Whazzzup
Headphoneus Supremus
Brass sounds great on anything
The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.
- Thread starter Rockwell75
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Welp, Feb22 is already off with a bang for new releases, at least if indie/alternative is your bag...
Tchoupitoulas
100+ Head-Fier
Thanks for this post - I'll go check them out. Also nice to see some love for Marissa Nadler. Her album Strangers was my favorite of the last decade:Welp, Feb22 is already off with a bang for new releases, at least if indie/alternative is your bag...
Available here on bandcamp and here on most streaming services. She has a lovely voice, is a great songwriter, and her songs have wonderful atmosphere and cool arrangements.
A similar artist, in some respects, is Vera Sola. Her 2018 album Shades is worth checking out even if it's not as consistently good across the whole album:
It's here on bandcamp and streamable on most services here. The Colony, Small Minds, and Loving, Loving are my favorite tracks.
Glad you're loving the EXT!
Nice! Can't wait for your thoughts!
The term "basshead" is very broadly defined & interpreted. I don't think EXT is a "basshead" IEM in the "only bassheads need apply" sense but I do think it's got a quality and quantity of the right kind of bass that leaves a certain type of basshead very satisfied.
LOL awe there was such a buildup to this point.
Do you mean some sort of physical wide-band EQ?
In other news #tbt...20 years ago this month I was teaching English in Osaka.
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DanielListening
1000+ Head-Fier
That photo is so cute.
HarveyLowis
100+ Head-Fier
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i think he is the oldest one because he is teaching in osaka.
AlexanderBelonozhko
Sponsor: FiR Audio
I hear you, had a genuine laugh when I read this xd. Beginning to think there is more truth in your post than not. Either way I will need some extra set of ears to steer this Frankenstein in the right direction.
@Deezel177 I think you made a great point about giving the user too much control. You get more freedom to customize (and spend less) by buying your own hair trimmer, and cutting your own hair. But you get the extra facility and expert touch by going to the barber and asking them to cut to specification
SBranson
Headphoneus Supremus
I handed off the VE tour kit to the next participant yesterday evening so I thought I would share my final thoughts on these two fine iems.
First I want to extend many thanks to VE for providing us with the opportunity and @Rockwell75 for organizing it. After having my sense of iems changed by the Elysium I was very excited to get a chance to hear these when I would not have had the chance otherwise.
Before I start I feel I should express a little of my preferences and that I only have one iem on hand to compare these too, the Traillii, which is a tough competitor.
For preferences... in music I tend to listen to small chamber group classical, largely baroque; Modern classical/crossover type music like Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Johann Johannsson.. This tends towards some others like Nils Frahm who can range from solo piano to very electronic though perhaps a bit more minimalistic.?,
Other than that I tend to listen to female vocalists but much less often. Overall though it's acoustic instruments. If I listen to rock or techno or anything like that then it would be while workings so likely just through my Airpod Pros.. 99% of my "serious" listening is while lying in bed and really focussing on the music. As such, small detail, instrumental timbre and things like imaging are very important. As I've played many instruments over the years, "realism", meaning instruments sound like I know they should, is of utmost importance as I listen for overtones and body resonances of stringed instruments and such.
When I first heard of the Elysium I had been moving away from iems and started getting back into headphones. @Rockwell75 got the demo of the Elysium and told me I had to hear it.. I was floored. I had never heard an iem do so much right for me and though I had never spent even 1/2 the price of the Elysium I bought one. That iem lasted until the Traillii which was the only iem I've heard that I think surpasses the Elysium for my tastes and preferences. I was never one to really find the bass lacking in the Elysium but that's largely because most of my music does not suffer as much from a lighter bass. I've owned the LX though so I do know how much fun bass can be.
So why all this preamble. Though both iems are excellent and I really enjoyed the Phonix for certain music and a certain mood, I may be one of the few people that really didn't connect with the EXT.
The Phonix really got me right away. In some ways, it's what I always wanted out of my multiple attempts at CA iems. I say that because there was an intimacy of the presentation that reminded me of something like the Andromeda but the balance was better to my ear and overall there was a seamless cohesion and such a beautiful tone. I got lost in a couple hours of Joni Mitchell, just loving the music. I never did get a sense of not listening to a recording though but I didn't really care. This was such a great iem to just sit in my chair and listen. When, however I did my usual lying in bed listening it became apparent that there just wasn't the level of detail or overtones or just plain clarity of the Traillii. I've said before that it was like the music was playing in a resonant room and that occluded some of the detail. Listening to Rolf Lislevand playing lute, with the Traillii you can hear him breathing and the subtle timbre differences of the different gauges and materials of the strings. Details about intonation are heard perfectly. With the Phonix it was listening more in a gestalt type sense. The music was there but less the performer and the instrument, if that makes sense. Not bad at all but not something I would sacrifice if I didn't have to. That said, I would love to own the Phonix as a complement to the Traillii as the emotional engagement with the Phonix is so.. ,,.well.. ,,engaging.. For listening to female vocals, folk or anything like that I actually might even prefer the Phonix. It really was a great iem and a joy to listen to. But if I can only have one (which is the case), the Traillii it will have to be.
The EXT on the other hand, never really grabbed me. I searched for music and found some that was less focussed on instrumental timbre or was less well know to me with the Traillii and I did enjoy it but I found that the treble or maybe upper mids are more recessed and that combined with a more present and forward bass kind of pushed my main focal point of my music further back and didn't seem be as engaging. This distance, something that the ESTs are very good at creating, seemed to me at odds with a more intimate mid and lower presence. I was confused by this until PM'ing with @Rockwell75 where he mentioned that something to the effect (or how I understood what he said) that he hears the mids and bass first, that that was what he was "listening to" more than the treble. I don't mean this to simplify but more to reference a difference of priorities. This made more sense to me as I think back to how the Elysium really grabbed me with how the ESTs were able to add so much of that "realism" to the overall timbre of midrange based instruments. I knew it was treble but that the instruments were "midrange", I never really thought I might actually be a "treble-head".
