RAZ's TOTL review and rambles thread... could it be.... alive?

[mvvRAZ]

Thats mostly how I hear it too, although I don’t find it sterile at all. It’s pretty fun.

Sterile referring more to it being cold and neutral for the most part - it’s not sterile in the way that something like the A18t is for example

 

[discord]

Sterile referring more to it being cold and neutral for the most part - it’s not sterile in the way that something like the A18t is for example

Haven’t heard U18t outside a CanJam so not sure on that, but I‘m using Odin as a reference point since I have it and Odin has a more cold sound compared to KR5 (much less lower midrange and mid-bass on Odin). So for me, KR5 leans warmish.

 

[mvvRAZ]

Haven’t heard U18t outside a CanJam so not sure on that, but I‘m using Odin as a reference point since I have it and Odin has a more cold sound compared to KR5 (much less lower midrange and mid-bass on Odin). So for me, KR5 leans warmish.

Finding the Kr5 warm is an assertion of dominance ‘round here

 

[discord]

Finding the Kr5 warm is an assertion of dominance ‘round here

My tolerance for cold/sterility is something like this

 

[Onurb8690]

@mvvRAZ For Rock (ex: Linkin Park) does xen 6 play well in this style or would you recommend Kr5?

 

[mvvRAZ]

@mvvRAZ For Rock (ex: Linkin Park) does xen 6 play well in this style or would you recommend Kr5?

I’m still trying stuff out on the Xe6, changing modules and whatnot. Will update you tomorrow but if you like a thicker sound, Xe6. If you like a little more electric guitar bite and really catching every single detail, Kr5, but will come back with a more specific comparison

 

[mvvRAZ]

Xe6 Infographic

Personal feelings on the IEM: boy this one is tough. One on hand, this probably has the best "basshead" quantity-quality bass I've heard, while also featuring the absolute bliss that tia treble is. On the other, there's a lot of weirdness going on in the midrange that I just cannot gloss over. It presents itself quite differently depending on track, where in some cases the vocals become almost "doubled" in weight - Kid Cudi was a good example of that as he has a really deep voice and the Xe6 has that region really elevated so it ends up sounding weird. I spent the first day with them on a gold cable, which was a big big mistake - pure silver is the way to go Imo.

Where the Xe6 does really shine to me is OSTs - there are no vocals that can go wrong there, and the bass and general weight of the signature are able to transmit that "epicness" (I know that's not a word) insanely well. In the meantime, the dynamics really are unreal, while also being quite fast (much more so than the EXT for example), so they manage to maintain clarity.

To avoid confusion, I actually find these heavily technical and quite detailed, but that one lower midrange region just does weird things to a lot of tracks - sometimes vocals can get almost entirely lost in the instruments, other times they become weirdly amplified, in third cases they sound like they lack extension if a female artist's voice has some "weight" in the lower midrange region

Overall, where I found the Kr5 to be incredible value - and yes I mean that in the sense that I found it to be disproportionately more technical than the heavy hitters around 4000/5000/6000$, and well at any price point, the Xe6 is an IEM that I almost can't understand as a choice for a flagship when the same company tuned and made the Kr5. It feels like more of a specialist IEM (for my use case I will pretty much be dedicating it to OSTs and I listen to those a fair bit so it's okay), and my personal "value cap" for specialist IEMs peaks around 2-2500$.

Edit: also worth noting that I've been using especially bright IEMs lately. If I tried the Thummim now I might find it extremely muddy for example, I haven't had upper mids bother me in god knows how long

All listening done on the M0 (-10db) module.

 

[mvvRAZ]

Small addition: been listening to the Xe6 with the Ifi Diablo which is like the brightest DAC-amp I've heard and that actually offers a very healthy correction to the signature. I know Cayin and Sony have some DAP releases coming up, if any of those happen to be bright enough I'll update it with the pair ups, and if any of them are sufficient to make the Xe6 what I'd consider to be a good TOTL all-rounder

 

[twister6]

Small addition: been listening to the Xe6 with the Ifi Diablo which is like the brightest DAC-amp I've heard and that actually offers a very healthy correction to the signature. I know Lotoo and Sony have some DAP releases coming up, if any of those happen to be bright enough I'll update it with the pair ups, and if any of them are sufficient to make the Xe6 what I'd consider to be a good TOTL all-rounder

Do you mean Cayin and Sony upcoming DAP releases?

 

[mvvRAZ]

Do you mean Cayin and Sony upcoming DAP releases?

Corrected

 

[leaky74]

You heard anymore on the possible Lotoo desktop/transportable rig?

 

[mvvRAZ]

You heard anymore on the possible Lotoo desktop/transportable rig?

I last spoke to them about that like an year ago… nothing since unfortunately. They really take their time with releases haha

 

[Ojisan]

If I'm looking for 18s with more dynamics (and additional bass and treble would be a plus), would you suggest Kr5 or Xe6? TIA

Edit: I love your infographics!

 

[mvvRAZ]

If I'm looking for 18s with more dynamics (and additional bass and treble would be a plus), would you suggest Kr5 or Xe6? TIA

Edit: I love your infographics!

Relative to A18S

Kr5: similar bass (a touch less maybe), similar lower mids, a bit more upper mids, more treble

Xe6: more bass, more lower mids, a touch less upper mids, similar treble

 

[discord]

@mvvRAZ Are the XE6 and KR5 CIEM shells the same size, as in one does not stick our further from the ear than the other?