Honestly its not even a “compensation” (nanna do that for sure) but instead stuff that separates on Mason, mad, and even d8kp and sus just doesn’t on traillii. Wonder if maybe they don’t come fully online cause of my listening volume? I know mad24 get about 397.62x more bass if I double the volume for example
hmmmm interesting, I haven’t really noticed that
Oh yeah that is a factor, could be potentially
I’ll try louder after work then. As for the ie match, good to know. I am kinda tempted to see if I can get a nicer 4.4 one made given how bad that thing Jack’s with the trailli tbh
Edit: I’ll find a good test track to demonstrate what I’m talking about later
@M0N I don’t have enough time with them to try traillii and FS on all my amps. Any stand out combos you have found? I’ve tried them both on 428 and tge fs will for sure be going on wa8 tomorrow but thats all I got planned
With the traillii for portable it’s still the 424, but for desktop the larger mk is nice, actually like them on the ec studio t with the pacific, and the egoista 845 with the d1 direct, iematch for both ofc.
For the FS, I’ve only tried it on the previously mentioned setups so I’ll have to experiment with those
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Should be wrapping up impressions since I’m mostly through the pile now
InEar ProMission X - Think a prophile 8 with a bit better technical ability, a more spacious and larger presentation, a bit more warmth, and still pretty precise and studio like. Enjoyable upgrade from the prophile 8 given you aren’t using it mainly for studio
FAudio Project Y - Easily the best iem out of this pile since it comes with a van nuys case. Anyways the signature is a fairly balanced slightly relaxed slightly w shaped signature that’s pretty enjoyable all around. Bass is all right but can feel a bit vague but still enjoyable with a bit of elevation and some roundness and smoothness, still dynamic and textured there to an extent. Midrange is all around enjoyable with a bit of extra prominence and energy, moreso in the upper midrange but the lower midrange is also still pretty prominent. Treble is pretty clean and prominent while still sounding chill, impressive to keep that sparkle factor while not sounding that dulled, is a bit elevated though. Tonal density wise it’s slightly on the more weighted side of things but well balanced. Spatially it isn’t that organic in presentation but it does focus on being holographic and immersive which is pretty fun despite not being that natural. Timbre is pretty nice. Coherency is surprisingly good. Good resolution but not stand out, same with speed and separation. It’s fun and not offensive without sounding limited or boring, pretty nice.
Origami Audio Silver - Signature wise it’s a bit harder to describe, it sounds somewhat warmer relaxed until you hit treble where things get a bit more forward and intense, I want to call it a v shape but the midrange isn’t dipped really, so it’s warmer with a forward treble response? Not sure how they pulled that off with having it actually very solid coherency. It’s overall pretty smooth with good texture and weight in both the bass and midrange, slightly relaxed while still being reasonably dynamic. When it comes to the treble things change and it gets more forward with it’s technical performance, pretty detailed and good bite, nice extension, still slightly smooth as well. Resolution is good and pretty easy to pick up on given it’s more relaxed nature, dynamics are good for the signature but not that stand out. Spatially a bit more on the larger side of things but also nothing exceptional here. Was pretty unique and enjoyable
Nostalgia Audio Gandalf - A more bassy cable actually, overall better bass quality and quantity but it does give a larger boost that could tilt balance, midrange has some interesting presentation that gives the midrange the feeling of extra body without really changing as much, good texture there too, treble is slightly elevated but not as much as bass, well extended and detailed. Pretty black background, solid separation, spatial recreation improved but nothing stand out there.
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Spent a lot of time with trailli at higher levels tonight. I genualy think that with the exception of bass texture (drum roll is cleaner on traillii) the md24 perform the same roll simply at a higher level. Better detail, sepeearion, texture, jjst basucaly everything. Only complaint is they have a lot of mod bass. Like tbh too much for loud listening for me. Its a lot
Very interesting, I’ll have to grab a pair of those to try when I get the chance
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Tomorrow is the day! I’m in Portland visiting family this week, and tomorrow I’m driving over to FIR Audio in Vancouver WA to pickup my 5x5’s! Feels like Christmas Eve tonight.
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Yooooooooo, will be very curious to see what you think about it, should be great
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I wish the Crassi came with a van nuys case
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This was a good day! Almost 2 hours hanging out at FIR Audio, listening to music, trying their full lineup, and talking to Bogdan.
Came home with the budget friendly VxV:
But my god, the M5 was something special to listen to!
Very brief listening impressions:
M3 - bright, analytical, U shaped. Really shoved the detail down my ear holes. You hear all the things going on in the background. But to the point that I really didn’t enjoy the music, almost a loss of coherency. Everything felt poorly mixed. Maybe if I had severe high-frequency hearing loss these would be a winner. But I was fatigued in 10 minutes.
M4 - warmer than M3, but still a fairly bright / analytical high end. Much more enjoyable than M3. Music was back to feeling properly mixed. I could live with these. But not a daily driver for me. Bass was a little boomy and over emphasized. If you like the bass this is a winner. Detail is ecellent, sometimes cymbols and electric guitar could become piercing. (I do have some treble sensitivity, so that’s easily a player here.)
