Ragnarblade
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
- Posts
- 13
- Likes
- 14
Hello guys.
last month, I pull the trigger and bought the Viper 6 in-ear monitor earphones from Apollo Audio Lab via their official online store www.apolloaudiolab.com , Their post purchase communication and shipping arrangments were fantastic. Parcel was delivered right to my doorstep by fedex.
I had previously sold my Shure SE846 and was hunting for a mid tier price IEM for daily use during my 2 hours of commuting from home to university.I happened to stumble upon this new brand and finally decided to take a plunge !
woo ! and here I am now the new owner of the Viper 6.
Here it is - Apollo Audio Lab Viper 6 in-ear monitor
Disclaimer: I do not claimed that I am an expert in testing and reviewing earphones.However,i had personally used and tested several popular multiple balanced armatures earphones across various brands in the last couple of years, Shure, westone, ultimate ears, unique melody, heir audio, JH , Aurisonics, and now Apollo Audio Lab.
This review is written to illustrate my 3 weeks hands-on audio experience with the Apollo Audio Lab's Viper 6 earphones.
Summary : 85% positive
Accessories: The package comes in an impact resistant black plastic flip case, multiple sets of rubber silicon ear buds (blue , red and black), steel warranty card which I think it's really awesome looking, detachable cable (blue and black 8 wires cross braid) fitted with 3.5mm angled jack (I personally like straight ones better) and a user guide card.
Here is a close up photo shot of the cables. It measures 1.3 meter end to end. There is a clear rubber sleeve to protect the braided cables and they look rather robust to me. I have been using it daily over a month now and there's no sign of fraying . Microphonics in my observation is absent or mildly present. The cables are moderately rigid though.
Earphones shell : The top cover is a pyramid shaped acrylic shell fitted over the bottom that houses the drivers and with a sound outlet nozzle. Unfortunately you cannot install any sound filters on to it. Apollo audio lab should consider incorporating this in future models. The blue coloured shell is semi-transparent which you can only peep into it's content using a flashlight illuminating over it.I saw multiple BAs drivers with sound tubes and cross over circuitry housed within, no different than other ciems. The cable connector that viper 6 uses is a 2 pin connector similar to ultimate ears and westone connectors. I preferred these 2 pins connectors better than shure 535's round pins where I had previous experiences of it malfunctioning twice and had to send in for repairs. The viper 6 shell feels lightweight when put on and the only wish list I have is the cable connectors to be recessed for a stronger connection. Nevertheless, i am pretty satisfied with the cable that came with it and I doubt I will see a need to upgrade the cable or interchange with other cables I had.
Sound Performance :
Viper 6 is designed to be balanced tuned in bass mid and highs audio regions. Upon critical listening for weeks, there's good amount of depth, extension, dynamics and musicality to the low bass frequencies that I am happy with it being a BA earphones. There's adequate "Balanced armature" bass in there..and they are certainly not the fat dynamic driver bass. Bass response is both sharp,quick and punchy.
The mid-band is levelled off pretty well, i did not observe any sudden peaks and overall it has rather musical sound characteristics and, i would have preferred a little more presence and neutrality, however there's plenty of rhythm and musicality and most tracks i listened sounded exciting and certainly did not find them dull and boring.
In the treble segment, the minor details are well represented, i did notice slight roll-off from 7kHz to 10Khz in the high frequencies zone and this is generally observed in most earphones to remove awful sibilance and avoid it from being too shouty and bright, which can be annoying. The only earphone I can think of that has true transparencies in high frequencies is the akg k3003. Viper 6 soundstage is moderately wide , certainly faring better than majority of the brands I had ever used. After listening for hours. I didn't felt the sound were "being in my head" and narrowly enclosed.
conclusion: Viper 6 seems to be the current entry level series that Apollo Audio Lab has in their product line up. They had the other models such as Viper 8 which is similar looking,apart from it being black coloured and had 8 BAs configurations within. Interestingly,a couple of days ago, I received a newsletter email from them , the company is launching their Viper 8 Mark II and Viper 10 (aluminium , titanium case new design) by mid year 2015. Perhaps when the new models arrive, I will sell my Viper 6 and get another shot at their top end model,viper 10 !
last month, I pull the trigger and bought the Viper 6 in-ear monitor earphones from Apollo Audio Lab via their official online store www.apolloaudiolab.com , Their post purchase communication and shipping arrangments were fantastic. Parcel was delivered right to my doorstep by fedex.
