[RTodd]

Do we really want a cable named after Satan?

That is a dangerous precedent.
Their are plenty of names of evil.

With that name we could say after our wallets are lighter; the devil made me do it.

 

[1TrickPony]

That is a dangerous precedent.
Their are plenty of names of evil.

With that name we could say after our wallets are lighter; the devil made me do it.

You can always barter your soul...

 

[RTodd]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

 

[MatW]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

This is amazing! So well thought out and executed! Now patent it and find a company to make more of these please!

 

[Rockwell75]

IER Z1R incoming...back in the Sony fam once again. The OCD part of my nature is thrilled at the thought of having an IEM from each of my 3 favourite companies. Also-- I would speak to the value of loaners, trades and tours. I live in a remote part of Canada and demoing gear is very hard to do. Were it not for generous community members and companies willing to put their gear out on tour I would have not been able to hear the Elysium or re-visit the IER Z1R, however being able to do so in recent weeks and months led to me purchasing both of those IEMs. I hope that as the world shows no signs of becoming normal again that we keep finding ways to keep the exposure of new gear increasing...it's the best way to expand this hobby and keep it going in the absence of being able to meet in person or travel fluidly.

 

[KuroKitsu]

New toy arrived from DHL (The 'T' in there stands for teleporters). Gonna be a fun Easter Sunday.

Addendum: Initial impressions posted on the PW thread.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

That is a dangerous precedent.
Their are plenty of names of evil.

With that name we could say after our wallets are lighter; the devil made me do it.

Yes there are, but the king of them all is Satan, maybe it's the Irish Catholic in me, I can live with the Gaelic and Norse (probably doesn't hurt that I'm an Irish, Viking, so there's that) mythology but to me, naming a cable after something embodies evil shows incredible insensitivity. Perhaps it was only to be consumed by the local audience, in China, and not the global market, but in the world today, very little stays “local.”

I'll drop this on the thread, but if anyone wants to carry on the conversation, good, bad, or indifferent, shoot me a PM.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

Brilliant!

 

[KuroKitsu]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

Obviously it means you're gonna crowdfund a limited run for Headfiers right? *reaches for wallet*

Yes there are, but the king of them all is Satan, maybe it's the Irish Catholic in me, I can live with the Gaelic and Norse (probably doesn't hurt that I'm an Irish, Viking, so there's that) mythology but to me, naming a cable after something embodies evil shows incredible insensitivity. Perhaps it was only to be consumed by the local audience, in China, and not the global market, but in the world today, very little stays “local.”

I'll drop this on the thread, but if anyone wants to carry on the conversation, good, bad, or indifferent, shoot me a PM.

I get what you mean. It seems like a bad choice to associate such a name with something you intend to show the excellence, perhaps it was chosen to do with the Morningstar aspect being mostly silver with some gold as opposed to post fall?

Personally, I'm willing to give some leeway if its a depiction of the character and a healthy discernment of the reader (ie aforementioned comic series). But I think cultural influences might play with that as well.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Obviously it means you're gonna crowdfund a limited run for Headfiers right? *reaches for wallet*


I get what you mean. It seems like a bad choice to associate such a name with something you intend to show the excellence, perhaps it was chosen to do with the Morningstar aspect being mostly silver with some gold as opposed to post fall?

Personally, I'm willing to give some leeway if its a depiction of the character and a healthy discernment of the reader (ie aforementioned comic series). But I think cultural influences might play with that as well.

Well said, thank you.

 

[toaster]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

Wow, that is amazing.

 

[RTodd]

Sharing a solution for carrying two IEMs on the go. Took a couple months to build this on weekends and some nights. So far traveled once with it worked well in my Camera bag.

Thank you for your likes and the comments really appreciate it. My wife tells me I should share my work. Not good at that.

I thought this was a little fiddly and OCD, I fear at the end of the day the market would be so small that selling this barely makes any sense.

PM me if you want.

I have another idea rolling around in my head for a soft case completely different than this.

Side note Andrew of MusicTeck held this in his hands.

 

[Layman1]

Thank you for your likes and the comments really appreciate it. My wife tells me I should share my work. Not good at that.

I thought this was a little fiddly and OCD, I fear at the end of the day the market would be so small that selling this barely makes any sense.

PM me if you want.

I have another idea rolling around in my head for a soft case completely different than this. I always have a plan in my head first and today I am living with so many paintings, sculptures, designs, in my head - eventually some come out and see the light of day, but than hardly anyone sees them.

