AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
Yes, it's big bore and relatively large housing may need some hours of adjustment to find the good fitting point.
Softears - Discussion & Appreciation
AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
After 10 hours of listening, here is my impression:
As Klaus had a great and extensive review on it, my comments are more of the supplement to his review, upon general agreement on most of his citations.
1: usability, fitting, general handling
-It’s a very light IEM, thanks to the carbon-fiber faceplate, the weight is no issue to me
-The housing is big, and it’s a “big bore” nozzle, some may find it difficult to fit, but the nozzle length is relatively short, I would use SpinFit (this ear-tip has a little extension in terms of total tip length). I tried CP100, CP155, CP500, AZLA Xelastic and found myself in more favor of a wider opened diameter CP500(6~7mm bore) that does not block the sound wave passage. If you feel the treble is too bright, try using a narrower bore like CP100, it will ease the brightness (with a trade-off of imaging)
-The housing seems completely sealed, I did not see any vent holes and noticed ear-pressure is kept constant like one of those Ety's. You may try Klaus's suggestion (User moldex or Bilsom's ear plug), the default ear tips (silicone, comply like forms) was not my taste.
-the cable is light and tight, you may experience some touch noise, so I’d use a clip to prevent touch noise when walking.
-It’s 8 ohms, and I found this high sensitivity IEM helps to run it with very low gain from the DAPs, the lower volume the better “pitch dark background with lessor noise”
2: Some personal background
Why I am here: the background
First of all, you may need to take this to your consideration:
-I haven’t tried any of over kilo-buck IEMs, well at least the recent ones
-My motivation was to seek my endgame passage based on my enlightenment from the blessing 2, my current path is Thieaudio Monarch and this Softears RSV
-I tend to love more V-shaped and wider sound stage IEMs(like UE used to have) than pure-flat ER4S, but I found that sound signature preference actually was obsolete compared to the hi-fidelity tonality and high technicality one after I was enlightened by the modern age IEMs (Blessing 2 was the trigger for me)
-I’m interested in UM MEST (a very tempting expensive toy with something new), and Softears Cerberus(it’s beyond my budget range though), RSV is one of the attempts for Softear’s tuning (And I’m convinced this company rocks).
Still, I’m not a guy with an indefinite budget to spend, so value-to-money is still the main decision-making point to me. My personal limit for IEM is $1.5K USD, and over that for me is a money-no-object luxury.
[Further background]
I was semi-retired from the high-end portable audio hobby for a while since apple ceased the 3.5mm jack and the traditional line-out. Although I had some high-end DAPs like Hifiman’s HM801 (their very first high-end DAP), and one of AK’s, I tend to love more convenience over the sound quality, so my listening platform shifted from lossless to streaming services. I was still following KZ from their beginning to date, but not some serious high-end product like 64 audio/ campfire, etc.
It was a coincidence Apple’s AirPods Pro (which was actually a pretty surprise from a company like Apple to come up with decent sound quality), brought me back to seek the high-end audio world and unfortunately for my wallet, a long and enjoyable pathway to seek the endgame again.
3: The Sound
TL; DR: “Hear the Truth” and you can “see” it.
I agree with Klaus’s(@HuoYuanJia ) review, so I’d keep it as some notes with my personal experience.
Personal Comparison with Blessing 2:
[UPDATED Impression]
With High Gain Amps, RSV's high sensitivity could easily overrun its own precision, careful when running RSV!
[Initial Impression]
*I mentioned Knowles BA for treble on Blessing 2 not to complement, but rather to hope Moondrop to change in a near-future model, Knowles does a good job, but not excellent.
Overall, it’s so natural and accurate in terms of every technicality you can imagine, the tonality is Harman neutral with a bit of bass boost which matches with my favor for musical entertainment.
From now on my reference of "true tone" will be based on RSV, as Klaus mentioned in his review "perfect for professional use in mixing and mastering" I can't agree more. This is a no-joke IEM that hit exactly on the spots with correct tones.
I have Sennheiser's world's first Electrostatic headphone Unipolar 2002, the father of legendary Orpheus, some reviewers said it sound very similar to Orpheus indeed. And I admit it sounds so beautiful, but not like this RSV naturally beautiful, and surprisingly I found RSV to have better resolution than the electrostatic headphone. I'm quite surprised that this kind of reference sound could come in so handy by an IEM. Whoever tuned this is gifted. As someone who lived with hundreds of IEMs & Cans, I can officially announce that I'm ranking Moondrop / Softears to my highest respected brands par with Sennheiser from now on.
I’m receiving my Monarch from linsoul in Mid march and would like to compare those two soon!
As Klaus had a great and extensive review on it, my comments are more of the supplement to his review, upon general agreement on most of his citations.
