[ranfan]

Shanling got no chill I like it
The Isa + M8 pairing sounded fabulous. It's now my favourite, and following after that DX300 and LPGT

 

[Rockwell75]

Shanling got no chill I like it
The Isa + M8 pairing sounded fabulous. It's now my favourite after DX300 and LPGT

Indeed...the Shanling M8 is my bae...head and shoulders above every other player I've heard.

In other news:



I'm back on the wagon.

 

[ranfan]

It's 5 am there right? Welcome back

 

[fzman]

I believe so yes...isolation hard to say at this point as I haven't had them on in a noisy environment yet...and I probably won't until I have my own set as I don't take IEMs I'm borrowing out and about.

In other news home from work and listening again...these are wonderful. For anyone who's ever wanted Andromeda like tuning in a single DD the Oriolus Isabellae is worth a serious look.

Dude! Sit down in fron of the tv and blast itwhile you are listeing to them- get creative! (Posted this before I saw your bathroom fan post-sorry!)

On a more serious note, having an introvert, who lives alone, and works from home with internet access, a keyboard and thereby a mechanism to express their introspective comments... well, you;ve read some of my posts, so you know the rest.... LOL

I love music and always want it to be reproduced well, when that is under my control to whatever degree.... As I work 'in the biz' and have some disposable income, i have access to lots of great gear (but far from all of it, or price-no-object, of course). I try to listen solely for enjoyment, but work-related stuff makes me listen critically and comparatively on ocassion, and I will sometimes do comparative listeing tests between various components I own. I am more interested in whether something makes me happy, and provides me with musical enjoyment, than whether it has specific bass, mids, treble, etc. My current favs sound different one to the other, but are in the same general clump, and I love them both. I also have a bunch of odd-ball stuff, some of which is older, used, and much less $$, that I also love. The other day I dragged out my Sony XBA-Z5's, threw the Acoustune tips and the Eletech Fortitude 4.4 cable on them, and listened via my P6Pro. Sounded wonderful, and I 'rocked out' even though I could immediatly tell they were not as good as my TOTL-favs of the moment. Don;t care-I rocked out and had a nice walk with them. Also tried them with the DX300-same result-they sounded very good, and I enjoyed it. Not sure about how they 'rank' among my others, other than they are not in my personal top-tier. Hard to rank when the world is 98% shades of nearly indistinguishable grey, and only 1.5% either black or white -and let's not even think about what happened to theo other 1/2%....

Or maybe it's just that I am indecisive-not sure, need to think more about that one!

 

[Rockwell75]

Dude! Sit down in fron of the tv and blast itwhile you are listeing to them- get creative! (Posted this before I saw your bathroom fan post-sorry!)

Lol I did try a few things and I have to say I don't think the isolation on these is that great......which doesn't really bother me that much and it may even be an advantage as I may be able to use this set when riding my bike as then I need to be at least tangentially aware of the goings on in the outside world.

My current favs sound different one to the other, but are in the same general clump, and I love them both.

Same. My current top 3 (Ely, Dorado, Isabella) have all earned their way into my life via their dynamic driver mids and none of them sound anything alike.

In other news I'm loving these more and more. I keep thinking I'm going to put them on anew and come back down to earth and find a chink in the armour so to speak...but they keep impressing me. The midrange in general and vocals in particular are so seductive, smooth, clear and engaging. I'm turning into an Oriolus fanboy.

 

[fzman]

Lol I did try a few things and I have to say I don't think the isolation on these is that great......which doesn't really bother me that much and it may even be an advantage as I may be able to use this set when riding my bike as then I need to be at least tangentially aware of the goings on in the outside world.



Same. My current top 3 (Ely, Dorado, Isabella) have all earned their way into my life via their dynamic driver mids and none of them sound anything alike.

In other news I'm loving these more and more. I keep thinking I'm going to put them on anew thinking I'm going to come back down to earth and find a chink in the armour so to speak...but they keep impressing me. The midrange in general and vocals in particular are so seductive, smooth, clear and engaging. I'm turning into an Oriolus fanboy.

I had the Oriolus hybrid Mk2s for a while, and liked them. I also have Campfire Vega 2020, Dita Answer, and the original version of the Ocharaku Kaede (techinically it has 2 dds, but they are both run full-range with no crossover. and Senn IE800s 's, along with the Dita--Final SKs. Like them all. They have their pros and cons, but all sound very good, and coherent.... I'd probably put the SK at the top of that list.

Also have a munch of hybrids which I like as well - have just a few all-BA models (custome EE and CTM, and an Andromeda Gold). At the end of the day I lioke athem all -happily when i revisit some of the elder state[people of the group i have not had a 'what was i thinking?' moment, but I like's me some DD bass and coherence natural authentic timbres....

