[maegnificant]

I also found Mentor quite boring. Capable and well done, but boring to me. Had the same feeling with the HD650 or the TGXearTotem for example.

 

[slumberman]

+1

There are many things Mentor does well but as a whole package it’s never connected for
me. YMMV.

Edit: I’m also quite excited to learn more about this CFA proto you’re working on

You would have been the first one to listen, if we had a chance to connect in Canada! Next time!!!

 

[NYanakiev]

I also think that Mentor is an absolutely underrated IEM. I would love to know why that is. It has one of the best tuning (or the best?), fantastic mids (here surely the best after Ronin's) as well as technicalities (with that impressive multiverse stage-thing).

@NYanakiev Can you tell us more about why you prefer Mentor? How exactly would you compare the two? Also in relation to the stage / holography.


Sacred words!

I believe I mentioned this before but here it goes:

-AP is warmer with a far more pronounced low end
-As a result, staging is slightly smaller vs Mentor
-AP shells are larger and the cable isn’t any better
-Finally, AP is harder to drive and really couldn’t get it to sing on the DC Elite.

I find Mentor to be a rather fun and engaging listen- it just clicked for me from day one. Storm, as good as it is technically, is far more unexciting sounding to me, personally.

From everything I listened to in Amsterdam, Mentor continued to be my go-to for an all-rounder experience.

 

[phiemon]

I believe I mentioned this before but here it goes:

-AP is warmer with a far more pronounced low end
-As a result, staging is slightly smaller vs Mentor
-AP shells are larger and the cable isn’t any better
-Finally, AP is harder to drive and really couldn’t get it to sing on the DC Elite.

I find Mentor to be a rather exciting listen- it just clicked for me from day one. Storm, as good as it is technically, is far less unexciting sounding to me, personally.

From everything I listened to in Amsterdam, Mentor continued to be my go-to for an all-rounder experience.

I love how different the impressions in this world are

Thank you!

 

[Trance_Gott]

I believe I mentioned this before but here it goes:

-AP is warmer with a far more pronounced low end
-As a result, staging is slightly smaller vs Mentor
-AP shells are larger and the cable isn’t any better
-Finally, AP is harder to drive and really couldn’t get it to sing on the DC Elite.

I find Mentor to be a rather exciting listen- it just clicked for me from day one. Storm, as good as it is technically, is far less unexciting sounding to me, personally.

From everything I listened to in Amsterdam, Mentor continued to be my go-to for an all-rounder experience.

I have a lot of the TOTL IEMs but MM is unbelievable good when it comes to imaging and mids it seats safe in my collection current!

 

[kajetanjazz]

Alright so the mod of Mass Kobo 475 is done and it’s already back with me from my friend (there should be a video on YouTube showing the process)

Now the opamps are swappable and I’m beginning with 2x Sparkos ss3602 and 2x Muses02. First impressions sound seems bolder fuller and more detailed. Still waiting to receive stock JRC5532 to do a proper A/B. Will try others and fine tune it for Traillii JP

 

[PixelSquish]

We have now some of the very very best IEMs when it comes to bass and the Grand Maestro is maybe the absolute best? I cannot decide between this Trifecta and XE6 so I keep all of them!
My review for the GM posted some days ago:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fatfreq-grand-maestro.26521/reviews#review-33342

Raven lost for me in the end vs the others. The lowering in the upper midrange with the peak at 6 Khz has always bothered me in the end when I switched to other IEMs that are more balanced here. The latest EE IEMs have so good technicalities but you can throw it out of the window when the tuning is wrong!

I like the Grand maestro bass and I heard it at canjam but I still prefer the Volür.

I did hear some um iems and I actually also like the mentor. It's a nice complimentary kind of all-rounder with that crazy holographic stage. I hope to add one day a second high-end IEM to my collection and I would consider the mentor but I don't want to support the brand. I think their influence on sq in this Hobby's market is overshadowed by their fomo pricing And other pricing strategies.

 

[PassionForMusic]

I love how different the impressions in this world are

Thank you!

Diversity of hearing is a good thing. That and music selection plays a role in selecting an iem. Curious what is the most common type of music listening by genre across the watercooler.

I have a lot of the TOTL IEMs but MM is unbelievable good when it comes to imaging and mids it seats safe in my collection current!

MM is a good iem. Perhaps I am in the minority. I think you can recognize a good iem like the MM and not like the company producing it.

