California Audio Technology Apollo IEM

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by purr1n, Oct 1, 2020.

  1. dncnexus

    dncnexus Friend

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    I didn't do anything fancy with these IEMs, I simply plugged them straight into my phone. Because of this, I am not sure how they change through different Input Z's nor with more powerful amplication.

    Chain:
    Samsung Note 8 > CAT Apollo IEMs

    Build + Comfort:
    The build on these IEMs are decently done. The cable is very rubbery and can't get straight and I found it to be slightly microphonic. The IEM housing feels solid, even if it is a rather odd shape. I am used to the cable down system, as through my school years all my IEMs were like this, but I would rather have had it an overear shape. With the exception of the cable, the build was pretty good.

    Comfort is pretty standard. I did not feel discomfort at all while wearing these outside of the common miscomfort for me which is having IEM's in for too long.

    Sound Impressions:
    Holy BASS. That was the first thing that immediately hits you when you start the music. These things feel like bass cannons. The rumble and impact from the bass was overwhelming at first, but as time went on it started to become lost and not as in focus in regards to the mix. I did not feel that the bass impacted the mids, as they did not bleed into them; however, it does take some time to be able to appreciate the mids due to the bass overshadowing them. Treble was pretty tame, I would say this is a dark IEM, giving a sense that it is lacking air or energy. I also felt that since the lack of treble, detail retrieval seemed to take a hit.

    When I first started to listen to these, I was wowed due to the bass, but as time went on, I started to get tired of having such boomy bass and lack of treble, and really wished for a more neutral IEM. These would get boring after awhile due to the same heavy bass hits, with no payoff from the treble.

    While I was ultimately not a fan of this sound, I feel there could be a market for these. However, the market is in a much lower tier price wise than what these occupy. If they lowered the price and aimed this to a general population who only care about that bass, then I think they might get a bit more traction and praise.

    Thank you for letting me be a part of this loaner!
     
  2. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Uhhh.

    I think if I was bluntly honest about this iem SBAF wouldn’t keep getting gear loaners. I’m not going to mislead or be dishonest but I’ll try to start with something positive.

    I believe I like what the BA drivers are doing in the midrange to treble. In tonality it kind of reminds me of a half as good Nair. Like if Gaudio made a 200$-300$ Nair 0.5 or 0.3. It’s pretty flat and balanced and the word that keeps coming to mind for me is delicate. I’m not sure what that translates to in more technical terms. But I would say pretty fast and airy and light. But I wouldn’t go so far as to call them highly resolving. They have a similar plastic-y timbre that the Nair suffers from except its subtle with the Nair and obvious with the Apollo.

    I hear no peaks with any of the tips I tried. A pretty flat downward sloping FR from midrange to treble making them pleasantly warm. A very comfortable sound but it rolls off the treble pretty severely. This lack of peaks I really like about the Apollo. I don’t hear any of the peaks that others reported and I’m very sensitive to them as you all probably know by now. However, the treble roll off is too much and it looses clarity and resolution and accuracy as a result. But it doesn’t sound bad unless directly compared to a neutral reference.

    Soundstage is average neither good nor bad. Just adequate. Imaging in the midrange to treble from the BA drivers is also adequate. Nothing special but nothing bad either.

    But the problem is that they stuck a huge POS subwoofer onto these BA drivers. It’s truly a POS limp dick brown starfish pinched loaf subwoofer.

    I first listened to them with my LCX and there was no hiss and I thought “oh cool I’ll be able to listen to these out of the LCX which does good things with dynamic driver iem’s.”

    But then I turned on some music. f**k me in the ears with some of the shittiest bass I’ve ever heard! It’s WAY overbearing, WAY too loud and lacking in any kind of technicalities such as speed, detail or even punch.

    So my second thought was “wtf were they thinking releasing this iem to the public???” This belongs in a garage being taken apart and not just retuned but the DD being removed and disposed of like toxic waste and completely replaced with a different driver and likely a new crossover as well.

    The only time the Apollo sounded decent was in an album with very little bass so I was mostly just hearing the BA drivers. I put on some test tracks and got a headache in 3 minutes (or likely less) from the bass.

