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

[Deferenz]

Yeaaay! I finally got to listen to the Raven.

Show conditions of course but they seemed quite well balanced and had a nice warmth to them. Very easy to listen to and non fatiguing. I could quite easily listen to them for hours. Bass, both mid and sub is very EE like, but not as full on as say the EVO, which I also tried. Overall I was impressed.

 

[phiemon]

Yeaaay! I finally got to listen to the Raven.

Show conditions of course but they seemed quite well balanced and had a nice warmth to them. Very easy to listen to and non fatiguing. I could quite easily listen to them for hours. Bass, both mid and sub is very EE like, but not as full on as say the EVO, which I also tried. Overall I was impressed.

Great impressions, thanks!

What about the fit?

 

[salwani8888]

Yeaaay! I finally got to listen to the Raven.

Show conditions of course but they seemed quite well balanced and had a nice warmth to them. Very easy to listen to and non fatiguing. I could quite easily listen to them for hours. Bass, both mid and sub is very EE like, but not as full on as say the EVO, which I also tried. Overall I was impressed.

and they look just SO cool !

 

[Junmoe62]

Hi guys!

I went to another audio shop of the city today and I managed to try few nice stuff I didn’t try yet. So as always it’s just quick and dirty impressions through LP6 Gold.



Moondrop Solis ll :

2x 10mm DD + 2BA + 4EST

Full silver build

They look interesting design wise but they are super heavy and chunky! They pop out of the ear quite a bit!

They are ok in comfort though and boast ergonomic custom like shells.

I didn’t have problem with the comfort personally, but my wife, with her smaller ears, felt the textured shell to be a bit painful on the skin.

The nozzles are relatively short but they are pretty beefy as well! It’s not easy to fit the tips on them.

Compared to Ragnar :

Sound wise they are very nice! They actually don’t feel that far from Simphonio P0 in term of tuning, just with less bass presence and a bit less upper mids and treble extension. They seemed more mids/vocals focused.

Overall they tend towards the warm side with pretty good technicalities. Soundstage is very spacious and natural and in some ways also reminiscent of P0’s.

They do provide a very satisfying and inoffensive listening experience. I don’t think the bass is missing but a bit more wouldn’t hurt! It actually feels surprising to say that about a dual 10mm DD in the bass!

The quality of the bass is very good though.

All in all it’s a great set deserving to be demoed for sure!


Simphonio PB10 :

1Planar + 1BA

They do look like baby P0s!

Here compared to the big guys (PB10 on the left and P0 on the right):

And here PB10 on the right and P0 on the left:

The PB10 are quite excellent for the price ($450)!

Full metal build, nice fit and great sound! They have some of the P0 flavor for 10x cheaper. Of course the sound isn’t as refined as the big guy an it feels a bit brighter overall, probably getting closer to something like CFA Supermoon, but that’s still impressively good for $450! After I didn’t spend enough time testing it to really see the limits but the first impression is good.


Also, I bought these :



IFI Go Pod

I think that’s very good!! The sound signature is very close to my IFI Gold Bar with Xbass ON. Only maybe with slightly more vivid mids and trebles. Technically it’s also very close to the IFI Gold Bar with a slight edge for the Bar in soundstage size. But this is through my iPhone, so not even the best codec available. Sadly I don’t have device that can use the best codecs to try out.

Now, compared to LP6, well… let’s not be too greedy hey! Don’t expect rivaling one of the best sounding DAP ever made either!! LP6 has that’s smoothness, dynamics and weight to the music while retaining details and air that’s hard to match. Oh! And that Bass also!! It just slams hard, especially with juice demanding monitors like P0, where the difference is noticeable! Not to say Go Pod’s bass isn’t good, or that it’s lacking juice! It’s actually great on both aspect! Just not Lp6 level obviously…

Go Pod’s bass feels a bit dryer in comparison.

