[ian91]

I'm still waiting on my serratus and tantalus to come back before I spill any beans. I loaned them to a great friend. Those aint leaving anymore after this

That sounds painful! I wouldn't be without Serratus or Alpha. I haven't listened to an IEM in almost 3 weeks and I don't see that changing soon.

 

[nymz]

Looking forward to seeing more impressions roll in.

The Alpha is performing some real magic tonight with this track. A 17min acoustic, percussive journey with some great positional cues and tests of timbre - close your eyes, turn the lights off and strap in. At about the 9:30 mark a deep drum comes in with a very atmospheric effect that reveals the dimension and bass quality the driver can produce.

​

You're right, that bass is something nice and deep. Using Edition XS at the moment, but I'm glad I found this

 

[drewbadour]

Looking forward to seeing more impressions roll in.

The Alpha is performing some real magic tonight with this track. A 17min acoustic, percussive journey with some great positional cues and tests of timbre - close your eyes, turn the lights off and strap in. At about the 9:30 mark a deep drum comes in with a very atmospheric effect that reveals the dimension and bass quality the driver can produce.

​

Thank you for sharing this! Never heard of Sirom before but this is an absolute journey to listen to!

 

[Chessnaudio]

Looking forward to seeing more impressions roll in.

The Alpha is performing some real magic tonight with this track. A 17min acoustic, percussive journey with some great positional cues and tests of timbre - close your eyes, turn the lights off and strap in. At about the 9:30 mark a deep drum comes in with a very atmospheric effect that reveals the dimension and bass quality the driver can produce.

​

Very cool! Thanks for the share.

 

[tfaduh]

These are all just... amazing. Got Tantalus out with me with an outing with my little family. Enjoying myself immensely.

 

[tfaduh]

Thought I'd leave my thoughts here cause I have been absolutely enamored with these two sets - Alpha and Serratus are my two favorite sets of all time:

Serratus:
Amazing separation, clarity, and presentation. Imaging and stage very good. Beautiful balanced/neutral tuning from bass to treble. Center images very well - almost like speakers. Timbre is spot on - everything sounds so natural and right. I liken it to the U12T but without the wonky timbre. Super addictive to listen to! Also very distracting because it demands my attention - I can't listen to this during work hours or I will end up just listening to the music intently!

Alpha:
Similar to Serratus in technicalities as far as details and stage - I do think Serratus does center imaging and separation slightly better but that might be something psychoacoustic due to Serratus mids being slightly pulled back compared to Alpha. This is not bassy by any means but the bass is very high quality and textured. Tonally a touch of warmth with a very satisfying note weight. Mids on Alpha are absolutely sublime. Best vocals I've heard across IEMs, headphones, and buds. But the star of the show that makes this my favorite set at the time of this writing - this is the first time I've heard any audio gear reproduce the violin so well - listening to Gil Shaham perform Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin nearly brought tears to my eyes with how expressive and beautiful the violin sounds. I went back to a/b with other sets that I thought did violin well and they all sounded a bit lacking.

These two sets fill two different roles for me - the Serratus is the all-rounder that does everything incredibly well and that I can always count on for an enjoyable listen. And while the Alpha is not as well-rounded (mostly due to bass quantity), it does what it does well so well that it just blows my mind. Highest praise for both of these sets - kudos to @tgx78 for creating these two masterpieces!

Thanks for introducing the Violin tracks. They sound unreal through Alpha omg.

 

[ian91]

These are all just... amazing. Got Tantalus out with me with an outing with my little family. Enjoying myself immensely.

Enjoy! What source are you finding works best with Alpha? How does the Gryphon pair with it?

