Precog's IEM Reviews & Impressions
- Thread starter Precogvision
- Start date
Exciting.It has arrived
The more I listen to IE900, the more I am starting to feel that way too. At times the bass sounds a little uncontrolled to me, but I have a feeling thats due to the fit i'm getting with the stock tips. I did some tip rolling and it tightened up a bit, but I was struggling to get a stable seal. I need to keep working on that.
I really love the IE900. It's become one of my all-time faves. It's not perfect (nothing is anyway) but its just super-fun to listen to, and quite addictive
That settles it. It’s on the short list along with Isabellae and X.The more I listen to IE900, the more I am starting to feel that way too. At times the bass sounds a little uncontrolled to me, but I have a feeling thats due to the fit i'm getting with the stock tips. I did some tip rolling and it tightened up a bit, but I was struggling to get a stable seal. I need to keep working on that.
I really love the IE900. It's become one of my all-time faves. It's not perfect (nothing is anyway) but its just super-fun to listen to, and quite addictive
Awesome
looking forward to hearing what you think of them. I suspect you will really enjoy it, and I'll be curious how you compare them to your current bass trio
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this. I love my set, so it'll be fun to see how you think the Isa's stack up.It has arrived
Oriolus Isabellae Impressions
Inspired by a recent experiment I partook in with another IEM, I decided to do something similar with the Isabellae as I hadn't seen the graph yet. Basically, this was writing down what I thought before seeing the graph or running any sine sweeps, and then how my thoughts changed after.
My initial notes (~15 minutes of listening) on tonality:
Clearly a more V-shaped IEM. Bass is a tad more mid-bass emphasized over sub-bass. Pretty closely balanced, though. Midrange is upper-midrange leaning, slightly harsh as the pinna compensation is more elevated. Lower-midrange is generally scooped. Treble is lower-treble emphasized with perhaps a tad too much energy following through to the mid-treble, then slopes off normally in the air frequencies. Generally, the Isabellae doesn’t sound very DD-like in terms of timbre to me.
After seeing the graph, running sine sweeps, and a few hours of listening:
First, the Isabellae graphs with more bass than I thought it would. But it’s not very good bass in my opinion. It’s actually pretty reminiscent of the Traillii’s bass intangibly and is reasonably well-controlled despite the larger bass shelf on paper. That’s great and all, until you remember the Isabellae is rocking a dynamic driver. In this vein, I just don’t hear the latent intangibles I’m looking for here. Wooli’s series of drops on “Island,” at 2:25, sound soft in the amplitude of the slam and likewise dry in texture; they’re missing the dark, messy richness that they should exhibit. I genuinely feel there are balanced armature IEMs that slam harder than the Isabellae, and just to make certain, I directly compared the Isabellae with the Dunu SA6 ($550) that I have on hand. It would also seem like decay is somewhat truncated on the Isabellae’s bass response, as it’s missing a lot of the tasteful reverb to the opening drum of Keith Urban’s “Sweet Thing”. I’m not impressed.
The midrange of the Isabellae is where I was pretty on-point with my initial thoughts. It’s alright tonally, but intangibly, I’m not sure what’s up. Put simply: again, it doesn’t sound much like a DD to me. Dynamic drivers generally have a smooth, even run to their decay, but I find there's a sizable amount of grit to the Isabellae's midrange’s decay. I’d say this is hit or miss. I don’t mind it too much on something like Allison Krauss and “When You Say Nothing At All,” a slower, darker track. But I can’t say I’m a fan when it comes to a lot of the more forward, intense K-Pop stuff that I listen to. Anything with Taeyeon in it sounds mechanical, etched, and lacking the vibrancy that I’m used to on the better DD sets I’ve heard. I’d say my distaste for the Isabellae’s midrange is akin to the Traillii’s midrange, so to be fair, if you thought the Traillii had “liquid” vocals or something similar, then the same will likely apply to the Isabellae. But this certainly isn’t the case for me.
Treble is where I was most incorrect in my initial assessment. I’d say it’s actually more mid-treble emphasized after running sine sweeps. There’s peaks at 7-8kHz and 11kHz. The 11kHz one is mildly painful to hear, and it’s what’s lending to the roughness I hear in the treble. If I had to take a guess, it might be impacting the midrange’s timbre too, hence my above comments. Honestly, I probably should have caught this peak, as it’s the same peak that the experimental IEM had, and I’ve heard it on the Focal Clear as well. Anyways, not the worst treble response, but certainly far from being great.
