[emdeevee]

F5 is one of the most coherent tribrids I've heard. But you need many hours to let the planar treble settle down.

This is one IEM where almost every review I read is different. I'm also one of the only people who seem to have reviewed a custom set, which is strange given it's a Custom Art IEM!

I think the uni will sound very different to the CIEM tuning depending on tip choice, which is probably where the variance comes in. For me, the custom is definitely not basshead - not even close, and has less bass quantity and quality than Z1R (which to me isn't basshead either, so I guess YMMV).

I find the mids perfectly tuned with outstanding timbre - this is CA's strength. Treble is the divisive part; initially it was too sharp and spiky for me. With many hours of burn-in and a custom refit for seal, treble settled nicely, making F5 a very balanced, even handed, gentle sounding set. It's a set I can put in, load up any music, and it'll just sound 'right' for hours on end, without trying to be different or wow.

That last bit is an underappreciated quality nowadays, in my opinion.

I agree with you 100% on F5 ciem which I've had for the past month and have around 100 hours on. My fit out of the box was just perfect but I did hear some sharp highs. That settled down really nicely about 40-50 hours in and has improved a bit since then.

I think the presentation is super cohesive and natural. I was partially expecting a bass heavy iem but it's not heavy, it's just right, even for a basshead. The quantity and quality are right there, but once the whole high end settles in, they balance it out beautifully. I hear bass thump like I get from Z1R and even pretty close to my Indigo.

Once I'm 20 seconds in to the first song, I smile and always say "perfect". Cable rolling also fun, really enjoying the Penon Leo Plus with it (and my Indigo).

 

[Natesdailies]

@tgx78 Let me borrow the Tansio Mirai RGB for the long weekend. He just picked it up. I thought I would post some additional thoughts while it is fresh. TSMR knocked it out the park with this one.

Stock cable:

RGB has a mid-centric W shaped tuning. I would say it's tilted neutral / bright while sounding organic and sweet. Sounds contradictory right?

Bass: Impact follows a similar Bass to mid transition. With the bass switch on, RGB graphs similarly. Having heard it recently, I thought RGB sounds more textured and less one note. Sub bass has good reach. There's more punch but it slams when it needs to for EDM. I would place the bass quantity much higher than Turii Ti, more than Storm but less than Mentor. It should be sufficient for most as an all rounder but maybe not as a specialist for hip hop.

Mids: The mids reminded me of the way Mentor sounded with the Cayin N7. Vocals are dreamy and soul piercing. In some ways, the upper mids reminds me of the Odin with the amount of air and clarity I got. Strings, female vocals sound vivid and immersive. This is balanced well with the lower mids having enough fullness. I found it exceptional for genres like Jazz, classical, pop and vocal trance. Female pop lovers especially are going to love RGB.

Treble: This sounds different. The 8 EST treble is implemented well. Ragnar and X is my benchmark. Ragnar treble had great extension but I like the tuning more on RGB. This sounds closer to Elysian for with how dimensional and refined it is. This is noticible on bright music (House, Metalcore, EDM). High pitch notes can sometimes sound sibilant or floaty on bright tuned sets. Those notes are revealing on RGB except it sounds grounded and natural.

Negatives:

- For rock music, percussion (more toms, not hi-hats) was a smidge forward for my preferences. I like it tucked under the vocals. This was more in line with the vocals.
- BA bass. The bass didn't have the physicality that DDs have.

Dynamics / Staging: RGB has good dynamic range. I tested this swapping between XE6. On low volume, string plucks "pop out", kick drums thuds well. Staging wise the depth was good the width wasn't the largest. From memory, I would place the width and height at Mentors level. Minus the cheaper feeling cable I thought the stock paired well sonically and didn't warrant an upgrade.

After consulting a chat group, I decided to let go of the Orpheus and buy the RGB. I've been using it between the Supermoon and Mentor. My thought process was to buy the RGB and partion my library even further with RGB taking Vocal trance, classical, jazz / soul, Mentor for Electronic, XE6 the rest. I am not saying these iems aren't capable of those genres, it would be further specializing it when the occasion calls for it.

