Timeless 7hz Ortho iem - Finally a Good Ortho iem!

Earmen recently release the Colibri which is supposed to be a Sparrow on steroids (and battery power) - I think it's available at my local retailer, I might give it a whirl with the 7hz out of curiosity.

 

Damn, now I want to get another Sparrow. I know I loved its sound, but that was at the very beginning of me getting into the hobby, I’d love to find out what I’d think of it today. My first one broke, I got a replacement from EarMen which broke, too, and I decided not to try to get another replacement.

But I really wonder what I would think of it today.

 

I think it's probably one of the most impressive sounding d/s dongle dac imo. I seem to have a dongle fetish at the moment and the Sparrow is on top sound quality wise - don't know how they pull it off but they seem to have whispered an ess pro chip in a tiny ass dongle.

It has problems with interference noise however when used with a phone - this is a design fault but I've been too lazy to replace mine (I think they have a V2 ).

It also really scales up imo with usb decrapifier and clean power (I use iusb micro) - almost to a level of desktop dac, and in same ballpark as chord mojo 2.

If you want to get another Sparrow I'd instead check out their new Colibri which is a Sparrow on steroids

 

It's a long shot, but has anyone compared these to the FiiO FH7 or paired them with a ifi Go Blu? I'm happy enough with this current pairing but curious if the 7hz might be better for me.

 

I find the iFi Go Blu and the 7hz a good pairing. I've used them both from the balanced and unbalanced port.

To be honest, I haven't found a portable amp/DAC/DAP they don't sound good with.

 

hello,

tl/dr: good with everything i threw at it...until i made a rather large mistake.

i have been a very slow old man with loaners. part of it is that i was in line for this and the Audeze Euclid and requested more time to compare the two. same driver technology, wildly different price points.

these were up first. Patricia was queued up on the iPod. immediate joy! i just leaned back and played tunes. was an hour late to bed.

those tunes that hurt with other headphones were not just bearable but sounded good! i'm thinking " a reasonably priced iem that i like with everything."

then... i put the Audeze's in my head and did not have any desire to go back to these.

the Timeless is very nice sounding iem. the shells are a tad uncomfortable for me, i think it may be the outer edges that feels like its cutting into me.

i am well aware that these two products will not be cross shopped. i am also unsure that the Audeze is 6X the transducer its retail price suggests. but i am getting older and compromise is getting harder to justify.

ymmv.

cheers!

 

So I've been listening to the Timeless for about a week now, and I think I have a feel for how they perform to my ears. To preface, I am one of the few who find this iem to be treble forward, at first I thought they were classically v-shaped, but I realized I was fine with the bass quantity. it sounds natural to my ear, as do the mids. I run a very bare bones eq, a high shelf filter at around 8000 with a wide q factor, and anywhere from -3 to -5 dB, depending on my mood and the record I'm listening to, and a small bump at about 850.

Chain is Pi2AES > [BNC] > Gungnir A1 > LAuX > [4.4mm bal to 4-pin XLR] > 7hz Timeless (stock cable & tips)

These are essentially quite resolving, fast & lean (some might call this quality "ethereal", it's what I imagine a lot of HFM sound might sound like based on reviews) iems.

Plusses

+ Resolve, especially for things like reverb (the resolution of the reverb in recordings gives an aura of something I'll call "ambient depth" to the stage, it's micro detail that fills out the above and below of the center image, it feels listening to the tracking of a live recording, but doesn't sit you there, just like you're ported into someone's Pro Tools session)
+ Quickness of decay & overall speed (it's a planar after all!) it doesn't linger, has propulsion, tie that to the engine of its treble energy and you have a dynamic listen if your ears agree with its energetic presentation
+ Bass is natural and well-articulated
+ Vocal range has a sweetness to it

