[kkugel]

So if anyone ever asks me for transparent shells, I will agree and ship black shells with a silver logo saying "frick off" instead of the brand name

 

[CL14715]

Well, it's not the best idea to make transparent IEM shells I should say Crossover design and EST are visible in the FR, if you know which drivers are used. Driver spec sheets are freely available, to look for further clues.

Well, I see it differently lol. I see it as the old man basically saying, “good luck”. It’s almost like a challenge if you ask me.

 

[kkugel]

Let me leave for today with sharing a secret, Traillii doesn't do it, but might be interesting for y'all sciency enthusiasts. Amazing bass separation is not actually a volume or crossover thing only. Time plays a major role.

 

[Ojisan]

Let me leave for today with sharing a secret, Traillii doesn't do it, but might be interesting for y'all sciency enthusiasts. Amazing bass separation is not actually a volume or crossover thing only. Time plays a major role.

I'm guessing you are referring to the fact that bass is the slowest (longest wavelength) so considering the IEM dimensions, there's some tricks in getting the right placement and phase to make it sound coherent and well separated. Shure SE846's chamber design comes to mind for one approach. Seems like Trailli has gone opposite and it has a bass port firing right by the nozzle. Maybe the trick is to adjust the mids and treble with the bass constraint.

Whatever you come up with, we enthusiast will probably benefit. Curious what you guys come up with!

Edit: ps. this thread was a good read tonight with a slight change of pace

 

[tawmizzzz]

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

 

[Frainen]

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

Thanks for adding a more interesting post on the thread!
I try to resist to the SP2000. The Bird is definitely not liking the M15, so I go with the W2 when out, but I would definitely welcome a solid DAP. Since I use Streaming services a lot (Sorry!), difficult to find something relevant yet.

 

[tawmizzzz]

Thanks for adding a more interesting post on the thread!
I try to resist to the SP2000. The Bird is definitely not liking the M15, so I go with the W2 when out, but I would definitely welcome a solid DAP. Since I use Streaming services a lot (Sorry!), difficult to find something relevant yet.

Sorry to hear about the M15, usually Traillii pairs well with just about everything. What’s wrong with the synergy?

W2 is a fantastic pairing for Traillii IMO. No way I can easily justify the cost discrepancy of $3600 MSRP (SP2000) versus $299 (W2) due to price-to-performance ratio, but if you want top technicalities without being overtly clinical, SP2k is the best I’ve heard to date. The cymbals from this pair-up are just ridiculous (@CL14715 lol).

 

[Tanalasta]

amazing pairing with the SP2K. I find it musical yet a technically detailed, neutral presentation. It’s clean without any excessive coloration or warmth. Congratulations. The SP2K is also very accomplished network streamer and Roon endpoint. I use it also via the optical out into a Chord TT2 with the bird.

 

[gLer]

I think Tansio Mirai have come close with the Sparks, but need to wait for someone to A/B them. I think most just can’t get the tuning and sufficient bass out of BA drivers.

Great overnight discussion guys. Too much to catch up on in one go but I'll try. I'd like to see a Traillii clone done with a DD bass driver. That would not only be an epic achievement but would also 'fix' the only chink in the Bird's armour for me.

You estimate it only took about 3-5 months to develop the Traillii as a whole? Something about there just doesn’t add up to me at all, not for Traillii, but for any flagship IEM. Most companies claim they spend years in development for them.

I reckon Traillii was more an evolution than a multi-year project. Or he could have just been messing around with prototypes and lucked on the design after years of experience and experiments. Who knows. Either way, the product is right there for anyone to take into a lab, break down, figure out, and clone. Then again, maybe it's not that simple. I mean the BLON BL-03 hit paydirt for its tonality, and I'm yet to see anyone clone it with improved technicalities. You'll get 'similar' but never an exact clone.

This is what I don’t understand either, if it was this easy it would have been done and replicated already. The Traillii is about one year old I believe or approaching there. If it was also this easy, why do we not see clones of any other TOTL IEMs?

There is this whole narrative that the Traillii just uses off the shelf drivers and is thrown into a shell with a tuning and that’s that… but with any other IEM no one seems to be concerned about replicas, it’s a little odd to me.

As per my point above and the motivation for my original question. How hard can it be? Evidently either very hard, or noone wants to give it a shot, or noone else sees the Traillii as the blueprint for IEM market domination. For us it's a no-brainer but we're the 0.001%ers.

Let me leave for today with sharing a secret, Traillii doesn't do it, but might be interesting for y'all sciency enthusiasts. Amazing bass separation is not actually a volume or crossover thing only. Time plays a major role.

Sennheiser has shown with the IE900 what's possible with a small DD driver and clever chamber design/resonators. It's definitely not just about volume and crossover, considering the IE900 has no crossover.

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

Keenly awaiting the next AK flagship that doesn't require fancy adapters for 4.4 and maybe opens up Android functionality a bit more. It's probably going to be stupidly priced though.

