I looked through the board and didn't see a thread about the Aria's so I decided to start one. I've been following these since first seeing a link on the ZMF website to Vibro Labs. First, I have a set of Omni's in Cocobolo that are my number one set of cans. I love their signature and find them incredibly engaging, which made me wonder if it was possible to get that signature in an IEM. If it was, I figured the Aria's would be my best bet. So when I saw the banner on the front page that said they were going on tour, I reached out to Luke at Vibro labs to see if I could get my hands on them and bring them to the Houston Head-Fi meet to get them some exposure. He agreed on very short notice and got them to me within a week of the meet, with enough Comply tips for anyone trying them at the meet to use a new set of tips.
Overall: Excellent build quality, superb clarity and detail retreival, surprising bass extension, great noise isolation.
So onto detailed impressions. The first impression I had before I even had the Aria's in hand was the amazing customer service from Luke. He is great to work with and I'm sure if you were to order a pair (mine are the tour set) it would go to the next level. Having previously worked with Zach at ZMF on a set of custom cans, I'd say that the customer service of the two companies are on par with each other. Any questions you have will be answered in a timely manner via email, private chat, or even custom youtube videos with instructions. Luke's top notch customer service and interaction is one of the reasons this is such a great community.
Onto the unboxing. As previously noted in other reviews, the pelican case that they come in is sturdy, crush proof, water proof, and puts the IEM's beauty on display. Upon opening the package, the quality of the IEM's is top notch. The silver cable is braided end to end, and is a great length for portable headphones. It's also detachable which I assume means you could upgrade it later if you wanted to, but I thought the supplied cable was very nice.
The set that was sent on tour is Buckeye Burl, a grey-ish wood that has excellent knotting and grain pattern that really makes the IEM's look very classy. Based on looking at the website, I like the look of the Ironwood better, but once the Buckeye showed up in my hand I was surprised with how much I liked it in person. There's just something fetching about wood grain you don't get from carbon fiber or aluminum (I've got ZMF Omni's and Grado RS1e's, I'm a sucker for wood). Long story short, the craftsmanship on these are excellent, and people will notice them, they just appear impressive, one of a kind, and ooze quality.
Onto sound. First a disclaimer. This is the first set of high end IEM's I've ever listened to. I've listened to my fair share of over ear stuff, but when it comes to in ear, most of the time it's been cheap 10 dollar skull candy's you get at the checkout line of walgreens. I usually just use them for working out, and have always found them expendable. So my comparisons are to high end over ear, or cheap in ear. Hopefully someone else can chime in with comparisons between the Aria's and Campfire's or Noble's, but I'm not that guy.
Okay, sound. In broad strokes, I would describe the sound as very detailed no matter what source I plugged them into. I've used them out of my Gungnir Multi-bit/Mjonlir 2 combo, straight out of the jack on my Galaxy S7, straight out of the jack on my Surface Pro, and out of my Samsung into my Fiio E18. What I found was that these are very revealing in good and bad ways. I was listening to some Mudhoney, and it sounded like trash. When I switched to Queens of the Stone Age Song's for the Deaf it sounded excellent, and I realized that the Aria's were just revealing that the Mudhoney was a crappy recording, My ZMF's will help to make a crappy recording sound good, whereas the Aria's will just hold up a mirror and let me know that the recording engineer is daft.
Where I find the Aria's really surprising is soundstage and imaging. For IEM's, the sound really doesn't feel like it's "in your head," but more like it's around you, which to me seems like quite a feat for IEM's (see disclaimer). When listening to Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, I found the spacey effects and frequent left to right fading throughout the album was very engaging and fun with these. That being said, the soundstage wasn't as large with these as it was with my ZMF's, but I feel like that's an apples to oranges comparison. For IEM's, I was impressed.