Technicalities on the Isabellae are decent. It has acceptable note definition and I do feel that it has some of the precise, positional accuracy that I associate with the Traillii. So sure, you definitely have some Oriolus DNA here. Unfortunately, dynamics and other metrics of technicalities aren’t really worth talking about here in my opinion. It sounds harsh, but "not worth talking about" has, unfortunately, been the name of the game here for me. Neither Oriolus IEM has been one that I can say is bad, but I'm also not hearing that elusive special sauce. If anything, this is what an utter lack of it sounds like to me. At least that's some form of consistency of itself, I guess.
Score: 4/10
Note: Normally, I don’t talk too much about the build, but I really do like the Isabellae’s. It’s a well thought-out design with recessed 2-pin connectors, an extremely secure lip for the tips, and a great all-round build. Even the included cable here is awesome. It’s reminiscent of Dunu’s DUW02; soft and pliable, well-behaved, and simply a pleasure to use. I much prefer this to any of the kilobuck cables I’ve used in the past. The channel matching of these units is also on-point. The first one is almost perfect, and the second one is close. Collectively, they match almost exactly. Suffice it to say that Oriolus has their quality control down to a pat. I want to make clear that I have nothing against Oriolus; my gripes with the Isabellae are purely on the basis of sonic quality.
Inspired by a recent experiment I partook in with another IEM, I decided to do something similar with the Isabellae as I hadn't seen the graph yet. Basically, this was writing down what I thought before seeing the graph or running any sine sweeps, and then how my thoughts changed after.
My initial notes (~15 minutes of listening) on tonality:
Clearly a more V-shaped IEM. Bass is a tad more mid-bass emphasized over sub-bass. Pretty closely balanced, though. Midrange is upper-midrange leaning, slightly harsh as the pinna compensation is more elevated. Lower-midrange is generally scooped. Treble is lower-treble emphasized with perhaps a tad too much energy following through to the mid-treble, then slopes off normally in the air frequencies. Generally, the Isabellae doesn’t sound very DD-like in terms of timbre to me.
After seeing the graph, running sine sweeps, and a few hours of listening:
First, the Isabellae graphs with more bass than I thought it would. But it’s not very good bass in my opinion. It’s actually pretty reminiscent of the Traillii’s bass intangibly and is reasonably well-controlled despite the larger bass shelf on paper. That’s great and all, until you remember the Isabellae is rocking a dynamic driver. In this vein, I just don’t hear the latent intangibles I’m looking for here. Wooli’s series of drops on “Island,” at 2:25, sound soft in the amplitude of the slam and likewise dry in texture; they’re missing the dark, messy richness that they should exhibit. I genuinely feel there are balanced armature IEMs that slam harder than the Isabellae, and just to make certain, I directly compared the Isabellae with the Dunu SA6 ($550) that I have on hand. It would also seem like decay is somewhat truncated on the Isabellae’s bass response, as it’s missing a lot of the tasteful reverb to the opening drum of Keith Urban’s “Sweet Thing”. I’m not impressed.
The midrange of the Isabellae is where I was pretty on-point with my initial thoughts. It’s alright tonally, but intangibly, I’m not sure what’s up. Put simply: again, it doesn’t sound much like a DD to me. Dynamic drivers generally have a smooth, even run to their decay, but I find there's a sizable amount of grit to the Isabellae's midrange’s decay. I’d say this is hit or miss. I don’t mind it too much on something like Allison Krauss and “When You Say Nothing At All,” a slower, darker track. But I can’t say I’m a fan when it comes to a lot of the more forward, intense K-Pop stuff that I listen to. Anything with Taeyeon in it sounds mechanical, etched, and lacking the vibrancy that I’m used to on the better DD sets I’ve heard. I’d say my distaste for the Isabellae’s midrange is akin to the Traillii’s midrange, so to be fair, if you thought the Traillii had “liquid” vocals or something similar, then the same will likely apply to the Isabellae. But this certainly isn’t the case for me.
