[Scubadevils]

On the subject of watches, Instagram targeted marketing did a good job pointing me towards this limited edition watch - I wasn’t aware of its existence until about 5 hours ago, and while it’s not the sort of style I usually go for, I’m fighting a battle with myself on whether to buy it

Only 456 made, and part of the face (the minutes outer panel) is made from metal salvaged from John DeLorean’s company car… as a massive fan of cars and indeed Back to the Future as a kid in the 80’s, this is highly desirable for me!!!

The styling is of course based on the DMC-12…

“Limited to 456 pieces and encased within a steel framework, the SPX is a spotlight watch for a spotlight car, with subtle design references weaving throughout the timepiece to evoke the iconic feel of the DeLorean.”

46 left at present

 

[drftr]

Not to be a pain, but as some mentioned before, this thread is what it is because of the avoidance of sponsored posts. We should keep these (and a couple previous ones) to the Noble's thread.

I'm probably the biggest Noble promoter here nowadays, so it is with a little pain in my heart that I say you're probably right - absolutely no offense meant to anyone!

drftr

 

[GiullianSN]

I'm probably the biggest Noble promoter here nowadays, so it is with a little pain in my heart that I say you're probably right - absolutely no offense meant to anyone!

drftr

Well, you shouldn't feel bad at all...we all promote/comment/praise/share what we like here. But mainly we promote the open conversation between blokes/ladies that likes infinite different stuff. But with no sponsor push. Some pointed that it is what brought them to this thread.

When one wants to go deeper into the brand or product, the majority of them have their own thread.

 

[GiullianSN]

On the subject of watches, Instagram targeted marketing did a good job pointing me towards this limited edition watch - I wasn’t aware of its existence until about 5 hours ago, and while it’s not the sort of style I usually go for, I’m fighting a battle with myself on whether to buy it

Only 456 made, and part of the face (the minutes outer panel) is made from metal salvaged from John DeLorean’s company car… as a massive fan of cars and indeed Back to the Future as a kid in the 80’s, this is highly desirable for me!!!

The styling is of course based on the DMC-12…

“Limited to 456 pieces and encased within a steel framework, the SPX is a spotlight watch for a spotlight car, with subtle design references weaving throughout the timepiece to evoke the iconic feel of the DeLorean.”

46 left at present

And Instagram made another "victim".

This looks quite interesting and something "low profile" as I like in watches.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Not sure everybody is interested, but I will share some of my thoughts anyways.
First of all I listen to a lot of music genres, also very modern stuff. But classical music is the one, that sometimes manages to deeply touch me. And this might be the reason, why it also manages to calms me down and resort me internally after a stressful day.
When it comes to music reproduction in all the non classical genres, I find it extremely difficult to find a perfect set of DAP, cable, tips and IEM that fits all different aspects of all this different music. That is because it is difficult to define, what is the "correct" sound.
In classical music and for someone, who has a family member playing the viola and has been to a lot of concerts, things are much easier.
The recording techniques have varied over time (e.g. Decca tree vs. Deutsche Gramophone) but from going to a live concert, you know pretty well, what you want to hear. Even the most modern concert halls (like the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg in my case) doesn't deliver better music details than the recordings played with my actual setting. So that aspect is met for me. Check!
Of course the instruments should halfways sound like in reality, but a lot of the modern equipment is good enough to cover that. Mine too. Check!
Way more difficult is to meet the same level of musicality which here I would describe as: Does the reproduction bring me to the same emotional level as in a live concert. IMO a lot of equipment completely fails in this aspect. Only some devices manage to keep the level of emotions, that the composer, conductor and musicians put in a specific concert. And my set is doing that as good or better as anything else I have heard. Check!

To sum it up, yes, feeling to have arrived is for sure partly because I mainly listen to classical music. But also because some producers of Hifi gear seem to listen like me ... or I just have luck and found MY perfect combo. For now ...

PS: I am using Indigo for all other genres than classical

The CFA Supermoon is a good IEM for Classical music? Great, I need to try that. I've only used it for other genres in the past.

