[Amadeo Nospherathu]

Traillii. Best IEM that I have heard (for my preferences) and whisked me away into the music every time. Sold only because of ear issues which preclude me from using any IEMs.

This is really unfortunate. I hope you will get better and one day you will be able to return to them.

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

Shanling M9 sold - that has had the record number of Scubi’s on and off since July

And of course if something goes, something else must come - an unwritten rule. JVC FW10000, FD01 (you’ve convinced me @ranfan), and some spare tips while I’m at it. They don’t land till next week, so I’m classing as the first purchase of 2023

You should note that the FW 10k kit includes Spiral Dots + (not ++), they are slightly different from ordinary SD and SD++.
And these tips are hard to find separately. I needed time and a forwarder in Japan for this.

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

I'm amazed you don't own a mad24

I listened to them and even reviewed them on porta.fi.

But in my humble opinion, they are slightly inferior to Traillii.
These are good IEMs, but they have a bit too big housing (I prefer the universal versions). And finally, the main thing is that it's not really my cup of tea. I usually prefer a slightly less warm, less bassy and more technical sound.
The Traillii might not seem like that, but the selection of tips and cable allowed them to be neutral enough, with a bit of flavor to suit my tastes.
In contrast, the MAD24 is not as sensitive to cable selection and tips.

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

I can't imagine what it must be like for you and your loved ones. A friend/colleague of mine drove some 2,000km to get to her dad who is ill in Kyiv and she hopes to drive him to here once he is strong enough to travel. It breaks my heart this is happening. At least she has been given all the time she needs from work to do what needs to be done.

It does put things in perspective, when it comes to luxury hobbies.

It's really hard. And it is impossible to explain. This is the kind of experience that makes you stronger and changes your attitude to many things, often in a more pragmatic direction.
But that's definitely not an experience anyone would voluntarily want to have. Each of us now has friends who have been forced to flee, or have died, or are now fighting to protect our safety and our lives.

So I understand how your friend feels and I wish she could take dad to a safer place. I hope friend can do it as soon as possible.

 

[armstrj2]

Year in Gear: 2022​

Well, it’s the end of year and I’ve been reflecting a bit on all the gear I acquired for 2022. I pretty much got everything that I wanted, and I think next year will be a much quieter one. Here’s my acquisitions below in chronological order and what I think of them now.


January: Vision Ears PHöNIX

I enjoyed nearly everything about his IEM minus the bass, especially the sub bass quantity not being enough, and also lacking in enough texture. I loved vocals on this and the midrange + treble was outstanding. The treble had a combination of weight, air, and sparkle that was basically perfect and the way it reproduces cymbals is probably my favorite in any BA IEM so far. Very black background for notes to pop out from too. I ended up selling this about 4 months later due to the bass issues I mentioned but otherwise I would have kept it. I didn’t consider Phonix an all arounder when I had it but my favorite type of music with it was female vocal singer-songwriter stuff and so it was more of a specialist IEM for me. I placed an order for the Phonix LE recently and should have it in February next year.



March: FiR Audio Xenon 6 CIEM

My favorite very warm IEM as it marries that with very good technicalities, a well extended treble, and sounds more open than the average TOTL IEM. I consider it a king of dynamic contrast as well and is nice for lower volume listening. Having A/B’d the universal vs the CIEM, CIEM offers a clearer sound and a bit better extension and presence from the sub bass, plus a bit more impactful punch/slam as well from the mid bass.



April: Sony IER-Z1R

This was the 2nd second time I bought the Z1R, the first time being back in early 2020. This second time around, while I enjoyed the sound for sure, I was getting worried that I wouldn’t use it much with XE6 around and already knew at this time that I was going to end up getting another IEM and so I got rid of it. I might get another Z1R again though since I’ve been missing it.



May: Aroma Audio Jewel

Jewel is my most used IEM since it’s the best all-rounder for me so far. This is an IEM where I can load up a playlist of a variety of different genres or one of those “discovery” style playlists on music streaming services and not have much to complain about with how it reproduces the music.