Side note Andrew of MusicTeck held this in his hands.

I read a saying somewhere which said "most people die with their song still inside them".

I've said more than once on Head-Fi that I'm really passionate about design; both aesthetics and functionality.
That box has both, in spades, in my opinion.
It's a sad truth that many talented people are also their own worst critics, and leave their work unseen by others.

I'd love to see more of your works. Perhaps you could set up a little website, with photos of your work and suggested prices for those that you would be happy to sell?
You'll probably be surprised how many people would be interested in paying for your work

 

[EMINENT]

Hi guys,

I’m still in a quest of finding something that sounds better than my LCD i4 in the IEM world, so if you have any suggestion, please feel free to share!!


I definitely found stuff that sounded better and more open in the full size open back headphones with gears like Utopia, D8000 Pro, Diana, Susvara, LCD 4 and the likes, but I have yet to find an IEM that I can definitely consider a true upgrade, especially in realism, staging/openess and naturalness. Obviously, I’m talking about the I4 with proper EQ and well driven.


I’m driving them with a L&P LP6 Gold through a balanced Beat Audio Billow cable. That’s the best pairing I’ve tried so far with the i4 (in the portable world at least).


I really want to purchase a good pair of IEMs because, lets be honest, the i4 sound great but their use case is somewhat limited if you want to enjoy them to their full potential.

So lately I’ve been testing quite a few IEMs. Many I didn’t like, some I found very good, very few that I felt were outstanding and serious contenders to the i4 and only one or maybe 2 that were equal or better (better in some areas while slightly below in others).



I’ll share with you some of my findings. Since I’m in the process of testing and narrowing down the choice to possibly 1 pair of IEMs, I figure it might be helpful to some. Especially since many of you aren’t living in places where it’s easy to try the gear.

Just keep in mind that it is just quick first impressions, not detailed reviews since I didn’t spend real quality time with the gear. Also, it’s my personal opinion and taste so YMMV.

Yesterday I’ve spent several hours in 2 shops testing IEMs with my LP6 Gold.

My main testing tracks were :

• Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles (soundstage/placement/bass/details)
• Yosi Horikawa - Fluid (soundstage/placement/bass/details)
• Ottmar Liebert - Silence Excerpt (soundstage/placement/strings tones/ percussions)
• Twenty One Pilots - Heavydirtysoul (bass/speed/drums)
• Dream Theater - Paralyzed
• ...

In one shop I tried Symphonio VR1, Lime Ears Pneuma, UM Mason V3, UM Mest, Canal Works U77 Special, Rosenkranz Silver BA, 64 Audio U18T, U18S and VE Elysium.



I eliminated those IEMs one after another to narrow it down to my favorite of the bunch.

• Canal Works and VR1 were the first leaving the table, I really didn’t like their tuning so I didn’t even try bothering myself.
• Pneuma followed shortly. The tuning wasn’t bad but I just felt it wasn’t worthy of its price tag. Lackluster bass and not super good technically... just boring overall...
• Then Mason V3 left. Not a bad IEM. Soundstage is actually very nice and spacious and technically capable but I wasn’t really in love with the tuning and just preferred the others remaining overall.
• Next was Rosenkranz, a very interesting IEM. Great staging and detail while being very organic. It’s got a very special tuning, almost gramophone like. I can see the appeal on some genres of music but in the end it’s not what I’m after.
• Mest followed next. I really enjoyed this IEM! Great tuning and technicalities. It’s actually almost a tie with the U18T in terms of preference. It was just fractionally below the top 3 in terms of performance. So I think it deserves the trophy of “best bang for the buck” by a significant margin.
• Finally we arrive in the top 3 of this session with U18T arriving 3rd. I liked the tuning, soundstage was pretty good, detail and bass were very nice too. I also enjoyed the fit and the fact that they are not totally closed, so they don’t put too much pressure on the ear canal. I just discarded it because I didn’t like it’s somewhat nasal sound on some tracks and it’s sibilance. Also, the fact that they are not totally closed make them not isolate as much as other IEMs from surrounding noise and isolation is what I want from IEM. After all if I don’t need isolation, I have my i4s that are just superior on every SQ aspects IMHO.
• In 2nd position is U18S. I really enjoyed the soundstage and feeling of air as well as the impressive details they managed to pull out. To me though, they felt very analytical and were lacking in body and bass. I was actually surprised when I read the reviews of the 18S afterwards. They were all saying that it was a warmer signature than the 18T with stronger bass. That’s absolutely not how I felt about them, so I’m wondering what went wrong... I listen to them several times weeks apart from SP2000 and LP6 G and I had the same feeling. I think I had a correct fit, since it was the same stock tips than the 18T... strange... Could it be the module installed in the IEM?!
• And in 1st position as you would have guessed are the Elysium. Truly great IEMs! The mids and soundstage are awesome. Also it seemed to be a great pair up with LP6. Many people seem to be complaining about the bass and the amount, but I didn’t feel like it was lacking at all! Maybe it was the LP6 magic bass at work, I don’t know! After, for sure they don’t have the same quantity than something like Traillii...