 

[Scubadevils]

And Instagram made another "victim".

This looks quite interesting and something "low profile" as I like in watches.

I’m ok for the most part with targeted marketing - I’ve actually been introduced to many products that were absolutely of interest to me, and don’t have to trawl through adverts for stuff of zero interest! It’s trying to exercise discipline is the challenge…

- be good, you have spent enough and need to focus on savings, you made a commitment to yourself for 2023. And you absolutely do not need another watch.

- don’t mind him - F-F-S man, it has a part from John DeLorean’s car, it’s limited edition, you love watches, cars, and Back to the Future - plus it’s limited edition, and adds a new and very unique flavour to the collection. And of course you’ll hand down to your son. Finally, YOLO.

 

[Junmoe62]

Hi guys,



I’m glad to find the headfi family is doing great after over a year of absence!

I wish I could have been more active but let’s be honest, it would be an understatement to say this last year in Shanghai hasn’t been the most auspicious for audio gear hunting…

Anyways, now the hardest seems to be behind and it finally is time to get back in business!!



I’ve been checking the shops around to try some of the newer releases but sadly I couldn’t find many of the big guns people rave about on the forum, like Jewel, MM, Ragnar, Sultan, Kr5, Xe6 to demo.



However, I managed to demo some other pretty cool stuff that I’ll try to describe briefly. I didn’t take notes so all impressions are from memory and mostly only few songs per set.

Taste wise I lean more towards the warmish side of the force and I was mostly searching for a set to complement Traillii with preferably no BA bass, more sub bass rumble and upper range presence.

All tested through L&P LP6 Gold.

Also, I won’t spend much words on those that didn’t work for me.

Oh! And yeah! As always, YMMV a loooot!

• AK Pathfinder : not much to say, not bad, not great, nothing special, didn’t move me much… beautiful design though!

• Fourté Blanc : excellent overall! Fantastic bass, soundstage, air and details. Super comfortable, no pressure feeling. Not the best for isolation, upper range tonality that I find disturbing on some songs (same issue with other Fourté and U18T).

• Softear Turii OG : very pleasant set, just missing isolation and a bit more meat/bass presence.

• U12T : these are clearly not new release, but I just wanted to give them a ride after many years not hearing them. I must say they still sound glorious! The best sounding 64Audio IMHO. It’s easy to see why so many people rank them so highly! Can’t really fault them for anything! They can take on anything you throw at them and play it marvelously. Their only problem could be they are not the best at anything… I could see myself purchasing one of those someday, especially for the price they can be found on the 2nd hand market.

• EE Evo : great bass, great bass and great bass! I didn’t like it much the first time I demoed it but the second time I found it very satisfying. The bass eats a little too much everything else at times though. Annoying driver flex.

• CFA Supermoon : very cool set! I love planar sound! Probably the best close back planar IEM. Much preferred them compared to Euclid. Still a farcry from LCD i4 on some aspects though, but it’s getting there!!

• CFA Trifecta : this one was actually a surprise! Reading all the divided opinions about them I was expecting something weirder (in a good or bad way). I actually quite liked them! Not the most technical set, but the low end felt satisfying and the soundstage is amongst the biggest I’ve heard in any IEM.

• VE phœnix : really liked this one overall! Just didn’t differentiate itself from Traillii in the areas I was looking for.

• VE Ext : this one was getting closer to what I was after. Very good sub bass and trebles but in the end there’s other sets I preferred.

• Hifiman Svanar : interesting set, nice analog feel, decent bass but a little sloppy on some fast tracks (maybe the demo set wasn’t fully burn in?). Spacious soundstage. Cymbals and hit-hats a little too splashy .

