[btwine]

Water cooler can I please get some help? If you could only take one between the Fir Audio RN6 and the FatFreq Grand Maestro which of the two would it be?

Please note for the sake of comparison assume both have all modules and equipment. Trying to figure out if the Maestro is really as grand as it claims. I have no familiarity with FatFreq.

Usual music is rock, alternative, jazz, and a bit of classical. Thank you for your help.

I’ve owned both (UIEM). For me it came down to fit - GM has a very long and wide nozzle which was not only uncomfortable but painful, no matter the tip. It’s too bad because I really loved its sound. Others have had universal GM fit issues as well. Rn6 is more comfortable, though unfortunately for me, still not enough, which is why I am selling mine. I get a pinch in my ear canals with all 3 Fir Frontiers, no matter the tip. But I am an outlier for Fir fit problems.

Fit aside, I would probably pick GM thanks to its more unique, summit-fi bass. Both IEMs have unique customizations to flex their SQ but GM’s bass is the most outstanding feature between the two.

 

[trbo996]

Is there a universal (or at least widely held) view on what types / structure / material of eartips are most advantageous for BCD IEMs?

 

[drftr]

I sincerely hope at least some of you find it enjoyable!

Awesome man... Liked it a lot...

A bit of advice: If you don't want to hear it, please never ever ever ever ask a Dutchman for his or her opinion, as that is exactly what you will get...

So here goes:

First things first: I think you have an incredible microphone technique that has costed you tons and tons of time to get used to. You change your distance to the mic in a perfect way and not a single word is louder than the other, no matter whether you almost talk or cry out loud.

Second, I think I hear that you might be sitting, right? This puts a little strain on your lungs and you might be able to let yourself go to the fullest if you're standing. You will also lose a little bit of control though so this may take "some" exercise.

And last, while you're at it, if standing I think you may benefit from gripping that microphone holder, close your eyes, and sing as if the mic can't hear you but only record your emotions. You already throw in a LOT, but I feel you can outdo yourself once you firmly hold on, close your eyes, and forget about everything else around you. Again, this will take a LOT of practise as you won't be able to see the distance between the microphone and you. Still it's only about mic & Nik.

drftr

 

[Erkil]

Following post has had my eustress levels on the rise for a while now.

I have become a 500+ headfier, so let's make the 501st post something special.

Last week was my 27th birthday. Nothing special in itself. But I've been working on something quite special for a while and I am dying to share the outcome.

It took some courage to man up, seek professional guidance, and record in the first place, but arguably even more courage to post here among you, audiophiles with sharpest of ears and greatest of gears.

The song is well-known no matter where you're from and what you listen to preferentially - it's Frank Sinatra's My Way which starts off soft and rather uneventful, but it gets going at about halfway, so please bear with me. It also needs to carry a powerful message throughout. I recommend you use your best set for piano & male vocal.

I would very much appreciate any support and feedback. Positive or not. I welcome everyone to reach out to me privately and express their (preferrably somewhat constructive) criticism too! Turns out it's incredibly difficult to judge yourself, both positively or negatively, since it sounds tremendously odd to hear your own voice replayed.

This is also my very first semi-professional endeavour thanks to my guiding mentor and one of my small country's greatest female vocalists - Neisha. I welcome you to check out her work.

I sincerely hope at least some of you find it enjoyable!

Without further ado ...

I am so frikking impressed!!. Wow man, that was solid! Not an easy song I imagine, I couldn’t sing the first line even If my life depended on it. Solid performance!

 

[PassionForMusic]

Yes.
Case in point: Dignis. No one is buying their products in patina for added functionality.

Have not yet had the pleasure of knowing the Dignis brand. Looks like some lovely cases. Patina makes everything more special. Helps to make it more unique.

I actually found that the W1 cleans up he bass quite a bit. For me it tended to emphasize punch over rumble.

W1 and Baroque ear tips are becoming my favorite. They seem to help to solve a lot of the fit issues that I have been having with my iems. I think the grippiness of the W1 is helping. Also does wonders with regards to the bass.

