The discovery thread!

[Vonbuddy]

Not finished by any means, but initial reaction for Pilgrim:
Aggressive highs
Some sibilance in the upper mids
Great clarity and good separation
Can't listen for long periods due to uncomfortableness
Seal has been an issue
Tried a couple of different tips, but W1s are not doing it for me.

I have listened to electronic, country, classic rock, and classical. Not getting a sense of layer at this point. Will continue to change tips and find the bass.


Looking for a better impression tomorrow.

At this point the best source match has been the Dragonfly Cobalt. However, I recommend a warmer source. UA4 is last source of the night, and it pairs better.

 

[gadgetgod]

Not finished by any means, but initial reaction for Pilgrim:
Aggressive highs
Some sibilance in the upper mids
Great clarity and good separation
Can't listen for long periods due to uncomfortableness
Seal has been an issue
Tried a couple of different tips, but W1s are not doing it for me.

I have listened to electronic, country, classic rock, and classical. Not getting a sense of layer at this point. Will continue to change tips and find the bass.


Looking for a better impression tomorrow.

At this point the best source match has been the Dragonfly Cobalt.

Maybe try using Divinus velvet tips bro. They work like a charm for me.

 

[ToneDeafMonk]

Maybe try using Divinus velvet tips bro. They work like a charm for me.

Use the o ring trick cut one off a stem of a unused eartip and my eartip was the sticky Penon Tips.

This gets the eartip deeper and a good seal for the bass and if it works for you will control the top end and bass picks up.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

To the best of my knowledge, there are no products that are specifically off-limits in either thread. People here talk about QDC flagships, and people there talk about the CCA Trio. You know what is irritating though... people who judge others based on the amount of money they spend, regardless of how little or how much. Actually, come to think of it, judging other people period is kind of lame.

I agree to a fair degree, BUT, there's a caveat. With the high spenders, and this isn't everyone, but for sake of conversation, it's a blanket statement, but a lot of the high spenders don't judge the person, they judge the ITEM. I think there's a distinct difference. It's done here in this group too. There's a bit of a turned up nose for the budget or lower mid-fi stuff, like "that can't possibly be any good. It's cheap." Or "how can I possibly provide a comparison, when that IEM costs $40 and in my collection, my average stuff costs $800?" "The CCA Trio is beneath me and doesn't truly sound really good. It's too cheap, and you're just being a cheapskate. You need the GallantEars Trifector if you really want to know what a triple DD should sound like. It's magnificent!!" So the judgement isn't necessarily on the person, but the item, when in reality, that item is actually fantastic and presents the music in a very high quality fashion and is within 10-15% of that $1,000 Trifector. Maybe just a bit more rough around the edges. This is a REAL reaction, but yeah, it shouldn't matter. It should be about a free share of impressions, ideas, and musical synergy between enthusiasts and friends. For the most part I believe it is, but not always looked at that way.

Ok, off my soapbox. I'm actually enjoy the heck out of the CCA Hydro, which when fed some juice, actually scales crazy good.

 

[Edric Li]

You're right, we disown you now.

A bit off-topic, but seeing as I'm still fairly new here, what's the difference between the discovery thread and the watercooler one? They seem to share many traits of this thread based on their introduction post.

Watercooler spends more $ and is less welcoming to sht talking (about gears). The two go hand in hand.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

They look pretty cool with the glass on the faceplate. Kinda reminds me of car audio with subwoofer boxes that have plexiglass windows.



..but these things look MASSIVE. Look at how much they stick out of her ears.

The unboxing experience is sheer class, and the IEMs themselves are works of art, as is the model (gorgeous!!!), but yeah, those things seem to stick out like a TF10! lol

Makes me want them though. If I was a trust fund baby, these would be mind YESTERDAY.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

I have the rebrand Allure and they really are great.

They truly are fantastic aren't they? Absolute gems. Worth every penny.

 

[Steve_72]

Use the o ring trick cut one off a stem of a unused eartip and my eartip was the sticky Penon Tips.

This gets the eartip deeper and a good seal for the bass and if it works for you will control the top end and bass picks up.

I did the same on my Pilgrims. Did wonders for improving the fit.

 

[FastGecko5]

I don't know how apparent it's been from my impressions, but I tend to try to keep my grandiose and flowery language about IEMs to a minimum. My general outlook is that a lot of stuff is pretty good, and perfectly acceptable for its price range, but very little is truly outstanding.