Now we’re getting at my 2 favorites from this little hunt :

• EE Odyssey : I demoed it 3 times and really like it a lot! In fact it was pretty much exactly what I was after in terms of tuning to complement Traillii. Still leaning towards warmth and musicality but with more emphasis on sub bass, brighter overall mids and a bit more treble presence. The sub bass rumble provided by the DD+BCD is truly excellent without ever being overkill like it can be on the EVO. I was going to pull the trigger and buy the Odyssey until I tried the next set >>

• Noble Kublai Khan : those guys were hiding in a corner so I didn’t know they had it for demo! Fortunately at the last minute I managed to give those a listen and oh boy do they sound great! Actually, during my short A/Bing between KK and Ody I felt they were fairly similar to each other in terms of tuning on the lower half of the spectrum, with the major difference residing in the upper range. KK felt a bit brighter and revealing, which was a good thing. In the end I ended up buying KK. When factoring in the price difference, the size (KK is big but Ody is humongous!!) and the very annoying driver flex of Ody (KK has a little bit also but nothing to compare), it didn’t make sense to go for Odyssey.

KK vs Traillii : despite Traillii being nearly 3 times the price (though shipped with a $2000 cable to be fair), I think they play in the same league SQ wise. Traillii is more of a layback and relaxed listening that will be less tiring for the long listening sessions, while KK is more in your face for the detail retrieval. The piezo tweeter on the KK acts like a detail magnifier!! For example on “Bad Liar” by Imagine Dragons at the very beginning of the song you can hear some sort of rain or crackling. With Traillii at normal to low listening volume you might not notice it if you don’t pay attention. It’s there but very faint, while with KK you hear it instantly. KK is quite the monster for treble detail perception, in fact one of the very best I’ve got to hear. The counter part of that though is that it can get a little more tiresome for long sessions, especially while listening to brighter recordings like Genesis for example where Phill Collins voice and cymbals/hit-hats can get a little hot after a while (I’m very sensitive to high mids and trebles). KK never gets harsh, but I prefer the more relaxed approach of Traillii to listen to this kind of recordings, or for female vocals in general.

For electro music though KK is quite the treat! The fantastic sub bass rumble coupled with the crazy details makes for a memorable experience! BTW regarding the sub bass, I personally got the best BCD effect from the Final E tips. Them being smaller than average allows for a deeper fit which most likely benefits the BCD.



On the soundstage, I feel Traillii is a bit bigger but KK might be deeper. The imaging and separation on KK are impressive, they actually both are!! Tough to pick a winner on this one…



One thing I like about KK compared to Traillii is the fact that they do transmit a lot less microphonics from the cable. Traillii being fully closed is quite bad at that.



Cable wise, the stock KK cable is pretty nice! Very supple and nice looking. On the SQ aspect however I noticed more air and separation as well as a tighter and more controlled overall presentation while swapping to the Beat Audio Billow cable.



Also, never underestimate the power of burn in!! After a week and a half of intense burn in, my KK transformed radically!! They opened up so much that they sound like true open backs now :

Alright… little joke aside, the saddest part of the story is that I broke them while trying to take nice pictures to make a review and ended up with just this pic above!!!

They dropped on a stone table from less than a meter high and just shattered like glass… I wouldn’t have imagined it could break that easily. Maybe I just got unlucky… Also it was quite cold so it might have played a role, who knows… Just you guys be careful to your Precious!! They are very fragile toys!!

Anyways, now they are back to Noble for fixing… Waiting for the feedback about the price. If it’s just a reshelling it shouldn’t be too expensive but if one of the drivers got damaged that might be another story… let’s see.


Oh wait!! There’s more!! I kept the best for the end!!


If you thought Trifecta was controversial in its analog tuning and that Traillii was a little too eco friendly with its packaging for its price tag, wait to see those guys!!!

The Rosenkranz Silver KS (Kaiser Sound) single DD :

Those guys come at 32000 CNY which is about $4700 and are just delivered in a poor cardboard box with NOTHING else!!! No cable, no ear tips, no case… just… nothing… but those 2 silver monitors…

Oh and it seems they even have another flagship model that’s around $9000, delivered with the same packaging!!!

