Toranku's Thoughts and Reviews (and target EQ filters!)

[twiceboss]

@himaraya hey himaraya, since i own M9, let me tell you a lil bit about M9. Tips selection can be a huge on this set. I just got to play with sony hybrid silicon, symbio W (with orange foam), spiral dots this weekend.

to summarize what's happening on these three;
1. Sony hybrid Silicon (choose the best size please, this is important): the best out of these three. Personally i think sony design/tune M9 with their own tips. The sound of M9 is somewhat remind me of KSE1200 with this tip. The vocals is forward but not "in head" style while the background music lingers around with quite amount of volume so you can listen to the details, almost holographic. Again, KSE1200 holographic is somewhat next step above, the details of background music is even louder and well separate.
2. Symbio W: The most highs out of these three and bring the vocals "in head" kind of presentation. Im not really a fan on this since the imaging and the staging are somewhat reduced.
3. Spiral Dots: Interesting tips here due to the wide bore design. To me, M9 isn't design for wide bore tips. These tips make the vocals to be laid back, sounds like behind the background music but even bring up the background music even further. Basically you do hear the background music more than the vocals.

Hope this helps

 

[himaraya]

@twiceboss Thanks. I had the M9 for a couple months and liked what I heard. I hear they benefit from amping but didn't bother, given their low impedance and my low listening volumes.

 

[twiceboss]

@twiceboss Thanks. I had the M9 for a couple months and liked what I heard. I hear they benefit from amping but didn't bother, given their low impedance and my low listening volumes.

Not sure about benefit of amping but it surely source scaled. I have different sound wise with my different sources. xCan being the brightest, 9038s being the leanest (soundstage is too big but bass is too lean, idk if i can enjoy that clinical sound), apple dongle being good, s10plus is almost apple dongle but with a touch of highs. Cant really recall on my es100.

 

[twiceboss]

To the M9 users here, what tips are u using? I find the triple comfort (feels like a velour pads version of tips) is magical with M9. Fuller sound with presence of mids and the sparkle!

 

[ddmt]

The older triple comfort tips on my N3 makes sound less sparkly, that's my favorite tips for N3. I do prefer the normal silicone one on z1r though.

 

[twiceboss]

The older triple comfort tips on my N3 makes sound less sparkly, that's my favorite tips for N3. I do prefer the normal silicone one on z1r though.

it is quite airy on me but not a night and day sparkle difference.
I just changed to this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W3GDYQQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The RE hifiman tips, ive been intensively tip rolling with M9 these two days, tonight i get back to my old tips that i bought from Amazon for my isine20, i tried the white version of RE hifiman tips, and yes, i can confirm, this is even better than the triple comfort. Wider soundstage and still retain the imaging. The bass is controlled even better with this tips. More pronounced separation of mids and highs are easier to pin point. Basically, just buy this to try by yourself. Just 2bucks, you have nothing to lose.

edit: the only con is the look... it doesnt look sleek at all

 

[ehjie]

First Impressions: Fearless S8F, S8P, ACME8 & S10 Genie

I clearly understood what u meant by not putting in too much weight. This happened to me on my current set. I was chasing a desktop tonality, but i got an even better desktop "sound" from a portable set. It resembles that desktop set in more ways & it's really uncanny. I gathered a lot of impressions here, there & reviewers' notes from all over, Including friends whom they auditioned them. I started to ramble from 2018 November to build my current set. Thanks for sharing the huge inventory of impressions...

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Thoughts / Opinion on HS1695 Vs. T9iE?

 

[sharexshare]

First Impressions: AK x Beyerdynamic T9IE

Compared to the T8IE/Xelento, the T9IE is less v-shaped. The t8/xelento had very nice driver capabilities but they were tuned for a massive bass emphasis with good seal. The T9 is different from that and clears up the bass bloat a lot.

Like the XLS, the T9IE doesn't have enough pinna gain for me. Both of these iems have plenty lowermids as well as a bass emphasis. The uppermids on both can sound dipped in the ear. However I'd say the tonality of T9ie's upper mids are slightly more recessed tonally compared to XLS. The difference between the XLS and the T9ie resides in the treble response, where the T9ie has earlier peaks as the insertion depth is more shallow.

The treble extension from 10-15kHz is still rolled off like in the xelento/t8. However I do still prefer the T9 over the XLS - I experience lesser upper bass bloat and a treble more present (YMMV due to everyone's HRTF). I do find that T9 has much better resolution capabilities as well. Would be interesting to try these two out more and make further comparisons.

Thanks sharing , I'm interested in T9ie too , could you share more about T9ie , how it's performance in different type of musics , and T9ie edge in this price range ?
Thanks a lot

 

[toranku]

Thoughts / Opinion on HS1695 Vs. T9iE?

Need to have more time with both to organise and refine my thoughts. Acoustune all have capable dynamic drivers but they are all sport a usually weird tonal balance. I can't think of an acoustune that has mids anywhere close to natural. I think the T9 have better tonal accuracy but even then the uppermids might be insufficient resulting in an odd tonality as well.

