[ttorbic]

I am glad that you asked this question as its been on my mind lately, I have Serratus, Tantalus, Alpha and just received Ripples last night. I have been listening to TGX buds for about a month or so now. I own the Traillii and Kublai Khan iems currently but have had quite a many others in the past... The more I listen to these buds, the more I do not want to listen to iems. Granted I still enjoy the isolated factor of iems and the way they present music as @SBranson noted above, more in the head and yes even Traillii although immersive still sounds inside my head, which isnt always a bad thing and I sometimes prefer this. The buds, especially Serratus gives me an experience closer to my 2-channel stereo days. I am finding that all of the buds are making my Traillii redundant, as the combination of Tantalus and Serratus equal if not better my experience with Traillii. I love my buds for the timbre, space and mids they provide. SO as of yesterday I have traded my Traillii for a more specialist iem. As I am just not listening to Traillii these days and when I put them on recently, although they are amazing just cant match the timbre of the TGXear buds. I am keeping Kublai Khan for its BCD and deep reaching sub bass extension as I find that very enjoyable with my electronic music and metal/rock. All of this leads me into my experience with the Ripples, still early impressions but the dynamics on this bud reminds me of totl iems, bettering traillii for sure. While Ripples cannot match the sub-bass of the Serratus, the perfect mid bass tuning, neutral mids and crystal clear treble is to die for. Ripples may just be my favorite of all of Jim's buds. They are highly technically competent even against TOTL iems. AT this stage for me, I am all in on TGXEAR buds. I will keep a few iem for specialist reasons, mainly sub bass and isolation factors. Jim @tgx78 is a genius in my opinion and his buds are phenomenal. Here is a breakdown of what I use each for...

Serratus: Classical, Electronic, Ambient, Soul, R&B ( most all rounder of the bunch)
Tantalus: Folk, Singer Songwriter (Mids Specialist)
Alpha: Solo instrumental, Jazz Trio (Timbre King)
Ripples: Rock/Metal, Jazz quartet, etc, Funk, Soul The Ripples can seriously handle extremely energetic music, so I am still exploring as I have only had a few hours thus far. (Dynamic KING)

And here is the mandatory picture of my new Love RIPPLES!!!

Ahhh great write up mate! And I'm super happy and a tad jealous that you have your Ripples already still waiting for mine but reading impressions like yours is helping me ride out the wait

 

[arijitroy2]

I'm not going to say that these buds outperform totl iems but in my subjective experience of having owned the Traillii and been fortunate to hear some other totl iems at meetups with local headfi'ers I find these more enjoyable. At the last meet up I had been away from iems for a couple months and only using my headphones or these buds (and that was when I had only Serratus and Tantalus prototypes, pre Alpha and Ripples days) and the BA timbre of all the totl iems I heard made them sound artificial. Each one had me wondering what justified their price point, seriously. The fact that the timbre was off made me stand back and wonder. It's like looking at something, say a nice car or a nice house and you can appreciate the quality or why someone might like them but they just do nothing for you, let alone be willing to pay so much for them. They may have been "better" in technicals or dynamics or other "audiophile" metrics but in the most important metric for me, timbre, none of them sounded as real or natural. The open nature of the buds add to this too as I find iems to be too much "in my head" even if the soundstage seems large, it's still like a room in my head. Buds are closer to headphones and speakers.
That said, and as I've mentioned before in this thread, this is based on my subjective preferences for natural sounding instruments over flashy dynamics or overt micro detai and my music library tends to follow this too..
I look forward to hearing your impressions against iems as I have none to really compare to.

I am glad that you asked this question as its been on my mind lately, I have Serratus, Tantalus, Alpha and just received Ripples last night. I have been listening to TGX buds for about a month or so now. I own the Traillii and Kublai Khan iems currently but have had quite a many others in the past... The more I listen to these buds, the more I do not want to listen to iems. Granted I still enjoy the isolated factor of iems and the way they present music as @SBranson noted above, more in the head and yes even Traillii although immersive still sounds inside my head, which isnt always a bad thing and I sometimes prefer this. The buds, especially Serratus gives me an experience closer to my 2-channel stereo days. I am finding that all of the buds are making my Traillii redundant, as the combination of Tantalus and Serratus equal if not better my experience with Traillii. I love my buds for the timbre, space and mids they provide. SO as of yesterday I have traded my Traillii for a more specialist iem. As I am just not listening to Traillii these days and when I put them on recently, although they are amazing just cant match the timbre of the TGXear buds. I am keeping Kublai Khan for its BCD and deep reaching sub bass extension as I find that very enjoyable with my electronic music and metal/rock. All of this leads me into my experience with the Ripples, still early impressions but the dynamics on this bud reminds me of totl iems, bettering traillii for sure. While Ripples cannot match the sub-bass of the Serratus, the perfect mid bass tuning, neutral mids and crystal clear treble is to die for. Ripples may just be my favorite of all of Jim's buds. They are highly technically competent even against TOTL iems. AT this stage for me, I am all in on TGXEAR buds. I will keep a few iem for specialist reasons, mainly sub bass and isolation factors. Jim @tgx78 is a genius in my opinion and his buds are phenomenal. Here is a breakdown of what I use each for...

Serratus: Classical, Electronic, Ambient, Soul, R&B ( most all rounder of the bunch)
Tantalus: Folk, Singer Songwriter (Mids Specialist)
Alpha: Solo instrumental, Jazz Trio (Timbre King)
Ripples: Rock/Metal, Jazz quartet, etc, Funk, Soul The Ripples can seriously handle extremely energetic music, so I am still exploring as I have only had a few hours thus far. (Dynamic KING)

And here is the mandatory picture of my new Love RIPPLES!!!

