[Amadeo Nospherathu]

I like the Spinfit W1 + Traillii most.

When my friend listened to the Traillii, the reduction in treble was desirable for his preferences.

But I've only tried the Spinfit a few times, but this tips rarely fit my IEMs and ears.
Usually, even those with a fairly wide sound guide still do not provide sufficient extension and quality of high frequencies. It's not my cup of tea. So I don't even try spinfit.

Once upon a time (even before the war) I wrote a whole long post in the Traili thread about tips rolling. Now he is already lost in the topic.

However, for myself, I came to the conclusion that stock is one of the best options for Traillii. The rest, which will be good, should be similar - with a wide and not long sound guide.

 

[Rockwell75]

The Dunu guys know who you are. I think you helped them create a market for Zen Pro. They asked me if I knew you. I told them you were so famous in this market that a tube amp manufacturer named an amp after you. I also told him that you owe me money so you are avoiding me.

I was racking my brain trying to remember what you told the Dunu guys about me at the last CanJam so I searched it up…lol

 

[Amadeo Nospherathu]

1) Mentor more bass focused & coherent being a single driver type…a richer sound.
2) Ragnar more technical & immediately engaging
3) Ragnar had better mids I think

Interesting to read your reviews, man.
Not too long ago, I talked about the marketing of UM, which I do not like. But it seems that engineers also get their salaries for a reason.
And I think it's really good.

 

[Rockwell75]

Interesting to read your reviews, man.
Not too long ago, I talked about the marketing of UM, which I do not like. But it seems that engineers also get their salaries for a reason.
And I think it's really good.

It’s pretty much impossible to do anything more than superficial hot takes given the breakneck pace and show floor atmosphere at CanJam. The most I can do is report on what I like with no pretence of a full review. Everything I’ve said is subject to revision pending more in depth listening and time.

 

[dmphile]

Just out of curiosity what sort of sound are you looking for?

I really liked the Phonix. Big fan of Solaris 2020 and the Indigos are starting to grow on me more every day. W shaped with a strong sub bass emphasis but warm lush mids and vocals on the forefront. I also love wide soundstage with excellent layering, separation and imaging.

I'm a little sensitive on upper mids/lower treble.

 

[Rockwell75]

I really liked the Phonix. Big fan of Solaris 2020 and the Indigos are starting to grow on me more every day. W shaped with a strong sub bass emphasis but warm lush mids and vocals on the forefront. I also love wide soundstage with excellent layering, separation and imaging.

I'm a little sensitive on upper mids/lower treble.

I think you should take a close look at the Aroma Thunder.

 

[dmphile]

I think you should take a close look at the Aroma Thunder.

Thanks for the recco. Will look into them.

 

[theveterans]

Was great to meet you…your Pacific Blue Andro might be my favourite Andro yet. Still a highly relevant and engaging IEM, even on today’s market.

Indeed! It deserves to be a timeless classic. I see the OG Andros as THE ONE that made the IEM market explode in popularity ever since

 

[drftr]

Guys do you know who sells Azla SE1000 only?
I found a kit in Japan with cleaning tools but I don’t need all sizes and other things..

I see a zillion different ones in the 1910c shop in Seoul that I will be visiting shortly but the search function doesn't recognize the number. In fact I don't see any type numbers at all. Do they have a different long name as well?

drftr

 

[theveterans]

I'll do a more in depth summary once I'm back home but here is an attempt at a hot take. Unless mentioned all listening done through my SR25ii.



Favorite IEMs heard: Tritecta & Ragnar stood above the rest for me. Ragnar may be the closest thing to a bonafide Traillii competitor I’ve yet heard. And I absolutely loved Trifecta and I’m ashamed to admit that it was only morbid curiosity that prompted me to listen. Super coherent and massive stage & sound with a delicious dynamic & natural timbre that is free form veil or any weirdness. Single DD lovers should take a serious look. Treble can be a touch aggressive but everything else about this totally hit the spot for me. Is it overpriced? Sure but so is every IEM over $3k. All things considered it holds it’s own well imho. Other greats: Odyssey, Mentor and Thunder.







Source of the day: Tie between the RS8 and the WM1ZM2-- Sony sexy is a thing. The RS8 has a beautifully seductive and analogue tonality...it is a perfect match with my Supermoon. Software seems a little laggy and buggy to me at times.





Disappointments: Diva didn't impress me-- which is too bad because that was the one IEM I’d squirreled away funds for and thought I might buy. The bass was too boomy on the max setting and on the middle setting it sounded like a low-res Supermoon with limp bass and marginally more seductive mids. SP3K seemed mediocre coming from RS8 and didn't do the Odyssey any favors to my ears.

Other random points:

1) The Aroma Ace is a great all BA IEM, as is the Oriolus Mellianus-- both are overpriced though.

2) Traillii may very well still be the GOAT-- it knocked my socks off today, and through my SR25ii no less.



