[KickAssChewGum]

Thank you.....have you tried or have both? FT and Orpheus?

Yes, I have both and have listened to them both extensively with the Trailli. I totally concur with @Tokpakorlo's findings.

 

[fabio19]

Yes, I have both and have listened to them both extensively with the Trailli. I totally concur with @Tokpakorlo's findings.

Interesting. Are both First Time and Orpheus a bit stiff like 1960s?

 

[KickAssChewGum]

Yes. They are very similar. The Orpheus and First Times shielding are a little stiffer than the regular First Times (which is similar to the stock 1960s, I'd say).

The Orpheus and Trailli is a truly mind-blowing combination, in my opinion. The Orpheus really is quite unlike any other cable I have listened to (and I own many as you can see from my signature). It's definitely in a league of its own. If upper mids and treble are your thing though, the First Times might be a better bet.

 

[Hoegaardener70]

so I accidentally won 20k on online blackjack with $500 starting… I think i mightnkeeep the bird LOL. Although.. who knows.. maybe I can do nicer renovations now

Are you serious? You can really get money with this?

Good that I have a royal friend from Nigeria whom I am helping, I’ll have enough money in the future so I won’t have to resort to online gambling.

 

[Marat Sar]

Well they arrived
Hopefully this combination keeps me quiet for a while ...
.

Great album. Special Needs is probably the best sounding song I've ever heard, the ending two minutes are celestial. Immensely good with the Trailli. There's a part there -- the piano-guitar solo after the silent part and before the last choruses. Immense subbass below and these mysterious screeches left and right in the soundstage, moving around under the noise. N8ii, first times and Trailli will absolutely melt your brain there. It sounds great on everything but Trailli and a good soundstage source friggin blast me off to SIDERIAL SPACE when that solo comes on. It doesn't get more cosmic (okay it always does, add Orpheus to have a heart attack and meet god )

 

[AnalogandDigital]

Great album. Special Needs is probably the best sounding song I've ever heard, the ending two minutes are celestial. Immensely good with the Trailli. There's a part there -- the piano-guitar solo after the silent part and before the last choruses. Immense subbass below and these mysterious screeches left and right in the soundstage, moving around under the noise. N8ii, first times and Trailli will absolutely melt your brain there. It sounds great on everything but Trailli and a good soundstage source friggin blast me off to SIDERIAL SPACE when that solo comes on. It doesn't get more cosmic (okay it always does, add Orpheus to have a heart attack and meet god )

Fan of Placebo to be honest
Seen him live and actually met Brian in the bar before one the concerts

 

[toaster]

Great album. Special Needs is probably the best sounding song I've ever heard, the ending two minutes are celestial. Immensely good with the Trailli. There's a part there -- the piano-guitar solo after the silent part and before the last choruses. Immense subbass below and these mysterious screeches left and right in the soundstage, moving around under the noise. N8ii, first times and Trailli will absolutely melt your brain there. It sounds great on everything but Trailli and a good soundstage source friggin blast me off to SIDERIAL SPACE when that solo comes on. It doesn't get more cosmic (okay it always does, add Orpheus to have a heart attack and meet god )

So…you’re saying it’s good?

 

[Marat Sar]

So…you’re saying it’s good?

Yeah. It's ok.

I think there's one possible addition to a "best in the world now" portable set that I haven't heard and that's the n8ii. My SP2000 -- 1960s interconnect -- cayin c9 is probably as vast as it gets soundstage wise, but the sp2000 doesn't have true line out so I'm getting a tiny bit of veil from double amping. If you can call it double amping, it's really clean and good source combo, but I wanna try n8ii -- c9 and I wanna try just c9. I doubt that the soundstage will be improved but a bit of clarity and detail definitely.

I mean... if you wanna go totally insane and think if there's anything, ANY drop of juice left in the world, one might get an n8ii and a c9 -- and have an Orphes interconnect between those two. Interconnects have a pretty big effect on the final sound, I've used the 1960 to shape my sp2000/c9 combo to pretty godly thing. So that will probably make for an even larger soundstage And cost a good 2000 just for an interconnect

But yeah, I'm pretty close to the end. Don't think I'll be doing that. Might hit a trade show if London does Can Jam this year, to check the n8ii (hope someone has it there...)