Most of my current

 

[ian91]

Top 3?! Looking forward to your thoughts on Isa compared to the Ely and Dorado (if I haven't missed them already). Seems like Oriolus can reliably tune good IEMs!

 

[ranfan]

+1 above. Also I need to get an M8 and try with the Ely
M8 + Isa sounded beautiful (high gain 30)

 

[Rockwell75]

My best and most concise description relative to what I've heard before would be to say that Isabellae is a single DD with Andromeda like tuning filtered through the genius & inspiration of an Eastern master. Elysium takes a similar "mid/vocal centric & bright leaning with a mid bass emphasis" approach but in a hybrid configuration with superior technicalities including much superior highs. Ely's treble remains the best I've ever heard in an IEM (followed by the Z1R). To my ears Andro, Ely and Isa all share the same central tuning philosophy expressed through different driver configurations. Dorado is its own thing entirely and is currently only ahead of the Isa by virtue of my unabashed basshead tendencies and fixation on the acoustic magic brought about by the ceramic shell. In terms of a generalist rec I would place Isa above Dorado but for someone like me who loves what Dorado does it's hard to top as there's nothing else on the market quite like it.

 

[Rockwell75]

In terms of midrange openess and clarity the Isa is second only to Elysium for me. Vocals on this IEM are a thing to behold. Both male and female vocals sound fantastic-- always in the spotlight, crystal clear and with a sweet, bodied, and lifelike timbre. Male vocals area as intimate and natural as any IEM I've heard, surpassing even VE8 for me in terms of overall presentation and behind only Elysium for female vocals.

I'm currently salivating at the thought of an Oriolus IEM with a Dorado-esque driver config IE., the bass driver from Isabellae alongside one of Trailli's e-stats for highs.

@tgx78 sent me two IEMs to review and I haven't even gotten to the Lokahi yet because I can't keep the Isabellae out of my ears. I'm hoping to accomplish this by Saturday lol

 

[tgx78]

Poor Lokahi not getting any love lol

I am actually quite surprised how much you are enjoying the Isabellae. You definitely need to hear the Spark now.

 

[Rockwell75]

I am actually quite surprised how much you are enjoying the Isabellae. You definitely need to hear the Spark now.

I am too especially considering I'd been sufficiently discouraged to cancel my pre-order. On the other hand this IEM being as good as it is to my ears just serves to add credence to all the praise that's been directed towards "The Old Man" and his tuning in the wake of the profoundly popular Trailli. Also, it's another example of why I shouldn't read too much into FR graphs. In retrospect I think the excellent mid-bass presence in this IEM serves to balance out the upper mid/lower treble region...which is so deftly tuned as to offer wonderful clarity, body and air without ever being shouty, peaky, metallic or anything. Highs are usually the deal breaker for me on single DD IEMs and the highs here are wonderful. Ultimately everything about the tuning of this IEM comes off as the product of a singular creative vision combined with a noteable delicacy of perception...which is a pleasing change from the "tuned by algorithm" feeling I get from certain IEMs.

Also, Turbo Gain on the M8 just lights Isa's single DD right up...I'm sure a measure of my appreciation of this IEM is due to Shanling Magic.

 

[ian91]

I am too especially considering I'd been sufficiently discouraged to cancel my pre-order. On the other hand this IEM being as good as it is to my ears just serves to add credence to all the praise that's been directed towards "The Old Man" and his tuning in the wake of the profoundly popular Trailli. Also, it's another example of why I shouldn't read too much into FR graphs. In retrospect I think the excellent mid-bass presence in this IEM serves to balance out the upper mid/lower treble region...which is so deftly tuned as to offer wonderful clarity, body and air without ever being shouty, peaky, metallic or anything. Highs are usually the deal breaker for me on single DD IEMs and the highs here are wonderful. Ultimately for me everything about the tuning of this IEM comes off as the product of a singular creative vision combined with a noteable delicacy of perception...which is a pleasing change from the "tuned by algorithm" feeling I get from certain IEMs.

Also, Turbo Gain on the M8 just lights Isa's single DD right up...I'm sure a measure of my appreciation of this IEM is due to Shanling Magic.

Well, that settles it. Unless something wildly better comes along in terms of price/performance and vocal presentation Isa will be my next purchase when my wallet looks healthier!

Glad you've enjoyed it so much, so far. Poor Lokahi...

 

[Charlyro222]

@Rockwell75 So, time to enter on Traillis's world has arrive.
Is good enogh for male vocals as ve8?

 

[ranfan]

@Rockwell75
Another one this time from South Korea

I think it'd sound good on the Ely