Hey, everyone. So, as promised, here are my further first impressions of the Balmung, along with photos and a comparison against the VE7. They aren’t the best pics I’ve ever taken, but I reckon getting these impressions out in a timely manner is a lot more important than making them look pretty right now. That’s something July/August-Daniel will have to worry about. 
So, further expanding on what I’ve already revealed, as promised, here are my early, early impressions of MMR’s brand-new Balmung. The Balmung is an in-ear that, to me, comes off lush, radiant and organic, but without fully adopting the warm or buttery moniker. Its smoothness and wetness come with openness, nimbleness and air, which is a combination I can’t say I’ve heard often. Its aggregate colour balance to me lands somewhere around neutral, but its hallmarks of wetness, resonance and fullness definitely follow it across genre or artist or track.
The closest equivalent I can draw to the Balmung - apart from the spring dawn comparison I drew earlier - would be the music of David Foster, funnily enough. Tracks like Celine Dion’s Because You Loved Me, Renee Olstead’s Love That Will Last or Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable - from their arrangements, to their production, etc. - fully epitomise the monitor’s signature; lush, intimate, glowing with reverb, yet clean and airy all the while. There isn’t the ultra-punchy, ultra-sharp contrasts you’d find in more modern music, where instruments are often truncated and (nearly) blown out. Again, there’s a lushness, steadiness and size to the Balmung that makes it superb for jazz or the more sweeping kinds of classical.
This mostly stems from its radiant mids. Lead vocalists sing loud and clear, and they project with size. But, at the same time, they’re refined and focused; not overtly shouty, oversaturated or thin. That’s what the 4kHz dip Ryan mentioned is for. It cuts out those nasally notes. That is then paired with extremes that support the mids, rather than overtly augment them. The bass supports those ballads with a strong, grounded foundation - weighty, full and thump-y - and it scents the midrange with a bit of body and heft. The highs accent vocals with articulation, but without taking attention away from the body of the note. The one colouration I’d note is the lighter low-mids, which takes away some of the gritty, gravelly tones of a Michael Bublé or a tom tom or a viola.
Technically, the Balmung scores high everywhere it can. It doesn’t ace separation like a more clarity-tuned in-ear would, because its large, radiant notes naturally inhibit that. Its stage also isn’t the largest in the world. But, in terms of layering, resolving the individual textures of notes and how cleanly those notes pop in-and-out, the in-ear certainly does well. The only qualities that aren’t its fortes would, again, be raw dynamic contrast (or explosiveness), clinical separation and expansion. But, otherwise, as someone described earlier, a TOTL IEM tuned for jazz would be a pretty apt way to describe it.
Comparing the Balmung briefly to the VE7, the latter more embodies the traditional neutral or reference IEM. It has sharper lines, tighter instruments with more space between them, and it’s got a much lighter, more reined-in low-end too. The stereo image feels more spread out as a result, and its stage feels wider because of this as well. In terms of tone and balance, though, they aren’t far off at all. At the moment, I’d say t’s a matter of choosing whose presentation you prefer; the Balmung’s breezy, lush, organic response or the VE7’s tighter, cleaner, more precise delivery.
So, further expanding on what I’ve already revealed, as promised, here are my early, early impressions of MMR’s brand-new Balmung. The Balmung is an in-ear that, to me, comes off lush, radiant and organic, but without fully adopting the warm or buttery moniker. Its smoothness and wetness come with openness, nimbleness and air, which is a combination I can’t say I’ve heard often. Its aggregate colour balance to me lands somewhere around neutral, but its hallmarks of wetness, resonance and fullness definitely follow it across genre or artist or track.
The closest equivalent I can draw to the Balmung - apart from the spring dawn comparison I drew earlier - would be the music of David Foster, funnily enough. Tracks like Celine Dion’s Because You Loved Me, Renee Olstead’s Love That Will Last or Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable - from their arrangements, to their production, etc. - fully epitomise the monitor’s signature; lush, intimate, glowing with reverb, yet clean and airy all the while. There isn’t the ultra-punchy, ultra-sharp contrasts you’d find in more modern music, where instruments are often truncated and (nearly) blown out. Again, there’s a lushness, steadiness and size to the Balmung that makes it superb for jazz or the more sweeping kinds of classical.
This mostly stems from its radiant mids. Lead vocalists sing loud and clear, and they project with size. But, at the same time, they’re refined and focused; not overtly shouty, oversaturated or thin. That’s what the 4kHz dip Ryan mentioned is for. It cuts out those nasally notes. That is then paired with extremes that support the mids, rather than overtly augment them. The bass supports those ballads with a strong, grounded foundation - weighty, full and thump-y - and it scents the midrange with a bit of body and heft. The highs accent vocals with articulation, but without taking attention away from the body of the note. The one colouration I’d note is the lighter low-mids, which takes away some of the gritty, gravelly tones of a Michael Bublé or a tom tom or a viola.
Technically, the Balmung scores high everywhere it can. It doesn’t ace separation like a more clarity-tuned in-ear would, because its large, radiant notes naturally inhibit that. Its stage also isn’t the largest in the world. But, in terms of layering, resolving the individual textures of notes and how cleanly those notes pop in-and-out, the in-ear certainly does well. The only qualities that aren’t its fortes would, again, be raw dynamic contrast (or explosiveness), clinical separation and expansion. But, otherwise, as someone described earlier, a TOTL IEM tuned for jazz would be a pretty apt way to describe it.
Comparing the Balmung briefly to the VE7, the latter more embodies the traditional neutral or reference IEM. It has sharper lines, tighter instruments with more space between them, and it’s got a much lighter, more reined-in low-end too. The stereo image feels more spread out as a result, and its stage feels wider because of this as well. In terms of tone and balance, though, they aren’t far off at all. At the moment, I’d say t’s a matter of choosing whose presentation you prefer; the Balmung’s breezy, lush, organic response or the VE7’s tighter, cleaner, more precise delivery.
They are, indeed; just like the Gae Bolg's were.
Cheers, my friend. ‘Really appreciate the kind words, as always.
