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

Apr 25, 2025 at 3:47 PM Post #106,381 of 106,577
While other brands keep thinking of cramming more drivers into one shell, which is to be fair they need to work with what they got, we have brands like Final who rather do their own thing. Finall A10000 is a single driver IEM, which is built by rather unique driver type, diamond. I have no idea whether that is a good thing or bad, but this article rather highlight, to my surprise, how much it takes to develop such a driver. We are talking about in-house voice coil driver, german firm who developed the diamond driver (real diamond) which than was given to another contractor to figure out how to have it bonding with the edge which connected to the voice coil.

https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/265/4265624/
Looking at cost per driver, this is far more expensive than other brand, but we are talking abou R&D across two firms and in-house R&D. I'm more excited about long term application of this driver.

I've recently went back to FW01 and wm1am2. I simply love the sound of single dd far more than anything else.

https://final-inc.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorYTAAIYMw_L2iH3lCIHz7tPKx2xmwmJenNb2_rzsAxx_9qujJ_

Yes very excited about this - along with Ventura, an exciting year for top-tier single DDs from two brands that really know how to make top-tier single DDs!
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 3:58 PM Post #106,382 of 106,577
All this talk of single DD drivers comes up every so often especially when a great release occurs, think perpetua and singularity. But the frontiers keep being pushed with this technology and the drivers do continue to evolve. And prices continue to cover all ranges, with Dita releasing Ventura at a price even higher than Perpy, and Meze with its excellent Alba for about $150.

Yesterday, I received an unknown to me single DD, the EarAcoustic Silver Angel LE that retails for a little over $400, right in the same range as the also excellent Timsok single DD. Apparently, EarAcoustic has released this like a Chevy with multiple trims, but instead, multiple types of DDs and different tunings ranging from about $150 to $450. Seems confusing to me, but it's all about the single DD from these guys, so might be worth a look for DD officionados. Their DD design doesn't look very standard.

In initial listen, the one I have sounds a lot like Dita Mecha did. Which is a fun and engaging listen, if not my favorite. I do like it enough that it's getting the flight test next week....5 hours in a plane 🙃! Will be interesting to hear from others how the other trims sound! And it's quite the bling if you're into that🤑!
1000093132.jpg
It is a nice single DD, Earacoustic is rebranded from Chi-fi brand TFZ. They have been been quite generous on the review marketing, giving away to many reviewers.
I actually got 4 models from them, two from the same SPA series as you and two from a cheaper model STA. Their naming strategy is quite weird, SPA HI End, SPA HI-END Max, SPA HI END Ultra, SPA Limited etc..

The two variants I got was the Limited Edition 2 same as yours, and the entry model SPA-HI End Max. HI End Mac is in resin shell while the rest is metal. Sound is almost the same, as its the same driver in all of them. There is a little difference, I assume is due to shell material and maybe tuning? Limited sound a little softer in the upper mids making it warmer overall, good for me :L3000:

Personally I do like it, but I also dont find it as impressive as some other great single DDs. For example Mecha has way stronger bass, SPA is softer and less bombastic. But the midrange is almost on pair, both have good clarity and vocal presence. It would be better to compare it with some $200 champions like Simgot EA1000 or DUNU Falcon Ultra, here it goes toe to toe against them if not a little better.

I guess my main con of the set is lack of good treble extension, but this is true for many single DDs. The SPA HI-END Max is probably the smartest buy from them, since its the first in metal shell. Unless one really want the more nice special design of Limited versions, that Limited 2 got some really unique design on the shell.

DSCF7806 1.jpg


DSCF7813.jpg
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM Post #106,383 of 106,577
Album of the year material here - absolutely blown away and only 7 tracks in out of 11... Djrum delivers yet again, incredible producer.

 
Apr 25, 2025 at 4:06 PM Post #106,384 of 106,577
Album of the year material here - absolutely blown away and only 7 tracks in out of 11... Djrum delivers yet again, incredible producer.


Djrum is awesome, I heard it two days ago on the listening party on headphones and pre-ordered it a month back. Now to decide which IEM get the session with it, probably Valhalla :L3000:

DSCF7749.jpg
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 4:10 PM Post #106,385 of 106,577
Djrum is awesome, I heard it two days ago on the listening party on headphones and pre-ordered it a month back. Now to decide which IEM get the session with it, probably Valhalla :L3000:


On Mest Jet Black for my first listen! A couple of hours of Bandcamp shopping ahead of me tonight… and of course wine to accompany 🥳

IMG_5123.jpeg
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM Post #106,386 of 106,577
Album of the year material here - absolutely blown away and only 7 tracks in out of 11... Djrum delivers yet again, incredible producer.


so, so good

Maven II + this album had me levitating earlier
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM Post #106,387 of 106,577
My quick impression for Nightjar Acoustic Duality, I will provide a full review with more pictures later.