    The bass is wooly, indistinct, flabby, untextured, one noted - just big foofy bass. And worse, it bleeds so far into the midrange that it fucks up vocals.


    Let me back track for a second though and explain a bit of my experimentation. I did manage to get the bass down a little bit by using these cheap AliExpress tips. Either the way this tip outs the nozzle opening right up to the end of the tip, giving deeper insertion or the way they seal helped lessen the bass a little.

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    I started with the Azla Sedna Earfit Light (not short which means more upper frequencies which equally means less perceived bass due to the FR balance) and the bass was HUGE and HORRIBLE. I tried a few other tips which gave the same sound and then stopped with these AliExpress tips because the bass was a tiny bit less. I’m not even getting a good seal with any of these tips either which means I’m actually hearing less bass than the Apollo is putting out. Is that why they named it the Apollo? Because the bass is like a fart cannon trying to push as much air as possible without regard to anything else? I don’t know, if I was going to the moon I’d want more precise rocket boosters.

    After this tip selection I switched from my LCX to my iFI Nano BL and used the IeMatch plug, which further reduced the bass. But it is still absurdly overbearing, too much and low quality as described earlier. But it’s not really fair to use these with ieMatch. Given the inline remote they were designed to be plugged straight into an iPod or whatever smartphone.

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    After brief listening with some of my test tracks and other random music, I tried watching a movie with them using the iFI Nano and ieMatch (so less bass than these were tuned to have) thinking that maybe the bass wouldn’t be so bad with movies and just add rumble (which is what properly designed bassy iem’s might do). But the tonality of voices was completely destroyed by the subwoofer bass bleeding into the vocal range. Women talking sounded like they were trying to talk throaty. Even a baby crying was bassy. Everyone’s voice sounded throaty and off.

    I think this iem is worth about 50$. Because the EDC3 and B400 have better midrange to treble response and much better (good) balanced bass response. I don’t see any advantages of the Apollo over these two 100$ ish iem’s so the Apollo is worth less to me. The EDC3 and B400 also don’t require ieMatch and fit infinitely better.

    Build

    I like the build quality. They have a cool aesthetic design and I don’t mind the cable. Though the CFA Smokey Litz is far superior. The fit is awkward though. As Purrin pointed out, due to the elongated body before the nozzle they stick way out of your ears. The AliExpress tips I’m using help with this though. Here’s a picture of how they sit in the ears with the Azla tips (and most others that don’t put the nozzle at the front of the tip thus giving deeper insertion).

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    Fit

    They have a funny way of fitting. The nozzle is too wide in diameter so tips get stretched out and can’t compress in your ear to create a seal. So they just kind of hang loosely in your ears. But the design of the body makes it sorta work, they sort of hook into the concha as they hang down. It’s still a loose fit though and using these with any movement would require constant adjustment and refitting them.

    TL;DR

    • Much shittier Nair attached to a God awful subwoofer DD.
    • Pretty good BA response from midrange to treble, with a downward sloping FR giving them a warm rolled off non fatiguing but clear signature from the BA drivers.
    • Worst bass I’ve ever heard. Overbearing, lacking in any technicalities and bleeds into the midrange ruining vocal tonality.
    I don’t understand the point of this iem or their place in the market or target audience. If you’re a basshead there are much cheaper iem’s that have better quality bass (going by the reviews the FDX-01 comes to mind but I haven’t heard it). If you’re not a basshead you can get the Gaudio Nair for just slightly more money and have a well balanced iem thats much better in every way.

    I get a bit of an ego trip vibe from this iem. I know nothing of CAT’s speakers but assuming they are good, it seems like they were a bit arrogant with this iem. They threw it together with little knowledge of iem design and assumed it would be great because their other gear is. But they didn’t do their homework (and maybe didn’t listen to the final product?). I can’t imagine any self respecting audio engineer/designer releasing this. It’s really a joke in every way. They should have gone for a warmish bass neutral sound with all BA drivers and sold it for 100-200$. That might be a good product if they got the BA bass right which seems unlikely.

    TL;DR 2:

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