IEM general discussion thread

Ocharaku Flat-4 AKA type 2

Dynamic but undeniably forward sound, almost non-existent isolation but with the right tips, highly addictive and engaging.

It sounds "ALIVE", the remind me of Grados but less extreme and more compatible to a wider range of music.

The open nature renders a wide stereo spread but flattish soundstage.

Using both the included comply and spinfits made it bright and sibilant, taking a cue from experience with Mee Px and EX1k, i forced the double flanged G10 tips (meant for narrow bore) on, MUCH BETTER, sibilance is gone (unless its on the recordings), treble evened out. Only problem was that its physically not the most comfortable. Then i tried the long narrow bore P comply, it took a little effort to fit those on due to bore dia but it was well worth it. It's still a forward sound but its not closer to Grado PS500 rather than the brighter ones.

Treble, uptilted but not offensive when used with back wall hitting long tips (for comparison, Mee PX was offensive to me)

Mids dynamic, well detailed, emphasised upper mids but not anemic or telephonic/cupped sounding, gives most recordings a "liveliness" that could well be its USP

Bass, well controlled upper and sub bass, mid bass is dynamic, reminds me of the ex1k somewhat in terms of detail but less sub, making it perceptually bouncy/fast/punchy.

sounded best paired ALO National+ (mid gain) with the zx300, followed by zx300 on high gain, AQ dragonfly red was dynamic but a little too much of a good thing, direct from iphone se you get less of everything at frequency extremes but acceptable.

TDLR, ergonomically and aesthetically awkward (tho comfy once worn overears but L and R needs to be reversed as the nozzle is angled like jvcs) open with little isolation, but if you want a pair of more evenhanded but still dynamic sounding grados and support japanese artisans, go for it!

moar to come if interested: Dita Answer, Fender FXA2, Sony EX1000 vs EX800 vs XBA Z-5, Fitear Partere)

 

Sorry if this feels a little redundant but I would like to share this at least.



Elysian Acoustics Minerva-Revision

Driver configuration: 4x Balanced Armatures (2-lows, 1-mid and 1-high)

Price: MYR 4099 (USD $1049)

Comments about the Sound

This is a very different animal to the old Minerva which has a tweeter and a different driver configuration altogether. This is what happens when you make the most out of those four really well-selected and tuned-with-extreme-care BA drivers.

Lush, balanced, and tastefully colored (and never overboard), the Minerva-R is filled to the brim with life and excitement with its sound signature.

Yet despite the brightness in its signature, not once was it ever fatiguing to my ears and it really scale incredibly well with how accurate its precision is in reproducing the instruments with seemingly minimal effort.


Bass

They go deeeep. Very punchy yet decay just on the right amount of speed and timing. This is something I don’t expect since the bass response from the original Minerva is nowhere near as deep and addicting as this.

The dual low-BA drivers certainly did their job in unison here delivering this type of low-frequency that I normally would expect out of a well-tuned dynamic driver.

While it’s not as natural well-decayed as a good well-tuned DD, this type of bass is definitely close to it.

Great job!


Midrange

The midrange is sweet, lush, full of life and character.

Syrupy thick, full and head-enveloping, yet when a song calls for it, can be as airy as it can be -- the midrange here is nothing short of addicting, and whatever BA driver it’s being used for the midrange, it’s clearly being pushed at its peak performance with such accurately precise sound positioning that singers are being pinpointed with laser-like positioning that is so on-point that it nearly threw me off guard.

This is especially clear when I listened to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On.

It just draws me in and I am completely lost in that emotionally-invoking vocal performance that is unforgettable even after so many years. I can easily just forget about analyzing the sound performance and just lose myself in the beauty of the note reproduction. It just drifts away with the music note.


Treble

Free of fatigue, and extend very far. It’s capable of reaching towards our local stars, but not quite the level of Hades’ seemingly endless ascension.

But it’s nothing to be scoffed at, despite not having a tweeter like the original design, the treble here is still bloody amazing. Airy, and sparkly, clear and full of detail, yet never got sibilant.

It is also extremely revealing, so much so that you will benefit from a very well-mastered track fed into it. The Minerva-R will just throw gobs of detail towards you in a very forward way. This might be a bit too much for some as it doesn’t quite have the smoothness of Hades that may make the sound more forgiving, compared to this Minerva-R which can really rip apart bad recordings.

Long story short: You WILL get what you feed with the Minerva-R, along with every error found in the music notes.


Spatial

Soundstage is expansive, deep and very 3D-lifelike. Thanks to its high level of accuracy in note reproduction, the Minerva-R is very revealing and might get overwhelming with details at times when you play a complex track like Carmina Burana orchestral pieces.

If this sounds familiar, you’d be right since this sounds like Artemis over again -- except here there’s one difference -- the staging of Minerva-R is very expansive and wide, giving a more out-of-the-head experience that gave off that “big sound” presentation that can be very impressive.


Sensitivity/Source-Pairing

Paired with the LG V30+ with its impressive Quad-DAC configuration on the smartphone, this IEM scale just as well even with this simple pairing.