Thanks for the watercooler tour arranged by the @Rockwell75 and thanks for @Chang from Nightjar to provide the tour kit.

As my taste in audio gradually evolves, I find myself still deeply rooted in basshead category. From my collection of IEMs, ranging from Z1R, Trifecta, to XE6, they are all sharing the same fame in their bass performance. I also almost bought EE Legend X and EE Legend EVO for the same reason.

The last IEMs that took my attention were Fatfreq Maestro SE (MSE) and Grand Maestro (GM). In the end, I found MSE being too niche and GM a much better choice. Unfortunately, GM turned out to be a nightmare for fitting to me. It started to hurt me after just a few minutes of listening.

There comes the Nightjar Acoustic Duality, the latest legend of bass king. I heard so much praise before duality being formally released and finally, I had a chance to listen to Duality during CanJam SoCal 2024. It was a jaw-dropping experience for me. However, the short demo is not enough for me to fully assess the performance of duality other than its unworldly bass.

1.jpg


Fast forward to April 2025, I received a private massage in head-fi that the Duality kit will be coming to me. I have to say that for so many tours I had before, this is one of the most anticipated ones.

How does Duality sound? I have a mixed feeling that Duality is an exceptional specialist, and being so special even in the specialist category, I will hesitate to make up my mind to buy it.

The tuning of duality is L shape, but without the too dark or warm feeling of the typical L shape IEMs. This could be one of the secret sauce from Nightjar Acoustic.

First, I have surprises. Before I received the duality, I already had some boiler alert that duality could be a pony of one trick. However, after spending time listening to many different genres, I found that duality is performing well outside the bass category. Although at its current price level, the Mids and Treble could be better, especially compared with its bass, it may bring some disappointment for people expecting a complete TOTL performance from duality.

Another surprise is actually in the bass itself. I found the bass of duality has one special sauce that I might give 6 out of 5 for its performance: its sub-bass. The reach, the quality, and the quantity of the sub-bass is simply out of this world. So much so that if you put the switch to bass position and use the included impedance cable, the sub-bass in hip hop will make even the most hard-core bassheads crying out “too much”. Imaging you stop at the traffic light along with a car installed with the sub-woofers, and the driver of that car is playing some very loud hip hop music, and your entire body was physically shaken by the sub-bass. That is what you will be experiencing.

However, my real surprise comes from the mid-bass of duality. The quantity of mid bass is so shy compared to the sub-bass, I found the bass performance of duality is not consistent as a result. I actually found either my XE6 or Trifecta much, much more satisfying in mid-bass than duality.

As a result of the tuning and design of duality’s bass performance, extremely powerful bass does not bleed into the Mids and make the mids clean and clear. Also because of that, the mids are not as thick as I expected. It could be both good and bad. Good in the sense that duality’s vocal and mids performs wonderfully even with much lifted sub-bass, but bad in the sense that the contrast makes the entire music performance not very consistent.

As a hard-core bass-head, I would like to see more mid-bass, but I can totally understand Nightjar’s tuning decision to make it so unique.

Here are some of the tracks I used for duality (thanks for many watercoolers in the thread to provide those tracks, including @zikarus and @goldwerger)

The following two tracks provide enough sub-bass for you to fully enjoy the duality

Cordae - Jean Michel




Symba - Power Ranger (prod. by Mistersir)



Female vocals are wonderful from duality in the next track

Divine Marina Rebeka climbs up to C6, D6 and Eb6 in Albinoni's Adagio



Here is the example that in many old fashion music, such as the Polk Salad Annie live by Elvis, there are not much sub-bass but the mid-bass punch from duality is not as enjoyable as XE6 or Trifecta:

Elvis Presley - Polk Salad Annie Live




Another classic track for bass:

Big Boi - Kill Jill ft. Killer Mike, Jeezy



The next few tracks provide more genres for you to see the duality’s performance outside the bass category:

Take Five Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band




Desire ♫ Boz Scaggs



Poetry Man” by Queen Latifah



Finally, I was wondering if the interactions between our audiophiles and the Nightjar Acoustic play some role here. I remember that after my demo in CJSC last October, Chang asked me what I thought about Duality, I just expressed my jaw-dropping regarding the sub-bass and mentioned this is THE best bass I have ever heard. However, I think Chang should continue to ask me if duality is the IEM I would like to buy. I know for most of the interactions between listeners and the IEM designer, the solicitation could be sufficient here since my response was very positive. But given the duality is such a specialist, I am wondering if our reactions misled Chang in some way. I believe most people who talked with Chang during CanJam did not express their overall assessment since it was too short in a busy and noisy setting. Most of the positive responses were probably like mine, they were just about that bass, or more specifically, just about that sub-bass. Positive responses for an all-rounder IEM could be enough, but for niche player, if I were Chang, I would be more careful or press for confirmation from the overall performance from the listeners.

