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

[RonaldS86]

It is lol claiming what sets make you listen to the “music” more is a little ridiculous but It comes down to the person some sets pull you in more than others for me Auras got the magic …for you it may be something else and that’s fine

It seems you love Aura so much that you forgot to put a comma here
Just kidding
Maybe I need to hear Aura too someday...

 

[tjzurlaaa]

I have to clarify, by the recording v. music thing, I’m not saying the Aura sounds fake or artificial. What I mean is that, relative to the VE X, the Aura has a degree of cleanliness, or tidiness, or polish to it that’s less earthy and - for lack of a better word - woody (or tube-y, perhaps) than the VE X. It’s not a pejorative dig towards the Aura, but more of a comparison as to how they present music differently. That’s all.

This is why being an audio reviewer is much harder than it looks. Say one thing, and you have to spend two paragraphs justifying your way around it.

I completely understand what you’re saying, and do not take any offense

It seems you love Aura so much that you forgot to put a comma here
Just kidding
Maybe I need to hear Aura too someday...

I do love Aura that much and certain things deserve a push especially an overlooked set at this level

 

[Valrhona]

I completely understand what you’re saying, and do not take any offense
I do love Aura that much and certain things deserve a push especially an overlooked set at this level

A man feels it from your posts.
A man hopes it may continue for as long as possible!

 

[BobJS]

I think I had this same issue with Volur with perhaps overly high expectations, the 64 audio clan were hyping the bass to be the next greatest thing since the wheel and I came away leaving more impressed with the Fei Wan's dual DD bass or the Storm's BA bass implementation instead. I went back and demo'd it several times at CanJam and I just couldn't gel with it at all and found myself preferring the Nio.

I'm a 64 Audio fanboy and these comments have my shying away from the Volur. I need the bass to be prominent in the mix. (Though not all consuming). I also committed the cardinal sin of comparing Volur FR graphs with other bass heavy hitters and it seems a bit polite.

I'll probably add it to my collection at some point when/if the price becomes more reasonable in the secondary market.

 

[gLer]

I'm a 64 Audio fanboy and these comments have my shying away from the Volur. I need the bass to be prominent in the mix. (Though not all consuming). I also committed the cardinal sin of comparing Volur FR graphs with other bass heavy hitters and it seems a bit polite.

I'll probably add it to my collection at some point when/if the price becomes more reasonable in the secondary market.

I wouldn't worry, and in fact shrug at some of the recent Volür comments. Personally I feel it has the 'best' bass of any 64 Audio IEM, both prominent and with excellent quality. I don't get the congested references either; Volür is one of the least congested IEMs I've heard recently. Different ears I guess

 

[aaf evo]

I'm a 64 Audio fanboy and these comments have my shying away from the Volur. I need the bass to be prominent in the mix. (Though not all consuming). I also committed the cardinal sin of comparing Volur FR graphs with other bass heavy hitters and it seems a bit polite.

I'll probably add it to my collection at some point when/if the price becomes more reasonable in the secondary market.

It’s definitely worth trying especially if you’re a 64 audio fanboy! I just didn’t think the bass lived up to the hype surrounding it. It’s by no means bad bass whatsoever. FWIW, I had far more issues with the upper treble than I did the bass response.

 

[Rockwell75]

I completely understand what you’re saying, and do not take any offense
I do love Aura that much and certain things deserve a push especially an overlooked set at this level

I don’t think it’s overlooked. It’s easily the most highly regarded AK collab and has consistently attracted astonished admiration from a variety of folks ever since its release.

Edit: If anyting the problem is the embarrassment of riches factor. For folks into "the VE sound" there have been a number of great IEMs the last couple years-- Phonix OG & LE, EXT, Aura and now VEX on the horizon. They are all great and all have their own unique secret sauce.

 

[tjzurlaaa]

I don’t it’s overlooked. It’s easily the most highly regarded AK collab and has consistently attracted astonished admiration from a variety of folks ever since its release.

Eh I feel it’s a little overlooked, especially with the big names in the hobby Such as yourself that heard it briefly at Canjam and gave it a meh impression but especially reviewers I haven’t seen one besides Steve, from boom audio and twister .. in my opinion it deserves an extra slap on the butt into the spotlight

 

[chickenmcnug]

I have to clarify, by the recording v. music thing, I’m not saying the Aura sounds fake or artificial. What I mean is that, relative to the VE X, the Aura has a degree of cleanliness, or tidiness, or polish to it that’s less earthy and - for lack of a better word - woody (or tube-y, perhaps) than the VE X. It’s not a pejorative dig towards the Aura, but more of a comparison as to how they present music differently. That’s all.

This is why being an audio reviewer is much harder than it looks. Say one thing, and you have to spend two paragraphs justifying your way around it.

