[dazzerfong]

Oh damn these are good. Thankfully fit is dead on, but otherwise they roll into your ear and stay there.

Sound impressions to follow a bit later, but right now the bass is more than the U12t. Good!

A bit let down by APEX though - thought it would solve the occlusion effect, but it honestly didn't. Maybe I'll try the M15 and see if that works with it.

 

[Vitaly2017]

Appreciate if can you describe the different in sound signatures when you pair your Fourte with [1] plussound gold plated silver and [2] pw1960 4 wires. Thx

Hi, Both cable present a very high end sound. They also have their own strong sides and weak.

With pw1960, that cable is very powerful in sound, it feels like its boosting the volume and everything becomes so engaging and active with added slight aggressiveness. Treble is slightly more zingy and slightly bright but smooth enough to consider it very good and pain free. It has an amazing mid forward sound and vocals are very loud and clear, natural. Pw1960 has incredible resolution and clarity, its a monster in that category. Bass is big it has a feel of being very rumbly and deep, has some effect of also a very big massive surrounding bass, it can sometimes be overwhelming and be too much. I had issue with custom fw and bass it cause me fatigue, but once I rolled back to stock 1z firmware and U region it seemed to have cleared and bass is tighter and faster decay now.
Over all Noire + pw1960 its a very massive powerful sound with tremendous mass and weight in bass, very natural and warm tonality. Can be slightly agitated in treble and bass but that depends what music you listen on...

Plussound Gold Plated Silver, this cable is very different and is much more relaxed and smoothered down due to less activeness and boost in sound. The bass is slightly tighter and offer a quick decay but same time a little stretched but quick, this cable I never had fatigue from bass no matter what firmware I rolled. It feels like the treble is a little less sparkly or lets say sharp? Still maintain shimmery effect and feel more easy on the ear.
Vocals are very well refined and elaborated feels also natural and warm with a little hint of thickness.
Over all this cable is very gentle and smooth , very easy to listen it tames down the beastly powerful Tia Fourte Noire to a more polite and easy experience. If you want a well balanced and soulfull experience that can make your soul shine and bliss, I think this is the cable for it.


So I came to a conclusion to keep both cables for now and see what time will tell and which I will chose in the course of time. As both cable bring me the opportunity to have 2 iem signature in a single iem form factor

 

[ed6141]

Hi, Both cable present a very high end sound. They also have their own strong sides and weak.

With pw1960, that cable is very powerful in sound, it feels like its boosting the volume and everything becomes so engaging and active with added slight aggressiveness. Treble is slightly more zingy and slightly bright but smooth enough to consider it very good and pain free. It has an amazing mid forward sound and vocals are very loud and clear, natural. Pw1960 has incredible resolution and clarity, its a monster in that category. Bass is big it has a feel of being very rumbly and deep, has some effect of also a very big massive surrounding bass, it can sometimes be overwhelming and be too much. I had issue with custom fw and bass it cause me fatigue, but once I rolled back to stock 1z firmware and U region it seemed to have cleared and bass is tighter and faster decay now.
Over all Noire + pw1960 its a very massive powerful sound with tremendous mass and weight in bass, very natural and warm tonality. Can be slightly agitated in treble and bass but that depends what music you listen on...

Plussound Gold Plated Silver, this cable is very different and is much more relaxed and smoothered down due to less activeness and boost in sound. The bass is slightly tighter and offer a quick decay but same time a little stretched but quick, this cable I never had fatigue from bass no matter what firmware I rolled. It feels like the treble is a little less sparkly or lets say sharp? Still maintain shimmery effect and feel more easy on the ear.
Vocals are very well refined and elaborated feels also natural and warm with a little hint of thickness.
Over all this cable is very gentle and smooth , very easy to listen it tames down the beastly powerful Tia Fourte Noire to a more polite and easy experience. If you want a well balanced and soulfull experience that can make your soul shine and bliss, I think this is the cable for it.


So I came to a conclusion to keep both cables for now and see what time will tell and which I will chose in the course of time. As both cable bring me the opportunity to have 2 iem signature in a single iem form factor

Excellent review.

 

[hkpants]

Oh damn these are good. Thankfully fit is dead on, but otherwise they roll into your ear and stay there.

Sound impressions to follow a bit later, but right now the bass is more than the U12t. Good!

A bit let down by APEX though - thought it would solve the occlusion effect, but it honestly didn't. Maybe I'll try the M15 and see if that works with it.

Agreed, I don't have too much experience with other customs but my A12t fits amazingly well. Better than my custom silicone eartips.

Bass was also higher, a bit high for me, I've had to EQ it down a little. Apex modules are fun, Ive stuck with the m15. Occlusion is still an issue and I don't feel much pressure relief, but I like that I can tune with it. I'd be interested in an m10 type module that blocks less sound but reduces bass.