Thanks sharing , I'm interested in T9ie too , could you share more about T9ie , how it's performance in different type of musics , and T9ie edge in this price range ?
Thanks a lot

I'm quite interested in listening to the T9 more. Can't make further comments until I hear it again Been quite busy so I'm not heading down to audio stores as often as I used to. I also have other plans for my content in the very near future. Stay tuned.

 

[sharexshare]

Need to have more time with both to organise and refine my thoughts. Acoustune all have capable dynamic drivers but they are all sport a usually weird tonal balance. I can't think of an acoustune that has mids anywhere close to natural. I think the T9 have better tonal accuracy but even then the uppermids might be insufficient resulting in an odd tonality as well.


I'm quite interested in listening to the T9 more. Can't make further comments until I hear it again Been quite busy so I'm not heading down to audio stores as often as I used to. I also have other plans for my content in the very near future. Stay tuned.

Thanks

 

[toranku]

Hey all,

Sorry about the inactivity for the last month. There just isn't anything new worth writing about. There were plans to start new series in my content like "Brand Overviews" where I try the entire lineup of a brand and try to describe the house sound or highlight the better sounding models that I like. But I'm unsure if that will be useful or interesting content worth reading unless it's a new/exotic brand.

There have been also plans to change my policy of my content. I've said all this time that I do not accept free review units but only loaner units. In the entire span of time since the creation of this thread, no manufacturer/distributor has entertained my loaner unit requests. I'm not actually interested to get loaner units of your typical popular brands. Rather, I want loaner units from small/upcoming brands that I want to write about. As it stands, I might change my policy to accept units I can keep, but will start organising tours for universal units I obtain. Tours to me are the best way to go around it since the units don't have a definite loan-peroid. Readers of my content can participate in tours and create further discussion/point of views.

In addition, I have omitted FiR Audio products from my personal list for a while now. I have not explained why. Th reason here is simple - I don't agree with the multiple revisions of their IEMs. I think it's disrespectful to retune their lineup over and over again. It's hell for the customer to try figure out what she/he is getting. In addition, their CIEMs don't even sound like their UIEMs. I won't reveal the measurements, but just know that the CIEM versions of the M5 doesn't match up to the universal M5 at all.

Lastly, for my loyal readers, thanks for sticking by. I appreciate the support. I have no intentions to commercialise/monetize this hobby of mine and it will stay this way.

 

[toranku]

First Impressions: Kinera Nanna

Nicknamed the Banana (I don't know why) in my local circle, the Nanna sports a DD low, 1 BA mids and 2 Sonion electret highs. The Nanna is your typical chifi v-shape, with intense bass/warmth response coupled with strong, overwhelming highs. The DD lows are actually pretty nice - tuned for speed, tactility and warmth. However the entire tuning is bottlenecked with a very strong low treble presence which makes any sort of high sound really harsh, piercing and intense.

It gives off some sense of high fidelity sound upon the first few seconds, but it soon dawned upon me that the highs were way too overwhelming. Cymbals dominate the stage. Overall, nothing of note since tonally it doesn't make the cut.

 

[toranku]

My thoughts on: Vision Ears Elysium

I've been trying the Ely a few times throughout the past month. It's an interesting monitor since they chose to use DD for the mids and BA for the bass. Some people may squirm at the thought about BA being used for bass, but in reality I found the coherency from the bass to the mids to be well implemented and executed. The Elysium hits heavy (and warm) with its BA bass with mids that exhibit rich, well extended harmonics in its treble.

The only thing that sounds a bit disjointed is the tonality of the electret tweeter - it sounds very different from your typical BA tweeters. As such the highs can sound too distinct from the rest of the spectrum. Not a big problem imo however - it sets up for an interesting sound like in some crossed tweeters in speakers.

Elysium's strength lies in its tonal balance. To me, it's a slightly v-shaped version of my idea of neutral. It has great dynamics and transient response. The warm lows can really slap hard when asked for. It doesn't exhibit bass tactility and control like in well tuned DD bass but I think it's very impressive in its own right. Where most typical hybrids have an overwhelming bass that sounds disjointed, the Elysium's BA bass implementation works well with its DD mids.

I'd say that the Elysium's biggest weakness is with its treble response. It's splashy and cymbals can dominate the mix at times. I do not know whether this is an insertion depth issue and if this can be addressed in custom form. It's not piercing or sharp but I'd like it a bit tamer, which is why I describe the Elysium as a slight v-shape.

Technicalities wise, the Elysium lacks that stage depth and precise imaging when compared to my reference monitor SH3. It's free of any form of congestion but I'd like it even better separated and layered. Otherwise, I think the Ely has a nice tone overall that exhibits good tonal accuracy that's filled with energy and dynamism. Not top tier for me personally but I think it's great.

 

[Love Music]

Hi toranku, what are the differences between the m7 and the evr sound wise? Which is better for jpop, jrock and female vocals?

In terms of sound sig i like forward/airy vocals, bass thats north of neutral but not overdone ,good clarity and sounstage/imaging.