MusicTeck Impressions
Paid a visit to Leo and Andrew
@MusicTeck today where I was able to demo the popular
Melodic Artification Alter Ego as well as the following:
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Noble Audio Onyx (re-demo)
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Astral Acoustics Mars, and
Eclipse
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Flash Acoustics Thanos, and
Ultron
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Beat Audio Cyclone,
Billow MK2, and
Orbit Saga
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Liquid Links Venom (re-demo)
I try to take high quality pics for everyone's enjoyment but I neglected to bring my camera today. Please excuse the smartphone pics.
Melodic Artification Alter Ego
Aside from its killer name, the Alter Ego has an incredible build with an attractive all-titanium housing. Not only are they they titanium, they're
light. They're much lighter than Rhapsodio Supreme V3, lighter than Storm, lighter than pretty much any similarly sized IEM cased in titanium.
The Alter Ego has a switch that takes a bit of effort to flip and changes the sound between a bassier profile and a more W-shaped profile. Alter Ego is an open-back IEM so there's going to be some sound leakage but the open-back design aids with imaging and soundstaging.
Alter Ego (switch 1, W-shaped profile):
The Alter Ego has an elevated and a very tactile/textured sub and mid-bass that is somehow still very clean from a PRaT perspective. This is no small feat.
Usually, I see bass in an IEM as some form of a trade-off between the stereotypical dynamic driver tactility/bounce and the stereotypical BA speed/cleanliness. Alter Ego has both.
The vocals similarly sound clean yet lush. Breathy, natural, and smooth are other adjectives I'd use to describe the voicing. There's no strain in the vocals, and it's neutral/warm, clean, and musical.
The treble is probably the "weakest" part of the FR. It comes across as just there, maybe a little polite. There are no perceptible peaks and it's not the most extended. The treble has a nice tone, but if you prefer a livelier treble, you may be left a little wanting.
I'd rank the Alter Ego a hair below the Annihilator 2023 in terms of pure resolution, but the Alter Ego has more textured bass and mids.
Alter Ego has good dynamics, falling a little below the Annihilator 2023 in this respect, but outclasses it in soundstaging and imaging. The imaging is particularly good with easily perceptible depth as well as as left/right imaging. Alter Ego's transient attack is also well-defined.
Alter Ego (switch 2, bassy profile):
Compared to the W-shaped profile, the bassy profile is much more mid-bassy with a nice tactile slam. This profile still retains the bass cleanliness.
The bassy profile sounds a little more crowded than the W-shaped profile but still maintains good instrument separation and imaging depth.
The bassy profile sounds a little more fun and attention-grabbing to me but I can see it being a little less versatile with music genres.
Summary:
Alter Ego is clean, fun, and musical set with addicting, correct-sounding vocals, and clean yet textured bass. Alter Ego has great techs, particularly imaging and bass/mids texturing.
Two drawbacks may be the open-back design and the more subdued treble. Aside from those, I think it's the new benchmark at $2.5k USD and bests many IEMs at the $3k mark and above.
More impressions to come later.