Soranik Mystery IEM Review And Analysis

Discussion in 'IEM Measurements' started by purr1n, Jan 16, 2021.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Thanks to @Bill-P for dropping this off. I have to admit that I have been super negligent because I've had them for months and forgot about them. The move has only compounded things.

    PXL_20210115_193756551.jpg

    First off, I do not know what model Soranik IEM this is. It could be a custom thing developed specifically for @Bill-P. Or maybe it's something that is already available. Second of all, I am an American. And as an American I know jack shit about IEMs because we don't have audio stores at every street corner where we can try dozens and dozens of IEMs from all over the world and especially Asia. However, I would like to point out that none of this matters:
    • The cream eventually floats to the top. As such, the "latest and greatest" has rarely impressed.
    • I only like IEMs within a narrow range of FR. Most latest and greatest IEMs have FR more along the lines of the Harmoronic Olive 2017 IEM target, which sounds like ass.
    • Any claims of latest and greatest detail involves boosted treble and nasty overshoot on transients.
    As such, these Soranik IEMs are likely to be more appreciated by SBAF folks, our small community, our internal groupthink. Unlike other groups who only think groups outside of their group do groupthink, we readily admit to groupthink ourselves.

    PXL_20210115_193817230.jpg

    The nozzles are fairly long, but do have a reverse taper toward the body, which restricted insertion depth. As such, I had some difficulty getting an excellent seal. I was eventually able to get a decent seal with what I had on hand. (My box of tips is in storage). I think a maybe a two flange tip would have worked for me. The body of the IEM is somewhat deep and not contoured well to fit in my ear. Soranik can look into what Drop did with its Plus IEM which seemed to fit everybody well! They should give @CEE TEE a call.

    What makes this Soranik IEM kind of special is the sound. The frequency response is agreeable to me, midcentric. Highs are relaxed and not boosted. Bass is extended and present. It many ways, the frequency response is like the Drop Plus, but with a maybe a peak or resonance thing in the midrange that brings out certain vocals. This effect can be lessened with deeper insertion, much like how the MEE Pinnacle P1's 3-4kHz peak can almost be eliminated.

    Now here's the kicker. I'm still scratching my head what kind of drivers are in this thing. The presentation reminds me a lot of these experimental planar IEMs that Drop was working on. That is they have a certain liquidity and smoothness - a lack of itchy grain. The decay and ambient cues are almost headphone dynamic driver like. No, I don't want to get people too excited. However, their sound is unique and rather very very interesting. The fact that they are very easily listenable makes them all the more worthwhile.

    Personally, I think Soranik should put a gaudy color scheme on it and price it at $3333 to attract those IEM morons who have more money than brains (or ears). However, that would be unethical. And really, who wants to die from a horrible painful disease? Karma is a bitch.

    Here is the frequency response. I'll explore different types of measurements to see if they can explain what I'm hearing in respect to the timbre and smooth liquid presentation. Note that the 3.5kHz boost is there, but it isn't bothering me as much as I would have suspected - again I think tip rolling mitigated this.

    Soranik Mystery IEM
    Frequency Response
    upload_2021-1-16_10-56-41.png

    Soranik Mystery IEM vs Drop JVC FD0X blue filter (BLU)
    Frequency Response
    upload_2021-1-16_10-58-10.png

    Soranik Mystery IEM vs CFA Ara (GRY)
    Frequency Response
    upload_2021-1-16_11-0-54.png
     
  2. Tachikoma

    Tachikoma Almost "Made"

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  3. NeLey169

    NeLey169 New

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  4. tranhieu

    tranhieu MOT: Soranik

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    Thanks Marv for the in-depth impressions!

    I totally forgot about this IEM until @Bill-P pinged me today and to my surprise there's a new thread about it!

    Long story short, we started this project over a year ago, not long before the pandemic broke out, and this one is one of the few that will be released this year as our new flagship lineup.

    So what are the perks?
    - 5 drivers including 4 BAs (2x tweeters, 1x woofer, 1x subwoofer) and 1 10mm dynamic
    - Non-tubing configuration
    - Crossoverless, all drivers are running full range
    - Damperless (acoustically & electrically)

    End goal is to keep the signal path coming out of your DAP/AMP as untainted as possible, the only thing that gets in the way is your cable and that's where the fun is. Sources & cables rolling will bring about vastly different signatures, either good or bad is up to you.

    Regarding your liquidity impression, it's most probably due to the in-chamber resonances of the housing. You might want to check out decay plot.
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Looking forward to this. Some analysis here. These are new visualizations I've been working on.

    However, what is interesting is that the second and third harmonics are fairly even with neither one dominating over the other. Will compare to other IEMs and take a look and their behavior. Might be something interesting here.

    Soranik Mystery IEM
    Harmonic Distortions Relative to Fundamental Per SPL
    upload_2021-1-17_14-3-7.png
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Or maybe this, plotted to the frequency of the the harmonic is activated.

