[aaf evo]

Thank you. I will demo the EXT once more with different tips. If I fail to find a decent fit, Annihilator comes into play!

Yes the mids seem recessed in the graph but I found them to be totally fine tbh.

It was mostly track dependent for me, if I was hearing a track that was heavy in the highs then the mids took the slight back seat.

Annihilator technicals are a lot better than EXT too, so if EXT fit doesn't work I don't think Annihilator will disappoint you, although it doesn't capture that sense of naturalness in the mid range like the EXT does.

 

[Natesdailies]

At a layover in Toronto listening to Mentor / recollecting my thoughts.

bro nice name tag!!!!!

Thanks. Credits to Jim who got these ordered. The magnets at the back are really strong. Helps hold it in one area.

Awesome impressions and pictures, Nate!

Mentor still standing tall amongst what you’ve heard so far?

Any idea on the driver configuration of the Jomo Alpha Ti? Can’t find anything about it online. Guessing it’s at a higher price point than the GT600.

Liking the look and initial impressions on the FiR Radon 6!

I had to wait until I tried a few more to answer your question. Yes Mentor is holding up against some of the newest releases from a technical front. It's going to come down to tuning preference for people. Lots of choices now. It's a great time to be a portifi audiophille. Jomo told me Alpha Ti has DD / BA. I think its kept under wraps for now. Pricing wise I was told in the ballpark of $4000.

Nice impression Nate! I hope you enjoy my service in musicteck , and really fun experience to discuss and share experience will you all !

It was! Thanks for spending the time to help out.

Did you find the Anni to be different enough than the X to justify owning both? If so, what genres did you find suit the Anni better than the X, or X than the Anni?

Receiving my Annihilator soon that I ordered late Dec. I was wondering if I should just keep it in the box and start a listing, so it doesn't lose any value. But I am so curious to see if I can fit it in my collection. I would love to for collection purposes as they are both hard to get.

I thought it was different enough to justify owning both. It would depend on your collection. X has a distinct V shape with a deep stage while Anni was more wide and had a linear tuning with elevated mids. My preference for X would be electronic and acoustics on Anni. For me personally, I would just go with X since I got the warmer mids covered by XE6 and Mentor.

That was an epic post of impressions. Interesting that more expensive didn’t always translate to better as was the case with the Lotoo Mjolnir/Mentor pairing. Really enjoyed reading and the photos as well!

Thanks. I actually did find it to be a great pairing (minus the elevated treble) but there wasn't a big enough of a delta to justify the cost. It might scale more for headphones.

Awesome mate! Great impressions. Kinda curious what vol you were on with Storm/SP3k - that thing was barely keeping up when i listened to it and i know you listen louder!

I recall the volume on SP3K being at 90. My normal listening at home is 30-70 (out of 150) for Mentor depending on the genre.

 

[Sifo]

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Eletech booth for a chat.

Huge love to all the water cooler people I met and got to hang out with, I wish I could have socialized with many of you more. I'm honoured to have been a part of what turned into an pre-birthday dinner of sorts, one I'll never forget.

@twister6 glad you were able to validate my choice of pairing Victoria with the Jewel. I heard from Dean from EE many many years ago that we might have similar tastes and you've always been a solid source for impressions. Have seen you around at many canjams but have never formally introduced, so great seeing you again.

@Rockwell75 Thanks as always for your work in organizing us tour kits, I finally got to hear the Impact and I think I'll be maximizing my time with it before passing it along. Glad you got to stay the 2 full days

@HiFiHawaii808 Thank you again so much for the name tag, dinner and many insightful conversations. Solid recommendations helped me make the most of my limited time demoing stuff on Sunday.

@Natesdailies Glad you could come hang out to try some EE stuff, always nice to have a third opinion when I'm going back and forth with Andrew.

@RTodd Always a pleasure chatting about stuff at the MT booth, was nice to get a little more formally acquainted this time.

@goldwerger and @Zachik fun convos at our end of the dinner table, laughed and learned a lot

And to everyone else I'm sorry I didn't have enough time to personally chat with you all more or if I forgot about our conversation, my brain is a bit foggy but definitely looking forward to the next time!