I had previously sold my Shure SE846 and was hunting for a mid tier price IEM for daily use during my 2 hours of commuting from home to university.I happened to stumble upon this new brand and finally decided to take a plunge !
woo ! and here I am now the new owner of the Viper 6.
Here it is - Apollo Audio Lab Viper 6 in-ear monitor
Disclaimer: I do not claimed that I am an expert in testing and reviewing earphones.However,i had personally used and tested several popular multiple balanced armatures earphones across various brands in the last couple of years, Shure, westone, ultimate ears, unique melody, heir audio, JH , Aurisonics, and now Apollo Audio Lab.
This review is written to illustrate my 3 weeks hands-on audio experience with the Apollo Audio Lab's Viper 6 earphones.
Summary : 85% positive
Accessories: The package comes in an impact resistant black plastic flip case, multiple sets of rubber silicon ear buds (blue , red and black), steel warranty card which I think it's really awesome looking, detachable cable (blue and black 8 wires cross braid) fitted with 3.5mm angled jack (I personally like straight ones better) and a user guide card.
Here is a close up photo shot of the cables. It measures 1.3 meter end to end. There is a clear rubber sleeve to protect the braided cables and they look rather robust to me. I have been using it daily over a month now and there's no sign of fraying . Microphonics in my observation is absent or mildly present. The cables are moderately rigid though.
Earphones shell : The top cover is a pyramid shaped acrylic shell fitted over the bottom that houses the drivers and with a sound outlet nozzle. Unfortunately you cannot install any sound filters on to it. Apollo audio lab should consider incorporating this in future models. The blue coloured shell is semi-transparent which you can only peep into it's content using a flashlight illuminating over it.I saw multiple BAs drivers with sound tubes and cross over circuitry housed within, no different than other ciems. The cable connector that viper 6 uses is a 2 pin connector similar to ultimate ears and westone connectors. I preferred these 2 pins connectors better than shure 535's round pins where I had previous experiences of it malfunctioning twice and had to send in for repairs. The viper 6 shell feels lightweight when put on and the only wish list I have is the cable connectors to be recessed for a stronger connection. Nevertheless, i am pretty satisfied with the cable that came with it and I doubt I will see a need to upgrade the cable or interchange with other cables I had.
Sound Performance :
Viper 6 is designed to be balanced tuned in bass mid and highs audio regions. Upon critical listening for weeks, there's good amount of depth, extension, dynamics and musicality to the low bass frequencies that I am happy with it being a BA earphones. There's adequate "Balanced armature" bass in there..and they are certainly not the fat dynamic driver bass. Bass response is both sharp,quick and punchy.
The mid-band is levelled off pretty well, i did not observe any sudden peaks and overall it has rather musical sound characteristics and, i would have preferred a little more presence and neutrality, however there's plenty of rhythm and musicality and most tracks i listened sounded exciting and certainly did not find them dull and boring.
In the treble segment, the minor details are well represented, i did notice slight roll-off from 7kHz to 10Khz in the high frequencies zone and this is generally observed in most earphones to remove awful sibilance and avoid it from being too shouty and bright, which can be annoying. The only earphone I can think of that has true transparencies in high frequencies is the akg k3003. Viper 6 soundstage is moderately wide , certainly faring better than majority of the brands I had ever used. After listening for hours. I didn't felt the sound were "being in my head" and narrowly enclosed.
conclusion: Viper 6 seems to be the current entry level series that Apollo Audio Lab has in their product line up. They had the other models such as Viper 8 which is similar looking,apart from it being black coloured and had 8 BAs configurations within. Interestingly,a couple of days ago, I received a newsletter email from them , the company is launching their Viper 8 Mark II and Viper 10 (aluminium , titanium case new design) by mid year 2015. Perhaps when the new models arrive, I will sell my Viper 6 and get another shot at their top end model,viper 10 !