In the middle of taking photos of Orpheus for the classifieds, I decided to plug it into RGB... For science, in case anyone asks . Well, some plans went out the window.

Sonic changes with Orpheus:

- More satisfying slammy bass lines. The sound signature gained warmth in the mid bass and lower mids. That forward upper mids I talked about earlier? More tucked back. Playback from Bands like Epica, Three Days Grace, Dream Theatre, Muse were improved.

- Staging width became huge. Width was no longer a concern.

- Macro dynamics got a bump up.

- On RGBs stock, transients were already sharp.Instruments became even more separated. The imaging also became more holographic.

Something is on the chopping block. I have some decisions to make.

 

[phiemon]

The Xe6 in loan is now gone, I will miss it very much. Too bad about the sound leakage …

 

[CodenameBK201]

@tgx78 Let me borrow the Tansio Mirai RGB for the long weekend. He just picked it up. I thought I would post some additional thoughts while it is fresh. TSMR knocked it out the park with this one.

Stock cable:



RGB has a mid-centric W shaped tuning. I would say it's tilted neutral / bright while sounding organic and sweet. Sounds contradictory right?

Bass: Impact follows a similar Bass to mid transition. With the bass switch on, RGB graphs similarly. Having heard it recently, I thought RGB sounds more textured and less one note. Sub bass has good reach. There's more punch but it slams when it needs to for EDM. I would place the bass quantity much higher than Turii Ti, more than Storm but less than Mentor. It should be sufficient for most as an all rounder but maybe not as a specialist for hip hop.

Mids: The mids reminded me of the way Mentor sounded with the Cayin N7. Vocals are dreamy and soul piercing. In some ways, the upper mids reminds me of the Odin with the amount of air and clarity I got. Strings, female vocals sound vivid and immersive. This is balanced well with the lower mids having enough fullness. I found it exceptional for genres like Jazz, classical, pop and vocal trance. Female pop lovers especially are going to love RGB.

Treble: This sounds different. The 8 EST treble is implemented well. Ragnar and X is my benchmark. Ragnar treble had great extension but I like the tuning more on RGB. This sounds closer to Elysian for with how dimensional and refined it is. This is noticible on bright music (House, Metalcore, EDM). High pitch notes can sometimes sound sibilant or floaty on bright tuned sets. Those notes are revealing on RGB except it sounds grounded and natural.

Negatives:

- For rock music, percussion (more toms, not hi-hats) was a smidge forward for my preferences. I like it tucked under the vocals. This was more in line with the vocals.
- BA bass. The bass didn't have the physicality that DDs have.

Dynamics / Staging: RGB has good dynamic range. I tested this swapping between XE6. On low volume, string plucks "pop out", kick drums thuds well. Staging wise the depth was good the width wasn't the largest. From memory, I would place the width and height at Mentors level. Minus the cheaper feeling cable I thought the stock paired well sonically and didn't warrant an upgrade.

After consulting a chat group, I decided to let go of the Orpheus and buy the RGB. I've been using it between the Supermoon and Mentor. My thought process was to buy the RGB and partion my library even further with RGB taking Vocal trance, classical, jazz / soul, Mentor for Electronic, XE6 the rest. I am not saying these iems aren't capable of those genres, it would be further specializing it when the occasion calls for it.

In the middle of taking photos of Orpheus for the classifieds, I decided to plug it into RGB... For science, in case anyone asks . Well, some plans went out the window.

Sonic changes with Orpheus:



- More satisfying slammy bass lines. The sound signature gained warmth in the mid bass and lower mids. That forward upper mids I talked about earlier? More tucked back. Playback from Bands like Epica, Three Days Grace, Dream Theatre, Muse were improved.

- Staging width became huge. Width was no longer a concern.

- Macro dynamics got a bump up.

- On RGBs stock, transients were already sharp.Instruments became even more separated. The imaging also became more holographic.



Something is on the chopping block. I have some decisions to make.

Wait a second, do the rgb lines light up like LEDs, or are they just photo-reactive like UV paint? I swear I discover something new every day in this thread. Sound impressions aside, these look fantastic.

