[holsen]

Anyway - the fact that I could 100% happily go from listening to the Astra to then go for a walk with the Knight and not feel like Im missing out on or degrading my quality of listening is mind blowing

Wow, that is mind blowing...
No, no, I said no more, no Howie, no....

 

[jon parker]

Wow, that is mind blowing...
No, no, I said no more, no Howie, no....

Well... The Astra's are only 50% burnt in yet so . . .

 

[AlexCBSN]

Wow, that is mind blowing...
No, no, I said no more, no Howie, no....

I would deffinitely get a pair. They are something special

 

[Maedhros]

So, after a few weeks with the EDP+ and the ASTRA, I am about 80% of the way to full burn-in, got bogged down with a few things at work. But EDP+ still sits right there with the Ve 8 and Odin, maybe with I would say a little lees detail but more organic if that makes sense...

As for the Astra vs Mest mk2, the I can't quite put it but the ASTRA has some feeling I can't quite place but it makes the feel like you are in the middle of a starfield.... and they have nothing to envy on the Mest at least on my side. Of course, this hobby is subjective.

Still comparing and listening, one thing I did do is change the tips from the one Bob provided to E-pro horn tips, recommendation I believe came from this thread.

 

[457205]

Incredible customer service from Bob.

I’d already bought three IMRs from Bob, so I knew what phenomenal customer service he offered, but my recent experience with my Elysium order went above and beyond. I ordered my Elysiums when they were first announced and was looking forward to them shipping at the end of May. When we were informed that packing would start at the beginning of June I anticipated seeing them early June. However, in emails with Bob it appeared that the shipping of my order got accidentally delayed. Bob was apologetic and immediately refunded my express shipping payment. The Elysiums were shipped, but unlike the DHL shipping that I had been told, somehow they got shipped via Parcelforce Priority. This meant that the delivery in the US would be handled by the US Post Office which to say the least is struggling. We were due to leave on a trip in a few days and I was very worried that the earphones would disappear into the black hole of the USPS not to be seen for who knew how long. I expressed my concern to Bob on a Friday afternoon and on Saturday he replied that he would send another Elysium by DHL on Monday. He followed through and it was picked up by DHL on Monday and delivered on Thursday!!! Of course, having been so incredibly helpful with the second shipment, the USPS excelled themselves and actually delivered on Wednesday. However that performance by the USPS was an anomaly and certainly not something that you can rely on.

In any event, when I read people denigrating Bob and his past associations, I can only say that I have had nothing but terrific service and honesty in all my dealings with him both in the descriptions of the prospective products and the delivery of the actual final product.

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

Incredible customer service from Bob.

man you lucked the hell out going with DHL. My pair have been sitting in the limbo of ISC Chicago for 18 days now. Listed as processed thru ICS Chicago on June 23rd. I’ve read hundreds of comments from people who’ve been waiting for months for their packages to be released from that facility.

I wrote Bob last Wednesday to inform him of the situation and told him I’d give it another week or so as it seriously doesn’t seem like I’ll get my pair in anything resembling a reasonable time frame but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet. Probably held up with shipping a new batch of phones I’m guessing. I’m hoping he can just recall the pair that are in limbo back to the UK and ship out another pair via DHL cause it seems like literally everyone else here has already received their orders except me :l

 

[holsen]

man you lucked the hell out going with DHL. My pair have been sitting in the limbo of ISC Chicago for 18 days now. Listed as processed thru ICS Chicago on June 23rd. I’ve read hundreds of comments from people who’ve been waiting for months for their packages to be released from that facility.

I wrote Bob last Wednesday to inform him of the situation and told him I’d give it another week or so as it seriously doesn’t seem like I’ll get my pair in anything resembling a reasonable time frame but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet. Probably held up with shipping a new batch of phones I’m guessing. I’m hoping he can just recall the pair that are in limbo back to the UK and ship out another pair via DHL cause it seems like literally everyone else here has already received their orders except me :l

I had a DAP stuck in Chicago for literally 5 Weeks and 5 days. It did get to me in Canada 3 days after leaving the black hole called ORD. Sucks, but once it gets there there's not much you can do except wait it out

 

[457205]

The set that arrived speedily with USPS only did so because they came into the US via New York rather than via the usual Chicago black hole. I had a shipment from the UK that arrived in Chicago on June 2nd and disappeared there until the 28th when it mysteriously arrived in San Francisco!! To finally be delivered in St. Louis on July 1st!

