[Rockwell75]

In the relatively short amount of time I've been involved in this hobby and *dabbling* (barely) in higher end gear, these have been my biggest takeaways. When I first became interested in finding out what lay beyond Sony and Bose stuff, I was seeking out YouTubers and the like to tell me what the supposed best gear was. It was a fools errand, though, as most of the reviews / impressions I was reading were of people that listen to music that I never listen to and/or have completely different sonic preferences than I do. Someone who listens to (and reviews gear using) pop, OST's, singer/songwriter type stuff is likely not going to align with me and my library which mostly consist of angry men yelling overtop of heavily distorted guitars and thundering double bass drumming.

I've since figured out who here on Head-Fi listens to similar music genres as I do and also those who prioritize specific sonic qualities similarly to me. It's made it much easier to get an baseline understanding of what gear I might like and what gear may not be for me. At the end of the day nothing will ever beat listening with your own ears and your own library but it's all about understanding where the Head-Fier / reviewer is coming from and their preferences. I take this perspective every time I read impressions here.

As has been mentioned here in the past, we really are in the golden age of portable audio gear. There are so many different flavors, across the entire price spectrum, available today. Once you figure out what you like there are nearly limitless options. IEMs, DAPs, cables, tips... you can tailor to your heart's content.

This is true but imho it goes even deeper than that. Even if you get a circle of people you generally see eye-eye with and whose impressions you relate to even this doesn't diminish the necessity or importance of hearing somegthing for yourself to get a picture of it. Look no further than @drftr's experience-- he meticulously and systematically interrogated everyone and every IEM mentioned in this community for weeks and months and it still took him getting ears on IEMs to actually figure out what he liked. There is nobody-- even people I generally agree with-- who I have not flatly disagreed with about one thing or another. IMHO there are simply too many variables in IEMs and in people's individual listening experiences for anything to really and substantially substitute actually hearing something for yourself. YMMV and all that.

 

[Garney]

This is true but imho it goes even deeper than that. Even if you get a circle of people you generally see eye-eye with and whose impressions you relate to even this doesn't diminish the necessity or importance of hearing somegthing for yourself to get a picture of it. Look no further than @drftr's experience-- he meticulously and systematically interrogated everyone and every IEM mentioned in this community for weeks and months and it still took him getting ears on IEMs to actually figure out what he liked. There is nobody-- even people I generally agree with-- who I have not flatly disagreed with about one thing or another. IMHO there are simply too many variables in IEMs and in people's individual listening experiences for anything to really and substantially substitute actually hearing something for yourself. YMMV and all that.

Agree 100%. No amount of alignment on music genres, sonic preferences, etc. will ever trump listening with your own ears.

 

[yaps66]

@HiFiHawaii808 @yaps66 I have a question for "educational reasons" if I may:

You both have a stunning IEM collection but also flagship headphones. I'm sure you're using IEMs while on the move and/or at work, but if you sit down for enjoying music back home do IEMs in general still occupy your ears a lot, or are you mainly using headphones nowadays? Tnx...

drftr

Since getting the X9k, that occupies most of the time in the office. On the go and at home it is mainly iems.

 

[Tex Irie]

Someone who listens to (and reviews gear using) pop, OST's, singer/songwriter type stuff is likely not going to align with me and my library which mostly consist of angry men yelling overtop of heavily distorted guitars and thundering double bass drumming.

Okay, I needed this laugh! Thank you @Garney for that colorful description of your musical interests.

 

[GiullianSN]

Someone who listens to (and reviews gear using) pop, OST's, singer/songwriter type stuff is likely not going to align with me and my library which mostly consist of angry men yelling overtop of heavily distorted guitars and thundering double bass drumming.

deal...you read mine and I read yours...

Are your songs heavily compressed and mostly recorded on a garage/basement studio as well?

 

[Tex Irie]

I hope all these IEMs are at CanJam SoCal 2023. I really wonder if a lot of what people mention about IEMs they like translates well to my music. I really do appreciate all this discussion, some things just have to be experienced for self and for full context.

I haven't owned a Noble IEM since the K10 and the Django. I may have had listener fatigue by the time I got to the Viking Ragnar last year. So, looking to try that and the Ronin for perspective.

 

[Garney]

deal...you read mine and I read yours...

Are your songs heavily compressed and mostly recorded on a garage/basement studio as well?

Only a small portion of my library is music that's been recorded through a block of ice, in a basement on a cold winters day with wool socks over the mics

I've gotten away from the super lo-fi, raw black metal these days. I think in part because it sounds decidedly *worse* on higher quality gear. It's a shame that a lot of metal is poorly recorded, mastered and heavily compressed. Revealing IEMs make it even more apparent, which stinks.