I am fortunate to have both a GM and Rn6 on my desk daily. For me, the GM gets a ton more ear time. YMMV, but it's def worth trying both if you can.

Thank you for your thoughts. I would love to demo the GM. Unfortunately I have not found any retailer who does. Will add the GM to the wish list. Thank you to the folks who let me know that the RN6 is more of a "safe" tuning. Was looking for something that is able to handle bass frequencies. I have not had the joys of the deep bass rumble of a FatFreq yet, so I am deeply grateful for all the opinions regarding the GM and the RN6.

Thanks for this comparison. Makes me want to try some nasty converted speaker wire with my Fei Wan
I have a Raven inbound thanks to a sweet trade and am excited to make this same A/B, though with a V2. Impressions to come!

Looking forward to the impressions. @btwine PM me, would be interested in how the Raven compares with the Loki. Your A/B will be most illuminating.

 

[nikbr]

Great job, man! Really impressive to see you take a leap like that, keep it up .

Ha, my finger definitely needed some convincing before pressing that blue and otherwise very affable 'Post reply' button. Thank you!

Impressive! The only singing most of us do is in the shower I'm sure

That's where it all starts. Then it's as easy as seeking guidance from someone much more skilled with higher mileage to get you going!

Congratulations for the 500+ headfier and belated Happy Birthday! What a way to mark these 2 milestones. Bravo!

Thank you. Birthday comes around every year, so really not all that impressive, but the 500+ Headfier milestone only comes once.

Sad we'll be missing you at the meetup, but we still have high our hopes another great singer will make up for it @julioiglesias

drftr

Oh wow, the Great, the One and Only, the World-renowned Dutch artist Julio van Iglesias!

Lovely voice, thanks for sharing it with us!

Means a lot, thanks

Happy Birthday, time to ramp up the focus on your voice. I really enjoyed the timbre in your voice in the lowest notes. Look for songs to make your own where you can take full advantage of that gift. Best of luck. Thank you for sharing, applaud your courage to put this out there.

Hm, okay, that's interesting. I'll make sure to pick something that lets me discover and present that chest voice area to my best possibility next. Thank you.

Awesome man... Liked it a lot...

A bit of advice: If you don't want to hear it, please never ever ever ever ask a Dutchman for his or her opinion, as that is exactly what you will get...

So here goes:

First things first: I think you have an incredible microphone technique that has costed you tons and tons of time to get used to. You change your distance to the mic in a perfect way and not a single word is louder than the other, no matter whether you almost talk or cry out loud.

Second, I think I hear that you might be sitting, right? This puts a little strain on your lungs and you might be able to let yourself go to the fullest if you're standing. You will also lose a little bit of control though so this may take "some" exercise.

And last, while you're at it, if standing I think you may benefit from gripping that microphone holder, close your eyes, and sing as if the mic can't hear you but only record your emotions. You already throw in a LOT, but I feel you can outdo yourself once you firmly hold on, close your eyes, and forget about everything else around you. Again, this will take a LOT of practise as you won't be able to see the distance between the microphone and you. Still it's only about mic & Nik.

drftr

Oh my relationship with the mic is a very mixed affair. Sometimes it just clicks and feels natural, whereas in other occasions I need to remember it's there at all. I definitely need to try closing my eyes and holding onto it in next projects. Thanks for guidance!

I am so frikking impressed!!. Wow man, that was solid! Not an easy song I imagine, I couldn’t sing the first line even If my life depended on it. Solid performance!

Haha thank you, love your enthusiasm oh, I bet you could do it too with some practice and belief in your capabilities!

 

[emdeevee]

Is there a universal (or at least widely held) view on what types / structure / material of eartips are most advantageous for BCD IEMs?

I think the conventional wisdom is you want tips to help insert BCD as deeply as possible while retaining a good seal. This can be accomplished with many different tips, but among my faves for "deep insertion" are Eletech Baroque and Spinfit.

 

[PHLHarmonic]

W1 and Baroque ear tips are becoming my favorite. They seem to help to solve a lot of the fit issues that I have been having with my iems. I think the grippiness of the W1 is helping. Also does wonders with regards to the bass.

