Precog's IEM Reviews & Impressions

[Precogvision]

Have you heard the Sonion estats in… Traillii ?

Unfortunately, the bird continues to fly outside my grasp. So frustrating not being able to hear this thing, haha. Nobody I know in SG or SK has heard it either which is perplexing given that they're IEM hotspots. I have my suspicions about the Trailili's treble response, but of course, I won't comment until I actually hear it.

I appreciate your reviews, I learn from every post.

Thanks! Glad you find them helpful. It's also fun for me learning new stuff in this hobby.

 

[CL14715]

Unfortunately, the bird continues to fly outside my grasp. So frustrating not being able to hear this thing, haha. Nobody I know in SG or SK has heard it either which is perplexing given that they're IEM hotspots. I have my suspicions about the Trailili's treble response, but of course, I won't comment until I actually hear it.

I think you’d be pleasantly surprised. You seem to appreciate technicalities but get really thrown off by incoherence,. It’s the most coherent implementation I’ve ever heard.

Hopefully you get to hear one soon.

 

[tawmizzzz]

+1

I hate adding to the hype train but couldn’t imagine a better treble. Clear, detailed, smooth, natural, sparkly & extended. And it doesn’t really matter what source you throw it, the implementation is evident.

For what it’s worth, I am generally not a fan of electrostats either (e.g, Trinity, Sultan, even Elysium to an extent), but Odin and Thummim (from the right source) I felt also have impressive treble, albeit not on the same tier as T.

Edit: meant to quote CL-oops

 

[Precogvision]

Hey all, here are some more listening impressions from today's meet-up with MRS. We're both fully vaccinated, so I finally got to check out his studio too. Before we get to the listening impressions though, check out his IEM cabinet, which is just WHOA:

Yeah, pretty insane. Anyways, here are the IEMs that I heard today.

Cayin Fantasy: The Fantasy has a counter-clockwise tilted sound. It is excessively thin, quite shouty, and peaky in the treble. I don't understand what the appeal of tuning like this is, or rather, how something like this even made it into production. Waste of time.

Moondrop SSP: Basically just an SSR with more bass. Same impressively snappy transients and above-average imaging. Avoid if you don't like excessive upper-midrange, though.

Shanling ME700 Lite: Same idea going on as with the Cayin Fantasy, just not to "I want to rip this out of my ears, it's so bad" levels. I think it'd be OK if it weren't so expensive.

Sony WF1000XM4: I was mainly interested in how these compare to the Apple AirPods Pro. Whereas the APP has a tasteful mid-bass hump, the WF1000XM4 sounds like simply…bass. The midrange is quite warm; sure, I hear some of the Sony house sound here. It also doesn’t have the APP’s “glossed” timbre issues that stem from the APP’s mid-treble dip. The issue? That’s because the WF1000XM4 struggles with anything over around 5kHz or so. The stock foam tips it comes with are pretty horrible, both in terms of comfort and in the way they kill treble. If you swap to the Final Es (tips generally known for killing the highs, mind you), you’ll get a tad more air. I would definitely recommend playing with aftermarket tips. Essentially, the WF1000XM4 have a dark, downwards sloping sound signature that generally comes off as quite muddy. You can play around with tips or EQ to mitigate this, but from stock? I think the APP is better.

Tanchjim Tanya: I've heard positive sentiments about this IEM, and I'm pleased to confirm it's not just hype. These are good - scratch that, very good - for $20. I would classify the overall tonality here as a V-shape. There's a lot of bass, probably too much for some listeners, but the tactility of it is quite good. Certainly not "MH755 good" bass, but the Tanya's right up my alley. You have some more upper-midrange and then fairly good amounts of lower-treble. After roughly 8kHz or so, the Tanya rolls-off, giving way to a darker presentation. Technicalities are probably around a C+ grade on something like Crin's ranking list. You can definitely tell that notes lack definition. Perhaps most surprising, then, is that the Tanya actually has above-average imaging with solid soundstage width and layering. I certainly didn't see that one coming. Heck, I actually bought myself a pair off Amazon in the middle of my listening session with these! It'll make a good beater. I'm happy to see that Tanchjim isn't just a one-hit wonder, because this is quite the competitive IEM.