 

[dazzerfong]

Agreed, I don't have too much experience with other customs but my A12t fits amazingly well. Better than my custom silicone eartips.

Bass was also higher, a bit high for me, I've had to EQ it down a little. Apex modules are fun, Ive stuck with the m15. Occlusion is still an issue and I don't feel much pressure relief, but I like that I can tune with it. I'd be interested in an m10 type module that blocks less sound but reduces bass.

Funny you say that coz I don't mind even more bass!

Compared to my custom silicone sleeves for the IER-M9, these are surprisingly more comfy. These don't 'stick' to your ears as much which means insertion is much easier and long-term it's more comfy.

So I got a chance to play with the M15 a bit, and it's surprisingly not as big a difference as I anticipated. Bass is lessened, sure, but it didn't kill the bass completely. Occlusion was a bit better with the M15 courtesy of the lower isolation; however, they still block out more than a fair bit.

I'm not sure where the whole -20dB and -15dB came from, because they certainly isolated a lot more than any of my other IEMs even with the APEX modules.

 

[Malevolint]

Deleted

 

[dazzerfong]

So, tried the A12t's with a few sources, both good and bad. Overall, sound didn't change (i.e. bass didn't disappear) tone-wise but there were some differences. No sources had extremely bad hissing, which is very surprising. Still dreaded my old CA Polaris which hissed more than an angry cat.

For anyone's reference, and for what it's worth, I'm using a MEE Audio x Massdrop 2-pin balanced cable with both the 3.5mm and 4.4mm adapter.

Tower PC (Z390 Aorus Pro): bass didn't go as deep, almost as if someone put a piece of paper and dampened the bass. The rest of the sound wasn't too bad, but it was also sizzling a bit on the highs. Surprisingly enough, even when benchmarking, no EMI noise was picked up. Volume was set to 20/100 in Windows.

Laptop (Dell XPS13 9360): Probably the worst hissing, but bass didn't feel dampened. Volume was set to 10/100 in Windows.

Galaxy S8: bass wasn't bad here, but there was something funky going on in the higher frequencies where it sizzled a lot on certain tracks.

O2 + ODAC: pretty much perfect. A bit of noise if I used the analog pot, but no surprises there.

ADI-2 DAC (1st gen): again, pretty much perfect. Used both the IEM and headphone out. Headphone out had barely detectable noise floor when no music was playing.

ZX300: and once more, pretty much perfect. Used the 4.4mm out. If I'm being biased, I'll say that these have a warmer (i.e. bassier) presentation than the rest.

Overall pleasantly surprised at the diversity of these.

 

[zachawry]

Wooooo they're arriving today!

Define “they”

 

[dazzerfong]

Define “they”

Whoops, the A12t!

 

[mvvRAZ]

Whoops, the A12t!

We want dirty pics <3

 

[davidcotton]

We want dirty pics <3

 

[hkpants]

Funny you say that coz I don't mind even more bass!

Compared to my custom silicone sleeves for the IER-M9, these are surprisingly more comfy. These don't 'stick' to your ears as much which means insertion is much easier and long-term it's more comfy.

So I got a chance to play with the M15 a bit, and it's surprisingly not as big a difference as I anticipated. Bass is lessened, sure, but it didn't kill the bass completely. Occlusion was a bit better with the M15 courtesy of the lower isolation; however, they still block out more than a fair bit.

I'm not sure where the whole -20dB and -15dB came from, because they certainly isolated a lot more than any of my other IEMs even with the APEX modules.

I might consider getting the Fir ATOM modules and trying the least isolating one.

I agree with you on how well they isolate, way better than custom tips.

How do you find the highs? Mine could use a bit more treble

 

[MeggaMortY]

Oh damn these are good. Thankfully fit is dead on, but otherwise they roll into your ear and stay there.

Sound impressions to follow a bit later, but right now the bass is more than the U12t. Good!

A bit let down by APEX though - thought it would solve the occlusion effect, but it honestly didn't. Maybe I'll try the M15 and see if that works with it.

How much more bass did you notice compared to the u12t? And which part of bass (sub, mid, high) if you could pinpoint that?

 

[hkpants]

How much more bass did you notice compared to the u12t? And which part of bass (sub, mid, high) if you could pinpoint that?

For me, it was a noticeable difference; that combined with less treble made the difference between the a12t and u12t even greater. I'd say it was more noticeable in the midbass, but overall the bass was boosted across the spectrum.

 

[MeggaMortY]

For me, it was a noticeable difference; that combined with less treble made the difference between the a12t and u12t even greater. I'd say it was more noticeable in the midbass, but overall the bass was boosted across the spectrum.

I don't know how to feel about this. :/ I guess I'll wait and see, mine should be coming in a week or maybe two. Thanks for your input.