This is how I feel about my small collection. Each has a moment or something special about each that I find it hard to depart with one.
SA6 were my entry into Head-fi. Spent some quality listening time with them today and a couple of cocktails. I think one I could part with is MEST Mk2s since I’ll reach for the Indigo instead.
I absolutely love when IEM companies take unique tunings and execute them wonderfully. The XE6 and the EXT are two of the more recent releases that have both achieved that well to my standards. Although I did personally feel the EXT fell short on technical ability for its price point.
I've spent the past day going back and forth between the XE6 and KR5 and trying to figure out why the XE6 costs almost $4000 when its got such a warm tuning and thicker sound, it sort of goes against the narrative of what you see in flagship releases these days. I feel most of these flagship releases now are sort of "safer" tunings but taken to high levels of refinement, like the Phonix/Traillii/Odin/Jewel. Then it finally clicked to me, what the XE6 has managed to achieve in technical ability with this type of tuning is nothing short of a revelation to me in audio. An IEM with this much warmth and thickness to sound while being this technically capable just amazes me. The levels of micro detail are fantastic and it's coming from a tuning that isn't even remotely close to analytical. The macro dynamics are also just astonishing, the A12t and Elysian X were my previous benchmarks there and this IEM manages to make the A12t sound a little "soft" in comparison. Throw in some "new" bass, great end to end extension, and some nice resolution too and it is just a joy to listen to for me personally.
Entirely personal statement and in no way meant to be a "these are the best IEMs ever" statement, haha. For my tastes they are just excellent. Unfortunately, I do feel the kinetic bass is fit dependent. These won't be for everyone at all, but for those who want diversified IEM collections I feel they'll slot in quite nicely assuming you like the sound. Kind of reminds me of back when I heard the Fourte in 2017, they're more "outside of the box" but very fun to listen to. There's also a fair bit of brain burn in needed on them, they are the warmest IEM I think I've heard. Whenever I would go back and forth between the XE6 and Annihilator whichever one I would use second sounded terrible, but I no longer have that issue anymore.
As my night comes to a close, I've ended up on a track that was probably largely responsible for my ultimate love for electronic music. As a kid, I was sometimes allowed stay up to watch Miami Vice - I loved the theme tune, and hearing it now puts shivers through me and a tear to the eye. I had a Yamaha keyboard in the late 80s and this was one I could play, I never learned to read music but loved to play by ear. Seems so long ago now!
Entirely personal statement and in no way meant to be a "these are the best IEMs ever" statement, haha. For my tastes they are just excellent. Unfortunately, I do feel the kinetic bass is fit dependent. These won't be for everyone at all, but for those who want diversified IEM collections I feel they'll slot in quite nicely assuming you like the sound. Kind of reminds me of back when I heard the Fourte in 2017, they're more "outside of the box" but very fun to listen to. There's also a fair bit of brain burn in needed on them, they are the warmest IEM I think I've heard. Whenever I would go back and forth between the XE6 and Annihilator whichever one I would use second sounded terrible, but I no longer have that issue anymore.
I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way about the Legend EVO. I knew as soon as I heard it that I loved it and that a lot of people wouldn't. I never thought of myself as a bass head before that moment as I am a musician and I didn't like its connotation of my understanding of music. I like it so much that I had to admit that I am indeed a basshead. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love reference tuning that makes you want to cry due to how perfectly it renders the music. But for some reason, the EVO gets down and dirty with me in a primal kind of way that goes beyond the music.
I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way about the Legend EVO. I knew as soon as I heard it that I loved it and that a lot of people wouldn't. I never thought of myself as a bass head before that moment as I am a musician and I didn't like its connotation of my understanding of music. I like it so much that I had to admit that I am indeed a basshead. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love reference tuning that makes you want to cry due to how perfectly it renders the music. But for some reason, the EVO gets down and dirty with me in a primal kind of way that goes beyond the music.
