flinkenick's 17 Flagship IEM Shootout Thread (and general high-end portable audio discussion)
Mar 18, 2020 at 5:05 PM Post #21,752 of 39,414
I just received the Final Audio A8000 (priced at a hefty £2000) today.
It's part of a UK/EU review tour, so to my disappointment, I don't get to keep this one!

Awww....I didn’t realise this was happening - is it too late to sign up?
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 5:18 PM Post #21,753 of 39,414
Awww....I didn’t realise this was happening - is it too late to sign up?

@doctorjuggles Hi there! :)

Been meaning to contact you anyway lol.

So, I've messaged the guy in charge of the tour to see if you can be added onto it.
It may well be too late, but I'll give it a shot since I owe you a coffee anyway :)
 
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Mar 18, 2020 at 5:30 PM Post #21,754 of 39,414
Seems I'm prone to earwax build up. About 3 weeks after finally getting them done I caught the cold/virus that wasn't covid-19 (no temperature). Took me about a week and a half and some fairly strong antibiotics to clear it. Since then my hearings been worse than normal, particularly on the troublesome right ear, left ear doesn't seem as bad. Feels like theres fluid/wax in there, though not as bad as before. Just wondering if using c/iems is aggravating the ear and be better off either not using them :frowning2: or going with an ultra shallow fit with something like the audiophile fit from campfire? Would prefer to use headphones anyway but can't because of having to use glasses at work.

Thoughts?
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 6:24 PM Post #21,755 of 39,414
There are a few on this tread that have heard both briefly in show condition. With our extremely short audio memory (like twenty seconds) nothing is better than AB comparison. But from impressions on this thread, I have a feeling that the two may not even sound the same. One is spacious and bright, and one is on the warm side. I hope they are different then I will have two different sound to enjoy.

Yep, the former is A8k and the latter one is Luna :D Hopefully will have my full A8k review by the end of this weekend. With Luna, I can only go by memory of hearing it for 5-10min during CanJam. No plans for Luna review since it's only available on tour.
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 6:39 PM Post #21,756 of 39,414
@doctorjuggles Hi there! :)

Been meaning to contact you anyway lol.

So, I've messaged the guy in charge of the tour to see if you can be added onto it.
It may well be too late, but I'll give it a shot since I owe you a coffee anyway :)

Amazing, thanks so much @Layman1 :)
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 8:03 PM Post #21,757 of 39,414
Yep, the former is A8k and the latter one is Luna :D Hopefully will have my full A8k review by the end of this weekend. With Luna, I can only go by memory of hearing it for 5-10min during CanJam. No plans for Luna review since it's only available on tour.
Yep you got it right. Looking forward to your review of the A8K. I just needed to have both in my auditory memory to make comments on the different between them. I am an armature singer and when I learn a new song sometimes I will listen to a certain piece over a hundred times. The point is I am very familiar with some songs and all the nuances in the music that goes with it. I will use the same dap either SP2K or WM1Z, same songs, same ears, same passages, may even the same cable and we will see how they fair. Sometimes it may not even be which one is better, sometimes it may just be personal preferences. We'll see.
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 8:31 PM Post #21,758 of 39,414
For those interested, I just posted my Valkyrie review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/empire-ears-valkyrie.24269/reviews#item-review-23407

In it, I admit that it has given me a sweet tooth that makes my other CIEMs feel bland when I try to go back. After hearing the new EST and Sub implementation, I knew I had to have one. I have offered some optimization thoughts as well as comparisons to my A18, LX, and ELYSIUM to offer some insight into its performance. Enjoy!
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 8:39 PM Post #21,759 of 39,414
For those interested, I just posted my Valkyrie review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/empire-ears-valkyrie.24269/reviews#item-review-23407

In it, I admit that it has given me a sweet tooth that makes my other CIEMs feel bland when I try to go back. After hearing the new EST and Sub implementation, I knew I had to have one. I have offered some optimization thoughts as well as comparisons to my A18, LX, and ELYSIUM to offer some insight into its performance. Enjoy!
thanks and looking forward to reading it. I just received my Valk a couple of days ago - too early for meaningful impressions, but I've been very impressed so far
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 10:13 PM Post #21,760 of 39,414
Yep, the former is A8k and the latter one is Luna :D Hopefully will have my full A8k review by the end of this weekend. With Luna, I can only go by memory of hearing it for 5-10min during CanJam. No plans for Luna review since it's only available on tour.

