[toaster]

The Trailli has Very solid and punchy bass. Extended down deep, but very controlled. It is extremely dynamic, it actually feels like a dynamic driver. Mid vocals are leaned towards mid to upper mids, it feels very transparent and extended up top. The tuning of the vocals is different from a Vision Ears Phonix, as the Phonix is tuned towards smooth and emotional vocals. The Traillii is very detailed with all the micro details very present. The treble is detailed and also very well controlled, there are no sharp peaks. This is exactly what a top-level iem should do, if the treble is not well controlled, even it is extended, it will cause a lot of artifacts to the music. The electrostatic driver is executed perfectly in the Traillii. Traillii is now paired with the P6 Pro from Luxury and Precision, using the 4.4mm output, the volume requires up to around 40. Decent amount of power will definitely scale up the Traillii.

For vocals, I’ve noted that traillii is more about texture and erlky/phonix (haven’t heard the phonix yet, but assuming they are similar,) are more about body.

If I were focusing on vocals, I’d probably reach for erlky more.

However, for emotion, both are truly top-notch.

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

I am happy to hear you are still with us. My prayers go to you and your country.

Thank you for your support, mate!

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

I mean the box .....

As for the box, now I involuntarily appreciated its conciseness and compactness)

 

[Doug2507]

I have my doubts. At the end of the day, it's just a wire.

I A/B tested the Red Halo FE and the Traillii. The mids are far better with Red Halo FE to my ear. I actually cable rolled between the stock cable and a First Times and I heard almost no repeatable difference. I doubt a cable can make up the difference.

That said, I don't trust myself, so I am avoiding the Orpheus in case I trick myself into believe it sounds better.

Orph vs attila (with red) - notable difference, i'm sure i could blind test my wife and she'd be consistent. Orph somehow manages to raise the bar for detail but without the harsh / fatiguing side effects, stage is noticeably wider, more dynamic, black background which helps treble (on red). I've only run mine for 24hrs and it feels like a bit of a roller coaster right now. 6hrs hours ago i thought the mids were too thick, just had a quick listen now and it's the bass that's now showing it's might. Also noted mids (male vocal, sax) are more forward vs attila. Not heard FT but comparing to red's attila which you're familiar with, there's quite a difference between the two.

As for physicality of orph, i had a heavier cable on Ra. Orph isn't too bad IMO although the black sleeved part below the cinch to plug is reasonably stiff. As twister said, it's probably not a great cable for on the go. 100% comfortable on ear though and zero issues with dap sat beside me.

Edit: not a thread hijack btw, was searching the forum for orph burn in time!

 

[toaster]

20 - 25 hours.

Starts ULTRA warm and cools off / expands a bit up to around 20 - 25 hours.

Ergo is a joke, but the sound…

 

[Andricop]

PW told me 50 hours

 

[Doug2507]

20 - 25 hours.

Starts ULTRA warm and cools off / expands a bit up to around 20 - 25 hours.

Ergo is a joke, but the sound…

Yeah, 1st listen was like w.tf is this meant to be. On the right side of 24hrs now and really starting to come on point. Burn baby burn....

 

[toaster]

PW told me 50 hours

I didn’t notice much change after 20 hours.

The biggest diff was probably in the first 3 - 5 hours.

 

[Frainen]

On another topic ; has anyone tested (even unintentionally) what the durability of the bird is like? Do they distort with drop damage or light shocks? How careful do you need to baby them? My two year old grabbed my Andromeda's once and they fell off the table onto the floor. They're fine. But it did make me think!

They hate shock with hard surface. No real surprise, but it is 0 resistant. They fell 70cm without any force and one shell has shattered.
They resist well to scratch and normal use, just consider them a piece of jewelry. My UM stuff or Fir audio have experience much worse and still alive.

 

[Marat Sar]

Finally getting to testing the Orpheus with all kinds of stuff. Here I'm going:

sp2000 -- attila interconnect -- cayin c9 -- orpheus -- bird

To me the Orpheus makes the bass less fatiguing and in your face than the original 1960 trailli cable. Less blown out (didn't like the bass there at all -- I'm a weirdo I know). While still keeping it very impressive.... I still also very very much like the very bass lean attila with Trailli, but Orpheus is just too magical to go with anything else right now. This chain all- together is pretty insane. Widest soundstage right now? The attila interconnect, which I had specially made (thanks pw!) does a very important thing here, drying up the sound and removing some of that subbass which I think can be excessive on the bird. It adds subtle elements of the the Attila to the Orpheus, essentially, like a certain dryness and subbass leanness.

