" Quote:
Originally Posted by mariowar View Post
I just got back from Canjam.
I had the itch of trying every iem to upgrade for something better. I was almost sure that the Lola's would be the ones......
Well, here are my impressions after 2 days of acute Canjanitis.
1- The It03 reigns supreme. Forget about "the best at this price range", these overachievers , to my ears out of an iPhone 7 and zero eq. listening to jazz, vocal jazz, contemporary jazz, and hard rock sounded better than ANY JH, ANY Noble, ANY 64 ears and ANY Campfire........
2- None of these holy cows got even close to the bass of the It03. I am talking about quality, tightness, detail.
3- None of the them had the amazing sparkle in the high end of the It03.
4- The it03s were only beaten by the Kaisers in soundstage width but not by much.
5- My itch is in remission.
6- Long Live It03s.
I had the pleasure of trying 2 humble iems that I enjoyed as well. The One More Quads, which are very good.... $200 , wow. Good bass, not as deep as the It03, nice treble, not with the airy sparkle of the it03, very good soundstage, comfy, excellent packaging and accessories. The only drawback is the non removable cable and their efficiency. I had to turn the volume more than I am used too.
And last but not least, Modular Ears. These newcomers from Taiwan had a wonderful prototype of a 4 armature + 1 dynamic armature that I loved !! Wide soundstage, very good bass and the best treble I have heard of any iem. On top of that, they are modular for different audio signatures. It seems that the price will be around $300. You will be able to find them on Facebook.
The Isine 20s were great, however, they are not designed to be used in loud environments...... I really liked them. However, If I am home, I am with my beloved TH900s...
The Aeons were TERRIFIC if you were looking for a allrounder. Very comfy, good noise isolation, very efficient at just 14 ohm, and awesome sound. Punchy tight bass, astonishing mids and great detail.
Wow, I wanted to try noble n campfire so bad. Is ibasso it03 really that good? Don't get me wrong, i got mine, but i havent really exposed my ears to all other high end IEM because, well, i'm poor and there isn't much demo available in Malaysia especially noble n campfire. I wonder how do they really sounded. Perhaps like some headfier said those iem needs proper amp to be fair to them. But then I'm proud if my it03 is on par with them out of the box without amp. Currently use fiio A5 to make the soundstage bigger. I guess i might just wait for it04 instead of buying campfire/noble. But then again, as i said, I dont have much experience. Maybe they suit me if i have a chance to try them. Currently eyeing for xba-z5 for my collection. Thankx for the sharing though.
Anybody else has a big opportunity to try a lot of iem at Can Jam?"
I am not new in the headphone world.
I started with Sony Walkman many decades ago and I have been a Headfier for a very long time.
Sound signatures are led by trends.
What sounds good for some people might not be the signature that most people enjoy 20 years from now.
Many Headfiers do not trust their ears, they just fall pray of others claims and price.
I think that the 100% armature technology as we know it plateau years ago. That is why the armature count war began.....
Take a look to Jh Audio Lola with the dynamic driver for mids, less armature count than Laylas and better sound....
Check out the Tia Forte. I had the pleasure to speak to the 64 ears owner. Eventually, that tubless technology will tricke down their iem line.
If you read my original post, you will find that my firm purpose to attend was to leave with a pair of "high end" custom iem.....
From Noble I really liked the humble Tridents, masterfully tuned which beat the Sages that had a weird bass boost that I did not like,
The Kaizers and Katana. Both had a wide soundstage. They both were excellent and had a somewhat lusher presentation than the It03.
I did not like the Campfires at all......