SPEAR Labs™ Information, Impressions, Reviews & Discussion Thread
Dec 14, 2019 at 1:07 AM Post #16 of 59
How does the silver body feel against the ear?
Does PAW6000 have enough to drive triton 1?

It looks nice, fits well and doesn't feel any uncomfortable even during these cool winter days...

The PAW 6000 is marvelous despite its size and weight, and it's driving the Triton 1 well. The Triton 1 isn't particularly easy to drive, definitely more demanding than the Fourte Noir yet easier than the Sony IER Z1R... probably similar to the JVC FW10000. These said, both my PAW 6000 and Triton 1 are pretty new and I do expect their performance to further improve in the coming weeks... :)
 
Dec 16, 2019 at 2:54 PM Post #18 of 59
It looks nice, fits well and doesn't feel any uncomfortable even during these cool winter days...

The PAW 6000 is marvelous despite its size and weight, and it's driving the Triton 1 well. The Triton 1 isn't particularly easy to drive, definitely more demanding than the Fourte Noir yet easier than the Sony IER Z1R... probably similar to the JVC FW10000. These said, both my PAW 6000 and Triton 1 are pretty new and I do expect their performance to further improve in the coming weeks... :)
If you have time,I love to hear how Triton is maturing over time.
There are four product on my purchase list, triton has made it all the way to the top, purely because of how fresh the design is.
Does it isolate well?
 
Dec 16, 2019 at 10:00 PM Post #20 of 59
Designwise it's amazingly refreshing and the fit is perfect. The tuning is for soundstage and everything you'd wish for other than neutrality. It got a fairly prominent 8K peak out of the box but that's quickly gone with one overnight heavy burn-in. Needs power for control and balance, may sound a bit too hot for less powerful sources.

The obsidian is a nice touch and looks good in hand..........but looks meh when worn. The extra silver sheen surrounding the obsidian plate saves it from looking plasticky.
 
Dec 17, 2019 at 12:06 PM Post #21 of 59
If you have time,I love to hear how Triton is maturing over time.
There are four product on my purchase list, triton has made it all the way to the top, purely because of how fresh the design is.
Does it isolate well?

My Triton 1 will be one week old tomorrow and I must say it's one of my equipments that react this dramatically to the burn-in process. The first night, the first four hours in particular, was awful - harsh mids and treble, thin bass, and incoherence amongst them... Just when I thought the break-in this time is gonna be a long and difficult one, its treble turned smooth only the next morning.The mids were clean and transparent though sometimes somewhat tight. On the third day, I could start to feel the attack of the bass which hit real deep though it's still a little light... As of now, I couldn't be happier with its treble and bass. Not only do they have amazing extention, they are full of energy and beautifully resolving subtle and exquisite details...

Can't wait to find out how it's sound is like when optimal performance is being achieved in one month or two. Yet even before that the Triton 1 is easily one of my two favourite in-ear earphones.:)
 
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Dec 17, 2019 at 12:51 PM Post #22 of 59
Thanks for writing your continued impressions @hugo poon

How are instrument separation, details and layering?
 
Dec 17, 2019 at 10:05 PM Post #23 of 59
Designwise it's amazingly refreshing and the fit is perfect. The tuning is for soundstage and everything you'd wish for other than neutrality. It got a fairly prominent 8K peak out of the box but that's quickly gone with one overnight heavy burn-in. Needs power for control and balance, may sound a bit too hot for less powerful sources.

The obsidian is a nice touch and looks good in hand..........but looks meh when worn. The extra silver sheen surrounding the obsidian plate saves it from looking plasticky.

2 overnight heavy burn-in (high gain with slightly higher than tolerable volume) and now it's incredibly transparent, vastly detailed and with one of the most expansive soundstage ever perceived from an iem/ciem. The harshness all gone by now, but the need for power remains.
 
Dec 18, 2019 at 12:00 AM Post #24 of 59
Thanks for writing your continued impressions @hugo poon

How are instrument separation, details and layering?

Apart from its beautiful treble (most beautiful treble I've ever heard), it's the resolution and separation that impress me most and make the Triton 1 stand out among my other favourite earphones like the Sony IER Z1R or the JVC FW10000.

First, the most subtle and finest details are being brought to the mind's ears in amazing clarity. But unlike some sophisticated "hearing aid like" high res earphones that only discharge a whole bunch of unrelated information onto you, the details are reproduced in such an exquisite (musical) manner that they play in beautiful harmony with each other. The only other earphone (I own) that is able to achieve this is the 64 Fourte Noir but its sound signature is so different... Talking about separation and layering, the Sony has always been marvelous to me, yet just a brief A/B comparison, the Triton 1 is immediately found superior. It does not only excel at a separation horizontally but also one vertically, resulting in an exceptional 3 dimensional soundstage!:)
 
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Dec 21, 2019 at 12:11 AM Post #25 of 59
Question: How can a pair of IEMs be "hard to drive"? Seriously -- having to turn up the volume a bit more doesn't indicate driving difficulty.
 
Dec 21, 2019 at 5:08 AM Post #26 of 59
Question: How can a pair of IEMs be "hard to drive"? Seriously -- having to turn up the volume a bit more doesn't indicate driving difficulty.
I could not provide the technical reasons, but I have listened to quite a few IEMs that sounded MUCH better with more power / proper amping. Not just in terms of volume, but with better control in the bass, more space, etc. The most extreme example what the Obravo Ra. Sounded like crap out of a (powerful) DAP and much better with an amp.
 
Dec 21, 2019 at 9:40 AM Post #27 of 59
is there any comparison with final a8000?
 
Dec 21, 2019 at 6:06 PM Post #28 of 59
I could not provide the technical reasons, but I have listened to quite a few IEMs that sounded MUCH better with more power / proper amping. Not just in terms of volume, but with better control in the bass, more space, etc. The most extreme example what the Obravo Ra. Sounded like crap out of a (powerful) DAP and much better with an amp.

Obravo IEMs don't use normal IEM drivers. Regular balanced armature and dynamic drivers for IEMs don't need power. I think people are confusing gain with power, which is quite common. That's not to say that a high-end pair of IEMs wont benefit from a good DAP though.
 
Jan 6, 2020 at 4:47 AM Post #30 of 59
Obravo IEMs don't use normal IEM drivers. Regular balanced armature and dynamic drivers for IEMs don't need power. I think people are confusing gain with power, which is quite common. That's not to say that a high-end pair of IEMs wont benefit from a good DAP though.

The ACT/Magnetostatic driver this model uses for the highs is basically a planar driver by another name - been discussing the merits of this "new" type of IEM driver with a few people recently, and have the Itsfit Labs Fusion, which also uses one for the high frequencies (in fact, think the config is key similar with 1xDD, 2xBA and a magnetostat.

I'm no technical guru, but given that certain planar over-ears can be considered "hard to drive", imagine it's possible that either the BA and DD elements have to be damped to match the output volume of the magnetostat driver being used (requiring more volume/gain from the source to reach acceptable listening levels) or there may be some other aspect of the planar/magnetostat driver which behaves in a similar manner to a "typical" planar diaphragm used in earlier over-ear cans and requires more juice to reach optimum performance.

This is only supposition as I haven't heard the Triton 1, although as a huge fan of Dale's tuning from back in the Aurisonics days (the ASG 1Plus and ASG 2.5 are some of my favourite all time IEMs), this is definitely on the list to hear at some point in the future!

The planar and magnetostat driver tech popping up in models like the Noble M3, IMR Acoustics Rah and Itsfit Fusion is definitely showing promise - interesting times ahead for the IEM world, I think.
 

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