davidmolliere
Headphoneus Supremus
So... I have spent some quality time with the Orla and I must say I am definitely impressed... first technically it punches well above its price point, the resolution is impressive and I found timbre to be quite accurate in fact not that warm at least on the DX220 and even N6ii for that matter. I expected the Orla to be harder to drive with the 32ohm and 96dB sensitivity but I found myself sticking to medium gain on the N6ii and 40/45 volume on a 100 (keep in mind I am a low volume listener though).
I burned the Orla in over a 120 hours and the bass is now tight, controlled with snappy attack and fairly quick decay for a dynamic driver. The upper bass is not emphasized and it's more of an audiophile bass to me than a fat bass radiating warmth accross the signature. Similarly, lower mids are fairly balanced and overall I found the mids to be slightly north of neutral but just enough to be natural sounding I wouldn't peg them as warm. Lower treble has good energy but there is restraint as well and I think the Orla really is more about upper treble where I was quite surprised by the extension and refinement up top. As I said this brings a fair amount of air although the mono driver conveys a sense of a unified continuum accross the frequency range. Resolution is nothing short of impressive, and a huge suprise to me that it reaches that level at this price point. I dare say it's up to par with the best 1K+ IEMs only bested by resolution focused top offerings. Soundstage is not huge but very coherent and imaging is very very good as well.
But let's forget technicalities, the Orla is very musical to my ears.
I confess I expected a warmer and bassier signature but I would put it in the natural reference category and found myself picking a lot of Jazz and a bit of classical and enjoying it a lot with the Orla. On genres like Rock I found myself wishing for more kick on the bass and bite on electric guitars, as well as more lower mids but that's personnal preference or maybe I have listened too much to the FIBAE7 and my ear is skewed towards warmer and fuller signatures
Review in progress so expect much more detailed impressions
I burned the Orla in over a 120 hours and the bass is now tight, controlled with snappy attack and fairly quick decay for a dynamic driver. The upper bass is not emphasized and it's more of an audiophile bass to me than a fat bass radiating warmth accross the signature. Similarly, lower mids are fairly balanced and overall I found the mids to be slightly north of neutral but just enough to be natural sounding I wouldn't peg them as warm. Lower treble has good energy but there is restraint as well and I think the Orla really is more about upper treble where I was quite surprised by the extension and refinement up top. As I said this brings a fair amount of air although the mono driver conveys a sense of a unified continuum accross the frequency range. Resolution is nothing short of impressive, and a huge suprise to me that it reaches that level at this price point. I dare say it's up to par with the best 1K+ IEMs only bested by resolution focused top offerings. Soundstage is not huge but very coherent and imaging is very very good as well.
But let's forget technicalities, the Orla is very musical to my ears.
I confess I expected a warmer and bassier signature but I would put it in the natural reference category and found myself picking a lot of Jazz and a bit of classical and enjoying it a lot with the Orla. On genres like Rock I found myself wishing for more kick on the bass and bite on electric guitars, as well as more lower mids but that's personnal preference or maybe I have listened too much to the FIBAE7 and my ear is skewed towards warmer and fuller signatures
Review in progress so expect much more detailed impressions
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