 

[ian91]

Wait a second, do the rgb lines light up like LEDs, or are they just photo-reactive like UV paint? I swear I discover something new every day in this thread. Sound impressions aside, these look fantastic.

Photoreactive to UV. As far as I'm aware it also comes with a little UV pen torch for those that don't see the outdoors much.

I really like the sound impressions of RGB. Looks like a great set and I'm starting to think 8EST may really have some functionality beyond bumping up the driver count. Obviously it depends on implementation and tuning, but 2EST sets don't tend to impress me with treble detail, 4EST I start to appreciate the air and microdetailing much better and with more dimension. 8EST, especially if contributing to lower treble, could really be adding to imaging/holography.

 

[Deezel177]

Photoreactive to UV. As far as I'm aware it also comes with a little UV pen torch for those that don't see the outdoors much.

I really like the sound impressions of RGB. Looks like a great set and I'm starting to think 8EST may really have some functionality beyond bumping up the driver count. Obviously it depends on implementation and tuning, but 2EST sets don't tend to impress me with treble detail, 4EST I start to appreciate the air and microdetailing much better and with more dimension. 8EST, especially if contributing to lower treble, could really be adding to imaging/holography.

Upping EST counts to 8 sounds to me like increasing efficiency. If the drivers are all wired together in parallel, it means you won't have to drive them as hard to get the same SPL. It's like if you got your friends to help you lift a weight. Suddenly, it's not as heavy. I think the improvements in detail, imaging or what-have-you from the 8 ESTs are down to the fact that they aren't strained as hard, and it probably helps that they're now closer in sensitivity with the rest of the other driver types as well.

 

[Rockwell75]

Spring Poll, Final Result:
The top 10:

Mentor x16
Xe6 x15
Rn6 x13
Traillii x12
Storm x9
Trifecta x9
Phonix LE x9
IER Z1R x9
Ronin x9
Ragnar x9
__________________

The rest:

Fibae 5 x7
Maestro SE x6
Raven x5
Singularity x5
a/u12t x5
Legend X x5
Aure x4
Alita x4
Dio x3
Loak-TC x3
VE Red Prototype x3
Odin x3
Blanc/Noir x3

SE846 x2
Odyssey x2
Kr5 x2
Jewel x3
EXT x2
Le Jardin x2
Mentawai x2
Neon Pro x3
Legend Evo x2
FitEar DC Ti x2
Mason x2
Serial x2
Zeta x2
Andromeda 2020 x2
Phonix OG x2
LCDi4 x2
Fourte x2
Grand Maestro x2
Duo x2
MEST Mkii x2
Red Halo x2
Annihilator x3
Supermoon x2
Tia Trio x2
HS2000MX "笙 SHO" Mk2 x2

Basilica
A5000
9iNE
Nio
Khopesh
Mach60
Camelot
Svanar
Isabellae
Nemesis
K3003
IE800
Eden
Turii OG
Andromeda Emerald Sea
IER-M9
Duality
Totem (bud)
Carbon (bud)
u18s
FH9
EDP Ace
Advar
AirPods
MH334SR
Mellianus
Eletech Prototype
u4s
FitEar DC
FitEar C435
V14 x2
Khan
Sound Rhyme SR5
Elysian X
ER2XR
ER4XR
DesTI
EST550
Mezzo LE
Euclid
Sultan
Diva
Indigo
Monarch II
Alpha Ti
Szalayi
Maestro Mini
Reborn
Onyx
Fibae 7U
Turii Ti
Wraith
BC 2023
KublaI Khan
Impact
Anole VX
Rosemary

It's been 10 pages since the last update yesterday and I think at least half the posts in there have been @Wolfhawk46 lmao. I appreciate your enthusiasm brother but can I ask that if you want to respond to multiple posts in a row please use the "multi quote" feature to respond to multiple posts in one go. (You're not the only one to do this but I'm taking this opportunity to make a public service announcement. Cheers.)

That time of year again here in Vancouver. Lighter cherry blossoms by Brentwood:







Happy Easter everyone

Beautiful!

