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

[deep2285]

The price actually ......non is right in line with much more emblazoned brands. However, I understand the expenses incurred by building them yourself and buying the material in very small quantities. The price logically goes up. I just have a fear that for the same price (I give an example....) people might look more at Elysian Diva or Noble Spartacus (I mentioned two random names of course ....)

Non looks like good work though.

Anybody here know about this? Got this from my dealer a couple hours ago

It is surprising and quite a bummer that Elysian 2023 Anni and Diva are both having some issue or another. I used to think that he doesn't compromise on quality.

 

[Tawek]

My top 3 under $1500
IE900
IE600
Supermoon

Though I am super curious of the Singularity & FF Scarlet mini.

Gl -AMT16

 

[phiemon]

Anybody here know about this? Got this from my dealer a couple hours ago

That's pretty disturbing. It also struck me, the J8/gL drivers according to the pictures found on MT, but the others (W7/ge) are not seen there.

Can you say more about when and where these anni were purchased? Can anyone else say something about these discrepancies? Have there been any other comparisons with two identical Annis?

I hope this topic will not be forgotten now and it will be discussed.

 

[Deezel177]

Anybody here know about this? Got this from my dealer a couple hours ago

Yeah, I’ve been following that for some time too. It looks like unit variance on the Anni is a bit of a struggle. The differing crossover components is a strange one, but it’s not as new or unique as you may think. There’s been evidence of this dating all the way back to the early-to-mid-2010’s. I remember @piotrus-g, back when Custom Art reshelled 3rd-party IEMs, finding different components in 3 UM Miracles. I believe a couple of them even had different drivers and measurements. Naga Audio, when reshelling JH Audio IEMs, found mismatched components as well (I forgot if it was resistors, inductors or caps).

My theory is that they might be used to compensate for driver variance. So, say the bass drivers on the left and right sides were slightly imbalanced, rather than throw the driver out completely, they’d just use a different crossover component to make them balanced. That’s just a complete guess. There have also been cases in the DAP and amp world where certain components would suddenly go out of stock, be discontinued or turn out to be unreliable failure-rate-wise, so that’s another possible reason.

That's pretty disturbing. It also struck me, the J8/gL drivers according to the pictures found on MT, but the others (W7/ge) are not seen there.

Can you say more about when and where these anni were purchased? Can anyone else say something about these discrepancies? Have there been any other comparisons with two identical Annis?

Those are not drivers. They’re crossover components (resistors, inductors or caps). If the drivers were different, then it would be a massive issue.

 

[phiemon]

Those are not drivers. They’re crossover components (resistors, inductors or caps). If the drivers were different, then it would be a massive issue.

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't think about whether it could be something else when I wrote the message.

 

[RonaldS86]

That's pretty disturbing. It also struck me, the J8/gL drivers according to the pictures found on MT, but the others (W7/ge) are not seen there.

Can you say more about when and where these anni were purchased? Can anyone else say something about these discrepancies? Have there been any other comparisons with two identical Annis?

I hope this topic will not be forgotten now and it will be discussed.

I don't know where did they purchase that Anni but my dealer said it's from the chinese forum so I guess from the asian dealer. I've seen things like this too on FB : https://m.facebook.com/groups/309289200079550/permalink/1062782421396887/?mibextid=Nif5oz

 

[McCheese]

Unit variance on Anni could definitely explain why there seems to be such a vast divide between opinions on it, especially for those who've heard the newest iteration.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

I have a Lavricables Grand on the way for IE900, review coming soon. Speaking of which...

My full review of PW Audio's co-flagship First Times Shielding is now online here. Enjoy the read.​

I completely agree with the notes about bass and technicalities. It's quick and tight! But with the black background and copper character.

I can't agree about the highs, as I have even personally started to use FTS to tame Multiverse Mentor wild highs. And it seems to work even better than the darkish PWA MAS in this regard. There's a caveat that my hearing may be more tired in recent days due to many things going on, so I still need some time to confirm this for 100%.

Ljoma

What a stunner! +1 for measurements.
Only sorry that it's just a 5BA basic tier IEM I hope he will develop more upper-end things in the future, as we can see he knows how to tune!
I took the opportunity to reformat this flattened graph a bit, maybe someone will find this helpful.
Now we see the bass bumped up to 7-10 dB from the middle mids maybe not at 1kHz but 800-900 Hz, and it's clearer there the upper mids and highs are relative to that.

I used to think that he doesn't compromise on quality.

Someone wrote that they are scaling up the production, and you know what that means? Interns Lol, but most hi-end companies in portable have problems with quality. We even recently saw the Raven drama, then also N30LE rebias drama, etc.

My theory is that they might be used to compensate for driver variance

Don't think that anyone would have time to do this.
Companies base their production on finished product design specifications.
If there are different components, that means that an intern has mistaken one component for another.
And maybe he is responsible for his own quality control (measurement) because the company doesn't want to afford a separate QC employee.
Or... mismatching a component may not be visible on a graph if it's a similar component. 1-2dB channel imbalance may fly under the radar.
Or maybe two drivers are used by a company interchangeably as they are very similar (or even the same).

 

[Auricon]

What pads are included with your Empyrean?
Mine was an older one that had the OG leather & alcantara pads, but the newer angled alcantara are definitely an improvement as they get the drivers closer to your ears and "open up" the top end. This gets the Empyrean just a little closer to the Elite, esp as far as technicalities and detail retrieval.

OG leather and alcantara are included with Empy Phoenix and from our PMs, he also ordered a set of angled.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Unit variance on Anni could definitely explain why there seems to be such a vast divide between opinions on it, especially for those who've heard the newest iteration.

I don't think so. And there haven't been "vast divides" between opinions. In fact most people who tried them, loved them.

When I looked at the graphs (they are now deleted - why??), they were all pretty much the same with just slight variances. I bet those variances would also be visible when measuring and comparing several Storms or any other pair of IEMs. Comparing graphs for a specific IEM on squiglink, for example, also reveal differences between measurements for even the same IEM.

But one seemed to be really off, though. Sub-bass was visibly elevated and there was a heavy dip in the lower treble region. I haven't seen such a deviation in an Anni 23 measurement, yet.

 

[Auricon]

Now I want to have another full size HP again and I think Meze's headphone looks promising. Which one between Empyrean and Elite should I pick if I love warm and analogue sound? TIA

Definitely Empy

 

[RonaldS86]

Definitely Empy

Thanks for your suggestion. My friend are offering me to try his Empy and Verite Closed so I'll take the opportunity I guess

 

[Alpexis]

I just put a down payment on a Meze Empyrean Phoenix limited edition that Bloom had 1 left of! They are simply beautiful in my eyes!

Awesome set that Phoenix! In terms of looks, probably a close tie with the Meze Elite Chameleon limited edition

 

[RonaldS86]

Awesome set that Phoenix! In terms of looks, probably a close tie with the Meze Elite Chameleon limited edition

Oh my lord they are georgeous

 

[phiemon]

Deleted

I don't think so. And there haven't been "vast divides" between opinions. In fact most people who tried them, loved them.

When I looked at the graphs (they are now deleted - why??), they were all pretty much the same with just slight variances. I bet those variances would also be visible when measuring and comparing several Storms or any other pair of IEMs. Comparing graphs for a specific IEM on squiglink, for example, also reveal differences between measurements for even the same IEM.

But one seemed to be really off, though. Sub-bass was visibly elevated and there was a heavy dip in the lower treble region. I haven't seen such a deviation in an Anni 23 measurement, yet.

@RonaldS86 Could you tell us why your post was deleted? I found the topic quite serious and it should be discussed...