October: Campfire Audio Supermoon CIEM

My interest in Supermoon ended up fading very quickly after getting it in CIEM form (like 3 weeks tops). I’ve never really lost interest in a CIEM that quick after getting it, and so a personal record has been set. Basically, the lack of enough macro-dynamic contrast, odd timbre, and uninspiring midrange were the biggest flaws of Supermoon for me. With these flaws, Supermoon is a hit or miss depending on the music and it’s a lot of misses if I go into music discovery mode on streaming services for example. I think if I had another week the Supermoon demo unit, I probably would have decided not to get it, and even if it did seem pretty good with some forms of electronic music, ultimately it was too much of a specialist for me. Since I’m lukewarm with this IEM, I may be putting it up for sale eventually for someone to re-shell.



November: 64 Audio Fourté Blanc

A fan of the original Fourte but I never got to try the Noir variant, and so with the announcement of Blanc which is basically the same as Noir but with minor DD driver improvements, I decided to pick one up and it was pretty much an instant hit with me. It’s not something that I view as tonally accurate (although preferable to Supermoon still) but it’s an engaging listen in terms of its soundstage quality (imaging, layering, separation), macrodynamic contrast, and treble air and sparkle. My favorite genres with this IEM are various sub genres in electronic (techno/trance/house/DnB/ambient/experimental stuff) and pop.



November: Meze Elite

I’ve actually been going on a bit of a headphone demoing spree for the past 6 months to see what’s out there in the market as someone who’s predominately been an IEM listener for nearly 9 years now (although I actually started with headphones when I first got into headfi) and so lots to catch up on. So anyhow, I ended up preferring the Meze Elite to many headphones out there and was one of my top 3 that I liked the most. The Elite sounds very natural, like one of the better examples of it to me. Vocals and stringed instruments are especially really nice, and there’s this slight warmth and liquid feeling to the sound. The treble has a really nice amount of air to it without getting too exaggerated like the Hifiman Arya or HE1000SE that I tried. I consider the Elite an all-rounder for what I listen to (electronic, indie/alternative rock, singer-songwriter, pop) and all my music basically sounds upgraded with it. The Elite has easily replaced all my IEMs for listening to music at my desk these days.



December: T+A Solitaire P

This is another headphone that I ended up liking this year when I first heard it back at CanJam, although I wasn’t actually planning on buying one so soon but I ended up getting a really good deal on a used unit and so I jumped on it anyways. Resolution is sky high on this thing and it’s a technical beast. I’m actually hearing things that I haven’t heard on some of my songs, which is a rare thing for me these days. It presents nuances in the recording in an effortless manner rather than being showy about it. Relative to the Meze Elite, the Solitaire P has darker tonality with a bit less air in the treble, but it’s still very detailed up top. The bass is sub-bass focused, and it digs very deep and there’s good punch/slam from the mid-bass. The mids are a bit recessed compared to the Elite while leaning drier but not dry in an absolute sense. The quality of the soundstage is very good: imaging, layering, and separation are all top notch with the busiest of sections in tracks and depth and height are very nice even by open back headphone standards. I use the Solitaire P for all my usual genres, but I’d say electronic is especially great on it thanks to the sub bass, spatial presentation, and very high resolution.



December: Campfire Audio Trifecta

There’s been lots of positive talk about Trifecta this month, and although my impressions of it at SoCal CanJam a few months were really bad, I decided to give it a second shot and listen to for several days at my home. My listening impressions with it now are a bit different from my time with it at CanJam, but the differences are not necessarily for the better.

I’ll just start with the out of the box impressions when I received Trifecta back on the 23rd. Fresh out of the box, I heard a sound that is very warm (warmer than XE6) and incredibly bloated bass with everything sounded like it was playing behind a thin blanket with different instrument sounds melding together in the soundstage. So, that’s basically the same as I heard it the first time at CanJam, but a difference that I noticed this time was that the treble was not super peaky and fatiguing, and that’s with using the same setup (N8ii with W1 tips, although I’ve tried other tips as well) as I did at CanJam. So essentially, my out of the box impressions were that my music sounds downgraded, and not in a subtle way. Since receiving them on the 23rd, I’ve had them on a 24/7 burn-in and listening to them for a few hours each day and have now reached 110 hours of total burn-in as of this writing.