Treble is where I was most incorrect in my initial assessment. I’d say it’s actually more mid-treble emphasized after running sine sweeps. There’s peaks at 7-8kHz and 11kHz. The 11kHz one is mildly painful to hear, and it’s what’s lending to the roughness I hear in the treble. If I had to take a guess, it might be impacting the midrange’s timbre too, hence my above comments. Honestly, I probably should have caught this peak, as it’s the same peak that the experimental IEM had, and I’ve heard it on the Focal Clear as well. Anyways, not the worst treble response, but certainly far from being great.
Technicalities on the Isabellae are decent. It has acceptable note definition and I do feel that it has some of the precise, positional accuracy that I associate with the Traillii. So sure, you definitely have some Oriolus DNA here. Unfortunately, dynamics and other metrics of technicalities aren’t really worth talking about here in my opinion. It sounds harsh, but "not worth talking about" has, unfortunately, been the name of the game here for me. Neither Oriolus IEM has been one that I can say is bad, but I'm also not hearing that elusive special sauce. If anything, this is what an utter lack of it sounds like to me. At least that's some form of consistency of itself, I guess.
Score: 4/10
Note: Normally, I don’t talk too much about the build, but I really do like the Isabellae’s. It’s a well thought-out design with recessed 2-pin connectors, an extremely secure lip for the tips, and a great all-round build. Even the included cable here is awesome. It’s reminiscent of Dunu’s DUW02; soft and pliable, well-behaved, and simply a pleasure to use. I much prefer this to any of the kilobuck cables I’ve used in the past. The channel matching of these units is also on-point. The first one is almost perfect, and the second one is close. Collectively, they match almost exactly. Suffice it to say that Oriolus has their quality control down to a pat. I want to make clear that I have nothing against Oriolus; my gripes with the Isabellae are purely on the basis of sonic quality.
I think that you should always note down first impressions prior to doing any graphing or even checking frequency response graphs, as that would provide a more unbiased hearing session. Whereas if you are to read a graph prior to listening then there is the danger of confirmation bias.
Very interesting review, thank you. And kudos for specifying the types of music that work/don't work for you WRT the Isa. This is so important, and speaks more to the stability of the IEM than anything else. Much appreciated.Oriolus Isabellae Impressions
Inspired by a recent experiment I partook in with another IEM, I decided to do something similar with the Isabellae as I hadn't seen the graph yet. Basically, this was writing down what I thought before seeing the graph or running any sine sweeps, and then how my thoughts changed after.
My initial notes (~15 minutes of listening) on tonality:
Clearly a more V-shaped IEM. Bass is a tad more mid-bass emphasized over sub-bass. Pretty closely balanced, though. Midrange is upper-midrange leaning, slightly harsh as the pinna compensation is more elevated. Lower-midrange is generally scooped. Treble is lower-treble emphasized with perhaps a tad too much energy following through to the mid-treble, then slopes off normally in the air frequencies. Generally, the Isabellae doesn’t sound very DD-like in terms of timbre to me.
After seeing the graph, running sine sweeps, and a few hours of listening:
First, the Isabellae graphs with more bass than I thought it would. But it’s not very good bass in my opinion. It’s actually pretty reminiscent of the Traillii’s bass intangibly and is reasonably well-controlled despite the larger bass shelf on paper. That’s great and all, until you remember the Isabellae is rocking a dynamic driver. In this vein, I just don’t hear the latent intangibles I’m looking for here. Wooli’s series of drops on “Island,” at 2:25, sound soft in the amplitude of the slam and likewise dry in texture; they’re missing the dark, messy richness that they should exhibit. I genuinely feel there are balanced armature IEMs that slam harder than the Isabellae, and just to make certain, I directly compared the Isabellae with the Dunu SA6 ($550) that I have on hand. It would also seem like decay is somewhat truncated on the Isabellae’s bass response, as it’s missing a lot of the tasteful reverb to the opening drum of Keith Urban’s “Sweet Thing”. I’m not impressed.