 

[cleg]

And now it's turn for Elysium (as I've said, I've got them all, so even more to come a bit later)

 

[jon parker]

So, Astra is now over the 200 hour mark
still having quite a journey finding my perfect sound sig
[using stock cable, foam tips + Sony Dap] - Ive found a slight annoyance! - The grey filter is more low end in the low mids (and does a great job)
BUT
the gold filter seems to be ALL about the low end - sounds like the low end 'covers' and heavily influences about 2/3rd's of the sound
SO
with the grey you get a lot of incredible clarity and detail but in some cases doesn't have enough low end
with the gold I get the low end punch I want but in other areas its too enveloping and masks some of the amazing details

What I need [with my specific fav setup] is a filter that is in-between the grey and the gold ):

Because of this though I thought it time to try some different cables (using gold lower)
first the new NiceHCK pure litz copper and then the pure silver cable
With each one the bass weight lessened so with the silver there is at least a nice balance of detail and low end weight although like this its closer to the Opus Mia sound than displaying some of the amazing and unique qualities that the Astra can give

You can hear though the difference in quality between the stock SCC cable and the NiceHCK litz cable
I guess Im gonna need to buy a graphene cable

I would still prefer a balanced sound over all but with this level / quality of low end but with more of the incredible detail and pure highs that you can get from the Astra - Ultimately that is what Im trying to find my way to.
I'll get there in the end as I have experienced all the different qualities Im looking for but at different times using different filters / set ups !

The Astra sounds amazing, don't get me wrong but Im trying to tweak to get my own personal 'perfect' sound sig with my personal current set up

I do think though that 300+ hours + is needed so I have another week to go
All good fun and really interesting hearing how everything and anything you try gives a different sound signature
The Astra is very sensitive to whatever to do to it!!

 

[AlexCBSN]

So, Astra is now over the 200 hour mark
still having quite a journey finding my perfect sound sig
[using stock cable, foam tips + Sony Dap] - Ive found a slight annoyance! - The grey filter is more low end in the low mids (and does a great job)
BUT
the gold filter seems to be ALL about the low end - sounds like the low end 'covers' and heavily influences about 2/3rd's of the sound
SO
with the grey you get a lot of incredible clarity and detail but in some cases doesn't have enough low end
with the gold I get the low end punch I want but in other areas its too enveloping and masks some of the amazing details

What I need [with my specific fav setup] is a filter that is in-between the grey and the gold ):

Because of this though I thought it time to try some different cables (using gold lower)
first the new NiceHCK pure litz copper and then the pure silver cable
With each one the bass weight lessened so with the silver there is at least a nice balance of detail and low end weight although like this its closer to the Opus Mia sound than displaying some of the amazing and unique qualities that the Astra can give

You can hear though the difference in quality between the stock SCC cable and the NiceHCK litz cable
I guess Im gonna need to buy a graphene cable

I would still prefer a balanced sound over all but with this level / quality of low end but with more of the incredible detail and pure highs that you can get from the Astra - Ultimately that is what Im trying to find my way to.
I'll get there in the end as I have experienced all the different qualities Im looking for but at different times using different filters / set ups !

The Astra sounds amazing, don't get me wrong but Im trying to tweak to get my own personal 'perfect' sound sig with my personal current set up

I do think though that 300+ hours + is needed so I have another week to go
All good fun and really interesting hearing how everything and anything you try gives a different sound signature
The Astra is very sensitive to whatever to do to it!!

Maybe toying as well with your sony fw? I’m on mrwalkman midnight and I’m pretty happy with the weight of the bass, sony daps are already warm so its just to balance a bit a couple of fqncies

Of all the filters, gold is the only one that I look at wondering “why are you here again?” I tend to go with red/ gray/ blue

 

[jon parker]

Maybe toying as well with your sony fw? I’m on mrwalkman midnight and I’m pretty happy with the weight of the bass, sony daps are already warm so its just to balance a bit a couple of fqncies

Of all the filters, gold is the only one that I look at wondering “why are you here again?” I tend to go with red/ gray/ blue

Good point adn idea - But Ive done all my work with the Sony F/w's with the OM.
I could just do with a filter in-between the gold and grey though.
I might try modding the gold or the gray filter. In theory adding a think layer of something like toilet tissue could tone done the bass or maybe adding a hole to the grey - I was thinking about this last week - Would be fun to do

I did actually find a really nice sound with JVC spiral dots but I kina have to use foams as my left ear blcks the sound when the jaw is in the wrong position

I may well end up going back to red/red as the low end has been increasing over the burn in!
and at the end of the day its the holographic details that the Astra can offer that separates them from the OM

The 'problem' is - the Opus Mia are just perfect . . . really perfect! with the Sony's current f/w so Ive been trying to tweak the Astra to also get to a perfect place

 

[NellieG]

