[jwilliamhurst]

On the topic of surveys I'd love to see everyone's "top 10" as of this moment. If you had to fill a Van Nuys case with 10 IEMs and a dap and walk from this hobby right now, what would you pick?

Luxury Precision LP6 Ti

1.VE Phonix Le
2.Fir Rn6
3.CFA Trifecta
4.Oriolus Traillii
5.Empire Ears Odin
6.FiR Xe6
7.Elysian Diva
8.Noble Kublai Khan
9.UM Indigo
10.CFA Supermoon

This is subject to change as I’ve not heard the below….
Ronin, Ragnar, Sultan
Storm
Raven
Neon Pro
Singularity
RGB
Anni 2023
Any of the Fat Freq iems
Elysium
Forte variations, Trio, U18t

 

[wolfstar76]

Luxury Precision LP6 Ti (Again, not yet heard, but according to review, could be my desert island DAP)

1. UM Mason FS (IMO, a better vision of UM Mentor)
2. VE Phonix Le (Not yet heard but according to the review, the Mids is one of the best)
3. CFA Trifecta (Not yet heard but according to the review, the analogue magic)
4. EEE EVO (for the bass)
5. FF Maestro SE (not yet heard but according to the review one of the best bass)
6. Subtonic Storm (not yet heard but according to the review best resolution)
7. Fir XE6 (One of the best all-rounder)
9. Oriolus Traillii Ti (Though not yet understand Traillii OG's magic, but given its fame, Ti will be the filler for my desert island top 10)
10. Z1R (I usually don't pick my own IEM since my desire is always on something I don't yet own, but for top 10, Z1R deserves its place).

 

[Natesdailies]

In no particular order:

1. Multiverse Mentor - W shaped warm / bright technical set: All rounder leaning electronic

2. Ronin / Traillii / Impact - W shaped tuning with warm mid bass, lower mids. An all rounder with natural tonality with conservative highs. All rounder leaning vocals / acoustics.

3. VE Phonix - Similar use case as #2 but warmer mids more specialized for small ensemble jazz / solo acoustics and vocals

4. RGB - Neutral / bright reference: Female vocals, Singer Songwriter, modern classical, acoustics

5. Storm (With PW Orpheus) - Neutral tuned reference all rounder leaning classical, jazz

6. Elysian X - V shaped fun set leaning female vocals / electronic. I want to demo Anni again under more favourable conditions.

7. Grand Maestro / MSE - U shaped sub bass / treble oriented fun set leaning energetic music like EDM

8. XE6 - Mid bass / lower mid oriented fun set fun set. I put XE6 instead of RN6 because MSE / GM would cover the sub focused playback.

9. Diva - Similar use case as XE6 with a slam focus but with a tighter faster BA rendition

10. Viking (With Orpheus) - DD treble focused specialist to cover modern classical

What might change the list: Singularity, Elysian Dio, VE Red, Raven

 

[wolfstar76]

In no particular order:

1. Multiverse Mentor - W shaped warm / bright technical set: All rounder leaning electronic

2. Ronin / Traillii / Impact - W shaped tuning with warm mid bass, lower mids. An all rounder with natural tonality with conservative highs. All rounder leaning vocals / acoustics.

3. VE Phonix - Similar use case as #2 but warmer mids more specialized for small ensemble jazz / solo acoustics and vocals

4. RGB - Neutral / bright reference: Female vocals, Singer Songwriter, modern classical, acoustics

5. Storm (With PW Orpheus) - Neutral tuned reference all rounder leaning classical, jazz

6. Elysian X - V shaped fun set leaning female vocals / electronic. I want to demo Anni again under more favourable conditions.

7. Grand Maestro / MSE - U shaped sub bass / treble oriented fun set leaning energetic music like EDM

8. XE6 - Mid bass / lower mid oriented fun set fun set. I put XE6 instead of RN6 because MSE / GM would cover the sub focused playback.

9. Diva - Similar use case as XE6 with a slam focus but with a tighter faster BA rendition

10. Viking (With Orpheus) - DD treble focused specialist to cover modern classical

What might change the list: Singularity, Elysian Dio, VE Red, Raven

You are missing your choice of one DAP .

 

[Eoin]

I don’t need 10 but I’ve auditioned 13.
I use a Vanuys 4 IEM case to hold a SP3K and 2 sets and that’s my end goal.

1, Viking Ragnar (top choice)

As a second set, I’ve yet to decide, but not really fussy any will do from...
2, Sultan
3, Phönix LE
4, Phönix OG
5, Odyssey

Remaining choices to fill the case any left over from above and …
6, Mentor
7, Fourte Blanc
8, Trifecta
9, Kublai Khan
10, Szalayi (could be a dark horse for 2nd set)

 

[Delitia]

DAP is easy, SP3000 SS

1) Viking Ragnar
2) Odin
3) UM Indigo
4) Trifecta
5) Kublai Khan
6) Camelot
7) Multiverse Mentor
8) Ronin
9) Supermoon
10) Storm (haven't heard it but mildly intrigued by it)

To be fair I haven't heard everything 5 and under but I'd like to, honorable mention to Odyssey, looks interesting based on reviews.

