legacy 9
build is quality but iems are quite massive so definitely not one for small ears (like my tiny flaps). the wire it comes with is quality but if you want to try take this beast and get the very best of it I implore you to get a pure silver cable. the tips it comes with are alright in the box with mine were one pair of medium size spin fits which sounded much better then the foam tips it comes with. but I again beg you to buy some wide bore tips for these I used symbio wide bore mandarin tips (more on this later).
I’ve been listening to the L9s with ifi black label , ifi ican se, o2+odac, smsl idea, ifi xcan 2.5mm , fiio btr5 2.5mm, samsung s7 edge, with downloaded dsd/flac or streamed tidal/spotify or tv from my samsung 65qr85 (sbc)
The legacy 9 i have found are very sensitive and will pick up any hiss your amp has, there also easy enough to drive but sound better with more power and better quality equipment... The stereo imaging on these is stellar, the separation of vocals / instruments is nearly perfect. a little wider stage would of made it perfect. not that the stage isn't wide I'd give the width of the stage 7/10 you won't exactly get sounds coming from seemingly meters away or behind you but is still very impressive. i have just heard wider stage that can trick you to think a noise happened behind you in a room for example. especially coming from a headphone background so take that into account with my opinion. but the depth of the stage on the other hand is insane 10/10 feels like the instruments have lots of room to breath and do there thing with out interfering or feeling squashed in the mix. the iem will reach just as high as it goes low with great clarity and detail. The speed and punch of sounds and transients here vary massively. while the bass thumps you in the face it at times can feel a bit loose and slow (this got so much better after about 50-100 hours burn in, think this has been confirmed by a few l9 owners aswell) but the mids and treble are fast tight and can give you a great slap in the face from snares and claps ect, With fantastic clarity and speed. This is a very coherent and detailed iem with brilliant resolution an example defintley being things like reverb tails from vocals or instruments alongside insane instrument and frequency separation your definitely not missing much at all in regards to detail.
Bass- 8/10 (but could be 10 depending on your preference) - there's no escaping it this is one hell of a basshead iem just like legend x , (one of few expensive iems I've been lucky enough to hear quite a bit but don't own) in my opinion the L9 is hands down better and more technical then that iem. you have to try embrace the bass like I had to because trust me I am no basshead. the sub bass (if present in the recording) will become the focal point of any song you listen to and it slams hard!! At first the bass can be very sloppy to overwhelming and loose although very natural. I found that as mentioned earlier plenty of burn in alongside a pure silver cable with wide bore tips all contribute together to help tighten up the bass and making it much tighter massively more controlled but still the focal point of any track and slightly still not controlled enough for my liking especially with the signature of this iem id of hoped for a better quality dynamic driver . The bass doesn’t exactly bleed into the mids as everything is clearly audible, tracks are warm but very coherent. But what it can sometimes do in my opinion is really ruin the lower frequency details that can be hidden in the mid bass region or really low mids, Especially live double bass if not recorded well. Overall you either will love the amount of bass this gives or you won’t. We all listen to music differently and enjoy different sound signatures and this amount of bass is just not for me although all in all it is some of the most engaging bass I’ve heard in an iem. If all you listen to is generally bass focused genres like hip hop , edm, modern pop music ect this really is the iem for you honestly don’t look anywhere else.
Mids-7/10 – recessed quite often, can be vailed in busy or bassy tracks , warm but still coherent wide and well separated with a very relaxed delivery most of the time. On a few occasions i find myself pushing up the volume to try push through bass dominant tracks at lower volumes. At those lower volumes i can find myself trying to draw back the curtain that feels like its covering up what could be insanely lush and forward mids, i found with decent power at medium volume you definitely can lift that vail easily even more so with the cable and tip tweaks I mention . Look they are still there its not as if there missing just not forward enough for MY taste which is such a shame because they are still so technical. They reproduce astonishing mid range detail for the V shape sound signature (especially when the track your listening to lacks sub bass to begin with). They do stun you with some fantastic instrument and vocal separation for the price infact I havnt heard better in an iem to date in that aspect, again for the price range, but know when im saying that i dont have an extensive background in iems like I do headphones. I find female vocals sound almost perfect where it is mostly male deep vocals that suffer from some of the criticisms above. If the sub bass was dropped by only 2/3db from say 20-200hz, and it also had a1 -2db sharper rise between 300-1k these mids and bass would sound second to none in the fun but detailed iem category.... like I said with the bass I do find the wide bore symbio tips and pure silver cable help with bass control therefore helping the mids to breath and come forward a little....(well in my head anyway) but 100% gives the l9 a noticely bigger stage which made me wonder why not ship this with wide bores because along with silver cable it gives you a much better all round sound and tonal balance........
