[drftr]

That seems more like a promotional video than a review tbh. It always bugs me a little when there are no comparisons (or good comparisons) with other similar IEMs. That said if I hadn't already heard it for myself I'd probably be sorely tempted just based on how it looks.

When I was into reading reviews a year or so ago I was just flabbergasted that these "trusted sources" get away with it. Without comparing it to anything in the end it was always like "The treble is better and more revealing without ever being sibilant; the mids are lush and a bit more forward but never in your face; the bass is more pronounced and fuller but nice and tight; the sound is more dynamic, and imaging is simply much better without ever distracting or becoming too big."

I can make a review like that up myself, believe me. This actually was my review. Now just pick any random IEM and publish it. 5 stars.

drftr

 

[s2kphile]

Crosspost from the discovery thread

I believe people are stilling sleeping on AuR Audio so I'll post my sushi platter.

They provide TOTL tuning for a fraction of what the bigger brands charge. I think @AmericanSpirit valued Neon Pro (Black) around $2,500 USD in terms of sound while it cost only $650 USD. If anyone has the chance they should get a true handcrafted IEM, built by a mastercraftman. Very few brands can hold the moniker of "Handcrafted" from start to finish.

 

[MatW]

Sell all your audio gear and start up a small business be your own boss and make money.

I am my own boss, since 2008

 

[Rockwell75]

It gives you a broad overview of how it sounds at least, which is more than what can be said for the likes of Forbes etc but I agree, not much to go off of from a comparison point of view…. My main aim of posting is to get some water cooler members interested so we can get some meaningful comparisons who’s taking one for the team?

If you can get past the hyperbole in the title the Forbes Trifecta review is actually pretty good in that sense. I'm biased there obviously but the writer of that review does seem to hear it like I do (and share my love of DDs).

With the new Solaris it's an interesting conundrum. It's a great sounding IEM that I enjoyed immensely-- and I say this as someone who (similarly) connected with earlier versions of the Solaris at my earliest and most impressionable phase of this hobby. The problem (for me) is that at that price you have Rn6 and Trifecta, both of which I prefer over the Stellar Horizon, for a few hundred more and then you have something like the Kublai Khan at roughly the same price which is arguably a superior presentation of a similar gestalt of sound. So I dunno. I might snap up a Solaris Stellar Horizon used some day (or ideally be able to get a tour unit) but as it stands now I'm not incredibly tempted by it.

When I was into reading reviews a year or so ago I was just flabbergasted that these "trusted sources" get away with it. Without comparing it to anything in the end it was always like "The treble is better and more revealing without ever being sibilant; the mids are lush and a bit more forward but never in your face; the bass is more pronounced and fuller but nice and tight; the sound is more dynamic, and imaging is simply much better without ever distracting or becoming too big."

I can make a review like that up myself, believe me. This actually was my review. Now just pick any random IEM and publish it. 5 stars.

drftr

Anyone who advertises themselves as a "trusted source" or has to go out of their way to tell you how knowledgable or honest they are...are probably neither of those things. I've become quite cynical of the reviewer (these days more influencer) circuit as I think everyone has an angle...and the more they try and tell you they don't the more they probably do. Fortunately I've gotten myself in a position, due to the information and connections in this thread, tour programs etc. that I don't even pay attention to Youtubers or pro reviewers/influencers anymore.

 

[CodenameBK201]

Been fairly tempted by them tbh but the price tag puts them in the realm of the XE6 and RN6 which I’ve also been eyeing up. Solaris holds a place in my heart being one of my first forays into the higher end and I often look to replicate that sense of awe I got when I first listened to them. The build alone is nearly enough to sway me, a big sucker for stainless steel

Xe6 is bassier. How much that matters to you is your call. Treble on the xe6 was more extended, longer to me, whereas solaris, from my limited time with it, was very "crispy", for lack of a better term. Snare drums seemed super crisp and clear, but maybe a slightly faster decay. I'd have to do a side by side to be certain. CanJam is hardly the best auditioning environment, so my main goal was focusing on immediate impressions and overall build quality. I have a big soft spot for Fir as a company, I've made no secret about that, and rn6 is a nice overall package, but the price difference reflects that.

 

[drftr]

Are there any IEM cables that come stock with a 1/4" option? Or do I have to get one made specifically with that?