 

[Natesdailies]

You are missing your choice of one DAP .

If I had to choose just one: SP3K as its a neutral warm. It would throw off the synergy with some iems though so I would sell some iems and add more daps.

Since we're playing with hypotheticals, lets take the chosen 10 iems and find the budget. Lets assume these were purchased MSRP.

1 DAP 10 iems: SP3K-> Mentor, Ronin, RGB, VE Phonix, Storm, Elysian X, Grand Maestro, XE6, Diva Viking = Around $38,400 USD.

I'd chop X (since GM could replace it with better bass), VE Phonix since Ronin should service the same use case, Viking because it has less of a use case for me vs RGB freeing up $14.4K for DAPs / cables. I'd keep SP3K, buy an N8ii, buy a warmer dap like RS8. With the left over budget, buy PW Orpheus and Ode to Laura

3 DAP 7 IEMs:

SP3K - Mentor (Orphy), Diva

N8ii - Ronin, XE6 (Ode to Laura)

RS8 - Grand Maestro, RGB, Storm (Orphy)

 

[bigbeans]

Around $38,400 USD.

Yo. Don't do that. I can't unsee this.

 

[metaljem77]

Loving my 320m, what an illuminating and engaging source

 

[Auricon]

Yo. Don't do that. I can't unsee this.

I went back and started adding up my Musicteck, Bloom, FiR, ET, EA invoices... and stopped tallying once I went over $45K... and there were still 6 more invoices to add... small fry to the ballers here, haha

 

[stacey]

To be fair I highly doubt you guys are giving away your IEMs with no recoup. If it was put on classifieds you get that money back.

That said I haven’t spent much with all my invoices. Maybe $5k over the past 2 years?

 

[yaps66]

Loving my 320m, what an illuminating and engaging source

Oooo. I bet the synergy is sick!

 

[Rockwell75]

Some very early impressions of the Solaris Stellar Horizon, which I just received today from another Head Fi’er.
I have a lot more listening to do, including A/B with my Solaris LE, but:
-retains and perhaps even improves upon holographic staging from the LE (need to A/B to confirm)
-overall sound signature is certainly balanced, but the bass hits a bit deeper than i was expecting; very nicely controlled, sounds quite linear from sub to mid
-the first thing I thought of when I heard the upper mids/lower treble was, “this reminds me of my Andro Gold Ti”; definitely a little sparklier than I recall other Solaris derivatives I’ve owned in the past; not as sparkly as the Pathfinder, but definitely not as smooth as the LE; in fact, I had to switch to foam tips to tame things down a bit (keep in mind I’m quite sensitive to that area of the curve)

Listening done with the stock 4.4mm cable on a Dx322 (EX-N mod).

The packaging is “meh”; I frankly prefer the packaging of old - the wood box with the hand is unnecessary in my opinion. I do like the new flat case, though.

Size-wise, as you can see below, it’s much smaller than the original Solaris shell, although (from memory) it seems a bit larger than the 2020.

Again, more listening to do, including A/B with my LE, but thought these might be helpful given rather limited impressions.

Nice to finally get some impressions of these. I wondered if/when you'd jump. Your Solaris LE has survived the comings and goings of a good many other IEMs. Will be curious to hear how your impressions unfold-- Stellar Horizon left a very positive impression on me in NYC and it's been at the back of my mind ever since.

RE my current 10:

1) Trifecta (Pure enjoyment-- does everything I really like at the highest level).
2) VE Red (Put a spell on me in NYC-- really hope something comes of this).
3) Fir Rn6 (Best and most well roudned of the Frontiers IMHO)
4) Annihilator (Summit fi treble and a peerlesss "top down" tuning).
5) Supermoon (Technical beast with epic bass and great timbre.)
6) Dorado 2020 (So much fun-- I've come close to selling this a couple times but every time I pop them back in I change my mind).
7) Traillii (Still the pick of the "BA/e-stat" litter for me).
8) Phonix LE (Tuning perfection and the best all BA IEM I've ever heard.)
9) Singularity (A new benchmark in single DD goodness).
10) IER Z1R (A classic...still dying to hear it with my LP6)

DAP: LP6

Close calls:

Fibae 5
EXT (Red prototye and Trifecta basically one up this for me)
Maestro SE (A bit of a special teams IEM for me).
Zen Pro (Singularity one upped this one)
Storm (Would love to a/b this with the Bird sometime).
Gaea
Solaris Stellar Horizon (Need more time with it)

 

[aaf evo]

Lucky #13 checking in…

 

[gnahra]

Nice to finally get some impressions of these. I wondered if/when you'd jump. Your Solaris LE has survived the comings and goings of a good many other IEMs. Will be curious to hear how your impressions unfold-- Stellar Horizon left a very positive impression on me in NYC and it's been at the back of my mind ever since.

Thanks Jeff.
Solaris (in its many derivatives) has and likely will always have a special place in my collection, so I'm excited to get to know this latest iteration a bit more over the coming days. I'll certainly post more impressions as soon as I can.