[raylu]

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

Hmm I saw that 102 volume for storm :

yeah it is haha, nice to meet you too, hope I can get a Viking one day as well, love it a lot!

 

[blotmouse]

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.

Same here

 

[MatW]

Great impressions from CanJam NYC @attendees!!

@Coolers who are/were able to compare Annihilator with VE EXT - what would be your verdict about this comparison? Both are in my focus currently as my next IEMs. I would love to achieve:

- outstanding treble you can "feel"
- great mids, ideally natural but can also be a little emphasized or relaxed (low priority but shouldn't be off)
- at least very good Sub-bass
- neutral(ish) mid-bass
- great soundstage
- great fit (had issues with the EXT. Will be getting the demo unit again with different tips)

What do you think?

According to the graph the EXT have even more treble energy than the Anni, but graphs can fool you...

I would say maybe Fourte OG or Kublai Khan

 

[CharlyBrown]

I would say maybe Fourte OG or Kublai Khan

You are derailing my train in the tunnel haha. Really? I see, I need to read more about these.

 

[Natesdailies]

Empire Ears Prototype, Odin, Odyssey, Cayin N7:

The Odin was my first 3K iem. Recently i've been curious how the sonics would hold up to me today. Unfortunately in Canada it is difficult to get a hold of them to demo. During the first Canjam night after the steak dinner with the Watercoolers @Sifo invited me to try the EE prototype. We sat down at a quiet spot near the atrium. You can imagine my excitement when Andrew from EE pulled this out:

Odyssey:

Odysseys design looks like the Odins bifrost faceplate with more green in it.

I was intimated by its shell size but it fit better than I thought it would.

Paired with the SP3K, the bass had a good amount of slam and dynamics. I could feel it wobbling after a string pluck. The highs seemed relaxed and tamer compared to Odin. Male vocals were fanastic. During Female vocals I had some sibilance with Celine Dion. Similar issues I had with Odin but significantly less.
I tried pairing Andrews Hugo 2 with Odyssey afterwards. With the Hugo 2, there was increased resolution, better texture to the bass, sharper transients but it also intensified the sibilance. With the sub optimal fit and how it paired with these sources, this is not the IEM for me.

Odin

These fit better than it did a year ago. When I owned this a year ago, I did not have eartune fidelity Us or CP155 which gives me the deepest insertion. This also seemed to cut down some of the upper mid energy as well as increase the sub bass. I also added the Orphy it. This sounded pretty epic. I prefered Odins faster textured bass over the Odyssey which seemed more relaxed in comparison. The upper mids now sounded like it was approaching shoutiness but never got there. This made the transients clean, vivid and exciting. I can see this being fatiguing over time but this was my preferred iem between the two.

EE prototype red / Hugo 2: I liked it but it wasnt at Odins or LX' level. The tonality was good for female vocals. I also got fast sharp sub bass off the hugo 2.

^ The faceplate is the same for both prototypes the shell colours were different. These are all placeholders by the way.

EE prototype white / Hugo 2: The white sounded really similar to the red but it sounded more veiled and relaxed. The sub rumble sounded muffled and slower.

It was interesting to find out after my blind test from Andrew that the two prototypes were identical tuning and configuration (quadbrid) but had different shell thickness. The white shell had a thicker shell compared to the red so the bone conduction driver revealed more on the red.

Cayin N7

Being a fan of the N8ii, I was drawn to this DAP after it got teased by Andy Kong. It was one of the last gear I got to test before the exhibition closed.

Sizing wise, it felt about the same as the SP3K but the weight was a lot lighter.

I liked the look of the N7 stock case. It reminded me a lighter Hermes citrus orange.

N7 Mentor - Major wow moment after the first song "Into the West" (LOTR). Big injection of warmth and and organic feel to the mids. Female Vocals sounded juicy off it. The imaging popped off. It sounded more vibrant compared to the SP3K. After a brief test, N7 seemed to push mids forwards where the N8ii seemed to elevate the treble. Heize - Diary sounded incredibly immersive.