@tgx78 Let me borrow the Tansio Mirai RGB for the long weekend. He just picked it up. I thought I would post some additional thoughts while it is fresh. TSMR knocked it out the park with this one.

Stock cable:



RGB has a mid-centric W shaped tuning. I would say it's tilted neutral / bright while sounding organic and sweet. Sounds contradictory right?

Bass: Impact follows a similar Bass to mid transition. With the bass switch on, RGB graphs similarly. Having heard it recently, I thought RGB sounds more textured and less one note. Sub bass has good reach. There's more punch but it slams when it needs to for EDM. I would place the bass quantity much higher than Turii Ti, more than Storm but less than Mentor. It should be sufficient for most as an all rounder but maybe not as a specialist for hip hop.

Mids: The mids reminded me of the way Mentor sounded with the Cayin N7. Vocals are dreamy and soul piercing. In some ways, the upper mids reminds me of the Odin with the amount of air and clarity I got. Strings, female vocals sound vivid and immersive. This is balanced well with the lower mids having enough fullness. I found it exceptional for genres like Jazz, classical, pop and vocal trance. Female pop lovers especially are going to love RGB.

Treble: This sounds different. The 8 EST treble is implemented well. Ragnar and X is my benchmark. Ragnar treble had great extension but I like the tuning more on RGB. This sounds closer to Elysian for with how dimensional and refined it is. This is noticible on bright music (House, Metalcore, EDM). High pitch notes can sometimes sound sibilant or floaty on bright tuned sets. Those notes are revealing on RGB except it sounds grounded and natural.

Negatives:

- For rock music, percussion (more toms, not hi-hats) was a smidge forward for my preferences. I like it tucked under the vocals. This was more in line with the vocals.
- BA bass. The bass didn't have the physicality that DDs have.

Dynamics / Staging: RGB has good dynamic range. I tested this swapping between XE6. On low volume, string plucks "pop out", kick drums thuds well. Staging wise the depth was good the width wasn't the largest. From memory, I would place the width and height at Mentors level. Minus the cheaper feeling cable I thought the stock paired well sonically and didn't warrant an upgrade.

After consulting a chat group, I decided to let go of the Orpheus and buy the RGB. I've been using it between the Supermoon and Mentor. My thought process was to buy the RGB and partion my library even further with RGB taking Vocal trance, classical, jazz / soul, Mentor for Electronic, XE6 the rest. I am not saying these iems aren't capable of those genres, it would be further specializing it when the occasion calls for it.

In the middle of taking photos of Orpheus for the classifieds, I decided to plug it into RGB... For science, in case anyone asks . Well, some plans went out the window.

Sonic changes with Orpheus:



- More satisfying slammy bass lines. The sound signature gained warmth in the mid bass and lower mids. That forward upper mids I talked about earlier? More tucked back. Playback from Bands like Epica, Three Days Grace, Dream Theatre, Muse were improved.

- Staging width became huge. Width was no longer a concern.

- Macro dynamics got a bump up.

- On RGBs stock, transients were already sharp.Instruments became even more separated. The imaging also became more holographic.



Something is on the chopping block. I have some decisions to make.

Awesome. @tgx78 has sent me the two Penon IEMs for tour...can't wait to hear them.

 

[aaf evo]

It's been 10 pages since the last update yesterday and I think at least half the posts in there have been @Wolfhawk46 lmao. I appreciate your enthusiasm brother but can I ask that if you want to respond to multiple posts in a row please use the "multi quote" feature to respond to multiple posts in one go. (You're not the only one to do this but I'm taking this opportunity to make a public service announcement. Cheers.)

Also regarding the new list.. Jewel had quite the fall, I guess Odyssey love dwindled a bit from Raven although it fell more than I’d expect given Raven has only been showcased at CanJam SG and not NYC. Out of everything I am most eager to try Dio and Singularity, obviously Grand Maestro too but that’ll happen in ~ 2 weeks .

 

[maegnificant]

I would say, for an essentially over 10 year old IEM, 2 votes for the SE846 is not bad

This is the best fitting universal IEM I have ever tried and with foam tips even wind noise is barely distracting from the music. With the BT adapters there are some quite capable EQ options available and they have a really unique (and useful) sound with a cable.