Scores:

Cayin Fantasy	2/10
Moondrop SSP	3/10
Shanling ME700 Lite	3/10
Sony WF1000XM4	3/10
Tanchjim Tanya	4/10

 

[Damz87]

Hey all, here are some more listening impressions from today's meet-up with MRS. We're both fully vaccinated, so I finally got to check out his studio too. Before we get to the listening impressions though, check out his IEM cabinet, which is just WHOA:



Yeah, pretty insane. Anyways, here are the IEMs that I heard today.

Cayin Fantasy: The Fantasy has a counter-clockwise tilted sound. It is excessively thin, quite shouty, and peaky in the treble. I don't understand what the appeal of tuning like this is, or rather, how something like this even made it into production. Waste of time.

Moondrop SSP: Basically just an SSR with more bass. Same impressively snappy transients and above-average imaging. Avoid if you don't like excessive upper-midrange, though.

Shanling ME700 Lite: Same idea going on as with the Cayin Fantasy, just not to "I want to rip this out of my ears, it's so bad" levels. I think it'd be OK if it weren't so expensive.

Sony WF1000XM4: I was mainly interested in how these compare to the Apple AirPods Pro. Whereas the APP has a tasteful mid-bass hump, the WF1000XM4 sounds like simply…bass. The midrange is quite warm; sure, I hear some of the Sony house sound here. It also doesn’t have the APP’s “glossed” timbre issues that stem from the APP’s mid-treble dip. The issue? That’s because the WF1000XM4 struggles with anything over around 5kHz or so. The stock foam tips it comes with are pretty horrible, both in terms of comfort and in the way they kill treble. If you swap to the Final Es (tips generally known for killing the highs, mind you), you’ll get a tad more air. I would definitely recommend playing with aftermarket tips. Essentially, the WF1000XM4 have a dark, downwards sloping sound signature that generally comes off as quite muddy. You can play around with tips or EQ to mitigate this, but from stock? I think the APP is better.



Tanchjim Tanya: I've heard positive sentiments about this IEM, and I'm pleased to confirm it's not just hype. These are good - scratch that, very good - for $20. I would classify the overall tonality here as a V-shape. There's a lot of bass, probably too much for some listeners, but the tactility of it is quite good. Certainly not "MH755 good" bass, but the Tanya's right up my alley. You have some more upper-midrange and then fairly good amounts of lower-treble. After roughly 8kHz or so, the Tanya rolls-off, giving way to a darker presentation. Technicalities are probably around a C+ grade on something like Crin's ranking list. You can definitely tell that notes lack definition. Perhaps most surprising, then, is that the Tanya actually has above-average imaging with solid soundstage width and layering. I certainly didn't see that one coming. Heck, I actually bought myself a pair off Amazon in the middle of my listening session with these! It'll make a good beater. I'm happy to see that Tanchjim isn't just a one-hit wonder, because this is quite the competitive IEM.

Scores:

Cayin Fantasy	2/10
Moondrop SSP	3/10
Shanling ME700 Lite	3/10
Sony WF1000XM4	3/10
Tanchjim Tanya	4/10

Wow what a collection! This makes me feel much better about my own hoarding habits love the way it’s been stored and organised.

Disappointing news about WF-1000XM4. Have you heard the XM3? If so, do they sound similar?

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Hey all, here are some more listening impressions from today's meet-up with MRS. We're both fully vaccinated, so I finally got to check out his studio too. Before we get to the listening impressions though, check out his IEM cabinet, which is just WHOA:



Yeah, pretty insane. Anyways, here are the IEMs that I heard today.

Cayin Fantasy: The Fantasy has a counter-clockwise tilted sound. It is excessively thin, quite shouty, and peaky in the treble. I don't understand what the appeal of tuning like this is, or rather, how something like this even made it into production. Waste of time.