Much like the flagship brother -- Hades, the Minerva-R loves power. It’s sound became more revealing at higher volume output and yet retained itself fatigue-free.

When paired with the V30+, there were no audible hiss from my experience. However, hissing detection wise, depending on how sensitive your ears are -- YMMV.


Impression Scoring

Bass: A+

Midrange: A++

Treble: A+

Spatial: A

Pros: Lifelike presentation of midrange that is both sweet and full of emotion and character, surprisingly deep bass that’s evenly distributed with just-right-fast-decay and punch very well, amazing treble extension and incredibly revealing. Very versatile on many genre, but excels a lot on male/female vocals.

Cons: Treble could be a bit smoother. Very unforgiving due to its revealing nature, can be a bit picky on tracks quality, but you get what you feed with it, detail retrieval might be a bit overwhelming for some.

Overall Rank for Elysian Acoustics Minerva-R: A++

 

Kunlun Edit of Arthur Chor's review of the Minerva-R

Bass: "Not as natural as a well-tuned dynamic driver"

Mids: "Syrupy thick"

Treble: "too much for some as it doesn't have the smoothness"


Huh, kinda shitty once you strip away the BS writing style.
Good review.

 

@Arthur Chor how does it compare to other IEMs? You've mentioned other models by the same company, but where does it fall in the broader scale of things? What else would you give an A, or A+?

 

Well, I can't call this a review since it's a demo unit but...okay.

And I will admit that I went kind of overboard with my writing. I am not sure which part of my impression write up doesn't qualify your criteria but sorry if you find my writing shitty or "BS", since I don't know what you will categorize as legit or BS unless I missed that somewhere.

I won't consider myself better than anyone here whom might have more experience than me in this hobby but I just write what I think and if you disagree with some points then that's fine.

And whether an IEM is shitty or not, I can only say give it a listen first before the verdict, but...if you have no interest or urge to simply because of my impression, well...I dunno what else to say. (Shrugs)

Again, sorry that my write up doesn't please you in some ways.

I didn't have much chance to compare it with many other IEMs other than Empire Hermes which IMO has a very congested sound and bloated midrange and pretty sharp treble that isn't nearly as well extended as I thought.

But I will say that I personally enjoyed this more than UERR myself.

Bear in mind that both Minerva-R and UERR I tried are universal demos so take what I said with a grain of salt.

But to answer your question: A or A+ category IEMs to my experience are IEMs like UE18+ Pro, UERR, CA Andromeda to name a few.

 

Out of curiosity, I tried this with Noble X w/ 2-pins which were easy to flip around.

Not as immediately obvious as I might have thought (unlike 2ch bass effect, but definitely wonky sounding). Centre image is smeared across your face and stuff flutters from left right. A significant lack of cohesiveness in the sound overall.

With a binaural recording (Amber Rubarth, Don't You) it's totally obvious. Like I have my head on backwards or upside down. Really disorienting, almost made nauseous.

But I guess if only one or some of the drivers are wired backwards, it might not be so readily apparent.

 

ZS5 V1 oder V2? The second version is reported to be like a ZS6 in a plastic shell. I haven't heard (or measured) a ZS5 so I can't really comment on that. But here's a comparison between ZS6 and Andromeda:




(Taken from my German review: http://headflux.de/knowledge-zenith-kz-zs6/)

 

I could tell something was off and my first impressions posted in another forum were along the line of "not what I expected, my mind must be playing tricks on me." I am familiar with the prototype so I immediately sent a message to the manufacturer asking if they did any changes.
Then I thought I'd experience channel imbalance due to incorrect fit. Then I believed I would be able to hear strong distortion (playing a single tone and hearing a brighter tone next to it). I was going crazy...

Actually I was just trying to experiment with crosstalk (of which the default SD5 cable has a very audible amount of) when I passed the Phase option in the ADI-2 Pro menu, which let's you switch between both, L and R. Then it suddenly all made sense!

If anybody wants to check the polarity, here is an easy way to do it: http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php
Scroll down to Wiring and do the Center + Twisted test.
Once you know what it sounds like, it is very easy to hear. But you just don't expect this to happen with a brand new IEM, especially if the company has a history of wiring the sockets wrong.

 

No it means it was built out of the box for the phase inversion tweak.

 

Has anyone tried the FitEar "fitear" IEMs? They made some odd choices with the name and making the driver count a secret.

 

It's part of their titanium horn nozzle series, (F111 and its variants, Parterre and fitear) Rightly or wrongly he decided to stop doing driver counts to stay away from the driver count wars, the 3 models are largely sonic siblings:

F111 (which i used to own) - fitear's take on the DF/Ety sound, quite linear, but warmer than the ety due to the richer lower mids and upper bass.

Parterre (which i own) - 2 driver, warm, broad but shallow U shaped, better controlled upper bass than the TG334 but still with a slower than usual bass decay, an immersive headstage, a dip in the mids to lower treble followed with a rise.

fitear (auditioned) - a souped up f111, midcentric, punchy midbass, emphasised prescence, enhanced details, forward sounding with less depth than f111 or paterre, it was meant for jpop. Brightest of all other FitEar universals but still far from ear ice picks.