 

[Serge Bernamej]

tgxear Tantalus MMCX
500ΩBery (86dB/mW)
No. 0004
4.4TRRRS (Sony Pentaconn 4.4MM Balanced)
tgxear by @tgx78


tgxear Tantalus MMCX hanging out with the tgxear 4-Pin XLR to 4.4MM Pentaconn "Fat Bitch" cable adapter​

Summit-fi! An astounding achievement in both sound and finish, these reference tuned flathead earbuds offer stellar timbre and resolution rarely seen in such a small transducer medium! The tgxear Tantalus MMCX are slightly harder to drive than even my power hungry beasts the Longyao-Yinman 2.0 600 LE; 600Ω. And like the Yinman 600 they scale incredibly well with more power. Their sound signature could be classified as being Mid-Centric - Warm and although they are reference-like and very resolute their overall sound signature is actually quite relaxing and fatigue-free. To my ears the offered FR is quite linear, well-balanced; expertly tuned. The signature is super vocal friendly and offers nearly perfect timbre across the board... especially when considering the driver size being employed here. However, it must be noted that they can be awfully critical of poor recordings and sources. The accompanied MMCX cable and cable adapter are extraordinarily well-made and of high-quality materials... some of the best cables I have ever seen in fact. The MMCX cable exhibits no detectable microphonics and is so supple that it greatly aids in a more solid and featherweight fit of the MX500 shells in the ears... well done! Great care was taken in making these earbuds and cables and the passionate skill applied in their creation is overly apparent throughout the build and very much appreciated. Bravo @tgx78!

My best tag for the Tantalus would be smooth-criminal timbre-monsters!

More information about their sound signature & tuning can be found down below in the second spoiler section entitled "tgxear Tantalus MMCX Sound Signature Chart".

Spoiler: More Pics - tgxear Tantalus MMCX

tgxear Tantalus MMCX w/ tgxear MMCX to 4.4MM Pentaconn cable and tgxear 4-Pin XLR to 4.4MM Pentaconn "Fat Bitch"

Spoiler: tgxear Tantalus MMCX w/ Valphonics Scarlet MMCX to 2.5TRRS Cable

Here are my Tantalus hooked up to a Valphonics Scarlet MMCX to 2.5TRRS Cable made by @ValSuki
A nicely made minimalist low-profile OFC cable indeed!

Spoiler: tgxear Tantalus MMCX Sound Signature Chart

It is crucial that you do not interpret this chart two-dimensionally but rather three-dimensionally using all axes offered. Optimally, this would be best presented as a sphere but in turn that would make it difficult to clearly see and read all the labels and sections. Thus, we are limited to two-dimensions for the sake of presentation and clarity. Please note that I tried my best to stick to the "classic" (more basic) sound signature & tuning characteristic definitions as used by recording professionals & audio engineers (more here).

tgxear Tantalus MMCX Sound Signature Chart

tgxear Tantalus MMCX Sound Signature Plot

Primary = Mid-Centric - Warm​

Secondary (Strong) = Neutral - Flat (balanced and reference-like)​

Secondary (Strong) = Airy (nice sparkle sans sibilance)​

Secondary (Strong) = Forward Mids (vocals focused sans boxy-shouty, hard-harsh, or aggressive)​

Secondary (Weak) = Smooth (fatigue-free; slightly relaxed with a hint of darkness)​

Tertiary (Opposing) = None​

Tertiary (Complementing) = Sharp > Detailed > Critical (this signature delivers! well-timbred & resolute; can be overly critical with poor recordings)​

Breakdown of tgxear Tantalus MMCX Sound Signature Plot

The primary sound signature (red dot and red-shaded oval) of the Tantalus MMCX is "mid-centric - warm" with three (3) very strong secondary sound signatures (blue shaded balloons) that reach out to "neutral - flat"; "airy"; and "forward mids" and one (1) weak secondary sound signature (blue shaded balloon) that reaches over to "smooth" offering an overall relaxing, fatigue-free tuning that is ever-so-slightly "dark" sounding. A prominent complementing tertiary sound characteristic (green shaded arrows) reaches out to "sharp" and "detailed" offering greater resolution and realistic, natural-sounding timbre. This complementing tertiary sound characteristic also has a tendency to reach even further out to "critical" with certain sloppy (poor) recordings, music genres, and weak sources.


Why do I plot the tgxear Tantalus MMCX primary sound signature as "mid-centric - warm"?

Flathead earbuds' primary sound signature are generally mid-centric (please view the chart above as this area is quite large) as it is inherent of and intrinsic to this transducer medium's open-air (open-back like) design. That said many flathead earbuds can and do exhibit VERY strong secondary characteristics that pull their overall sound signature far away from the primary signature into other quadrants (other areas) on the chart (e.g. L-Shape (Basshead); V-Shape; Female Poison; etc.).