So, Astra is now over the 200 hour mark
still having quite a journey finding my perfect sound sig
[using stock cable, foam tips + Sony Dap] - Ive found a slight annoyance! - The grey filter is more low end in the low mids (and does a great job)
BUT
the gold filter seems to be ALL about the low end - sounds like the low end 'covers' and heavily influences about 2/3rd's of the sound
SO
with the grey you get a lot of incredible clarity and detail but in some cases doesn't have enough low end
with the gold I get the low end punch I want but in other areas its too enveloping and masks some of the amazing details

What I need [with my specific fav setup] is a filter that is in-between the grey and the gold ):

Because of this though I thought it time to try some different cables (using gold lower)
first the new NiceHCK pure litz copper and then the pure silver cable
With each one the bass weight lessened so with the silver there is at least a nice balance of detail and low end weight although like this its closer to the Opus Mia sound than displaying some of the amazing and unique qualities that the Astra can give

You can hear though the difference in quality between the stock SCC cable and the NiceHCK litz cable
I guess Im gonna need to buy a graphene cable

I would still prefer a balanced sound over all but with this level / quality of low end but with more of the incredible detail and pure highs that you can get from the Astra - Ultimately that is what Im trying to find my way to.
I'll get there in the end as I have experienced all the different qualities Im looking for but at different times using different filters / set ups !

The Astra sounds amazing, don't get me wrong but Im trying to tweak to get my own personal 'perfect' sound sig with my personal current set up

I do think though that 300+ hours + is needed so I have another week to go
All good fun and really interesting hearing how everything and anything you try gives a different sound signature
The Astra is very sensitive to whatever to do to it!!

The Gold will completely change the whole signature, have you not tried the blue and then black, blue will give more than grey but not affect the whole spectrum as much as gold.

 

[AlexCBSN]

Good point adn idea - But Ive done all my work with the Sony F/w's with the OM.
I could just do with a filter in-between the gold and grey though.
I might try modding the gold or the gray filter. In theory adding a think layer of something like toilet tissue could tone done the bass or maybe adding a hole to the grey - I was thinking about this last week - Would be fun to do

I did actually find a really nice sound with JVC spiral dots but I kina have to use foams as my left ear blcks the sound when the jaw is in the wrong position

I may well end up going back to red/red as the low end has been increasing over the burn in!
and at the end of the day its the holographic details that the Astra can offer that separates them from the OM

The 'problem' is - the Opus Mia are just perfect . . . really perfect! with the Sony's current f/w so Ive been trying to tweak the Astra to also get to a perfect place

In the bottom of the filter in the outer part there’s a little hole (port) the smaller it is, the more bass it gives (maybe im talking something already known by everyone) i would not open more the one in the gray one. In your opinion gray gives you too much bass? I’m actually right now using my zenith with my customized filter, there’s a beauty in learning how different materials intervene in sound (in the case of this one, its all about the mids/ mids highs/ highs) i added a new layer of foam which is helping me a ton with a little harshness I’ve been getting … still not perfect.

I’m left thinking what can be done, i own as well a pair of Thor’s mjolnir (linsoul) the Hawaiian character that loves the F word said that those were bass monsters and my bass head biased heart went straight to buy em, OOTB they are mid bassy… with a hollowness that can be annoying, there’s 2 ports on em, one in the top of the headphone and one right at the nozzle, i ended up trying to cover A PART of the nozzle port, surgical tape was good but the mids were still missing, insulating tape was a pain cause it moved all over the place cause of the adhesive type though mids had body and bass was there, ended up placing clear scotch tape 3/4 parts of the port, everything came to its right place, mids were meaty, sub bass became present and the soundstage turned to be quite large but without the hollowness. The whole point of this is that maybe toying around with the GREEN filter might help, the green and silver has the largest ports of the 7 (and less bass), and you could easily play to cover a part of that port to your liking in the bass department, just by covering a part or placing something on top of it (surgical tape actually would make a lot of sense here) just remember that if you cover the whole port with something, it has to be porous or else it’s basically the black filter

 

[jon parker]

The Gold will completely change the whole signature, have you not tried the blue and then black, blue will give more than grey but not affect the whole spectrum as much as gold.

I tried the blue and you're right it doesn't actually 'just' make the IEM more bassy but I did find it a little aggressive.
I know the 'perfect' bass is there (for me) - The grey actually is giving superb, pretty much perfect bass guitar tonality for example but then I don't get enough weight or body in the actual lows to satisfy.
Im being super anal [ytical] about the tuning in large part as the Opus Mia and the Knight are just perfect for me with my current set up. Im getting there. Just trying to squeeze every last drop of specialness that the Astras have to offer

This is me -

If . . . I . . . can . . . . Just