However, I believe there will be many people who will buy duality simply because there is nothing like it at this moment. Also from Nightjar Acoustic’s perspective, they have successfully developed a secret weapon that they could later used in the next implementation that will cater for a much broader audience.
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM Post #106,388 of 106,577
Astell&Kern launched the new PD10 player with cradle which, beyond charding, includes digital and audio outs. Also, buttons vs. wheel volume..

Interesting concept (no clue how it sounds🤷‍♂️):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marksp...-brand-new--pd10-luxury-digital-audio-player/


1745604004632.png
Sounds very clean, with dark background.

Tested with Moses, not sure if it tamed the bass or the dap lacks power to drive Moses. Bass sounded soft but not bloated, and fill with details and texture. Its just not low and deep enough.

The mids and highs are so clean and pristined.

The buttons are ......... some hate some love. Overall a good dap.
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 7:37 PM Post #106,389 of 106,577
My quick impression for Nightjar Acoustic Duality, I will provide a full review with more pictures later.

Thanks for the watercooler tour arranged by the @Rockwell75 and thanks for @Chang from Nightjar to provide the tour kit.

As my taste in audio gradually evolves, I find myself still deeply rooted in basshead category. From my collection of IEMs, ranging from Z1R, Trifecta, to XE6, they are all sharing the same fame in their bass performance. I also almost bought EE Legend X and EE Legend EVO for the same reason.

The last IEMs that took my attention were Fatfreq Maestro SE (MSE) and Grand Maestro (GM). In the end, I found MSE being too niche and GM a much better choice. Unfortunately, GM turned out to be a nightmare for fitting to me. It started to hurt me after just a few minutes of listening.

There comes the Nightjar Acoustic Duality, the latest legend of bass king. I heard so much praise before duality being formally released and finally, I had a chance to listen to Duality during CanJam SoCal 2024. It was a jaw-dropping experience for me. However, the short demo is not enough for me to fully assess the performance of duality other than its unworldly bass.

1.jpg

Fast forward to April 2025, I received a private massage in head-fi that the Duality kit will be coming to me. I have to say that for so many tours I had before, this is one of the most anticipated ones.

How does Duality sound? I have a mixed feeling that Duality is an exceptional specialist, and being so special even in the specialist category, I will hesitate to make up my mind to buy it.

The tuning of duality is L shape, but without the too dark or warm feeling of the typical L shape IEMs. This could be one of the secret sauce from Nightjar Acoustic.

First, I have surprises. Before I received the duality, I already had some boiler alert that duality could be a pony of one trick. However, after spending time listening to many different genres, I found that duality is performing well outside the bass category. Although at its current price level, the Mids and Treble could be better, especially compared with its bass, it may bring some disappointment for people expecting a complete TOTL performance from duality.

Another surprise is actually in the bass itself. I found the bass of duality has one special sauce that I might give 6 out of 5 for its performance: its sub-bass. The reach, the quality, and the quantity of the sub-bass is simply out of this world. So much so that if you put the switch to bass position and use the included impedance cable, the sub-bass in hip hop will make even the most hard-core bassheads crying out “too much”. Imaging you stop at the traffic light along with a car installed with the sub-woofers, and the driver of that car is playing some very loud hip hop music, and your entire body was physically shaken by the sub-bass. That is what you will be experiencing.

However, my real surprise comes from the mid-bass of duality. The quantity of mid bass is so shy compared to the sub-bass, I found the bass performance of duality is not consistent as a result. I actually found either my XE6 or Trifecta much, much more satisfying in mid-bass than duality.

As a result of the tuning and design of duality’s bass performance, extremely powerful bass does not bleed into the Mids and make the mids clean and clear. Also because of that, the mids are not as thick as I expected. It could be both good and bad. Good in the sense that duality’s vocal and mids performs wonderfully even with much lifted sub-bass, but bad in the sense that the contrast makes the entire music performance not very consistent.

As a hard-core bass-head, I would like to see more mid-bass, but I can totally understand Nightjar’s tuning decision to make it so unique.

