[fidgeraldo]

Bluetooth?

I am confused now.

 

[fidgeraldo]

I don't know if he got a blue tooth; I never looked into his mouth...but I know his name
Wouter Strietman...and his CT2

 

[gadgetgod]

What's the price?

Anyone get to try out the AO Ra while there?

I met Clement yesterday, I did not see him today(maybe I was too busy haha).

 

[linux4ever]

It's great if each iem released is matched to its' cable - but to whose preference ? I don't think it is unusual that a manufacturer creates a product with less than ideal or common parts across models and tunes them according to those parts. I am sure Aroma is happy with Jewel as it is - but hobbyists are always going to try to get the best from their gear. If a cable swap is going to better the performance or make it more preferred, I don't see what the concern is. And if one is happy with the stock cable, that is excellent. I have a few iems - some of which i use the stock cable and some i dont. No biggie.

I was about to say the same. thanks for saying it. I agree 100% with what you have said.

 

[drftr]

First Onyx review?

https://audio46.com/blogs/headphones/noble-audio-onyx-review

drftr

 

[Rockwell75]

This is my subbass IEM of the year. Fantastic recommendation from @gadgetgod, deep and awesome subbass rumble with amazing clarity. I’m blown away… inaugural release from Eminent Ears, co-owner Travis is a very nice guy. @HiFiHawaii808 is working to see how a tour unit can be arranged.

Excited to try this. Along with Pilgrim Noir my “most hyped” of the moment.

Canjam Day 1 Photos and Quick Impressions.

A high-protein breakfast sans the potato and the bread thingie you see at the front. The latter is an Indian snack called a Vada Pav and it tastes better at Pan Pacific than in Mumbai, I have to say.



My day started with a re-listen of the Subtonic Storm with the rather smooth sounding Sovereign Symphony cable. This IEM is as impressive as always but I still find it dry and clinical.



The duality was better but to be honest, I didn’t quite get the fuss about its bass. My supermoon hits harder and better. But enter the impedance adapter, and hello, the bass got bigger and better, and overall, the imaging seemed to benefit (could be placebo), and I’d definitely buy it if the bass-boosted profile was its stock sound. In a world of Xenon 6 and Trifecta, audiophile bass has reached a different level, IMHO.



In the same vein, the Symphonium Titan didn’t strike me as particularly hard hitting, and yes I understand it’s probably a Trifecta-effect and I also found it warm and lacking in treble clarity. Its sort of the opposite sound profile to the Helios which I absolutely loved for its brazen yet beautiful treble. The Titan plays way too safe. YMMV.



I came across a new cable brand called Verus audio and I liked the sound of their cables a lot paired with my Jewel.



Next I spent quite a bit of time at the Zeppelin booth. They had everything but jam packed into a tiny room which made movement difficult. You see me testing the iBasso PB5 and the D16 in this pic. Both devices are friggin’ awesome.



The PB5 blew me away daisy-chained with my Sony WM1ZM2. This is what I hoped the Cayin N30 would sound like: big, bold, lush, and timbrally flawless.



I love green. This is the Rolex green.

Along with the PB5, the Raal 1995 Immanis are the most impressive pieces of kit I came across today, among those I listened to for the first time. Fair warning: I am a reviewer and I had listened to a lot of the good stuff already, prior to the show.



Meanwhile the Cayin N30 wasn’t my jam. While it improves significantly on the N8ii in terms of bass and thickness of notes, the treble still has the brittleness and dryness of its predecessors. Maybe it’s a house sound thing and I am sure there are those who love it.



At the Zeppelin table, there was also gilted Raven. And I adored it. Not sure what @Jack Vang did with this one, but it sounded so damn good. Has it been retuned? Its bass is as beautiful and ballsy as bass should be but the best part is that midrange and treble timbre are also spot-on. Chef’s kiss.



The guy’s also aging in reverse, Mr Wang. Must be a country called gym which I keep meaning to visit. Its even visa-free entry for everyone.



Moving on, I also tried the Dunu Glacier, which, to me, was underwhelming at best. Is it priced at $1800? Maybe I misheard the Sam Audio rep but I wouldn’t buy it for half the price given the technicalities in the offing. Tonally, it’s absolutely fine, but again, I didn’t quite get the fuss about its bass. It looks sexy though.



On the other hand, this new IEM called Alter Ego from a hitherto unknown brand, Melodic Artification, really impressed. It had some of the most beautiful treble known to man, and some decent bass, with the bass switch turned on. I would love a re-listen.



I spent a bit of time with the Mass Kobo 465, the amp every summit-fier worth her salt is now talking about. It does have great synergy with the also-Japanese Final D8000 Pro but oh man with the Susvara, its so damn perfect. The bass!! No speaker amp I have tried have delivered me this level of realism with bass on the Sus.



It was nice to also finally meet the flipears creator Aries, and what a gentleman he is. I also met his wife and they are a truly lovely couple and I would like to see them do well, not just because of how kind they are, but also because how amazing every FlipEars product I have tried, have turned out to be.



The gold-plated Aurora is such an incredible beauty.



Also beautiful were the new Unique Melody Mason Soleil (red) and Nuit (blue).





I don’t want to get into too much detail with my impressions on these $9000 IEMs because owners are likely to feel possessive about such expensive products, but I wouldn’t buy either at a third of the price, not with the likes of VEX around.



The gentleman above goes by @gadgetgod. He’s a sweetheart and he is pictured here brandishing some fine leather cases made by his friend @Visveswaran Umashankar (Vishy). If you are going to be around tomorrow, check out Vishy’s leather cases at Jaben’s booth and show him some love.