Now, after 110 hours of continuous burn-in, I’ll describe what I’m hearing at this stage and compared to some of the things I’ve read about Trifecta by other owners. First off, these have been touted as being “bombastic”, and while it’s certainly a bass heavy sound, along with that I’m hearing Trifecta as having slow-ish transients and just about average dynamic contrast, which is pretty much par the course for the Campfire Audio IEMs that I’ve either owned or tried in the past (Andromeda, Vega, Atlas, Solaris). So, it’s bass heavy but not really an energetic delivery of bass, and this lack of an energetic delivery can be said for the remaining parts of the frequency spectrum as well. In addition to the bass being slow, it’s also not controlled, and in comparison, I’m hearing my IE 900 as having a quicker and more controlled bass. I’m also hearing the combination of Trifecta’s big, slow, and not well controlled bass as being especially problematic for fast music that has lots of stuff going on in the track.

Moving to the midrange, I’m hearing this area as lacking in clarity and with less resolution when compared to my IE 900. The midrange also sounds muffled (going back to my earlier point of a thin blanket sound), and given that it’s recessed, the combination of all these descriptions for how I’m hearing the midrange make it sound unremarkable. Overall, I’d put the IE 900 as having a superior midrange by a good margin.

Next up is the treble and this area is the least resolving of all 3 areas of the frequency spectrum, and it also has the least presence. Treble is another area where I find the IE 900 to pull ahead very easily: more texture, more sparkle, more air, realism and just generally of a higher quality and I find that more impressive as the IE 900 is doing that while having only a single DD and pumping out a high-quality bass a well at the other end of the spectrum, whereas Trifecta has 3 DDs and is falling flat when it comes to treble quality while having muddy bass. Listening to "Enough to Believe" by Bob Moses, the 3:00 - 3:43 section of this track features a washy ride cymbal that’s playing in the background and gets progressively less noticeable as the section gets towards the endpoint. Playing this section of the track on Trifecta has the washy ride cymbal basically disappear as the section get closer to the end…yikes, not good, and this section of the track is better reproduced on the IE 900 again with the cymbal having more presence and with better resolution. Moving on to "Rhinoceros" by Smashing Pumpkins, the distorted electric guitar crunch in the 3:05 – 3:33 section sounds blunted and dull.

I’ve been reading about the soundstage being “big” and even so-called “holographic” on Trifecta, but in my experience the soundstage size neither big nor small, and instead I’d say it’s just about average and certainly not wrapping around the outside of head. More importantly than soundstage size is the quality of the stage, and basically what I’m hearing is poor separation, leading to different sounds melding together and essentially coming off as wall of sound. For soundstage quality, the IE 900 is again surpassing Trifecta with more noticeable separation and layering.

To start wrapping these impressions up, I’d like to re-emphasize the point that I’ve been trying to make the throughout my impressions, which is that Trifecta isn’t even as technically proficient or resolving as the IE 900, which is just a single DD IEM that costs $1,499. To me that kept raising the question thought my listening: What’s the point of 3 DDs in Trifecta when it can’t even compete sonically against a single DD IEM? Of course, even more baffling is the price of Trifecta for the sound that it puts out. So, while I do hear an improvement in Trifecta’s sound after 110 hours of burn in versus out of the box, the improvements ultimately weren’t enough, and my music still sounds downgraded but to a lesser extent when compared to day one. I’m sure there will be questions about source pairings I used, and of my 2 DAPs (N8ii, WM1ZM2), the WM1ZM2 was worse since it made Trifecta sound even more slow and gooier.

So, with all that said and done, I found Trifecta to be the worst IEM that I’ve heard this year at the multi-kilobuck price level. I found it overhyped and overpriced given its sound quality and since it can’t even compete against my IE 900, the asking price of $3,375 makes Trifecta even more egregious. I’ll be returning Trifecta to Campfire Audio for a full refund.