Negatives

- Soundstage is hard-panned left-right like most iems I've tried, but it does have some depth as described above, though not as fleshed out as on an HD650 or other full-size can, but honestly they do stage better than I imagined they would, so this could easily be a neutral or plus too
- Softness of attack/transients, the ol' cymbals-sound-like-hit-pillows effect
- Immersion is lackluster (warning: the following is über-subjective and unscientific), in the middle of a song, something will remind me I'm listening to iems that sound like they cost $200, I can't put my finger on it, it's frustrating—at times they sound amazing, with a swell of emotionality, and then it’s like they lose that magic within seconds of riding on that wave
- Leanness of tonality, they certainly aren't thick like the LCD-series, but now we're talking about comparing 14mm drivers to 100+mm drivers, not really fair, but I do wish there was a little more meat on the bones so to speak

Overall, I find the 7hz Timeless enjoyable—with a few minor adjustments—enough to keep. They do have me wanting to invest in a Lokius, however, makes me wonder what analog tone control can do for these.

 

When I had a short listen, that is exactly what they sounded like to me. I think they picked the right compromises with the timeless. The right amount of leanness to not sound to rounded and give detail/air. The right amount of bass/decay to fill the mids in relation etc. I've tried other makers attempts to make a better timeless and they end up having bigger issues elsewhere by trying to solve the minor ones here. The follow ups seem like a bunch of tail chasing. I like my tweaked Olina a little better but for a consumer just wanting something that works without a bunch of tweaky messing around, this is a great device that covers its tracks while giving a fun, friendly and relatively informative take.

 

Source: Mostly UAPP on my LG V60 straight into the IEMs (since that's largely my intended use case for them), though I did try them with my desktop SS setup (HQPlayer > Holo Spring V1 > BHA-1).

After spending a week with the loaner, I'm afraid I'm still having difficulties putting my impressions into words, other than to say I really like them and am probably getting myself a pair. In the past I've mainly preferred brighter headphones and over-the-ear headphones...less bright headphones (and EQ'd headphones) tended to sound like something was lacking. The big breakthrough I had with the Timeless is appreciating bass without feeling like I'm lacking the detail and air I really need. (Maybe this says something about how I need to try more balanced sound signatures, but nonetheless.) Needless to say, the speed is a plus, and the soundstage (my usual gripe with IEMs) is decent enough to make me not really notice, even if it's definitely not up to my usual full-size headphones.

Certainly not going to replace my HD800SDR or anything, but obviously nobody was expecting that. For a $200ish IEM for out-and-about and listening to the bassier tracks in my library, I feel like the Timeless is an excellent deal.

 

I find myself in 100% agreement with @rhythmdevils. His initial post is spot on.

I am no good at technical descriptions and using fancy audiophile terms, but I’ll do my best to not sound too HF Fanboy’ish.

To my ears, this IEM gets it right. Across the entire spectrum - bass to mids to treble - there is nothing I find annoying. A very even-keeled presentation of the music, with no one area being boosted or recessed - I mean there is some tuning going on to account for loss of sound due to ear canal placement, anatomy, etc., but whatever they did resulted in a very flat (in a good way) signature.

I do notice a little “smoothing” of some of the micro-details that “surround” notes. Perhaps this is because of how quick these IEMs handle attack and decay, etc. and my ears aren’t up to snuff? Or, could this be the “plastic” reference rhythmdevils mentions?

I could not use any of the silicone tips provided with the product. I tried them all, various degrees of inner ear assault, etc., but could not achieve a good seal - this made them sound thin and almost brittle. Like crappy earbuds that aren’t seated in the ear correctly.

I had some old Comply 400 sitting around. Those foam babies did the trick for me. Anyone thinking these things are thin or bass light should try foam tips before tossing in the towel.

Like many, I had concerns about comfort, because those discs don’t look like anything that could comfortably sit in my ears. No worries, though! They are quite light and fit comfortably.

I wish the cable were a foot longer (or two). I haven’t compared them to my other IEMs, but they do seem to be short and I get the dog on a leash feeling at times. Haha…

I’m curious to see how they stack up against my recently acquired IEMs (Kato, Blessing2, Oracle MkII), and my old standby EDC3.

Source - USB -> Gungnir MB -> Khozmo -> Taurus MkII

Also iPhone to Headroom Micro Stack and straight outta iPhone with Lightning to 3.5mm dongle.