1: usability, fitting, general handling
-It’s a very light IEM, thanks to the carbon-fiber faceplate, the weight is no issue to me
-The housing is big, and it’s a “big bore” nozzle, some may find it difficult to fit, but the nozzle length is relatively short, I would use SpinFit (this ear-tip has a little extension in terms of total tip length). I tried CP100, CP155, CP500, AZLA Xelastic and found myself in more favor of a wider opened diameter CP500(6~7mm bore) that does not block the sound wave passage. If you feel the treble is too bright, try using a narrower bore like CP100, it will ease the brightness (with a trade-off of imaging)
-The housing seems completely sealed, I did not see any vent holes and noticed ear-pressure is kept constant like one of those Ety's. You may try Klaus's suggestion (User moldex or Bilsom's ear plug), the default ear tips (silicone, comply like forms) was not my taste.
-the cable is light and tight, you may experience some touch noise, so I’d use a clip to prevent touch noise when walking.
-It’s 8 ohms, and I found this high sensitivity IEM helps to run it with very low gain from the DAPs, the lower volume the better “pitch dark background with lessor noise”
2: Some personal background
Why I am here: the background
First of all, you may need to take this to your consideration:
-I haven’t tried any of over kilo-buck IEMs, well at least the recent ones
-My motivation was to seek my endgame passage based on my enlightenment from the blessing 2, my current path is Thieaudio Monarch and this Softears RSV
-I tend to love more V-shaped and wider sound stage IEMs(like UE used to have) than pure-flat ER4S, but I found that sound signature preference actually was obsolete compared to the hi-fidelity tonality and high technicality one after I was enlightened by the modern age IEMs (Blessing 2 was the trigger for me)
-I’m interested in UM MEST (a very tempting expensive toy with something new), and Softears Cerberus(it’s beyond my budget range though), RSV is one of the attempts for Softear’s tuning (And I’m convinced this company rocks).
Still, I’m not a guy with an indefinite budget to spend, so value-to-money is still the main decision-making point to me. My personal limit for IEM is $1.5K USD, and over that for me is a money-no-object luxury.
[Further background]
I was semi-retired from the high-end portable audio hobby for a while since apple ceased the 3.5mm jack and the traditional line-out. Although I had some high-end DAPs like Hifiman’s HM801 (their very first high-end DAP), and one of AK’s, I tend to love more convenience over the sound quality, so my listening platform shifted from lossless to streaming services. I was still following KZ from their beginning to date, but not some serious high-end product like 64 audio/ campfire, etc.
It was a coincidence Apple’s AirPods Pro (which was actually a pretty surprise from a company like Apple to come up with decent sound quality), brought me back to seek the high-end audio world and unfortunately for my wallet, a long and enjoyable pathway to seek the endgame again.
3: The Sound
TL; DR: “Hear the Truth” and you can “see” it.
I agree with Klaus’s(@HuoYuanJia ) review, so I’d keep it as some notes with my personal experience.
Personal Comparison with Blessing 2:
[UPDATED Impression]
With High Gain Amps, RSV's high sensitivity could easily overrun its own precision, careful when running RSV!
[Initial Impression]
*I mentioned Knowles BA for treble on Blessing 2 not to complement, but rather to hope Moondrop to change in a near-future model, Knowles does a good job, but not excellent.
Overall, it’s so natural and accurate in terms of every technicality you can imagine, the tonality is Harman neutral with a bit of bass boost which matches with my favor for musical entertainment.
From now on my reference of "true tone" will be based on RSV, as Klaus mentioned in his review "perfect for professional use in mixing and mastering" I can't agree more. This is a no-joke IEM that hit exactly on the spots with correct tones.
I have Sennheiser's world's first Electrostatic headphone Unipolar 2002, the father of legendary Orpheus, some reviewers said it sound very similar to Orpheus indeed. And I admit it sounds so beautiful, but not like this RSV naturally beautiful, and surprisingly I found RSV to have better resolution than the electrostatic headphone. I'm quite surprised that this kind of reference sound could come in so handy by an IEM. Whoever tuned this is gifted. As someone who lived with hundreds of IEMs & Cans, I can officially announce that I'm ranking Moondrop / Softears to my highest respected brands par with Sennheiser from now on.
I’m receiving my Monarch from linsoul in Mid march and would like to compare those two soon!
Attachments
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Really nice impressions. I liked the comparison table a lot as well and I would be extremely interested in how it compares with the monarch.After 10 hours of listening, here is my impression:
As Klaus had a great and extensive review on it, my comments are more of the supplement to his review, upon general agreement on most of his citations.
1: usability, fitting, general handling
-It’s a very light IEM, thanks to the carbon-fiber faceplate, the weight is no issue to me
-The housing is big, and it’s a “big bore” nozzle, some may find it difficult to fit, but the nozzle length is relatively short, I would use SpinFit (this ear-tip has a little extension in terms of total tip length). I tried CP100, CP500, and found myself in more favor of a wider opened diameter CP500(6~7mm bore) that does not block the sound wave passage.
-the cable is light and tight, you may experience some touch noise, so I’d use a clip to prevent touch noise when walking.
