Yes.. But let me say this... I don't know how it is in your respective countries, but iems are absolute rarity where I live. They still do airpods, galaxy buds, Bose, beats etc... and ofcourse headphones...Only people I know personally who have iems are the ones that I have gifted cheapies or snatched from me.
Only one random stranger I have seen with an iem as in who approached me and wanted to know what i am wearing. And ex headfi or reddit guy as he told me to stay away from these "iem forums" if I don't want to burn money. Wise guy!
With wired phones slotsout of business, iems are pretty damn rare actually. So I don't think market is saturating etc - from where I am placed .
Correct. The true mainstream market is TWS. All my kids have them now. ALL 5 of them, plus now my grandkids too. I used to gift them wired, and they'd love it, but now I wouldn't do that unless I wanted to waste money on them. We reminisce about spending a weekend cruising the local audio stores while I went wired earphone and headphone shopping. That is now extremely niche to me and YOU. Go into Best Buy. It's a quarter panel shelf with wired earphones/headphones TOTAL and then 3/4 with TWS of every brand and variety.
Correct. The true mainstream market is TWS. All my kids have them now. ALL 5 of them, plus now my grandkids too. I used to gift them wired, and they'd love it, but now I wouldn't do that unless I wanted to waste money on them. We reminisce about spending a weekend cruising the local audio stores while I went wired earphone and headphone shopping. That is now extremely niche to me and YOU. Go into Best Buy. It's a quarter panel shelf with wired earphones/headphones TOTAL and then 3/4 with TWS of every brand and variety.
Yeah, it's not really a gift younger lot appreciate. As without dacs, they are useless and dongling dacs aren't cool to em. And wireless bluetooth earphones quality have apparently improved a lot. I had OnePlus buds that were pretty decent. Airpods and new Samsung buds even better (I guess).
Yeah, it's not really a gift younger lot appreciate. As without dacs, they are useless and dongling dacs aren't cool to em. And wireless bluetooth earphones quality have apparently improved a lot. I had OnePlus buds that were pretty decent. Airpods and new Samsung buds even better (I guess).
You just have to get these. They turn your AirPods into subtonic storms. Kidding, of course, but interested to try them on my four hour flight coming up in June.
Quick question: From your initial impressions, what does the Explorer offer if you already own the MagicOne? Is there something that really differentiates it? I'm tighter than two coats of paint, and I don't want to spend even $100 on something that sounds similar to my MagicOne.
Bass. MagicOne has passable bass but can’t get my blood pumping when listening to “epic soundtrack”, but this one can do that easily. Like others have said, I think this is the best bass AFUL has ever achieved in their IEMs.
So, the choice is simple to me:
Want QDC tuning and “kilobuck-like” resolution? P8 (you will trade off bass quantity and midrange naturalness)
Want great tuning and gentle mid-centric signature? MagicOne
Want some of magic one signature with bass? Explorer
I can’t recommend P5 for any use caee (sorry aful )
At times makers will showcase new cables and ear-tips which they invented with a TOTL Flagship. Only later, usually about 6 to 10 weeks (sometimes longer) they will start to sell the items separate. Cheers!
I have listened to all except the mangird and FX15
What do you want to know? There are many ways I can approach this.
Tuning wise, I would say Variations is the most normal if you think Harman IE2019 is a good target. No surprise for me when I tested. So predictable that it’s almost boring to talk about, but I had a good time with this tuning. Many here on headfi would disagree.
Monarch II is the quintessential of modern “well-tuned” IEM. Monarch III is a bit more spicy V-shaped than Monarch 2, but neither sound weird.
IE600 is V-shaped with some extra spiciness in the treble. I don’t like or dislike it.
SA6II has two tuning. The default one is kinda uncanny for me. The bass boosted one is much more agreeable. Warmer than neutral with less upper mid, but compensate by pushing the midrange forward to the face with the 1.25kHz boost. Tbh, not my favourite tuning.
FH9 is strange, but nice. It’s hard to classify that IEM. It does not have bass shelf but still bassy thanks to the large driver. Warmer lower mid with a spike right at 3k for clarity. It has three tuning nozzles too. If you are bored of the usual tuning, this one might be worth a try, though I hope you can return it, just in case.