Yep, finding those IEMs that you just are able to connect with on a different way other than "oh hey this is tuned good" is something I have really been after lately. I had 7 awesome months with the Traillii and then it got to the point where I was listening to the IEM rather than the music. I would not even put XE6 or EXT as a "top 3 IEM" but damn the enjoyment those IEMs bring is a different level for me.
As my night comes to a close, I've ended up on a track that was probably largely responsible for my ultimate love for electronic music. As a kid, I was sometimes allowed stay up to watch Miami Vice - I loved the theme tune, and hearing it now puts shivers through me and a tear to the eye. I had a Yamaha keyboard in the late 80s and this was one I could play, I never learned to read music but loved to play by ear. Seems so long ago now!
Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and of course Glen Frey. One of the first if not the first TV series to marry original music by the artists and not some cheesy cover with visuals. Always recall the impact it made on me when I first experienced it.
As my night comes to a close, I've ended up on a track that was probably largely responsible for my ultimate love for electronic music. As a kid, I was sometimes allowed stay up to watch Miami Vice - I loved the theme tune, and hearing it now puts shivers through me and a tear to the eye. I had a Yamaha keyboard in the late 80s and this was one I could play, I never learned to read music but loved to play by ear. Seems so long ago now!
The FiR XE6 for me has brought new life to so many of these tracks, the way I am enjoying these right now I'd go as far as saying they may be my favorite IEM of all time for pure musical enjoyment.
Just wrapped up my 8 day demo period with XE6 and KR5 today and I’ll just cut to the chase since I wrote enough about both of them in FiR thread - they’re both beasts to me. XE6 is top of my list for CIEM this year so far, but it’s really close between the two for me. Either one wipes out both Indigo and IE 900 for me and puts them on the chopping block.
Just wrapped up my 8 day demo period with XE6 and KR5 today and I’ll just cut to the chase since I wrote enough about both of them in FiR thread - they’re both beasts to me. XE6 is top of my list for CIEM this year so far, but it’s really close between the two for me. Either one wipes out both Indigo and IE 900 for me and puts them on the chopping block.
They’re very complementary I feel. You could own both and cover your whole library very well.
I’m listening to the XE6 as we speak. Just pure musical bliss.
Edit: what do you think of the Kr5 treble? Something about it sounds a bit metallic-y to me. The XE6 with its warmer treble seems to come off cleaner to my ears but I don’t know if that’s a fit thing or what.
Edit: what do you think of the Kr5 treble? Something about it sounds a bit metallic-y to me. The XE6 with its warmer treble seems to come off cleaner to my ears but I don’t know if that’s a fit thing or what.
This is me 110%. I listen to years old tracks more than I do newer stuff. The FiR XE6 for me has brought new life to so many of these tracks, the way I am enjoying these right now I'd go as far as saying they may be my favorit
So nice that you've connected with it so well, considering the megagear you've heard and owned. I feel the same way about Z1R, still, and auditioning the VE twins hadn't shifted that opinion for me yet. There's just something about the whole package - look, feel and sound - that just satisfies more than anything else I've tried to date.
It's a different case for every one of us, so trying to understand why I like what I do the same way you like what you do is almost impossible - we have both "arrived" at the same point taking different roads, and that's really the beauty of this hobby...to find "your" road.
I find alot if my new stuff using Tidal's 'similar artists'. This often leads me down a rabbit hole and I'm always amazed at how many incredible artists are out there there I've never even heard of.
@DanielListening just mentioned one today, Jean-Michel Blais (https://tidal.com/album/214362050) - a genre (contemporary classical) that I've been wanting to explore, and now with this lead I will no doubt discover a whole and previously hidden (to me) musical universe.
As my night comes to a close, I've ended up on a track that was probably largely responsible for my ultimate love for electronic music. As a kid, I was sometimes allowed stay up to watch Miami Vice - I loved the theme tune, and hearing it now puts shivers through me and a tear to the eye. I had a Yamaha keyboard in the late 80s and this was one I could play, I never learned to read music but loved to play by ear. Seems so long ago now!
