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

[icnaiwhimor1975]

Brise Fubukuro E (Orochi Interconnect)
Brise Yatono mini ultimate
Nightjar Onix

Nightjar Onix too warm but very fun and musical
Orochi IC very technical and agresive, mid bass more bold almost like shirogane but more agresive
Yatono IC less technical, forward vocal, midbass gone from shirogane or orochi, back to sub bass, normal sub bass

Im surprised shirogane more warm than Yatono

Orochi good cable good sidegrade from shirogane as long dont mind the agresive (everything come out more energetic)

Do they justify their 14,000$ price?

 

[Sifo]

There used to be tons of IEM knock-offs on TaoBao, and they'd have the exact same components as the real thing. I remember fake Vision Ears IEMs that even replicated the blue-and-gold wiring, as well as the VE engraving on all the drivers. But, now that most high-end brands use either proprietary drivers and/or proprietary acoustic solutions, it's near-impossible for those to get faked. The only ones still vulnerable are IEMs that use off-the-shelf components like the Trailli. There were quite a few Trailli replicas floating around AFAIK. Or, you have cases like the fake IE900, where they fake the shells, but the internals are nowhere near the same.

There have been instances of proprietary drivers being cloned and sold on the Chinese market being used in their respective copied models. Not gonna give them the advertising but don't underestimate the supply chain when all of these IEMs are coming from the same handful of factories.

 

[musingclouds]

Do they justify their 14,000$ price?

Question doesn't make sense as value, budget, and preferences all vary wildly by individual. What is 'justified' for one person is completely out of this world for another.

 

[Conan1974]

Even then, this question is valid. Materials, energy, design and workers paychecks. Some extra for looks too. No audio product will look good in this comparison. 14K, come on.
For sure not as small IEM.

 

[musingclouds]

Even then, this question is valid. Materials, energy, design and workers paychecks. Some extra for looks too. No audio product will look good in this comparison. 14K, come on.
For sure not as small IEM.

Someone paid millions for a banana taped to a wall. Rolex's cost several thousands.

Art. Luxury goods. There's just what people will pay for.

 

[Conan1974]

But still, the price comes from the summ of all costs.
Plus some extra, for the company to be able to earn money and stay on the market.
I can not see where the 14K would come from. But maybe from there, like You say, luxury goods - the company knows that there are people who will pay whaterver the price will be. Even if it is not really worth the price

 

[tresvigint]

Do they justify their 14,000$ price?

Its 17.000$ now due to stronger Yen and weaker dollar

Back to topik
Yes if I comparing it to 3 different setup iem (all 3 setup abive 10.000$)

On canjam there is Storm and Hex too
Storm desktop really good
But I still like Fugaku due to portability

 

[Leto Dal]

Speaking of absurd pricing. The other day I was thinking about the Beat Audio Valhalla cable, having it in my hands looking at the wires reading up on the reviews and the making process. The asked price of 8k+ usd is utterly insane for a cable, there is no way around it, its just nuts. In the same time the cable was as big of an improvement to my chain as an totl a dap or the iem itself. I have zero idea how it works. And I doubt Beat Audio or any other cable manufacturor can explain scientifically in detail what in the seventh circle of hell is actually going on there. Its an empyrical process of trial and error and years upon years of experience with this empirical process. It got its own trade secrets, manufacturing hardships, supply chains issues, low moq, risks of not pleasing current communtiy trend and so on.
The cable itself is a work of art - its jewelery, 8 wires with several dozen of flattened ribbons weaven in a certain way in each of that 8 wires helix. With carefully chosen shielding, exotic materials and alloys used - it looks like an artwork, a perfect serpent shape, with the hand carved hardware, the colours the little details inside the wires you cam see when you hold the cable against the light.

And its not just pretty but it works, the stage becomes almost as big as on my Immanis, the note size is suddenly twice its size, the instrument feel big and more real, everything is weightier and more detailed, the kickdrums become more poignant and textured, the subbass feels endlessly deep and the little bump in the mid treble contrasts beautifully with darkish nature of the sound signature keeping it airy and detailed up top. And yet there is some special magic to it I find very difficult to find the right words for, I hear something I truly haven’t experienced yet. From a cable.

Somehow the whole thing with small buisnesses creating very low moq flagship products that costs thousands, got a somewhat of an alchemist creation vibe to it. There is no "proper" research done by scientists, like in every other commercial field where companies sponsor such research at universities where a new product undergoes a conservative R&D process. Its just oldschool craftsmanship and an endless empirical trial & error process, years of experience and passion. Yes its difficult to justify the pricing, but in the end we are paying exactly for this craftsmanship that is just impossible to get anywhere else, we can find the pricing absurd, the hype around every new "totl" product tiresome and yet we crave to experience it and that I believe for a reason.

 

[Conan1974]

What would say then, about a IEM cable, made out of silver for 1K, when for 1K You can buy 2x2.5 m of speaker cable. There is for sure more silver in the speakers cables, than in the IEM cable

 

[Nealz]

Hello everyone, back here after a while with my new review of the Hiby R6 Gen III 2025 DAP. I have compared it to the Hiby R4 Evangelion Edition and Shanling M5 Ultra Dap's in my review. Do give it a read if you have some free time. Cheers!