Moondrop SSP: Basically just an SSR with more bass. Same impressively snappy transients and above-average imaging. Avoid if you don't like excessive upper-midrange, though.

Shanling ME700 Lite: Same idea going on as with the Cayin Fantasy, just not to "I want to rip this out of my ears, it's so bad" levels. I think it'd be OK if it weren't so expensive.

Sony WF1000XM4: I was mainly interested in how these compare to the Apple AirPods Pro. Whereas the APP has a tasteful mid-bass hump, the WF1000XM4 sounds like simply…bass. The midrange is quite warm; sure, I hear some of the Sony house sound here. It also doesn’t have the APP’s “glossed” timbre issues that stem from the APP’s mid-treble dip. The issue? That’s because the WF1000XM4 struggles with anything over around 5kHz or so. The stock foam tips it comes with are pretty horrible, both in terms of comfort and in the way they kill treble. If you swap to the Final Es (tips generally known for killing the highs, mind you), you’ll get a tad more air. I would definitely recommend playing with aftermarket tips. Essentially, the WF1000XM4 have a dark, downwards sloping sound signature that generally comes off as quite muddy. You can play around with tips or EQ to mitigate this, but from stock? I think the APP is better.



Tanchjim Tanya: I've heard positive sentiments about this IEM, and I'm pleased to confirm it's not just hype. These are good - scratch that, very good - for $20. I would classify the overall tonality here as a V-shape. There's a lot of bass, probably too much for some listeners, but the tactility of it is quite good. Certainly not "MH755 good" bass, but the Tanya's right up my alley. You have some more upper-midrange and then fairly good amounts of lower-treble. After roughly 8kHz or so, the Tanya rolls-off, giving way to a darker presentation. Technicalities are probably around a C+ grade on something like Crin's ranking list. You can definitely tell that notes lack definition. Perhaps most surprising, then, is that the Tanya actually has above-average imaging with solid soundstage width and layering. I certainly didn't see that one coming. Heck, I actually bought myself a pair off Amazon in the middle of my listening session with these! It'll make a good beater. I'm happy to see that Tanchjim isn't just a one-hit wonder, because this is quite the competitive IEM.

Scores:

Cayin Fantasy	2/10
Moondrop SSP	3/10
Shanling ME700 Lite	3/10
Sony WF1000XM4	3/10
Tanchjim Tanya	4/10

I literally just bought a pair of Sony WF 1000 XM4s to try them out. Your review is discouraging. My APP need replacement since I use them so much and they are really only good for a year of high use. Was going to just buy a second pair and then this came out. I had a pair of XM3s that sounded better than the APP, but the voice support on the APP blew away the XM3. I am hoping at least that the XM4 has better phone support. They are returnable, so if they suck, I'll just get another pair of APP like I originally planned. This would just be a back up iphone headset for voice. Oh yeah, since my Hiby R6 2020 supports LDAC, I was hoping the XM4 would be competitive with my FIIO UTWS3 + UM 3DT.

The Galaxy Buds Pro may be a better choice.

Oh yeah, given all the hype around the Blon 03, I bought a pair with a mic. If that works better for voice, I'll use that as my phone back up headset.

 

[tgx78]

uh-oh! I have a Cayin Fantasy review unit arriving in few days

ME700 lite sounded good to me but then I was using it with high output impedance devices to tame that treble.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Hey all, here are some more listening impressions from today's meet-up with MRS. We're both fully vaccinated, so I finally got to check out his studio too. Before we get to the listening impressions though, check out his IEM cabinet, which is just WHOA:

Dean Vang from Empire Ears has a cabinet that looks almost exactly like that one. He was showing me his impressive collection of IEM cables. He told me he tested hundreds of cables and he believes that the PW 1960s is the best cable which is why he bundled it with the Odin.

 

[Precogvision]

uh-oh! I have a Cayin Fantasy review unit arriving in few days

ME700 lite sounded good to me but then I was using it with high output impedance devices to tame that treble.