Love this sentiment! I too had quite a few totls this year, spent a lot of money and sold them all already and yeah they were great sounding but the pricing is obnoxious and we're just falling into that trap over and over again forgetting that there's more to than just driver counts and a higher price. I can't wait to get my hands on these buds soon and it'll be icing on the cake if they end up being the best purchases of the year for me!

 

[jwilliamhurst]

Ahhh great write up mate! And I'm super happy and a tad jealous that you have your Ripples already still waiting for mine but reading impressions like yours is helping me ride out the wait

Is it still stuck in customs? You are in for a treat once you receive it.

 

[ttorbic]

Is it still stuck in customs? You are in for a treat once you receive it.

Sadly I've had no updates for 11 days... Let's hope it's not lost!

 

[jwilliamhurst]

Love this sentiment! I too had quite a few totls this year, spent a lot of money and sold them all already and yeah they were great sounding but the pricing is abnoxious and we're just falling into that trap over and over again forgetting that there's more to than just driver counts and a higher price. I can't wait to get my hands on these buds soon and it'll be icing on the cake if they end up being the best purchases of the year for me!

I agree with the exaggerated pricing lately. I love exploring different sound signatures and new tech etc…but not at those prices. I am happy more tours are happening recently which has allowed and is allowing me to hear sets without blind buying or putting down a massive deposit just to demo from a dealer. In my opinion Tours should just be the norm.

 

[jwilliamhurst]

Sadly I've had no updates for 11 days... Let's hope it's not lost!

I’m sure you’ll get it. Mine was stuck for about the same amount of time then randomly showed up delivered…keep the faith

 

[Neweymatt]

I'd be interested in knowing how do people here compare the sound subjectively to their totl iems if they have or had one irrespective of their price differences or driver counts? I'll get my Serratus and Tantalus next week so I'll be doing that.

As much as I am enjoying the Serratus for what it does well, it won't be replacing any of my IEMs, nor does it really change my calculus for future purchases other than offering a nice point of comparison for how great upper mids and treble can be, and perhaps eliminate what interest I may have had in a single-DD IEM. Everything in life is about compromises, and the Serratus is no different, to me anyway.

I find the Serratus lacking for anything requiring deep sub-bass extension, I think it sounds rather aneamic for rap, hip-hop, r&b, or edm vs my Z1R and A12t for example. The bass detail it has is very nice, but impact, rumble, and slam are missing in action.

And then there's the ergonomics of legit portable on-the go usage. While it works with the Apple dongle, insofar as it makes sound, even at max volume what bass extension Serratus does have completely evaporates, and the lovely imaging and staging it is capable of becomes a flat 2D wall of sound. It's definitely a whole lot better with a DAP like the RS6, however because it doesn't even attempt to provide any isolation, if I'm out in a moderately noisy environment I can hear absolutely everything around me drowning out the music.

So for a quick grab-and-go with my phone, commute, walk, or listening to a good chunk of genres I like, Serratus will be packed away at home on my desk where I believe it belongs.

 

[o0genesis0o]

So for a quick grab-and-go with my phone, commute, walk, or listening to a good chunk of genres I like, Serratus will be packed away at home on my desk where I believe it belongs.

Same for me. Buds like Serratus are open back headphones when I don't want to wear open back headphones. The "large soundstage" of buds is also different from the "large soundstage" of IEM and closed back. I guess every good piece of gear has a place and time.

 

[Neweymatt]

Same for me. Buds like Serratus are open back headphones when I don't want to wear open back headphones. The "large soundstage" of buds is also different from the "large soundstage" of IEM and closed back. I guess every good piece of gear has a place and time.

Yeah, that's just it, buds are a thing all their own, and I'm looking forward to using them instead of full-sized headphones during the heat of our upcoming summer if it ever actually happens.

 

[SBranson]

So for a quick grab-and-go with my phone, commute, walk, or listening to a good chunk of genres I like, Serratus will be packed away at home on my desk where I believe it belongs.

A good point about iems and isolation. I have a set of GSAudio iems that I use while working in the basement for their isolation and secure fit and relative ease of power requirements. My earbuds are only plugged into my Burson with gobs of power. I never feel the bass of the Serratus particularly lacking much less MIA.
But that said, to echo this sentiment:

I am keeping Kublai Khan for its BCD and deep reaching sub bass extension as I find that very enjoyable with my electronic music and metal/rock.

It reminds me that at some point I really would like to own again the EE Bravado II simply for that intense bass impact. I really would love to have those as my basement work iem.

 

[o0genesis0o]

A good point about iems and isolation. I have a set of GSAudio iems that I use while working in the basement for their isolation and secure fit and relative ease of power requirements. My earbuds are only plugged into my Burson with gobs of power. I never feel the bass of the Serratus particularly lacking much less MIA.
But that said, to echo this sentiment:


It reminds me that at some point I really would like to own again the EE Bravado II simply for that intense bass impact. I really would love to have those as my basement work iem.

You do an awful lot of stuffs in the basement ...

 

[SBranson]

You do an awful lot of stuffs in the basement ...

www.sbransonknives.com

 

[tgx78]

www.sbransonknives.com

so cool!

 

[SBranson]

so cool!

Thanks.

 

[jwilliamhurst]

www.sbransonknives.com

This is so rad! I’m obsessed with Forged in Fire on Netflix!