Other Flathead Earbuds Models Plots

The other plots indicated on the chart are of familiar earbud models and their primary sound signatures only and are offered for comparison purposes.

wait wait wait, am I missing something ? The earbuds in your pics seem to have detachable cables ?!

Edit: fprget it I got my answer.

 

[Uebelkraehe]

Ordered a Tantalus. Will be interesting to see if these can overcome my general impression - which admittedly only is based on very limited experience with earbuds - that buds can't really compete with both headphones and IEMs due to their design.

 

[Serge Bernamej]

Thought I'd leave my thoughts here cause I have been absolutely enamored with these two sets - Alpha and Serratus are my two favorite sets of all time:

Serratus:
Amazing separation, clarity, and presentation. Imaging and stage very good. Beautiful balanced/neutral tuning from bass to treble. Center images very well - almost like speakers. Timbre is spot on - everything sounds so natural and right. I liken it to the U12T but without the wonky timbre. Super addictive to listen to! Also very distracting because it demands my attention - I can't listen to this during work hours or I will end up just listening to the music intently!

Alpha:
Similar to Serratus in technicalities as far as details and stage - I do think Serratus does center imaging and separation slightly better but that might be something psychoacoustic due to Serratus mids being slightly pulled back compared to Alpha. This is not bassy by any means but the bass is very high quality and textured. Tonally a touch of warmth with a very satisfying note weight. Mids on Alpha are absolutely sublime. Best vocals I've heard across IEMs, headphones, and buds. But the star of the show that makes this my favorite set at the time of this writing - this is the first time I've heard any audio gear reproduce the violin so well - listening to Gil Shaham perform Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin nearly brought tears to my eyes with how expressive and beautiful the violin sounds. I went back to a/b with other sets that I thought did violin well and they all sounded a bit lacking.

These two sets fill two different roles for me - the Serratus is the all-rounder that does everything incredibly well and that I can always count on for an enjoyable listen. And while the Alpha is not as well-rounded (mostly due to bass quantity), it does what it does well so well that it just blows my mind. Highest praise for both of these sets - kudos to @tgx78 for creating these two masterpieces!

I listen to tons of orchestral music, symphonies, concertos, operas etc...how did you find the Alpha with orchestra?

 

[Serge Bernamej]

Ordered a Tantalus. Will be interesting to see if these can overcome my general impression - which admittedly only is based on very limited experience with earbuds - that buds can't really compete with both headphones and IEMs due to their design.

To me it's the other way around. I can't see ever an IEM being able to reach the level of naturalness and musicality of buds. I have 3 iems but tons of earbuds. If I had a wish it would be to see earbuds and on-ears (koss type) invade the market of open back head-fi.
Still waiting for high-end on-ears, but it doesn't look like it's coming any time soon.

 

[ian91]

Ordered a Tantalus. Will be interesting to see if these can overcome my general impression - which admittedly only is based on very limited experience with earbuds - that buds can't really compete with both headphones and IEMs due to their design.

Far from the case in my experience, at least for buds vs IEMs. If you want natural timbre, tonality and staging you need to pay a lot more to get that in a well-executed IEM and even then, it's a different type of presentation overall. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Tantalus, I've not heard that one!

 

[Uebelkraehe]

Far from the case in my experience, at least in the case of buds vs IEMs. If you want natural timbre, tonality and staging you need to pay a lot more to get that in a well-executed IEM and even then, it's a different type of presentation overall. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Tantalus, I've not heard that one!

Definitely looking forward to have my preconceptions hopefully proven wrong! Ideally, i'd have ordered the Serratus, too, but seeing that i'm not entirely convinced that earbuds are the way to go and that at least some measure of financial sanity should seemingly be upheld, i decided to go for the Tantalus as mids and vocals are especially important to me.

 

[mt877]

I wanted to hold off buying another set of buds for now, but my will was broken... I just put in an order for the Serratus.

 

[Serge Bernamej]

Alpha received and my very first impressions are: very impressed and agree with previous comments but I obviously need more time than an hour with them to give an honest comment.
Jim is certainly the best possible service you could imagine from an owner of audio gear, incredibly caring and fast in communication.
Can't wait to listen to opera and symphonies tonight with them.