Big post alert!
I've kinda been listening to all kinds of setups and dongles and IEMs and whatnot, so this is more of a ramble post to clear the review queue - next week should be a fun one, got the Roxanne AION on Friday, and the Jolene as well as the JIMI AION should be here in the following couple of days. Went on a bit of a JH hype train after hearing the Roxanne for the first time, the tuning really clicks with me, but more on that later Anyhow, let us begin!
1. The mustard analogy, courtesy of
@fzman
"I think there are multiple factors that impact ones taste and preferences. For example, I hate mustard, so there is no good, better, best for me with respect to mustards- the only best is NONE, thank you very much. I've often been told (in restaurants)- "oh, we only put a little bit in,and we use good mustard-you won't be able to even tell it's in there." NOPE! WRONG! There's nothing wrong with mustard, I just don't like it. Nor can I explain, in any rational way, why i don't--it's not like I was attacked by mustard as a child. So, to offer a horrifyingly mixed metaphor-if an iem or component has a strong, a la Photoshop, "mustard filter", I won't like it."
There's a lot of mustard in this post
2. Lotoo PAW6000 vs LPGT/P6 Pro
The PAW6000 is now comfortably my most recommended DAP, as long as you're powering IEMs and don't care about streaming. It's mostly neutral, with a hint of warmth in the lows - honestly if I wasn't comparing it to the LPGT, I'd go as far as saying it's pretty much an entirely neutral DAP. The bass enjoys a pretty natural decay on it too, which I consider to be a distinct advantage over the LPGT, while the treble isn't quite as detailed but is still to my ears top tier. Lovely staging, detail, dynamics - honestly don't have a bad word to say about the PAW. It also gives IEMs a lot of "creative freedom" - it doesn't really impose its own signature on them, and remains a great reference if you want to get a good idea of what they were tuned like.
On PAW6000 vs P6 Pro - gotta address the elephant in the room, the UI is absolutely incomparably better on the Lotoo. While both DAPs have a pretty minimalistic interface, the PAW is so much more refined, easy and pleasant to use. I haven't encountered a single bug or quirk on the PAW, while the P6 Pro was a bit of a disaster in that respect. Ever since I received the PAW my listening time went up significantly for the simple reason that it just isn't a burden to use
On sound, I actually wouldn't say I flat out prefer the P6 Pro. In the pairings where the P6 Pro works, it is unmatched on texture, dynamics and staging - the Thummim and Gae Bolg were IEMs that I especially enjoyed on it, while the A18S and A12t sounded simply way too dark, to the point where you'd lose most of the detail despite the excellent dynamics. I suppose if your collection is comprised of mostly brighter IEMs the P6 would do quite well, but too much of my time is tied up with the A12t and A18S to justify a 3800$ DAP that doesn't work with them. Also, I generally feel like the asking price is just too high for a DAP with UI this bad.
3. LP W2 vs PAW S1
The TLDR here is that I reaaaally don't love the W2. It's not just the midrange forwardness of the W2 that I don't like, but above all just how generic it sounds. Both the PAW S1 and the W2 are to me two different interpretations of neutral, where the PAW S1 leans towards a slightly more analytical neutral, while the W2 leans more towards a natural neutral. The PAW S1 is more linear, with a little less bass, a little less upper mids and a fair bit more upper treble. The W2 has excellent bass texture, but the midrange presentation on it is to me way overdone in terms of both coloration and quantity - vocals on it end up taking up just way too much space and sounding a little too intimate.
While you could say that just about any neutral-ish source can come across as generic, the difference between the W2 and the PAW S1 is that the W2 "enforces" its own signature on the IEMs much more so than the PAW S1. Listening to the A12t, Roxanne and Thummim, I can spot the W2s tonality much more clearly than I can that of the PAW S1.
On the other hand, we're talking about a 300$ piece of gear, which in the current market is like... pocket change. If you're looking to bring the sound a little closer to you, make it somewhat more intimate, natural and warmer, then by all means - the W2 is a great option. It's also built very well, and the volume control is nicer than that of the PAW S1. The W2 can serve as a great "band aid"-like solution if you committed to a set of IEMs but aren't loving those specific things about them.
My "universal" dongle recommendation remains the Lotoo however
4. Empire Ears Odin.. Part 2
Oh man what a shitshow that was lol. Now that everyone's calmed down and people have actually posted some impressions consistent with mine let's revisit the Odin
My usual testing phase of an IEM consists of me taking my DAP, pressing shuffle play and seeing how the IEMs do with just about anything I listen to. In general, at the prices that the industry is asking for, to justify owning/keeping any IEM, I need it to be able to play anything and everything. I 100% cannot do that with the Odin, so in this round of testing what I did instead was to specifically select songs with either chesty male vocals situated predominantly in the lower mids, or songs with female vocals that never really get too loud or high. No EDM, no pop, no rap, a little rock - nothing that runs even a little hot
The idea behind that was to sort of "correct" for my own bias/preferences and evaluate it in situations where it doesn't do the things that would immediately disqualify it for me
Honestly I'm not sure if the experiment was successful or appropriate in the sense that the Odin's upper mids are such an integral part of its character, evaluating it without those is like evaluating a Legend X on tracks that have little to no bass. Oh well
Anyhow, my findings were decently consistent even on tracks where the Odin isn't too bright. It is an extremely clean sounding monitor, with deep and very well textured bass response, pretty lean (and somewhat thin) mids, and a decently forward treble response with good extension. I could use a little more bass and a little more upper treble, but that's more about my personal preference than it is about me finding that the IEM is lacking. The staging on it is okay, the depth is great, but I could reaaaally use some more width. The Odin's staging feels a little similar to the Elysium's actually - it stretches a little more, but isn't really amongst the IEMs with larger staging
Detail retrieval is excellent, goes without saying - a large part of that is due to the tuning, but the Odin also sports excellent dynamics.
All in all though, there is one thing about the Odin that to me is an "objective" issue, or rather goes beyond it simply being an IEM that isn't suited for my tastes. That being, the mismatch between the bass and the midrange. The Odin has this slightly slow, satisfying, deep and textured bass response - one of the most DD-like bass responses, the W9 drivers have always been a bit of a reference for bass quality - paired with a cold, reference, pure BA-like midrange. I think I'd appreciate the Odin more if it A) went full BA/estat and had a tight, punchy and clean bass to match the midrange or B) kept it's dual W9+, and paired it with a midrange similar to that of the Phantom, going for a thicker tuning throughout the whole spectrum, from bass to treble
Before anyone gets all offended, it's worth noting that none of my time is spent listening to mid-forward or mid-centric IEMs and I'm most certainly not a reviewer that should be taken as sort of authority on mid-forward IEMs. Closest I had to one is the Gae Bolg, which is a pleasant and warm-ish EDC, but it's midrange was too warm and lush for my liking so it ended up getting moved on too.
5. Next up!
- EA EVO1
- JH Roxanne AION, JIMI AION and woop woop, the Jolene! Maybe a Layla?