This question was answered with I think 4 brands about a week ago. I only remember mentioning PlusSound myself. Have a look just to get the idea.

If we had had an index.... LMAO

drftr

 

[wazzupi]

I am my own boss, since 2008

 

[drftr]

I am my own boss, since 2008

Same here since 2000. Although I fired myself on 1/1/2013. Hated that guy...

drftr

 

[Rockwell75]

This question was answered with I think 4 brands about a week ago. I only remember mentioning PlusSound myself. Have a look just to get the idea.

If we had had an index.... LMAO

drftr

I remember PlusSound (in that they will make a cable specifically to your order)-- I was wondering more if there are any cables that come with 1/4" as a stock option (which none of the answers to my previous question do) as opposed to getting one made custom. I'm starting to think not. Even L&P cables don't have this option, which is funny to me. I might end up going with PlusSound.

 

[maegnificant]

Doesn't look like much, but simply streaming music from bandcamp via my phone into a bluetooth version of the Shure SE846 while talking a long walk. First time getting some sun in a while after being sick. Who really needs all this awesome audio gear?

I am kidding, but sometimes less is more.

Album I am listening too right now:



Have fun everybody!

 

[wazzupi]

A/B time

 

[MatW]

I remember PlusSound (in that they will make a cable specifically to your order)-- I was wondering more if there are any cables that come with 1/4" as a stock option (which none of the answers to my previous question do) as opposed to getting one made custom. I'm starting to think not. Even L&P cables don't have this option, which is funny to me. I might end up going with PlusSound.

I think that will be hard to find indeed. I had one made by the Good Doctor for use with the Chord DAVE.

 

[drftr]

I remember PlusSound (in that they will make a cable specifically to your order)-- I was wondering more if there are any cables that come with 1/4" as a stock option (which none of the answers to my previous question do) as opposed to getting one made custom. I'm starting to think not. Even L&P cables don't have this option, which is funny to me. I might end up going with PlusSound.

No, almost ALL options are custom if you will and there's no extra costs or anything that I'm aware off. Each and every cable simply has a zillion different options. Like, you have choices for a whopping 11 different things! That's why very few shops have any stock.

But if it's about waiting time then you're absolutely correct.

drftr

 

[Rockwell75]

I think that will be hard to find indeed. I had one made by the Good Doctor for use with the Chord DAVE.

I didn't realize he had that as an option...I will reach out to him.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Crosspost from the discovery thread

I believe people are stilling sleeping on AuR Audio so I'll post my sushi platter.

They provide TOTL tuning for a fraction of what the bigger brands charge. I think @AmericanSpirit valued Neon Pro (Black) around $2,500 USD in terms of sound while it cost only $650 USD. If anyone has the chance they should get a true handcrafted IEM, built by a mastercraftman. Very few brands can hold the moniker of "Handcrafted" from start to finish.

Thanks.

I did a A-B test of Neon Pro against Anole VX on this post:

Aur Audio Neon Pro arrived…! 7weeks since the order but finally!


Basic Spec :
10BA 4 way cross over.
2Bass (Sonion AcuPass 38) + 2 Lower Mid (Sonion 37 ) + 2 Upper Mid (Sonion ) + 4 High (Knowles)



Price is $700-730USD depending on Singapore Dollar Fx Rate. Probably the lowest priced TOTL available for international market so far.

FR



More FR analytics:


OOTB impression:
Extra ordinary amount of air!
Will Do a comparison with Qdc Anole Vx and Neon Pro’s tuning sibling See Audio Bravery later.



▶︎Tuning Switch makes huge difference in bass amount. With all stock cables and ear tips, I like switch tuned off version.

▶︎OMG. Neon Pro is Bravery on steroid. Exactly I expected. Even with all stock and single ended 3.5mm, it is my Endgame for 2023 material… I can try my Bravery setting (PWA Legend II & TRI Clarion ) later to make it “transparent & fragile”.


▶︎TOTL performance without any doubt

qdc Anole VX vs Aur Audio Neon Pro

▶︎They are White elf vs Dark Elf of ancient forest of qdc.

