Okay so I have spent about 4 hours or so with the Orpheus and the Traillii. Enough time for me to feel pretty confident about sharing some initial impressions and how i perceive the sound relative to the stock Traillii cable. I did do one quick A/B with the stock cable after some hours to confirm what I was hearing as differences between the two.
Some key words that come to mind when I hear the Orpheus: natural, organic, analogue, musical, smooth
So relative to the stock Traillii cable, the Orpheus brings the Traillii towards a thicker and smoother sound. The sound comes off as incredibly natural and analogue sounding to me while still being able to slice and dice up the music and present it in its finest level of detail. So as a result I perceive this to come off as more musical than the stock cable whilst still retaining the technical capabilities.
Again, anything I write is based off of a comparison to the stock configuration.
The bass to me with the Orpheus comes off as a bit more mid-bass oriented where the stock cable goes more for the sub bass, here is where I almost immediately preferred the stock cable. I was still using the stock tips and wasn’t a fan of the extra mid bass boom as I really love the way the Traillii does sub bass and it’s something I didn’t want to give up. I had to tip roll a bit and landed on the azla sedna light shorts and that managed to take the Traillii back to a more sub bass oriented signature whilst retaining the added mid bass of the Orpheus. So with the adjustments I made to tips this is a welcome’d change for me as I currently love my bass to be presented as a sub bass emphasis with quantity and quality.
The mid range on the Orpheus relative to the stock Traillii cable comes off as thicker, more musical, and smoother. There is added weight to the lower mid range which adds more body to male vocals and the upper mid range is SMOOTH as butter. Overall, I do hear the mid range to be pushed slightly more forward compared to the stock cable, as a result I perceive the overall soundstage to come off as slightly smaller than the stock cable but I think the trade-off here is more than worth it. Now the stock cable by any means to me does NOT come off as unnatural or smooth, but this manages to take it up a notch. Again, as a result of the extra body in the mid range and what I hear to be smoother transients, I feel the overall layering and separation of the Traillii is a little behind the stock cable (not sure if that’s something that will change with “cable burn in” but we will see).
I don’t have a whole bunch to say about the treble. It is almost identical to me, I hear the lower treble to be slightly less emphasized which as a result makes me hear a little more air in the upper treble. Overall, nothing crazy here or super noteworthy. Still stays in line with the rest of the signature retaining that smooth and musical sound.
As far as dynamics go, yes, this is the darkest background cable I have heard. Now it is impossible for me to even quantify or say how much better it is over the stock cable as it’s already incredibly good at doing that. I notice a little difference in smaller details in the sound popping out at me over stock. All I can say is that there is an improvement but it’s not as drastic or noticeable as the tonal differences between the cables themselves.
The Orpheus/Traillii combination reminds me VERY MUCH of the P6 Pro tonality, except here paired with the DX300 I hear a wider and more separated stage as well as more treble presence. For me personally, this is like a dream pair up as that type of sound is what I’ve been hunting for in the P6 Pro for so long but I never pulled the trigger because of the UI.
Some non sound related things:
- if you find the 1960s 4 wire uncomfortable or microphonic, you will find the same with the Orpheus
- no noticeable weight difference over the 1960s 4 wire, I am used to the weight of that by now so maybe coming from a smaller/thinner cable to the Orpheus would be more drastic, but no issues or discomfort or me.
- I have no clue what’s going on with the shielding part of the cable but you can legit bend and form it like it’s play-doh, there’s some interesting stuff going on in there, lol.
- the dark blue of the paracord is darker in person than in pictures, basically looks black from far away
TL;DR / Conclusion:
The stock cable 110% does not need changing and I fully understand why Oriolus have chosen it as the default cable, but there is plenty of wiggle room to adjust the sound if you feel the need to.
If you are looking for a smoother and more musical presentation for the Traillii which still manages to retain about 95% of the “analytical” presentation of the IEM, this is for you. To elaborate on this for example, say the stock cable puts technicalities and musicality at a 9 and 8 respectively, I would rank the Orpheus on like an 8.5 (lower in my honest opinion due to the thicker and smoother sound) for technicalities to a 10 on musicality.
Here’s a low quality photo of the pair together on my bed cover that I hope one day will be as famous as Twister’s countertop:
