The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[Piotr Michalak]

I only have one question: Rn6 a 'thunderous bass monster'? Really? Do you use the red module? Rn6 red is like my 'bass neutral'. Exceptional bass, and just about enough to satisfy.

I think you listen to it daily and became used to it I had this feel for a moment too. But in reality it's the bassiest thing I have:

Filter or no filter makes little difference. Even taking the filter off completely is not huge.

Ofc I feel that these filters do something more than FR would suggest. I use the gold one for isolation mostly.

 

[raylu]

I think you listen to it daily and became used to it I had this feel for a moment too. But in reality it's the bassiest thing I have:

Filter or no filter makes little difference. Even taking the filter off completely is not huge.

Ofc I feel that these filters do something more than FR would suggest. I use the gold one for isolation mostly.

Yeah, I pretty agree with you that RN6 is pretty bassy but of course not bassy as XE6 but similar to Aura and especially consider what iem you own ( mentor Jardin, Other Full BA set like VEs) compared to those it should be bassy.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

I think Multiverse Mentor is also a bass monster. Funny not many reviews state that, as if it was neutral or something. It's way bassier than any other close-to-neutral CIEM. So above I compared Radon6 to QDC V14 without any comment (sorry), but this is the real comparison!



Dangerously close!

 

[MatW]

Indeed, the entire Fir Frontier series and the Mentor are (very) bassy and warm compared to a fairly neutral profile like e.g. the Jewel. Normalized at 1 khz.

 

[gLer]

I think you listen to it daily and became used to it I had this feel for a moment too. But in reality it's the bassiest thing I have:

Filter or no filter makes little difference. Even taking the filter off completely is not huge.

Ofc I feel that these filters do something more than FR would suggest. I use the gold one for isolation mostly.

I agree, compared to reference neutral Rn6 (and all the FIRs) are bass boosted, although with the red module I consider Rn6 bass just about level for my prefs (and I have far bassier IEMs by the way). That said, if you use the gold atom then Rn6 is very bassy indeed. Red is much reduced by comparison.

As for Mentor, I don't consider it bassy at all. In fact I found Mentor bass to be its one real weakness. As always, YMMV.

 

[haci]

I agree, compared to reference neutral Rn6 (and all the FIRs) are bass boosted, although with the red module I consider Rn6 bass just about level for my prefs (and I have far bassier IEMs by the way). That said, if you use the gold atom then Rn6 is very bassy indeed. Red is much reduced by comparison.

As for Mentor, I don't consider it bassy at all. In fact I found Mentor bass to be its one real weakness. As always, YMMV.

For some tracks that specifically call for (sub)bass, I found MM could hold its ground against some bassy Empire Ears IEMs actually. Was pleasantly suprised. But then it came across pretty weak in some other tracks

 

[gLer]

For some tracks that specifically call for (sub)bass, I found MM could hold its ground against some bassy Empire Ears IEMs actually. Was pleasantly suprised. But then it came across pretty weak in some other tracks

Interesting, I found its sub-bass lacking, with a distinct rolloff and BA timbre. The BC driver does give it a bit of an advantage over many other BA-bass IEMs though.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

Interesting, I found its sub-bass lacking, with a distinct rolloff and BA timbre. The BC driver does give it a bit of an advantage over many other BA-bass IEMs though.

We get it, you like The Bass

I decided to drop Yatono off my Jewels. So smooth, so pleasurable listen... But over a longer period of time -- too smooth, too rounded off, too dark, too mushy.

Jewels will be tested on Centurions now. From the first minute the sound opened up. Oh the technicalities.

I have three Centy's: the first I got was nicely used up and I fell in love with how it sounded.

That's why I purchased two more here. Both "like new", "used for 10h". And they sound different. Like dead silver. Nothing special.

I believe cable burn-in may be a real thing. You guys (you know who you are) sold me fresh Centurions that were not burnt in. You don't know what you've lost!

 

[KrólArtur]

Brise Murakumo2 impressions time!

This is the craziest thing I bought since AK380SS package. Or maybe Final Lab2. Or since whatever, actually.

Yesterday I went from a Brise sceptic (what is this company? overpriced copper cables? you pay for shielding - again?) to a huge fan.

I have already aquired (and will keep) Tsuranagi and Yatono 8w in the past weeks. I intend to mod the amp with NPaudio and maybe switch more of my CIEMs to Yatono in the future. Compared to other offerings, Yatono is actually quite... affordable (!).

But... Murakumo2 will probably go today. I'm waiting for a transfer. Even if it didn't, I wouldn't cry. I have never heard something like this.

But... It's not like a jaw dropping difference. It's not a "wow" experience. It's just pure neutrality, transparency and a maximum scale-up to what our IEMs can do.

It's as if you had your player directly connected to the IEM without any cable, at maximum performance. The one way I can characterize this sound is "huge". It completely fills the space. I no longer differentiate between drivers in the IEM (like "oh, here is my DD bass, here are my BA mids, here's my EST highs"). Everything connects together in coherency.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's dig in. First of all. They look similar on photos, but it's a different cable to Yatono. It’s visible on the photo, the AWG is different and the splitter is larger to fit these wires in. It's more distinguishable in real life, you can clearly see the wired being wider.