 

[Uncle00Jesse]

I am in the camp the Trifecta is a miss because the bass is fuzzy and the sound is unbalanced. It is not about releasing something that goes against the trend of upper mid/ treble detail frequency graphs. For those that remember, Audeze in the pre Fazor era started out making their name with lush bass and a darker tonality models. But I will stay on the lookout for what happens with the untitled project

Totally agree with your assessment. I didn’t like Trifecta either, and I was so excited to try them after owning Bonneville for 3 months and loving every second. Had to reply with your mention of pre-fazor Audeze. To this day I’m still chasing that dragon from 2012. I had a loner pair of pre-fazor LCD-3 from a dealer and they were absolutely breathtaking amazing. Bought a new pair on the spot which was crazy because in those days shelling out 2k for a pair of headphone could get you sent to an asylum by concerned family members and friends (how far we’ve come). Turned out my new pair never captured that same magic (less lush warm and full bass, and brighter). Audeze back then was absolutely terrible with unit variation. Turned me off from the hobby for a long time after that.

 

[fejnomit]

technicalities are far behind whats currently considered TOTL

Not sure what you mean by technicalities or under what circumstances you listened to the Trifectas, or with what chain, but I have listened to and/or owned most of the TOTL flagships over the past 5 years and I can attest to their technical prowess. Perhaps you mean "perceived resolution" which the Trifectas approach differently than all-BA or Harmon-tuned or treble-reliant sets that try to create the illusion of detail. But TECHNICALLY, there is very little that is superior to the Trifectas, by which I mean, sound-stage expansion, 3D holography, separation (without being fake, unreal, unnatural "etched" separation), imaging (with the same caveats), depth and layering, timbre, and I could go on. I am not trying to say you don't hear what you hear, just that your statement seems hard for me to reconcile with my experience with the Trifectas in terms of the definition of the term "technical" as you seem to be using it.

Let's face it, 3DD's firing at each other was never going to be a technical success story but that doesn't mean it isn't 'fun' to listen to. Just my 2 cents, but I'm also not convinced we're on a trajectory of technical progress with IEMs, so 'old' and 'new' isn't much of a barometer of technical performance. As much as I dislike how UM tune their sets, I think their BC is the only notable innovation to improve technicality over the past few years. Sampling TOTL there are very few sets that actually set themselves apart and most are 'very good' and within the same realm of each other in the intangibles. Personally, Storm, Traillii, CP54E and Mentor are some examples that push the technical boundary in stage size and imaging and will remain strong contenders for the forseeable for that reason

Okay but are you suggesting BC increases technicalities? Why/how would bone conduction as a technology do that? Wouldn't that depend more on how it's deployed? On the role it's given within the FR reproduction? Personally, to my ears, having three DDs in the Trifectas, or 4 as in the Monachaas, give you the chance to radically expand the stage size and the layering more so than BC being added to mix. As for "imaging,' I'll never understand why Trifecta isn't in that conversation. I think a certain hyper-real, unnatural delineation of sound cues has masqueraded as detail and imaging for while, brought on by the over-use of BA drivers and upper-mid-centric tunings. Then the assumption becomes that if a set doesn't have the same "level" of those aspects, it's not as 'technical.'

Trifecta is a miss because the bass is fuzzy and the sound is unbalanced

I invite you to listen to my Trifectas through the simple DC-Elite and explain to me how that bass is fuzzy. Compared to the darling Anni 23, the Trifecta's bass is much more layered, textured and resolving. And as for unbalanced, I have never heard a set present a more coherent, balanced musical experience. Clearly your mileage varied greatly from this but I feel compelled to counter these pronouncements with my own.

 

[thaslaya]

Look Ma, I made the front page!

 

[tjzurlaaa]

Goldbrick + Feliks Euforia + Annihilator = sounds crazy but don’t knock it till you try it

 

[PassionForMusic]

Goldbrick + Feliks Euforia + Annihilator = sounds crazy but don’t knock it till you try it

Alright. I will bite. What does the cable do for the Anni? Trying to decide between this and the Fusion 1. Need some sound impressions.

Is this gold brick 1 or 2? Just want to know. Synergy makes the magic happen.

 

[tjzurlaaa]

Alright. I will bite. What does the cable do for the Anni? Trying to decide between this and the Fusion 1. Need some sound impressions.

Is this gold brick 1 or 2? Just want to know. Synergy makes the magic happen.

I have only ever used the stock cable which I have no problems with I actually like the look n feel the brick is the V2 the synergy is flooowin currently

 

[PassionForMusic]

I have only ever used the stock cable which I have no problems with I actually like the look n feel the brick is the V2 the synergy is flooowin currently

Homer Simpson moment. Euphoria is the Amp?

Going to tempt me to the dark side. To find the gold brick of my own. Remind me to demo the Trifecta with your gold brick.