What a great year you have had! I have tried all the same IEMs except Trifecta and Blanc (but I am about to try Noir) so interesting to read impressions of the same sets, many of which I share. I hope 2023 is as exciting for new releases as this year was. Hit or miss, it was great to see so many different sets being released.

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

Perspective's a funny thing like that. I'm very much in the boat of having only the finest audio gear is very much a first world problem, and I have no illusions about that. Practice gratitude first for what you do have rather than what you don't, how lucky you are to be born where you are, etc. That said? I got my first real high end DAP, my AK240 Blue Note, when I got out of my...I can't even count anymore, 5th? 6th major hospital stay? I got my dad his custom Nobles when he had a real medical scare not long after. My Sony nw-wm1am2 was a gift to myself from my family after my last hospital stint that ran nearly three weeks. I imagine @Auricon knows exactly where I'm coming from here.

When things are bad, and life seems bleak, hobbies aren't a needless indulgence; hobbies are what keep us  sane.

Each of us experienced it in our own way. I and many of my friends could not listen to music for several months after Feb 24. For me, it was all... Pointless. Without any sense.

But over time, I've slowly come back to music and audio, and it's really helping to bring some good things in and bring a little more normality to this complete madness.

 

[darveniza]

Spent the year playing around with different IEM's from Meze, Thieaudio, Campfire, Softears, Shuoer,etc. Some I purchased, some I borrowed but late November I was able to audition the FAudio Mezzo and coming from being a bit underwhelmed with the Dark Sky (single DD) was planning not to really try it. At the end of 2022 it was a great move or find !!!

Eventually I purchased it on Black Friday and since then have been using it (pre burn in and post burn in)

After a lot of sampling of music genres ( Interpol, Kurt Vile, The Smile, Dangerous Mouse, Nipsey Hussle, Big Boi, Sharon Van Etten, Ben Bohmer)

Even though in the past I found that switch set up IEM's mostly were ineffective or did not really do much but add space to the IEM housing .

Found the Mezzo to actually change the sound signature via the switches ,while I was auditioning. First try was not using my gear or music was a bit surprised but not really believing it. So did try again a second time with my music and gear and wow it was quite interesting that you could hear the difference

Once I purchased it, I did a lot of tip rolling, wind up staying with Softears clear tips.
No cable rolling as I think the cable it comes with is very good

After playing around with the switches , stuck with the IEM in position 2 and 3.

Songs like Blue Laces 2 and Kill Jill hit very hard and shows a great handling of the bass without comprising the mids

Guitars on Interpol and Kurt Vile show all their details with great clarity

Female voices as Sharon Van Etten or Angel Olsen are so clear but still coming in with all of the guttural print from each singer

Also tested a track like The Smoke (The Smile) as to capture the initial 30-45 seconds and it brought a wow for me

For me this IEM came out of the blue and impress me to a degree to purchase , as its not low cost

Also found it easy to drive with my Sony Xperia 1 IV. But have defaulted to using it with my iFi Go Blu

All in all, a multi tasker

 

[CodenameBK201]

My review on the Fir XE6 is up. Cross posting the link here:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fir-audio-xenon-6.25722/review/29868/

Apologies in advance if there are any spelling or grammatical errors; my toddler's had me up since before 4am, and I'll fix them come the morning, but in the interim, I hope it's helpful.

 

[Rockwell75]

My review on the Fir XE6 is up. Cross posting the link here:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fir-audio-xenon-6.25722/review/29868/

Apologies in advance if there are any spelling or grammatical errors; my toddler's had me up since before 4am, and I'll fix them come the morning, but in the interim, I hope it's helpful.

Great review man!

