[Karendar]

I knew it was worth hanging around this forum. Last month I saw that others were getting their gear by emailing Kieran so I did the same. After several back and forths, I did not hear from him for a while. Last week got an email with tracking number. Yesterday, way out here in the middle of the Pacific, I got my two pairs of Stormtrooper Phantom Airs.

My thanks to @Karendar for his informational posts. Since I’m getting the dropouts, I will try the copper strip replacement. Curious about battery life though. What can I expect? Also, how do you replace the batteries if you epoxy the shell shut after inserting the copper strip?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hey... Battery life for most seems to even out around 90 minutes. Maybe less, maybe more. I personally have not tested this, so I can't say. I've left them in a drawer for now, as I've had too many other projects to deal with to pick this one up again.

I chose epoxy just so it would stick properly, but I get there might be better solutions available. I tried cell phone sticky tape, but it just wasn't strong enough to hold down the faceplate... If you find a better solution, keep me posted. The faceplate needs to be held down to properly touch the pogo pins and give a proper antenna contact.

 

[Karendar]

Just out of interest (I've scanned the last 50 pages) - did anyone actually review the PM6s? I've seen some on the for sale section so I know some were actually delivered. I can't find anything on the search engine.

I've done a comparison between the PM6, R1's and U8's before selling my PM6 last week... It's not a full review, but here's what I can give you as a summary:

The lows are a lot punchier than I expected. The highs are still a little bright and can be tamed with filters like the green filter. However, I say just pop in neutral filters to make them shine. Mids are a tad recessed to my tastes, so I'd say overall V shape sound. People have mentionned that burning them in really tames the brightness and make them a nicer rounded IEM. I haven't had time to burn them in before selling them, so I can't vouch for that.

They're super light, they're a good fit in ear, the cables are filmsy to my taste, but functional. Personally, I think they were priced right at the rebate price had the company survived. Otherwise, the Trinity name is such garbage now that noone wants to buy them unless they're old Trinity sound fans...

 

[hho808]

@Karendar - Thanks for your reply. I did your foil enhancement, and the Airs seems to be much better. Took the Airs out on a one hour walk, and it performed fine. I’m finding about two hours before the connection seems to deteriorate. My second pair of Airs has a bad battery. Removed the cover, but it looks like the circuit board has too much glue so can’t get to the battery. Anyway, thanks. The info you posted here was a great help.

 

[harpo1]

I love how IMR posted once the A and B stock are sold they're gone forever. What was that two weeks ago? Well guess what they're back again only this time starting at 250 pounds. Sure seems like a similar sales scheme to Trinity.

 

[dave9527]

I love how IMR posted once the A and B stock are sold they're gone forever. What was that two weeks ago? Well guess what they're back again only this time starting at 250 pounds. Sure seems like a similar sales scheme to Trinity.

If you can always get the "b stock", why would you pay the full price?

 

[Karendar]

If you can always get the "b stock", why would you pay the full price?

Not sure how many people did pay full price, but he established a new price with his january "pay what you can" and then b-stock thing... I doubt anyone will pay the £500 price tag now. I'm surprised he got 4 massdrops going.

 

[Tommy C]

If you can always get the "b stock", why would you pay the full price?

Their retail price is extremely inflated. Bob for certain still makes money on B stock which gives a rough idea of their actual value.

 

[WhiteKnite]

Their retail price is extremely inflated. Bob for certain still makes money on B stock which gives a rough idea of their actual value.

Especially in his case, since the entire process is outsourced to China and all he does is draw pictures (OK a bit more than that but not much comparatively). Most of the cost of high end IEMs goes toward recouping R&D costs, which is why after a few years the big companies can drop prices so dramatically once the initial investment has been recouped and ideally target profits have been met. Bob's R&D strategy with Trinity was to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck, using the customers as beta testers... which is how you end up with a mess like the Air (and PM4 according to some people). I suspected a long time ago (and still believe) the 'tunability' of his products is actually due to a lack of knowledge or confidence in his ability to make a truly good sounding product. Basically they are incomplete and it is left to the customer to dial them in. Call it customization if you like, but I was so quick to cancel my Hunters after he started lying partly because of how poorly he addressed any technical questions in the Q&A, so I was already nervous and regretting the purchase since I started doubting his knowledge. I mean "we don't use crossovers and never will because we don't need them" ummm ok, sure with a ton of research and specifically designed drivers maybe... but the horrible comb filtering of the PM4 says otherwise...Then a few weeks later "Here's a new preorder (yeah we said we'd not do that but meh) with crossovers (we said we wouldn't do that too) of course it will never see the light of day but give us more money".

Well, that was a good weekly rant. Hopefully I will remember to start bugging kieran for my Icarus (or surely refund at this point) so I can move on soon...

 

[barondla]

To be fair, reading the crossover comment, thought Bob was saying they weren't needed to achieve what they wanted with those exact models. Didn't think he was saying there was no point in using crossovers, ever.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using crossovers. Designer has to decide lots of things to arrive at excellent sounding IEMs.

Agree that not having a clear vision of the sound wanted is a reason for tuning filters. Part of this rests with the designer, part with the user. Some want music to sound as it really does. Others go for the fun house mirror.

 

[bjaardker]

Bob's R&D strategy with Trinity was to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck, using the customers as beta testers... which is how you end up with a mess like the Air (and PM4 according to some people).

^^^^This^^^^

 

[McCol]

Whatever the ploy is behind pricing and design doesn’t matter when the R1 sound as good as they do

 

[AxelCloris]

We've removed some off-topic discussion from the thread. Thanks for keeping posts within the Posting Guidelines.

 

[Karendar]

Nooooo... My beautiful post.

 

[WhiteKnite]

Whatever the ploy is behind pricing and design doesn’t matter when the R1 sound as good as they do

Really? In your mind all is forgiven because he made a good product? Tell that to the thousands of people he ripped off.

If he sent all of us waiting for products an R1 then sure, I'd agree...

 

[2Dutch]

I forgot to mail Kieran, so I typed a bit a few minutes ago. Couldn't seem to find my suvey response (was surveymonkey stuff), but I don't really care about the color.
Let's see what happens.