Wildcatsare1
Headphoneus Supremus
Beautiful rig!hello there
The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.
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tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
Fiio FD7 out of the box impressions:
The FD7's reproduction of believable instrumental timbre for the violin, cello, double bass, flute, trumpet, oboe, piano, and timpani really helps the illusion of live symphonic music along, as does the way the FD7 portray the time elements of music like tempo, melody, and rhythm. Vocals are wonderful and powerfully emotive. Driver seems to have very low distortion, as FD7 can play at very loud levels without my ears shutting down. The Bass response is very well controlled which gives me the visceral and musical experience.
tldr: Absolute coherent sound, all frequency range evenly balanced, detailed and tonally near neutral for my taste but not fatiguing.
As I put the FD7 in my burn in station, I am thinking "Where the heck do I go from here?"
Well.. nowhere. I think I am finally done searching for a single DD that I can live with and love for the long haul.
Fiio FD7 out of the box impressions:
The FD7's reproduction of believable instrumental timbre for the violin, cello, double bass, flute, trumpet, oboe, piano, and timpani really helps the illusion of live symphonic music along, as does the way the FD7 portray the time elements of music like tempo, melody, and rhythm. Vocals are wonderful and powerfully emotive. Driver seems to have very low distortion, as FD7 can play at very loud levels without my ears shutting down. The Bass response is very well controlled which gives me the visceral and musical experience.
tldr: Absolute coherent sound, all frequency range evenly balanced, detailed and tonally near neutral for my taste but not fatiguing.
As I put the FD7 in my burn in station, I am thinking "Where the heck do I go from here?"
Well.. nowhere. I think I am finally done searching for a single DD that I can live with and love for the long haul.
Ranking it above the Elysium on the points you mention is no small praise. I'd be curious to see its graph overtop the Isabellae.
I will be waiting for this impression quite eagerly.
Fiio FD7 out of the box impressions:
The FD7's reproduction of believable instrumental timbre for the violin, cello, double bass, flute, trumpet, oboe, piano, and timpani really helps the illusion of live symphonic music along, as does the way the FD7 portray the time elements of music like tempo, melody, and rhythm. Vocals are wonderful and powerfully emotive. Driver seems to have very low distortion, as FD7 can play at very loud levels without my ears shutting down. The Bass response is very well controlled which gives me the visceral and musical experience.
tldr: Absolute coherent sound, all frequency range evenly balanced, detailed and tonally near neutral for my taste but not fatiguing.
As I put the FD7 in my burn in station, I am thinking "Where the heck do I go from here?"
Well.. nowhere. I think I am finally done searching for a single DD that I can live with and love for the long haul.
tgx78
Member of the Trade: tgxear
Unfortunately I would need to remeasure the Isabellae to be able to overlay them. I am using the different IEC711 couplers now.
But here is Precogvision’s own measurement of the Isabellae you can check against.
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SBranson
Headphoneus Supremus
Fiio FD7 out of the box impressions:
The FD7's reproduction of believable instrumental timbre for the violin, cello, double bass, flute, trumpet, oboe, piano, and timpani really helps the illusion of live symphonic music along, as does the way the FD7 portray the time elements of music like tempo, melody, and rhythm. Vocals are wonderful and powerfully emotive. Driver seems to have very low distortion, as FD7 can play at very loud levels without my ears shutting down. The Bass response is very well controlled which gives me the visceral and musical experience.
tldr: Absolute coherent sound, all frequency range evenly balanced, detailed and tonally near neutral for my taste but not fatiguing.
As I put the FD7 in my burn in station, I am thinking "Where the heck do I go from here?"
Well.. nowhere. I think I am finally done searching for a single DD that I can live with and love for the long haul.
I am very intrigued. That you prefer it to the Elysium must make it quite special..
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Yeah I can't wait to buy the FD7, a lot of very high praise which for a lover of single DDs, makes it impossible to resist!
Indeed I'd love see some comparisons with Isa, my current benchmark for a single DD.
In other news:
From VE's Instagram-- presumably this means that they're getting ready to ship the Phonix and our tour units will soon be on the way
How to say this without being offensive? The Isa, on first blush, really captured my attention because of it's organic, true timbre qualities. But later, after A/Bing to my best IEMs I realized that it was leaving so much micro detail inaudible. The FD7, on the other hand, is a detail monster in a good way. It's forte is creating a realism that I've been blown away listening to some tracks I thought I knew thoroughly. It also excels at accurate bass way better than Isa. And treble extension.
Isa was like looking through a window with a very nice rose colored glass. The FD7 in like looking through the clearest glass at the true image...
Me, I'm a romantic at heart but listening to music I want it to sound like I'm in the same room with the players.
Caveat- MUST burn-in minimum of 150 hours on FD7 to hear the real deal.
Isa was like looking through a window with a very nice rose colored glass. The FD7 in like looking through the clearest glass at the true image...