The reason it's not for me is that it’s a stiff cable for desktop use. It’s rather hard to walk with it. I walk with it around the home, but you definitely won’t take a stroll in the park with this. And I like to listen to music on the move, even around the house.

Yatono is a bit thinner and more elastic. It has similarly stiff plug - but the upper part above the plug is a normal elastic cable. PWA Shielding cables are obviously also more elastic and easy to use for me. As you can see, I know how to sacrifice for the music But this exceeds my patience:



I'm afraid that Murakuma could leverage the 4.4 plug in my DAP and break it. Yatono is also stiff in the plug part, which is just bad design to me. It's unnecessary. They just put too much sleeving around this part. But with Yatono you can somehow accomodate.

That's how I tried to make my drip v60 coffee today morning I had to somehow keep it under my arm. I hope you appreciate the courage to post something like this I'm listening to Radon6 CIEM here.



FiR Radon6 is a thunderous bass monster. On Murakumo somehow the bass becomes... more neutral? Less overwhelming for sure. Now I could listen to it for hours!

Oh, and where did that treble peak dissapear? Also coherency improved. Now I listen to a one driver CIEM, not a quadruple-hybrid. The sound has become a unity. I no longer hear drivers playing, I hear space and sound coming from the air. It's a huge scale-up.

I have been listening to it on Tsuranagi and it’s an endgame setup… Unfortunately it's just not my use case to sit around for hours.

That's how it looks if you try to put it on the table...



In the end I sat down to present you a match with the legendary LeJardin! Now some of you may have read my above impressions of LeJardin sounding exactly right and magical only on the stock PWA MAS cable. Right? No longer that's true.

This is the first cable that scaled LeJardin up for me! It retained the magic I have heard on MAS and has shed more light to brighten up this dark CIEM.

Murakumo always neutralizes any CIEM I connect it to. It polishes down the treble peaks if needed. It makes the bass faster as with Radon6 and less overwhelming. It connects all the drivers together, as if it also upgraded the internal wiring.

Now I'd be happy to live with it forever. Before, LeJardin could not be my only CIEM. Although I would buy it again.

On Murakumo, it could be my only CIEM (!).



Pod względem jakości dźwięku powiedziałbym, że Yatono konkuruje z MAS, FTS, Centurion itp.

Murakumo jest dla mnie ligą wyższą pod względem wydajności dźwiękowej.

Jest bardzo synergiczny. Wszystko, co z nim połączyłem, zostało powiększone i brzmiało świetnie, w tym EE Odin, SE6 EDGE, Craft Ears Aurum + i kilka innych.

To kabel do leżenia na kanapie lub pulpicie. Nie ma problemu z pójściem do kuchni na drinka. Ale bez tańca

Co bym zrobił, gdybym miał za dużo pieniędzy i czasu? Spróbowałbym oderwać całą „klatkę Faradaya” od dolnej części kabla.

Pod nim jest prawdopodobnie kabel podobny do Yatono, tylko odrobinę większy. Straciłbym całą wartość odsprzedaży i pewną jakość dźwięku. Ale prawdopodobnie mógłbym z tym zatańczyć? Może być tego warte.

Kiedy wczoraj przeniosłem się z Odin do Aurum +, po raz pierwszy zauważyłem, jak potężna jest w tym makro i mikro dynamika. Może znasz wrażenie, że nie słuchasz klasyki na IEM, ponieważ słuchawki mają lepszą dynamikę?

Dzięki tej konfiguracji ponownie słuchałbym klasyki na temat CIEM.

I wiem, że niewielu z was słyszało Sony MDR-R10.

Ale mogę ci powiedzieć: kiedy to usłyszysz, na pierwszy rzut oka przychodzi słuchanie klasyki. Nawet jeśli nie słuchasz klasyki.

Jest hiperrealistyczny, rozdzielczość jest lepsza niż w sali koncertowej z prawdziwego życia. Wiem, ponieważ spędziłem wiele dni nagrywając albumy Christophera Tina w Abbey Road Studios i Nowym Jorku jako jego wieloletni patron.

Istnieje makro i mikro dynamika, które powodują płacz. Czujesz, że słuchanie wojen głośności skompresowanej współczesnej muzyki jest marnotrawstwem potencjału R10 ( naprawdę! ).

I to pierwsza rzecz, jaka przychodzi mi na myśl, kiedy słucham Murakumo teraz, na Tsuranagi, z LeJardinem. W tle znajduje się powolny i cichy tor, który jest dostarczany z tak dużą resztkową, spokojną mocą, że niektórzy z nas płaczą.

Nie płaczę, bo skupiam się teraz na przekazywaniu wam tej wiedzy. Mam nadzieję, że więcej z was będzie miało okazję wypróbować ten kabel w przyszłości.

Thanks for the review. What do you think about LeJardin with Yatono and what type of music do you prefer?

