[tawmizzzz]

Fastest DHL shipping ever. Shipped Tuesday, arrived this morning.
I've only had 10 minutes to try out some songs.. Still trying to get over the sticker shock.. but by liquidating the gear I've accumulated, I actually come out ahead... still sooo expensive..

But, it’s the best all around I’ve heard. Can’t find a fault. Delicate vocals, decent balanced bass.. it’s like everything else I've tried is part of what this is. I haven’t compared to the Elysium though as I have only been listening to the Isabellae.. it’s not a jump out at you the way something like the Legend X had the bass.. it’s just perfectly balanced. I don’t notice BA timbre or really anything. Everything just sounds natural. It’s kind of that Zen thing of not really standing out in anyway. Perfect by doing nothing but getting out of the way..
They don’t seem like they should cost this much but it’s like they are kind of faultless so I kind of understand..
I feel like these will be a slow burn.. nothing flashy, just impeccable competence..

Glad you’re enjoying it and I felt very similarly my first hour with it coming from Infinity 2 (which I consider an upgrade from Elysium from the right pair up, with huge staging). Going back to Inf2 after I spent time with it showed me it’s “flaws”-mainly actual sounding BA bass timbre and exaggerated upper-mids (which is good for a more energetic, fun presentation).

In other words, in my and some other experiences, it is only when you go back to other IEMs that you realize how damn clear, detailed, layered, spacious and natural Traillii really is.

Looking forward to your A/B’s.

 

[toaster]

Big thanks to Andrew @MusicTeck for the traillii, FS Demo, and his amazing CS as always.

Shoutout and thanks to @aaf evo for his incredible generosity lending me his chonky baby, the orphy.


Traillii + Stock / Attila / Orphy Shootout

Let’s start at the top, shall we?

Traillii is the best IEM I have ever heard. To me, it is a revelation in the iem world in terms of how it refines all previous iem tunings that I have heard before, and how it pushes the boundaries of layering, staging, and detail within the realm of the tiny, earhole-filling transducers we love. The near-unanimous track record of the traillii impressing listeners who routinely spend time with other TOTLs has been quite a spectacle…but alas, I am tweeting to the flock here in the birdhouse so let’s not waste too much time on this.

On the stock custom-tuned pw 1960 cable, the Traillii’s bass and treble are my personal favorites I’ve heard to date. Mids are among the best I’ve heard, and have the most detail I’ve encountered, (albeit with slightly less body vs. the mid-champs like erlky and supreme2.) But in the end, it’s the whole package (minus the outer cardboard box,) of the traillii that makes it revolutionary…virtually no other iem I’ve heard comes close to competing with everything the traillii does at once. I may derive as much enjoyment from the erlky, and its mids are arguably “better.” But in terms of overall sound and technicalities, I do not feel the erlky is on the bird’s level.

During my demo of the FS (which I do like…but it’s got some tuning quirks that make its sound not quite to my preferences so let’s quickly move on,) I got sly and snapped the Attila onto the bird. I was quite impressed by what I heard: highs got smoother, vocals were infused with more body, and somehow background got “blacker.” I’m still trying to come up with a better way to describe this new phenomenon of “ultra-black backgrounds”, which I’ve only experienced with $2k+ cables, but I do think there’s something to it…anyway, the experience of the Attila on the bird reminded me a lot of the first time I heard the 1950 on my a18t, which surprised me. I am genuinely amused that cables can make these types of differences (or any differences at all,) but I hear them so I am intrigued and explore them.

I am going to avoid using superlatives and attempting to quantify precise amounts of change in the next section. The threshold of “small-scale” diminishing returns was passed somewhere back in mid-fi land, now just a barely visible speck in our rear-view. Sense and logic are no longer intact here. We are discussing adding a $5k cable to a $6k iem for goodness sake…it’s madness…and it’s beautiful…but, so much madness…

So, the bird + stock cable is the best iem sound I’ve heard. Everyone who’s heard the bird knows what it sounds like on the stock cable.

Here's how I hear things differently with the Attila and…gulp…the $5k orphy.


Attila vs. Stock

• Highs are smoother and equally detailed
• Sub-bass is less pronounced and blends more organically with the rest of the sound signature
• Vocals have more body, and their stage-positioning remains similar to stock
• Background is somewhat “blacker” (again, this remains somewhat of an amorphous concept but it is “hearable”)
• Dynamics remain largely unchanged, and are maybe enhanced a bit

Please keep two things in mind before reading any further:

These differences I am about to describe are diminished returns...very diminished. But they are noticeable and I do hear them.