▶︎Bird’s eye view of grand scheme in tuning philosophy of both:

Timbre: VX ( Satin Audio Ares & H570) NP (PWA Copper 28 V2 & H570)
Top Note: Clairvoyant Finesse (VX) vs Ultra Clear Mid range (NP)
Middle Note: Beautiful & Euphoric main body (VX) vs Extraordinary Resolution (NP)
Bottom Note: Bass Impact (VX) vs Bass Impact + Bass Air moving( NP )

Top/Middle/Bottom is not referred to frequency band, it’s more of perception of what comes first and what’s left at the bottom. Borrowing analogy from perfume scent and wine tasting.

For Anole VX, the listening will be “woah!! What is this resolution! very euphoric tonality. And also great Bass as a BA”

For Neon Pro, it will be
”OMG, Amazing Mid Imaging! Also extra ordinary resolution. Sonion Bass heaven.“

There are many TOTLs focused on upper range or lower range, but most of them play safe on mid tuning.

Neon Pro is from qdc woods but certainly has lively mid range than original qdc, which brings the magic to NP with TOTL class upper registers and actually best sounding BA bass backing up that mid.

Technical aspect: Tentative ( with PWA Ignis)
Resolution: VX (S+), Neon Pro (S)
Image Focus : VX (S-), Neon Pro (S)
Image Positioning : VX (S), Neon Pro (A+)
Image Depth & Layering : VS (S+), Neon Pro (S-)
Diffusion Field : VX (A+), Neon Pro (A-)
Note Mass: VX ( Slightly heavy), Neon Pro (Heavy)


raison de’tre:
VX = Penultimate Finesse x versatile tuning x scalability (it performs the 100% of what original source / player is able to throw into IEM)

NP = Extraordinary Midrange performance x Best BA Lower Range (Bass~Mid) x Spine Chilling Resolution x scalability

VX or NP? It’s too quick to jump to conclusion, so this is just a tentative note:

After 2 hours of listening to NP, I can still see the orthodox White Elf has better technicality especially in amount of information and spatial expressions. The Dark Elf NP is mean while more mid-range focused so I can hear more emotional nuances from the vocals of NP. Considering NP is 25% of what VX costs, The technical gap is forgivable. Also this is only 60 minutes of first impression, I may find a best pair of cable and ear tips later that may bring NP to par with VX and surpasses in some areas.

NP has better bass and vocal imaging over VX at current state, no need to mention DUNU SA6 the mini-VX.
The “Spine Chilling Resolution️ “of NP is a unique speciality. It is resolving but not edgy or harsh. It just chills your spine and very breathtaking.
You get the “deadly resolving but not offensive feeling.


See Audio Bravery vs Aur Audio Neon Pro

▶︎able to simulate my Bravery tuning on Neon Pro with PWA Ignis at 90% for “transparent & fragile” style presentation. Bravery is still better hand on this category. Bravery is good at Thin sounds.


Cable Roll:
PWA Ignis : U-tuning, add mid bass weight, warmth, and more breathable air

PWA Copper 28 V2: Best Balanced Match, natural gain level increase, current pair.

PWA Copper M2: Natural and slight hint on bass weight addituon.

PWA Legend II: mid boosted fun and engaging

Softears Cable: similar cable to PWA, single ended, actually quite good pair! Natural and hint of upper mid boost, may lack some air though.

Linsoul LSC08: U-tuning, good pair too.

Hakugei x See Audio cable : Similar response to Softears cable but it comes with more treble

Hakugei Sea-Elf cable (Kuro?): One of weird tuning, very very hard to explain. It sucks distance between vocal and will put vocal in your head, but it also generates diffusing field, making you feel vocals are singing in your head while you standing on concert hall. Weird! But nothing else does this… Maybe a keeper.

KBEAR Limpid Pro: Ok. upper mid and treble emphasis

KBEAR Hazy : Quite good, natural gain level increase with some bass weight addition

XINHS Graphene 8 core: slight bright emphasis, similar to Softears Cable

XINHS Graphene 16 core: Bright emphasis. Borderline sibilance.

Moondrop Line V: Bright U tuning, Upper 10khz and 20hz sub bass emphasis, nice pair.

Tripowin Mele Stock cable: Not a good pair, I noticed NP’s stock 3.5 cable uses similar cable with Mele, and out of curiosity I A-B tested, they sound night and day, NP stock is one of best matching high visibility with well balanced one, but Mele’s stock cable sound utterly rubbish on NP, it‘s muddy.