The midrange of the Isabellae is where I was pretty on-point with my initial thoughts. It’s alright tonally, but intangibly, I’m not sure what’s up. Put simply: again, it doesn’t sound much like a DD to me. Dynamic drivers generally have a smooth, even run to their decay, but I find there's a sizable amount of grit to the Isabellae's midrange’s decay. I’d say this is hit or miss. I don’t mind it too much on something like Allison Krauss and “When You Say Nothing At All,” a slower, darker track. But I can’t say I’m a fan when it comes to a lot of the more forward, intense K-Pop stuff that I listen to. Anything with Taeyeon in it sounds mechanical, etched, and lacking the vibrancy that I’m used to on the better DD sets I’ve heard. I’d say my distaste for the Isabellae’s midrange is akin to the Traillii’s midrange, so to be fair, if you thought the Traillii had “liquid” vocals or something similar, then the same will likely apply to the Isabellae. But this certainly isn’t the case for me.
Treble is where I was most incorrect in my initial assessment. I’d say it’s actually more mid-treble emphasized after running sine sweeps. There’s peaks at 7-8kHz and 11kHz. The 11kHz one is mildly painful to hear, and it’s what’s lending to the roughness I hear in the treble. If I had to take a guess, it might be impacting the midrange’s timbre too, hence my above comments. Honestly, I probably should have caught this peak, as it’s the same peak that the experimental IEM had, and I’ve heard it on the Focal Clear as well. Anyways, not the worst treble response, but certainly far from being great.
Technicalities on the Isabellae are decent. It has acceptable note definition and I do feel that it has some of the precise, positional accuracy that I associate with the Traillii. So sure, you definitely have some Oriolus DNA here. Unfortunately, dynamics and other metrics of technicalities aren’t really worth talking about here in my opinion. It sounds harsh, but "not worth talking about" has, unfortunately, been the name of the game here for me. Neither Oriolus IEM has been one that I can say is bad, but I'm also not hearing that elusive special sauce. If anything, this is what an utter lack of it sounds like to me. At least that's some form of consistency of itself, I guess.
Score: 4/10
Note: Normally, I don’t talk too much about the build, but I really do like the Isabellae’s. It’s a well thought-out design with recessed 2-pin connectors, an extremely secure lip for the tips, and a great all-round build. Even the included cable here is awesome. It’s reminiscent of Dunu’s DUW02; soft and pliable, well-behaved, and simply a pleasure to use. I much prefer this to any of the kilobuck cables I’ve used in the past. The channel matching of these units is also on-point. The first one is almost perfect, and the second one is close. Collectively, they match almost exactly. Suffice it to say that Oriolus has their quality control down to a pat. I want to make clear that I have nothing against Oriolus; my gripes with the Isabellae are purely on the basis of sonic quality.
Couldn't agree more. Interesting you mention the fit, because the more I think of it (and try out different tips) the more I notice how important fit and seal is to the IE 900. Even a mm difference in angle or depth makes a massive difference to the final sound. If you're not hearing that insane bass response or getting too much sibilance, or just think they sound 'ok', then fit is probably the main culprit. the problem now is that my other IEMs (notably the LX) are hardly getting any eartime, because my first instinct is to try out any new music (and old favourites) on the IE 900. Not sure why either, they're just very enjoyable.It's not perfect (nothing is anyway) but its just super-fun to listen to, and quite addictive
Jenz
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This is important with EVERY IEM, not just the IE900.
With the Ultrasone IQ you also have to use the perfect ear tips, otherwise there is hardly any bass and it looks too bright.
Very true, but for some reason some folks seem to really struggle with the fit of the IE 900. I have to say it fits me differently to almost every other IEM I've used, so was a bit of a learning trial-and-error process initially. Maybe that tiny shell has something to do with it, whereas most multi-driver IEMs, especially resins, help seal your ear as much as the tips do.
Wow. That is not the review I expected on this IEM. I, too, like that you listened to it before and after measuring it.Oriolus Isabellae Impressions
Inspired by a recent experiment I partook in with another IEM, I decided to do something similar with the Isabellae as I hadn't seen the graph yet. Basically, this was writing down what I thought before seeing the graph or running any sine sweeps, and then how my thoughts changed after.
My initial notes (~15 minutes of listening) on tonality:
Clearly a more V-shaped IEM. Bass is a tad more mid-bass emphasized over sub-bass. Pretty closely balanced, though. Midrange is upper-midrange leaning, slightly harsh as the pinna compensation is more elevated. Lower-midrange is generally scooped. Treble is lower-treble emphasized with perhaps a tad too much energy following through to the mid-treble, then slopes off normally in the air frequencies. Generally, the Isabellae doesn’t sound very DD-like in terms of timbre to me.
