I thought maybe I had an imbalance, but wondered if that was just in my head because of the rattle. Meaning: the rattle might mean something wasn't right.
Hope you don't mind me asking on why have you sold your Zenith II. Would love to hear your comparative impression on ACE and Zenith II especifically treble, female voice; any hotness in treble and so on...
Hope you don't mind me asking on why have you sold your Zenith II. Would love to hear your comparative impression on ACE and Zenith II especifically treble, female voice; any hotness in treble and so on...
Got the Zenith right before sending back the Ace to Bob. There were moments when I wondered if they were better than my DM. No complaints with the sound. I actively listened to them quite a bit more than the Ace (I was at 100 hours of burn in before sending back), so can't really offer a comparison. I did experience some treble spikes on the Zii, specifically with drum strikes (I think snares). A little too edgy/sharp, which the Dark Matter nicely smoothed over. Filter rolling helped a bit.
But the main issue: I had persistent seal/fit/comfort issues with the left unit. Which is odd because if I have issues, it's always the right ear. In some cases, I think the seal was TOO good and there was an uncomfortable vacuum effect. This was with four different tips.
So I posted here last week that I was going to send them back to Bob unless someone wanted them ... and someone did.
A shame. The Zii actually is the BEST fit for my ears. At first I found it odd, but after a while I realized just how nicely it fit. Very tight, very comfy, extremely lightweight. I still love the Zii sound, although the ACE is growing on me. In particular, due to the gold lower/red upper filter combination. I was 50/50 on it until I found this combination and it really does bring it up into the semi-big leagues. Mids are astounding on the ACE and bass is adequate. Soundstage is still a bit below Zii, but otherwise it's an extremely enjoyable listen.
Listening to Semper at the moment, and it's just miraculous. Puts both the Zii and ACE in their place, quite frankly. Soundstage in particular is just at another level. However, I just took my ACE on a 4-day trip as my portable buds and they performed admirably. Really enjoyed myself and they make a very good travel set. But the Semper is just plain superior.
Hope you don't mind me asking on why have you sold your Zenith II. Would love to hear your comparative impression on ACE and Zenith II especifically treble, female voice; any hotness in treble and so on...
I'll weigh on on Zii vs ACE. Zii has a more rounded and accurate female voice, which is more "age-appropriate", if you follow Currawong's rating. Hotness, I would say both are about the same, but I can't hear much above 13k, so my view on upper treble is skewed. Upper mids, it's clear that ACE are more prominent and clearer, while Zii is more atmospheric and the upper mids/lower treble take a supporting role. Bass is more prominent on Zii and provides the foundation for the music, while ACE has muted bass and relies on the mids to steal the show. I would say they are complementary rather than competitive. ACE is outstanding for melodic dubstep, for example, while Zii is better for psybient/trance and chill type music. I'd probably pick Zii for classical/instrumental, as it provides better lower registers for acoustic instruments.
If I had to choose, and it would be difficult depending on your preference, I would take the Zii. It just has some sort of "magic" about it that produces a huge soundstage, impactful bass, superior imaging, and a well-rounded sound overall. It may not be the best out there, but it's hard to find any faults with it, to be quite honest.
Lifehack for avalon (may be also applies to DM). If you feel it being uncomfortable with shallow tips (i.e. deep fit), try removing the golden "pro" bar. I found that it was that bar that irritated me with it's edge. What was surprising though is that iem's feel considerably lighter now. It's not like that bar is hefty or somthing, so I am a bit surprised of this subjective weight difference.
Got the Zenith right before sending back the Ace to Bob. There were moments when I wondered if they were better than my DM. No complaints with the sound. I actively listened to them quite a bit more than the Ace (I was at 100 hours of burn in before sending back), so can't really offer a comparison. I did experience some treble spikes on the Zii, specifically with drum strikes (I think snares). A little too edgy/sharp, which the Dark Matter nicely smoothed over. Filter rolling helped a bit.
But the main issue: I had persistent seal/fit/comfort issues with the left unit. Which is odd because if I have issues, it's always the right ear. In some cases, I think the seal was TOO good and there was an uncomfortable vacuum effect. This was with four different tips.
So I posted here last week that I was going to send them back to Bob unless someone wanted them ... and someone did.
I had the same issue with the vacuum effect and driver flex on my right unit. At the moment Bob is working on replacing the driver on my zenith 2. I hope I'll receive it back in 2-3 weeks and continue with burning in process
Yikes I hope that's not what I will need to do. Its pretty annoying and I thought it may be a grounding issue. I am going to try send it back as last resort.
My feedback on Ace and Zenith II so far after 50 hours of burn in: i kind of much prefer Ace over Zenith. Ace has more bass which is strange because everybody says that Zenith is for bass heads. I find Zenith a bit hot in treble in some tracks even when trying other tips. Soundstage is not as big as some say and they require a lot of power which is again not what I was expecting compared to Ace that has a planar driver supposed to be more demanding.
Anyway, I still don’t have the wow effect on both and I have a different experience from what others say. Maybe I need to be more patient
My feedback on Ace and Zenith II so far after 50 hours of burn in: i kind of much prefer Ace over Zenith. Ace has more bass which is strange because everybody says that Zenith is for bass heads. I find Zenith a bit hot in treble in some tracks even when trying other tips. Soundstage is not as big as some say and they require a lot of power which is again not what I was expecting compared to Ace that has a planar driver supposed to be more demanding.
Anyway, I still don’t have the wow effect on both and I have a different experience from what others say. Maybe I need to be more patient
My feedback on Ace and Zenith II so far after 50 hours of burn in: i kind of much prefer Ace over Zenith. Ace has more bass which is strange because everybody says that Zenith is for bass heads. I find Zenith a bit hot in treble in some tracks even when trying other tips. Soundstage is not as big as some say and they require a lot of power which is again not what I was expecting compared to Ace that has a planar driver supposed to be more demanding.
Anyway, I still don’t have the wow effect on both and I have a different experience from what others say. Maybe I need to be more patient
After many hundreds of hours (way past 500), I too have settled on Black lower/ Gold upper (for now), But I also think this is relative to the source being used. On the FiiO M11 plus (ESS), the Black lower/ Blue upper was perfect (for me). On the FiiO BTR7, I find Black lower/Gold upper perfect.
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