[gearofwar]

well there goes my second last champion
not that i vote in the vote thread, but the last time i had a time with samba i really comes to love it
and not to mention warbler still standing somewhere up there make me more and more intrigued to that one driver wonfer
zeus still going strong though

Samba was amazing last time I tried at Canjam NYC. Sadly, it was not intended to show on the table of the only booth that had it - Effect Audio so I had to ask for it. Nobody knew it existed in that show btw

I forgot to submit my top 5 prior to the review but nevertheless , I would choose
1)A18
2)W900
3)Aether
4)Zeus R
5)Samba
Sadly, I got eliminated from 2nd review

 

[FastAndClean]

beer cap in ear is in the top 6 !!!!

 

[PinkyPowers]

Well done yet again, Nick! You paint such a telling image of this earphone, I almost feel I've heard it myself.

 

[andra555]

Samba was amazing last time I tried at Canjam NYC. Sadly, it was not intended to show on the table of the only booth that had it - Effect Audio so I had to ask for it. Nobody knew it existed in that show btw

I forgot to submit my top 5 prior to the review but nevertheless , I would choose
1)A18
2)W900
3)Aether
4)Zeus R
5)Samba
Sadly, I got eliminated from 2nd review

yeah, it's really underrated IEM in my opinion. the precision is just crazy and yet i still find it could maintain the border between musical and analytic.
i see you have heard w900, would love to hear your opinion about it, from general review i find the treble is maybe to lean for my taste, and i fear a veiled feeling in the upper mid, what do you say about it compared to samba and aether?

 

[gearofwar]

yeah, it's really underrated IEM in my opinion. the precision is just crazy and yet i still find it could maintain the border between musical and analytic.
i see you have heard w900, would love to hear your opinion about it, from general review i find the treble is maybe to lean for my taste, and i fear a veiled feeling in the upper mid, what do you say about it compared to samba and aether?

Its imaging, sound stage and bass are just superior to the other two. Out of the 3, Aether has the most beautiful treble and tone also most natural upper mid ( I sold my Elear after listening it, I could careless about the bass but its good enough). Something w900 bothered me most was its mid bass, sometimes I just felt a bit too much for my taste and sometimes it's amazing to have such powerful speaker-like bass on the go, it does work well with EDM music though.

I didn't find anything bad with its treble, it's laidback and safe without annoying peaks, the mid is nice and even also. Its resolution is definitely higher than the other 2 but not much.

 

[Deezel177]

yeah, it's really underrated IEM in my opinion. the precision is just crazy and yet i still find it could maintain the border between musical and analytic.
i see you have heard w900, would love to hear your opinion about it, from general review i find the treble is maybe to lean for my taste, and i fear a veiled feeling in the upper mid, what do you say about it compared to samba and aether?

The W900 is purposed towards naturality, rather than precision. It has a warmer midrange that makes instruments sound incredibly precise whilst still being in the realm of sounding life-like.

The W900's treble is also incredibly extended, but it doesn't have the Samba's upper-mid peak. This means cymbals, violins, acoustic guitar, etc. aren't as sparkly and tizzy. Its resolution is high, and it is capable of reproducing high amounts of detail, but the W900 doesn't push them as much as the Samba does, and the warmth it possesses also means its stage isn't as clean, and its background isn't as black. Like I said, this adds a great sense of realism to instruments, but it renders its level of perceived accuracy and "pin-point precision" inferior to the Samba's IMO.

Funnily enough, this phenomenon is also somewhat present in Jomo's new flagship, the Flamenco, especially in the treble, but its switches make options available, which is always a nice perk.

Edit: Differences in their lower regions can be summarized in impact, texture, rumble, and layering; the W900 has more of them all.

 

[13candles]

I swear Nic is becoming like the late Alan Greenspan whose mere words could raise or lower the interest rates of several countries... And in this case with Nic's Shootout, he can make several IEMs really popular.

Having said that, i've just gone and place an order for the Warbler Prelude....

beer cap in ear is in the top 6 !!!!

Sorry but what is this IEM you're referring to?

 

[Kerouac]

I swear Nic is becoming like the late Alan Greenspan whose mere words could raise or lower the interest rates of several countries... And in this case with Nic's Shootout, he can make several IEMs really popular.

Having said that, i've just gone and place an order for the Warbler Prelude....

I bet many orders (at $1.099?) will be placed after yours

Sorry but what is this IEM you're referring to?