I admit the following is insane, and completely imperceptible (and irrelevant) to most mere mortals outside the hf world, and it is absolutely impossible to justify the value of any of what I am about to say.

Still with me?

Then buckle up, and let’s go.


Orphy vs. Stock

First of all, this thing is heavy. The shielding on the lower half of the cable is an extra layer of thick material over the rest of the wiring. I recommend finding a way to physically support it when listening so it doesn't pull down on your ears (sanity…gone, remember?)

Now on to sound...

• Mids are noticeably more forward and have more emphasis
• Vocals are infused with additional body (noticeably more so than Attila) and are placed on a slightly higher plane vs. stock (erlky puts vocals higher around your forehead, which I love,) and it’s interesting that the orphy somehow manages to do this to vocals on the traillii. Again, I agree it’s totally insane that a cable can do this
• Highs are noticeably smoother
• Soundstage expansion is noticeably larger - on certain tracks, sounds on the staging-periphery of the recording appear noticeably farther away from my ears
• Sub-bass, similarly to on the Attila, is more controlled and balanced within the rest of the sound signature, and more refined on orphy vs. both stock and Attila
• Detail-levels are higher vs. both stock and Attila
• Background is blacker vs. both stock and Attila
• Holography, overall airiness, and "liveliness" (for lack of a better word) are very noticeably enhanced
• Dynamics, particularly noticeable on orchestral music, are noticeably higher vs. both stock and Attila - overall loudness-range is noticeably wider at stagnant volumes

Disclaimer: Orphy (only slightly) exaggerated comments below. This is for the purpose of conveying the less-tangible aspects of what I actually hear and have already detailed above.

• Listening to the bird with the orphy, there are moments where the music seems like it’s moving in slow motion, due to the combination of extremely high-level of detail retrieval and next-level black background. I hear minor things I either haven’t heard before, or haven’t heard as clearly. The most impressive thing is that not only is musicality completely preserved, it is elevated vs. stock due to the effortlessness with which this greater detail is presented.
• Every sound can be perceived as if it is being viewed under a microscope, but musicality is increased due to the cohesion and effortlessness with which it is presented; you’re hearing more detail, concurrently with the extra space from the soundstage expansion. Layering (which on stock, is already the best I’ve ever heard in an iem,) is improved, along with transient response.
• Somehow, the traillii + orphy manages to further dim the ever-present nagging question we all ask: “how can we hear both more detail and more musicality, simultaneously?” I’ve heard multiple instances of this in my listening career (both combos of the a18t + 1950 and erlky + 1950 achieved this over using stock cables for example,) but the traillii + orphy combo addresses this quandary more proficiently than any other iem + cable pairing I have heard to date.

If you want to take what is arguably the most resolving and musical iem in the world and push it as far as it can possibly go, the orphy is the real deal.


Sanity be damned

 

[gLer]

Big thanks to Andrew @MusicTeck as always for the traillii, FS Demo, and his incredible CS

Shoutout and thanks to @aaf evo for his incredible generosity lending me his chonky baby, the orphy


Trailli + Stock / Attila / Orphy Shootout

Let’s start at the top, shall we?

Traillii is the best IEM I have ever heard. To me, it is a revelation in the iem world in terms of how it refines all previous iem tunings that I have heard before, and how it pushes the boundaries of layering, staging, and detail within the realm of the tiny, earhole-filling transducers we love. The near-unanimous track record of the traillii impressing listeners who routinely spend time with other TOTLs has been quite a spectacle…but alas, I am preaching to the choir here in the birdhouse so let’s not waste too much time on this.

On the stock custom-tuned pw 1960 cable, the Traillii’s bass and treble are my personal favorites I’ve heard to date. Mids are among the best I’ve heard, and have the most detail I’ve encountered, (albeit with slightly less body vs. the mid-champs like erlky and supreme2.) But in the end, it’s the whole package (minus the outer cardboard box,) of the traillii that makes it revolutionary…virtually no other iem I’ve heard comes close to competing with everything the traillii does at once. I may personally derive as much enjoyment from the erlky, and its mids are arguably “better.” But in terms of overall sound and technicalities, I do not feel the erlky is on the bird’s level.

