[stephenkostas]

Just curious, I'm sure it's been asked before, but has anyone done a formal survey in here regarding genre preferences, favorite tracks etc.?

I feel like there's a stereotype that every audiophile just listens to some combination of Dire Straits, Norah Jones, Daft Punk, and their one favorite female vocal jazz track (for the imaging), but I'm curious as to what the community is actually listening too.

Personally, I lean towards rock, alternative, and progressive metal – with a healthy dose of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Some of my all time favorite albums are:

Incubus "Morning View"
Dream Theater "Awake"
Pineapple Thief "Your Wilderness"
Stanton Moore "All Kooked Out"
Funkadelic "Maggot Brain"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Rush "Signals"
Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
Polyphia "New Levels New Devils"
Weezer "Pinkerton"

 

[barrycro]

Happy post # 66,666!

667 actually lives across the street

 

[McCheese]

Just curious, I'm sure it's been asked before, but has anyone done a formal survey in here regarding genre preferences, favorite tracks etc.?

I feel like there's a stereotype that every audiophile just listens to some combination of Dire Straits, Norah Jones, Daft Punk, and their one favorite female vocal jazz track (for the imaging), but I'm curious as to what the community is actually listening too.

Personally, I lean towards rock, alternative, and progressive metal – with a healthy dose of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Some of my all time favorite albums are:

Incubus "Morning View"
Dream Theater "Awake"
Pineapple Thief "Your Wilderness"
Stanton Moore "All Kooked Out"
Funkadelic "Maggot Brain"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Rush "Signals"
Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
Polyphia "New Levels New Devils"
Weezer "Pinkerton"

For Canjam my demo playlist had some Rush, Heart, Jinjer, Lindsey Stirling, Michael Jackson, Bach, and Mozart. Those gave me a pretty good sampling of the music that I listen to. I mostly listen to various subgenres of non-mainstream metal, progressive rock, and classical.

 

[KuroKitsu]

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.

So Adam turned Xe6 into Rn6 that's an expensive transformation

 

[Auricon]

So Adam turned Xe6 into Rn6 that's an expensive transformation

Haha, similar but not quite. Like Aeneid, it's fun with gold ATOM.
Only the best for my FiRRies!

 

[stephenkostas]

For Canjam my demo playlist had some Rush, Heart, Jinjer, Lindsey Stirling, Michael Jackson, Bach, and Mozart. Those gave me a pretty good sampling of the music that I listen to. I mostly listen to various subgenres of non-mainstream metal, progressive rock, and classical.

Ooh, Lindsey Stirling's a good call. I had "Guardian" on my demo playlist last year. My biggest challenge with the Bach, Mozart end of the spectrum is figuring out which are the best performances for headphones – or just the best in general. It's easiest to just go with the whatever the highest bitrate version is available, but that doesn't always mean in was the best engineered or mastered.

 

[chickenmcnug]

Just curious, I'm sure it's been asked before, but has anyone done a formal survey in here regarding genre preferences, favorite tracks etc.?

I feel like there's a stereotype that every audiophile just listens to some combination of Dire Straits, Norah Jones, Daft Punk, and their one favorite female vocal jazz track (for the imaging), but I'm curious as to what the community is actually listening too.

Personally, I lean towards rock, alternative, and progressive metal – with a healthy dose of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Some of my all time favorite albums are:

Incubus "Morning View"
Dream Theater "Awake"
Pineapple Thief "Your Wilderness"
Stanton Moore "All Kooked Out"
Funkadelic "Maggot Brain"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Rush "Signals"
Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
Polyphia "New Levels New Devils"
Weezer "Pinkerton"

I’m mostly an indie rock fan.
Fav albums in no order:

Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
An Awesome Wave - Alt-J
Is This It - The Strokes
Doolittle - Pixies

 

[mgsu]

I am exploring tonight the FIIO FH9 vs Fir RN6 with Fusion1 cable on the Cayin N30

FH9 runs circles around the RN6 in tracks with forward recorded vocals. Very good layering and timbre.
The most obvious track, Wicked Game (Remastered) by Chris Isaak when he sings: "No i dont wanna fall in love". You can hear that the FH9 resolves the "i" in "i dont wanna fall in love" - much better.
Where with the RN6 it is just a high pitched "i", with the FH9 it is a layered and full of reverbs "i".