I think the most powerful lesson I've learned this year is simply a reinforcement of one of the first lessons I learned-- to thine own ears and heart be true. The landscape of this hobby can be a Babel of conflicting reports, varying preferences and different perspectives. Just like no two snowflakes are alike there is no guarantee that a given two people will hear the same thing the same way. It has been my own unequivocal experience that the greater the extent to which one can follow their own passions, perceptions and incinations the greater will be their joy and satisfaction in this hobby.

 

[aaf evo]

I always like to support smaller businesses. I spent about 7 hours total today (my ears are sore) listening to the FatFreq Maestro SE. This is a type of sound I’ve been after for a while for something that can occupy the “edc” aspect of listening for me. Earlier this year I ordered both a CIEM Diva and Supermoon and canceled both for various reasons, so that void still needed filling. I went ahead and placed an order with FatFreq for a CIEM version today. Since I purchased the MSE uni with their 15% Christmas promo discount they went ahead and honored that for me for the CIEM also even though the promotion is over. I chose this faceplate with a black shell along with rush build (7-14 working days), current non-rush lead time is ~ 2 months.



The MSE basically reminds me of Diva on max bass but slightly less detailed and technical overall, but something I find more enjoyable and easier to listen to. I don’t find the upper mids/treble as aggressive which works out better for my library and tastes. If I already had a Diva CIEM then I wouldn’t look to buy MSE and vice versa.

Looking forward to seeing what else this company pushes out in the future.

 

[twister6]

My last review of this year, iBasso latest AMP14 balanced NuTube card for DX320/300. The picture below is of their 10th anniversary liquid-metal chassis DX320.

 

[ranfan]

Shanling M9 sold - that has had the record number of Scubi’s on and off since July

And of course if something goes, something else must come - an unwritten rule. JVC FW10000, FD01 (you’ve convinced me @ranfan), and some spare tips while I’m at it. They don’t land till next week, so I’m classing as the first purchase of 2023

New toys inbound! Nice selections. The FD01 has changeable filter nozzles, so you can play around with them as well

Perhaps take a picture of your metal gears later! H7 Turii Eclipse FD01 (and more?) Metal boys

So which one of you bought SpinFit W1 tips from Amazon and returned them with medium Moondrop tips instead?

Lmao

I enjoyed nearly everything about his IEM minus the bass, especially the sub bass quantity not being enough, and also lacking in enough texture. I loved vocals on this and the midrange + treble was outstanding. The treble had a combination of weight, air, and sparkle that was basically perfect and the way it reproduces cymbals is probably my favorite in any BA IEM so far. Very black background for notes to pop out from too. I ended up selling this about 4 months later due to the bass issues I mentioned but otherwise I would have kept it. I didn’t consider Phonix an all arounder when I had it but my favorite type of music with it was female vocal singer-songwriter stuff and so it was more of a specialist IEM for me. I placed an order for the Phonix LE recently and should have it in February next year.

Excited for the LE too! Male vocals and acoustic guitars have also good timbre on the LE. They're clearer and each string/instrument sounded more defined and well-separated from one another. It's 'clearer' but not necessarily brighter

For Phonix, you love the mids, but would like improvement in the bass. For me, I love the resolution, but the mids were too warm and cloudy. I would prefer the the mids were altered to get it more in line with a reference tuning. I think I will end up liking the Phonix LE more than the OG due the changes they made to the LE. What I have learned from the Mentor experience is that timbre and tonality is my number 1 preference above resolution, dynamics and extension. Therefore, the timbre of the Phonix made it much more suitable to me for classical music, but for that genre, the mids were too warm.

For Trifecta, it seems that this IEM is like the Cilantro of the IEM world. You either love it or hate it. For me, it is the slowest drivers and least resolving of the TOTL sets I own. Yet, I love it because it has that old school sound that I can't get out of my head. I love it and I keep coming back to it. It is very slow and not that resolving. When I a/b test it against much more resolving and accurate timbre headphones, I still love them for its tonality. I call this the IEM that is the comfort food for my ears. The home cooking that only mom can do. Mom's meatloaf, curry chicken, chow mein. Nobody makes it like her. It's not something you will find in a restaurant and if you did, you might not like it. But, whenever I get it, I reminds me of home. This is what the Trifecta sound does for me. I can listen to it at any time of the day with almost any genre of music. When I wake up, when I am about to go to sleep. It is just comforting listening to that sound. I understand and respect other views on it and I can see why people have the impressions they do. For me, it's got a solid spot in my collection.

