MMR Thummim and Homunculus Impressions
So, uh, yeah...these showed up today. I'll be blunt - they're disappointing. Very, very disappointing.
Starting with the Thummim, tonal issues aside, what strikes me most is just how damn
slow this thing is. Transient speed is comparable to the Shure SE215, possibly one of the slowest IEMs I've heard. Bass is supposed to be mid-bass oriented, but as you can see from the graph, the channels don't really match. Not that it matters, of course, given how blunted and bloated the bass is alone. The midrange is probably the worst part of this tuning, sounding somewhere between sucked out and running hot. Treble is rolled-off hard like most poor EST implementations. And sadly, it's not like the Thummim even has the staging or technical chops to save itself either. Macro-dynamics are dampened. Imaging is fairly average sans some decent diffusal of the image, and the Thummim is not holographic by a long shot. I really don't know where all the talk about the mind-boggling imaging came from. Maybe the 2.5-4.5kHz dip?
Regardless, I can't tell what's more fatiguing - the Tesla-truck shells or listening to how awful this thing has been tuned.
The first thing that struck me as weird on the Homunculus was the midrange. It just didn't sound any sort of right to my ears with one side clearly sounding different. So I slapped it on my coupler...and lo and behold, sans exhibiting an egregious, fat dip, there's also a pretty significant channel imbalance in this region. Speaking of the dip, I enjoy a dip in my upper-midrange, but oh man, not like this. Telephonic, underwater, sucked-out, name any similar adjective and it'll do aptly to describe the Homunculus. Resolution is also completely screwed in the midrange as a result. But since when was I ever one to be a debbie-downer? Looking on the bright side, I guess you could say the Homunculus serves as demonstration of value for the Thummim, if only by virtue of how much worse it is.
Usual disclaimers: I know how bad these impressions sound. Friendly reminder that they're
impressions, and I'm not asking you to hear what I hear (as a matter of fact, I wouldn't wish that on anyone with these little gems). I measured both of them several times off my coupler to make sure I was getting consistent results. Frankly, I don't think the tips, cable, or any amount of 'seasoning' are going to save these IEMs - furthermore, I'd argue that a company that can't take the time to get consistent channel matching on units they're sending out for review doesn't really merit my time. But for posterity all listening was done using the stock Elotech cables, stock tips, and an A&K SP1000M.
Score (Thummim): 2/10
Score (Homunculus): 1/10
Noble Sultan impressions tomorrow if I have time to write something up.