M5 - oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh… balanced balanced balanced. Bass was impactful and tight. Not booming, but still a sense of “epic” to the intensity of the bass. It reminded me of planar magnetic bass in that it was fast and accurate and extended. The mids and treble were even, nothing felt over or under emphasized. Treble isn’t over emphasized, and the detail is all there. Vocals warm and engaging. By far FAR the best thing I’ve ever put in my ear holes. These are seriously aspirational for me! I’m sure there’s plenty of other things to consider at the $2.8k price point, and could be better. But this was eye opening to me for what is possible.
And finally the VxV - what I came home with. Love 'em! The tuning is very similar to the M5 - the sound is even, nothing over emphasized. Tonally accurate, engaging, detailed. They make me want to keep listening. To over simplify it, they sound like the M5 but less refined. The M5 is like a slight haze is lifted and everything is clearer compared to the VxV. The M5 is deeper, bass is tighter / faster. But the VxV is definitely in the same family. The VxV is detailed and chill at the same time. To make a poor comparision, they remind me a little of the HD660s: if you focus on the sound all of the detail is there, but if you just let it play in the background it’s not going to shove the detail down your throat. By shifting my focus I can engage with the music, or let it just play on. (To be fair, the VxV is clearer and more detailed than the HD660s, just a similar listening experience.)
At the end of the day: happy to go home with the VxV. I wouldn’t personally buy the M3 or M4 even if at the same price as VxV. Just not my sound. But the M5, mmmmmmmm… just take my money!
Thank you to @M0N , @Towa , @Veritas for the help, recommendations, and general information!
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So I just picked up 5x5, VxV? I’ll just do VxV I guess, today as well but it’ll take a bit to reach me. Your impressions have me looking more forward to it than I already was. Pretty cool experience you just had too. M5 sounds fantastic.
Any issues driving these guys? I have an apple dongle…
Also an l&p w2 enroute lol
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None at all. I had to turn the volume way down on my amp (light blue on the chord mojo). I got the sense anything could drive these.
Looking forward to hearing your impressions of the VxV. Always fun to compare notes with another listener.
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Looking forward to hearing your impressions as well!
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Coming back to the topic topic of iematch…
I decided to try one out, because why not, only $50 on Amazon. (I went with the 2.5mm balanced version since all of my IEMs are wired 2.5mm balanced.)
My somewhat limited view of this device is 3 use cases:
- attenuation of audible hiss
- increased load impedance to amplifier (for IEMs <16 ohm)
- reduced digital signal attenuation (by operating the DAC / AMP at higher volume setting)
Am I missing additional uses?
I don’t have any audible hiss in my system, so I’m not using it to try and beat that. And all of my IEMs are 16Ohm or greater. But I do notice with most of my IEMs that I’m running with very low volume ( <25% ). And given that my portable gear does digital volume control, it made sense to me to use something like this to get the volume up further in the range to reduce the amount of digital attenuation used to turn the volume down that low. Essentially trying to get my DAC up closer to running full scale.
But with the iematch all I’m doing is trading off digital attenuation for analog attenuation: gaining up the signal as far as I can on the DAC, then attenuating it back down with the iematch. This sort of feels like over complication. Is this really a net benefit? Or just a violation of KISS…
The ability to drive a higher power amp in a more ideal position in it’s power curve and getting both more range and in a more ideal position on it’s pot, but that’s a result of the attenuation so not really much different from what you have said
Just judge with your ears, if it sounds better with the iematch then use that, if it doesn’t than don’t use it. It’s more something I’d use if I had legit problems or no range rather than throw on for the hell of it. Just a random note but imo using the iematch in ultra has less of a sonic impact than high
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It’ll be a relatively high quality analog volume, since it’s a decent resistor divider vs a crappy pot.
Even what people consider to be “good” pots are less than ideal, hence why you see relay or stepped based pots.
But I use mine largely for the impedance match on the 7 Ohm Saarda’s.
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For sure. Sometimes I question what I’m hearing, so an outside opinion is appreciated.
Really good point - it’s easy to have a solution looking for a problem to solve… lol
I’ll have to experiment with that, thanks.
I guess that ends up being the tradeoff I’m trying to make: less dependency on a cheep pot or digital volume control, and more dependence on a fixed resistor divider. So it makesmore sense to gain everything up just to attenuate it back down again.
One more question:
Are there any issues adapting down the 2.5mm balanced iematch to 3.5mm single-ended? This essentially shorts the 2 negative terminals together. If it’s internally just resistor dividers, then maybe not much of an issue. But if there’s something active going on, could it create an imbalance?
or some other distortion? maybe changing the load it presents to the amp?
Thinking about this a little more, I wonder if I would be better off getting the 3.5mm version that supports both SE and balanced (little switch on the output), and adapt my IEMs down to 3.5mm single ended on the input side of the iematch when I need a single-ended output. When running balanced I would be stuck using adapters on the output for 2.5mm or 4.4mm, which seems clunky, and is the reason why I went with the 2.5mm version when I bought this one. But electrically, maybe it’s superior to adapt down to 3.5mm single ended on the input side?
Or perhaps I should stop thinking about it and just order a 3.5mm version as well… it’s only $50…
3.5mm → 2.5mm ie match → whatever you feel like = fine
2.5mm → 2.5mm ie match → 6.35/3.5mm = not OK
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