 

[CharlyBrown]

It was mostly track dependent for me, if I was hearing a track that was heavy in the highs then the mids took the slight back seat.

Annihilator technicals are a lot better than EXT too, so if EXT fit doesn't work I don't think Annihilator will disappoint you, although it doesn't capture that sense of naturalness in the mid range like the EXT does.

Interesting quote from the CJ NYC thread:

4. Empire Ears Odin - I thought they were very similar to the annihilator and preferences would come down to how you like upper mids vs treble handled, I think in a short listening environment i slightly liked the annihilator more


Wound you second this? That would turn my interest in the Annihilator down.

Regarding technicalities of the EXT, that is fine for me as I find my Odins resolving and detailed enough and could live with the musical nature of the EXT.

 

[aaf evo]

Interesting quote from the CJ NYC thread:

4. Empire Ears Odin - I thought they were very similar to the annihilator and preferences would come down to how you like upper mids vs treble handled, I think in a short listening environment i slightly liked the annihilator more


Wound you second this? That would turn my interest in the Annihilator down.

Regarding technicalities of the EXT, that is fine for me as I find my Odins resolving and detailed enough and could live with the musical nature of the EXT.

I don’t like Odin so I’d easily take Annihilator over it but that’s my biased answer. Odin has better sub bass quality but that’s about all it did “better” than Annihilator for me. Odin for me was very upper mid heavy, Annihilator is boosted there too but it’s done much better to me.

 

[Tristy]

Interesting quote from the CJ NYC thread:

4. Empire Ears Odin - I thought they were very similar to the annihilator and preferences would come down to how you like upper mids vs treble handled, I think in a short listening environment i slightly liked the annihilator more


Wound you second this? That would turn my interest in the Annihilator down.

Regarding technicalities of the EXT, that is fine for me as I find my Odins resolving and detailed enough and could live with the musical nature of the EXT.

Odin and EXT are very complementary, can’t speak for the Annihilator unfortunately.

 

[Ojisan]

I missed the big party and instead enjoyed the US tour GAEA over the weekend. Thanks @Rockwell75 and EA x EAL!

I wrote up my first ever long impression here.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eff...ussion-impression-thread.965468/post-17427559

TLDR:
Excellent vocal IEM with reduced bass dynamics. Mids and treble shine with vocals with sweetness instead of an edge. GAEA lacks some punch and impact from mid-bass. Instead, fast decay low bass together with crisp mid+treble works well for fast metal/prog and busy j-pop. A better amp gets you better balance.

 

[Bret Halford]

For all those who have been able to test the Maestro Mini and the Maestro SE these days, could you briefly comment on their differences, or the disadvantages of the Mini VS SE?
Does the Mini have any problems that discourage its purchase compared to the SE?

I own both Mini and MSE (along with the 'prototype Grand Maestro in CIEM).

The MSE has some upper mid correction compared to a slight scoop there on the Mini. If I had to guess, the Mini's 2 BA drivers are stretched a bit thin compared to the MSE's 7, particularly since the MSE has quad ESTs for treble coverage too. Bass wise they are more comparable than some of the plots I've seen... the MSE does pull ahead but it's so low in sub bass it's not often that it really shows.

The Mini absolutely captures the 'wow' factor of the Bass Cannon and gives a great point of access for the magic. The higher end models definitely have finesse to deliver with the best of them on details if you want that too, but I wouldn't say it's necessary to the 'Maestro experience' to feel the magic.

 

[Rockwell75]

I think for @Rockwell75 It’s head-to-head between Annihilator and EXT. He mentioned the EXT might even be on his Top2 after Trifecta, in his latest chart it was Nr.3 after Anni, though

For me Anni and EXT are fundamentally different IEMs. For me Annihilator is a treble centric, highly technical and quite balanced IEM in terms of tonality. Bass serves mostly as a foundation. It's not an anlogue sound at all, but I wouldn't call it digital or unnatural either.