XE6 SP3K vs XE6 N7

Again hearing more vibrancy than the SP3K. On the XE6 I noticed more background noise and smaller stage. SP3K had better dynamics a flatter and relaxed sound, less mid focus, and a wider stage expansion. Interested to hear the N7 again.

Getting ready to boarding my next flight. More impressions coming later.

 

[barrycro]

Just getting back home from my first Can Jam experience. Great time testing out new iems and helping an old friend negotiate his way through the world of portable audio as he has had limited experience with higher end gear. I am a bit envious that the first iem he ever experienced was the u12t. What a baseline for every listening experience to come.

A big shout to @RTodd who was not only a great help at the Musictech table but a very pleasant guy to chat with albeit briefly.

I was able to finally hear some of the big guns that are talked about in this thread such as trialli, Ragnar, fourte blanc, ut12 as well as some newer models such as trifecta and mest mk3.

I now feel I have a better understanding of my own preferences and a larger frame of references for comparisons by others.

Most everything was at least good to great which comes as no surprise as I was auditioning higher end items.

Not surprising to me I seem to be a bit of a bass head and prefer that big bottom end. I also think bone conduction is securely in my preferred sound signature.

The set I enjoyed the most was the mest mk3 crisp, clean with a big bass. Very impactful for me, in fact so strong was the bass that the next unit I listened to CFA trifecta seemed like a perfectly tuned and dynamic set. I was expecting something boomy and bloated but this was not my experience.

The set I liked the least was the u12t. It was clean and resolving but lacking in excitement for me.

It was great to experience so many different flavors and get a feeling for not only my personal preferences but also those who review and give their own opinions so we can come closer to making a common language to describe sound.

 

[firesign]

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.

Thanks!
That info really help me.

 

[Ojisan]

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.

Yeah, it's limited to my library/source I tried so not really meant to be a blanket statement. I did have to tip roll since my usual tips came out a little hotter. That's ok, this is our baseline and I know what to read from your impressions

 

[wolfstar76]

Empire Ears Prototype, Odin, Odyssey, Cayin N7:

The Odin was my first 3K iem. Recently i've been curious how the sonics would hold up to me today. Unfortunately in Canada it is difficult to get a hold of them to demo. During the first Canjam night after the steak dinner with the Watercoolers @Sifo invited me to try the EE prototype. We sat down at a quiet spot near the atrium. You can imagine my excitement when Andrew from EE pulled this out:



Odyssey:

Odysseys design looks like the Odins bifrost faceplate with more green in it.


I was intimated by its shell size but it fit better than I thought it would.



Paired with the SP3K, the bass had a good amount of slam and dynamics. I could feel it wobbling after a string pluck. The highs seemed relaxed and tamer compared to Odin. Male vocals were fanastic. During Female vocals I had some sibilance with Celine Dion. Similar issues I had with Odin but significantly less.
I tried pairing Andrews Hugo 2 with Odyssey afterwards. With the Hugo 2, there was increased resolution, better texture to the bass, sharper transients but it also intensified the sibilance. With the sub optimal fit and how it paired with these sources, this is not the IEM for me.

Odin


These fit better than it did a year ago. When I owned this a year ago, I did not have eartune fidelity Us or CP155 which gives me the deepest insertion. This also seemed to cut down some of the upper mid energy as well as increase the sub bass. I also added the Orphy it. This sounded pretty epic. I prefered Odins faster textured bass over the Odyssey which seemed more relaxed in comparison. The upper mids now sounded like it was approaching shoutiness but never got there. This made the transients clean, vivid and exciting. I can see this being fatiguing over time but this was my preferred iem between the two.

EE prototype red / Hugo 2: I liked it but it wasnt at Odins or LX' level. The tonality was good for female vocals. I also got fast sharp sub bass off the hugo 2.


^ The faceplate is the same for both prototypes the shell colours were different. These are all placeholders by the way.

EE prototype white / Hugo 2: The white sounded really similar to the red but it sounded more veiled and relaxed. The sub rumble sounded muffled and slower.



It was interesting to find out after my blind test from Andrew that the two prototypes were identical tuning and configuration (quadbrid) but had different shell thickness. The white shell had a thicker shell compared to the red so the bone conduction driver revealed more on the red.

Cayin N7

Being a fan of the N8ii, I was drawn to this DAP after it got teased by Andy Kong. It was one of the last gear I got to test before the exhibition closed.

Sizing wise, it felt about the same as the SP3K but the weight was a lot lighter.

I liked the look of the N7 stock case. It reminded me a lighter Hermes citrus orange.



N7 Mentor - Major wow moment after the first song "Into the West" (LOTR). Big injection of warmth and and organic feel to the mids. Female Vocals sounded juicy off it. The imaging popped off. It sounded more vibrant compared to the SP3K. After a brief test, N7 seemed to push mids forwards where the N8ii seemed to elevate the treble. Heize - Diary sounded incredibly immersive.

XE6 SP3K vs XE6 N7



Again hearing more vibrancy than the SP3K. On the XE6 I noticed more background noise and smaller stage. SP3K had better dynamics a flatter and relaxed sound, less mid focus, and a wider stage expansion. Interested to hear the N7 again.

Getting ready to boarding my next flight. More impressions coming later.

Great impression, few people talked about the prototypes of EE. Don't know DAPs also have stock cable, I am not sure the cable will go with DAPs in retail.

 

[Tristy]

Empire Ears Prototype, Odin, Odyssey, Cayin N7:

The Odin was my first 3K iem. Recently i've been curious how the sonics would hold up to me today. Unfortunately in Canada it is difficult to get a hold of them to demo. During the first Canjam night after the steak dinner with the Watercoolers @Sifo invited me to try the EE prototype. We sat down at a quiet spot near the atrium. You can imagine my excitement when Andrew from EE pulled this out:



Odyssey:

Odysseys design looks like the Odins bifrost faceplate with more green in it.


I was intimated by its shell size but it fit better than I thought it would.



Paired with the SP3K, the bass had a good amount of slam and dynamics. I could feel it wobbling after a string pluck. The highs seemed relaxed and tamer compared to Odin. Male vocals were fanastic. During Female vocals I had some sibilance with Celine Dion. Similar issues I had with Odin but significantly less.
I tried pairing Andrews Hugo 2 with Odyssey afterwards. With the Hugo 2, there was increased resolution, better texture to the bass, sharper transients but it also intensified the sibilance. With the sub optimal fit and how it paired with these sources, this is not the IEM for me.

Odin


These fit better than it did a year ago. When I owned this a year ago, I did not have eartune fidelity Us or CP155 which gives me the deepest insertion. This also seemed to cut down some of the upper mid energy as well as increase the sub bass. I also added the Orphy it. This sounded pretty epic. I prefered Odins faster textured bass over the Odyssey which seemed more relaxed in comparison. The upper mids now sounded like it was approaching shoutiness but never got there. This made the transients clean, vivid and exciting. I can see this being fatiguing over time but this was my preferred iem between the two.

EE prototype red / Hugo 2: I liked it but it wasnt at Odins or LX' level. The tonality was good for female vocals. I also got fast sharp sub bass off the hugo 2.


^ The faceplate is the same for both prototypes the shell colours were different. These are all placeholders by the way.

EE prototype white / Hugo 2: The white sounded really similar to the red but it sounded more veiled and relaxed. The sub rumble sounded muffled and slower.



It was interesting to find out after my blind test from Andrew that the two prototypes were identical tuning and configuration (quadbrid) but had different shell thickness. The white shell had a thicker shell compared to the red so the bone conduction driver revealed more on the red.

