[aaf evo]

I have blind bought many IEM's in my day but customs are a big step forward. I would be more patient and wait for a demo but I recently owned a universal from another brand, bought the custom, and the sound is so different from the universal its not even the same IEM.

Love customs but I rely on these forums to gain information about how they perform. Appreciate the answers. Think Ill just go for the a18s. Loved the u18t and now the u12t (and especially LID for source versatility)....

Spill the beans, what IEM was drastically different between custom and universal? So far I’ve had great luck with consistency amongst all the CIEMs that I’ve bought and them sounding similar to the universals, obviously the A18s being the exception to this rule.

 

[Vitaly2017]

@dazzerfong



I owned tia fourte regular, trio and now noir.

I left 64a after sold the regular forte with disappointment due to treble elevation. In between had

Ee phantom for 1 year
Ier-z1r 6 month
Then Trio. For quiet some time.


Well fourte regular is very unique, it has nothing a like any other iems. It has huge echoing ability, very transparent, best bass control among anything I heard. Yes I find regular fourte has better bass control over noir.
The regular has a very u shaped sound and sometimes notes feels swallowed, like its so faint and low sound weird not coherent.
Noir dont have this problem.

Noir are very massive and powerful. Its a beast huge sound authoritive, very large wide bass and deep. Overall tonality is warm and thick.
The treble is nothing a like regular fourte or trio. The noir treble feels heavy thick and a mix between electrostatic and some wet cold water droplets. Yea weird I as said lol
Once you get in to it and get accustomed the treble is so delicate that you forget all issues that are treble related....

Vocals are different from noir to regular. I will still give an edge to regular as they are the most impressive breathy natural voices I ever heard.
Noir voices are also very natural and good but different maybe more on the warmer side.


Trio is also one very special iem, I love trio a lot I think a lot of people remember how crazy I was about them. I praised them so much that 64a made the 30% discount till stock runs out hehe.

I truly did love them and do much more over the regular fourte. As they are very fun fast visceral bass treble is smooth and zingy. It has more bass slam. It have all the attributes of the super intense fun audiophile iem.

But they day I bought noir things changed widely, at first I still preferred my trio but with days going by I realised that the noir had way much better mids, very massive bass. In comparison trio bass is fast and has quick burst once it finishes producing the bass its silent and it disappears. Noir is not like that, noir bass is vast wide very surround like feel and has more presence.

Trio treble is more piercing then the Noir ! Yes can you imagine a fourte lol and has less treble then trio ???
Treble in trio is sharper and has a nice metallic resonating zing, I really loved that but at some times it was a little to sharp but occasionally. With noir no treble peaks like that for me




To summarise that,

You want best audiophile best iem. Go fourte regular as its the closest to the transparency and analytical.

Noir is a very high end iem with every package possible! Warm bass thick easy treble resolution details nuances and so so on.
I keep saying noir is a mix of this 3 headphones, mdr z1r, hd820, he-1.

Trio is very pleasant, has a superb drive. You want to experience a nice impressive hardcore musical feeling go with trio. It will immerse you in to sound like nothing else. It has also one great ability to be a very good all arounder to.

You want to save money go for trio its really worth it.


But by all means do your self a favor buy high grade quality custom cable it really does improve sound over stock 1!

 

[HaBo]

How is the soundstage of Tia Trio compared to HD600 ?
Is it an upgrade to go from good openback circumaural to TOTL iem ?

 

[dazzerfong]

@dazzerfong

You want best audiophile best iem. Go fourte regular as its the closest to the transparency and analytical.

Noir is a very high end iem with every package possible! Warm bass thick easy treble resolution details nuances and so so on.
I keep saying noir is a mix of this 3 headphones, mdr z1r, hd820, he-1.

Trio is very pleasant, has a superb drive. You want to experience a nice impressive hardcore musical feeling go with trio. It will immerse you in to sound like nothing else. It has also one great ability to be a very good all arounder to.

You want to save money go for trio its really worth it.

I think you and I have a very different definition of analytical, at least in the context of the Fourte. The Fourte's tonality is, to my ears, simply off. In exchange, you get an impressive soundstage.

If you say the Noir is a mix of the Z1R, HD820 and HE-1, of which I hated the Z1R and HD820 (never tried the HE-1), it's not shaping up to be a good sound for me.

The Trio though was good though, and an unexpected one too. Still dunno why they're selling them for a big discount.

 

[Vitaly2017]

How is the soundstage of Tia Trio compared to HD600 ?
Is it an upgrade to go from good openback circumaural to TOTL iem ?

Tia trio eats hd600 for snack bro, I heard once the hd600 but was very far away in years. But I think trio is way more outstanding in sound performance and quality.
But you may like hd600 for me trio way better.

I think you and I have a very different definition of analytical, at least in the context of the Fourte. The Fourte's tonality is, to my ears, simply off. In exchange, you get an impressive soundstage.

If you say the Noir is a mix of the Z1R, HD820 and HE-1, of which I hated the Z1R and HD820 (never tried the HE-1), it's not shaping up to be a good sound for me.

The Trio though was good though, and an unexpected one too. Still dunno why they're selling them for a big discount.

I am sorry if made you think noir is bad due to your dislike with mdr and hd820. Let me tell you this, me to I hated those 2 headphones as they bothe have some weird bass.

What I find is noir take the best of all this 3 headphones and combines it into 1 iem.

Really impressive as sound.


Analytical is also hd800s + hdv820.
Fourte regularl is also more analytical among the 3 ( trio noir and regular trio )

 

[mashuto]

The Trio though was good though, and an unexpected one too. Still dunno why they're selling them for a big discount.

