Precog's IEM Reviews & Impressions

[riverground]

Yup, she's still using Westone haha. This is her current pair:



She used it recently on Killing Voice:





It's kind of a thing in K-Pop actually! A lot of the times CIEMs are sponsored by fans. I think it's mostly a matter of funding on the fan's end, though, while the artist mostly dictates the aesthetics. That was sort of the idea I had in mind while designing the A3t though...what would an IEM used by favorite artist look like?



Ya I thought about it but then I also felt the flowers would work better on the clear faceplate...

I did edit a gold version of the signature too, but I agree, too flashy haha

I’m surprised she’s still with Westone. Jude seems to like the ES60/W60 so they might be pretty decent. The last Westone IEM I’ve tried was the old 4R. So I’m not sure how good they have become.

 

[Precogvision]

I’m surprised she’s still with Westone. Jude seems to like the ES60/W60 so they might be pretty decent. The last Westone IEM I’ve tried was the old 4R. So I’m not sure how good they have become.

It's honestly probably one of the better Westone IEMs at least. Westone's actually released some new IEMs called the MACH lineup, but I've mostly lost interest after looking at @vsg28's measurements. No doubt you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but there's unmistakably discrepancy in the level of tuning you see between the pro audio world versus the audiophile world - it's almost like most of the pro audio world is stuck five years in the past. I get the impression that there's very little incentive to innovate or push boundaries because the former, the pro audio community, is much more stable in terms of clientele and income. This means slower product cycles from competitors and less competition. But hey, that's just me being a nasty cynic

 

[baskingshark]

It's honestly probably one of the better Westone IEMs at least. Westone's actually released some new IEMs called the MACH lineup, but I've mostly lost interest after looking at @vsg28's measurements. No doubt you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but there's unmistakably discrepancy in the level of tuning you see between the pro audio world versus the audiophile world - it's almost like most of the pro audio world is stuck five years in the past. I get the impression that there's very little incentive to innovate or push boundaries because the former, the pro audio community, is much more stable in terms of clientele and income. This means slower product cycles from competitors and less competition. But hey, that's just me being a nasty cynic

Agreed 100%. IIRC westone has been bought over by etymotic?

Like Shure, westone kinda rested on their laurels and got overtaken by the competition in recent years.

FWIW, I haven't tried any westones in the past 2 years, but previously have used some of their models for a decade or so for stage monitoring. I have to say, the westones are very meh, for the price charged. Lots of other brands (especially CHIFI) eat them up in terms of technical performance, for cheaper. No doubt westones are perhaps more for stage monitoring and pro work, but even for stage monitoring, there are better and cheaper brands.

And the westone QC is a bit dodgy, had 2 of them die on me in the past decade, after just a few months of usage. I looked at the packaging, and it was proudly declared on the westone box: "Designed in the USA. Made in China".

 

[G777]

It's honestly probably one of the better Westone IEMs at least. Westone's actually released some new IEMs called the MACH lineup, but I've mostly lost interest after looking at @vsg28's measurements. No doubt you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but there's unmistakably discrepancy in the level of tuning you see between the pro audio world versus the audiophile world - it's almost like most of the pro audio world is stuck five years in the past. I get the impression that there's very little incentive to innovate or push boundaries because the former, the pro audio community, is much more stable in terms of clientele and income. This means slower product cycles from competitors and less competition. But hey, that's just me being a nasty cynic

Based on the graphs alone, the MACH 60 looks pretty decent. It seems that these western audio companies tend to have warmer tunings, which I also personally find appealing.

 

[WAON303]

I'm guessing the Pro audio space buys Westone (and Shure IEMs) because of the brand name?

There has to be a dedicated following that supports both brands, you'd think that chi-fi would drive them both out of business.

 

[o0genesis0o]

It's honestly probably one of the better Westone IEMs at least. Westone's actually released some new IEMs called the MACH lineup, but I've mostly lost interest after looking at @vsg28's measurements. No doubt you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but there's unmistakably discrepancy in the level of tuning you see between the pro audio world versus the audiophile world - it's almost like most of the pro audio world is stuck five years in the past. I get the impression that there's very little incentive to innovate or push boundaries because the former, the pro audio community, is much more stable in terms of clientele and income. This means slower product cycles from competitors and less competition. But hey, that's just me being a nasty cynic

I read some reviews of pro audio IEMs by pros recently and found that they care about different things than us “audiophile”. Say, bass players and drummers care about how clear can they hear the bass frequencies, how clear can they hear the metronome, how loud they can drive IEM before distortion. It seems to me as long as they can hear the necessary frequencies and the IEM blocks out enough noise, that’s okay. Everything else can be EQed.

With that being said, I must say I’m bitterly disappointed when listening to a fancy pair of JH audio recently. Such a weird sounding and fitting pair of IEM.

64 audio IEMs sound delicious, though (still dreaming about the Trio)

 

[o0genesis0o]

@Precogvision Do you think planar IEMs are as technical as high performer BA IEMs like Andromeda? I’m thinking about something “exotic” for my next IEM. Haven’t got anything with a planar or Sonion EST drivers inside.

 

[ekjellgren]

What's the meaning of the second section of rankings in the excel? The one that starts with Moondrop Chu and has a pair of IEMs for each number, 1, 2, 3 and so on?

 

[Precogvision]

@Precogvision Do you think planar IEMs are as technical as high performer BA IEMs like Andromeda? I’m thinking about something “exotic” for my next IEM. Haven’t got anything with a planar or Sonion EST drivers inside.

It depends on the IEM. Some planar IEMs like Audeze's (minus the Euclid, I didn't find it very detailed) are some of the most technical IEMs I've heard and are basically on par with headphones. But the newer planar IEMs in the $200 space don't sound as impressive to me. I think they punch above their price for technicalities; however, they're not quite to the level of the better kilo-buck IEMs. The Timeless is a good example. I was doing some quick A/B this morning, and the iSine 20 sounds like it's a decent margin ahead of the Timeless. It slams harder, images more openly, and sounds more detailed to me. The Timeless seems closer to around the Blessing 2's level for technicalities.

@ekjellgren hey, those are just the IEMs I've recently heard and that I haven't had time to re-sort the sheet to have them pulled into the bigger list for.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

It depends on the IEM. Some planar IEMs like Audeze's (minus the Euclid, I didn't find it very detailed) are some of the most technical IEMs I've heard and are basically on par with headphones. But the newer planar IEMs in the $200 space don't sound as impressive to me. I think they punch above their price for technicalities; however, they're not quite to the level of the better kilo-buck IEMs. The Timeless is a good example. I was doing some quick A/B this morning, and the iSine 20 sounds like it's a decent margin ahead of the Timeless. It slams harder, images more openly, and sounds more detailed to me. The Timeless seems closer to around the Blessing 2's level for technicalities.

@ekjellgren hey, those are just the IEMs I've recently heard and that I haven't had time to re-sort the sheet to have them pulled into the bigger list for.

I just heard the Campfire Supermoon this weekend at CanJam Chicago. It is a Planar IEM that is technically strong. It's not fair to compare a $200 IEM with a $2000 IEM.

 

[o0genesis0o]

But the newer planar IEMs in the $200 space don't sound as impressive to me. I think they punch above their price for technicalities; however, they're not quite to the level of the better kilo-buck IEMs. The Timeless is a good example

Thanks. This is why I don’t use “for the price” when reviewing or rating IEM. Almost impossible to make any meaningful comparison if the rating or opinion is normalised by price, which is a changing factor. Kind of disappointing that those new planar IEMs do not punch that high, though. I’m trying to find a “perfect” signature without DSP so LCD i4 is out of question. I guess the search continues (until I cave in and buy a Trio one day)

It's not fair to compare a $200 IEM with a $2000 IEM.

Well, it’s not like there are some magic hardware inside IEM that you need to pay, say $1000, to get that would make an IEM better than anything below it.

I just heard the Campfire Supermoon this weekend at CanJam Chicago. It is a Planar IEM that is technically strong.

I’m quite interested about this one. Did they have universal demo? If CFA manage to sell me yet another IEM, I would be very surprised given how I actively avoid their stuffs

 

[Precogvision]

Hey all, here are impressions of a couple IEMs that were sent in by readers. These IEMs seem to fly under the radar, so I didn't have any knowledge of how they'd measure going in which is always exciting.