During my demo of the FS (which I do like…but it’s got some tuning quirks that make its sound not quite to my preferences so let’s quickly move on,) I got sly and snapped the Attila onto the bird. I was quite impressed by what I heard: highs got smoother, vocals were infused with more body, and somehow background got “blacker.” I’m still trying to come up with a better way to describe this new phenomenon of “ultra-black backgrounds”, which I’ve only experienced with $2k+ cables, but I do think there’s something to it…anyway, the experience of the Attila on the bird reminded me a lot of the first time I heard the 1950 on my a18t, which surprised me. I am genuinely amused that cables can make these types of differences (or any differences at all,) but I hear them so I am intrigued and explore them.

I am going to avoid using superlatives and attempting to quantify precise amounts of change in the next section. The threshold of “small-scale” diminishing returns was passed somewhere back in mid-fi land, now just a barely visible speck in our rear-view. Sense and logic are no longer intact here. We are discussing adding a $5k cable to a $6k iem for goodness sake…it’s madness…and it’s beautiful…but, so much madness…

So, the bird with the bird + stock cable is the best iem sound I’ve heard. Everyone who’s heard the bird knows what it sounds like on the stock cable.

Here's how I hear things differently with the Attila and…gulp…the $5k orphy.


Attila vs. Stock

• Highs are smoother and equally detailed
• Sub-bass is less pronounced and blends more organically with the rest of the sound signature
• Vocals have more body, and their stage-positioning remains similar to stock
• Background is somewhat “blacker” (again, this remains somewhat of an amorphous concept, but it is “hearable”)
• Dynamics remain largely unchanged, and is maybe enhanced a bit

Please keep two things in mind before reading any further:

These differences I am about to describe are diminished returns...very diminished. But they are noticeable and I do hear them

I admit the following is insane, and completely imperceptible (and irrelevant) to most mere mortals outside the hf world, and it is absolutely impossible to justify the value of any of what I am about to describe.

Still with me?

Then buckle up, and let’s go.


Orphy vs. Stock

First of all, this thing is heavy. The shielding on the lower half of the cable is an extra layer of thick material over the rest of the wiring. I recommend finding a way to physically support it when listening so it doesn't pull down on your ears (sanity…gone, remember?)

Now on to sound...

• Mids are noticeably more forward and have more emphasis
• Vocals are infused with additional body (noticeably more so than Attila) and are placed on a slightly higher plane vs. stock (erlky puts vocals higher around your forehead, which I love,) and it’s interesting that the orphy somehow manages to do this to vocals on the traillii. Again, I agree it’s totally insane that a cable can do this
• Highs are noticeably smoother
• Soundstage expansion is noticeably larger - on certain tracks, sounds on the staging-periphery of the recording appear noticeably farther away from my ears
• Sub-bass, similarly to on the Attila, is more controlled and balanced within the rest of the sound signature, and more refined on orphy vs. both stock and Attila
• Detail-levels are higher vs. both stock and Attila
• Background is blacker vs. both stock and Attila
• Dynamics, particularly noticeable on orchestral music, are noticeably higher vs. both stock and Attila - overall loudness-range is noticeably wider at stagnant volumes

Disclaimer: Orphy (only slightly) exaggerated comments below. This is for the purpose of conveying the less-tangible aspects of what I actually hear and detailed above.

• Listening to the bird with the orphy, there are moments where the music seems like it’s moving in slow motion due to the combination of extremely high-level of detail retrieval and next-level black background. I hear minor things I either haven’t heard before, or haven’t heard as clearly. The most impressive thing is that not only is musicality completely preserved, it is elevated vs. stock due to the effortlessness with which this greater detail is presented.
• Every sound can be perceived as if it is being viewed under a microscope, but musicality is increased due to the cohesion and effortlessness with which it is presented; you’re hearing more detail, concurrently with the extra space from the soundstage expansion. Layering (which on stock, is already the best I’ve ever heard in an iem,) is improved, along with transient response.
• Somehow, the traillii + orphy manages to further dim the ever-present nagging question we all ask: “how can we hear both more detail and more musicality, simultaneously?” I’ve heard multiple instances of this in my listening career (both combos of the a18t + 1950 and erlky + 1950 achieved this over using stock cables for example,) but the traillii + orphy combo addresses this ever-present quandary more proficiently than any other iem + cable pairing I have heard to date.

If you want to take what is arguably the most resolving and musical iem in the world and push it as far as it can possibly go, the orphy is the real deal.


Sanity be damned.

Brilliant. Money-no-object, just go straight here. For $15K with a TOTL DAP you can just retire from the hobby and live happily ever after.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Brilliant. Money-no-object, just go straight here. For $15K with a TOTL DAP you can just retire from the hobby and live happily ever after.