Yeah, I forgot to drop the FR graph for the Fantasy. Nice extension I guess, but it's really not for me as a whole. Here's what it looks like:

Spoiler: FR Graph

Wow what a collection! This makes me feel much better about my own hoarding habits love the way it’s been stored and organised.

Disappointing news about WF-1000XM4. Have you heard the XM3? If so, do they sound similar?

The difference here is that your IEMs cost a couple grand EACH haha.

I actually haven't heard the WF1000XM3. I hear it's pretty good. But if you're talking about the Sony WH1000XM3, the full-size headphone, that one sounded pretty muddy like this.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

I think you’d be pleasantly surprised. You seem to appreciate technicalities but get really thrown off by incoherence,. It’s the most coherent implementation I’ve ever heard.

Hopefully you get to hear one soon.

I completely agree. The Traillii tremendous coherence is what most differentiates it from everything else I own.

 

[snapandslide]

I literally just bought a pair of Sony WF 1000 XM4s to try them out. Your review is discouraging. My APP need replacement since I use them so much and they are really only good for a year of high use. Was going to just buy a second pair and then this came out. I had a pair of XM3s that sounded better than the APP, but the voice support on the APP blew away the XM3. I am hoping at least that the XM4 has better phone support. They are returnable, so if they suck, I'll just get another pair of APP like I originally planned. This would just be a back up iphone headset for voice. Oh yeah, since my Hiby R6 2020 supports LDAC, I was hoping the XM4 would be competitive with my FIIO UTWS3 + UM 3DT.

The Galaxy Buds Pro may be a better choice.

Oh yeah, given all the hype around the Blon 03, I bought a pair with a mic. If that works better for voice, I'll use that as my phone back up headset.

If the XM4s are anything like the XM3s, they need EQ-ing and they respond really well to it with the excellent app. Definitely play around with the pre-sets, custom EQ and also DSEEX.

 

[RikudouGoku]

Hey all, here are some more listening impressions from today's meet-up with MRS. We're both fully vaccinated, so I finally got to check out his studio too. Before we get to the listening impressions though, check out his IEM cabinet, which is just WHOA:



Yeah, pretty insane. Anyways, here are the IEMs that I heard today.

Cayin Fantasy: The Fantasy has a counter-clockwise tilted sound. It is excessively thin, quite shouty, and peaky in the treble. I don't understand what the appeal of tuning like this is, or rather, how something like this even made it into production. Waste of time.

Moondrop SSP: Basically just an SSR with more bass. Same impressively snappy transients and above-average imaging. Avoid if you don't like excessive upper-midrange, though.

Shanling ME700 Lite: Same idea going on as with the Cayin Fantasy, just not to "I want to rip this out of my ears, it's so bad" levels. I think it'd be OK if it weren't so expensive.

Sony WF1000XM4: I was mainly interested in how these compare to the Apple AirPods Pro. Whereas the APP has a tasteful mid-bass hump, the WF1000XM4 sounds like simply…bass. The midrange is quite warm; sure, I hear some of the Sony house sound here. It also doesn’t have the APP’s “glossed” timbre issues that stem from the APP’s mid-treble dip. The issue? That’s because the WF1000XM4 struggles with anything over around 5kHz or so. The stock foam tips it comes with are pretty horrible, both in terms of comfort and in the way they kill treble. If you swap to the Final Es (tips generally known for killing the highs, mind you), you’ll get a tad more air. I would definitely recommend playing with aftermarket tips. Essentially, the WF1000XM4 have a dark, downwards sloping sound signature that generally comes off as quite muddy. You can play around with tips or EQ to mitigate this, but from stock? I think the APP is better.