Astell&Kern ZERO1 Impressions

Configuration: 1DD/2BA/1Planar
Price: $700
Unit kindly loaned by @Ojisan

10 minutes of listening w/o any knowledge:

• Seems like DD bass with a sub-bass tilt and shelved at around 300-400Hz. About 8dB bass boost. Not a great DD, sounds dampened.
• Pinna seems to be closer to 2.5kHz or so, clearly lower in amplitude than Moondrop Variations.
• 3-4kHz regions are pulled back.
• Recession continues to around 5-6kHz. Maybe some mid-treble. Treble comes back up at around 12kHz, maybe slightly higher in frequency.
• Reminds me of a borked U12t. Can't really tell what drivers are tokening the midrange and treble.

More thoughts...this is a welcome reminder that my ears aren't infallible when gauging for frequency response, especially on a more unconventionally tuned IEM like this. On second listen, the amount of pinna gain does seem higher than I initially thought. I don't hear any sibilance on the opening of my usual test track, Loona's "Eclipse", which usually reflects a sharp rise from 3-5kHz, which is why I initially thought the peak at 5kHz was at a higher frequency. It becomes a lot more apparent now that I'm listening specifically to other tracks that have percussive hits. In any case, subjectively, I think the ZERO1 sounds...decent. The ZERO1 has reasonably good technicalities with solid imaging chops, perhaps due to some unusual dips in the treble. Likewise, unconventional tunings can often create the sense of detail by drawing our attention to instruments we wouldn't hear on a more conventionally tuned IEM. That's what this reminds me of. It's not a natural listen - mostly sounding like a weird mesh of colored with slightly forward upper-mids- but there is some sense of special sauce behind the ZERO1 even if the implementation fell short.

FINAL X DITA: SHICHIKU.KANGEN Impressions​

Configuration: 1DD
Price: $2600
Unit kindly loaned by @riverground

10 minutes of listening w/o any knowledge:

• Sounds more mid-bass emphasized, perhaps with some droop under 50Hz. Definitely bass boosted. Lower midrange is more recessed.
• Aggressive rise to 3kHz with decent bite moving into 4kHz.
• Probably doesn't stop rising upwards, sounds like a strong peak at 5kHz.
• Extension is questionable, sounds like it rolls-off after like 12kHz.

I don't like the Kangen, but I don't really dislike it either. The tonality is at least listenable, which I don't recall being able to say the same of the A8K. That pronounced skew upwards from 3-5kHz, which the A8K lacked, somewhat manages to balance out the lower-treble peak. This is definitely an IEM that was tuned with "weeb" audiences in mind. No excuses for the lack of air, though. There are single-DDs 1/100 the Kangen's MSRP (no, really, look at the CCA CRA and Moondrop Chu) that have better treble extension. Technicalities on the Kangen are at least respectable. It sounds dynamic in a good way and resolution is solid thanks to the counter-clockwise tilt in frequency response and the lack of treble extension lending some grit to decay. I'd probably place it slightly under a grand for technicalities. Generally works best with orchestral and classical tracks for me.

SCORES​

Astell&Kern ZERO1	5/10
Final x Dita: Shichiku.Kangen	5/10

 

[WAON303]

Is the Kagen most expensive single DD IEM to date?

 

[Ojisan]

Hey all, here are impressions of a couple IEMs that were sent in by readers. These IEMs seem to fly under the radar, so I didn't have any knowledge of how they'd measure going in which is always exciting.

Astell&Kern ZERO1 Impressions

Configuration: 1DD/2BA/1Planar
Price: $700
Unit kindly loaned by @Ojisan

10 minutes of listening w/o any knowledge:

• Seems like DD bass with a sub-bass tilt and shelved at around 300-400Hz. About 8dB bass boost. Not a great DD, sounds dampened.
• Pinna seems to be closer to 2.5kHz or so, clearly lower in amplitude than Moondrop Variations.
• 3-4kHz regions are pulled back.
• Recession continues to around 5-6kHz. Maybe some mid-treble. Treble comes back up at around 12kHz, maybe slightly higher in frequency.
• Reminds me of a borked U12t. Can't really tell what drivers are tokening the midrange and treble.

