The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[Natesdailies]

The reason is that we like trying new and exciting things and often the spirit of new and exciting gets conflated with improved and better.

This is really an important point and one I touched on above. When I heard the Traillii it blew me away, but it was beyond what I was willing to pay and it didn't diminish my love for my own IEMs. I love the Xe6 for its bombastic and visceral nature, but my Dorado 2020 shares a lot of similarities and gets me most of the there and for the time being I'm totally satisfied with it. A big part of this hobby, in addition to learning to be happy with what you have, is staying within your limits. I'm still jonesing for a Traillii though...perhaps I'll grab a used one some day.

I'm quite curious to hear your thoughts on the EXT as well.


The Andromeda 2020 was another "wow" moment for me for sure-- pure bliss on it

Helpful description. You've described exactly why EXT is my number one IEM (relative to what I listen to).

Great points. I am with you. We all have different tolerances and budgets to achieve our audiophile dreams. From a philosophical angle, happiness is a concurrent human emotion just like sadness. You can buy pleasure but happiness is never perpetual. Its a state of mind that can be maintained. This thread however has been a great way for me to stay in touch with the IEM market. Excited to demo the EXT, XE6 soon and in general, geek out about audio gear in person.

 

[Rockwell75]

And as you stated, there will always be another. What I find amazing is there was not this much frenzy around the N8 to my memory. Many would not even believe how good it was. Now the N8ii is anointed. No idea what caused that change. Maybe the interface.

I think there was probably a lot more excitement and hype in Asia, where the portable audio market has for a long time dwarfed that of the rest of the world and where Cayin is a much more established brand. Also, the DAP & portable market has expanded a lot in the time since the N8 came out. It's often said that we're currently in the midst of a golden age of IEMs and I would have to say this is true of DAPs too. When the N8 came out a DAP at that price tier was more of a novelty around here-- you had Sony, AK and (at the time) the more exotic Lotoo...and that was it really. In my time in this hobby since the beginning of 2019 it has been a constant string of ever increasing and much better options when it comes to IEMs and DAPS. The N8 (and Cayin lately too) has a great reputation and I think that, combined with this being a full Android release and the very positive reports that have come out of trusted sources, has created one of those perfect storms of hype & excitement that we see every so often in this hobby.

Not having heard any of them so far myself, I imagine that both of them are playing in the top league (soundwise) of standalone devices at the moment.

Whatever else can be said this is very much true.

 

[14christ]

Yay!!! By noon tomorrow. I'll have plenty of time this weekend. Excited.

 

[14christ]

Ja, that's gorgeous and stratospheric in price. PP limited production of many of their watches where majority of PP watches accrue value over time.

This is close as to a tourbillon that I own - RM Ti

Dude that's worth more than my house!!!

 

[ranfan]

@Rockwell75 I think you might like the bass on the N8ii, it's solid and hard, like Zen Pro's bass in character
But the AKM mids on the M9 would be hard to beat I suspect, with its velvety rendering
The mids on those two (AKM vs Tube) would be interesting to watch for sure!

Question, switching from SR25 to M9, what immediately impresses you if I may ask? I wonder how those two compare, especially in the mids department
The M9 and Fir Xenon are two at the top of my curiosity list right now! The temptations won't cease barraging
This thread smh..

 

[dmphile]

Okay. I am ready to reveal my new top 5 IEMs. This was not an easy decision and comes after 5 days of very detailed and critical listening. Probably 12-15 hours a day on average.

1. Red Halo. Best mids, resolution, detail retrieval, imaging and dynamics of any IEM I have ever heard. Best upper mids to treble transition in the business. Best for Vocals and Classical music, but is a great all arounder and I would be very happy if it were my only IEMs.
2. EXT. Best timbre and bass to mids transition in the business. Best for Jazz music and anything with a rhythm section.
3. EVO. Best bass in the business and specialist for modern pop music for that Club experience.
4. Odin. Highly nuanced monitor with fantastic bass quality, resolution and for a lighter presentation of all music, but especially Jazz and Classical
5. Traillii. Still the only IEMs that sound great with every source and every genre of music.

It was a dog fight between EXT and Red Halo all week. They traded blows across all music types with EXT being better when the rhythm section, bass guitar and DD timbre plays a disproportionate role in the music presentation. Red Halo dominates mids by sheer resolution and detail. Since vocals and all melodic lines start in the mids, it commands attention of all music even from this bass head. Bass quality is very good. Tight and controlled missing only that last bit of texture and rumble characteristic of DD timbre.