After seeing the graph, running sine sweeps, and a few hours of listening:
First, the Isabellae graphs with more bass than I thought it would. But it’s not very good bass in my opinion. It’s actually pretty reminiscent of the Traillii’s bass intangibly and is reasonably well-controlled despite the larger bass shelf on paper. That’s great and all, until you remember the Isabellae is rocking a dynamic driver. In this vein, I just don’t hear the latent intangibles I’m looking for here. Wooli’s series of drops on “Island,” at 2:25, sound soft in the amplitude of the slam and likewise dry in texture; they’re missing the dark, messy richness that they should exhibit. I genuinely feel there are balanced armature IEMs that slam harder than the Isabellae, and just to make certain, I directly compared the Isabellae with the Dunu SA6 ($550) that I have on hand. It would also seem like decay is somewhat truncated on the Isabellae’s bass response, as it’s missing a lot of the tasteful reverb to the opening drum of Keith Urban’s “Sweet Thing”. I’m not impressed.
The midrange of the Isabellae is where I was pretty on-point with my initial thoughts. It’s alright tonally, but intangibly, I’m not sure what’s up. Put simply: again, it doesn’t sound much like a DD to me. Dynamic drivers generally have a smooth, even run to their decay, but I find there's a sizable amount of grit to the Isabellae's midrange’s decay. I’d say this is hit or miss. I don’t mind it too much on something like Allison Krauss and “When You Say Nothing At All,” a slower, darker track. But I can’t say I’m a fan when it comes to a lot of the more forward, intense K-Pop stuff that I listen to. Anything with Taeyeon in it sounds mechanical, etched, and lacking the vibrancy that I’m used to on the better DD sets I’ve heard. I’d say my distaste for the Isabellae’s midrange is akin to the Traillii’s midrange, so to be fair, if you thought the Traillii had “liquid” vocals or something similar, then the same will likely apply to the Isabellae. But this certainly isn’t the case for me.
Treble is where I was most incorrect in my initial assessment. I’d say it’s actually more mid-treble emphasized after running sine sweeps. There’s peaks at 7-8kHz and 11kHz. The 11kHz one is mildly painful to hear, and it’s what’s lending to the roughness I hear in the treble. If I had to take a guess, it might be impacting the midrange’s timbre too, hence my above comments. Honestly, I probably should have caught this peak, as it’s the same peak that the experimental IEM had, and I’ve heard it on the Focal Clear as well. Anyways, not the worst treble response, but certainly far from being great.
Technicalities on the Isabellae are decent. It has acceptable note definition and I do feel that it has some of the precise, positional accuracy that I associate with the Traillii. So sure, you definitely have some Oriolus DNA here. Unfortunately, dynamics and other metrics of technicalities aren’t really worth talking about here in my opinion. It sounds harsh, but "not worth talking about" has, unfortunately, been the name of the game here for me. Neither Oriolus IEM has been one that I can say is bad, but I'm also not hearing that elusive special sauce. If anything, this is what an utter lack of it sounds like to me. At least that's some form of consistency of itself, I guess.
Score: 4/10
Note: Normally, I don’t talk too much about the build, but I really do like the Isabellae’s. It’s a well thought-out design with recessed 2-pin connectors, an extremely secure lip for the tips, and a great all-round build. Even the included cable here is awesome. It’s reminiscent of Dunu’s DUW02; soft and pliable, well-behaved, and simply a pleasure to use. I much prefer this to any of the kilobuck cables I’ve used in the past. The channel matching of these units is also on-point. The first one is almost perfect, and the second one is close. Collectively, they match almost exactly. Suffice it to say that Oriolus has their quality control down to a pat. I want to make clear that I have nothing against Oriolus; my gripes with the Isabellae are purely on the basis of sonic quality.
I struggle with the fit of the BL03. I have trouble with small IEMs.
RikudouGoku
Member of the Trade: RikuBuds
Have you tried tips like the azal sedna, jvc spiral dots or the radius deep mount tips?
Those are pretty big and usually helps with smaller iems like the 03.
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