 

[ranfan]

I reckon Traillii was more an evolution than a multi-year project. Or he could have just been messing around with prototypes and lucked on the design after years of experience and experiments. Who knows. Either way, the product is right there for anyone to take into a lab, break down, figure out, and clone. Then again, maybe it's not that simple. I mean the BLON BL-03 hit paydirt for its tonality, and I'm yet to see anyone clone it with improved technicalities. You'll get 'similar' but never an exact clone.

+1 I think it's based initially from the multi BA, Mellianus that Oriolus developed back in 2017-18. The bass was really impressive for an all-BA back then. You also need to consider the Oriolus 2, DD hybrid that preceded it. It got really popular here in this forum back in 2016-17, and that's when Oriolus started gaining widespread international recognition for their mercurial tuning. Most bass heavy IEMs back then tend to sound either too warm, too much bleed, or too sparkly/v-shaped. Oriolus managed to execute both the Oriolus 2 and Mellianus with relatively good clear mids, with some mixed responses about their treble (I found it a bit too bright at times). That's when I think Oriolus decided to venture into more exotic drivers to resolve this, through designing their first tribrid Percivali. The Percivali had relatively good DD bass, and a premier first gen EST, unheard of back then. It had this new sound character and resolution to it which I think was the catalyst for the making of Traillii. The problem witu Percivali (in terms of SQ) to my ears was that it had only 2 BA allocated to abridge their powerful DD lows, and power-hungry EST highs. The mids sounded off to me, it was rather too thin and anemic. Death by snu-snu. So I speculate that's why the old man decided to replace the DD, for a newer BA-based woofer and appointed 2 extra BAs for the mids to fix the incoherency and thinness of the previous model's sound. On top, substituted the EST with the newer more efficient gen 2, and to blend them all in harmony, attenuated the upper-mids slightly to allow for 1) to avoid sibilance or forwardness, and 2) to give extra space/separation to allow the EST to shine without losing overall cohesion in the tonality department. It's a clever tuning in my opinion. High resolution, far-ranging sound, with deep punchy DD-resembling bass that is tight and doesn't bleed, as well as thick well-defined midrange that doesn't feel out of place

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…)

lmao That'd make for an ideal partner

 

[ranfan]

I also like that superseding its Traillii success, Oriolus released their newer single DD Isabellae, which to me sounded glorious in simile, all the while accounting for the trickling-down effect of the R&D cost being half covered by the booming sales of Traillii, they decided to price it more reasonably making them more affordable for the masses to hear the Oriolus sound. Props to them for that

 

[gLer]

I also like that superseding its Traillii success, Oriolus released their newer single DD Isabellae, which to me sounded glorious in simile, all the while accounting for the trickling-down effect of the R&D cost being half covered by the booming sales of Traillii, they decided to price it more reasonably making them more affordable for the masses to hear the Oriolus sound. Props to them for that

Except by all accounts they neutered the bass on the Isabellae, which is rather sad, especially for a DD.

 

[subguy812]

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

Welcome to the club! Longtime member, but all new members are welcome.

 

[RTodd]

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

Inspired me to blow the dust off Mastodon and listen to some this morning.
Once More ‘Round The Sun’
Thummim PAW6K C9 Tube A, awesome,
ready to conquer the day now.

Thanks

 

[Ojisan]

While not as interesting as the ambitions of kkugel and trying to figure out what objectively makes T’s implementation special, just cross-posting Traillii impressions with the newly acquired SP2k cherry that I popped.



Well, I now see why the SP2k is known as cream of the crop. My ignorant self decided to go with a $35 ddHiFi adapter (I like their adapters overall!) which led to some crazy lower treble intensity for me. I couldn’t even survive 10 minutes, so decided to splurge on the pwa 1960 adapter.

Sound quality impressions? Clean, mature, refined, tight, articulate-you name it. Might as well be describing an ideal employee if you were a hiring manager (except for tight…). Traillii already had the best treble I’ve heard, but this takes it a step even further-the cymbals on “The Last Baron” are just so damn precise and detailed, yet STILL smooth.

Bass has nice weight, with tight decay. It is on the neutral side without any elevated warmth. Technicalities are obviously summit-fi for a DAP, showing remarkable imaging, precision, layering due to a pitch black background.

Will this DAP be for everyone? Nope-while I wouldn’t call it clinical since it does a pleasant job of balancing those technicalities with exciting energy rather than a linear, dull/referential presentation, it is still a mature Hifi sound that doesn’t value coloring the sound.

I’ll have to A/B more, but so far it seems that R8 is a bit more colored with an upper mids boost that can give off a slightly more musical presentation. But in terms of overall tightness and refinement, Sp2k comes out on top. Looking forward to how it continues to burn-in.

Bye bye ghetto adapter, and bye bye wallet. Hello copper friend.

Thanks for this… I’ve been on the fence about going SP2k as I don’t feel like I’m getting the most out of Trailli with M8…