From what I understand, all their monitors are handmade and they only make 5 per month. No wonder it’s expensive.

I didn’t get to try the $9000 ones, but I actually liked a lot the sound of the Silver KS! It’s veeerrryy…. Special!!

It’s gotta be the most analog sound I’ve heard from an IEM!! Very warm yet detailed, incredible bass and one of, if not The biggest soundstage I witnessed on an IEM. I’m actually very impressed by the technicalities they managed to pull out of a single DD, especially with this warm, borderline dark tuning. I have no doubt many of you would think they sound like a pail of sh1te!! Even more so when putting in perspective with the price, but I’m personally considering taking one for myself! They are just totally different than anything else! They do take a little brain adjustment at the beginning, but after a while they just sound so good and full of emotion! Definitely an acquired taste! I wouldn’t advise a blind buy one this one!!



I hope my post isn’t too long and boring! My poor English grammar and vocabulary isn’t helping unfortunately…



Wish you all the best,



Cheers,



Julien

 

[Rockwell75]

CFA Supermoon : very cool set! I love planar sound! Probably the best close back planar IEM. Much preferred them compared to Euclid. Still a farcry from LCD i4 on some aspects though, but it’s getting there!!

Epic post-- thank-you for taking the time to write it up and share. As much as I love the Supermoon I'm inclined agree with this statement relative to LCDi4 but in fairness the i4 has a much bigger driver and is a totally open design and I'm not sure a closed back IEM like SM will ever be able to compete with the i4...which is arguably not even really an IEM since it mostly sits outside your ear (and is quite cumbersome in other ways also).

 

[Rockwell75]

On Penon Impact and Elysian Annihilator, which one has bigger soundstage and better details?

Hard to say as I never a/b'd them directly. If that is your main criteria maybe take a look at something like the Fourte or Fourte Blanc.

 

[royiko]

Not sure everybody is interested, but I will share some of my thoughts anyways.
First of all I listen to a lot of music genres, also very modern stuff. But classical music is the one, that sometimes manages to deeply touch me. And this might be the reason, why it also manages to calms me down and resort me internally after a stressful day.
When it comes to music reproduction in all the non classical genres, I find it extremely difficult to find a perfect set of DAP, cable, tips and IEM that fits all different aspects of all this different music. That is because it is difficult to define, what is the "correct" sound.
In classical music and for someone, who has a family member playing the viola and has been to a lot of concerts, things are much easier.
The recording techniques have varied over time (e.g. Decca tree vs. Deutsche Gramophone) but from going to a live concert, you know pretty well, what you want to hear. Even the most modern concert halls (like the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg in my case) doesn't deliver better music details than the recordings played with my actual setting. So that aspect is met for me. Check!
Of course the instruments should halfways sound like in reality, but a lot of the modern equipment is good enough to cover that. Mine too. Check!
Way more difficult is to meet the same level of musicality which here I would describe as: Does the reproduction bring me to the same emotional level as in a live concert. IMO a lot of equipment completely fails in this aspect. Only some devices manage to keep the level of emotions, that the composer, conductor and musicians put in a specific concert. And my set is doing that as good or better as anything else I have heard. Check!

To sum it up, yes, feeling to have arrived is for sure partly because I mainly listen to classical music. But also because some producers of Hifi gear seem to listen like me ... or I just have luck and found MY perfect combo. For now ...

PS: I am using Indigo for all other genres than classical

what's your gear for classical music rightnow? Supermoon?

 

[Wyville]

Not sure everybody is interested, but I will share some of my thoughts anyways.
First of all I listen to a lot of music genres, also very modern stuff. But classical music is the one, that sometimes manages to deeply touch me. And this might be the reason, why it also manages to calms me down and resort me internally after a stressful day.

Music in general, but classical music especially is important to me for much more than just relieving stress. It helps to calm my ADHD brain and improves my focus while I work. It can at times be like meditation while I follow the emotions expressed by the music. I think classical music has qualities that few other types of music have, although perhaps it is because the pieces are often very long and the experience becomes more like a journey when you listen.