 

[RonaldS86]

Just curious, I'm sure it's been asked before, but has anyone done a formal survey in here regarding genre preferences, favorite tracks etc.?

I feel like there's a stereotype that every audiophile just listens to some combination of Dire Straits, Norah Jones, Daft Punk, and their one favorite female vocal jazz track (for the imaging), but I'm curious as to what the community is actually listening too.

Personally, I lean towards rock, alternative, and progressive metal – with a healthy dose of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Some of my all time favorite albums are:

Incubus "Morning View"
Dream Theater "Awake"
Pineapple Thief "Your Wilderness"
Stanton Moore "All Kooked Out"
Funkadelic "Maggot Brain"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Rush "Signals"
Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
Polyphia "New Levels New Devils"
Weezer "Pinkerton"

For me, my favorite genre is Synthwave, followed by Pop, EDM, Jazz, Fusion, Classical

 

[deep2285]

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.



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.



Hey Tork great to see you here!



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.



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?




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.



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



Welcom back!

Could you please share a comparison between Grand Maestro vs XE6?

 

[Rockwell75]

Could you please share a comparison between Grand Maestro vs XE6?

Xe6 is super bombastic with boatloats of mid-bass presence, Grand Maestro is compartively more balanced and neutral along the FR, though you can tweak it a wee bit with the switch. Maestro has a more classically "audiophile" tuning.

 

[deep2285]

Xe6 is super bombastic with boatloats of mid-bass presence, Grand Maestro is compartively more balanced and neutral along the FR, though you can tweak it a wee bit with the switch. Maestro has a more classically "audiophile" tuning.

Which one has better sub bass?

 

[Rockwell75]

Which one has better sub bass?

I havent compared them directly along that metric but FF sub-bass is legendary.

 

[deep2285]

I havent compared them directly along that metric but FF sub-bass is legendary.

That's all I needed. Many thanks brother.

 

[Deezel177]

Just curious, I'm sure it's been asked before, but has anyone done a formal survey in here regarding genre preferences, favorite tracks etc.?

I feel like there's a stereotype that every audiophile just listens to some combination of Dire Straits, Norah Jones, Daft Punk, and their one favorite female vocal jazz track (for the imaging), but I'm curious as to what the community is actually listening too.

Personally, I lean towards rock, alternative, and progressive metal – with a healthy dose of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Some of my all time favorite albums are:

Incubus "Morning View"
Dream Theater "Awake"
Pineapple Thief "Your Wilderness"
Stanton Moore "All Kooked Out"
Funkadelic "Maggot Brain"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Rush "Signals"
Thelonious Monk "Monk's Dream"
Beatles "Abbey Road"
Polyphia "New Levels New Devils"
Weezer "Pinkerton"

My current favorite artists are:

Snarky Puppy (and each of their members' individual projects) - Ensemble, jazz, fusion
Dirty Loops - Band, jazz, fusion
Laufey - Female vocalist, jazz, semi-classical
Anomalie - Pianist, jazz/electronic, fusion
FKJ - Multi-instrumentalist, jazz/electronic, fusion

Cory Wong (and his respective groups, i.e. The Fearless Flyers, Vulfpeck, etc.) - Band, funk
Lake Street Dive - Band, pop/funk/soul, vocals
Incognito - Band, acid jazz/funk/soul, vocals
Oz Noy - Band, jazz/funk

RAYE - Female vocalist, R&B
Mahalia - Female vocalist, R&B
Ella Mai - Female vocalist, R&B

Animals As Leaders - Band, prog-rock
Polyphia - Band, prog-rock, guitar-focused
Arch Echo - Band, prog-rock

Nas - male vocalist, hip-hop
Royce da 5'9" - male vocalist, hip-hop
Black Thought - male vocalist, hip-hop

I've put most of my test tracks on a Spotify playlist for easy reference. ('Haven't updated it in a coupe months, though.)



P.S. I wanted to give a special mention to Hiromi and her latest project, Hiromi's Sonicwonderland. I've admired her for years now, and the album she just put out with trumpet player Adam O'Farrill, bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Gene Coye is nothing short of masterful. They played two of my favorite tracks from the record live on NRP's Tiny Desk. It's magical.