[jasonyamori]

Listening to ‘Dawn Chorus’ by Hidden Orchestra - this blend of jazz and electronica is really perfect with Perpetua. In general I definitely find I prefer more relaxed genres with Perpetua with a focus on instrumental timbre.

As an aside, I still absolutely love the humble NW-WM1A - the Sony UI is without doubt still my favourite, almost 6 years since I first started using on the ZX300.







Project M next in the queue so I can scribble down some further listening impressions.

Hi David, i just want to ask if the z300 has enough power to drive perpetua or loki ? I'm tempted to buy one. Tks in advance

 

[Valrhona]

Isabellae with the Crimson cable is just a special kind of vibe.

That's an adorable looking dog you have there.

 

[PassionForMusic]

Great few hours with the Erebus today. I’m especially impressed with how it well it presents female vocals, such as Jenny Lewis (this is her terrific recent album). Erebus has summit-fi technicals, is very balanced, and scales very well to different music. Generally a relaxed sound, but gets very activated when called for. Sometimes a little upper-mid peaky for me in those cases. But it’s early still, only 14 hours in.

Let me know after your extended listening period what your full thoughts are. Thanks.

 

[osocan]

Thank you for the chart.

I listened to both the Raven and Anni on separate occasions and the chart mirrors my impressions:

1. the Anni has a lot of treble energy and that sort of dwarfed over its bass
2. the Raven indeed is less bright and that allows its bass to shine through. In fact, I feel that the song/music is very well supported by the bass which seems to be an everflowing stream, probably the work of the DD and BCD

Personally, I wouldn't have thought the Raven and Anni shared the same tuning based on just listening alone. They have 2 different personality based on tonalities. To my ears, Anni is bright and Raven more balanced. Of the 2 I prefer the Raven's signature. The problem is, as some Coolers have already alluded to, the Raven despite being a very well executed and good IEM, it is just not outstanding enough to warrant a purchase for me. It is a good but yet "ordinary" IEM (please note the quotation marks). I prefer the Odin to the Raven. And if I could only own one out of the 2, Anni or Raven, I would choose the Anni. Throwing the Odin into the fray, it would be the one I'd pick up.

As usual YMMV.

 

[RonaldS86]

Can anyone recommend a dealer or proxy for purchasing the official Nippon Dics Pentaconn NBP1-13-001 and/or NBH1-26-001 conversion cables in the US? Pentaconn doesn’t respond to emails, none of the typical dealers seem to have them, and e-earphone restricts the sale of this conversion cable using proxies. They seem to be impossible to source.
https://www.pentaconn.com/shopdetail/000000000035/conversion/page1/order/

I have an 3.5mm TRS to 4.4mm Pentaconn adapter from PW Audio but I don’t like the design of it.

https://hifigo.com/collections/dd/products/dd-ddhifi-dj44c-pro
What about this one?

 

[Valrhona]

Thank you for the chart.

I listened to both the Raven and Anni on separate occasions and the chart mirrors my impressions:

1. the Anni has a lot of treble energy and that sort of dwarfed over its bass
2. the Raven indeed is less bright and that allows its bass to shine through. In fact, I feel that the song/music is very well supported by the bass which seems to be an everflowing stream, probably the work of the DD and BCD

Personally, I wouldn't have thought the Raven and Anni shared the same tuning based on just listening alone. They have 2 different personality based on tonalities. To my ears, Anni is bright and Raven more balanced. Of the 2 I prefer the Raven's signature. The problem is, as some Coolers have already alluded to, the Raven despite being a very well executed and good IEM, it is just not outstanding enough to warrant a purchase for me. It is a good but yet "ordinary" IEM (please note the quotation marks). I prefer the Odin to the Raven. And if I could only own one out of the 2, Anni or Raven, I would choose the Anni. Throwing the Odin into the fray, it would be the one I'd pick up.

As usual YMMV.

Not many would pick the Odin out of the 3. But what do you think of Anni's bass. Is it sufficient enough for your preferences.

 

[OneEyedHito]

https://hifigo.com/collections/dd/products/dd-ddhifi-dj44c-pro
What about this one?

I have this and use it w/ Mojo2 sometimes, other times I use short 3.5 to 4.4 cable adapters, copper and or silver cable to match whichever iem cables I’m using. This adapter works great and removes the cable material mixing concerns that some of us more OCD’d folks like myself might have.

 

[Lumithium]

This was a fair writeup. I notice that many of the IEMs l love get criticized due to their (lack) of an ability to accurately reproduce really busy orchestral or acoustic instrumental pieces-- or really fast and busy electronic music. I listen to a fair variety of music-- including a fair amount of classical, jazz and electronic-- but practically nothing I listen to involves really fast or busy instrumental elements, so while I can't dispute what you're saying here about the Bonneville in the fifth paragraph, I can also attest that no issues like that crop up for me becasue I don't really listen to any music where I'd tend to have that problem.