Left (NP Stock) Right (Mele Stock)


Even the connectors are similar ones. How come they sound so different? Only difference is the plug Plug does look high-end finish on NP‘s stock, hmmmm very interesting.

Moondrop Coax Single 6N Crystal OCC: upper mid emphasis with calmer treble and bass, wow vocal booster. For treble sensitive group, this may be a good match. I desire more 15khz+ with NP, if not this would be a good balance, similar to Monarch stock tuning level of treble extension. Excels at spatial expression. I may come back to this cable eventually.

XENNS Cable (Tea stock): It was a bad matching with Tea as it pushes down the already calmer mid Of Tea, it does also pushes down Neon Pro’s mid as an anchoring point, bright tilt from mid. Actually a nice match. Closer to what I’m seeking for NP, a dark elf specialized in forbidden magic (bright neutral with accent in sub-bass and slight scoped lower mid)


Cable roll conclusion.

PW Audio Copper 28 V2, a not excessively overpriced one $89, actually handled Mussorgsky’s heavy brass harmony the best.

https://tidal.com/track/77611296

It handled better than higher end models of PWAs. Great synergy and most natural sounding.

And if anyone wonder where that $2,500 came from: it’s cost performance benchmarking score based on my preference (I’m 60% Micro detail 40% macro dynamism preferred person)

SR5 is definitely 100/100 recommendation, as you climb up top tiers from 80/100 and up, each small fraction of performance comes with diminishing of $$$ return.

From my experience for recent IEM market, I’d roughly put $50/1score for 80+/100 in very grand scheme. upto 80/100 you can get varieties of IEMs with sub$100 budget.

0-80/100 : Investment needed $~100USD

Average Cost to Performance for Med-Fi A Tier with examples
80~89/100 : $100+ $50/1score

80 = $100 : Moondrop Droplet
81 = $150 : Moondrop KATO / Modded Aria OG / Truthear ZERO / DUNU Titan S
82 = $200 : 7Hz Timeless / AKG N5005
83 = $250 : AFUL P5
84 = $300 : Blessing 2 OG / Mangird Tea
85 = $350 : Blessing 2 Dusk / Truthear HEXA
86 = $400 : Tangzu Wu Zetian
87 = $450 : See Audio Bravery (PWA legend II & TRI Clarion) -Endgame For Female Vocal
88 = $500 : Westone W80 (Recabled & Ear tip adapter applied)
89 = $550 : Sound Rhyme SR5


Average Cost to Performance for S-Tier
90~95/100 : $600+ $500/1score

90 = $600 : Variations
91 = $1,100 : DUNU SA6 / Softears RSV -Endgame for Natural Sound Reproduction
92 = $1,600 : Monarch OG
93 = $2,100 : MEST MKII
94 = $2,600 : Aur Audio Neon Pro
95 = $3,100 : qdc Anole VX -Endgame For Resolution and Technicalities

For this HEXA hit 85 with $79, which is 4x higher than that $350 mark. Droplet hit A- with $50, which is 2x higher than $100 mark.

SR5 is 89 or even 90, for me that‘s Variations $530 class, but SR5 achieved with $139, again 4x ~ 5x of cost performance to $550-600.

While Neon Pro hits 94 or 95 per my rough analysis when A-B tested with Anole VX 96/100. With $730 cost, to hit $2,600~3,100 mark is again another 4~5x cost performance beasts.

It depends how high they perform, my recommendation is SR5. Because all you need is $139 and you get extremely high performing IEM right away.

Also I’d like to share a blackbird, Sound Rhyme SR5, a 4BA+1DD undiscovered hidden gem, going for $149 currently , penon started selling SR5 as an agent of Sound Rhyme.

So far very good reputations among many who have bought it by their own disposable income, no paid reviews ever took place to SR5

I’m not affiliated with any seller / brands, so you don’t need to concern “ ‘tis a free sample and I only provide honest opinion” disclaimer.

Here is my initial impressions of SR5, cross comparison among similar composition IEMs and Sound Rhyme’s product line ups post.

Something that may intrigue your interest

Just got my SR05. Holy moly! Without any break in I can tell this thing is worth SOOOO much more than $150. I have the Gaea in on the tour and , IMHO , this little beauty smokes it in every way. I'll report back after break in. Thanks to all that made the discovery

SR5 is like Anole V14, photoluminescent.
qdc Anole V14

This little blackbird SR5: