IMR R3 Halcyon, R3 Phase, R3 Semper - Discussion / Impressions Thread

[roygbiv6]

I am mushing through London commute with Rah like there is no tomorrow.
I do nee to listen a bit louder. But not at stupid levels. I mean this hell hole is probably idling at 80db at night so a bit of extra volume for 2hrs a day is an ear massage when loving in a city
And last time i gave rah to my wife to listen on high volume it did not seem it leaked music bad. And we were in a quiet room.

As far as Semper price go. Improvements will definately have diminishing returns.
If its what Bob said it is - a TOTL model, it is meant to be listened with higher end source and quality music.

If you spend 1k on iems and expect it to make youtube or spotify sound good on your iphone - congradulations, you just made a purchase of a year.
(Not that i said someone is planning on doing it)

I gotta say I have no issues using Aten or Rah to commute with.
It's probably not a bad thing to have some aural awareness in London these days. I'm on the tube now with my Heir audio 8 and foam tips and can still hear the outside world. I am looking forward to see how the open/ closed ports work on the Halcyon. I'm guessing damped is half open/ closed.

My problem is with colleagues being able to hear sound leakage when I wear them in the office so I rarely take them in. But when I have tried them at work I end up just listening to the music and not doing much work so it's not a bad thing.

@Infoseeker I got an invoice for my original Halcyon pre-order too so there will be 1 more Halcyon available as I will cancel one.

 

[Xintaur]

As far as Semper price go. Improvements will definately have diminishing returns.
If its what Bob said it is - a TOTL model, it is meant to be listened with higher end source and quality music.

If you spend 1k on iems and expect it to make youtube or spotify sound good on your iphone - congradulations, you just made a purchase of a year.
(Not that i said someone is planning on doing it)

Funny, that's exactly what I am planning to do, heh.
Mostly due to financial and convenience reasons...

Anyways, I agree with you, you can't expect great headphones to improve the quality of the music you feed into them.

But recent phones sound very much acceptable, as @Infoseeker already said. And honestly, I can't really hear the difference between lossless and the 320kbps on Spotify. I doubt anyone can reliably, with modern encoding. But thats a topic that has been discussed more than enough.

 

[Skullar]

Funny, that's exactly what I am planning to do, heh.
Mostly due to financial and convenience reasons...

Anyways, I agree with you, you can't expect great headphones to improve the quality of the music you feed into them.

But recent phones sound very much acceptable, as @Infoseeker already said. And honestly, I can't really hear the difference between lossless and the 320kbps on Spotify. I doubt anyone can reliably, with modern encoding. But thats a topic that has been discussed more than enough.

Well it will still be improvement but what i had in mind was that in that case you should not expect for iem to blow your mind.

I personally think if you already have Rah or any other decent iem you like. That money that is going to Semper would be better spent on a good dap. Imr gear specially, scales with good source extremely well.

But then i am not trying to tell you what to do. Just trying to suggest not to underestimate your source.

I base it on my experience. As in 8 months i went from lg v30 --> Sony wm1a --> modded dx220 with advanced rom (still waiting for modded amp to come back) and the sound quality improvement is hard to compare to anything.
All i can say, i was worng to listen to people saying that source does not matter much.

But again we all have different hearing, listen to different music and in different quality so it might not apply to you.

 

[roygbiv6]

Top post @Skullar. I used to have a V30. It got me off the dap hype trains for a few years with the V40 I'm currently using and they both sound incredible. But the Rah was crying out for more & yeah that leap from the V30 to dx220 is gonna be better than any leap from iem to iem. I could hear the improvements of each IMR with the V40 tho.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the modded amp. What a monster set up.

Found my old V30 a couple of weeks ago. Still sounds great & still has that energy but I do prefer the V40 now.

 

[Skullar]

Top post @Skullar. I used to have a V30. It got me off the dap hype trains for a few years with the V40 I'm currently using and they both sound incredible. But the Rah was crying out for more & yeah that leap from the V30 to dx220 is gonna be better than any leap from iem to iem. I could hear the improvements of each IMR with the V40 tho.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the modded amp. What a monster set up.

Found my old V30 a couple of weeks ago. Still sounds great & still has that energy but I do prefer the V40 now.

I agree about LGs. As far as phone audio goes it has no match.

Can you tell me where lg v40 improves over v30? I just own v30 so got me curious as i know they both were tuned by different companies

 

[Xintaur]

Yea, I don't think that twice the price of the RAH = twice the performance. But I hope it will be a solid step up again, although I am not sure how that step would look like.

Source definitely matters, but I can't imagine the difference to be that big compared to my phone. Guess I should try a dx220 or similar and see for myself... maybe after my exams.

Also, how does an additional dac (like a Hidizs S8) perform compared a good dap?

 

[monsieurfromag3]

It is using nothing more than the very competent modern dac included with the Quallcomm 855 SoC. It does not gives me hiss, and is really musical instead of harsh sound compared to my e1da 9038s.

The bass seems to behave best off my phone. Transitions of sound decaying feels fast.

The phone gives the best out of box sound. But the Hiby R6 Pro has settings that can alter all that and aproach it.