First days imression: the Orpheus is worth its name. It sounds like sitting in the middle of an analogue mixing desk from the 70s, so analogue you can almost hear Fleetwood Mac snort cocaine in the far right channel. It's almost a kind of remix. Mixes all your songs around with an oftentimes perfect mid-centric analogue approach. And the soundstage is... the largest on the planet right now? I'm gonna say yes. The bird out of c9 can get too lean, the soundstage so large you have to pump up the volume too much. Yet that soundstage is celestial in this combo. So you need the perfect cable to bridge the gap. I don't know if it's attila or orpheus yet for Trailli, but I do know I will never sell this Orpheus cable. Once you've heard it, you're not giving this up. For anything.

Problems? The trailli treble could have more sparkle perhaps but that would also change the very special sound, so I understand the tuning. Attila interconnect adds a little treble, and then there's digital filters to add some more. Also c9 is on "A" and "solid state" to clear things up further. Nonetheless, the bird treble is already ethereal and tame and Orpheus also smooths it. This is probably better on First Times (haven't heard, only reviews inform me here). Vocals... hard to imagine they could be better than the orpheys-trailli. Very emotional, best I've ever heard. Guitars are immmense too, electric guitars BEWITCH in this combo. This is a mid centric cable first, bass second and treble third.

Sidenote, Orpheus also makes the u18t sound incredible, ditto for Noir. I don't much like it with the mason fs yet... (EDIT, no it's pretty great actually)

Also a note, I also got the l&P P6 and I don't like it as a replacement for the sp2000 in this chain. too thick and "musical" and the soundstage suffers. Not my jam.

 

[bluestorm1992]

Finally getting to testing the Orpheus with all kinds of stuff. Here I'm going:

sp2000 -- attila interconnect -- cayin c9 -- orpheus -- bird

To me the Orpheus makes the bass less fatiguing and in your face than the original 1960 trailli cable. Less blown out (didn't like the bass there at all -- I'm a weirdo I know). While still keeping it very impressive.... I still also very very much like the very bass lean attila with Trailli, but Orpheus is just too magical to go with anything else right now. This chain all- together is pretty insane. Widest soundstage right now? The attila interconnect, which I had specially made (thanks pw!) does a very important thing here, drying up the sound and removing some of that subbass which I think can be excessive on the bird. It adds subtle elements of the the Attila to the Orpheus, essentially, like a certain dryness and subbass leanness.

First days imression: the Orpheus is worth its name. It sounds like sitting in the middle of an analogue mixing desk from the 70s, so analogue you can almost hear Fleetwood Mac snort cocaine in the far right channel. It's almost a kind of remix. Mixes all your songs around with an oftentimes perfect mid-centric analogue approach. And the soundstage is... the largest on the planet right now? I'm gonna say yes. The bird out of c9 can get too lean, the soundstage so large you have to pump up the volume too much. Yet that soundstage is celestial in this combo. So you need the perfect cable to bridge the gap. I don't know if it's attila or orpheus yet for Trailli, but I do know I will never sell this Orpheus cable. Once you've heard it, you're not giving this up. For anything.

Problems? The trailli treble could have more sparkle perhaps but that would also change the very special sound, so I understand the tuning. Attila interconnect adds a little treble, and then there's digital filters to add some more. Also c9 is on "A" and "solid state" to clear things up further. Nonetheless, the bird treble is already ethereal and tame and Orpheus also smooths it. This is probably better on First Times (haven't heard, only reviews inform me here). Vocals... hard to imagine they could be better than the orpheys-trailli. Very emotional, best I've ever heard. Guitars are immmense too, electric guitars BEWITCH in this combo. This is a mid centric cable first, bass second and treble third.

Sidenote, Orpheus also makes the u18t sound incredible, ditto for Noir. I don't much like it with the mason fs yet... (EDIT, no it's pretty great actually)

Also a note, I also got the l&P P6 and I don't like it as a replacement for the sp2000 in this chain. too thick and "musical" and the soundstage suffers. Not my jam.

Long time no see my friend.

BTW, P6 Pro + C9 + bird is also a great combo, and Orpheus should only take this to the next level. It changes quite a lot with burn-in, so I think worth giving it some more time. The soundstage becomes noticeably more open with burn-in. Also, R2R machine needs “warm up”; the performance improved quite a lot after you turn it on for 20min.

