flinkenick's 17 Flagship IEM Shootout Thread (and general high-end portable audio discussion)
seems to me he's settling some businessBy the way, Mim, what’re you doing all the way in Shirakawa-go, mate?
A few more notes on my current listening experience of the Hifiman R2R2000 Red, perhaps along with its bigger brother, one of the strangest players in today's market. Though I haven't listened to the Lotoo Paw 6000, considering how many more features the Paw 6000 has, I think most sensible audiophiles would probably get the Paw 6000. The UI on the R2R2K Red, it's overall usage, isn't particularly appealing to most people. I happen to kind of like the way it operates, and I find the UI charming. Sound wise though, I find this thing to be quite a treat. It's strengths are in spatial resolution and a particular feeling that I will call "ASMR physicality." Vocals and more forward instruments sound like they're right up against your ear and you can feel the sound move your eardrums. It actually gets a little overwhelming on occasion, where you feel like a trumpet is blasting you right on the sides of your head and you can't help but lower the volume to continues listening. Timbre is great, realistic and natural sounding. I still need to demo the PAW 6000 to compare though.
Though, I will say the Red hasn't been the greatest experience in terms of dealing with its primitiveness. I spent a day organizing my music library into genre and artist so that I don't have to deal with the poor file sorting system that mis-sorted a number of genres. However, I still have to deal with the problem of the player skipping the first little bit of every track. I'm wondering if there is a solution or a workaround. I'm not sure how to operate the affix silence function on foobar, or if that would work
edit: and there goes listening to any album that has no gaps between each song
Though, I will say the Red hasn't been the greatest experience in terms of dealing with its primitiveness. I spent a day organizing my music library into genre and artist so that I don't have to deal with the poor file sorting system that mis-sorted a number of genres. However, I still have to deal with the problem of the player skipping the first little bit of every track. I'm wondering if there is a solution or a workaround. I'm not sure how to operate the affix silence function on foobar, or if that would work
edit: and there goes listening to any album that has no gaps between each song
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EagleWings
Headphoneus Supremus
@pithyginger63 , so you bought it?
yup, I needed something that fit in the pockets of my new clothes (amazing reasoning)
edit: also holy crap Ghost in the Shell soundtrack giving me goosebumps with this setup. This is the first time I've felt that the vocals on the opening track actually sounded natural.
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EagleWings
Headphoneus Supremus
Good stuff. What were the differences between the Red and the Black? Some say the Black is the warmer and more natural sounding one, while some say otherwise.
chupa
100+ Head-Fier
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is anyone aware of more recent review showdown of newer models CIEM's?
Unfortunately, I never got a chance to demo the black, but according to a store owner, the black has a massive soundstage and very good imaging. The red is more intimate and vocal focused. I find this description of the red to be accurate; it’s strength definitely lies in vocal reproduction, but it’s imaging capabilities are excellent as well. Also the black was way out of my price range XD
As for naturalness, I think the Red sounds plenty natural to my ears. If the Black is even more natural sounding, it is probably really really good.
Something I notice is that the Red seems to pullback quite heavily on midbass.
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I'm really surprised at how good the bass is on the Hifiman R2R2K Red, not in quantity, but in the its depth. For BA bass, I've always found the A12t to be unique compared to the normal BA bass because I find it to be slower and fuller, almost imitating the decay of a dynamic driver. However, with certain pairings of DAPs and cables, I've found the bass on the A12t to be occasionally sloppy and a little to weighty, considering it already has quite a large subbass boost.
The Red's bass improvement, I believe, is down to bass speed, tightening up the speed greatly. The subbass has improved in particular, adding a visceral quality to everything. Kick drums sound like they might do my head in if I listen too much. It's like having an actual kickdrum in the same room, except it only affects my head. It's especially potent if I stuff foam into the Apex modules to increase isolation. It adds way more body to everything but in turn it lowers the spatial performance and vocal focus that the Red has been giving me. However, the foam stuffed A12t isn't as thick sounding with the Red as with the Mojo and the DX150 because the tighter midbass on the Red seems to "decrease" midbass quantity a little bit.
The Red's bass improvement, I believe, is down to bass speed, tightening up the speed greatly. The subbass has improved in particular, adding a visceral quality to everything. Kick drums sound like they might do my head in if I listen too much. It's like having an actual kickdrum in the same room, except it only affects my head. It's especially potent if I stuff foam into the Apex modules to increase isolation. It adds way more body to everything but in turn it lowers the spatial performance and vocal focus that the Red has been giving me. However, the foam stuffed A12t isn't as thick sounding with the Red as with the Mojo and the DX150 because the tighter midbass on the Red seems to "decrease" midbass quantity a little bit.
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mvvRAZ
Headphoneus Supremus
What CIEMs are you interested in?
I feel like the best sweetspot would be at $1000-$1500 for a new pair of customs. Fibae 7, A6t, Alclair Electro, and let's not forget the Fusion. Above that, the returns diminish quite sharply imo. I know I would be happy with the Fibae 7 or the A6t as my last iems, and wouldn't think for a second that I can get tons more resolution for more. The only monitors I would begin considering would be monsters like the A18t, Elysium, the VE8, or the Erlkonig
seeing a trend with me liking Vision Ears... still too expensive for me though...
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mvvRAZ
Headphoneus Supremus
Hmmm I'd say a bit higher than that. But at that price point I've just ordered the Plunge audio Unity 5, pretty curious about it
The thing about the Fusion is... It's not a bad IEM, and it's a great one at its price point, but compared to the actual big players, like the VE8, A12t, 18t, Elysium and so on, I just found its midrange to be heavily lacking. I might get the custom Andromeda to compare it to, as that's the only 1500ish earphone that I genuinely loved
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davidcotton
X-CANs and HDAMs
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Artist fit or audiophile fit? Must admit to be tempted by the audiophile fit, but that $1500 puts me off. Also think I'd cry if I got fit issues after spending that much!
Also no one seems to talk much about Cosmic Ears much these days.
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