The warmth on the OG does seem to affect the resolution slightly. I also think the mids sounded 'cloudy' not that they're recessed, but slightly overlapping with the bass. The new bass drivers on the LE sounded more distinct from the rest of the frequencies, yet combined beautifully to create the overall signature

I guess it's also partially due to the expectations that come along from the price tag. It automatically gets compared to other monitors its range. Unique tuning, design and limited quantity gives into a portion of its value IMO. It's also a different house sound

 

[Rockwell75]

I guess it's also partially due to the expectations that come along from the price tag. It automatically gets compared to other monitors its range

I don't think it's helpful for the hobby to ascribe strict limitations around what something at a given price tier "has to sound like". The market can determine that. Whether nor not a product sells is in the final analysis the primary factor in deciding whether something is priced right or not-- we don't need influencers and cliques to do this for us. I've always thought an IEM should be judged on its own terms, relative to what it sets out to do and to what extent it does that thing better or worse than other things attempting to do the same thing. Quite frankly, I'm grateful there are companies like CFA that are trying new things, pushing boundaries and marching to the beat of their own drum. As with all things, YMMV.

 

[yaps66]

Today's Astute companions and chemo sesh with XEvo6 makes the time fade away.

May the music be with you!

Year in Gear: 2022​

Well, it’s the end of year and I’ve been reflecting a bit on all the gear I acquired for 2022. I pretty much got everything that I wanted, and I think next year will be a much quieter one. Here’s my acquisitions below in chronological order and what I think of them now.


January: Vision Ears PHöNIX

I enjoyed nearly everything about his IEM minus the bass, especially the sub bass quantity not being enough, and also lacking in enough texture. I loved vocals on this and the midrange + treble was outstanding. The treble had a combination of weight, air, and sparkle that was basically perfect and the way it reproduces cymbals is probably my favorite in any BA IEM so far. Very black background for notes to pop out from too. I ended up selling this about 4 months later due to the bass issues I mentioned but otherwise I would have kept it. I didn’t consider Phonix an all arounder when I had it but my favorite type of music with it was female vocal singer-songwriter stuff and so it was more of a specialist IEM for me. I placed an order for the Phonix LE recently and should have it in February next year.



March: FiR Audio Xenon 6 CIEM

My favorite very warm IEM as it marries that with very good technicalities, a well extended treble, and sounds more open than the average TOTL IEM. I consider it a king of dynamic contrast as well and is nice for lower volume listening. Having A/B’d the universal vs the CIEM, CIEM offers a clearer sound and a bit better extension and presence from the sub bass, plus a bit more impactful punch/slam as well from the mid bass.



April: Sony IER-Z1R

This was the 2nd second time I bought the Z1R, the first time being back in early 2020. This second time around, while I enjoyed the sound for sure, I was getting worried that I wouldn’t use it much with XE6 around and already knew at this time that I was going to end up getting another IEM and so I got rid of it. I might get another Z1R again though since I’ve been missing it.



May: Aroma Audio Jewel

Jewel is my most used IEM since it’s the best all-rounder for me so far. This is an IEM where I can load up a playlist of a variety of different genres or one of those “discovery” style playlists on music streaming services and not have much to complain about with how it reproduces the music.



October: Campfire Audio Supermoon CIEM

My interest in Supermoon ended up fading very quickly after getting it in CIEM form (like 3 weeks tops). I’ve never really lost interest in a CIEM that quick after getting it, and so a personal record has been set. Basically, the lack of enough macro-dynamic contrast, odd timbre, and uninspiring midrange were the biggest flaws of Supermoon for me. With these flaws, Supermoon is a hit or miss depending on the music and it’s a lot of misses if I go into music discovery mode on streaming services for example. I think if I had another week the Supermoon demo unit, I probably would have decided not to get it, and even if it did seem pretty good with some forms of electronic music, ultimately it was too much of a specialist for me. Since I’m lukewarm with this IEM, I may be putting it up for sale eventually for someone to re-shell.