In terms of pairing, I think FS pairs much better with P6 Pro than with SP2000 (with or without C9).

 

[bluestorm1992]

Finally getting to testing the Orpheus with all kinds of stuff. Here I'm going:

sp2000 -- attila interconnect -- cayin c9 -- orpheus -- bird

To me the Orpheus makes the bass less fatiguing and in your face than the original 1960 trailli cable. Less blown out (didn't like the bass there at all -- I'm a weirdo I know). While still keeping it very impressive.... I still also very very much like the very bass lean attila with Trailli, but Orpheus is just too magical to go with anything else right now. This chain all- together is pretty insane. Widest soundstage right now? The attila interconnect, which I had specially made (thanks pw!) does a very important thing here, drying up the sound and removing some of that subbass which I think can be excessive on the bird. It adds subtle elements of the the Attila to the Orpheus, essentially, like a certain dryness and subbass leanness.

First days imression: the Orpheus is worth its name. It sounds like sitting in the middle of an analogue mixing desk from the 70s, so analogue you can almost hear Fleetwood Mac snort cocaine in the far right channel. It's almost a kind of remix. Mixes all your songs around with an oftentimes perfect mid-centric analogue approach. And the soundstage is... the largest on the planet right now? I'm gonna say yes. The bird out of c9 can get too lean, the soundstage so large you have to pump up the volume too much. Yet that soundstage is celestial in this combo. So you need the perfect cable to bridge the gap. I don't know if it's attila or orpheus yet for Trailli, but I do know I will never sell this Orpheus cable. Once you've heard it, you're not giving this up. For anything.

Problems? The trailli treble could have more sparkle perhaps but that would also change the very special sound, so I understand the tuning. Attila interconnect adds a little treble, and then there's digital filters to add some more. Also c9 is on "A" and "solid state" to clear things up further. Nonetheless, the bird treble is already ethereal and tame and Orpheus also smooths it. This is probably better on First Times (haven't heard, only reviews inform me here). Vocals... hard to imagine they could be better than the orpheys-trailli. Very emotional, best I've ever heard. Guitars are immmense too, electric guitars BEWITCH in this combo. This is a mid centric cable first, bass second and treble third.

Sidenote, Orpheus also makes the u18t sound incredible, ditto for Noir. I don't much like it with the mason fs yet... (EDIT, no it's pretty great actually)

Also a note, I also got the l&P P6 and I don't like it as a replacement for the sp2000 in this chain. too thick and "musical" and the soundstage suffers. Not my jam.

Also, just to follow-up on the comment with the bird’s treble sparkle, I really enjoy Centurion with the bird exactly because it brings that air to bird’s treble and “let it breath”.

 

[Rockwell75]

[a sound] so analogue you can almost hear Fleetwood Mac snort cocaine in the far right channel.

This should be in the marketing literature.

 

[Marat Sar]

Long time no see my friend.

BTW, P6 Pro + C9 + bird is also a great combo, and Orpheus should only take this to the next level. It changes quite a lot with burn-in, so I think worth giving it some more time. The soundstage becomes noticeably more open with burn-in. Also, R2R machine needs “warm up”; the performance improved quite a lot after you turn it on for 20min.

In terms of pairing, I think FS pairs much better with P6 Pro than with SP2000 (with or without C9).

Oh yeah, never even crossed my mind that cables might benefit from burn in but I'm feeling it with the Orpheus. I liked it out of the box, but ca 6 hours in everything has improved. Detail retrieval, soundstage, the cloud of excessive warmth has gone down and the treble is getting more body too.

I'll also try the P6 with some warm up then.

Good to be back, man! Short (very off topic) story I think might help someone one day. I got tinnitus a year ago, first time in my life. Probably from stress plus that virus that's been going around (not gonna mention its name). A very shocking turn of events for me, audio is such an important part of my life. I stayed away from IEMs for a whole year -- especially trailli and c9 felt like loud gear. Doctor also said it's a good idea. Well, it turns out IEMs are actually pretty good for tinnitus. Something about internal sound perception, or just having positive experiences related to hearing, but it's actually gotten better after I started listening to IEMs again.

Phew. With the gear we've been getting this last year, I can't say how sad it made me to think I'm not going to experience it any more.

 

[xenithon]

Oh yeah, never even crossed my mind that cables might benefit from burn in but I'm feeling it with the Orpheus

I experienced quite a change on the bird from stick to around the 100h mark. Could be the ESTs but from everything I’ve read I believe it was the 1960s that was changing.