I’ve been trying to keep up with your Duo vs Nio comparisons in the 64 Audio thread… now that you’ve had some time with the Duo do you think it’ll displace your Nio?
I know many find the Nio’s bass region wooly, with a thin midrange and “safe” treble, but it just jives well with my preferences / preferred genres for the most part. I exclusively use the M15 module with my Nio’s but do still want to try to the FiR 0. I really enjoy the sub bass of the Nio but wouldn’t mind something a bit “tighter”, with a fuller midrange and a touch more air in the treble. Not all the time, mind you, just on occasion / genre dependent.
Yes, probably will sell the Nio. But not necessarily because I think the Duo is better. I think the Duo will likely fit in better with my current needs, which is having something with a little more situational awareness to complement my Jolene, which as a custom really isolates outside sound well.
Bass is a little tighter on the Duo, but also loses a bit of impact, midrange on the duo is a bit fuller, and yes, treble is a bit airier.
Truthfully though, they both sound rather similar to each other. With the Nio being a bit smoother and maybe a bit more wet sounding, while the duo is a bit drier and airier, a bit more open feeling. I think for someone who has neither, the duo represents a bigger value, especially given that its 500 dollars cheaper, but if looking for a smoother sound with much more versatility due to swappable apex modules, the nio still definitely wins there.
While I'm on the topic I may as well sing the praises of the CFA Holocene-- truly a modest but remarkable IEM. I'm not easily satisfied by all BA units but the Holocene never fails to win me over whenever I have them in. I've contemplated listing them a couple times but I've never been able to bring myself to do it. Bass is very modest but the IEMs are none-the-less very full sounding and even-keeled across the FR. It's a great IEM for when you want to perceive everything happening all at once and not have your attention drawn anywhere in particular...and they sound marvelous through the M8. Typical CFA sexiness and allure-- both in terms of tuning & aesthetic allure. An easy rec and a no brainer at the price.
Edit: One of my favorite Dave Chappelle bits if anyone feels like having a laugh today.
Following my previous post on the Fiio EM5, I have to further express my love for these unassuming and relatively inexpensive little gems.
Throwing some childhood favourites at them this morning such as my 12 year old obsession for Guns N Roses or later teens angst driven love for The Smiths to name a couple.
I've found it incredibly difficult to play older rock etc on IEMs, just tends to sound flat, lifeless and plain wrong. EM5 doesn't perform any sonic miracles and transform to a newly mastered gem, but does manage to present in what feels like a natural representation of the music, almost like hearing them the way I once did many moons ago - I can comfortably listen and enjoy, now allowing me dig into my music archives for music previously almost unplayable on IEMs in my experience
Moving to the near present, listening to Julia Jacklin 'Don't Know How to Keep Loving You' and presentation is just beautiful - natural, flawless, perfect coherent instrument positioning and with Julia singing directly to me. Incidentally, once of the last gigs I attended here in Dublin before covid struck was Julia, an amazing performance.
If not already very obvious, I'm loving these little buds! Funny that on a Sunday morning, they are the first I've reached for and stuck with for almost 2 hours, zero fatigue.
Very impressed with the Shure AONIC3, even after twice two hours demo. A single BA @ $200 (~$100 if you can find one used). Widely available. Good in midrange, high tonal accuracy (piano, guitar, vocals). Clear without too forward upper-mids or too much brightness. Low in bass, and doesn't reach that deep. The sound felt just right; pure and simple
Following my previous post on the Fiio EM5, I have to further express my love for these unassuming and relatively inexpensive little gems.
Throwing some childhood favourites at them this morning such as my 12 year old obsession for Guns N Roses or later teens angst driven love for The Smiths to name a couple.
I've found it incredibly difficult to play older rock etc on IEMs, just tends to sound flat, lifeless and plain wrong. EM5 doesn't perform any sonic miracles and transform to a newly mastered gem, but does manage to present in what feels like a natural representation of the music, almost like hearing them the way I once did many moons ago - I can comfortably listen and enjoy, now allowing me dig into my music archives for music previously almost unplayable on IEMs in my experience
Moving to the near present, listening to Julia Jacklin 'Don't Know How to Keep Loving You' and presentation is just beautiful - natural, flawless, perfect coherent instrument positioning and with Julia singing directly to me. Incidentally, once of the last gigs I attended here in Dublin before covid struck was Julia, an amazing performance.
If not already very obvious, I'm loving these little buds! Funny that on a Sunday morning, they are the first I've reached for and stuck with for almost 2 hours, zero fatigue.
Very impressed with the Shure AONIC3, even after twice two hours demo. A single BA @ $200 (~$100 if you can find one used). Widely available. Good in midrange, high tonal accuracy (piano, guitar, vocals). Clear without too forward upper-mids or too much brightness. Low in bass, and doesn't reach that deep. The sound felt just right; pure and simple
The Shure SE215 was my first ever "nice" pair of IEMs and I think the IEM responsible for my continued bias towards DD timbre. I'm tempted to pick one up again just to see how it sounds to me.
They are far less intrusive and have no isolation so you can wear for extended periods and also hear what's going on around you - incredibly comfortable, I honestly feel like I've nothing in my ears. From a sound perspective, much more airy and essentially like listening to an open back headphone - that gives an incredible sense of realism to the music. You've got the magic coherency and emotional connection as per a good single dynamic driver (think Isa or IE900) but delivered via a bud. The timbre is stunning, I don't think I've heard jazz for example sound this good with any other earphone, presumably the bit of air between the bud and ear canal allows for a more realistic sound.
I'm mostly listening at the moment in bed or while working but I expect I'll use in many more scenarios. I'm totally hooked and have Blur buds on the way now too, plus of course eyeing up others for further down the road...
This is why I keep Solaris OG around. It does the most fantastic job of giving the HiFi treatment to multi-era rock (my staple) and badly mastered stuff. I get blown away each time I am swapping gear around only to end up with Solaris and the Cayin Ti... again. Nothing so far beats its transformative powers. Could be partially the tuning, or the rear firing mid BA, or the large 4k dip, not sure, but its rock n roll magic for my collection.
This is why I keep Solaris OG around. It does the most fantastic job of giving the HiFi treatment to multi-era rock (my staple) and badly mastered stuff. I get blown away each time I am swapping gear around only to end up with Solaris and the Cayin Ti... again. Nothing so far beats its transformative powers. Could be partially the tuning, or the rear firing mid BA, or the large 4k dip, not sure, but its rock n roll magic for my collection.
+1 Though I don't own one at the moment, and for my specific preferences & tastes the Dorado is presently the king of the CFA lineup, I must say with all the gear I've been through in the past 3 years I don't know of anything that bests Solaris across the board on its own terms. I think the closest comparison is still probably the IER Z1R, though that IEM is decidedly skewed "eastward" in its FR whereas the Solaris is decidedly skewed "westward"-- in many respects the two make an ideal complimentary pair imho. It's probably only a matter of time before I join the Solaris fambam again and if opportunity arises I may well plunge on that AK model if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.
This is why I keep Solaris OG around. It does the most fantastic job of giving the HiFi treatment to multi-era rock (my staple) and badly mastered stuff. I get blown away each time I am swapping gear around only to end up with Solaris and the Cayin Ti... again. Nothing so far beats its transformative powers. Could be partially the tuning, or the rear firing mid BA, or the large 4k dip, not sure, but its rock n roll magic for my collection.
Yeah I'm delighted to have a solution for older recordings. A lot of my dance music choices from the early 90s sound far more like what I remember them, playing Orbital 2 (Brown album) right now and it's putting shivers through me... again, no sonic wizardry, just a great representation of what it should sound like.
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