The M8 is my favorite as well, my main focus is musicality, so I’m keenly interested in reading your thoughts!
you’d probably like the RS6 then too
The M8 is my favorite as well, my main focus is musicality, so I’m keenly interested in reading your thoughts!
you’d probably like the RS6 then too
After some intensive comparing sessions last night, at some point it was all very clear. So this is one of the „too short“ reviews that some will consider as … „little bit crazy guy“ and some will totally understand:
I pretty much don’t care about unboxing, equipment etc. so I leave that out.
When I put the EXT on with the Bach Cello sonatas (list see below), I was deeply touched and surprised how well the EXT sounds and how close to the real sound of a cello you can get in reproduction. When you consider the way these recordings were made, you hear actually more than in any concert. Except you sit on the players lap. So that was a promising start.
Since the EXT are brand new and I will only have them for a limited time, I immediately startet to burn them in with a big collection of music of different stiles that was at hand (Bach sonatas, cembalo concertos, Elvis, Wunderlich, Cash). So my first impression was after a tiny burn in phase of 8 hours:
Lots of introduction and a very short first outcome:
- EXT soundwise delivers very well. On a lot of levels (stage, resolution, bass, „filling the room with music“) it delivers a little bit more than the Elysium
- Elysium on the other hand - whenever I put it on and with whatever music – does the following trick with me: It just tells me to forget all this resolution, bass, treble, stage, holographic … whatever and says: „look how nice you can follow the music flow, if you chose me“. And this on a level, that whenever I have the Elysiums on, I find it hard to concentrate on the sound aspects. I don’t want to compare any more and just listen. This for my way of listening to music is one of the "every few years there is a gem" experience. The ones before where: TripleFi 10, AKG K400 (EP) and still is TH900.
That’s it for now, folks. I will give it another try after the next 38 more hours. We’ll see how important burn in is.
To sum it up: If you are into all these sound characteristics, the EXT performs clearly better. If you just want to listen to music and be taken away on a trip, take (or keep) Elysium.
List of music, that I used for the comparision:
Bach (of course!) – Cello Sonata No. 2 – Fournier DGG
Bach – Organ Trio Sonata No. 3 – Walcha DGG
Schumann – Dichterliebe – Wunderlich DGG
Queen – Dancing on a lazy afternoon
Ry Cooder – Pearls
James Blunt – Chasing Time – Goodby my lover
No. Not at all.Good stuff.. did you sense any harshness in treble at all?