Here are some of the tracks I used for duality (thanks for many watercoolers in the thread to provide those tracks, including @zikarus and @goldwerger)

The following two tracks provide enough sub-bass for you to fully enjoy the duality

Cordae - Jean Michel




Symba - Power Ranger (prod. by Mistersir)



Female vocals are wonderful from duality in the next track

Divine Marina Rebeka climbs up to C6, D6 and Eb6 in Albinoni's Adagio



Here is the example that in many old fashion music, such as the Polk Salad Annie live by Elvis, there are not much sub-bass but the mid-bass punch from duality is not as enjoyable as XE6 or Trifecta:

Elvis Presley - Polk Salad Annie Live




Another classic track for bass:

Big Boi - Kill Jill ft. Killer Mike, Jeezy



The next few tracks provide more genres for you to see the duality’s performance outside the bass category:

Take Five Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band




Desire ♫ Boz Scaggs



Poetry Man” by Queen Latifah



Finally, I was wondering if the interactions between our audiophiles and the Nightjar Acoustic play some role here. I remember that after my demo in CJSC last October, Chang asked me what I thought about Duality, I just expressed my jaw-dropping regarding the sub-bass and mentioned this is THE best bass I have ever heard. However, I think Chang should continue to ask me if duality is the IEM I would like to buy. I know for most of the interactions between listeners and the IEM designer, the solicitation could be sufficient here since my response was very positive. But given the duality is such a specialist, I am wondering if our reactions misled Chang in some way. I believe most people who talked with Chang during CanJam did not express their overall assessment since it was too short in a busy and noisy setting. Most of the positive responses were probably like mine, they were just about that bass, or more specifically, just about that sub-bass. Positive responses for an all-rounder IEM could be enough, but for niche player, if I were Chang, I would be more careful or press for confirmation from the overall performance from the listeners.

However, I believe there will be many people who will buy duality simply because there is nothing like it at this moment. Also from Nightjar Acoustic’s perspective, they have successfully developed a secret weapon that they could later used in the next implementation that will cater for a much broader audience.

Based on your description, it sounds like the Duality is similar in tuning to the Scarlet Mini, with that super rumbly subbass tickling your ears, but leaving you craving some more midbass.

I suspect you'll love the Metalure Wave 🌊 based on your preferences. If you search note weight and midbass on the dictionary, I'm pretty sure the Metalure Wave will show up .:gs1000smile:
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 7:43 PM Post #106,390 of 106,577
Based on your description, it sounds like the Duality is similar in tuning to the Scarlet Mini, with that super rumbly subbass tickling your ears, but leaving you craving some more midbass.

I suspect you'll love the Metalure Wave 🌊 based on your preferences. If you search note weight and midbass on the dictionary, I'm pretty sure the Metalure Wave will show up .:gs1000smile:
I had Scarlet Mini with me for a week and from my memory, the bass, even the sub-bass is not comparable. Duality has a much higher quality bass. Thanks for the mentioning of Metalure Wave, will check it out.
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM Post #106,392 of 106,577
My quick impression for Nightjar Acoustic Duality, I will provide a full review with more pictures later.

Thanks for the watercooler tour arranged by the @Rockwell75 and thanks for @Chang from Nightjar to provide the tour kit.

As my taste in audio gradually evolves, I find myself still deeply rooted in basshead category. From my collection of IEMs, ranging from Z1R, Trifecta, to XE6, they are all sharing the same fame in their bass performance. I also almost bought EE Legend X and EE Legend EVO for the same reason.

The last IEMs that took my attention were Fatfreq Maestro SE (MSE) and Grand Maestro (GM). In the end, I found MSE being too niche and GM a much better choice. Unfortunately, GM turned out to be a nightmare for fitting to me. It started to hurt me after just a few minutes of listening.

There comes the Nightjar Acoustic Duality, the latest legend of bass king. I heard so much praise before duality being formally released and finally, I had a chance to listen to Duality during CanJam SoCal 2024. It was a jaw-dropping experience for me. However, the short demo is not enough for me to fully assess the performance of duality other than its unworldly bass.

1.jpg

Fast forward to April 2025, I received a private massage in head-fi that the Duality kit will be coming to me. I have to say that for so many tours I had before, this is one of the most anticipated ones.

How does Duality sound? I have a mixed feeling that Duality is an exceptional specialist, and being so special even in the specialist category, I will hesitate to make up my mind to buy it.

The tuning of duality is L shape, but without the too dark or warm feeling of the typical L shape IEMs. This could be one of the secret sauce from Nightjar Acoustic.