When it comes to music reproduction in all the non classical genres, I find it extremely difficult to find a perfect set of DAP, cable, tips and IEM that fits all different aspects of all this different music. That is because it is difficult to define, what is the "correct" sound.
In classical music and for someone, who has a family member playing the viola and has been to a lot of concerts, things are much easier.
The recording techniques have varied over time (e.g. Decca tree vs. Deutsche Gramophone) but from going to a live concert, you know pretty well, what you want to hear. Even the most modern concert halls (like the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg in my case) doesn't deliver better music details than the recordings played with my actual setting. So that aspect is met for me. Check!
Of course the instruments should halfways sound like in reality, but a lot of the modern equipment is good enough to cover that. Mine too. Check!
Way more difficult is to meet the same level of musicality which here I would describe as: Does the reproduction bring me to the same emotional level as in a live concert. IMO a lot of equipment completely fails in this aspect. Only some devices manage to keep the level of emotions, that the composer, conductor and musicians put in a specific concert. And my set is doing that as good or better as anything else I have heard. Check!

To sum it up, yes, feeling to have arrived is for sure partly because I mainly listen to classical music. But also because some producers of Hifi gear seem to listen like me ... or I just have luck and found MY perfect combo. For now ...

PS: I am using Indigo for all other genres than classical

I designed my 'Masters of Classical Music' series to be about the (subjective) experience more than a strict clinical analysis. It is great to see how different tunings affect the presentation of the music and how it influences the journey that the music takes you on. So yeah, finding a "perfect" setup is very difficult.

 

[SBranson]

...Your comment on the treble is interesting. Impact brought something home for me in that regard as I absolutely loved the treble on it. I think my personal ideal as far as e-stats go is to confine them to the upper reaches of the treble where they can give a little detailed flourish up top and you don't get any of that etheric quality that I noticed in IEMs like EXT and Annihilator. Could be a just a personal thing but it's something that struck me when I was listening to Impact last weekend. ....

This is interesting to me as I know that the treble is characteristic of our differences in tastes or hearing. IEMs that I find bordering on too warm are seemingly more detailed to you than I hear. I tend to prefer that "etheric" quality of ESTs over a thicker sound. I listened to Nils Frahm's Solo Remains last night in the dark as it has such an interesting and amazing piano tone. He's playing one of these and it's a crazy unique sound..



Anyway, it highlighted the Impact's treble response in that intial attack of the notes.. Now, I've never heard one of these live but it just sounds a bit slow compared to pianos I have heard. It's as if the felt on the hammers is softer. I noticed before that guitar plucks sound like they do when using an ultra thin pick over a medium. There's a softness to the attack. This could be seen as picking nits but it's an important (to me) distinction and something I pick up on right away for some reason.
For what it's worth, it's not something I ever noticed in the Traillii.

 

[maegnificant]

Not posting for drama, just an interesting watch

 

[JSBachFan]

what's your gear for classical music rightnow? Supermoon?

Yes. In combination with the WM1Z I find it just perfect for classical music. It's engaging, the tonality seems just right to me and the stage is good enough to enjoy even big orchestra music in which I can still focus and even locate solo instruments playing ... if I want to. It is quite an experience. My nice silver cables bring in some finish in details.

 

[Ike1985]

Will you part with your A12 and A18 because of this?

drftr

No I'm actually having them reshelled and checked by 64 Audio. I'll never sell them, I love them, I've just been ruined by the deep impact of BA bass. Some things are just better. Will always be fond of A18t, Vitaly is an artist so is his brother. A18t is incredibly precise and resolved.

Sometimes the more expensive watch isn't the better watch, just like with IEMs. I considered buying a high dollar watch at one point but honestly I find this way cooler:

Tubes are just plain awesome. Many people bought lambos only to find out the build quality is atrocious and an entire industry exists to fix stock problems with them. I've been in them and the interior of BMW's destroys lambos. Good for one thing only.