-It’s 8 ohms, and I found this high sensitivity IEM helps to run it with very low gain from the DAPs, the lower volume the better “pitch dark background with lessor noise”
2: Some personal background
Why I am here: the background
First of all, you may need to take this to your consideration:
-I haven’t tried any of over kilo-buck IEMs, well at least the recent ones
-My motivation was to seek my endgame passage based on my enlightenment from the blessing 2, my current path is Thieaudio Monarch and this Softears RSV
-I tend to love more V-shaped and wider sound stage IEMs(like UE used to have) than pure-flat ER4S, but I found that sound signature preference actually was less obsolete compared to the hi-fidelity tonality and high technicality one after I was enlightened by the modern age IEMs (Blessing 2 was the trigger for me)
-I’m interested in UM MEST (a very tempting expensive toy with something new), and Softears Cerberus(it’s beyond my budget range though), RSV is one of the attempts for Softear’s tuning (And I’m convinced this company rocks).
Still, I’m not a guy with an indefinite budget to spend, so value-to-money is still the main decision-making point to me. My personal limit for IEM is $1.5K USD, and over that for me is a money-no-object luxury.
[Further background]
I was semi-retired from the high-end portable audio hobby for a while since apple ceased the 3.5mm jack and the traditional line-out. Although I had some high-end DAPs like Hifiman’s HM801 (their very first high-end DAP), and one of AK’s, I tend to love more convenience over the sound quality, so my listening platform shifted from lossless to streaming services. I was still following KZ from their beginning to date, but not some serious high-end product like 64 audio/ campfire, etc.
It was a coincidence Apple’s AirPods Pro (which was actually a pretty surprise from a company like Apple to come up with decent sound quality), brought me back to seek the high-end audio world and unfortunately for my wallet, a long and enjoyable pathway to seek the endgame again.
3: The Sound
TL; DR: “Hear the Truth” and you can “see” it.
I agree with Klaus’s(@HuoYuanJia ) review, so I’d keep it as some notes with my personal experience.
Personal Comparison with Blessing 2:
Overall, it’s so natural and accurate in terms of every technicality you can imagine, the tonality is Harman neutral with a bit of bass boost which matches with my favor for musical entertainment.
I’m receiving my Monarch from linsoul in Mid march and would like to compare those two soon!
chi2
500+ Head-Fier
Yes, nice impressions @AmericanSpirit, thanks a bunch!
If I get it right, the main relative weakness seems to be the bass, at least tonally. So, no complaint about lack of control from your side, but rather you, like Klaus, consider the amount to be just a bit too much.
If I get it right, the main relative weakness seems to be the bass, at least tonally. So, no complaint about lack of control from your side, but rather you, like Klaus, consider the amount to be just a bit too much.
AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
Right, when I was testing human voice samples, the BA timbre is still BA, it lacked that "temperature" of the kind that only DD could reproduce.
The amount of bass is actually a perfect match with my taste, it's more of the BA tonality.
And Yes, it's a bit bass boosted in terms of pure neutrality, if you happened to know what ER4S makes or like STAX does.
When I re-cabled to Moondrop's coax 6N pure copper one, I noticed the bass boost was gone, and the treble raised for more transparency, but sometimes too bright, so I switched back to the original cable.
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AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
Let me revise my impression as it changes drastically AFTER I noticed it, with LOW GAIN mode on DAPs RSV performs perfectly even in bass & sub-bass, with the "temperature" that only DD could produce. Original Post will be revised.
redrol
Headphoneus Supremus
OH !!!
The impedance of these is 8ohm which is very low. Low gain should be better in general because output impedance is minimalized.
The impedance of these is 8ohm which is very low. Low gain should be better in general because output impedance is minimalized.
AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
Thanks! I was just accustomed to use on high gains haha, the low impedance was very crucial factor to run it properly.
redrol
Headphoneus Supremus
I went to go 'like' your post @AmericanSpirit but my like button is missing. Regardless I ordered a pair.
AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
Welcome to this new and exciting Softears club!
Now my fingers are itching on Cerberus...but it’s almost an investment grade kind spending. I will wait till Monarch arrives and see.
chi2
500+ Head-Fier
@redrol I suggest ordering from ShenzhenAudio, like AmericanSpirit did. I got a Fedex tracking number from HiFiGo two days ago, but the parcel still hasn't been shipped. It's now 10 days since having purchased it.
redrol
Headphoneus Supremus
Yep, Shenzhen was nice to chat with on their little website chat thing. Very responsive. I usually try and do that to see if they are on the ball.. and they were. Ordered thereafter.
I told myself I wouldn't buy anymore all BA sets.. but the tuning on this thing is exactly what I want. Also Softears competes in the highest end of audio so naturally, need to try one.
And yeah, I want the higher end sets very much but the price can't be done right now. Taxes and all.. *sigh*
AmericanSpirit
Member of the Trade: Night Oblivion
HiFiGo is well known for its slow shipping, trustworthy but just slow, hope your package gets delivered soon!
chi2
500+ Head-Fier
Didn't know that but certainly will consider this in the future.
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