November: 64 Audio Fourté Blanc

A fan of the original Fourte but I never got to try the Noir variant, and so with the announcement of Blanc which is basically the same as Noir but with minor DD driver improvements, I decided to pick one up and it was pretty much an instant hit with me. It’s not something that I view as tonally accurate (although preferable to Supermoon still) but it’s an engaging listen in terms of its soundstage quality (imaging, layering, separation), macrodynamic contrast, and treble air and sparkle. My favorite genres with this IEM are various sub genres in electronic (techno/trance/house/DnB/ambient/experimental stuff) and pop.



November: Meze Elite

I’ve actually been going on a bit of a headphone demoing spree for the past 6 months to see what’s out there in the market as someone who’s predominately been an IEM listener for nearly 9 years now (although I actually started with headphones when I first got into headfi) and so lots to catch up on. So anyhow, I ended up preferring the Meze Elite to many headphones out there and was one of my top 3 that I liked the most. The Elite sounds very natural, like one of the better examples of it to me. Vocals and stringed instruments are especially really nice, and there’s this slight warmth and liquid feeling to the sound. The treble has a really nice amount of air to it without getting too exaggerated like the Hifiman Arya or HE1000SE that I tried. I consider the Elite an all-rounder for what I listen to (electronic, indie/alternative rock, singer-songwriter, pop) and all my music basically sounds upgraded with it. The Elite has easily replaced all my IEMs for listening to music at my desk these days.



December: T+A Solitaire P

This is another headphone that I ended up liking this year when I first heard it back at CanJam, although I wasn’t actually planning on buying one so soon but I ended up getting a really good deal on a used unit and so I jumped on it anyways. Resolution is sky high on this thing and it’s a technical beast. I’m actually hearing things that I haven’t heard on some of my songs, which is a rare thing for me these days. It presents nuances in the recording in an effortless manner rather than being showy about it. Relative to the Meze Elite, the Solitaire P has darker tonality with a bit less air in the treble, but it’s still very detailed up top. The bass is sub-bass focused, and it digs very deep and there’s good punch/slam from the mid-bass. The mids are a bit recessed compared to the Elite while leaning drier but not dry in an absolute sense. The quality of the soundstage is very good: imaging, layering, and separation are all top notch with the busiest of sections in tracks and depth and height are very nice even by open back headphone standards. I use the Solitaire P for all my usual genres, but I’d say electronic is especially great on it thanks to the sub bass, spatial presentation, and very high resolution.



December: Campfire Audio Trifecta

There’s been lots of positive talk about Trifecta this month, and although my impressions of it at SoCal CanJam a few months were really bad, I decided to give it a second shot and listen to for several days at my home. My listening impressions with it now are a bit different from my time with it at CanJam, but the differences are not necessarily for the better.

I’ll just start with the out of the box impressions when I received Trifecta back on the 23rd. Fresh out of the box, I heard a sound that is very warm (warmer than XE6) and incredibly bloated bass with everything sounded like it was playing behind a thin blanket with different instrument sounds melding together in the soundstage. So, that’s basically the same as I heard it the first time at CanJam, but a difference that I noticed this time was that the treble was not super peaky and fatiguing, and that’s with using the same setup (N8ii with W1 tips, although I’ve tried other tips as well) as I did at CanJam. So essentially, my out of the box impressions were that my music sounds downgraded, and not in a subtle way. Since receiving them on the 23rd, I’ve had them on a 24/7 burn-in and listening to them for a few hours each day and have now reached 110 hours of total burn-in as of this writing.