They made a post about it when they put them on discount back in December I think. Basically, they said it wasn't selling as well as they had hoped so they put the discount up to try and move some inventory. If I had to guess, it also likely means they are going to discontinue it when they run out of stock.

I agree that I think they are quite good, actually really really good, and I guess a bit underrated here. But then again, I would imagine for the original asking price, its probably a pretty hard sell for most people for a 3 driver IEM that doesnt have any new driver types or anything like that, especially when its not even their flagship IEM.

 

[Vitaly2017]

They made a post about it when they put them on discount back in December I think. Basically, they said it wasn't selling as well as they had hoped so they put the discount up to try and move some inventory. If I had to guess, it also likely means they are going to discontinue it when they run out of stock.

I agree that I think they are quite good, actually really really good, and I guess a bit underrated here. But then again, I would imagine for the original asking price, its probably a pretty hard sell for most people for a 3 driver IEM that doesnt have any new driver types or anything like that, especially when its not even their flagship IEM.

Its positioned as second in the list ! To me trio and fourte are an best in class combination if you own bothe.

And I dont think its right to ignore trio as because its not a flagship....
As to me trio is very impressive and I dont look at it as a downside because it has only 3 drivers.

Why do people even need to calculate it this way? 2300/3 = 766$? This is soo wrong.

As there is much more then just driver counts you know.

I could say the same about noir 4 drivers for 3800 ? So 980$ per driver ? LoL
Does that even mean anything?


How about headphones? Also count their value by driver count?

 

[dazzerfong]

Its positioned as second in the list ! To me trio and fourte are an best in class combination if you own bothe.

And I dont think its right to ignore trio as because its not a flagship....
As to me trio is very impressive and I dont look at it as a downside because it has only 3 drivers.

Why do people even need to calculate it this way? 2300/3 = 766$? This is soo wrong.

As there is much more then just driver counts you know.

I could say the same about noir 4 drivers for 3800 ? So 980$ per driver ? LoL
Does that even mean anything?


How about headphones? Also count their value by driver count?

Hey I gotta be honest, the fact that the A12t had 12 drivers was part of the allure..........in fact, just looking at the number of drivers is bedazzling. Can't even begin to imagine the amount of fine motor control needed to fit all of them in.

 

[mvvRAZ]

Any more experience with the A18s?

Have owned u18t, currently u12t (and love it), and am going to order u12t OR u18s

Any updated impressions on the 18s??

I had my A18s delivered to my friend first so he can try them out (he currently owns the A12t), and he found that the A18s is almost like a direct upgrade on the A12t - I only would not recommend the A18s if you do not want more treble out of your A12t (which is somewhat dark from what I'm being told as is)

Since then he's already placed an order for the A18s, and is patiently waiting for them to reopen

I also blind bought mine and am really really happy that I did because I wouldn't get to demo them for a while - Considering the current discounts though I'd definitely recommend the A18s over the A12t.. I couldn't recommend it as clearly over the A18t as they have very very different signatures and presentations, but I'd recommend the Elysium over the A18t personally

 

[dazzerfong]

I had my A18s delivered to my friend first so he can try them out (he currently owns the A12t), and he found that the A18s is almost like a direct upgrade on the A12t - I only would not recommend the A18s if you do not want more treble out of your A12t (which is somewhat dark from what I'm being told as is)

Since then he's already placed an order for the A18s, and is patiently waiting for them to reopen

I also blind bought mine and am really really happy that I did because I wouldn't get to demo them for a while - Considering the current discounts though I'd definitely recommend the A18s over the A12t.. I couldn't recommend it as clearly over the A18t as they have very very different signatures and presentations, but I'd recommend the Elysium over the A18t personally

A12 is dark: A12t is definitely not dark.

 

[mvvRAZ]

A12 is dark: A12t is definitely not dark.

Idk bud - I've only heard the U12t which felt relatively neutral to me, I specifically mentioned it's what people who's impressions I trust have told me - I haven't owned it in custom form and the difference for me between 64 U and A IEMs is massive, so I can't really comment on that

Either way, my friend specifically mentioned his 64 A12t had less treble than my A18s

 

[dazzerfong]

Idk bud - I've only heard the U12t which felt relatively neutral to me, I specifically mentioned it's what people who's impressions I trust have told me - I haven't owned it in custom form and the difference for me between 64 U and A IEMs is massive, so I can't really comment on that

Either way, my friend specifically mentioned his 64 A12t had less treble than my A18s

I'd say that none of the 'tia' 64 Audio lineup is dark in any way. That being said, I did feel that the U18t's treble was 'hotter' than the U12t by a bit. Think that's the characteristic of the 18 driver range: bit more treble sprinkled in for that glorious extension.

 

[mvvRAZ]

I'd say that none of the 'tia' 64 Audio lineup is dark in any way. That being said, I did feel that the U18t's treble was 'hotter' than the U12t by a bit. Think that's the characteristic of the 18 driver range: bit more treble sprinkled in for that glorious extension.

The U18t is for sure much much brighter than the U12t yeah

the A18S is however less bright than the A18t - it’s treble feels quite neutral to me, maybe slightly lifted

I guess the treble quantity is something like A12t < A18S << A18t?

 

[dazzerfong]

The U18t is for sure much much brighter than the U12t yeah

the A18S is however less bright than the A18t - it’s treble feels quite neutral to me, maybe slightly lifted

I guess the treble quantity is something like A12t < A18S << A18t?

So sorta like the lovechild between the A12t and A18t?

 

[mvvRAZ]

So sorta like the lovechild between the A12t and A18t?

I'm going to cover this in the review but I can definitely notice some aspects of the Fourte/Noir sound in the A18s as well - the speaker-like presentation and the unnaturally wide soundstage

But yes, it's sort of like an A12t with an injection of A18t technicalities in it