with universals) tips written by @subguy812 immediately worked in a 'Don’t push the red button' kind of way for me...

...and of course they got stuck in my ears on both sides when I removed the Grace. But luckily after 3 hours of intense surgery everything was allright again. I also (tried and) had to agree on the cable part. I’m aware that the Grace was tuned with the stock cable in mind, but I couldn’t help prefering it with an aftermarket cable like the Ares II over the stock cable myself too.


2) Empire Ears Legend X: The ‘Sweet Holy Mother of Bass’ connection


The Legend X was one of the few IEMs that I was still curious about over the last year. And I was even a bit afraid that when I should get that chance I might like them over my Phantom.

When I first listened to the Legend X it was with the Effect Audio Horus cable and I was very impressed (understatement) from the start. Especially the (gotta love that DD) bass and soundstage immediately stood out, but that was no surprise as I also read quite some positive impressions/reviews over the last year on this one. It sounded extremely good, dynamic and holographic to my ears and I think that Zeus XR + Legend X + Phantom could be a 'close to perfection' IEM trilogy collection. Not much left to wish for with those 3 signatures in tha house, except a good source to do them justice of course. Quality wise they're not that far apart imo, but they surely do have different strengths and therefor I can also totally understand why one might prefer one of them above the others. Imo they all 3 already have a well deserved legendary status.


3) Effect Audio Horus: The ‘Golden Touch’ connection


Yes, I’m a cable believer and I’m aware that many of you out there are not. But my ears and brain are able to convince me (which is enough for me) that I can hear differences in sound signature / quality when I switch from one cable to another.

When I switched the EA Horus after a few days from the Legend X to the Phantom it totally hit the 'Sweet Spot' for me. I just couldn't get myself to switch back to another cable after that. I already liked the Phantom a lot with the Ares II 8 wire over the past months, but with the Horus the clarity, resolution and imaging improved in a way that I found hard to categorize as 'fine tuning'. The Phantom clearly scaled up to my ears and that was not something that made me 100% happy, as I also realised at the same time that there is no way that I can talk myself into spending another $1600 on a cable right now. So, I will enjoy this combination while I can and will try to convince myself that it was just a sweet (spot) dream once it has gone back to its original owner.

Untill now I considered the Zeus XR (switch mainly on R) + PW1960 2 wire from the RW AK380 Cu as my best (at least in a technical way) sounding synergy combination.
But now the Phantom + EA Horus from the LPG probably has surpassed that synergy wise and conquered that personal #1 spot.

Solid gold to my ears!!!

Btw, none of the above Christmass tree decoration items was hurt during the above smartphone photoshoot.
Thanks for reading and best 2019 (audio) wishes to all of you out there!

 

[491326]

I’m a cable believer and I’m aware that many of you out there are not

I just had a strange idea.

People who argue that cables don't do anything always point to expensive cables that don't change the sound.
I understand why someone might want to believe that expensive cables don't improve the sound; cable prices are getting ridiculous these days.
What if instead, they looked at how cheap cables affect the sound instead? I experienced this first hand with an ass-sounding cable recently.
If we present a cable skeptic with a terrible sounding cable, will they begin to believe that cables do make a difference?

 

[twister6]

I just had a strange idea.

People who argue that cables don't do anything always point to expensive cables that don't change the sound.
I understand why someone might want to believe that expensive cables don't improve the sound; cable prices are getting ridiculous these days.
What if instead, they looked at how cheap cables affect the sound instead? I experienced this first hand with an ass-sounding cable recently.
If we present a cable skeptic with a terrible sounding cable, will they begin to believe that cables do make a difference?

In my personal experience, a lot of the cable skeptics I came across never really tested or compared the cable, or some who did - have never done a proper a/b comparison using the same audio source, the same audio file, the same pair of iems, and properly matched volume. Also, with expensive flagship cables, there is always unrealistic expectation of $1k cable making the sound "$1k" better without realizing diminishing returns of a small marginal improvement. Furthermore, people do hear the improvement over a cheap stock ofc cable, but have a hard time justifying a price difference going from one aftermarket cable to another without realizing that price has to do with a cost of material. Nobody complaints when taking their wife or gf jewelry shopping and seeing the price difference of silver vs gold vs platinum necklaces

 

[amature101]

Any other colour, alo always has iem with nice osund but their design .....

 

[Mimouille]

During the past weeks I had (and still have) 3 interesting loaners over at my house, thanks to Nic (and @Wyville for forwarding them to me). The following is just a basic impressions trilogy of those loaners. As they were the only items that I listened to during that period, it felt as if there was some kinda connection between the three, while logically there wasn’t any, besides that they’re expensive items on a loan. Anyway, here we go...


