Hi guys,
I hope you’re all doing great!
Today was the headphone show in Shanghai since 3 years I believe (you know… Covid magic…) and I got the opportunity to demo most of the big guns I wanted to try for a while.
I know many of you went to canjam recently so that’ll mostly be familiar IEMs, but I believe I managed to demo few rarities that were not in New York.
So let’s get started.
I won’t go into details, i didn’t take notes, I was there for a short time and demoed a lot of stuff in a noisy environment without being able to A/B much, so not really optimal obviously. So that’s just rough feelings that must be taken with a huge grain of salt!!
All sets demoed through L&P LP6 Gold with their stock cables.
Favorites of the show :
Oriolus Traillii Ti :
The king is back big time! It wasn’t actually for demo, but an owner was kind enough to let me try it so I could compare with my OG Trailliis. I can definitely tell you the difference isn’t only a cosmetic one! They sound absolutely epic! Basically, you take everything that was great on the OG, you make it better and you remove most of the drawbacks (except the price obviousl…
).
Deeper and more organic bass, clearer and cleaner (less veiled) mids (still warm and organic), better treble extension and details, significantly bigger and more precise soundstage. I’m truly impressed! I wasn’t expecting that actually… Add to that the most comfortable shell I’ve tried (the shape on the back is different than the OG and really follows the shape of the ear a bit like a custom) and the new cable with nicer hardware and this is an absolute killer set (for an eye watering price
). I think that was my favorite of them all to be honest.
Rosenkranz Silver KA (16k Gold) :
The most expensive set that I tried by a wide margin (about $9000 monitors only) and most likely the most expensive single DD on the market. Here they are plugged onto the flagship Rosenkranz cable (about $4000). They sound quite epic as it should considering the price!!! I think they have the most impressive bass I’ve heard! It reaches super deep with incredible vicerality. It really feels like a subwoofer. Soundstage is really vast and details are quite impressive. The tuning feels somewhat reminiscent of something like XE6 and Radon 6, with a more analog vibe. I feel like it’s the best single DD I’ve tried and one of the best overall I’ve heard. Super fun and emotional sound! I love it
Noble Ragnar :
Another highlight of the show. Fantastic details and soundstage. The bass is actually much more present in quantity than I thought it would reading the different impressions on the forum, and I was expecting something much brighter and aggressive, which imho it is not. I found them really balanced. If anything it feels like a better version of the KK. Also , they are much smaller than I thought they would looking at the pictures. Epic set as well.
Noble Ronin :
Superb as well. I can’t really decide which one I preferred between this one and Ragnar. Both are at the top of the game. But if I had to pick one for myself it would most likely be Ragnar with its metal built, beautiful design, much smaller (ronin are huge) and also, Ronin is not too dissimilar to Traillii which I already own. Als, in that vein of tuning I found Ronin more to my liking overall than Mentor Multiverse which high mids felt a little too aggressive.
Other sets I liked :
UM Mentor Multiverse
Noble Sultan Prestige
Fir Radon 6 (I liked it a bit more than XE6 and the cable is much nicer)
Fir XE6
Xanadu Kopensh Pharaoh
Dita Perpétua C (kinda romantic easy listening tuning missing bass. Very beautiful design and built)
Camelot
Solaris 2023 (pretty nice overall but as indicated in a review I found also it has a slight metallic timber on voices of some artists like The Weeknd, but nothing serious)
Not really sure what these are but it’s written on it I guess
Interesting design and nice sounding copper single DD.
Alright! That’s it for today!
Cheers guys,
Julien.