 

Dita the Answer

TLDR, good all rounder, sonically behind the EX800. Original price, captive cable and awkward nozzle angle are the cons.

Heard the Dream, was impressed, then saw the Answer on sale with deep discount (at 250$ usd) and bought blind.

Less dry and precise than Dream, with emphasised (though far from basshead) upper/mid bass and warm resonant lower mids but dry, slightly textured, little cuppy in upper mids, lower treble. (for reference, Polaris is unacceptably cuppy to me)

A brighter less refined Lyra 2 with less phat less rumbly bass.

Smoother with narrow barrel tips (this is a common theme with all the DDs i owned so far, tho fwiw between treble smoothness and airiness. I err toward the former.)

Used Final E type medium small for full nozzle penetration or bi-flanged spinfits. Wide bored tips render upper mids upwards objectionable.

Similar staging to ex800 and ocharuku, more wide than deep.

Sounds better controlled with DF red than ZX300 SE, but best with ALO Nat+.

Those who like to blast will find it too shouty.

Not worth its MSRP, somewhat competitive at discounted price if you dont mind the captive cable.

if you dont mind moar bass, the fender fxa2 is as good an all rounder.

If you dont need isolation, the sony ex800/ex1000 are far superior, imho.

 

Has anyone compared HD650M to Shure SE215?

 

All right, time to update my impressions of the Dita Dream and Noble Bell.

The Bell is still solid on the lower end of mid-fi, compared to higher end iems, it sounds a bit veiled and thar be dips in the FR but for the price it does well. I think further DD iems in this line will be promising.

The Dita Dream sounds great initially, but I spent a little long-form listening with it and some issues have come to light for me.

It's the Dita V-shape tuning designed to match some speakers or something. The bass end of that does well, even very well, bit midbass more than subbass (I like subbass tilt, but that's personal), good extension. The treble is spotlighting a section of the range to highlight guitars, not harsh with my warm apex glacier, but might not be great for all.

Okay, so what I noticed over time were two things. First, a little more time let me parse detail retrieval from the treble emphasis illusion of clarity. I found the detail of the Truth/Answer to be lacking in a $1,000 iem. The Dream is lacking for a $2,000 iem. For $1,000 it would be just okay. It seems fast for a DD, just a step behind the IE800S in real clarity.

The second thing is that the Dream has some midrange suckout. The treble peak seems to bring out things, maybe this satisfies some law of physics where whatever is lost in the midrange equals exactly things overly spotlit above.

I still enjoy the Dream as an upper level dynamic driver. Right now, the IE800S is the best current universal DD which doesn't treble spike. There's still definitely room for more and greater. Fingers crossed for the successor to the Sony ex-1000 being designed now.

 

If you haven't tried it already, force fit the narrowest bore tip you have onto the Dream and see if it fills and even out at least subjectively.

 

Fitear Parterre

TDLR A more spacious, relaxed take on the CA Jupiter profile.

Part of the Fitear titanium horn nozzle series, Parterre was intended to be voiced to "recreate" the live concert experience. Unlike other FitEar uiems where the sound is build from the mids out, this uiem is broadly U shaped creating an immersive and atmospheric soundscape that could best be described as reminiscent of a subtle dsp concert hall effect that is not unpleasant, and often addictive. relaxed but not dark thanks to the subtly enhanced mid to upper treble which imparts an airiness to the sound. Headstage is not panoramic but deep and 3D.

Reminds me of bbc type monitors but with less tubby bass, the bass is full and rich but not really punchy or thumpy, it serves as foundation that the music is built on.

vs Andro: Andro is clearly more high def and linear, but the presentation is rather different, Parterre being more back row and immersive, atmospheric. Andro more detailed and incisive. Andro is wider, but less deep.

vs Jupiter, closer to each other, but the mids of the jupiter is less harmonically rich with a punchier faster bass and a more obvious treble. Jupiter is again wider but depth is comparable but overall P is more holographic to me.

vs TG334 > both are harmonically rich but 334's mids and upperbass are a lot more forward compared to the P.

tips: wide bore is best, spiral dots or fitear's own biflanges serve the soundscape best.

despite owning the andro, this is my go-to BA iem for recreational listening as it is more engaging and immersive, esp with post rock, jazz and classical.

 

Need some help for CIEMS.

I have the CA Orion for a year, I find them OK but would like some more extension on both ends and some more details retrieval.

I'm mostly sensible to vocals/mids and prefer a neutral/midcentric signature. I like the music th have some weight and value timbre more than ultimate precision.

EU made CIEM pref for shipments/taxes reasons.

Budget no more than 1000 $/€.

Any help would be greatly apprcieted.

 

Anyone heard the Noble x Massdrop Luxe? Just hit Massdrop recently and seems like the drop was kept kind of quiet, little info floating about

 

Thanks for the idea, I shouldvhave been more precise in my first post but l am looking customs iems, not universals (else I would try andros)