Noble Savant Impression
...Smoooooooooooooooooooothness....
Impressions are done with Dita Answer L sized silicone tips with Fiio X1 + E12A at Low Gain + Bass Boost on.
The first thing that came to my mind was how surprisingly smooth these thing sound. It was so smooth that I swear these things are supposed to be the high end range of the Noble. I was so curious as to what has the Wizard done exactly. What type of black magic does he use to make the Savant sound so retardedly smooth that I seem to just forget about analyzing this IEM and was briefly lost in the smoothness displayed by its performance?!
The buttery smooth sound was just too much to take in and it caught me off balance that I have to keep replaying my tracks to see what I've missed from all the excitement the first time I put em' on.
To the scoring, yo!
Clarity/Detail
These things don't play around. The clarity is truly astounding. Detail retrieval almost seemed like it was done effortlessly because I can easily pinpoint many hidden details that would otherwise be veiled on other cheaper IEMs that don't even try to sound revealing if at all. It was so clear that I felt listening to songs from Of Monsters and Men was like a mesmerizing and eerie journey to what it's like to enjoy music that are both dark yet serene sounding at the same time. It sets the atmosphere well with the right amount of emotion conveyed through these detail pick ups.
Instruments sounded just as how I imagine them to sound like from my knowledge in testing TOTL portable equipments.
Savant gets an effortless yet superb 9/10 in Clarity/Detail. Absolutely mind-boggling.
Soundstage
Admitedly the soundstage isn't the biggest I've heard but the 3D imaging is easily convincing enough for me to forget about it. In fact, I am kind of glad the soundstage isn't too big because when your soundstage is too wide and tall, sometimes certain instruments became a bit too distant and you might not be able to listen to them played clearly.
The P1 has a bigger soundstage than this, but this seemed to be designed for a more personal listening session than pulling you into a music concert hall.
It's a more than acceptable sense for me since I don't want to be looking for the instruments myself, I want to feel it naturally when I reached out for it without trying too hard.
Savant's soundstage gets a solid 8/10 from me.
Bass
The bass presented to me is not only punchy with a well-paced decay, it's extremely well-controlled, plenty of body and clean. In fact it sounded so clean that it reminded me of what it's like to experience wonderful clean bass. The last time I experienced such clean bass was from Empire Ears line ups, Dita The Answer and Audio Technica CKR10.
Drums sound especially wonderful with the bass tuning here, and I find myself constantly listening to rock and metal music thanks to this. Linkin Park never sounded so good before.
Metallica sounded especially engaging with their instruments running on full cylinders.
Bass is a very strong 9.3/10.
Mids
Lush, organic and full of life.
Listening to vocal tracks were a joy with the Savant because of how intimate and natural they sound. Above all it's just so smooth going through the singers' voices.
Emotions were conveyed beautifully and I can listen to Lenka for hours thanks to this. Her airy voice feels like enveloping my ears with a pair of fluffy clouds. In fact, Lenka's Blue Skies made me feel like I am imagining myself flying above an airplane looking at the clear blue sky for once. Wizard has clearly done some magic tuning here with the drivers.
Piano music and jazz sounded just as relaxing and soulful too. This is a joy to me.
Mids get a very amazing and strong 8.8/10.
Treble
Absolutely smooth and almost sibilant-free. This is great for my sensitive ears.
I was able to enjoy plenty of tracks thanks to the very well-tamed treble of the Savant. Cymbals decay very naturally, and picking up the airy sound of certain instruments or singers seemed effortless.
Have I forgot to mention just how smooth the treble was? I think I haven't. It's smooth. Simple as that.
Thanks to the sibilance being tamed well here, listening to plenty of tracks that have fair bit of them was far more tolerable than I thought. And this is quite a job-well-done since my ears are very sensitive to the piercing "sss" sounds.
Treble of the Savant gets an 8.5/10 from me.
Nicely done.
Conclusion
It's no surprise here. I love the Savant very much. It ticked most of the boxes I want in my book and it passed the mid-centric standard in my gauge with near flying colors.
The overall smooth sound of the Savant just made me curse myself for not being able to afford it even if I want to, which is a shame.
It's slightly mid-centric nature and tamed treble made listening on long sessions a more ideal choice than other competitors. This is one of those IEMs that will stay with my preference choice for a long, long time.
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Next in line: The Noble Dulce Bass.
for now anyway.