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/hiby-r6-iii-2025.28095/reviews#review-37667

 

[blotmouse]

What would say then, about a IEM cable, made out of silver for 1K, when for 1K You can buy 2x2.5 m of speaker cable. There is for sure more silver in the speakers cables, than in the IEM cable

I would say, why are you buying cables at all? What a waste!
The logical conclusion is you need to make them yourself. Why toss cash out the window to pay someone with expertise when you can make the business connections and procure the raw materials yourself.

 

[Conan1974]

Cause i am lazy or do not start something i never did before. But mostly because i do not feel like to playing with cables, when i can buy them

 

[fejnomit]

What would say then, about a IEM cable, made out of silver for 1K, when for 1K You can buy 2x2.5 m of speaker cable. There is for sure more silver in the speakers cables, than in the IEM cable

Then go ahead and hook the speaker cables up to your IEMs. Or at least try to. Then I think you will see where expertise comes into play... However, to me, cables have absolutely zero to do with whatever's inside them. I don't care if a cable is made of tin or ten pounds of pure silver, zero shielding or shielded in platinum bars. Honestly. If it can achieve a sound with a particular IEM that I am looking for, one that no other cable can, then it's worth a considerable amount of money to me. If it's super expensive but can't achieve that sound, then it's worthless.

 

[530620]

Impressions of Lime Ears Terra​

I have had the pleasure of listening to the Lime Ears Terra for two weeks, all thanks to Audio Geek and Lime Ears. The review is my subjective take, how you will perceive the IEM might not align with my impressions, due to the fact that everyone hears differently.
I have not been pressured by anyone to say anything, either positive or negative; all thoughts are my own.

A little bit about me
I am a 40-year old audio enthusiast that has been in this hobby for about 10 years. I started out with speaker HiFi but after a while I realised that I prefer listening with headphones, due to the fact that headphones are not dependent on room acoustics as speakers and also because I soon realised that it's much easier and generally don't require as much money as with speaker systems to achieve good audio quality. I occasionally write reviews of consumer audio on Sweden's biggest price comparison website Prisjakt Sverige. I generally like IEMs that sound neutral/warm with a bass boost.

Lime Ears is a relatively new IEM-maker from Warsaw, Poland. The Terra retails for 1199 USD.

Terra is one of their latest models and is a 6-driver hybrid. The drivers are:

One 7 mm Titanium diaphragm dynamic for bass
Two BAs for low-mid frequencies
Two BAs for mid-high frequencies
One Knowles RAU new generation BA for ultra high frequencies

Design & Comfort

Terra is made of aircraft grade aluminium. The IEMS feel very well made and solid. The nozzles are on the bigger side, so they might not fit all ear canals. The shells are light green and the faceplates are beautiful with shiny crystal flakes in different colors that change depending on the lighting. I think it's tastefully done. Overall they feel like a well thought out design and even after wearing them for longer periods I only had slight problems with comfort. The cable is a twisted copper cable that is a bit too stiff for my liking, I tend to prefer softer cables. But the connector, cable splitter and cinch are made of aluminium and feel high quality.

Sound impressions

I would describe Terras sound signature as fairly neutral and balanced. I don't perceive them as very bright nor dark, just a well balanced sound signature, but with an added flair in the treble.

Bass

This is not a bassy set by any means, but the bass is well controlled. I don't feel it lacking, but bassheads would probably want more bass. There's an equal amount of subbass and midbass. As someone who favors midbass over subbass, I would maybe have wanted a little more emphasis on the midbass, but overall, I found the bass to be satisfying.

Midrange

The midrange is neither too forward or too pushed back. I find that the Terras have a good balance overall. Instruments and voices sound as they should do. I would have wanted a little more note weight, because they can sometimes come a cross a little bit too light.

Treble

Generally an airy and detailed treble, with lots of information up top. Despite being airy and detailed, I don't find the treble to be to aggressive, but I did experience some sibilance on some tracks.

Technicalities

The Terras have a fairly wide soundstage/headstage, much thanks to the airy treble. While perhaps not being the most detailed IEM I didn't find them lacking in detail retrieval.

Overall impression and summary.
The price of the Terras may deter many buyers. While it is certainly not a cheap product, I feel that it has a lot of things to offer a potential buyer. However, as the market is saturated by IEMs and there are a lot of good sounding IEMs at half the price of the Terra, so it faces tough competition. What stands out on the Terra and what I really like are esthetics and design. I also like the overall sound performance of the Terra because it is technically capable and well balanced set. While I generally prefer IEMs with more note weight and with a warmer sound signature, I very much enjoyed my time with the Terras, and would recommend anyone to have an audition if you are a person that likes neutral IEMS that leans bright, with a lot of air in the treble.

 

[thaslaya]

Hey WC! I recently had the opportunity to review the new Unique Melody Stardust. This one is a surprising $800 mid-fi release from one of the major TOTL companies that many here love. The Stardust has a very easy to enjoy warm-neutral style tuning with a fantastic titanium shell and awesome accessories! I enjoyed it much more than the Cantor, and at the same price, I'd easily pick the Stardust. If you're interested in the full review, you can read it here on Head-fi and my blog. Thanks to @apagumila for the loaner!