I saw somewhere that you have a lot of tips. Can you tell me how Aria responds with foam tips?
I always liked foam tips more.
Aria’s LCP got bad compatibility with foam type of tips.
In fact Aria’s best match is AZAL xelastec.
The Xelastec is not an all-rounder as it boosts vocal range and tames bass, but it has unique characteristics to control bass resonance which for some IEMs that matches as one and the only.
That’s why UM employed Xelastec as MEST MKII’s stock tips. Same to MEST MKII, Xelastec fits very well wity Aria’ it enhances the strength of Aria’s fast and accurate transients, and cures recesses mid range problem at the same time.
What’s so special about Aria is that:
-extremely fast and elastic transient all over the spectrum
-Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Moondrop somehow nerfed that benefit by adding extra hex filter to boost bass range for the harman curve tuning.
It’s a very simple physics, the smaller diameter of sound wave pathway, the greater amplitude of longer wave length (bass), it applies to ear tip bore caliber or diameter as well, the smaller the bore, the greater bass(assuming the tips has same sized outer skirts). For Aria’s case Moondrop’s engineer recuded the number of holes on that hex-shaped iron filter to have higher gain on bass range, again with a cost of losing “good cohesive transient”; compressing sound waves.
So in order to unleash the real potential of Aria, removing the hex filter is a highly recommended post-purchasr modification. Bass will be very flat& cohesive, and treble will extends further with better textures in air presentation, of which unfortunately foam tips will not suffice that.
I’m a bit confused of why moondrop needed to cuff Aria to Harman Curve with newly developed acoustic filter with a sacrifice of bass responses/treble extensions. Sticking on harman curve much more important than pure sound quality performance? I’d vote, no. SQ>Sound signature. Aria has potential to play As bare knuckle Heavy-weighted boxer, but it’s tuned to play as middleweight boxer with 5lbs gloves as physical restraints. My grading on
Aria stock tuning is 70/100(B-),
Starfield 75/100 (B)
KXXS 78/100 B+
hex filter removed Aria 81/100(A-).
B2 (86/100) A+,
Dusk 89/100 A+.
I’m waiting some entry grande earbuds of Moondrop coming as to benchmark whether getting chaconne is worth the bet, but those Earbuds wouldn’t hit more than B, which I’m pretty sure.