Would never happen. All it does is make the mountain higher to scale. Why do audiophiles scale these mountains?....... Because they are there.

 

[gLer]

Would never happen. All it does is make the mountain higher to scale. Why do audiophiles scale these mountains?....... Because they are there.

Yeah...except good luck scaling THAT mountain.

 

[mammal]

Brilliant. Money-no-object, just go straight here. For $15K with a TOTL DAP you can just retire from the hobby and live happily ever after.

I don't think it works this way, you may think once you reach something TOTL, you will be done. Trust me, your brain will continue lusting after even higher end gear (or a change of scenery, going to other parts of audio world), while your wallet will try to fight back, but losing occasionally, haha.

 

[Frankie D]

Big thanks to Andrew @MusicTeck for the traillii, FS Demo, and his amazing CS as always.

Shoutout and thanks to @aaf evo for his incredible generosity lending me his chonky baby, the orphy.


Traillii + Stock / Attila / Orphy Shootout

Let’s start at the top, shall we?

Traillii is the best IEM I have ever heard. To me, it is a revelation in the iem world in terms of how it refines all previous iem tunings that I have heard before, and how it pushes the boundaries of layering, staging, and detail within the realm of the tiny, earhole-filling transducers we love. The near-unanimous track record of the traillii impressing listeners who routinely spend time with other TOTLs has been quite a spectacle…but alas, I am tweeting to the flock here in the birdhouse so let’s not waste too much time on this.

On the stock custom-tuned pw 1960 cable, the Traillii’s bass and treble are my personal favorites I’ve heard to date. Mids are among the best I’ve heard, and have the most detail I’ve encountered, (albeit with slightly less body vs. the mid-champs like erlky and supreme2.) But in the end, it’s the whole package (minus the outer cardboard box,) of the traillii that makes it revolutionary…virtually no other iem I’ve heard comes close to competing with everything the traillii does at once. I may derive as much enjoyment from the erlky, and its mids are arguably “better.” But in terms of overall sound and technicalities, I do not feel the erlky is on the bird’s level.

During my demo of the FS (which I do like…but it’s got some tuning quirks that make its sound not quite to my preferences so let’s quickly move on,) I got sly and snapped the Attila onto the bird. I was quite impressed by what I heard: highs got smoother, vocals were infused with more body, and somehow background got “blacker.” I’m still trying to come up with a better way to describe this new phenomenon of “ultra-black backgrounds”, which I’ve only experienced with $2k+ cables, but I do think there’s something to it…anyway, the experience of the Attila on the bird reminded me a lot of the first time I heard the 1950 on my a18t, which surprised me. I am genuinely amused that cables can make these types of differences (or any differences at all,) but I hear them so I am intrigued and explore them.

I am going to avoid using superlatives and attempting to quantify precise amounts of change in the next section. The threshold of “small-scale” diminishing returns was passed somewhere back in mid-fi land, now just a barely visible speck in our rear-view. Sense and logic are no longer intact here. We are discussing adding a $5k cable to a $6k iem for goodness sake…it’s madness…and it’s beautiful…but, so much madness…

So, the bird + stock cable is the best iem sound I’ve heard. Everyone who’s heard the bird knows what it sounds like on the stock cable.

Here's how I hear things differently with the Attila and…gulp…the $5k orphy.


Attila vs. Stock

• Highs are smoother and equally detailed
• Sub-bass is less pronounced and blends more organically with the rest of the sound signature
• Vocals have more body, and their stage-positioning remains similar to stock
• Background is somewhat “blacker” (again, this remains somewhat of an amorphous concept but it is “hearable”)
• Dynamics remain largely unchanged, and is maybe enhanced a bit

Please keep two things in mind before reading any further:

These differences I am about to describe are diminished returns...very diminished. But they are noticeable and I do hear them.

I admit the following is insane, and completely imperceptible (and irrelevant) to most mere mortals outside the hf world, and it is absolutely impossible to justify the value of any of what I am about to say.

Still with me?

Then buckle up, and let’s go.


Orphy vs. Stock

First of all, this thing is heavy. The shielding on the lower half of the cable is an extra layer of thick material over the rest of the wiring. I recommend finding a way to physically support it when listening so it doesn't pull down on your ears (sanity…gone, remember?)

Now on to sound...