I'm giving the W1 tips another try today to see if the texture doesn't bother me after a short period of time. I'm not exactly sure why the texture does it to me other than my ears might normally be a bit dry.

I think the conventional wisdom is you want tips to help insert BCD as deeply as possible while retaining a good seal. This can be accomplished with many different tips, but among my faves for "deep insertion" are Eletech Baroque and Spinfit.

The Baroque tips in size small definitely give a metal-to-ear sort of sensation on the TS-316s. The mediums might still fit okay and reduce the sensation a bit, but I'd have to pony up another $25 to try them out. I also might pick up a TC44Pro to use with my iPhone since I use Apple Music. I've considered the R3 II which looks nice and compact, but the lack of AM support kind of makes it a nonstarter short of switching services.

 

[wolfstar76]

My desktop PC computer crashed a month ago, and after a failed attempt to upgrade it I decided to finally say good bye to desktop computer. Today I re-arrange my standing desk with my docking laptop as the source, and I tested my desktop gears with some surprise.

My headphone journal started with Hifiman Sundara (previously had some none audiophile grade Sennheiser), which I sold later and upgraded to Hifiman HE6SE. It started with my first audiophile rabbit hole as I soon learned my my basic Schiit stack won't be able to push HE6SE to its potential. I later purchased a powerful amp from Ukraine, FA-10 just to drive my HE6SE.

However, after I bumped into ZMF in SoCal CanJam two years ago, I got my first ZMF headphone Atrium open, which is another rabbit hole since ZMF headphones are high impedance and require special amp, some of them, such as OTL tube amp ended up only paired with ZMF headphones as they are not good amp for other headphones.

Since then, my HE6SE was totally neglected for more than one year (zero ear time since).

Today, to test my new setup, I put my HE6SE back on and I found I really enjoy listening to HE6SE, totally different tuning from ZMF. Although I love Atrium, which is all-rounder for me for my library, I found HE6SE hit much harder in bass with much higher energy from the high-end as well. For bass heavy music, HE6SE sound much more satisfactory. with A/B test, ZMF is clearly very colored with treble roll off (or de-emphasized?) and resulted in a sound signature that is very relaxed and none-fatiguing.

Some simply music I used to A/B test the two headphones:





In the first video, string from the bass guitar has better timbre from Atrium but you can hear deeper bass from HE6SE.

For second song, "Werld is mine", high-hat has a much splashing shimmering on the top from HE6SE while the same high-hat is in the background in a very unoffensive way from Atrium.

 

[drftr]

Quick newsflash from the old continent where @CharlyBrown made us cross the important threshold of 10 attendees. Not a bad score in less than half a day. We're on!

drftr

 

[Chronos]

ZMF is clearly very colored with treble roll off (or de-emphasized?) and resulted in a sound signature that is very relaxed and none-fatiguing.

Was nice meeting you yesterday. Hopefully I didn’t do some inception on you yesterday since these were my thoughts also after hearing your Atrium.

 

[wolfstar76]

Was nice meeting you yesterday. Hopefully I didn’t do some inception on you yesterday since these were my thoughts also after hearing your Atrium.

Me too and I think I saw you in one of the Canjam before. I will use Atrium for a long time . For Susvara, I have been demoing for two CanJams with different setup but none of them brought Susvara to the level that I really desire, maybe later in this journal.

 

[emdeevee]

After yesterday's excitement, spending a lazy Sunday listening to Bonneville and Black Star back to back. More similar than not, but with some very interesting differences...i think if you like one, you'll like the other.

Mood seemed perfect for this amazing song from 2022, a real test for these CFAs, and they both succeed with aplomb.

 

[Chronos]

Me too and I think I saw you in one of the Canjam before. I will use Atrium for a long time . For Susvara, I have been demoing for two CanJams with different setup but none of them brought Susvara to the level that I really desire, maybe later in this journal.

Did you hear the Susvara with the Zahl yesterday? It was really good, one of the best pairings I’ve heard

 

[Alexzander]

Guys, can you help me to remember the name of the eartips?

For the S size they have thick yellow bore with black almost fully mate silicone tip itself.
Can’t recall what brand and model this could be.