Technical performance wise, Monarch 2 and 3 sit at the very top. Monarch 3 has better bass texture and control than Monarch 2, with better soundstage depth as well. To put in context, these can trade blows and in many tracks out-resolve my U12t. There is not much more to achieve after this level, IMHO. (yes, Annihilator 2023 is more resolving, but it’s $3000. And STORM is $6500 at least)
FH9 has large and open stage due to the open back design.
Variations is alright. It fits where it is at maybe $500 nowadays. I particularly like the treble here. It’s not much. It’s not highlighted. But it has nice details when I pay attention. Stage is flat and wide like most moondrop IEM. Not great, not terrible.
IE600 left no impression on me. It has really good bass though.
SA6II is alright. Not great, not terrible. It fits exactly where it should be, IMHO.
So...bad news.
I had an accident over the weekend and destroyed the right unit of my MEST Mk1.
It's completely demolished and cannot be repaired.
However, I am very lucky and was able to find a used set.
They are somewhat difficult to obtain these days so I feel fortunate to have been able to replace them.
But as this is now my preferred IEM, I had no choice but to get another pair.
I have bought a TON of mid-fi sets, but am definitely now of the mindset that it's better to have fewer sets and focus on quality over quantity (at least once you know what you prefer).
Anyways, this was my weekend and thought I'd share my experience with all the homies...
Got my babies back!!!
The only negative (well, other than the expense, obviously...) is that this replacement set is an older model so it uses a QDC connector rather than the flat 2-pin that later versions of the MkI implemented.
NBD in the grand scheme of things.
I am beyond grateful to have these back in my ears.
I can't believe how much they were missed for the 6 days I was without them.
Praying that nothing happens to this set as they might be difficult to source in the future.
Bass. MagicOne has passable bass but can’t get my blood pumping when listening to “epic soundtrack”, but this one can do that easily. Like others have said, I think this is the best bass AFUL has ever achieved in their IEMs.
So, the choice is simple to me:
Want QDC tuning and “kilobuck-like” resolution? P8 (you will trade off bass quantity and midrange naturalness)
Want great tuning and gentle mid-centric signature? MagicOne
Want some of magic one signature with bass? Explorer
I can’t recommend P5 for any use caee (sorry aful )
MagicOne with bass is what all I need, it will be double magic.
I like magicOne mids and treble extension. They have the 12khz magic but they lack of real sub bass slam, quantity and quality. The decayed BA bass is quite a good effort but it produce boomier sound as drawback, and the sub bass tuning proportion quantity isn't up to my preferences (BA bass needs more sub bass quantity for "compensation").
So yeah, I want to get the Explorer, thanks for your poison
Got my babies back!!!
The only negative (well, other than the expense, obviously...) is that this replacement set is an older model so it uses a QDC connector rather than the flat 2-pin that later versions of the MkI implemented.
NBD in the grand scheme of things.
I am beyond grateful to have these back in my ears.
I can't believe how much they were missed for the 6 days I was without them.
Praying that nothing happens to this set as they might be difficult to source in the future.
Bass. MagicOne has passable bass but can’t get my blood pumping when listening to “epic soundtrack”, but this one can do that easily. Like others have said, I think this is the best bass AFUL has ever achieved in their IEMs.
So, the choice is simple to me:
Want QDC tuning and “kilobuck-like” resolution? P8 (you will trade off bass quantity and midrange naturalness)
Want great tuning and gentle mid-centric signature? MagicOne
Want some of magic one signature with bass? Explorer
I can’t recommend P5 for any use caee (sorry aful )
cross post from the ranking thread but I finally sat down and listed every IEM I have heard. Was a fun process and one that got me thinking about the hobby and where to go from here, I suggest it!
Top 4 are things I still own. The rest has been sold, returned or retired.
cross post from the ranking thread but I finally sat down and listed every IEM I have heard. Was a fun process and one that got me thinking about the hobby and where to go from here, I suggest it!
Top 4 are things I still own. The rest has been sold, returned or retired.
XSL X-One, X-One mk3 and now X-OneLM mk4 with tuning nozzles. The original tuning is still a guilty pleasure lol. Now to figure out which nozzle does what.
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me too!