And it’s powerful enough to drive all my monitors without any problems! Pretty cool!
Connection to the phone is smooth. Just pull them out of the box and you’re good to go.

Ergonomic is excellent! Much more secured than mainstream TWS. The hooks prevent the IEMs from falling off. Even running is no problem at all actually.

Perfect to move around! Best cable ever for microphonics!



About comfort, it can feel a bit sore behind the ears after few hours of use, especially with smaller monitors. Bigger monitors will reduce the clamp effect. Also, the hooks need some time to loosen up a bit when they are new.

All in all, that’s an excellent product that’s hard not to recommend if you have any interest in wireless!


Oh yeah! And I tried this too!


VE x AK Aura :

Next to Ronin:

Next to Annihilator 2023 :

These are quite beautiful!

Perfect craftsmanship, as to be expected from VE and AK.

Very comfortable fit

Isolation is not that great but still ok.

Tuning wise it’s fairly neutral/ natural. From memory it feels quite similar to Phoenix’s tuning with more bass.

Mids are warm and lush bringing full body to vocals. Mids are a bit warmer than Ronin and Anni 2023.

Bass is also more pronounced and visceral than Ronin but less potent than Anni 2023.

Trebles are very detailed, about on par with Ronin, with Ronin maybe a smidge brighter. Annihilator 2023 is clearly the most detailed of the 3 with more air and extension.


Overall Aura is a phenomenal set! I think I prefer it over Ronin. Now compared to Annihilator 2023, that’s harder to pick one. They’re both incredible! Anni is more exciting to listen to, while Aura is more chill. The price difference makes it a no brainer in favor of Anni though! Unless metal built is a thing you’re after, which obviously has a cost!

That’s it for today’s little stroll!

Wish you all great weekend!

Cheers,

Julien.

 

[maegnificant]

Do you use then KSE1200 with Shure foam tips?

Yes, I need L ones though. The yellow ones fit some people better, they are not for me.

 

[Deferenz]

Great impressions, thanks!

What about the fit?

The shells are big. When I held them in my hands my first thought was ’these are chunky’. But they fit in my ears perfectly and were really comfortable. I didn’t get any fatigue at all from the shells. They are also fairly light to hold and there was no weight difficulties to worry about.

 

[firesign]

Yes, I need L ones though. The yellow ones fit some people better, they are not for me.

KSE1200 is made to be used with that Shure foam tips (the same you are using, not the yellow ones).

I have had KSE1200 for some weeks and with L size Shure foam it sounded great, I didn’t find any annoying peak, but I like treble very much.
With silicone tips, I didn’t like it, too much treble and peaks, really annoying.

 

[Rockwell75]

Really glad this happened. FirAudio is on different trajectory altogether. There is a lot of innovation that’s happening with FiR. Not sure why 64Audio is quite silent, no major releases recently.

I think it's because all the innovators at 64 Audio got tired of a company philosophy dedicated to the "same old" so they jumped ship and formed Fir Audio. The rest is history.

Yeah but we’re dealing with something different this season. Hurricanes. I’d never thought that I’d have to deal with a hurricane in California but here we are. Crazy times.

Yeah the wind is killer. Here is a video I took of the fire in Kelowna two night ago...I shot it with the tree in the backdrop so you could get a sense of the wind.

 

[Andricop]

On a recent flight back from HK. With the lovely Electech Astute case, the M9+ and IER-Z1R with the Brise BSEP cables. Very impressed with the Sony EP-N1000 ear tips. Introduced by @hshock76. Unusually for foam ear tips, no degrading of soundstage or details. And it had excellent noise isolation.

Was listening for the last week to the Z1R with same Sony EP-N1000 ear tips and Brise cable. Yesterday I switched to W1 ear tips and found them better. More comfortable, bigger soundstage, more air and better bass. A bit less isolation though

 

[fiascogarcia]

I think it's because all the innovators at 64 Audio got tired of a company philosophy dedicated to the "same old" so they jumped ship and formed Fir Audio. The rest is history.