The bass for IEM's is also surprising. There is a good amount of thump that really surprised me from something this size. It's very present but not distracting or overemphasized. While listening to Led Zeppelin's Gallow Pole, I can hear every nuance of John Paul Jones going to town on the bass, while also hearing all the mandilin notes and precussion with clarity. They sound very fast and clear in treble and bass, with no muddiness. I'm surprised again and again at how deep and detailed the bass goes knowing that I have IEM's in my ears. All that being said, I find that the bass extension on my Omni's goes further, but again, that's a full size over ear planar, it's apples and oranges.
One thing on bass I need to mention is that it is very position sensitve. When I first put them in my ears, they sounded very thin. After a while, I removed them and reinserted them. I had them too shallow in my ears the first time, once I pushed them in a bit deeper, it helped the bass response tremendously. The other thing is that the foam Comply eartips need a few seconds (15-30) after you reinsert the IEMs to expand and form a good seal. Once they seal up, the bass improves and the overall sound signature is warmer. My wife and I both tried these the day they arrived and found the sound was very harsh on the treble and weak on bass, and we realized that we had put the large tips on and not inserted the Aria's very far into our ears. We changed to the small tips and we both agreed that there was a night and day difference. From harsh and weak and tinny sounding to warm and smooth with great detail and bass extension. The tips and placement along with your anatomy make a huge difference in the sound signature. That's important to note.
Clarity. I've kind of hinted at it, but that's probably the strength of these. Listening to Led Zeppelin is fun to hear all the cymbals, mandilins, crunchy guitars, and detailed basslines dancing past each other, and with enough detail that I can focus on particular melody with clarity. What's better is that since they are noise isolating, I could hear all that clarity while mowing the lawn over the sound of a sputtering lawn mower. That's something I can't do with my Omni's. What I couldn't do with them in less than a week's trial is take them on a jet across the country and see how well they isolate white noise, which is what in my mind these would excel at. So I tried a lawnmower and edger and they really did fantastic at delivering detail in a non audiophile cocoon environment, and without having to turn the volume to deafing levels.
All in all, thanks to @Luke Pighetti for the opportunity to take these to the Houston meet to let others listen to them and get to listen to them for a few days before the official tour starts. I think these are an excellent product from a fantastic company. If you are in the market for a portable setup with great clairity, noise isolation, and good bass response, you owe it to yourself to take a listen to the Vibro Aria's. Now I unfortunetly have to box them up and send them on their way to the next stop on the tour.
Overall: Excellent build quality, superb clarity and detail retreival, surprising bass extension, great noise isolation.
So onto detailed impressions. The first impression I had before I even had the Aria's in hand was the amazing customer service from Luke. He is great to work with and I'm sure if you were to order a pair (mine are the tour set) it would go to the next level. Having previously worked with Zach at ZMF on a set of custom cans, I'd say that the customer service of the two companies are on par with each other. Any questions you have will be answered in a timely manner via email, private chat, or even custom youtube videos with instructions. Luke's top notch customer service and interaction is one of the reasons this is such a great community.
Onto the unboxing. As previously noted in other reviews, the pelican case that they come in is sturdy, crush proof, water proof, and puts the IEM's beauty on display. Upon opening the package, the quality of the IEM's is top notch. The silver cable is braided end to end, and is a great length for portable headphones. It's also detachable which I assume means you could upgrade it later if you wanted to, but I thought the supplied cable was very nice.
The set that was sent on tour is Buckeye Burl, a grey-ish wood that has excellent knotting and grain pattern that really makes the IEM's look very classy. Based on looking at the website, I like the look of the Ironwood better, but once the Buckeye showed up in my hand I was surprised with how much I liked it in person. There's just something fetching about wood grain you don't get from carbon fiber or aluminum (I've got ZMF Omni's and Grado RS1e's, I'm a sucker for wood). Long story short, the craftsmanship on these are excellent, and people will notice them, they just appear impressive, one of a kind, and ooze quality.
