[Alpexis]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

 

[chickenmcnug]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

iliad lifts the “veil” a little from mids and a little more sparkle in treble.

 

[KrólArtur]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

Maybe Brise or Chiron, I haven't heard this combination but from other opinions it should meet your expectations.Chiron has a brighter mids.I use MM with Orpheus and for me it is a great combination.

 

[Shawnb]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

Have you tried the OTL? It pairs amazingly well with the Mentor.

 

[rinderkappajoe]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

I don´t know if you are someone who spends big amounts of money on cables but this one definitely gets the job done for cheap, while being of very good quality

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005..._main.106.1f035c5fI6alSJ&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu

 

[KrólArtur]

Have you tried the OTL? It pairs amazingly well with the Mentor.

OTL is a great cable, but I think it will add warmth.

 

[MatW]

Happy post # 66,666!

 

[deep2285]

Finally played Massive Attack on Singularity.....literally blew my brains out....too good to be true.

 

[Auricon]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

Cough *Orph…* kinda j/k

From ET, SoA (Sonnet of Adam) or 2nd hand Aeneid. I’m only 8 hours into SoA and it’s definitely an “upgrade” of Aeneid with wider soundstage and airy mids (really opens up XE6’s signature and mids). has a review up:

https://twister6.com/2023/10/08/eletech-sonnet-of-adam/

EA, I’d lean Chiron but it’s been sometime since I’ve listened - it less warm, revealing mids, and a bit of bass rumble. Cleo II OCTA has a slightly smaller soundstage though I hear some fullness in the mids. But Fusion 1 maybe an alt to Chiron - another I haven’t auditioned.

Unfortunately, I haven’t experienced Brise.

 

[freeryder05]

I have been spending a lot of time with U4S this week and it's really a fantastic set for the price. I love the staging and the mids. Even the bass has some serious rumble when it calls for it.

64 Audio really nailed it. I think I would recommend this over some sets that cost 2x or 3x price. I honestly think it's 64a's most well rounded offering. My only issue is that it's so easy to drive that I run it on low gain and maybe 35 clicks of volume on my RS6.

 

[twister6]

Cough *Orph…* kinda j/k

From ET, SoA (Sonnet of Adam) or 2nd hand Aeneid. I’m only 8 hours into SoA and it’s definitely an “upgrade” of Aeneid with wider soundstage and airy mids (really opens up XE6’s signature and mids). has a review up:

https://twister6.com/2023/10/08/eletech-sonnet-of-adam/

EA, I’d lean Chiron but it’s been sometime since I’ve listened - it less warm, revealing mids, and a bit of bass rumble. Cleo II OCTA has a slightly smaller soundstage though I hear some fullness in the mids. But Fusion 1 maybe an alt to Chiron - another I haven’t auditioned.

Unfortunately, I haven’t experienced Brise.

I concur with

 

[fiascogarcia]

Would appreciate some suggestions for cable rolling my Mentor. Truly love the timbre, staging and easy-going nature of this iem. But looking for a tiny bit less warmth and thickness/density. Pairing with sp3k ss. Thanks!

Orphy is the best to my ears, but if you want it more neutral leaning, try Chiron or SOA. All good, just different flavors. IMO

 

[Auricon]

I concur with

FiR's missing a "Tw6" in their Frontier line-up

 

[Rockwell75]

I wonder how the VE EXT compares to the CFA Bonneville or the Audio64 Volur. Anyone?

EXT vs.Bonneville

I haven't heard EXT in a while but it is still one of my favorite IEMs. Biggest difference is I would say Bonneville is a bit more v-shaped. EXT, while mildly v-shaped, draws your attention more to the mids whereas Bonneville is a slightly more bombastic "fun" sound. EXT also has VE's characteristic seductive and clear mid-range tuning, which is not to be trifiled with. The biggest difference between the two is driver config. EXT has DD timbre from the lows through the mids whereas with Bonneville the mids and highs use a BA. If you thought the conversation was interesting around DD vs. BA timbre in the lows it gets even more interesting when it comes to the mids. I'm one of those people who loves DD timbre in the mids-- it was in fact VE's own Elysium that got me onto this...but it's a lot less straightforward to explain/justifiy than when it comes to lows. There is just something to me that feels more effortless and natural with DD timbre in the mids...I'll just leave it at that. The biggest difference is with the highs. EXT uses e-stats and there seems to be a firm line in the tuning where the DD's stop and the e-stats begin and since its not a gradual transition in speed like it would be going from DD - BA - e-stat sometimes I found (track dependent) myself noticing a noteable difference in timbre on the top vs. the bottom and once I noticed this it became a nitpick and was one of the factors that got me to sell the set. In retrospect I would have preferred if the DDs in EXT covered more of the FR with the e-stats just adding a bit of flourish up top. YMMV etc. With Bonneville the coherence along the FR is stronger-- this is always something that CFA has excelled at with their hybrids, whatever else you may say about them.

Regarding the Volur I did not care for it particularly-- I founded bloated and congested sounding with bass that was nowhere near as noteworthy as I'd been lead to believe going in. This was just a show floor impression and could change pending further listening.

Thank you for answering. I've only heard two sets with DD bass that I felt was better than Storm's BA bass, and those were Nightjar's Singularity and Duality. Maybe BA timbre is a thing and I just prefer it.

Possibly, but I'm not sure what other DD sets you've heard so I can't really comment. It could just be, referring to the descriptive/you can feel it distinction I used above, that you value a really accurate descriptive presentation over a more purely visceral presentation. For me I can appreciate good BA bass in the short term-- it's only during longer term usage that my OCD kicks in that I find myself missing that extra bit of density, weight and texture down low that my experience seems to suggest that only DDs can fully provide.