Thanks for sharing.

Also, props to your having the purple Bonneville

I found that with music genres like oldies and orchestral soundtracks, there is really no IEM that can do it all perfectly. They are just so different.

As I mentioned earlier, with some of these busy soundtracks, I will want more upper mids and less lower mids, give the different instruments as much room as possible. These tracks often straddles the fine line to hit the balance that allows you to hear everything while utilising many instruments to create the atmosphere. A warm or dark sounding set of IEM can easily break this balance and end up sounding mediocre.

Violins are often used to carry the melody and convey emotions in a track. With dipped upper mids, you can’t provide enough energy for them, which can potentially kill half of the track. Similar applies to vocals.

This approach goes directly against oldies. Take the Carpenters - Only Yesterday for example. It has a rather intense upper mids energy, especially in the chorus. Those upper mids boost and lean lower mids that worked for soundtracks will make this song very shouty. Not a good time if you are sensitive to that region of sound.

CFA’s house sound on the other hand, is close to perfect for these. You get the warmer and larger sound that fills all the space, allows you to focus on the texture of the notes — something that the leaner reference sounding set simply cannot compete.

Probably why these IEMs are controversial.

 

[osocan]

Not many would pick the Odin out of the 3. But what do you think of Anni's bass. Is it sufficient enough for your preferences.

Yeah, Odin in current context does seem like an outlier choice. I listened to all 3 of them, with the intention to pre-order the Raven with the N30LE. Strangely, I prefer the Odin much more. At one time, I was even considering going custom with the Odin, and then I read some adverse comments on the custom Odin and then the Raven launch "fiasco". Both the custom Odin and Raven comments were related to their shells. That held me back.

My reaction when I first listened to Anni ... where's the bass??? The upper register of the FR stood out so much. It is not that the Anni lacks bass. It's just that its treble grabbed me so much that I have to spend effort to pay attention to its bass. I used to be very treble sensitive. Age has helped but I still prefer a more bassy signature.

 

[Damz87]

Thank you for the chart.

I listened to both the Raven and Anni on separate occasions and the chart mirrors my impressions:

1. the Anni has a lot of treble energy and that sort of dwarfed over its bass
2. the Raven indeed is less bright and that allows its bass to shine through. In fact, I feel that the song/music is very well supported by the bass which seems to be an everflowing stream, probably the work of the DD and BCD

Personally, I wouldn't have thought the Raven and Anni shared the same tuning based on just listening alone. They have 2 different personality based on tonalities. To my ears, Anni is bright and Raven more balanced. Of the 2 I prefer the Raven's signature. The problem is, as some Coolers have already alluded to, the Raven despite being a very well executed and good IEM, it is just not outstanding enough to warrant a purchase for me. It is a good but yet "ordinary" IEM (please note the quotation marks). I prefer the Odin to the Raven. And if I could only own one out of the 2, Anni or Raven, I would choose the Anni. Throwing the Odin into the fray, it would be the one I'd pick up.

As usual YMMV.

I’ve also been comparing Anni 23 and Raven lately and I agree that they are both rather comparable and occupy a similar tuning signature albeit with a few key differences.

My conclusion is that I prefer Raven for bass and technicalities across the board (soundstage, imaging, detail retrieval, dynamics and transient speed), but I prefer Anni’s treble. That said, I think Raven’s treble is very good and competes with Anni 23, but its balanced tuning takes the treble away from the spotlight and it blends a little better within the overall sound presentation. Anni's treble sticks out more and is a more captivating, exciting treble that I can easily get lost in hearing all that air and sparkle.

The mids is where I’m undecided. I’m leaning more towards Anni’s because they have a touch more fullness to their notes. At times I’m finding Ravens mids to sound a little thin for my preferences, but only slightly. Both have a fairly V-shaped sort of tuning so I don’t expect either of them to sound super bodied and rich, but I think Anni’s midrange tonal balance is a little more realistic having a slightly warmer edge.

Ravens bass quality is absolutely sublime and up there with the best I’ve ever heard. It reminds me of Odin’s bass in terms of quality, but with just the right amount of extra oomph to make it a much more fun and engaging listen (for my prefs). Bass is a no-contest win for Raven over Anni IMHO.

Raven has really grown on me over the last few days and it will now sit in my top 10 favourite IEM’s, most likely above Anni 23 for its superior technical performance and bass. Anni 23 is still one of my all-time favourites as well and still the for treble to my ears. I’d happily own both if money was no object. But if I had to pick between the two, my choice at this point in time would be Raven.