Tanchjim Tanya: I've heard positive sentiments about this IEM, and I'm pleased to confirm it's not just hype. These are good - scratch that, very good - for $20. I would classify the overall tonality here as a V-shape. There's a lot of bass, probably too much for some listeners, but the tactility of it is quite good. Certainly not "MH755 good" bass, but the Tanya's right up my alley. You have some more upper-midrange and then fairly good amounts of lower-treble. After roughly 8kHz or so, the Tanya rolls-off, giving way to a darker presentation. Technicalities are probably around a C+ grade on something like Crin's ranking list. You can definitely tell that notes lack definition. Perhaps most surprising, then, is that the Tanya actually has above-average imaging with solid soundstage width and layering. I certainly didn't see that one coming. Heck, I actually bought myself a pair off Amazon in the middle of my listening session with these! It'll make a good beater. I'm happy to see that Tanchjim isn't just a one-hit wonder, because this is quite the competitive IEM.

Scores:

Cayin Fantasy	2/10
Moondrop SSP	3/10
Shanling ME700 Lite	3/10
Sony WF1000XM4	3/10
Tanchjim Tanya	4/10

Damn MRS´ collection is even alphabetically sorted!



Guess you could say its pure....fantasy that the Cayin will be successful.

 

[Nalin]

XM3's treble is what made me sell it, it reminded me of cheap IEMs as it sounds grainy and harsh in comparison to AirPods Pro. Bass was very good and punchy in comparison to APP, Apple has tuned it with very smooth signature and it will not offend anyone. XM3 was tuned with a V shape signature and will annoy those who have heard better.

 

[firesign]

XM3's treble is what made me sell it, it reminded me of cheap IEMs as it sounds grainy and harsh in comparison to AirPods Pro. Bass was very good and punchy in comparison to APP, Apple has tuned it with very smooth signature and it will not offend anyone. XM3 was tuned with a V shape signature and will annoy those who have heard better.

I am used to using the U12t, Mest or Clairvoyance. But the XM3 doesn't bother me at all when I use it, and I equalize it to raise the treble a lot.

 

[Precogvision]

Etymotic EVO Impressions

Hey guys, the EVO demo unit arrived today. As usual, I'm going to eschew from commentary on the physical aspects. I think others will cover those much more in-depth than I care to. The only thing I will comment on is the cable. It is the thinnest cable I have seen on an IEM; I really hope this gets an update because it tangles like mad. Listening impressions are from about an hour of listening off of my DX300.

Spoiler: FR Graph

https://precog.squig.link/?share=Etymotic_EVO

As expected from Etymotic, EVO's tuning is pretty competent; it falls close to what we've seen from Etymotic's other IEMs. Bass is somewhere between the ER4XR and ER2XR in terms of quantity. It's solid, clean BA bass. This is a reference-oriented IEM, so most will be familiar with the flat lower-midrange contrasted to an elevated upper-midrange. This results in leaner notes and a more upfront presentation, but should sound quite transparent. The weakest point of EVO's tuning is the treble response. I had to run a couple sine-sweeps to confirm what I was hearing. In this case, I think the graph mostly depicts what I observed. You have a peak at 8kHz in the mid-treble, a dip after this point from roughly 10-14kHz, and then an aggressive rise to 15-16kHz. However, the amplitude of 15-16kHz is not high relative to the lower-treble. So while it's fairly noticeable in a sine sweep, the EVO generally comes off lacking air. Not a bad tuning overall, but I think some of Etymotic's other stuff has the EVO beat in this department.

For technicalities though, the EVO is probably the best of its brethren. It handily out-resolves my ER2XR and sounded about par with the Moondrop Blessing 2 - for resolution at least - from a brief comparison. Imaging is a small step forward from the other Etymotic IEMs; otherwise, the EVO seems to maintain the compressed center-image (therefore, lack of depth) that I noted on the ER3XR and ER4XR. Surprisingly, I want to say the EVO has pretty good dynamic contrast. It doesn't sound as flat as the ER4XR does from memory. If you're sensitive to BA timbre, you'll want to avoid the EVO. It's got quite a lot of grit.

Good stuff overall, I think. Whether the EVO's $500 solid is more up for debate, as the market is just so competitive these days. I'll refrain from dropping a score for now to avoid shell-shocking any new readers to the thread, but I think most can guess where I'd place it.