Yeah the wind is killer. Here is a video I took of the fire in Kelowna two night ago...I shot it with the tree in the backdrop so you could get a sense of the wind.

Glad to hear you're not on an evacuation notice. So the winds stay pretty consistent and don't shift? That's the problem we have in Colorado; swirling or circular wind patterns. Stay safe!

 

[Andricop]

Question to all DD lovers out there

Where do you place Tremolo and Solstice in the DD hierarchy vs Singularity, Perpetua, Turii, IE900, TZ700, A8000 ?

Those are the only DD CIEM afaik.
But I was wondering how the Solstice holds up against Singularity - which the price is near the same.

Thanks!

 

[Deferenz]

I managed to get a demo of the Lotto Mjolnir. This was paired with the Focal Utopia. It struck me as a very big DAP. I think it is designed to be portable although I wouldn’t want to put it in my coat pocket!

As you can see from the picture, the Daft Punk album Random Access Memories is loaded onto every device in the known universe and so it’s useful to go from one piece of equipment to another and be able to use the same music. Now I must be honest and say that I wasn’t sure whether I was hearing the sound of the Mjolnir or the sound of Utopias, but in any case the sound was smooth and full and It had a decent sized sound stage. Very easy on the ears. Unfortunately, for show conditions, the Utopia must be open back because I could hear everything around me, including full blown conversations, and so I couldn’t get much more from this setup I’m afraid.

 

[emdeevee]

Question to all DD lovers out there

Where do you place Tremolo and Solstice in the DD hierarchy vs Singularity, Perpetua, Turii, IE900, TZ700, A8000 ?

Those are the only DD CIEM afaik.
But I was wondering how the Solstice holds up against Singularity - which the price is near the same.

Thanks!

I have Tremolo CIEM and Singularity, which is uni. The difference is night and day. Even with custom fit, Tremolo is somehow not the coherent bass driven musical set that Singularity achieves. It's a fun listen, but Singularity outdoes it in pretty much every way.

 

[Sajid Amit]

Playing around with the Earmen Angel for a few days now.

Its a solidly built and performing device for the price.

I tried it on its own and with its line out to the Tsuranagi when driving the Arya.

Have also been trying the XE6 and the Trifecta with it using my iPad as source.

The Earmen Angel has its own unique signature characterized by:

- Very decent front to back layering and staging
- A slight softness to edges of notes that gives it an analog timbre
- Bass and treble extension are okay (could be better), but there is a gentleness to the treble which makes the overall presentation sweet
- dynamics are okay (could be better), but there is a nice note weight which thickens the sound and further aids the analog quality of the presentation
- Resolution is decent.

Its a good device for what it does at its price point of $600.

I know many who bought it just for the shade of blue, which is cool.

 

[nihalsharma]

The Earmen Angel has its own unique signature characterized by:

- Very decent front to back layering and staging
- A slight softness to edges of notes that gives it an analog timbre
- Bass and treble extension are okay (could be better), but there is a gentleness to the treble which makes the overall presentation sweet
- dynamics are okay (could be better), but there is a nice note weight which thickens the sound and further aids the analog quality of the presentation
- Resolution is decent.

Echoing my thoughts on Angel. More importantly I find this device to be very well engineered.

1. The multipurpose volume knob is piece of art. Resetting the volume to zero everytime you plug in/out an iem is so thoughtful.

2. The led scheme is very useful too. Red light blink on low battery, red light blink on high sound etc really helps a lot.

3. Size, built and weight of the device is ideal.

4. Clicking the high gain changes/increases the sound output just a bit (but greatly opens up the sound) which again is very decent implementation.

5. Multiple input/output options make it a complete device.

I agree the sound part can/should have some improvement but overall it’s a device which deserves no complaint at all. An Angel V2 with little bit more power and a better dac implementation would be too good and dream come true.