This one: https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/r...lagship-shootout.826876/page-45#post-13248299
I think it costs around $7.000, but who cares as it has a very nice classic design / logo
(Btw, I don't think the white eartips in the pic are included for that price)

 

[andra555]

Its imaging, sound stage and bass are just superior to the other two. Out of the 3, Aether has the most beautiful treble and tone also most natural upper mid ( I sold my Elear after listening it, I could careless about the bass but its good enough). Something w900 bothered me most was its mid bass, sometimes I just felt a bit too much for my taste and sometimes it's amazing to have such powerful speaker-like bass on the go, it does work well with EDM music though.

I didn't find anything bad with its treble, it's laidback and safe without annoying peaks, the mid is nice and even also. Its resolution is definitely higher than the other 2 but not much.

The W900 is purposed towards naturality, rather than precision. It has a warmer midrange that makes instruments sound incredibly precise whilst still being in the realm of sounding life-like.

The W900's treble is also incredibly extended, but it doesn't have the Samba's upper-mid peak. This means cymbals, violins, acoustic guitar, etc. aren't as sparkly and tizzy. Its resolution is high, and it is capable of reproducing high amounts of detail, but the W900 doesn't push them as much as the Samba does, and the warmth it possesses also means its stage isn't as clean, and its background isn't as black. Like I said, this adds a great sense of realism to instruments, but it renders its level of perceived accuracy and "pin-point precision" inferior to the Samba's IMO.

Funnily enough, this phenomenon is also somewhat present in Jomo's new flagship, the Flamenco, especially in the treble, but its switches make options available, which is always a nice perk.

Edit: Differences in their lower regions can be summarized in impact, texture, rumble, and layering; the W900 has more of them all.

thank you for the insights it's very helpful , the overall tonal sounds like a good complement for samba, i also feel w900 has a good heft from its dynamic driver and yet some people still thinks it pales in comparison to w500 which makes me shiver just by imagining it LOL, i'm quite sensitive to boomy midbass that bleed to the mid region it makes the overall presentation really muddy to me, but i hear a lot of good opinion about the control it has over it bass. hope someday i could audition the w900 directly then maybe pair of samba - w900 could do for all the genre and be the end game (which is supposed to be a myth)

 

[andra555]

I bet many orders (at $1.099?) will be placed after yours


This one: https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/r...lagship-shootout.826876/page-45#post-13248299
I think it costs around $7.000, but who cares as it has a very nice classic design / logo
(Btw, I don't think the white eartips in the pic are included for that price)

7K is reasonable price at that level of performance
wait till asius collaborate with it and add some little bump, it will be fairly priced at around 9K USD

 

[Deezel177]

thank you for the insights it's very helpful , the overall tonal sounds like a good complement for samba, i also feel w900 has a good heft from its dynamic driver and yet some people still thinks it pales in comparison to w500 which makes me shiver just by imagining it LOL, i'm quite sensitive to boomy midbass that bleed to the mid region it makes the overall presentation really muddy to me, but i hear a lot of good opinion about the control it has over it bass. hope someday i could audition the w900 directly then maybe pair of samba - w900 could do for all the genre and be the end game (which is supposed to be a myth)

The W900's bass does not bleed into the mids at all. It has just enough presence to add a touch of warmth in the lower mids, and then make you go: "Yup, that's one awesome dynamic driver." I think the reason why people claim it pales in comparison to the W500 is because it has less quantity, but I haven't listened to the W500 in ages so I have little confidence in any comment I make about it.

 

[fiascogarcia]

I bet many orders (at $1.099?) will be placed after yours



This one: https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/r...lagship-shootout.826876/page-45#post-13248299
I think it costs around $7.000, but who cares as it has a very nice classic design / logo
(Btw, I don't think the white eartips in the pic are included for that price)

Ear tips are made of polymer infused sheep intestine lining. They go for around $250 a pair.

 

[rskbug]

With Jomo out, I think these will be in top 5 (in no particular order):

SE5
Zeus
W900
Warbler
A18

 

[gearofwar]

I have a feeling that Warbler will be the next

 

[Kerouac]

Ear tips are made of polymer infused sheep intestine lining. They go for around $250 a pair.

Sorry, my mistake. And all this time I thought these tips were made out of skin from the alien that they keep at Area 51
$250 is a steal though...

With Jomo out, I think these will be in top 5 (in no particular order):

SE5
Zeus
W900
Warbler
A18

I hope you're right as that would mean that I would end up with 4 predicted iems in the top 5
But to be honest, I don't think this will be the case and I expect the Unique Melody Maestro V2 to survive another round.
Well, we'll know for sure next week...

Regarding the Samba, excellent review (as always)!
Somehow I already expected it to show up last week.