 

[rantng]

I would say, for essentially an over 10 year old IEM, 2 votes for the SE846 is not bad

This is the best fitting universal IEM I have ever tried and with foam tips even wind noise is barely distracting from the music. With the BT adapters there are some quite capable EQ options available and they have a really unique (and useful) sound with a cable.

Strangely the fit of the SE846 didn't quite work for me, but our ears are all different. I've always preferred the shape of the Westone universals, among the smallest shells I've seen. I will say the SE846 has one of the longest life cycles I've seen.

 

[maegnificant]

Strangely the fit of the SE846 didn't quite work for me, but our ears are all different. I've always preferred the shape of the Westone universals, among the smallest shells I've seen. I will say the SE846 has one of the longest life cycles I've seen.

I guess I was really lucky then that I went for Shure instead of Westone

Shure has many products that have worked for them for decades. They really do know what they are doing, at least for musicians.

 

[fiascogarcia]

Strangely the fit of the SE846 didn't quite work for me, but our ears are all different. I've always preferred the shape of the Westone universals, among the smallest shells I've seen. I will say the SE846 has one of the longest life cycles I've seen.

True, all ears are different, and I am so thankful that my big ears accommodate the IER-Z1R so well. Design was ahead of its time, and like so many others, I'm still surprised they are relevant in the industry. Guess I'm beating a dead horse on that topic!

 

[ranfan]

Heh, I love my XE6, and one reason for that is because the treble is really smooth and not aggressive at all. I dislike most Acoustune and etc. offerings because most are just bright and thin with spiky treble.

If you have the M2, I'd highly recommend the pairing with LE. It has a good synergy together IMO. Especially through 3.5mm output. I found that sensitive IEMs (e.g. BA config) tend to benefit the lesser power to better control the top end

M2 + LE = High resolution, wide spacious soundstage, good separation, and tonal accuracy. A resolution addict rejoice



On the N8ii, bass has more volume and stage increased in depth. However the treble some part of it stood out for me. It's not as controlled and smooth as on the M2

I haven't tried it on the SP3000, but I'd imagine it'd benefit from the slight warmth increase, as well as the flatter sound

Curious to hear your thoughts later on

@jwilliamhurst @fiascogarcia What player(s) do you like best with LE so far?

That time of year again here in Vancouver. Lighter cherry blossoms by Brentwood:







Happy Easter everyone

Oh wow, so much fluffier blossom. Beautiful!

Here it's started 2 weeks ago, and now already turning green

 

[jwilliamhurst]

If you have the M2, I'd highly recommend the pairing with LE. It has a good synergy together IMO. Especially through 3.5mm output. I found that sensitive IEMs (e.g. BA config) tend to benefit the lesser power to better control the top end

M2 + LE = High resolution, wide spacious soundstage, good separation, and tonal accuracy. A resolution addict rejoice



On the N8ii, bass has more volume and stage increased in depth. However the treble some part of it stood out for me. It's not as controlled and smooth as on the M2

I haven't tried it on the SP3000, but I'd imagine it'd benefit from the slight warmth increase, as well as the flatter sound

Curious to hear your thoughts later on

@jwilliamhurst @fiascogarcia What player(s) do you like best with LE so far?

Oh wow, so much fluffier blossom. Beautiful!

Here it's started 2 weeks ago, and now already turning green

I love P6pro with Le as it has wonderful smooth treble with nice air and resolution. And the mids are more forward and tonally rich, with a nice bass extension. I have a Brise Yatono Ultimate 4wire on the way for the Le and I’m excited to hear what small nuances it will tease out, etc.

I often amp my P6pro with the aroma amp stack and although I don’t get as much movement with the volume dial, it still brings the best out of Le. Fast transients, expansive holographic stage and insane texture across the FR.

 

[rantng]

True, all ears are different, and I am so thankful that my big ears accommodate the IER-Z1R so well. Design was ahead of its time, and like so many others, I'm still surprised they are relevant in the industry. Guess I'm beating a dead horse on that topic!

@gLer has been beating that horse so long it's a zombie horse now