1) EarSonics Grace: The ‘French’ connection


Now, there’s a movie called The French Connection (1971) with Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. This was a raw and 'in your face' kind of movie. I would say that the EarSonics Grace, although they’re made in France, are almost the opposite of that. They have a very sophisticated and elegant (not raw at all) way of bringing you lots of detail and the soundstage is impressive. A beautiful and gracefull (name well chosen) signature indeed.

Just before I got them I read some reviews on them, so it wasn’t a total surprise that they sounded good. The part about the Spiral Dot (usually my favorites with universals) tips written by @subguy812 immediately worked in a 'Don’t push the red button' kind of way for me...

...and of course they got stuck in my ears on both sides when I removed the Grace. But luckily after 3 hours of intense surgery everything was allright again. I also (tried and) had to agree on the cable part. I’m aware that the Grace was tuned with the stock cable in mind, but I couldn’t help prefering it with an aftermarket cable like the Ares II over the stock cable myself too.


2) Empire Ears Legend X: The ‘Sweet Holy Mother of Bass’ connection


The Legend X was one of the few IEMs that I was still curious about over the last year. And I was even a bit afraid that when I should get that chance I might like them over my Phantom.

When I first listened to the Legend X it was with the Effect Audio Horus cable and I was very impressed (understatement) from the start. Especially the (gotta love that DD) bass and soundstage immediately stood out, but that was no surprise as I also read quite some positive impressions/reviews over the last year on this one. It sounded extremely good, dynamic and holographic to my ears and I think that Zeus XR + Legend X + Phantom could be a 'close to perfection' IEM trilogy collection. Not much left to wish for with those 3 signatures in tha house, except a good source to do them justice of course. Quality wise they're not that far apart imo, but they surely do have different strengths and therefor I can also totally understand why one might prefer one of them above the others. Imo they all 3 already have a well deserved legendary status.


3) Effect Audio Horus: The ‘Golden Touch’ connection


Yes, I’m a cable believer and I’m aware that many of you out there are not. But my ears and brain are able to convince me (which is enough for me) that I can hear differences in sound signature / quality when I switch from one cable to another.

When I switched the EA Horus after a few days from the Legend X to the Phantom it totally hit the 'Sweet Spot' for me. I just couldn't get myself to switch back to another cable after that. I already liked the Phantom a lot with the Ares II 8 wire over the past months, but with the Horus the clarity, resolution and imaging improved in a way that I found hard to categorize as 'fine tuning'. The Phantom clearly scaled up to my ears and that was not something that made me 100% happy, as I also realised at the same time that there is no way that I can talk myself into spending another $1600 on a cable right now. So, I will enjoy this combination while I can and will try to convince myself that it was just a sweet (spot) dream once it has gone back to its original owner.

Untill now I considered the Zeus XR (switch mainly on R) + PW1960 2 wire from the RW AK380 Cu as my best (at least in a technical way) sounding synergy combination.
But now the Phantom + EA Horus from the LPG probably has surpassed that synergy wise and conquered that personal #1 spot.

Solid gold to my ears!!!

Btw, none of the above Christmass tree decoration items was hurt during the above smartphone photoshoot.
Thanks for reading and best 2019 (audio) wishes to all of you out there!

I am on the fence on the Grace, I really like them a lot but I am not sure I need another BA.

 

[KuroKitsu]

I just had a strange idea.

People who argue that cables don't do anything always point to expensive cables that don't change the sound.
I understand why someone might want to believe that expensive cables don't improve the sound; cable prices are getting ridiculous these days.
What if instead, they looked at how cheap cables affect the sound instead? I experienced this first hand with an ass-sounding cable recently.
If we present a cable skeptic with a terrible sounding cable, will they begin to believe that cables do make a difference?

I suspect not. To us hardcore lunatics, $150 for an Aries II might be a drop in the bucket, but for the average Joe who owns gear maybe double that price in extreme cases, they wont even have gear that would result in an audible improvment.

Look at /r/headphones. Literally any mention of cables is garunteed downvote oblivion. "hurr dur my, my $25 ChiFi Andro knock offs are just as good as the CAs, cables dont make a difference"

 

[491326]

hurr dur my, my $25 ChiFi Andro knock offs are just as good as the CAs, cables dont make a difference

I have to admit, I forgot those pieces of crap existed. My lack of faith in head-fi is restored

 

[KuroKitsu]

I am on the fence on the Grace, I really like them a lot but I am not sure I need another BA.

One can never have enough BAs, but then I might just be a BA fanatic.

Curious about the shell shape and nozzle length on the Grace, are they still the same as the Velvet V2?