Now, after 110 hours of continuous burn-in, I’ll describe what I’m hearing at this stage and compared to some of the things I’ve read about Trifecta by other owners. First off, these have been touted as being “bombastic”, and while it’s certainly a bass heavy sound, along with that I’m hearing Trifecta as having slow-ish transients and just about average dynamic contrast, which is pretty much par the course for the Campfire Audio IEMs that I’ve either owned or tried in the past (Andromeda, Vega, Atlas, Solaris). So, it’s bass heavy but not really an energetic delivery of bass, and this lack of an energetic delivery can be said for the remaining parts of the frequency spectrum as well. In addition to the bass being slow, it’s also not controlled, and in comparison, I’m hearing my IE 900 as having a quicker and more controlled bass. I’m also hearing the combination of Trifecta’s big, slow, and not well controlled bass as being especially problematic for fast music that has lots of stuff going on in the track.

Moving to the midrange, I’m hearing this area as lacking in clarity and with less resolution when compared to my IE 900. The midrange also sounds muffled (going back to my earlier point of a thin blanket sound), and given that it’s recessed, the combination of all these descriptions for how I’m hearing the midrange make it sound unremarkable. Overall, I’d put the IE 900 as having a superior midrange by a good margin.

Next up is the treble and this area is the least resolving of all 3 areas of the frequency spectrum, and it also has the least presence. Treble is another area where I find the IE 900 to pull ahead very easily: more texture, more sparkle, more air, realism and just generally of a higher quality and I find that more impressive as the IE 900 is doing that while having only a single DD and pumping out a high-quality bass a well at the other end of the spectrum, whereas Trifecta has 3 DDs and is falling flat when it comes to treble quality while having muddy bass. Listening to "Enough to Believe" by Bob Moses, the 3:00 - 3:43 section of this track features a washy ride cymbal that’s playing in the background and gets progressively less noticeable as the section gets towards the endpoint. Playing this section of the track on Trifecta has the washy ride cymbal basically disappear as the section get closer to the end…yikes, not good, and this section of the track is better reproduced on the IE 900 again with the cymbal having more presence and with better resolution. Moving on to "Rhinoceros" by Smashing Pumpkins, the distorted electric guitar crunch in the 3:05 – 3:33 section sounds blunted and dull.

I’ve been reading about the soundstage being “big” and even so-called “holographic” on Trifecta, but in my experience the soundstage size neither big nor small, and instead I’d say it’s just about average and certainly not wrapping around the outside of head. More importantly than soundstage size is the quality of the stage, and basically what I’m hearing is poor separation, leading to different sounds melding together and essentially coming off as wall of sound. For soundstage quality, the IE 900 is again surpassing Trifecta with more noticeable separation and layering.

To start wrapping these impressions up, I’d like to re-emphasize the point that I’ve been trying to make the throughout my impressions, which is that Trifecta isn’t even as technically proficient or resolving as the IE 900, which is just a single DD IEM that costs $1,499. To me that kept raising the question thought my listening: What’s the point of 3 DDs in Trifecta when it can’t even compete sonically against a single DD IEM? Of course, even more baffling is the price of Trifecta for the sound that it puts out. So, while I do hear an improvement in Trifecta’s sound after 110 hours of burn in versus out of the box, the improvements ultimately weren’t enough, and my music still sounds downgraded but to a lesser extent when compared to day one. I’m sure there will be questions about source pairings I used, and of my 2 DAPs (N8ii, WM1ZM2), the WM1ZM2 was worse since it made Trifecta sound even more slow and gooier.

So, with all that said and done, I found Trifecta to be the worst IEM that I’ve heard this year at the multi-kilobuck price level. I found it overhyped and overpriced given its sound quality and since it can’t even compete against my IE 900, the asking price of $3,375 makes Trifecta even more egregious. I’ll be returning Trifecta to Campfire Audio for a full refund.

Epic post to an epic year! Really enjoyed reading your impressions! Thanks for sharing!

 

[drftr]

Epic post to an epic year! Really enjoyed reading your impressions! Thanks for sharing!

You still have a few days left yourself, my friend! Since you have such an amazing collection at the moment and partly listen to different genres it would be sooo great to read some short notes on where things are standing for you.

drftr