I'm looking forward to your review of A8k, I hope you'll enjoy them!

Please, mention a brief comparison to some similarly priced TOTL IEMs if you'll have a chance to do some A/B testing :)
 
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Mar 18, 2020 at 10:28 PM Post #21,762 of 39,414
For those interested, I just posted my Valkyrie review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/empire-ears-valkyrie.24269/reviews#item-review-23407

In it, I admit that it has given me a sweet tooth that makes my other CIEMs feel bland when I try to go back. After hearing the new EST and Sub implementation, I knew I had to have one. I have offered some optimization thoughts as well as comparisons to my A18, LX, and ELYSIUM to offer some insight into its performance. Enjoy!
Amazing review!
 
Mar 18, 2020 at 11:07 PM Post #21,763 of 39,414
Yep you got it right. Looking forward to your review of the A8K. I just needed to have both in my auditory memory to make comments on the different between them. I am an armature singer and when I learn a new song sometimes I will listen to a certain piece over a hundred times. The point is I am very familiar with some songs and all the nuances in the music that goes with it. I will use the same dap either SP2K or WM1Z, same songs, same ears, same passages, may even the same cable and we will see how they fair. Sometimes it may not even be which one is better, sometimes it may just be personal preferences. We'll see.

On a slightly different subject, if I understand you correctly you keep listening to certain part of the song while memorizing it, so have you considered Plenue DAPs? They have a cool loop feature where during playback you can set start and stop marker (A & B) to play any part of the track in a loop. Sometimes I use Plenue L to play around with its semi-Parametric EQ, and I pick a part of the song, loop it, and continue adjusting the EQ while it's on repeat. Very useful feature.
 
Mar 19, 2020 at 4:51 AM Post #21,764 of 39,414
Hey, folks. 'Hope everyone's been staying healthy and safe wherever you are in the world, and I hope y'all have been taking this opportunity to spend some quality time with your loved ones as well; audio gear included, of course. :wink:

I, for one, have used this time to push out some new content for you all, and this one's one that - quite literally - hits close to home. My hometown monitor makers Avara Custom have graciously given me the opportunity to review their latest flagship: The electrostatic hybrid EST-6. And, while it joins a long line of e-stat hybrids in 2019/2020, this one clearly stands out as one of the most balanced, coherent and beautiful in tone I've heard yet. It takes a near-colourless, reference tonality and injects it with a hint of zing, and the results are rather special. So, without further ado, I proudly present to you the pride of Surabaya, Indonesia:

Avara Custom EST-6 - Beauty In Balance

Avara-EST6-8-S.jpg
 
Mar 19, 2020 at 5:08 AM Post #21,765 of 39,414
Hey, folks. 'Hope everyone's been staying healthy and safe wherever you are in the world, and I hope y'all have been taking this opportunity to spend some quality time with your loved ones as well; audio gear included, of course. :wink:

I, for one, have used this time to push out some new content for you all, and this one's one that - quite literally - hits close to home. My hometown monitor makers Avara Custom have graciously given me the opportunity to review their latest flagship: The electrostatic hybrid EST-6. And, while it joins a long line of e-stat hybrids in 2019/2020, this one clearly stands out as one of the most balanced, coherent and beautiful in tone I've heard yet. It takes a near-colourless, reference tonality and injects it with a hint of zing, and the results are rather special. So, without further ado, I proudly present to you the pride of Surabaya, Indonesia:

@Deezel177 Thanks, hope you're having some doing great as well! Did you had a chance during your quality time to also give a brief listen to lately discussed FA A8K /Dunu Luna using Be DDs? I had to ask. :)
 

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