Cayin N7

Being a fan of the N8ii, I was drawn to this DAP after it got teased by Andy Kong. It was one of the last gear I got to test before the exhibition closed.

Sizing wise, it felt about the same as the SP3K but the weight was a lot lighter.

I liked the look of the N7 stock case. It reminded me a lighter Hermes citrus orange.



N7 Mentor - Major wow moment after the first song "Into the West" (LOTR). Big injection of warmth and and organic feel to the mids. Female Vocals sounded juicy off it. The imaging popped off. It sounded more vibrant compared to the SP3K. After a brief test, N7 seemed to push mids forwards where the N8ii seemed to elevate the treble. Heize - Diary sounded incredibly immersive.

XE6 SP3K vs XE6 N7



Again hearing more vibrancy than the SP3K. On the XE6 I noticed more background noise and smaller stage. SP3K had better dynamics a flatter and relaxed sound, less mid focus, and a wider stage expansion. Interested to hear the N7 again.

Getting ready to boarding my next flight. More impressions coming later.

Did you cable roll with Odyssey or just stuck with the standard Ares?

 

[weexisttocease]

LOAK T(CL) Bocote inda house

It looks great. Did you ordered a balanced cable or it comes bundled?

 

[ciscokid96]

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.

Thank you for the response. That's a relief I am glad they are at least different enough. I didn't expect the Anni to have elevated mids and a timbre suited for acoustics.

I'll definitely try them out to see how they sound. I'm assuming it should be different enough than the bird to give Acoustic music a different flavor due to the difference in treble. But I'll see when I A/B

I also have the Mentor coming in soon. Excited to compare the Anni to the Mentor.

 

[Natesdailies]

Photos of the venue (+ZMF)

Best I have heard LCD5

The ZMF room. One could spend an entire day in here.

Watercoolers saying their goodbyes.

 

[twister6]

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!

Enjoyed talking to you as well!!! And you were right on the money about Eletech Victoria cable + Jewel pair up!!! Not just the color match, but also a perfect tonal balance. Btw, in the picture below with your cable, my LPGT screen has a reflection of ceiling lights that matches the cable as well Oh, and too bad Dean couldn't make it to the show, Jack told me that he booked the wrong flight

 

[Rockwell75]

Just getting back home from my first Can Jam experience. Great time testing out new iems and helping an old friend negotiate his way through the world of portable audio as he has had limited experience with higher end gear. I am a bit envious that the first iem he ever experienced was the u12t. What a baseline for every listening experience to come.

A big shout to @RTodd who was not only a great help at the Musictech table but a very pleasant guy to chat with albeit briefly.

I was able to finally hear some of the big guns that are talked about in this thread such as trialli, Ragnar, fourte blanc, ut12 as well as some newer models such as trifecta and mest mk3.

I now feel I have a better understanding of my own preferences and a larger frame of references for comparisons by others.

Most everything was at least good to great which comes as no surprise as I was auditioning higher end items.

Not surprising to me I seem to be a bit of a bass head and prefer that big bottom end. I also think bone conduction is securely in my preferred sound signature.

The set I enjoyed the most was the mest mk3 crisp, clean with a big bass. Very impactful for me, in fact so strong was the bass that the next unit I listened to CFA trifecta seemed like a perfectly tuned and dynamic set. I was expecting something boomy and bloated but this was not my experience.

The set I liked the least was the u12t. It was clean and resolving but lacking in excitement for me.

It was great to experience so many different flavors and get a feeling for not only my personal preferences but also those who review and give their own opinions so we can come closer to making a common language to describe sound.

Cheers man we’ll have to get you a name tag next time.

FWIW I don’t think that was the MEST imho the Trifecta is indeed a nicely tuned dynamic set. It’s just not the best for music that requires insane speed in the drivers.

In other news based on the CanJam thread it seems IEMs weren’t that big of a thing in NYC. Hardly any impressions compared to other shows.