3) The Annihilator is mostly a great IEM— hearing it’s treble the RS8 was a thing to behold. But the bass is too weak and loose for it to be a top tier IEM for me.

4) I loved the Fourte and it's my presently my favourite 64 IEM. u18t is just as sterile as I remember and Trio is still too thin and bright for me.



5) I heard an OG Andromeda for the first time ever in the form of a pacific blue edition and I absolutely loved it. I think I may even prefer it to the 2020...would need to a/b. Hiss free through my SR25ii.



6) Ode to Laura wasn’t great with my Supermoon-- it totally nerfed the bass. Ironically this may have made me a full on cable believer. I talked to Eric (another great guy) about this and we figure the gold plated copper of my Victoria may offer the perfect synergy with Supermoon. I was talking with Eric for about an hour. We talked about the Jewel and he said it’s the IEM he uses to tune but that he wouldn’t listen to it for enjoyment. That’s basically how I see it.

7) The Stax 009 & Blue Hawaii is the greatest headphone/IEM product I've ever heard. And it's not close. Well actually Susvara is a close second. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to anything else for like an hour after I heard it.



8) Mentor is the best UM product imho and I went through most of them. Indigo didn’t do much for me, and honestly neither did Red Halo.




9) Biggest surprise was this small Singaporean company called FatFreq. They make some killer IEMs with top tier bass. Watch for these guys.





@HiFiHawaii808 @discord and all the other Cooler members I was privileged to meet today are great people. Was a beautiful and exhausting couple days.

Also Musicteck/Andrew is the Goat of Goats.

Sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight home and that’s all I have time to write now.

My Blue Andros looked so beautiful with your Victoria cable! Glad you loved the OG sound!

 

[theveterans]

I have to notice the adapter. Never a good idea IMO but I guess you demoed the way you could with the DAP you had.

Jeff's SR25 has 4.4mm so yep, had no choice but to get an adapter. I might've lost a bit in transparency and very subtle tonality changes but overall, it didn't feel like it's holding the sound back unlike the AK x EE Odyssey where the stock Aries II cable is clearly the bottleneck. I didn't have a 2-pin terminated cable so I wasn't able to cable swap the Odyssey with a better one just to hear how it scales up in the fine-tuning areas.

 

[klyzon]

When my friend listened to the Traillii, the reduction in treble was desirable for his preferences.

But I've only tried the Spinfit a few times, but this tips rarely fit my IEMs and ears.
Usually, even those with a fairly wide sound guide still do not provide sufficient extension and quality of high frequencies. It's not my cup of tea. So I don't even try spinfit.

Once upon a time (even before the war) I wrote a whole long post in the Traili thread about tips rolling. Now he is already lost in the topic.

However, for myself, I came to the conclusion that stock is one of the best options for Traillii. The rest, which will be good, should be similar - with a wide and not long sound guide.

Can try the acoustune aex70, to me it sounds the most 'correct'


After reading all the impressions, seems like Odyssey and Ragnar will be my next 2 targets. Wonder if they can dethrone the Traillii and Jewel for all around listening for me

 

[Rockwell75]

Another IEM I forgot to mention is the Effect Audio/ Elysian collab Gaea. It’s a 1dd / 4 BA hybrid. It was sitting on Musicteck’s table and I picked it up in an idle moment when I had 5 minutes to kill almost as an afterthought. I never see this IEM promoted and I didn’t get a lot of time with it but I really enjoyed it.

I also just realized that I never got around to demoing any Jerry Harvey IEMs…beyond that for the first time in my life I’ve demoed pretty much everything on the market that interests me. Better enjoy this while it lasts.

 

[stacey]

So I’m just writing some very quick notes about what I heard at CanJam. I typed this on/off while I was listening via ifi GOld bar/ iPhone 14 Pro fresh out of the box . No Turbo mode, no Xbass , no Xspace, no EQ.

I would say, out of all the IEMs the Trailii and the Mentor are the most source independent. They don’t take much power to drive, sound good with almost anything you can throw at it.

Jewel you need a DAP. Using a dongle is a noticeable sound hit, and the GO bar is as powerful as it gets dongle wise. I just didn’t find the Jewel an engaging listen vs the rest of what I heard

Noble: I actually preferred the Kubli Khan over the Viking. Better mids, bone conduction bass made the Viking lacking a little something in comparison but I’m partial to DD and bone conduction bass.

Odyssey: it’s in between Evo and Odin, it delivers as advertised. To me it’s like a better, more upgraded Odin. Bass is more present vs Odin, but not as strong as Evo. Tip rolling is needed here. I think that the Odyssey is more of a hint/ concept of things to come from EE than an actual addition to their lineup

 

[Dellwolf]

For anyone here at the Irvine Marriott for Canjam SoCal, I will have the full Empire Ears lineup including the new EMPIRE EARS X ASTELL&KERN ODYSSEY in the lobby starting around 9pm tonight, I'll probably be down there for a about an hour or two, just shoot me a pm if you need help finding me.