So, as I said, the EXT is by no means "wrong" but just not "right" for me.
I'm going to leave it at that.
So very glad though that I got to hear these as it was very instructive and really, more than any other experience, really highlighted not only my own preferences, but that I really understood that I, as everyone, just listen to music and derive enjoyment from it in my own way.
Thanks!
First I want to extend many thanks to VE for providing us with the opportunity and @Rockwell75 for organizing it. After having my sense of iems changed by the Elysium I was very excited to get a chance to hear these when I would not have had the chance otherwise.
Before I start I feel I should express a little of my preferences and that I only have one iem on hand to compare these too, the Traillii, which is a tough competitor.
For preferences... in music I tend to listen to small chamber group classical, largely baroque; Modern classical/crossover type music like Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Johann Johannsson.. This tends towards some others like Nils Frahm who can range from solo piano to very electronic though perhaps a bit more minimalistic.?,
Other than that I tend to listen to female vocalists but much less often. Overall though it's acoustic instruments. If I listen to rock or techno or anything like that then it would be while workings so likely just through my Airpod Pros.. 99% of my "serious" listening is while lying in bed and really focussing on the music. As such, small detail, instrumental timbre and things like imaging are very important. As I've played many instruments over the years, "realism", meaning instruments sound like I know they should, is of utmost importance as I listen for overtones and body resonances of stringed instruments and such.
When I first heard of the Elysium I had been moving away from iems and started getting back into headphones. @Rockwell75 got the demo of the Elysium and told me I had to hear it.. I was floored. I had never heard an iem do so much right for me and though I had never spent even 1/2 the price of the Elysium I bought one. That iem lasted until the Traillii which was the only iem I've heard that I think surpasses the Elysium for my tastes and preferences. I was never one to really find the bass lacking in the Elysium but that's largely because most of my music does not suffer as much from a lighter bass. I've owned the LX though so I do know how much fun bass can be.
So why all this preamble. Though both iems are excellent and I really enjoyed the Phonix for certain music and a certain mood, I may be one of the few people that really didn't connect with the EXT.
The Phonix really got me right away. In some ways, it's what I always wanted out of my multiple attempts at CA iems. I say that because there was an intimacy of the presentation that reminded me of something like the Andromeda but the balance was better to my ear and overall there was a seamless cohesion and such a beautiful tone. I got lost in a couple hours of Joni Mitchell, just loving the music. I never did get a sense of not listening to a recording though but I didn't really care. This was such a great iem to just sit in my chair and listen. When, however I did my usual lying in bed listening it became apparent that there just wasn't the level of detail or overtones or just plain clarity of the Traillii. I've said before that it was like the music was playing in a resonant room and that occluded some of the detail. Listening to Rolf Lislevand playing lute, with the Traillii you can hear him breathing and the subtle timbre differences of the different gauges and materials of the strings. Details about intonation are heard perfectly. With the Phonix it was listening more in a gestalt type sense. The music was there but less the performer and the instrument, if that makes sense. Not bad at all but not something I would sacrifice if I didn't have to. That said, I would love to own the Phonix as a complement to the Traillii as the emotional engagement with the Phonix is so.. ,,.well.. ,,engaging.. For listening to female vocals, folk or anything like that I actually might even prefer the Phonix. It really was a great iem and a joy to listen to. But if I can only have one (which is the case), the Traillii it will have to be.
The EXT on the other hand, never really grabbed me. I searched for music and found some that was less focussed on instrumental timbre or was less well know to me with the Traillii and I did enjoy it but I found that the treble or maybe upper mids are more recessed and that combined with a more present and forward bass kind of pushed my main focal point of my music further back and didn't seem be as engaging. This distance, something that the ESTs are very good at creating, seemed to me at odds with a more intimate mid and lower presence. I was confused by this until PM'ing with @Rockwell75 where he mentioned that something to the effect (or how I understood what he said) that he hears the mids and bass first, that that was what he was "listening to" more than the treble. I don't mean this to simplify but more to reference a difference of priorities. This made more sense to me as I think back to how the Elysium really grabbed me with how the ESTs were able to add so much of that "realism" to the overall timbre of midrange based instruments. I knew it was treble but that the instruments were "midrange", I never really thought I might actually be a "treble-head".
So, as I said, the EXT is by no means "wrong" but just not "right" for me.
I'm going to leave it at that.
So very glad though that I got to hear these as it was very instructive and really, more than any other experience, really highlighted not only my own preferences, but that I really understood that I, as everyone, just listen to music and derive enjoyment from it in my own way.
Thanks!
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Oh yes I agree with this. I just meant you shouldn't expect an LX or EVO in terms of quantity, and it doesn't reach as low as Z1R either, with more of a midbass bent to its bass. EXT has phenomenal bass though, none of the above is a criticism.
@SBranson thanks for your impressions. I share some of your Phönix findings, though (spoiler) I do prefer EXT with my music.
I don't know if that's true, personally. I hear a fairly even split between the sub- and mid-bass. If anything, there may be the slightest tilt towards the sub-bass to my ears. Crin's measurements show a bit more sub-bass on the EXT than the Z1R too, and it's the Z1R sample with the most sub-bass I'm comparing it against.
Do you have smaller-bore tips on the EXT, perhaps, which roll off the sub-bass?
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What I thought as well..
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