Thieaudio Voyager 14 "Impressions"
For an IEM touted so heavily as being a VX or U12T killer, you sure don’t hear much about the V14 nowadays. Just like most all supposed “insert flagship IEM here” killers, right? But I digress. This is actually my second encounter with the V14; the first run-in consisted of a brief, 5-minute stint with which I decided I’d rather hear some other IEMs. Of course, that was roughly a year ago and my ears were - and I’d argue still are, in many regards - woefully inexperienced. This particular V14 is pretty cool in that it’s SN#001 and has gone through a handful of reviewers including many of the SG boys (Tork, Crin, Leneo, etc.), Antdroid, and now myself.
The V14 has two switches to mess around with the tuning. Let’s just get this out of the way: 10 is massively bloated and 00 is about equally telephonic (sucked-out midrange). I suspect I heard it on the latter the first time. The 01 and 11 settings are much better; 01 leans more reference-y whereas 11 stacks on some more bass. I still prefer 01.
The bass on the V14 is surprisingly not bad. In fact, by BA standards, it can play ball with a lot of the better stuff. It’s certainly not as textureless as most BA setups due to a longer decay. Perhaps just a tad too much mid-bass. Moving into the midrange, this texture becomes even more pronounced. There is a distinctive graininess to the upper-midrange registers in tandem with the strong lift; while this is largely a subjective preference, I don’t like it. It’s one of the reasons why I’ll likely be selling my Hidition Viento-B soon; why I’ll mostly tolerate the Empire Ear Odin’s aggressive upper-midrange. Treble-wise, the V14 is pretty alright. It’s got the QDC recession to the lower-treble. Kills some impact; however, it prevents sibilance. Extension is solid and it’s relatively smooth. Overall, the 01 tuning is decent with some minor nitpicks that keep it from greatness.
Technicalities, again, seem to be a case of “it’s pretty alright”. Imaging certainly isn’t three-blob, although it’s decidedly compressed vertically and a good way off holographic. Soundstage width seems to be the V14's jam similar to the Monarch. Detail is good enough to trade blows with most of the kilobuck players; a step ahead of the venerable Moondrop B2. I would largely point out a lack of dynamic range; the V14 sounds overly flat and dry as is characteristic of most BA IEMs.
Ultimately, there is nothing outright wrong about the V14. It stands that the V14 is a good IEM even if I think the hype that surrounded it was somewhat unwarranted. Still, I would point to a lack of character, individuality, that seems to plague most all Thieaudio's IEMs. They’re all very well-tuned, fairly technical, and yet they just don’t speak to my sensibilities very closely.
Score: 5/10
For an IEM touted so heavily as being a VX or U12T killer, you sure don’t hear much about the V14 nowadays. Just like most all supposed “insert flagship IEM here” killers, right? But I digress. This is actually my second encounter with the V14; the first run-in consisted of a brief, 5-minute stint with which I decided I’d rather hear some other IEMs. Of course, that was roughly a year ago and my ears were - and I’d argue still are, in many regards - woefully inexperienced. This particular V14 is pretty cool in that it’s SN#001 and has gone through a handful of reviewers including many of the SG boys (Tork, Crin, Leneo, etc.), Antdroid, and now myself.
The V14 has two switches to mess around with the tuning. Let’s just get this out of the way: 10 is massively bloated and 00 is about equally telephonic (sucked-out midrange). I suspect I heard it on the latter the first time. The 01 and 11 settings are much better; 01 leans more reference-y whereas 11 stacks on some more bass. I still prefer 01.
The bass on the V14 is surprisingly not bad. In fact, by BA standards, it can play ball with a lot of the better stuff. It’s certainly not as textureless as most BA setups due to a longer decay. Perhaps just a tad too much mid-bass. Moving into the midrange, this texture becomes even more pronounced. There is a distinctive graininess to the upper-midrange registers in tandem with the strong lift; while this is largely a subjective preference, I don’t like it. It’s one of the reasons why I’ll likely be selling my Hidition Viento-B soon; why I’ll mostly tolerate the Empire Ear Odin’s aggressive upper-midrange. Treble-wise, the V14 is pretty alright. It’s got the QDC recession to the lower-treble. Kills some impact; however, it prevents sibilance. Extension is solid and it’s relatively smooth. Overall, the 01 tuning is decent with some minor nitpicks that keep it from greatness.
Technicalities, again, seem to be a case of “it’s pretty alright”. Imaging certainly isn’t three-blob, although it’s decidedly compressed vertically and a good way off holographic. Soundstage width seems to be the V14's jam similar to the Monarch. Detail is good enough to trade blows with most of the kilobuck players; a step ahead of the venerable Moondrop B2. I would largely point out a lack of dynamic range; the V14 sounds overly flat and dry as is characteristic of most BA IEMs.
Ultimately, there is nothing outright wrong about the V14. It stands that the V14 is a good IEM even if I think the hype that surrounded it was somewhat unwarranted. Still, I would point to a lack of character, individuality, that seems to plague most all Thieaudio's IEMs. They’re all very well-tuned, fairly technical, and yet they just don’t speak to my sensibilities very closely.
Score: 5/10
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