Onto sound. First a disclaimer. This is the first set of high end IEM's I've ever listened to. I've listened to my fair share of over ear stuff, but when it comes to in ear, most of the time it's been cheap 10 dollar skull candy's you get at the checkout line of walgreens. I usually just use them for working out, and have always found them expendable. So my comparisons are to high end over ear, or cheap in ear. Hopefully someone else can chime in with comparisons between the Aria's and Campfire's or Noble's, but I'm not that guy.
Okay, sound. In broad strokes, I would describe the sound as very detailed no matter what source I plugged them into. I've used them out of my Gungnir Multi-bit/Mjonlir 2 combo, straight out of the jack on my Galaxy S7, straight out of the jack on my Surface Pro, and out of my Samsung into my Fiio E18. What I found was that these are very revealing in good and bad ways. I was listening to some Mudhoney, and it sounded like trash. When I switched to Queens of the Stone Age Song's for the Deaf it sounded excellent, and I realized that the Aria's were just revealing that the Mudhoney was a crappy recording, My ZMF's will help to make a crappy recording sound good, whereas the Aria's will just hold up a mirror and let me know that the recording engineer is daft.
Where I find the Aria's really surprising is soundstage and imaging. For IEM's, the sound really doesn't feel like it's "in your head," but more like it's around you, which to me seems like quite a feat for IEM's (see disclaimer). When listening to Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, I found the spacey effects and frequent left to right fading throughout the album was very engaging and fun with these. That being said, the soundstage wasn't as large with these as it was with my ZMF's, but I feel like that's an apples to oranges comparison. For IEM's, I was impressed.
The bass for IEM's is also surprising. There is a good amount of thump that really surprised me from something this size. It's very present but not distracting or overemphasized. While listening to Led Zeppelin's Gallow Pole, I can hear every nuance of John Paul Jones going to town on the bass, while also hearing all the mandilin notes and precussion with clarity. They sound very fast and clear in treble and bass, with no muddiness. I'm surprised again and again at how deep and detailed the bass goes knowing that I have IEM's in my ears. All that being said, I find that the bass extension on my Omni's goes further, but again, that's a full size over ear planar, it's apples and oranges.
One thing on bass I need to mention is that it is very position sensitve. When I first put them in my ears, they sounded very thin. After a while, I removed them and reinserted them. I had them too shallow in my ears the first time, once I pushed them in a bit deeper, it helped the bass response tremendously. The other thing is that the foam Comply eartips need a few seconds (15-30) after you reinsert the IEMs to expand and form a good seal. Once they seal up, the bass improves and the overall sound signature is warmer. My wife and I both tried these the day they arrived and found the sound was very harsh on the treble and weak on bass, and we realized that we had put the large tips on and not inserted the Aria's very far into our ears. We changed to the small tips and we both agreed that there was a night and day difference. From harsh and weak and tinny sounding to warm and smooth with great detail and bass extension. The tips and placement along with your anatomy make a huge difference in the sound signature. That's important to note.
Clarity. I've kind of hinted at it, but that's probably the strength of these. Listening to Led Zeppelin is fun to hear all the cymbals, mandilins, crunchy guitars, and detailed basslines dancing past each other, and with enough detail that I can focus on particular melody with clarity. What's better is that since they are noise isolating, I could hear all that clarity while mowing the lawn over the sound of a sputtering lawn mower. That's something I can't do with my Omni's. What I couldn't do with them in less than a week's trial is take them on a jet across the country and see how well they isolate white noise, which is what in my mind these would excel at. So I tried a lawnmower and edger and they really did fantastic at delivering detail in a non audiophile cocoon environment, and without having to turn the volume to deafing levels.
All in all, thanks to @Luke Pighetti for the opportunity to take these to the Houston meet to let others listen to them and get to listen to them for a few days before the official tour starts. I think these are an excellent product from a fantastic company. If you are in the market for a portable setup with great clairity, noise isolation, and good bass response, you owe it to yourself to take a listen to the Vibro Aria's. Now I unfortunetly have to box them up and send them on their way to the next stop on the tour.