Miami Vice did nothing short of creating a new visual language and became the defining aesthetic of the 1980s. It was one of the first primetime shows to feature an ensemble multiracial cast of both men and women who were each others equal, part of a team in which color and gender was irrelevant. The show’s producers recast the city itself as a principal character — a sizzling cool, sexy, multiethnic, exciting place, at once gritty and gorgeous — that even locals had trouble recognizing. Miami’s actual fortunes in 1984 were somewhat less idyllic — reeling from a devastating race riot, the Mariel boatlift, a Haitian refugee influx, white flight, the rise of the drug cartels and an explosion in violent crime — the city seemed about sunk for good
The magical MV formula had Marielito hit men wearing threads by Armani and weapons by Uzi. The Vice cops had tans by Bain de Soleil, silk and linen outfits by Gianni Versace, Nino Cerruti and Verri Uomo, socks by Piatelli and carried 10mm semiautomatics by Bren
Under producer Michael Manns exacting creative vision, the shows production team selected locations, buildings and cars with a keen eye for detail, scenes were composed in a painterly mode more akin to cinema than tv. Tropical pastels - pink, turquoise, and mint green - dominated the shows color palette, obeying Mann’s famous edict to the set and costume designers — ‘no earth tones!’ All of this they saturated in a pulsating contemporary score a la MTV, a wardrobe of dazzling tropical shirts, $800 shoes, Ferrari’s, cigarette boats and yachts. This bombastic vision was expertly counterbalanced by the shows dark themes and storylines. No one had ever seen anything like this on TV before. It was a cinematic revolution that would continue to seduce millions of people around the world long after Miami Vice ended its run. Leaving an indelible lasting effect not just on TV and films, but also on wider worldwide culture including fashion, art, music and Miami itself
Just wrapped up my 8 day demo period with XE6 and KR5 today and I’ll just cut to the chase since I wrote enough about both of them in FiR thread - they’re both beasts to me. XE6 is top of my list for CIEM this year so far, but it’s really close between the two for me. Either one wipes out both Indigo and IE 900 for me and puts them on the chopping block.
Miami Vice did nothing short of creating a new visual language and became the defining aesthetic of the 1980s. It was one of the first primetime shows to feature an ensemble multiracial cast of both men and women who were each others equal, part of a team in which color and gender was irrelevant. The show’s producers recast the city itself as a principal character — a sizzling cool, sexy, multiethnic, exciting place, at once gritty and gorgeous — that even locals had trouble recognizing. Miami’s actual fortunes in 1984 were somewhat less idyllic — reeling from a devastating race riot, the Mariel boatlift, a Haitian refugee influx, white flight, the rise of the drug cartels and an explosion in violent crime — the city seemed about sunk for good
The magical MV formula had Marielito hit men wearing threads by Armani and weapons by Uzi. The Vice cops had tans by Bain de Soleil, silk and linen outfits by Gianni Versace, Nino Cerruti and Verri Uomo, socks by Piatelli and carried 10mm semiautomatics by Bren
Under producer Michael Manns exacting creative vision, the shows production team selected locations, buildings and cars with a keen eye for detail, scenes were composed in a painterly mode more akin to cinema than tv. Tropical pastels - pink, turquoise, and mint green - dominated the shows color palette, obeying Mann’s famous edict to the set and costume designers — ‘no earth tones!’ All of this they saturated in a pulsating contemporary score a la MTV, a wardrobe of dazzling tropical shirts, $800 shoes, Ferrari’s, cigarette boats and yachts. This bombastic vision was expertly counterbalanced by the shows dark themes and storylines. No one had ever seen anything like this on TV before. It was a cinematic revolution that would continue to seduce millions of people around the world long after Miami Vice ended its run. Leaving an indelible lasting effect not just on TV and films, but also on wider worldwide culture including fashion, art, music and Miami itself
That's fantastic, thanks for sharing. I'm very keen to now watch again too with an adult perspective. I've such fond memories watching it as a child, I even wanted my hair cut like Crockett
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
