pizzafilms
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2010
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Quote:
Yes...and the 16's as well.
I met Jerry about 6 months ago and he let me listen to the 5's, 7's and 13's. I didn't want to spend much more than $500 at the time, and Jerry didn't try to upsell me at all. I thought that the 5's sounded great, and the 7's were too boomy. I remember Jerry telling me about how the 13's were really his baby and the very best of what he's done, but I don't remember them sounding that much better at the time. Maybe it was in my mind because I didn't want to spend that much more. Hard to say. So I bought some 5's and have been very happy with them. They're clear and warm and fun. I can hear good highs, lows and mids, and they just always sound great to me. I've definitely been an outspoken fan of the 5's. To me, they're an amazing deal.
Then...I read way too much about the 13's on this forum. It made me wonder what the hell was wrong with me and why didn't I jump at the 13's that day. Again, hard to say. It's possible that the demo 13's, which Jerry told me were a new set of demos, weren't working properly, or that my mind was telling me that the 5's were perfect for the money. Who knows.
Anyway, I ended up picking up a set of used 13's from someone here. Thankfully, they were much smaller than my own ears so I could put some foam tips around them, jam them in my ears and get a good listen. I've since had a small nightmare of getting them remolded. Fisher's work was not acceptable, so I sent them to UM in China. I valued them at $1000, I thought for insurance sake, which triggered a huge delay in customs and also me paying an additional $150 for duty. Otherwise, UM's work was great.
So back to the comparison...
I've gone back and forth between my 5's and 13's many times since. From a bang for the buck perspective, the 5's do not sound $700 cheaper. No way. To me, they are the greatest deal and should be priced more like $750, not $399.
Here's the audio comparison: The 13's go lower and higher than the 5's. Sub-bass is more obvious and ultra-highs as well. The 13's sound brighter in general than the 5's which are a bit warmer. The interesting thing is, if you listened to the 5's for a while, you wouldn't know what you were missing until you listened to the 13's. The 5's sound that good.
The thing about the 13's is this...from my point of view, we rarely if ever hear high end reproduced so well as what the 13's do. It's really nothing short of amazing. I've been a sound engineer for many years and I know what I'm talking about. And because of those amazing highs, I think it's possible for some to believe that they lack low end...which they don't. It's just that we're not used to hearing high end reproduction that well done. Even Jerry has said that the 13's are very flat, almost reference, but have a bass bump around 50-100hz. To my ears, I can also hear a treble peak around 6k or so.
And that's why I believe that the 16's exist. Because the highs are so good on the 13's, the 16's have an added boost to basically compensate for what we're not used to hearing in the high end.
That's all purely my opinion. And also why I'm ordering some 16's tomorrow.
I met with Adam last week and demoed some 16's, going back and forth between my 13's and his 16's. It was a very tough call. It kinda bothers the engineer inside me that I slightly preferred the less flat 16's, but that's what the musician inside me said.
And yes, I'm still happy with my 5's and I'm keeping them. They're a great deal. Still heads and shoulders above the non-customs.
Hope that helps.
