Thanks for
@Sebastien Chiu &
@Damz87 for the Australian Tour of the Symphonium Crimson, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks with this IEM in return for my honest impressions, as always my impressions aren't influenced by this.
Packaging:
The IEM comes packaged in a fairly small box, the tour model comes with upgraded 8W cable with interchangeable termination (3.5mm / 4.4mm), I used 4.4mm for my time with Crimson. It also comes with two different types of tips, Azla Sednafit Standard and Divinus Velvets, I preferred the sound with the Sednafit, but preferred the feel of the Velvets, in the end I used Clarion Tri tips for most of my time with the IEM. It also comes with a (to me) extremely small metal puck to store the IEM in, nice quality but not big enough for me. Overall decent for the price.
Fit:
My relationship didn't start out well with Crimson, there is no venting on this IEM and I'm quite sensitive to pressure build up, so had to use the Velvets, but found that the did something to the sound that I wasn't a big fan of. I ended up with them on most of the time at the start but I had an order of Clarion TRI coming, despite them not being vented I found they helped with pressure build up (not completely but enough), and got back the sound of the Sednafit, so once they arrived I used those and they are what my sound impressions are based on. Other than that they fit my ears quite well.
My Setup:
I mainly listed to these through my FiiO Q7 fed from my iPhone 14, using the 4.4mm output. I did receive the Luxury & Precision W4 today and have driven it from that today for the last few hours, surprisingly I preferred the Crimson from this setup and addressed a few concerns I had (causing me to rewrite most of the impressions below). I didn't expect it to work well from a dongle but here I am, and to be honest it saved the IEM for me. In short, I don't recommend this from the FiiO, but do from the W4 and would recommend trying multiple sources. Music wise I like a little bit of everything and listened to a little bit of everything through these.
Sound:
Bass:
I prefer DD's for bass, and I recently got the Scarlet Mini, so I've pretty much paused my Scarlet Mini listening for the purpose of reviewing this, but the preference still stands. The bass on the Crimson is well done, it doesn't hit deep like some DD's but there is plenty of impact and it's extremely well controlled. Sub bass is nice, maybe a little but of rumble. No bleed into the mids and doesn't ruin anything else. Nice and above average, nearly great.
Mids:
Detailed, accurate. Vocals sound great, not amazing for male or female but great across the board. Forward, not overly so, but certainly more so than 'neutral'. Very enjoyable to listen to and no complaints.
Treble:
With some tips this IEM can be very bright. Almost painfully so. With the Clarion Tri that disappeared completely and you're left with an absolutely beautiful treble presentation. There is a lot of detail presented here, not really an IEM to sit back and relax with, but when you want to really extract detail from this region the Crimson delivered it in spades. It's the standout area for me, and the reason you'd want to pick this IEM up.
Technicalities:
At this price point it's somewhere at the top of the list. The stage is expansive in width, depth is decent. I've been listening to headphones quite a bit recently and IEM's just don't get there, but comparing to it's IEM brethren it does extremely well.
Comparisons:
vs 7th Acoustics Supernova:
My favourite all BA set, Crimson doesn't change that from an overall package. Supernova is cheaper than Crimson, 6BA vs 4BA in Crimson. I prefer the bass and mids on Supernova, with vocals shining a little more for me. It doesn't reach the technical prowess of the Crimson. Supernova certainly warmer overall. Would make a good pair together for the BA lover.
vs Sennheiser IE900:
Similar price, completely different design and sound. IE900 sits high up on my list for an IEM at any price point. I find it to be an extremely musical and coherent IEM. Crimson does extract more detail in the treble region, and would work better for tracks where you want that. Again, quite complementary for two very different sounding presentations.
vs Thieaudio Monarch Mk3:
Monarch Mk3 is cheaper than Crimson by 500USD. It's a tribrid DD, BA, EST. For my money the Monarch Mk3 is more balanced across the board, but it's more of a sit down and relax IEM. Where you'd lean towards Crimson would be if you want a cleaner sounding IEM that extracts detail and shoves it in your face.
A note on source:
So, for most of the time that I had Crimson I found it boring, this was being driven from my FiiO Q7 and trialling many different tips. At the last minute I received the W4 and listening to it through that did something which I can't quite pinpoint, but transformed it into something that I enjoyed. For the most part none of the sound impressions changed, it just went from meh to this is quite nice. I generally do source roll but I haven't really had anything I didn't like from the Q7, so didn't bother with this until I got the W4 and just wanted to try the dongle out. Anyway, point being, try different sources with Crimson, it can transform your experience.
Overall:
This very quickly went to something I really enjoyed when I had the right source. Design wise I wish it had some venting, but the right tips eventually pretty much solved that for me. I think it's probably ~500USD to much for what you're getting, but for certain music and tastes it will be perfect. In the treble region it competes with TOTL sets, but so do other IEM's at lower price points for other TOTL qualities. It get's a 'recommended for some' at 1500USD from me.
From my rankings (I haven't put the IE900 into the below format yet):