In the other shop I tried FitEar Titan and Oriolus Traillii.

Obviously I couldn’t A/B those IEMs with the ones above, but since it was maybe 10 minutes later, it was still quite fresh in my memory.

I went specifically to this shop to try the Traillii, so I started with this one.

I must say first that it’s very likely the most outstanding “traditional” IEM I’ve tried so far! At least that’s the one that wowed me the most, even more so I believe than VE13 Erlkonig. I need to retry the Erlky with LP6 though, last time was with LPGT Ti few weeks ago. Sadly they are in different shops so I cannot A/B...

When you listen to Traillii you understand why they are so expensive, no doubt about it!! Now I still think that’s way overpriced! No IEM should ever reach that price!! It’s significantly more expensive than most TOTL full size headphones! Come on!!! But I also have to admit they are the closest thing to full size HP I’ve tried so far in the IEM world (I consider i4 as an IEHP more than IEM).

Sound wise I’d say the first things that jump at you is the bombastic bass and the realistic, precise and spacious soundstage as well as the detail retrieval. I really loved the tuning of this IEM, my favorite so far. It feels very fun and entertaining while remaining fantastically spacious and analytical. The bass presence is at the limit of what I like. A little more and I feel like it would start overpowering detrimentally the other frequencies.

Soundstage is one of the very best. Very spacious and precise, but can keep some intimacy when needed (similar to i4). In comparison I feel Fitear Titan has a fantastic soundstage scale but tends to make everything feel fairly distant. If I had to make an analogy, I’d say that Titan’s soundstage would feel like Hifiman HE1000 II where everything is somewhat far away, while Traillii would be a D8000 Pro.

EE Odin also gave me that impression on some tracks, where it felt like pushing the voices a little too far back. The difference though is that Odin only pushed some frequencies back while keeping the big bass and detailed treble closer. In Titan’s case it’s more consistent I think. Everything feels further away.

Going back to Traillii’s soundstage, when trying Ottmar Liebert - Silence Excerpt, the sensation of space and precision of placement was awesome. It didn’t manage to pull the percussion as far back as the i4. It felt more on the right side, very slightly behind the head. With i4 you can definitely feel it’s further behind your head and slightly down. Maybe it’s due to the size of the drivers and diameter of the tubes bringing the sound to the ear canals?

Build quality & style wise Traillii doesn’t relate to its price range in my opinion... it feels very banal. I like their compact size. The cable though feels very premium. It’s super massive! Almost HP like. On the downside it’s quite prone to microphonics, more so than my Billow cable.



Overall, if I had to rank the IEMs I listen to in the last few weeks it would be something like that (in group 1 & 3 they are pretty much listed by preference, groupe 2 is harder to rank) :



Group 1 : LCD i4, Traillii, V13 Erlkonig

Group 2 : Elysium, Odin, Fitear Titan

Group 3 : Final A8000, A18s, A18T, Mest, JVC FW10000, Fourté Noir

....



Here it is for my first impressions on some of the IEMs I tried lately. Nothing really detailed, just my feelings... I’m not very good at describing sound unfortunately, and I don’t really like to analyze every aspects. I’m more into overall perception and gage if it sounds right or wrong. I find that way relates better how I listen to music. So I’m sorry if it’s not as professional as some might prefer!!

If it can help someone in the same situation than I am, I’ll be happy!

Also, if it can help you guys giving me advice on what else I should look for, I’d be thrilled! As you might have guessed, I’m really interested in the Traillii, but the price though is a real problem... I’m not sure I’m willing to put that kind of money in an IEM... I might though!!!



Cheers,



Julien

Also in the same situation as you with the i4, but haven't heard anything else. Looking for a closed iem when in public. Thanks for the info.

 

[jwbrent]

@KuroKitsu, Andrew told me today the PWA cable included with the new Mest will sell for $560.