[JohannLiebert]

Maybe new toy syndrom... and I might have forgotten how other IEM's in the past compare to Fiio FH5.
Their sound signature is without much fault and resolution isn't lacking at all.

Never listened to the Samba

@sofa
ES5 is more a specialist. I love the with rock and electro music but their peak at 2khz can be annoying with bad / average recordings which is standart for modern pop music for exaple.

 

[Sound Eq]

1. Airpods
2. Legend X
3. K10UA
4. E5000
5. Supra II
6. SE846

airpods, man u must be joking

 

[hiflofi]

[redacted]

 

[Carlsan]

Yes, those Katana's are so underrated, coming from someone who love's bass, I can get lost in the Katana's revealing and sharp as a knife signature for hours. It's such a great sounding earphone, but I do think you need a decent source and the right tips. Balanced out of a mid to higher end DAP does the trick, plus a good sealing set of eartips.

 

[proedros]

Yes, those Katana's are so underrated, coming from someone who love's bass, I can get lost in the Katana's revealing and sharp as a knife signature for hours. It's such a great sounding earphone, but I do think you need a decent source and the right tips. Balanced out of a mid to higher end DAP does the trick, plus a good sealing set of eartips.

Katana are underrated ? wait - you are talking about Noble , the kings of hyped iems right ?

i still remember their efforts to convince people that K10 was the best thing to come out of Earth the last century - too bad that hype and self-promotion can only get you so far

also @flinkenick ranked it no12 in his TOTL thread , being the only +1500$ ciem to stay out of the top-10

so hyped ? yeah .
overrated ? yeah .
overpriced ? probably.
but underrated ? nope , unless you are talking about an alternate universe

cheers

edit :looking at your signature , i don't see any other TOTL iems so i can understand why you would find Katana the best thing ever - this happens when you have minimum experience with TOTL stuff

 

[Kerouac]

Katana are underrated ? wait - you are talking about Noble , the kings of hyped iems right ?

i still remember their efforts to convince people that K10 was the best thing to come out of Earth the last century - too bad that hype and self-promotion can only get you so far

also @flinkenick ranked it no12 in his TOTL thread , being the only +1500$ ciem to stay out of the top-10

so hyped ? yeah .
overrated ? yeah .
underrated ? nope , unless you are talking about an alternate universe

cheers

edit :looking at your signature , i don't see any other TOTL iems so i can understand why you would find Katana the best thing ever - this happens when you have minimum experience with TOTL stuff

He he...I can almost imagine you typing the above with steam comming out of your ears

But let's not forget that this thread is all about preferences. When I posted a top 10 (sneaky 11) before, it surely was.
I've never heard any Noble IEMs myself, so I wouldn't know how a K10, Katana or Encore would end up in a personal list

When I saw @hiflofi's list above, I thought: "Hmmm, that's interesting, I ranked the ones I've heard (Andro, A18t and Phantom) in exactly the opposite way."
But he also took the effort to explain why he ranked some of them that way, which is a positive in my book.

Besides that, this is also the beauty of a thread like this...to each his own. I guess it would become utterly boring pretty fast if everybody would rank the same IEMs in the same way all of the time

Cheers buddy!

 

[proedros]

@Kerouac i am not commenting @hiflofi list (his ears are respected 100%) but @Carlsan saying that katana are underrated

there is a difference there , my friend

cheers

 

[cantsleep]

I kinda get why they like katanas.

Some people love those sony cd3000 and sa5000s crazy fast linear sound. And some people find those tones just too cold and lifeless, even somewhat artificial at some point.

I remember the first time i had cd3000 on my head. I was surprised once how different it was, i liked the fact that it was so different from other hps. Right away when i saw myself on a mirror, i was once again surprised how dorky i looked with cd3000 on.

btw, k1000 is up there when you talk about looking dorky. Ah almost forgot jecklin floats

 

[DaveStarWalker]

I found the Kaiser Encore (Uni) as my reference iem to date.

Correctly paired (DAP, cable... and tips : this is THE key factor), hum... they're "rather good" lol

The tuning is very similar with the Sennheiser HD800 (not the "s" version) ; so same pros and cons.

so hyped ? Not at the same level of the Andromeda for instance (and God, this is justice : Andro's rocks ! ).
overrated ? No but they are challenging to get the best paring. Not a "ready to go product" at all.
overpriced ? probably, as 99.9% of the current production

However, the object is beautiful (sorry : magnificent) and beautifully, tastefully constructed. Very sturdy too,100% extruded aluminum. And this is not the case of all the TOTL... as a matter of fact.