• Mids are noticeably more forward and have more emphasis
• Vocals are infused with additional body (noticeably more so than Attila) and are placed on a slightly higher plane vs. stock (erlky puts vocals higher around your forehead, which I love,) and it’s interesting that the orphy somehow manages to do this to vocals on the traillii. Again, I agree it’s totally insane that a cable can do this
• Highs are noticeably smoother
• Soundstage expansion is noticeably larger - on certain tracks, sounds on the staging-periphery of the recording appear noticeably farther away from my ears
• Sub-bass, similarly to on the Attila, is more controlled and balanced within the rest of the sound signature, and more refined on orphy vs. both stock and Attila
• Detail-levels are higher vs. both stock and Attila
• Background is blacker vs. both stock and Attila
• Dynamics, particularly noticeable on orchestral music, are noticeably higher vs. both stock and Attila - overall loudness-range is noticeably wider at stagnant volumes

Disclaimer: Orphy (only slightly) exaggerated comments below. This is for the purpose of conveying the less-tangible aspects of what I actually hear and detailed above.

• Listening to the bird with the orphy, there are moments where the music seems like it’s moving in slow motion due to the combination of extremely high-level of detail retrieval and next-level black background. I hear minor things I either haven’t heard before, or haven’t heard as clearly. The most impressive thing is that not only is musicality completely preserved, it is elevated vs. stock due to the effortlessness with which this greater detail is presented.
• Every sound can be perceived as if it is being viewed under a microscope, but musicality is increased due to the cohesion and effortlessness with which it is presented; you’re hearing more detail, concurrently with the extra space from the soundstage expansion. Layering (which on stock, is already the best I’ve ever heard in an iem,) is improved, along with transient response.
• Somehow, the traillii + orphy manages to further dim the ever-present nagging question we all ask: “how can we hear both more detail and more musicality, simultaneously?” I’ve heard multiple instances of this in my listening career (both combos of the a18t + 1950 and erlky + 1950 achieved this over using stock cables for example,) but the traillii + orphy combo addresses this quandary more proficiently than any other iem + cable pairing I have heard to date.

If you want to take what is arguably the most resolving and musical iem in the world and push it as far as it can possibly go, the orphy is the real deal.


Sanity be damned

Thanks for the review. The Orpheus looks like the size of a headphone cable in your picture.

Did you try the Orpheus on the Erlkonig? Tks.

 

[toaster]

The shielding part is quite thick and heavy. It may very well be comparable to some headphone cables in this section.

I haven't put the orphy on the erlky yet, but I absolutely plan to do that and will report back when i do.

I will say that I find the pairing of the traillii with the orpheus to be far more enjoyable vs. the stock cable.

 

[toaster]

@RPKwan wrote about the orphy and erlky here...you're actually active in the thread as well

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/pw-audio-cables-discussion-thread.893028/post-15862462

I'm currently running a 1950 with the erlky and assumed it was as good as it could get. it will be crazy if the orphy can enhance the king even further.

 

[FooFighter]

Too tired to write in more detail but wanted to state that the birds are competing again with my Full Size Denons also on my new desktop stack - see signature and I seem to prefer them again especially for new Masters, wide stage, but very natural transients, larger scale experience compared to the DAPs I have been listening to...

Edit: putting the Denons back again I have to confess that they were scaling up too on the desktop setup, seems the scaling improvement for them alone is even higher than the birds, interesting.
Different perceptions as was stated in this thread before: macro vs micro details, more air moved on the Full Size cans.
So in the end that setup is satisfying me also in regards to have some alternatives to play with, I was about to sell everything except the birds...

 

[Jasonaudio23]

I got my Trailli in today. I’m absolutely blown away. It does everything really really well. Like perfection. Nuts

 

[dhc0329]

I got my Trailli in today. I’m absolutely blown away. It does everything really really well. Like perfection. Nuts

If anyone can show me anything better, am willing to pay 2x.

 

[Jasonaudio23]

I’m with you on that.

 

[metaljem77]

Thank you, Toaster for that great and entertaining review on those cables. I’m glad my hearing is not so proficient to be able to hear such minute details and also that my wallet is not so wide to justify spending that amount on a cable. But I am fairly steeped in audio madness, which is a dark secret I don’t share with non-audiophiles (including my hubby). But I suspect I’ll go trawling for ads on sale of pre-loved 1950s or an Orpheus in time to come lol

 

[innofantasy]

Hi,,cannot wait for the bird comes to pair with my N6ii ti, don't know what chemical reactions will occur..