First, I have surprises. Before I received the duality, I already had some boiler alert that duality could be a pony of one trick. However, after spending time listening to many different genres, I found that duality is performing well outside the bass category. Although at its current price level, the Mids and Treble could be better, especially compared with its bass, it may bring some disappointment for people expecting a complete TOTL performance from duality.

Another surprise is actually in the bass itself. I found the bass of duality has one special sauce that I might give 6 out of 5 for its performance: its sub-bass. The reach, the quality, and the quantity of the sub-bass is simply out of this world. So much so that if you put the switch to bass position and use the included impedance cable, the sub-bass in hip hop will make even the most hard-core bassheads crying out “too much”. Imaging you stop at the traffic light along with a car installed with the sub-woofers, and the driver of that car is playing some very loud hip hop music, and your entire body was physically shaken by the sub-bass. That is what you will be experiencing.

However, my real surprise comes from the mid-bass of duality. The quantity of mid bass is so shy compared to the sub-bass, I found the bass performance of duality is not consistent as a result. I actually found either my XE6 or Trifecta much, much more satisfying in mid-bass than duality.

As a result of the tuning and design of duality’s bass performance, extremely powerful bass does not bleed into the Mids and make the mids clean and clear. Also because of that, the mids are not as thick as I expected. It could be both good and bad. Good in the sense that duality’s vocal and mids performs wonderfully even with much lifted sub-bass, but bad in the sense that the contrast makes the entire music performance not very consistent.

As a hard-core bass-head, I would like to see more mid-bass, but I can totally understand Nightjar’s tuning decision to make it so unique.

Here are some of the tracks I used for duality (thanks for many watercoolers in the thread to provide those tracks, including @zikarus and @goldwerger)

The following two tracks provide enough sub-bass for you to fully enjoy the duality

Cordae - Jean Michel




Symba - Power Ranger (prod. by Mistersir)



Female vocals are wonderful from duality in the next track

Divine Marina Rebeka climbs up to C6, D6 and Eb6 in Albinoni's Adagio



Here is the example that in many old fashion music, such as the Polk Salad Annie live by Elvis, there are not much sub-bass but the mid-bass punch from duality is not as enjoyable as XE6 or Trifecta:

Elvis Presley - Polk Salad Annie Live




Another classic track for bass:

Big Boi - Kill Jill ft. Killer Mike, Jeezy



The next few tracks provide more genres for you to see the duality’s performance outside the bass category:

Take Five Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band




Desire ♫ Boz Scaggs



Poetry Man” by Queen Latifah



Finally, I was wondering if the interactions between our audiophiles and the Nightjar Acoustic play some role here. I remember that after my demo in CJSC last October, Chang asked me what I thought about Duality, I just expressed my jaw-dropping regarding the sub-bass and mentioned this is THE best bass I have ever heard. However, I think Chang should continue to ask me if duality is the IEM I would like to buy. I know for most of the interactions between listeners and the IEM designer, the solicitation could be sufficient here since my response was very positive. But given the duality is such a specialist, I am wondering if our reactions misled Chang in some way. I believe most people who talked with Chang during CanJam did not express their overall assessment since it was too short in a busy and noisy setting. Most of the positive responses were probably like mine, they were just about that bass, or more specifically, just about that sub-bass. Positive responses for an all-rounder IEM could be enough, but for niche player, if I were Chang, I would be more careful or press for confirmation from the overall performance from the listeners.

However, I believe there will be many people who will buy duality simply because there is nothing like it at this moment. Also from Nightjar Acoustic’s perspective, they have successfully developed a secret weapon that they could later used in the next implementation that will cater for a much broader audience.

There is a possibility that you need an amp to get the midbass, or cable roll. Was talking to someone that owns the duality, and he suggested using a desktop dac/amp to run its full potential.
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM Post #106,393 of 106,577
Is that a Jacob’s ladder in the background making that electrical popping noise?? I don’t get it…. Meh
Djrum is a musician from a DJ background and that's how he created music.
 
Apr 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM Post #106,394 of 106,577
Apr 25, 2025 at 8:07 PM Post #106,395 of 106,577
There is a possibility that you need an amp to get the midbass, or cable roll. Was talking to someone that owns the duality, and he suggested using a desktop dac/amp to run its full potential.

Duality is as power hungry as the OG susvara, at least with the bass switch on and the impedance adapter attached. I previously used the Duality out of the Cayin Soul 170HA, which did add color and character, including midbass. It was monstrous sounding!

On portable when I was using it with the DX340 DAP, it did very well, but was definitely leaner sounding in comparison.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top