The weird thing is, though -- I can't say I'm ultimately satisfied with the orpheus-trailli combo. At least with this source. So that's probably why I'm wondering about source. It's surreal gorgeous, gigantic, the positioning of instruments is REVELATORY... But the Trailli has a huge problem for me that I just don't seem to be able to fix without compromising its sound with weird tips and tricks like that. And that's fatigue. The c9 is also a fatiguing source so maybe n8ii will help there. But the trailli is a fatiguing IEM. Orpheus helps there a bit, but still, it's one album and then I'm out. The bass is just too huge. My eardrums become tired and the sound degrades when they tense up. It's just a biological thing. The main reason why I can't say Trailli is end game or even best in the world right now -- it simply doesn't have a pressure exchange module. And IEMs like that will always be more fatiguing than the ones that have it. Lack of that module and huge bass...

I would say that the trailli is just slightly better than U18t. The U18t with Orpheus and c9 is very close soundstage wise, has treble that I would say is superior, and is very non fatiguing. I can listen to it for days. It sounds more artificial than Trailli though, in the mids. And subbass is inferior. But there are days I think it's the better combination, because Oprheus, while being insanely good with Trailli, is just as good for the u18t.

Sorry for the long incoherent blargh of IEM impressions Maybe useful to someone.

Tl;dr I need an n8ii and an orpheus interconnect

 

[KickAssChewGum]

Yeah. It's ok.

I think there's one possible addition to a "best in the world now" portable set that I haven't heard and that's the n8ii. My SP2000 -- 1960s interconnect -- cayin c9 is probably as vast as it gets soundstage wise, but the sp2000 doesn't have true line out so I'm getting a tiny bit of veil from double amping. If you can call it double amping, it's really clean and good source combo, but I wanna try n8ii -- c9 and I wanna try just c9. I doubt that the soundstage will be improved but a bit of clarity and detail definitely.

I mean... if you wanna go totally insane and think if there's anything, ANY drop of juice left in the world, one might get an n8ii and a c9 -- and have an Orphes interconnect between those two. Interconnects have a pretty big effect on the final sound, I've used the 1960 to shape my sp2000/c9 combo to pretty godly thing. So that will probably make for an even larger soundstage And cost a good 2000 just for an interconnect

But yeah, I'm pretty close to the end. Don't think I'll be doing that. Might hit a trade show if London does Can Jam this year, to check the n8ii (hope someone has it there...)

The weird thing is, though -- I can't say I'm ultimately satisfied with the orpheus-trailli combo. At least with this source. So that's probably why I'm wondering about source. It's surreal gorgeous, gigantic, the positioning of instruments is REVELATORY... But the Trailli has a huge problem for me that I just don't seem to be able to fix without compromising its sound with weird tips and tricks like that. And that's fatigue. The c9 is also a fatiguing source so maybe n8ii will help there. But the trailli is a fatiguing IEM. Orpheus helps there a bit, but still, it's one album and then I'm out. The bass is just too huge. My eardrums become tired and the sound degrades when they tense up. It's just a biological thing. The main reason why I can't say Trailli is end game or even best in the world right now -- it simply doesn't have a pressure exchange module. And IEMs like that will always be more fatiguing than the ones that have it. Lack of that module and huge bass...

I would say that the trailli is just slightly better than U18t. The U18t with Orpheus and c9 is very close soundstage wise, has treble that I would say is superior, and is very non fatiguing. I can listen to it for days. It sounds more artificial than Trailli though, in the mids. And subbass is inferior. But there are days I think it's the better combination, because Oprheus, while being insanely good with Trailli, is just as good for the u18t.

Sorry for the long incoherent blargh of IEM impressions Maybe useful to someone.