Showing love, to me, in this case, are also my friends from Fatfreq. I love hanging out with these cool kids. They love their bass and they love to chat and I always have a good time at their booth. Arguably Singapore’s finest, along with my other fave, Dita Audio, whom I’ll visit tomorrow.







The day finished with a dinner of bbq ribs near the beautiful Singapore harbor front.



No chilli crabs yet, but tomorrow for sure.

Great post. I agree with your hot takes wrt stuff I’ve heard.

 

[VisalEziomi]

I met Clement yesterday, I did not see him today(maybe I was too busy haha).

Did u try with AO OMEGA?

 

[gadgetgod]

Did u try with AO OMEGA?

I am going to find him tomorrow for the Omega only haha because my friend has the Ra and I can listen to it anytime i want.

 

[fejnomit]

I’m definitely interested, but I have seen the same cable upgrade concerns in every review I’ve read of the Monachha. What is it about the supplied cable that is insufficient and what are the best options under $500 for upgrading? (As much as I have personally experienced the benefits of cable rolling, I will no longer spend more than $500 on a cable upgrade for a $2000 - $3000 IEM).

I actually really like the stock Monachaa cable. Great build quality. Nice copper sound with pushed lower mids and upper bass. Nice copper sparkle to lower treble. I think they included it with Monachaa because it brings out some warmth in the mid-range that is a nice complement to the brightness of the set.

And no, I don't personally feel much is at the same level of Trifecta. And they are tuned very differently which makes them rather complementary.

Trifecta and Monachaa make the perfect 1-2 punch for me. Totally complementary, yet their share the DD timbre...

You sly dog...

Perfect color match. How about this, if you don't buy the Monachaa you sell me the cable!

Not sure it's the best sonic match, imho. Lancelot cable I found to brighten things up a bit and the Monachaas are already bright.

Lancelot looks great with Monachaa but I think if I buy a set, I’d look for a lighter cable that would better suit out walking, commuting, travel etc - Monachaa strikes me as a very compelling higher-end set to use in these scenarios due to the size, weight and comfort while still enjoying very high quality sound.

Yes! It is my car set. Along with the Ronin stock cable, which is similar to the Raphael but with a little more treble. Fed from an RU7. Sublime emotion and detail combo.

In my opinion, this makes no sense at all from an engineering perspective:
This shouldn't be a question of believing or not believing, but rather of knowing or not knowing. If you believe that cables have no effect on the sound, then you should be able to justify this and it has nothing to do with belief. (I imagine that after measuring the electrical properties this belief may arise..., or hearing comparisons were never made, or differences were never found - due to lack of hearing ability?)

Knowing happens with my ears, thanks

 

[RTodd]

Good question to which I have no absolute answer but I'd say if there's less space then the brightness can't escape. However, lower notes can't escape either and may become relatively overpowering those higher notes, giving you that roll-off perhaps.

I actually would think this can't be up to anatomy as if a certain sound is not delivered to the end of the eartip how can the ear canal make up for the loss? Probably completely wrong reasoning here, but hey...

drftr

What I believe is happening here is that higher frequencies reflect off of surfaces and lower frequencies not so much, think of studio wall treatments, there to cut down on upper frequency reflections. A narrow bore will do more attenuation of the higher frequencies bringing them forward, at the same time the narrow bore has little impact on lower frequencies. Look at the size of one of your IEMs that has sound tubes and you will likely see the bass tubes are narrow. Why would narrow cause any change to the level of bass, it is in the perception of bass now that the treble has moved more forward.

Personally I only use wide bore tips and want to like/love a set because I like/love what was intended. The choice of a transducer to me is the most important choice so best to love it. Tips if you have a good seal that is first, without that the set will not ever sound good.

 

[maegnificant]

Interesting discussion of cables. I got my B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering, though I later turn to other field but I can understand what is going on here.

Simply put, many engineers working in IEM companies are not audiophiles. From their training, they don't believe cable matters, and they probably don't bother to test them.

Recently, I read a real story by Jason here (Schiit happened) that QC was complaining weird distortion from a prototype DAC, and the engineer constantly reported back that the issue was fixed, only to be found out later the distortion was still there. Jason ran to the engineer to find out why, guess what happened? The engineer was feeding Sine ware instead of real music to do the test. So Jason shouted to the engineer, use some fxxking real music to test! Then the engineer heard the distortion.

That was a great post. Thank you, this explains a lot!

 

[shaunbr15]

Man life was so simple. I tried the Pilgrim at CanJam and wanted a set for $399. Now the Noir, which nobody has heard, is coming out. But what is this price premium and what does this sound like? I don't want a very warm IEM either. Also, the great thing about the Pilgrim was a simple IEM with a fair price. Not sure what all these extra accessories are going to create price-point wise with the Noir. Just give me the IEM minus any fancy extra stuff that just fluffs up the price! Now life is more complicated again!

What’s the difference of the noir version?

 

[gadgetgod]

Day 1 for me at the CJ SG 2024 was really eventful. Got to meet so many good audio lovers from all around the South-East Asia. I feel lucky enough to be here to experience all this goodness and absorb everything haha. Some glimpses.

 

[nioh]

So what you're saying is--and I want to confirm I'm following correctly--the more expensive audio model in this case is solely for being shiny and the cost upgrade doesn't bring an upgrade in sound? I'll just be on the sidelines if anyone needs me.

I didn’t say it doesn’t offer any upgrades. I said it offers very less for the difference in price as opposed to your other comparison with the Xbox Series S and X where the X offers a lot more for the small difference in price.

 

[Xinlisupreme]

More SG CJ pics here also

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/rtKYGTJPKPHguEDH/?mibextid=WC7FNe