Me, I'm a romantic at heart but listening to music I want it to sound like I'm in the same room with the players.
Caveat- MUST burn-in minimum of 150 hours on FD7 to hear the real deal.
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You can express whatever opinion you want without being offensive-- it's your own opinion and we all hear things differently. Where problems arise is when 1) someone writes with an air of authority they don't deserve and with a tone suggests that their opinion is the final word on the matter and 2) the individual in question gets offended when others hear & express things differently. I'm not implying that you were/are guilty of either of these things-- I just don't think there should necessarily ever be any offence taken or given when someone expresses their honest & sincere opinion.
I haven't heard the FD7 yet (though thanks to the ever-munificent @tgx78 I may have an opportunity soon) and it's been a few months since I've heard the Isabellae but I will say that perception of micro-detail, as much as it often gets elevated to the highest ranks of audiophile orthodoxy, has never been a massive priority for me personally, which is why I often don't rank IEMs noted for their technical chops as highly as many others do. For me the most important thing, to put it bluntly and at the risk of inciting a few facepalms, is how the IEM in question makes me feel when I listen to it. I've not yet been able to pin this down into a precise checklist and in my experience it seems to stem less from any particular factors in isolation and more from an alchemical synergy that manifests as a gestalt when certain factors are combined in the right way. It is for this reason that my own personal current top 5 consists of the Traillii, Elysium, Isabellae, Dorado & IER Z1R in spite of the fact that I've heard many other IEMs that clearly outshine some of those in many straightforward ways, especially in terms of raw technicalities. In any case I appreciate your impressions and look forward to more and to getting to hear this IEM for myself
. I too am a romantic at heart though I wouldn't personally equate the peak of romance as merely feeling I'm in the same room as the players-- there are some IEMs that do this that instead come off as though we're in the doctor's office as opposed to being next to a crackling fire on a cold winter's night so to speak. This is all just a long winded way of saying YMMV and all that. This is a huge personal bias of mine but I've yet to year an IEM whose salient characteristics weren't evident to me on first listen and with whatever cable and tips I had on hand (provided I get a good seal). I always cock an eyebrow when someone says "such and such needs ___ hours of burn in and ___ cable before you'll hear it as it's supposed to sound. Again, YMMV.
Would you say hearing more texture and nuance in a certain instrument or vocals is different than micro details? If so , what is considered micro detail?You can express whatever opinion you want without being offensive-- it's your own opinion and we all hear things differently. Where problems arise is when 1) someone writes with an air of authority they don't deserve and with a tone suggests that their opinion is the final word on the matter and 2) the individual in question gets offended when others hear & express things differently. I'm not implying that you were/are guilty of either of these things-- I just don't think there should necessarily ever be any offence taken or given when someone expresses their honest & sincere opinion.
I haven't heard the FD7 yet (though thanks to the ever-munificent @tgx78 I may have an opportunity soon) and it's been a few months since I've heard the Isabellae but I will say that perception of micro-detail, as much as it often gets elevated to the highest ranks of audiophile orthodoxy, has never been a massive priority for me personally, which is why I often don't rank IEMs noted for their technical chops as highly as many others do. For me the most important thing, to put it bluntly and at the risk of inciting a few facepalms, is how the IEM in question makes me feel when I listen to it. I've not yet been able to pin this down into a precise checklist and in my experience it seems to stem less from any particular factors in isolation and more from an alchemical synergy that manifests as a gestalt when certain factors are combined in the right way. It is for this reason that my own personal current top 5 consists of the Traillii, Elysium, Isabellae, Dorado & IER Z1R in spite of the fact that I've heard many other IEMs that clearly outshine some of those in many straightforward ways, especially in terms of raw technicalities. In any case I appreciate your impressions and look forward to more and to getting to hear this IEM for myself
This is a huge personal bias of mine but I've yet to year an IEM whose salient characteristics weren't evident to me on first listen and with whatever cable and tips I had on hand (provided I get a good seal). I always cock an eyebrow when someone says "such and such needs ___ hours of burn in and ___ cable before you'll hear it as it's supposed to sound. Again, YMMV.
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With a DD, I've found that based on the power of the magnet and the type of surround, burn in can make a HUGE difference. If an ultralight cone (like the FD7) is being moved by a really strong magnet, the flexibility of the surround helping to move that cone can make a huge difference in how it sounds.
At first listen to the FD7 it was thin and almost hollow....
At first listen to the FD7 it was thin and almost hollow....
I think so. The best comparison I can give off the top of my head is between the Anole VX-- probably the most purely technical IEM I've ever heard, and the VE Elysium. The VX probably exceeded the Ely in terms of micro-detail up top but the sig had a lot of vibrance (not shoutiness) in the lower treble region which detracted from the overall naturalness of the sound. The Elysium, while not topping it in the detail department, had a sense of air & space up top which gave the sound to my ears an unfathomable sense of organic naturalness-- some of which imho emanated from the DD mids. In any case I think there are a lot of factors at play.