There is not quantitative data in the jack's output power level. But since it doesn't hiss with iems, it probably detects and adjusts output.

Thanks!

Ironically Qualcomm are doing a better job than ever with their onboard DAC/amps just as every manufacturer is losing the headphone jack. Even on my V30, still going strong, the difference between the Quad DAC and the Snapdragon 845‘s chip has, I think, greatly decreased during the phone’s lifetime, thanks to software updates. The same way some phones’ photo modules go from average to great with the same lens, but improved processing.

I read somewhere the ROG II gives out 240mW, that’s crazy power, DAP-level. Not sure about output impedance, perhaps as you say it adjusts based on load. It’s also the only source, along with Asus’s own Zenfone 6, to include aptX Adaptive, which would make it a great companion to the upcoming Qudelix 5K BT receiver, hopefully taking up the ES100’s mantle.

Y’all are killing me with your DAP talk. I have to change phone soon but what I really want is a DAP. The DX220 is indeed the best I’ve heard apart from the Cayin N8, but that’s an effing brick.

 

[roygbiv6]

I agree about LGs. As far as phone audio goes it has no match.

Can you tell me where lg v40 improves over v30? I just own v30 so got me curious as i know they both were tuned by different companies

Loved the V30 and still do. It took me months to prefer the V40 over it as the sound seemed less energetic.

But essentially for me the V40 is more balanced sounding and has better clarity and soundstage. The V30 is great but is more v shaped and sacrifices the clarity for that. Can't go wrong with either one really altho the V40 is a better phone too.

@Xintaur I was thinking a couple of weeks ago how much better could the dx220 be than the V40? Was it worth it etc?

It's a definite step up in every way soundwise. Sounds magical at times but the V40 would be enough if I wasn't greedy.

 

[Skullar]

It's a definite step up in every way soundwise. Sounds magical at times but the V40 would be enough if I wasn't greedy.

That is the beauty(or ugly side) of this hobby - I am pretty happy with how my gear sounds now, yet i have money set aside for Semper and modding my amp lol.

The only way to stop this is go bankrupt and start starving...

 

[Nowymusic]

I've already paid my Halcyons, start the countdown

 

[Skullar]

I've already paid my Halcyons, start the countdown

Although i did not buy Halcyon, im very interested what those new estats can do.

 

[bezlimitchyk]

I've already paid my Halcyons, start the countdown

Mee too...

But I have a concern though.

Given the price policy (used Atens are £120 now, I paid £360) and the speed of rolling out the new models - I have a feeling that the previous models are getting cheaper faster than other brands models.

So you can't sell previous to buy newer and cover some reasonable part of the price,
This is not going to work so you have to stop buying new models sooner or later, you cant keep the pace.
It's too fast and they are getting too cheap

 

[Skullar]

Mee too...

But I have a concern though.

Given the price policy (used Atens are £120 now, I paid £360) and the speed of rolling out the new models - I have a feeling that the previous models are getting cheaper faster than other brands models.

So you can't sell previous to buy newer and cover some reasonable part of the price,
This is not going to work so you have to stop buying new models sooner or later, you cant keep the pace.
It's too fast and they are getting too cheap

I dont think this will be that bad.
Aten is not limited edition so you can get it easier.
Rah and Halcyon with Semper provided they are as good/better than Rah. Will hardly loose price due to being hard to aquire.

 

[jeffhawke]

Thanks!

Ironically Qualcomm are doing a better job than ever with their onboard DAC/amps just as every manufacturer is losing the headphone jack. Even on my V30, still going strong, the difference between the Quad DAC and the Snapdragon 845‘s chip has, I think, greatly decreased during the phone’s lifetime, thanks to software updates. The same way some phones’ photo modules go from average to great with the same lens, but improved processing.

I read somewhere the ROG II gives out 240mW, that’s crazy power, DAP-level. Not sure about output impedance, perhaps as you say it adjusts based on load. It’s also the only source, along with Asus’s own Zenfone 6, to include aptX Adaptive, which would make it a great companion to the upcoming Qudelix 5K BT receiver, hopefully taking up the ES100’s mantle.

Y’all are killing me with your DAP talk. I have to change phone soon but what I really want is a DAP. The DX220 is indeed the best I’ve heard apart from the Cayin N8, but that’s an effing brick.

I love my V30, but honestly, since I was lucky enough to get a LPGT recently I haven't gone back to it for a while, the RAH sounds ooh soo smooth on the Lotoo...

 

[Nowymusic]

Mee too...

But I have a concern though.

Given the price policy (used Atens are £120 now, I paid £360) and the speed of rolling out the new models - I have a feeling that the previous models are getting cheaper faster than other brands models.

So you can't sell previous to buy newer and cover some reasonable part of the price,
This is not going to work so you have to stop buying new models sooner or later, you cant keep the pace.
It's too fast and they are getting too cheap

Yes, I just thought of that, I thought I'd go for Samper, and I said to myself it's better to wait for the price to go down when the 2021 models come out, and at the same time read the reviews and see if they're worth it.