IF YOU ARE TAKING WHAT IM SAYING WITH A PINCH OF SALT LIKE YOU SHOULD DO AS THIS IS JUST SOULEY MY OPINION AND MY TASTE, YOU SHOULDNT WITH THIS NEXT STATEMENT, THIS IEM PAIRED WITH THE IFI XCAN THROUGH BALANCED OUT WITH THE XBASS SETTING SET TOO PRESENCE AT THE BACK OF THE UNIT MAKES THIS IEM A WHOLE OTHER BEAST AN ALMOST PERFECT FUN TYPE OF IEM. THE L9 INSTEAD OF GIVING MORE BASS ACTUALLY PUSHES FORWARD THE MIDS JUST WHERE THIS NEEDS IT BY A DECENT AMOUNT AND MAKES THIS IEMS MIDS INCREDIBLE, MUCH MORE FORWARD IN THE MIX KEEPING ALL THE TECHNICALITIES AND DETAILS THIS ALREADY BOASTED IN THAT AREA . THOSE MIDS I COULD HEAR PUSHED BACK A BIT TO MUCH FOR MY LIKING ORIGONALLY MAGICALY BECOME NEARLY PERFECT, WHILST TURNING THAT V SOUND TO A SUBTLE W!!!. An L9 + xcan is pricey I understand and I agree you can do the same with any decent eq but I am yet to find a portable amps frequency boost good enough or a good enough digital one for android or for daps that I’ve tried. Sure there’s good ones but none that compare to ifi's analog sound or eq settings whilst also being portable. Sure at home you’ve got loads of choice for tone control , schiit loki for example or subjective 3 but I can’t pick these up and take it with me to listen to while I’m food shopping all that easy.........ALSO while ive gone off on a tangent I would just like to clear up yes even without the xcan the legacy 9 absolutely poops all over the Blon 3 for anyone wanting a blon 3 upgrade if you like that blon 3 sound signature you will cream your pants when you put these in your ears there superior in every way.
treble-9/10 this is where the l9 shines in my opinion, to my ears the treble is something special. it extends for days with no noticeable roll off (I have 30 year old ears), it’s so airy and gives you a great sense of the room your listening to. The detail and resolution up in the treble is fantastic and not once do I find myself thinking it’s to much or asking for more. it’s on that perfect edge where if any further it could be too harsh but it somehow never ever gets there ts not fatiguing at all you can listen to the L9 for days on end. As I just said the details and air are fantastic out of the box but the symbio wide bore + the pure silver cable takes this to a other level. Not quite p1 levels (to me some of the most resolving iems out there) but it’s really not far away it just doesn’t have that planar speed to compete with it or that electrostatic magic some other iems may have. but those balance armatures with this kind of tuning really aren’t far off at all ,it’s very impressive I’d say 90% there easy. Honestly as far as treble goes I can find absolutely nothing to complain about it’s just about perfect for fun extended listening while still packing heaps of detail. Ok if there was one complaint I would say its more enhanced treble then accurate. But if you want this iem your obviously looking for a fun energetic type of sound so with that hand in hand comes the enhanced treble so for some this won’t be a complaint at all but a plus, and with how well it’s done it’s barely a complaint from me either.
In conclusion after spending alot of time now with these I can safely say they have surprised me to the point of I will probably keep them even though there not the best fit. Mainly because if I want to listen to some D&B say, you won’t get a more enjoyable iem or more engaging whilst still being so coherent in regards to separation for the price that I’ve so far heard. If I was to compare it to a headphone which most of you will call me crazy by doing so is the fidelio x2 hr but with less width, so if your a headphone person who loves them and wants an iem with a similar sound signature but more resolution this would be it. My lack of experience with multiple in ears makes a comparison a bit difficult for iems but I can safely from ones I’ve owned and borrowed in my opinion the l9 are better the tin t2, the empire ears legend x and shure se 846 and 215. There also a major upgrade for those blon 03 lovers as mentioned before. finally i think there a perfect compliment to the tin hifi p1 as there so opposite but both absolutely bang for buck and reproduce incredible sound and both make up for where the other fails in every aspect i can think to compare.