 

[fejnomit]

Honest question, which album you know about is recorded in DSD? I never heard about that before.

Check out: https://www.nativedsd.com/

They tell you how each album was recorded. Many were hi-rez PCM / DXD to start. You can buy them in their native format or buy files resampled to DSD. They provide a lengthy explanation of their conversion hardware and software. But an increading number of their albums are direct DSD rips from master analog tapes or were recorded in the studio with DSD aka 'Pure DSD'. For example:

https://www.nativedsd.com/product/h...-sonatas-for-violin-and-piano-alla-zingarese/

 

[fejnomit]

I must be getting sick in the head, but I actually dreamed that we were testing a Trifecta Special Ed with the Chromatic DDs installed. Lordy I need help!

We dreamed the same dream!

 

[phiemon]

https://hifigo.com/collections/dd/products/dd-ddhifi-dj44c-pro
What about this one?

I have this and use it w/ Mojo2 sometimes, other times I use short 3.5 to 4.4 cable adapters, copper and or silver cable to match whichever iem cables I’m using. This adapter works great and removes the cable material mixing concerns that some of us more OCD’d folks like myself might have.

Does anyone know if there are any "audible" differences to the normal DJ44C (non pro) https://hifigo.com/products/dd-dj44...ale-headphone-adapter?variant=39496618410158?

Thank you for the chart.

I listened to both the Raven and Anni on separate occasions and the chart mirrors my impressions:

1. the Anni has a lot of treble energy and that sort of dwarfed over its bass
2. the Raven indeed is less bright and that allows its bass to shine through. In fact, I feel that the song/music is very well supported by the bass which seems to be an everflowing stream, probably the work of the DD and BCD

Personally, I wouldn't have thought the Raven and Anni shared the same tuning based on just listening alone. They have 2 different personality based on tonalities. To my ears, Anni is bright and Raven more balanced. Of the 2 I prefer the Raven's signature. The problem is, as some Coolers have already alluded to, the Raven despite being a very well executed and good IEM, it is just not outstanding enough to warrant a purchase for me. It is a good but yet "ordinary" IEM (please note the quotation marks). I prefer the Odin to the Raven. And if I could only own one out of the 2, Anni or Raven, I would choose the Anni. Throwing the Odin into the fray, it would be the one I'd pick up.

As usual YMMV.

I’ve also been comparing Anni 23 and Raven lately and I agree that they are both rather comparable and occupy a similar tuning signature albeit with a few key differences.

My conclusion is that I prefer Raven for bass and technicalities across the board (soundstage, imaging, detail retrieval, dynamics and transient speed), but I prefer Anni’s treble. That said, I think Raven’s treble is very good and competes with Anni 23, but its balanced tuning takes the treble away from the spotlight and it blends a little better within the overall sound presentation. Anni's treble sticks out more and is a more captivating, exciting treble that I can easily get lost in hearing all that air and sparkle.

The mids is where I’m undecided. I’m leaning more towards Anni’s because they have a touch more fullness to their notes. At times I’m finding Ravens mids to sound a little thin for my preferences, but only slightly. Both have a fairly V-shaped sort of tuning so I don’t expect either of them to sound super bodied and rich, but I think Anni’s midrange tonal balance is a little more realistic having a slightly warmer edge.

Ravens bass quality is absolutely sublime and up there with the best I’ve ever heard. It reminds me of Odin’s bass in terms of quality, but with just the right amount of extra oomph to make it a much more fun and engaging listen (for my prefs). Bass is a no-contest win for Raven over Anni IMHO.

Raven has really grown on me over the last few days and it will now sit in my top 10 favourite IEM’s, most likely above Anni 23 for its superior technical performance and bass. Anni 23 is still one of my all-time favourites as well and still the for treble to my ears. I’d happily own both if money was no object. But if I had to pick between the two, my choice at this point in time would be Raven.

Great helpful impressions, thank you!

 

[RonaldS86]

I have this and use it w/ Mojo2 sometimes, other times I use short 3.5 to 4.4 cable adapters, copper and or silver cable to match whichever iem cables I’m using. This adapter works great and removes the cable material mixing concerns that some of us more OCD’d folks like myself might have.

That is what I have in mind too

 

[SweetCans928]

I don't know if you guys like visualizations, but Milkdrop is still a thing. Works great too - way better than Project M from Steam.

That's an adorable looking dog you have there.

Thanks! That's Bishop. He's a fetch maniac(and my best bud). I actually got him an automatic ball throwing machine for Christmas, and am trying to get him to learn to use it...until then I am the automatic ball throwing machine haha. His brother is Ripley(my other best bud), yes like from the movies. I need to get them some cool headwear like your doggie!