The Myer Audio CKLVX is one IEM I've been fairly vocal about. It's very good for its price although I may have blown it out of proportion the other night. It's very good for the price, but I spent some more time with 530 and went back to the D41 and the Myer has glaring timbre and coherency issues (meaning there's distinct timbral difference between the bass DD and the BAs that handle everything else). Having said that, it is very resolving for its price and I think for the ~$150 it costs very little can touch it in that regard. I put it on par with something like the Aful Performer 8 as far as detail retrieval and resolution is concerned.

Now that I've cleared that up, I want to absolutely sing the praises for the IvipQ V11.

I've been listening to my liked songs playlist on Spotify. These are all songs I've heard probably hundreds of times, I should absolutely know them inside out. It's been a VERY long time since a piece of audio equipment has revealed new aspects of these songs to me.

Having prefaced this with "very little is truly outstanding", so I don't say this lightly, but the V11 is making my music new again. I'm hearing things I have never heard before in these songs. I'm noticing additional backing vocals, chord changes I didn't notice were happening, sub-bass drops that were previously lost in the mix.

The V11 is truly an outstanding IEM. I thought it was going to be the 530. But no. It's this total impulse buy IEM from a company that's made a grand total of four IEMs in their lifetime.

Keep it up IvipQ. You're on the path to greatness.

 

[Ineras]

I love how Akros always says ivpiq.

 

[o0genesis0o]

I have one question if you don't mind: if those TWS with battery constraint can power the transformer (energiser?) to run xMEMS driver, then what's the benefit of designing a huge transformers like the one that comes with your unit? I imagine there would be some measurable difference.

I imagine xMEMS wired IEMs with some sorts of DSP built into the USB side would be interesting.

 

[thaslaya]

I do understand some of the complaints about the treble, it's been softened quite a bit up top. It could do with juuust a smidge more bite and incisiveness, but it's such a fine line to walk when you're going for mass appeal. Very hard to beat for musicality though, it's something you can wear all day and just groove on shuffle.

I love it exactly for the tame treble and the fact that you can wear them all day and "groove on shuffle" And that bass is groovy too.

Liar!!! hahahahaha...


Cheers!

Sorry I don't get this one? Must be over my head

Well that's an improvement, Variations used to be the ONLY thing he liked.

He also used to review IEMs by EQing his Variations to match the IEM he was reviewing. Is he still doing that?

There's no way he actually did that and tried to pass it off as a true review...

Magnalium is a new for me, does any other IEM have this material on the diaphragm?

Doing a quick google search only brings back the FD15 marketing and some tweeters for DIY speakers.

Can't help but feel that drawer is something you use to put legos in and not IEMs, what an odd design.

I think the stock pelican-esque case you get with some older cheaper Fiios (FD1, JD7, FA1, FA7) would be a better case option than that lego drawer.

That lego looking case also comes with the Fiio JH5. It's a stackable storage option that is more for home use. It's called the HB11 and is actually a nifty idea but packaging it with iems instead of a more travel friendly case is a bit of an odd choice.

 

[Singaravelan]

Having prefaced this with "very little is truly outstanding", so I don't say this lightly, but the V11 is making my music new again. I'm hearing things I have never heard before in these songs. I'm noticing additional backing vocals, chord changes I didn't notice were happening, sub-bass drops that were previously lost in the mix.

The V11 is truly an outstanding IEM. I thought it was going to be the 530. But no. It's this total impulse buy IEM from a company that's made a grand total of four IEMs in their lifetime.

Keep it up IvipQ. You're on the path to greatness.

Are you talking about this iem?
https://ivipq.com/products/ivipq-co...audiophiles-musicians?data_from=search_detail

 

[Rambone]

@FreeWheelinAudioLuv2 I caved in and scooped up a Thieaudio Elixir. It was $68 dollars off on Amazon and the last one left, so naturally I caved in and scooped it up along with a Let Shueor S08 with the last of my gift card money. My work pays me to go on walks and get exercise it would seem, so I periodically wrack up on points to cash in for amazon gift cards.

 

[SushiiFi]

Not finished by any means, but initial reaction for Pilgrim:
Aggressive highs
Some sibilance in the upper mids
Great clarity and good separation
Can't listen for long periods due to uncomfortableness
Seal has been an issue
Tried a couple of different tips, but W1s are not doing it for me.

I have listened to electronic, country, classic rock, and classical. Not getting a sense of layer at this point. Will continue to change tips and find the bass.


Looking for a better impression tomorrow.

At this point the best source match has been the Dragonfly Cobalt. However, I recommend a warmer source. UA4 is last source of the night, and it pairs better.

try azla sedna earfit max tips. the best tips you can use with pilgrim.