One interesting thing to throw into the mix is that DDs are more leakage tolerant than BAs. BAs lose a loooooot of bass (can be -5dB or more, as shown in 5128) when the seal is even slightly weaker than optimal. While even the most seasoned of IEM veterans like to think that they can achieve optimal coupling/seal with every UIEM, the reality is that it's very difficult to get a consistently strong seal unless you really tip roll and optimise fit for every IEM you try as every IEM has a different fit and insertion depth.

There's also implementation of BA that matters a lot. A BA woofer can sound radically different when acoustic damping, tube length, crossover filtering & venting is adjusted. The same applies for DDs!

Hey Tork great to see you here!

The reed vibrates the diaphragm though.

Fair, but I don't think the effect is completely the same. FWIW I'm just guessing at a lot of this in an attempt to understand what my ears/perceptions are telling me. I do feel/perceive that, whatever similarities there might be, there is something fundamentally different in character between the sonic presentation of BAs vs. DDs. I won't pretend that one is universally better than but there do seem to be some inherent strengths/aspects of sonic character that each driver type possesses that the other does not. I don't think you'll ever be able to replicate a Campfire Trifecta using BAs or a Phonix LE using DDs, etc.

I still feel Traillii has better bass than many if not all DD’s. For example, EVO has more bass quantity, but it is lacking in quality. In comparison Traillii’s bass is more detailed, tight and still impactful. If you just need quantity look at DD’s only, but when looking at the whole picture, I want the IEM that does bass overall the best. When I compare Traillii’s BA bass to my Fourte, the quality is so much better and it still hits when the music calls for it. The Fourte can become skull shaking with some heavy EDM tracks, but I find I can only take it for so long. And then once we talk about the big picture including mids and treble, game over vs Traillii. On the other hand I find Annihilator so bass shy, the mids and treble don’t even matter. So for me, a quality mix is key, though I would like it all.

This is an interesting perspective, and this is a conversation/debate we have been having as long as we've known each other on here. It's funny but I do remember the bass on Traillii being a deal breaker for many back when it was "all the rage" and everyone and their donkey was getting one. FWIW the bird is still my favorite of that particular classs (BA/e-stat) of IEMs but after more demos than I can count I eventually started to suspect that it too would eventually leave me wanting in the bass dept. were I to own one. Your take on Annihilator is interesting. I agree that it is bass shy (even the 2023, which is nominally different than the 2021, which I owned) but I find that even then it gives me enough of that "DD goodness" that it gets me by, especially when factoring in the strength of the rest of the FR on that set. YMMV etc.

Edit: I also find it interesting that you single out EVO as lacking bass quality relative to Traillii. I was never a fan of EVO generally but it consistently gets held up by many as a standard bearer for DD bass. Maybe DD sound just isn't your thing?

Personally, when all is said and done, I am still waiting to hear truly outstanding bass from an IEM. I have heard great mids and great treble, but I do not feel a “King of Bass” has been created.

Trifecta holds that crown currently IMHO. All of that said I think we're presently in an "Golden Age" of IEMs and have not quite hit peak in any domain really-- exciting times ahead.

I agree. The fit is definitely awkward and I have failed to point that out in my own impressions.

Still might turn into a deal breaker for me. I could see myself selling Singularity and going for Duality, which fits me absolutely perfectly.

Wow, just got caught up with 100 pages after coming back from vacation.



Because CanJams aim to appeal to the entire hobby - both desktop and portable enthusiasts alike, playing at all price points - they are inherently overwhelming by design. So, CanJam working as intended I guess?



Ugh, I totally forgot to audition your Xe6! And a Trailli.



Welcome Scott! Finally got you in here!



I too have found that Eletech's Illiad, and EA's Leonidas II before it, have an uncanny ability to even out a lot of issues. Not always of course, but quite a bit.



Whoa, whoa, whoa, AM?



I think a fair portion of that is simply due to the pressures of a public environment: limited auditioning time (and hence limited number of test tracks), being respectful of others' time, rapid-fire listening of many models in succession, heck just not feeling relaxed in general, etc.








And this is why there is always another CanJam coming up somewhere in the world! Not to be the grumpy old man here, but I can still remember a time when we only had one CanJam per year. I was so happy arriving at my second CanJam that I kissed the ground... the dirty-ass carpet of the Rocky Mountain Event Center at the Denver Tech Center Marriott. I was younger and dumber in those days.



Don't forget Jude's if you're gonna!





I can totally understand wanting more of these, not just as back-ups, but to roll with other IEMs. The copper-shielded cable was enough to change my mind on the Rn6 in several ways, for the better. The only drawback was that it rendered a whole bunch of previously-gathered impressions obsolete.



There are 713 pages of images, but you might find some good ones in this thread's image gallery: https://www.head-fi.org/threadgalle...anter-index-on-first-page-all-welcome.957426/



Mine as well! I'm totally missing it.



Wow, Cypher Labs! Now there's a brand I haven't seen in a long while!



Awww, I totally missed this! Not that it matters though, I would have said Rn6, along with two others that aren't even on the list, so I wouldn't have moved the needle.



FTFY.



Jude and I both have UERMs, and use them as palate cleansers between units. They're so neutral, bordering on being flat and boring at times, that it reboots our ears. If you ever get a chance to score a cheap pair used, I'd advise considering it.

Welcom back!

 

[Rockwell75]

FiR should add a "Tw6" to their Frontier line-up

Twiston 6