EXT on the other hand is more of a bass & lower mids centric IEM. Tonality is still balanced but timbre is more balanced and it doesn't have the resolution of Annhilator. The numbers in a top 10 list are in some sense arbitrary as IEMs have different strengths and serve different libraries and different moods.

What are you after sound wise?

 

[raylu]

Mentor Finally arrived after CanJam

 

[Doug2507]

Mentor Finally arrived after CanJam

They look !!

 

[raylu]

They look !!

thanks, man !! I love it!

 

[Silverlinings]

I missed the big party and instead enjoyed the US tour GAEA over the weekend. Thanks @Rockwell75 and EA x EAL!

I wrote up my first ever long impression here.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eff...ussion-impression-thread.965468/post-17427559



TLDR:
Excellent vocal IEM with reduced bass dynamics. Mids and treble shine with vocals with sweetness instead of an edge. GAEA lacks some punch and impact from mid-bass. Instead, fast decay low bass together with crisp mid+treble works well for fast metal/prog and busy j-pop. A better amp gets you better balance.

Oddly enough, I couldn't listen to these for metal or prog. Completely fatiguing and couldn't wait to get them out of my ears.

Although, I found them fatiguing with just about everything even pop music. It's really amazing how everyone hears IEMS differently.

 

[CharlyBrown]

I don’t like Odin so I’d easily take Annihilator over it but that’s my biased answer. Odin has better sub bass quality but that’s about all it did “better” than Annihilator for me. Odin for me was very upper mid heavy, Annihilator is boosted there too but it’s done much better to me.

I heard this very often. The mids are make or break with the Odin. I love it but I am also happy with more neutral mids interpretations.

Odin and EXT are very complementary, can’t speak for the Annihilator unfortunately.

Thank you. That makes the EXT so interesting as the Odin is my personal reference and I think the EXT could be the more musical counterpart with super interesting treble for my tastes.

For me Anni and EXT are fundamentally different IEMs. For me Annihilator is a treble centric, highly technical and quite balanced IEM in terms of tonality. Bass serves mostly as a foundation. It's not an anlogue sound at all, but I wouldn't call it digital or unnatural either.

EXT on the other hand is more of a bass & lower mids centric IEM. Tonality is still balanced but timbre is more balanced and it doesn't have the resolution of Annhilator. The numbers in a top 10 list are in some sense arbitrary as IEMs have different strengths and serve different libraries and different moods.

What are you after sound wise?

Music wise, it is impossible to narrow down for me as I am in the lucky situation to love music from pretty much all genres. Sound wise, I am looking for outstanding treble and at least very good DD sub-bass with neutral mid-bass. I don’t care too much about the mids for my next IEM, as long as they are not weird or totally off. Soundstage or holographic presentation would be a huge plus, musicality > detail/resolution.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[wazzupi]

I tried them on from my friend Anfernee as well but with a different cable, it react differently, if you have a chance tried it with other cables tomorrow, I really think the stock cable is just too bright.

Ray !!! This is your head fi account ? Awesome it was great to see and meet all of you

At a layover in Toronto listening to Mentor / recollecting my thoughts.




Thanks. Credits to Jim who got these ordered. The magnets at the back are really strong. Helps hold it in one area.






I had to wait until I tried a few more to answer your question. Yes Mentor is holding up against some of the newest releases from a technical front. It's going to come down to tuning preference for people. Lots of choices now. It's a great time to be a portifi audiophille. Jomo told me Alpha Ti has DD / BA. I think its kept under wraps for now. Pricing wise I was told in the ballpark of $4000.


It was! Thanks for spending the time to help out.


I thought it was different enough to justify owning both. It would depend on your collection. X has a distinct V shape with a deep stage while Anni was more wide and had a linear tuning with elevated mids. My preference for X would be electronic and acoustics on Anni. For me personally, I would just go with X since I got the warmer mids covered by XE6 and Mentor.


Thanks. I actually did find it to be a great pairing (minus the elevated treble) but there wasn't a big enough of a delta to justify the cost. It might scale more for headphones.

I recall the volume on SP3K being at 90. My normal listening at home is 30-70 (out of 150) for Mentor depending on the genre.

Hmm I saw that 102 volume for storm :