More thoughts...this is a welcome reminder that my ears aren't infallible when gauging for frequency response, especially on a more unconventionally tuned IEM like this. On second listen, the amount of pinna gain does seem higher than I initially thought. I don't hear any sibilance on the opening of my usual test track, Loona's "Eclipse", which usually reflects a sharp rise from 3-5kHz, which is why I initially thought the peak at 5kHz was at a higher frequency. It becomes a lot more apparent now that I'm listening specifically to other tracks that have percussive hits. In any case, subjectively, I think the ZERO1 sounds...decent. The ZERO1 has reasonably good technicalities with solid imaging chops, perhaps due to some unusual dips in the treble. Likewise, unconventional tunings can often create the sense of detail by drawing our attention to instruments we wouldn't hear on a more conventionally tuned IEM. That's what this reminds me of. It's not a natural listen - mostly sounding like a weird mesh of colored with slightly forward upper-mids- but there is some sense of special sauce behind the ZERO1 even if the implementation fell short.

FINAL X DITA: SHICHIKU.KANGEN Impressions​

Configuration: 1DD
Price: $2600
Unit kindly loaned by @riverground

10 minutes of listening w/o any knowledge:

• Sounds more mid-bass emphasized, perhaps with some droop under 50Hz. Definitely bass boosted. Lower midrange is more recessed.
• Aggressive rise to 3kHz with decent bite moving into 4kHz.
• Probably doesn't stop rising upwards, sounds like a strong peak at 5kHz.
• Extension is questionable, sounds like it rolls-off after like 12kHz.

I don't like the Kangen, but I don't really dislike it either. The tonality is at least listenable, which I don't recall being able to say the same of the A8K. That pronounced skew upwards from 3-5kHz, which the A8K lacked, somewhat manages to balance out the lower-treble peak. This is definitely an IEM that was tuned with "weeb" audiences in mind. No excuses for the lack of air, though. There are single-DDs 1/100 the Kangen's MSRP (no, really, look at the CCA CRA and Moondrop Chu) that have better treble extension. Technicalities on the Kangen are at least respectable. It sounds dynamic in a good way and resolution is solid thanks to the counter-clockwise tilt in frequency response and the lack of treble extension lending some grit to decay. I'd probably place it slightly under a grand for technicalities. Generally works best with orchestral and classical tracks for me.

SCORES​

Astell&Kern ZERO1	5/10
Final x Dita: Shichiku.Kangen	5/10

As always, interesting read!! Thanks for taking your time on it. For Zero1, I do hear it like a damped and slight variation of U12t tuning. It's surprisingly un-dynamic (for lack of better word ) for something with DD/planar. It probably works well for someone with sensitive ears. I haven't heard the popular T8ie/T9ie and wondered if A&K tunes their IEMs like this.

At least you have some unique data points added to your database!

 

[o0genesis0o]

FINAL X DITA: SHICHIKU.KANGEN Impressions​

Configuration: 1DD
Price: $2600
Unit kindly loaned by @riverground

10 minutes of listening w/o any knowledge:

• Sounds more mid-bass emphasized, perhaps with some droop under 50Hz. Definitely bass boosted. Lower midrange is more recessed.
• Aggressive rise to 3kHz with decent bite moving into 4kHz.
• Probably doesn't stop rising upwards, sounds like a strong peak at 5kHz.
• Extension is questionable, sounds like it rolls-off after like 12kHz.

I don't like the Kangen, but I don't really dislike it either. The tonality is at least listenable, which I don't recall being able to say the same of the A8K. That pronounced skew upwards from 3-5kHz, which the A8K lacked, somewhat manages to balance out the lower-treble peak. This is definitely an IEM that was tuned with "weeb" audiences in mind. No excuses for the lack of air, though. There are single-DDs 1/100 the Kangen's MSRP (no, really, look at the CCA CRA and Moondrop Chu) that have better treble extension. Technicalities on the Kangen are at least respectable. It sounds dynamic in a good way and resolution is solid thanks to the counter-clockwise tilt in frequency response and the lack of treble extension lending some grit to decay. I'd probably place it slightly under a grand for technicalities. Generally works best with orchestral and classical tracks for me.

The upper midrange looks like A4000 more than A8000, doesn't it? It's kind of a shame when I think about A4000. Great technical performance but deadly tuning.

Surprised that you don't like A8000 that much though. I personally find that that IEM sounds beautiful despite having lots of upper mid.