Request: Empire Ears - Wraith iem

Discussion in 'Loaner Requests' started by rhythmdevils, Aug 4, 2020.

  1. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Empire Ears - Wraith

    https://empireears.com/products/wraith-universal-1

    11 Drivers, 2 Low, 3 Mid, 2 High, 4 Super-High, 5 Way Crossover !!!!

    but 4 of those are electrostatic drivers. And they cost 3,500$ !!!

    but their description of the tuning plus the electrostatic drivers really has me interested.

    they mention adding a touch of emphasis on the lower midrange but all else is neutral. Kind of my ideal tuning.

    loaner tour!
     
  2. Cakecake

    Cakecake Guest

  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    f**k you. You have no idea what I’ve donated to this site. Way the f**k more than you. Not to mention co-founding changstar which led to this site.

    I don’t expect anyone to shell out 3,500 for these just for a loaner. But there are other ways.

    Jesus
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I can't wait to hear 88.2kHz!
     
  5. sphinxvc

    sphinxvc Gear Master (retired)

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    Chill man. Hooncake's a good dude, he likes to kid and doesn't take himself all that seriously. He's been a solid friend in the East coast SBAF scene, and isn't some shit poster (even if he likes to troll them).
     
  6. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    Speaking of which, Noble has its sultan (10mm dynamic, 4 BAs for mids, and 2 electrostatics for highs).

    If John at Noble and whoever runs Empire (there was a review once that weirdly mentioned his biceps and that's how I think of him now) would loan us a set each we could hear how two flagship $2-3k iems manage mixing electrostatic transducers in with BAs (and a dynamic, for the Noble).

    We're in roughly the second generation of electrostatic drivers in multi-driver iems, so this would be a good test. I'm a little sceptical as Campfire's Ara shows that finding coherency with just multiple BAs is still something that is improving.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Anyone feel free to reach out. @CEE TEE: do you know anyone at Empire Ears?
     
  8. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

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    Exit stage left....
    am all for the lack of seriousness. yet-
    @Hooncake needs to settle the F down with his passive aggressive Like/Dislike pattern and baiting Randos and others into proceeding on The Wrong Path to Success on SBAF just to tempt Mods wrath.
    his baiting, along with a juvenile "anti-establishment" attitude does nothing to foster "good dude" of SBAF merit badges.
     
  9. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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    @rhythmdevils I reached out to Empire Ears directly just now. Let's see what happens.
     
  10. ufospls2

    ufospls2 Friend

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  11. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    My bad I didn’t mean to get someone banned. I don’t care about dislikes I don’t know Hooncake but the way the post came off I was just like WTF. But I’ll hold back in the future when I don’t know someone’s perspective.
     
  12. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    can you share the bad reviews? They might be from deuce bag female vocal only listeners who like a 6 dB boost in the upper midrange to bring out that young Asian girl sound.

    the Odin is in their “X” range of iem’s which are admittedly intentionally colored. I was interested in the Wraith because of the (attempted) neutral tuning as well as the electrostatic drivers.

    A review I read by someone called them boring because of the lack of coloration or V shaped sound signature and they preferred the Valkyrie which had boosted upper frequencies and lower frequencies. :mad:

    but if we know they sound bad, might as well save the trouble.
     
  13. EagleWings

    EagleWings Friend

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    @rhythmdevils , most online reviews played it safe and didn’t highlight Wraith’s shortcomings much. My trusted sources tell me that the newly released Odin is a way better product. So in case you are reaching out to EE, shoot for an Odin.
     
  14. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    LOL. I think Jexby and those with the "@JK47" tag now have temporary ban powers. The ban should be short lived. Ravi made some changes to help alleviate my workload and "protect" me. He sees me flailing about trying to get all the kids in the room to play nicely and wants me to focus better.

    I'm sure the ban was in jest and shouldn't be taken that seriously.

    You've been gone for a while, in the "Vader healing chamber" for a few years now, and woken up to a new world where some things are different and some things are the same. The JK47 tag is given to SBAF's bouncers. They are wise, don't have much to say, and call out nonsense when they see it. They are the guys who kick you from the bar for the night or the week, but they can't decide to keep you away forever like management.

    I don't think people understand the history and how integral you were to Changstar, early measurements, acquisition of gear, and caulk jokes on Head-Fi. You, Voldemort, Anetode, RexAetera (RIP), Ultrabike, Zerodeefex, LFF, CEE TEE, and I were the OGs. Yeah, Rex is no longer with us.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2020
  15. ufospls2

    ufospls2 Friend

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    Mostly it was just in threads on forums, but here is one I remember from Crin :)

    https://crinacle.com/2019/11/28/cliffnotes-empire-ears-valkyrie-wraith-bandwagon/
     
  16. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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  17. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    shit man, the real deep roots of this site come from that Bay Area meet where we happened to get table space next to each other and talked the whole time about how shitty all headphones were and how the HP1000 was the only decent one. Headphones have gotten slightly better since then but back then the HP1000 was the only thing listenable to both of us. That was fun meeting a kindred spirit after fighting so many tards on head-fi for years.

    then you started measuring headphones in the og epic head-fi CSD thread which Jude ignored but which was a revelation to me since it was concrete objective evidence of exactly what I’d been saying basically on my own on head-if for years. Too much f'ing treble!!!!!!

    now Jude measures headphones himself o_O

    And things are a little better but Audeze can’t make 2 good headphones in a row and the Eutopia is bright as hell.

    and my pirate forum got all nice and PC. No more wall of shame. :( we’ll see about that if I get better ;)

    I’m glad you’ve carried the torch.
     
  18. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  19. A Child of the Jago

    A Child of the Jago Facebook Friend

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    Without wishing to derail this thread, but because this is so intriguing, what was the Wall of Shame - bad headphones or lots of different bad things or something else?
     
  20. Abhishek Chowdhary

    Abhishek Chowdhary Friend

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    You liked the B400. Try the JVC FDX1, it's lot more resolving, and smoother sounding (with the filter that has most amount of cotton, other two filters are decidely crunchier/worse sounding)
    *Used JVC default tips on both fdx and B400
     

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