Love your descriptions though and kind of miss your reviews. Your choice of words always kind of made sense to me.

I mainly relied on yours & Twister’s reviews when I first started this hobby.

 

[aaf evo]

Eh I feel it’s a little overlooked, especially with the big names in the hobby Such as yourself that heard it briefly at Canjam and gave it a meh impression but especially reviewers I haven’t seen one besides Steve, from boom audio .. in my opinion, and it deserves an extra slap on the butt into the spotlight

I think it’s because it’s an AK collab, they tend to go under the radar a little more than they should from what I’ve seen. If that was another VE-only IEM I think you’d see more chatter about it. I know I’m not alone here, but I won’t buy collabs just because of whatever weird mental reasons I have for it. I loved the Aura and thought it was nicer than OG Phonix.

 

[chickenmcnug]

I think it’s because it’s an AK collab, they tend to go under the radar a little more than they should from what I’ve seen. If that was another VE-only IEM I think you’d see more chatter about it. I know I’m not alone here, but I won’t buy collabs just because of whatever weird mental reasons I have for it. I loved the Aura and thought it was nicer than OG Phonix.

Also pretty difficult to demo from what I can tell.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Firmware on Z1r?

Yes, I obviously mixed the “nice“ Sony „names“ and meant to replace the firmware on the WM1Z.

Sony IER-Z1R is an in ear monitor

Old non-Android Sony players located in EU region can have high gain enabled using the rockbox tool free of charge. Or use Mr W's firmware. Mr W is about unlocking more software features and his or her own sound profiles (Mr W does not disclose the EQ changes)

https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SonyNWDestTool#Getting_the_tool

Sony only sell Android players now. Android based Sony players with no high gain cannot be unlocked. Sony has also began to remove high gain for more countries for recent Android players so do you research. Japan / HK has high gain for Sony Android players, change language to English

So, there is definitely no way to force high gain into recent Euro Sony players through software or anything else, right?

 

[Rockwell75]

Eh I feel it’s a little overlooked, especially with the big names in the hobby Such as yourself that heard it briefly at Canjam and gave it a meh impression but especially reviewers I haven’t seen one besides Steve, from boom audio and twister .. in my opinion it deserves an extra slap on the butt into the spotlight

A few things...

First off I have deviant tastes that are often out of sync with various norms of this hobby

Second, sure it was somewhat "meh" to me but 1) I only heard it briefly at CanJam and 2) as Deezel said it goes for a tuning that is a little skewed towards monitoring and accuracy than warmth and engagement so my not jumping up and down in excitement for it is generally consistent with my tastes.

Third, I did much prefer VEX at CanJam for reasons that Deezel described but as far as our "group" at CanJam went I was alone in this. Many luminaries-- including @bigbeans and @HiFiHawaii808 much preferred the Aura and were not as fond of the VEX.

Fourth, by its very nature it has the sort of tuning that reveals itself only slowly-- so it might be one of those IEMs that is consistently loved for years and whose reputation only grows.

Fifth, there was some heavy competitiion in SoCal-- like Amber Pearl and Fei Wan-- that, I would say for good reason, somewhat overshadowed Aura.

Sixth, as Evo said the collab/special edition factor is a turn off for some who would prefer a more "pure" product.

Lastly as I said earlier there has been a lot of strong praise for the Aura and in this climate where we're oversaturated with great options I think it's doing rather well considering.

 

[btwine]

Lastly, daily reminder to complete our year end survey if you haven't already. Beyond respecting the norms of healthy community I don't make many demands of people who post and hang out here but I'd really appreciate it if everyone who does takes the time to do their duty and fill it in-- the collective data is interesting and helpful for all...cheers .

I have already changed my mind about what Desert Island IEMs. Good thing I didn't get stranded there yet.

Just to confirm, we revise our by submitting a complete new YE survey, along with our HF handle?

 

[soundblast75]

I found Volur to be a little dull and congested sounding. Bonneville had better bass and in particular mids, which is more of an area of focus for me compared to the treble which I won’t comment on. The Volurs bass was a bit disappointing but I think it had been over sold to me going in as the YouTube crowd had been shilling the crap out of it for weeks prior to my hearing it. It’s worth pointing out that 64 Audio has a particular house sound that’s never really appealed to me, whereas I tend to jive quite well with Campfire stuff, which is well established. Volur is also like 2x the cost of Bonneville, which is a bit much imho. As with all things ymmv etc.

Also big price difference, if most have a budget for an iem they don’t just spend another 1k on top cos they imagined they heard something better, auditioning on the spot is a dangerous business
Ultimately Volur isn’t the dogs B of iems, why not spend 5k, it’s even better