Tastes and colors

As a pity, I haven't listened yet the Katana's.

 

[Carlsan]

fyi, this is my list as I posted it in the last page.

1. 64 Audio Tia Forte (Tour)
2. 64 Audio U18t (Tour)
3. 64 Audio Trio (Tour)
4. Campfire Audio Atlas
5. 64 Audio U12t (Tour)
6. Noble Audio Katana
7. Noble Audio Kaiser Encore
8. Campfire Audio Andromeda
9. 1964 Ears – A6 Adel Customs
10. Beyerdynamic Xelento
11. Custom Art Harmony 8.2 Customs
12. Campfire Audio Polaris
13. 1964 Ears U12 Adel (64 Audio)
14. Noble K10u
15. Ultimate Ears 18 Pro
16. Rhapsodio Solar
17. Noble K10 Customs
18. AAW W500 Customs (Waiting on the AAW W900 Universal ordered)
19. iBasso IT04
20. Custom Art Ei.xx Customs (Massdrop)
21. Massdrop Plus

edit :looking at your signature , i don't see any other TOTL iems so i can understand why you would find Katana the best thing ever - this happens when you have minimum experience with TOTL stuff

I agree that I haven't listened to all the TOTL current stuff, but the thread is about IEM's one has heard or owns.
Cheers.

 

[cantsleep]

hey Carlsan
how was k10 vs k10u? how were they different?

 

[1TrickPony]

fyi, this is my list as I posted it in the last page.

1. 64 Audio Tia Forte (Tour)
2. 64 Audio U18t (Tour)
3. 64 Audio Trio (Tour)
4. Campfire Audio Atlas
5. 64 Audio U12t (Tour)
6. Noble Audio Katana
7. Noble Audio Kaiser Encore
8. Campfire Audio Andromeda
9. 1964 Ears – A6 Adel Customs
10. Beyerdynamic Xelento
11. Custom Art Harmony 8.2 Customs
12. Campfire Audio Polaris
13. 1964 Ears U12 Adel (64 Audio)
14. Noble K10u
15. Ultimate Ears 18 Pro
16. Rhapsodio Solar
17. Noble K10 Customs
18. AAW W500 Customs (Waiting on the AAW W900 Universal ordered)
19. iBasso IT04
20. Custom Art Ei.xx Customs (Massdrop)
21. Massdrop Plus


I agree that I haven't listened to all the TOTL current stuff, but the thread is about IEM's one has heard or owns.
Cheers.

Wow, saw the Atlas up on that list? In your opinion/ experience with them, how they land the number 4 (even above the andros)?

 

[Colors]

Wow, saw the Atlas up on that list? In your opinion/ experience with them, how they land the number 4 (even above the andros)?

If the Atlas weren't too big for my ears and fit me like the Comets did, I would have kept them too =P

The Atlas have a very grand, emotionally engaging and raw sound to them. Makes your head bob.

 

[Sonic Ecstasy]

Noble audio 6C > Sony XBA-A3 > Shure SE535 > Earsonics SM64 > Sennheiser IE6 > Panasonic RPHJE125.

 

[Carlsan]

Wow, saw the Atlas up on that list? In your opinion/ experience with them, how they land the number 4 (even above the andros)?

Yes, as Colors above mentioned, they are very engaging and addictive. The bass goes deep but is natural, the tones on the notes just feel really right. Guitar tones for example, have an air of vibrancy and realism to them. The sound-stage is big, both width and depth, yet you feel as if you are standing on a live stage, in-between the drummer and the bass player but a short distance from the vocalist and both guitarist.
The sound is spacious, hugh, and holographic. Details run from the bottom end to the top end. Mids sound right. Both male and female vocals sound right.
What's not to love?
Andromedas present music differently and I still enjoy them as well.
On a side note, the fit on the Atlas is a challenge, but if you work with it, it will work. For me it was wearing the earphones as if cables run down (I then loop the cables back over my ears - because I'm geeky that way, and it takes care of cable microphonics. After many earphone tips, I've settled on a pair of double flange tips, that I have cut about 2/8 of an inch off of the inner tube, so they rest on the earphone with the ear-end of the tips being almost flush with the ear-end of the Atlas. Perfect seal for me and great sound.
These are not the greatest earphones for portable use, they can fall out of the ears easily (another reason to hook the cables over the ears), not a problem for me as I work at a desk, where I do my listening.

So, in the end, why are they at number four when I made that list. The addictive, lively, and great sound.