[Damz87]

I have nothing meaningful to add to the Sony DAP hype, but here’s some photographic evidence that I probably need some sort of intervention. Seriously, if they didn’t name their flagship IEMs after my son, I could comfortably not be so trigger happy.









Sound: same house sound as the Mason FS, but as advertised it’s got a slight improvement in the bass texture due to the new BCD. Mid-bass has a bit more physicality to it, as do vocals with a slight injection of air up top. Very similar though; kind of a choose red or blue type situation

-Collin-

P.S. with the frequency in which UM releases new IEMs, I joked that this should be called the MaaSon. I would prefer “Mason as a Service” so that I can just always own the latest and greatest

The red wood looks stunning, man! Congrats

 

[rantng]

The red wood looks stunning, man! Congrats

Red pill or blue pill?
Both.

 

[CL14715]

Ugh just take my money already Sony!

Take mine too!

Sony is the true

Between the PS5 and my Sony camera and G Master lenses… I think I’m tapped lol. Sony owns me already.

 

[Barra]

Just posted my Vision Ears Phönix full review:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/vision-ears-phönix-iem.25667/review/27857/

 

[Jasonaudio23]

Little off topic Friends but what have you heard that does vocals really well? Anything OG or a gem that’s a sleeper? Highest end options I’m curious as well. Curious to see responses.
@twister6 you know any standouts?

 

[twister6]

Little off topic Friends but what have you heard that does vocals really well? Anything OG or a gem that’s a sleeper? Highest end options I’m curious as well. Curious to see responses.
@twister6 you know any standouts?

Can't think of any hidden gem sleepers, especially in this thread where everything from $30 BLON 03 to $10k RA C Cu is under microscope and has been discussed For me personally, I have been enjoying Jewel a lot lately for vocal tracks. Hopefully, we will get more impressions from others after CanJam.

 

[mvvRAZ]

Little off topic Friends but what have you heard that does vocals really well? Anything OG or a gem that’s a sleeper? Highest end options I’m curious as well. Curious to see responses.
@twister6 you know any standouts?

UM Mason and OG Elysium are the IEMs that come to mind for vocals personally

 

[Kiats]

One lesser known gem that has great timbre in vocals is the FitEar Air2. Too bad it's only available as customs

 

[Wyville]

Little off topic Friends but what have you heard that does vocals really well? Anything OG or a gem that’s a sleeper? Highest end options I’m curious as well. Curious to see responses.
@twister6 you know any standouts?

Vision Ears VE5...

 

[blotmouse]

Eden is amazing for vocals.

 

[jwbrent]

I’ve been meaning to write about the importance of maintaining perfect balance when listening to music by using the balance control that most daps include, if not all.

When I was involved in high end home audio, I recall reading a product review in Stereophile where the writer wrote how he ensures the balance on his system was perfectly centered. He asserted many recordings are not perfectly centered and require tweaking for the imaging to “lock in.” I tried this on my reference system that I had at the time, and I too started noticing how a little tweak in the balance control quite audibly improved the sound. The way to do this is to adjust the balance until the lead singer is perfectly centered; sometimes .5dB is all that is needed to hear the improvement.

The same thing happens when listening to headphones/iems although to a lesser degree than on speaker systems. Try it next time you hear a recording where the lead is off center, you may be surprised.

 

[xenithon]

I’ve been meaning to write about the importance of maintaining perfect balance when listening to music by using the balance control that most daps include, if not all.

When I was involved in high end home audio, I recall reading a product review in Stereophile where the writer wrote how he ensures the balance on his system was perfectly centered. He asserted many recordings are not perfectly centered and require tweaking for the imaging to “lock in.” I tried this on my reference system that I had at the time, and I too started noticing how a little tweak in the balance control quite audibly improved the sound. The way to do this is to adjust the balance until the lead singer is perfectly centered; sometimes .5dB is all that is needed to hear the improvement.

The same thing happens when listening to headphones/iems although to a lesser degree than on speaker systems. Try it next time you hear a recording where the lead is off center, you may be surprised.

I’ll also add that one should consider ear hearing balance. You can have a slight imbalance (i.e., hearing a bit better in one ear) that generally won’t be apparent in every day life, or listening on a speaker system. But, this can be accentuated / appear more prominent with headphones, and perhaps even more so with IEMs.

That’s one reason I like using the built in balance control on the HiBy DAPs, even if just a slight adjustment (in my case one notch to the right). It can make a marked difference.

 

[Deezel177]

I’ll also add that one should consider ear hearing balance. You can have a slight imbalance (i.e., hearing a bit better in one ear) that generally won’t be apparent in every day life, or listening on a speaker system. But, this can be accentuated / appear more prominent with headphones, and perhaps even more so with IEMs.

That’s one reason I like using the built in balance control on the HiBy DAPs, even if just a slight adjustment (in my case one notch to the right). It can make a marked difference.

My left ear gets tired quicker than my right, so the centre image will lean slightly towards the right after an hour or two. But, I've gotten used to it to the point where correcting it actually feels unnatural.

 

[jwbrent]

I’ll also add that one should consider ear hearing balance. You can have a slight imbalance (i.e., hearing a bit better in one ear) that generally won’t be apparent in every day life, or listening on a speaker system. But, this can be accentuated / appear more prominent with headphones, and perhaps even more so with IEMs.

That’s one reason I like using the built in balance control on the HiBy DAPs, even if just a slight adjustment (in my case one notch to the right). It can make a marked difference.

Fully agree, my right ear has about .5dB less sensitivity than my left, so I adjust for that as well. As you said, outside of listening to my iems, totally unnoticeable.

 

[twister6]

Fully agree, my right ear has about .5dB less sensitivity than my left, so I adjust for that as well. As you said, outside of listening to my iems, totally unnoticeable.

Have you checked it with audiologist? I usually go once every 2-3 years to check for any earwax build-up and to get a few free sets of impressions (just in case, you never know, even so my ears are not CIEM friendly, but damn, gotta try custom XE6 ). I know someone who recently had a chunk of earwax removed from one of his ears and that restored the balance.