Tl;dr I need an n8ii and an orpheus interconnect

If the Trailli/Orpheus combo is too much for you in the lower end, you should audition the First Times with Trailli as it reins it in a bit whilst still adding a bit more bass than the stock 1960s cable. It also opens up the high end and detail without being fatiguing in any way. To my ears anyway…

 

[fabio19]

does anyone know what the new update on the new Traillii may consist of?

 

[Skyediver]

Yes. They are very similar. The Orpheus and First Times shielding are a little stiffer than the regular First Times (which is similar to the stock 1960s, I'd say).

The Orpheus and Trailli is a truly mind-blowing combination, in my opinion. The Orpheus really is quite unlike any other cable I have listened to (and I own many as you can see from my signature). It's definitely in a league of its own. If upper mids and treble are your thing though, the First Times might be a better bet.

Yes, buying the Orpheus at CanJam was BY FAR the biggest unplanned point of sale purchase in my life, lol!

I have a slightly weird question for the group, if I may: I completely understand the counter argument that what I was hearing when I decided to plunk down obscene gobs of money for a cable difference was likely more about brain burn-in, personal bias, etc. I get that… but isn’t that for ALL of our evaluations of audiophile equipment? I mean, it’s just our same ears and BRAIN that we’re using to evaluate full two channel speakers, headphones, DACs and amps… and we all seem to believe that’s okay and appropriate for evaluating such equipment… but not cables! Why? Accepted mindset seems to be that such equipment sounds different, maybe to various levels, but everyone accepts that… but cables cause religious wars, lol!

 

[tawmizzzz]

I mean, it’s just our same ears and BRAIN that we’re using to evaluate full two channel speakers, headphones, DACs and amps… and we all seem to believe that’s okay and appropriate for evaluating such equipment… but not cables! Why? Accepted mindset seems to be that such equipment sounds different, maybe to various levels, but everyone accepts that… but cables cause religious wars, lol!

I think it's mainly the price of the Orpheus which is more than most TOTL IEMs. I am a big cable believer in terms of fine-tuning the signature and brushing up some of the tangibles/technicalities, but $4k+ for a cable is pretty wild ($7k now). I don't think you will find many HF'ers who own the bird and other TOTLs arguing that cables don't alter the sound one way or another.

My biggest revelation has been how much cheaper flagship headphone cables are in the desktop world, and they make just as a big (if not a bigger difference) than most TOTL portable cables I've heard (still haven't heard Orphy). But as the sentiment has been echo'd over and over, we're chasing the last %s at this level and if you have the money for a $4k+ cable to help maximize a portable setup, why not then?

Oh, and if you think portable cables cause religious wars, you should have seen some of the backlash I got for posting impressions about power conditioners and power cables (all of which for my entire chain is still less than the price of 1 orpheus). Snake oil of all snake oils lol.

 

[MatW]

I think it's mainly the price of the Orpheus which is more than most TOTL IEMs.

That. The link with cost is completely gone. Plus skepticism about cables, based on physics. Plus the fact that EQ has a much larger impact than any earpad or cable change, and it's free.

But to be clear, as far as I'm concerned, everyone is free to spend their money anyway they like..

 

[Skyediver]

That. The link with cost is completely gone. Plus skepticism about cables, based on physics. Plus the fact that EQ has a much larger impact than any earpad or cable change, and it's free.

But to be clear, as far as I'm concerned, everyone is free to spend their money anyway they like..

Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely was shaking when I completed the purchase but I really loved what I was hearing. Ultimately what helped me rationalize it (as much as you can rationalize such a thing) was the ONLY realm in this hobby that I could consider trying to eek out a fully endgame level setup is in a portable configuration. Even at these insane prices for TOTL cables/iems/DAPS, it’s still a bit more achievable than in two channel or even desktop setups.

 

[MatW]

Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely was shaking when I completed the purchase but I really loved what I was hearing. Ultimately what helped me rationalize it (as much as you can rationalize such a thing) was the ONLY realm in this hobby that I could consider trying to eek out a fully endgame level setup is in a portable configuration. Even at these insane prices for TOTL cables/iems/DAPS, it’s still a bit more achievable than in two channel or even desktop setups.

Enjoy!