 

[Scubadevils]

My ‘problem’ tends to be I like any IEM I listen to in some shape or form to varying degrees. I try approach them now through a lens of to what extent I enjoy them, and for what genres or listening scenarios versus their cost - take Ragnar for example, stunning technical set with wonderful engagement/musicality but I’d get occasional upper mid glare at random which for me at that price rules them out. Likewise Traillii, a set I miss but I never managed to fully shake pressure build, it might only happen in 1 out of 5 sessions but again it was something I ultimately couldn’t accept at that price point.

I would like another higher end set in my collection again, but I’m being fussy about criteria - interestingly, XE6 is probably top of my list as I’ve done a complete u-turn from my initial brief session last year versus spending proper time at home these last few days - I was once one of the folks criticising it for being too mid bass focused and somewhat bloated, I really didn’t gel with it, but with brain burn in it completely opened up and I’ve absolutely loved several sessions now, nothing to disqualify it as yet.

I’m curious about Ronin but it looks like they are quite big which is another no-no for me unfortunately.

 

[Tex Irie]

My ‘problem’ tends to be I like any IEM I listen to in some shape or form to varying degrees.

I can relate to that... I rarely come across an IEM that I didn't like. It's like different flavors of ice cream at a certain price point.

 

[Ryokan]

In the relatively short amount of time I've been involved in this hobby and *dabbling* (barely) in higher end gear, these have been my biggest takeaways. When I first became interested in finding out what lay beyond Sony and Bose stuff, I was seeking out YouTubers and the like to tell me what the supposed best gear was. It was a fools errand, though, as most of the reviews / impressions I was reading were of people that listen to music that I never listen to and/or have completely different sonic preferences than I do. Someone who listens to (and reviews gear using) pop, OST's, singer/songwriter type stuff is likely not going to align with me and my library which mostly consist of angry men yelling overtop of heavily distorted guitars and thundering double bass drumming.

Haha yeah try to distinguish between lower mids, mid mids or lower upper mids listening to the crap I listen to. I figured a long time ago most reviewers must listen to the Shadows or something

 

[CodenameBK201]

I hope all these IEMs are at CanJam SoCal 2023. I really wonder if a lot of what people mention about IEMs they like translates well to my music. I really do appreciate all this discussion, some things just have to be experienced for self and for full context.

I haven't owned a Noble IEM since the K10 and the Django. I may have had listener fatigue by the time I got to the Viking Ragnar last year. So, looking to try that and the Ronin for perspective.

Noble's a mixed bag for me. I still have my K10s and they compete with a lot of more recent stuff I've heard despite going on a decade old. They're gorgeous looking, sound clean, and the shells, while sizable, aren't as big as, say, EE's stuff. I found much of their house sound across models colder, analytical, very traditional audiophile sounding, and that included the kublai khan. There's nothing wrong with that, and back then when much of my listening time was the TRON Legacy OST or Cornelius techno they were perfect, but old age has me on a classic rock kick, and nowadays I don't reach for them unless I'm in a particular mood.

 

[552609]

Currently writing my Elysium review before I sell/trade them away and I feel like my Elysium doesn't sound like other Elysiums... I took an FR graph of them and they have more bass than ANY other IEM I have. I retested multiple times - same result. Listening to them with my bass test songs agrees with the FRG, these are quite bassy. I'm confused. No one else's Elysium has lots of bass. They made the EXT to fix that. I'm kinda wondering if mine is some sort of test model where they put the EXT bass into the Elysium. Bizarre.

 

[fejnomit]

Currently writing my Elysium review before I sell/trade them away and I feel like my Elysium doesn't sound like other Elysiums... I took an FR graph of them and they have more bass than ANY other IEM I have. I retested multiple times - same result. Listening to them with my bass test songs agrees with the FRG, these are quite bassy. I'm confused. No one else's Elysium has lots of bass. They made the EXT to fix that. I'm kinda wondering if mine is some sort of test model where they put the EXT bass into the Elysium. Bizarre.

Something seems off. The Elysiums should also have better treble extension than that. It's almost like your FR got tilted at 1K, elevating the bass and dipping the mids and treble. Strange indeed

 

[Rockwell75]

Elysium has very nice and natural sounding bass to my ears but I missed the heft and weight of a good DD after I'd owned it for while. That said the bass is the least apparent element of Ely's sig-- coming as it does from a single BA. Elysium was much more prominent in the mids and treble to my ears.

 

[aaf evo]

Currently writing my Elysium review before I sell/trade them away and I feel like my Elysium doesn't sound like other Elysiums... I took an FR graph of them and they have more bass than ANY other IEM I have. I retested multiple times - same result. Listening to them with my bass test songs agrees with the FRG, these are quite bassy. I'm confused. No one else's Elysium has lots of bass. They made the EXT to fix that. I'm kinda wondering if mine is some sort of test model where they put the EXT bass into the Elysium. Bizarre.

I would love to hear those Elysiums.

Here's another one, the FR of MM is from my coupler, the Elysium is from tgx.