 

[Piotr Michalak]

Thanks for the review. What do you think about LeJardin with Yatono and what type of music do you prefer?

LeJardin with Yatono didn't survive my expectations. I'm sorry I don't remember exact specifics now. But I definitely returned to PWA MAS. It could be OK, but there was no specific synergy as there is with MAS (microdynamics, black canvas, "whispering"...). I wrote about this synergy several posts ago. I listen to many various genres and I believe personally that IEMs and headphones are usually not genre specific. Things like R10 synergy with classical is an exception, not a rule. I think the biggest differentiator would be whether your music is largely compressed (loudness wars) like most pop and EDMs -- or quiet / dynamics based like jazz, classical, some high-quality DSD albums in other genres etc. That's my feel at least. Other than that I can listen to both classical Mozart masses and super heavy metal (like Khemmis) on the same headphones, Sony R10's being the only exception (they are good only for dynamics-based quieter music).

 

[KrólArtur]

LeJardin with Yatono didn't survive my expectations. I'm sorry I don't remember exact specifics now. But I definitely returned to PWA MAS. It could be OK, but there was no specific synergy as there is with MAS (microdynamics, black canvas, "whispering"...). I wrote about this synergy several posts ago. I listen to many various genres and I believe personally that IEMs and headphones are usually not genre specific. Things like R10 synergy with classical is an exception, not a rule. I think the biggest differentiator would be whether your music is largely compressed (loudness wars) like most pop and EDMs -- or quiet / dynamics based like jazz, classical, some high-quality DSD albums in other genres etc. That's my feel at least. Other than that I can listen to both classical Mozart masses and super heavy metal (like Khemmis) on the same headphones, Sony R10's being the only exception (they are good only for dynamics-based quieter music).

Thanks for the answer. I'm new to portable audio, I listen to jazz, blues and male and female vocals. I bought Sony dmp z-1, ibasso dx320 max, on the list I have Traillii, Mentor with Orpheus cables, First Time, Chiron and I'm thinking about Lejardin.

 

[Rockwell75]

As for Mentor, I don't consider it bassy at all. In fact I found Mentor bass to be its one real weakness. As always, YMMV.

+1...this would be a classic case of an FR curve being misleading for me. I find the bass on Mentor to be rather insubstantial a lot of the time and would never consider it "bassy". The bass on Jewel jumps out at me way more than the bass on Mentor. YMMV etc. etc. Rn6 + red is an example of a near perfect reference monitor by my tastes.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

The bass on Jewel jumps out at me way more than the bass on Mentor

Jewels are much, much darker than Mentor's and that may be the case. So you turn it up a little... The sucked out 6 kHz on Jewels make them something of a warm reference monitor. That's what's tiresome for me when I listen to them, after a while, I get too much mushiness. And their DD has some sub-bass rumble. That's why I love to return to Jewels bass especially for retrowave tracks. And MM with it's BA bass... even if it wasn't lack of seal on UIEM tips, I can understand that there's no DD timbre, but BCD helps to some extent (it's much stronger on LeJardin, however).

 

[Ike1985]

The wait is almost over…
Next week FEI WAN will join her sisters

Hyped for Jewel comparison

 

[Ike1985]

So I did it. Gave Sony some of my hard-earned cash.



The DMP-Z1 is now home.

An unboxing video thanks to my lovely and supportive wife.



And a mandatory albeit brief photo shoot.







Hilariously, I find myself singing along, eyes closed, even to well-worn tracks I skip on other devices.

Makes me want to hear all my music and even all the IEMs I have parted with, all over again, lol.

My wife likened my eyes-closed-singing-along-to-music to the time I brought the Hifiman Susvara home, eons ago.

As for a final set of impressions (final for now, the unit isn’t burnt-in yet!), sharing what I wrote to a friend on WhatsApp:

The DMPZ1 appears to do everything better than everything else, including sounding natural. In that it colors outside the lines yet attains higher fidelity.

So grateful for these moments and the hobby at large. And a big thanks to coolers for the discussion that led me to this point.

Wow! Can you compare to Hugo 2? Can you use it with a laptop as source?

Indeed, the entire Fir Frontier series and the Mentor are (very) bassy and warm compared to a fairly neutral profile like e.g. the Jewel. Normalized at 1 khz.

I agree, the entire lineup is. I think many coolers have gotten so use to massively bassy IEM's they don't recognize it anymore.

Jewels are much, much darker than Mentor's and that may be the case. So you turn it up a little... The sucked out 6 kHz on Jewels make them something of a warm reference monitor. That's what's tiresome for me when I listen to them, after a while, I get too much mushiness. And their DD has some sub-bass rumble. That's why I love to return to Jewels bass especially for retrowave tracks. And MM with it's BA bass... even if it wasn't lack of seal on UIEM tips, I can understand that there's no DD timbre, but BCD helps to some extent (it's much stronger on LeJardin, however).

Nice observation on turning it up, I agree. They come alive at high volumes, very different than low volume listening and I suspect most people who like Jewel listen loud.