This may be hard to believe, but Red Halo out resolves Odin and Traillii by a significant margin. The first time I noticed this was in the Sinfonia of The Marriage of Figaro when I could hear every single violin in this piece and in vocal tracks where I could actually pick out artists singing harmony with themselves. That was an unreal experience. When I A/B tested Red Halo vs Traillii on classical music. First notable moment was listening to the Theme from Schindler's list. When I heard it on Red Halo, it made me cry. It was so moving and perfectly rendered. I usually evaluate violin by describing how well the violin cries. In this case, the violin made me cry. But the moment that Red Halo was crowned King of my domain was last night when I A/B tested Red Halo vs. Odin for Piano music. It easily won the face off, but this track in particular crowned Red Halo the King of my Collection.

Vladimir Horowitz playing Mozart Piano Concerto No 23. in A, K.488 - III. Allegro assai.

This Mozart Piano Concerto is a highly dynamic piece that highlights everything that Red Halo is strong at. The upper harmonics of the Piano. The timbre and richness of the violins, the isolation of the flutes and oboes, the plucks of the violins when its done and most people don't realize it and can't hear it, the dynamics of the music. I A/B tested this movement with Traillii and I even cable and tip rolled Traillii with the First Times cable and every type of tip to see if I could get it to sound better and every single time Red Halo won by a significant margin. I can clearly hear every line of every instrument throughout the whole piece when the violins, or the Oboe or flutes take over. I've been looking for an IEM or headphone that could acceptably render classical music back to me the way I want it. I have finally found it. These IEMs are so good, I would use them to listen to live music in a theatre. The musical Hamilton would have been much more enjoyable if I could have heard the voices in this modern rap musical with the clarity of the Red Halo. I knew that I really liked it at CanJam NYC and I kept thinking about it even after I was focusing so much attention on EXT and the N8ii. I am so happy that I decided to buy it because it is now the best IEM of my collection.

Reading your description and articulation of your experience with the Halos is pretty incredible. I have not heard any of these TOTL IEMS but the way you describe your experience with the music almost puts me right there with you. Thank you! I don't think I'll ever be in a financial position to afford something like the red halo but living vicariously through the richness of the Watercooler talk. I'm frankly amazed that so many of you can put to words your experience with such amazing gear. Thanks for sharing all your experiences!

 

[Rockwell75]

Question, switching from SR25 to M9, what immediately impresses you if I may ask? I wonder how those two compare, especially in the mids department

I can't actually answer that question yet as I haven't had my SR25ii on hand since I got the M9. From memory though it's standard AK vs. Shanling house sound. The AK player is probably more strictly mid centric, with probably a cleaner and more sharply defined presentation overall. The Shanling puts out a much bigger, bolder, slightly warmer more analogue sound with a rich and thumpy low end EXT & Dorado are perfect on the M9 but the jury's still out with the Zen Pro because that one on the SR25ii will be hard to beat. I could leave the hobby with the Dunu Zen Pro and AK SR25ii alone and be totally fine.

 

[DanielListening]

DIY Friday

TOTL 15.4mm 150ohm driver (MX500).
Two bass ports.
Three tuning filters.
Generic but non microphonic cable.

I am so excited to hear!

 

[Rockwell75]

Dude that's worth more than my house!!!

The inside of one of those watches is a beautiful thing.

 

[14christ]

The inside of one of those watches is a beautiful thing.

It better be so beautiful I want to literally marry it and share my bed with it. It's all relative. And like my grandfather always said...It's only money.

 

[Auricon]

The inside of one of those watches is a beautiful thing.

It better be so beautiful I want to literally marry it and share my bed with it. It's all relative. And like my grandfather always said...It's only money.

While Patek is the pinnacle of haute watchmaking. Smaller companies such as Greubel Forsey specialize in only crafting innovative tourbillons. I had the pleasure to be invited to their studio and experience the GMT. The engineering required to design and build an intricate detailed horological engine that can escape the earth’s gravity to maintain precise timing is watchmaking mastery.

Of course “pricing is available on request”

https://www.greubelforsey.com/en/watches/gmt

 

[PHLHarmonic]

The Neon 4 fit me really well but I want to use it on the go and the shells of the universals scratch easily, I wouldn’t be able to handle that.

What causes them to scratch easily just out of curiosity? The shell material?

 

[yaps66]

M9 has finally convinced me to sign up for a streaming service. Just looking at Tidal - is it worth paying extra for the 'HiFi Plus' option? Aside from Spotify and Amazon, any others I should consider?

Sorry if this response is superseded. I'm on Tidal Hifi. Qobuz not available in Vietnam or Singapore yet. I'm ok with MQA too and have tried A/B with tracks that I have in FLAC and DSD. There are subtle differences that my middle-aged and untrained ears do pick up and it is really down to soundstage and imiging. I have no preference to either presentation.

 

[aaf evo]

What causes them to scratch easily just out of curiosity? The shell material?

The Neon 4 had a chrome finish. Reminded me of the old school iPod backs.

 

[Damz87]

Old and new school Sony session today shocking how good the SQ was from MD back in the day. Those crappy pack-in buds were obviously the weakness in the chain lol.