KuroKitsu
Headphoneus Supremus
So I've been in this hobby for about 4 years going now (Circa 2017), and thanks to some local members I've met here and local brick & mortar Headfoneshop (of which I shill hard for GTA folks) I've been able to go through a LOT of iems, close to the entire S and A tiers on Crin's ranking (pre-clean up) for reference. I started posting impressions in August 2020 as I finally had a solid idea of what sound signature I preferred. My first review was posted on the famous nest of porta-fi lunatics with deep pockets (aka Flickenick's thread) in August 2020 with my first shootout in May 2021. Many more to follow I hope!
I have some guidelines for my reviews and shootouts as follows (Mostly my response after a couple of years of reading reviews):
No Marketing Fluff: You can find that from the manufacturer. No more having to go 3 pages before you get to the sound. Tech and design will be mentioned in line if I feel that it contributes to fit and/or sound.
No Pictures (Mostly reviews): I'm a landscape photographer, macro not so much. Again plenty of eye candy shots are available on the site. I'll most likely be breaking that rule with at least a picture for shootouts (or whenever I can make @riverground take pictures for me)
Entertaining: I aim to have a theme for post, sometimes there will be more references (or fewer) depending on how it flows. Overall, it's meant to make it a short(er) but entertaining read.
No reviewer units: All units are either a) Personally owned , b) a demo model at a B&M or c) a loan from a friend. I like having the freedom to say what I want without a constraint. It also means that I'm funding it myself, but welcome to Head Fi, sorry about your wallet and all that. (As of 7/4/21 current spending is at ~$60K CAD)
Genres: Western Pop and Rock (pre 2010), Contemporary Christian (Encompasses a variety of sub-genres), Asian Pop (Mandarin, Japanese and Korean). OSTs/Orchestral
Preferred Signature: I have a sub bass bias but not what I would consider basshead territory. My ears are sensitive to mid bass and too much of that causes fatigue, I find sub bass baised low end comes across as "balanced" to me for the region. The lower mid/upper bass area tends to be a bit tricky since I want male vocals to have body, but not bass bleed into the mids. A slight bump in the 1k to bring vocals slightly forward, but not overly forward. Upper mids/lower treble peak is a must. My ears don't like the region being recessed or linear and is an absolute for me for female vocals. Now about treble: I really really really absolute love treble, I may be a treblehead when I think about it. 5k and 7k peaks are essential non negotiables. Of course, they can be relative to the lower treble and upper mids respectively but they have to be there. Energy and sparkle? YES PLEASE. Onto soundstage: Height, Width, Depth in that order. Height is very hard to get right in the presentation of iems and makes a world of difference. Width is a given and depth is a preference. I lean very strongly to the technicality side and I don't like compromising it for musicality. As I use my iems for both work and play, my preference between the two are essentially the same. Imaging hands down is the number 1 thing I value in iems above the $1K mark and will make or break it.
I have some guidelines for my reviews and shootouts as follows (Mostly my response after a couple of years of reading reviews):
No Marketing Fluff: You can find that from the manufacturer. No more having to go 3 pages before you get to the sound. Tech and design will be mentioned in line if I feel that it contributes to fit and/or sound.
No Pictures (Mostly reviews): I'm a landscape photographer, macro not so much. Again plenty of eye candy shots are available on the site. I'll most likely be breaking that rule with at least a picture for shootouts (or whenever I can make @riverground take pictures for me)
Entertaining: I aim to have a theme for post, sometimes there will be more references (or fewer) depending on how it flows. Overall, it's meant to make it a short(er) but entertaining read.
No reviewer units: All units are either a) Personally owned , b) a demo model at a B&M or c) a loan from a friend. I like having the freedom to say what I want without a constraint. It also means that I'm funding it myself, but welcome to Head Fi, sorry about your wallet and all that. (As of 7/4/21 current spending is at ~$60K CAD)
Genres: Western Pop and Rock (pre 2010), Contemporary Christian (Encompasses a variety of sub-genres), Asian Pop (Mandarin, Japanese and Korean). OSTs/Orchestral
Preferred Signature: I have a sub bass bias but not what I would consider basshead territory. My ears are sensitive to mid bass and too much of that causes fatigue, I find sub bass baised low end comes across as "balanced" to me for the region. The lower mid/upper bass area tends to be a bit tricky since I want male vocals to have body, but not bass bleed into the mids. A slight bump in the 1k to bring vocals slightly forward, but not overly forward. Upper mids/lower treble peak is a must. My ears don't like the region being recessed or linear and is an absolute for me for female vocals. Now about treble: I really really really absolute love treble, I may be a treblehead when I think about it. 5k and 7k peaks are essential non negotiables. Of course, they can be relative to the lower treble and upper mids respectively but they have to be there. Energy and sparkle? YES PLEASE. Onto soundstage: Height, Width, Depth in that order. Height is very hard to get right in the presentation of iems and makes a world of difference. Width is a given and depth is a preference. I lean very strongly to the technicality side and I don't like compromising it for musicality. As I use my iems for both work and play, my preference between the two are essentially the same. Imaging hands down is the number 1 thing I value in iems above the $1K mark and will make or break it.
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