    Soranik Mystery IEM
    Harmonic Distortions Relative to Fundamental Per SPL
    (Alternate visualization - plotted to where harmonic is activated)
    upload_2021-1-17_14-26-0.png
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I've been been curious as to what makes DD timbre or BA timbre. Or in the case the Mystery Soranik, why it sounds do different. (4BA + 1DD, with no xover, no tubes, and in some combination that we can only really speculate).

    Here are the Campfire Andromeda, an IEM that many of us are familiar with.

    Campfire Audio Andromeda IEM
    Harmonic Distortions Relative to Fundamental Per SPL
    (Alternate visualization - plotted to where harmonic is activated)
    upload_2021-1-17_14-36-24.png
     
  8. 3X0

    3X0 Friend

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    I had the same experience listening to some of @tranhieu's prototypes years ago (alongside @Bill-P over coffee). Soranik's offerings really blur the boundaries between BAs, dynamics and electrostatics and I found this sheer uniqueness to be very compelling.

    Hieu is really quite the wizard when it comes to engineering novel products (the multi-switched and electrostatic IEMs were particularly fun); "mystery" is really an appropriate descriptor for much of their lineup when it's so hard to guess what's inside the shells. I hope more people can get their ears on them.
     
  9. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Do you have a projected price point and estimated release date for these? Also any way to order from you that isn't Facebook? I and I suspect several others here don't use Facebook at all.
     
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Very interesting! I will take a look at the burst responses and see if decay behavior mimics that of e-stats and some planars, which exhibit this liquidity. We should see stretched out decay at the higher frequencies. I don't hear the limp-dick smoothed over estat bass though.

    This is definitely turning out to by a mystery IEM, with a unique distortion profile. Looking forward to the bursts.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2021
  11. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Soranik will soon be sending me all 6 of their iem’s for loaner tours, including this one I believe. They will be paired and organized into 3 separate tours. I’m excited to hear what they have cooking!
     
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  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Hopefully this will advance you from "don't know shit about IEMs" to "maybe know a little bit about IEMs" since you are an American.
     
  13. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Haha. Maybe.... Or maybe the saying will change to “white peoples don’t know shit about iem’s”.

    you get to be in all 3 tours at separate times or all at once whichever you like.
     
  14. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I’m suspicious that BA timbre comes from something like a very fast attack followed by a slow period and then super clean decay. BA drivers sound fast but they seem to “round off” the leading edges of notes creating a strange fast but soft sound which is what I think drives some people nuts. They are also fast sounding but ultimately not that resolving of micro detail. I think it comes from this fast attack but slow “rebound” if that can be applied to BA drivers. I don’t know what part of the driver movement is slow but I’d put money on a slow step in there somewhere between the initial attack and decay.
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Maybe it's simpler with BA types: highish third harmonics at lower overall sound output levels, are masking other sounds. Third harmonic tends to square up a waveform. It's also worse in the sense that the third harmonic is much rather away (two octaves) away from the fundamental than the second harmonic (one octave).

    I actually haven't seen differences between the burst response attacks and decay of BA compared to DD drivers in IEMs.

    More data will be needed along with better techniques to visualize data (distortion, attack, decay).
     
  16. tranhieu

    tranhieu MOT: Soranik

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    There will be 2 models of this line released as flagship one is pure BA while another is hybrid. Price range will be 1k to 1k4.

    Our site is being revamped as we speak, but initially we will use PayPal for overseas payments anyway. I might look into Visa payment if that’s what most people want.

    For the time being people can reach us via Facebook or email. Direct Message also works and I will try to be as timely as possible. Sloppy I know but the pandemic left us with only half of the people we used to have so I have to multitask everything.

    From the technical standpoint most BAs vibrate at similar speed, save for some (vented) woofers that are used in BTE hearing aids. And I can assure you we don’t use such BA in this flagship model. The DD is already ‘slow’ as it is and since we use no passive components there will be zero damping hence no use of ‘slow’ BAs.

    Fun fact: we tried that and it did not work out very well.

    You can try blocking the driver at the nozzle and measure , that one has the most BA sound after all.
     
  17. Augmentin

    Augmentin MOT - DUNU IEM Company

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    Great to see all the discussion on Soranik's new XO-less, tubeless line. I've been really damn busy the past few months so I haven't gotten much time to enjoy my custom-tuned Bastille. But this thread prompted me to pull them out for a bit!

    My Bastille is likely not the version that Soranik will release; I basically gave Hieu carte blanche and a modified DF target to work towards (I wanted a new 'neutral reference' CIEM, as my UERM was getting a bit long in the tooth) for this version.

    Because my ear volume is on the small side, they had to use some moxie and tricks to tune to a proper response, but the results are brilliant, and even better than the prototype Versailles and Bastilles I listened to half a year ago. Headspace is deep and natural, and BA timbre is at a minimum. Hieu did a great job using those 3D-printed chambers as tuned helmholtz resonators.

    Hieu has been a friend of mine for quite a while, ever since we started exchanging PMs on DIY methods for CIEM tuning well over 6-7 years ago. He's always got great ideas --- MinimizingEliminating the number of passive components is something he's been talking about since 2015, so this is not something that just popped into his head. We've met on a number of occasions and he's about as humble a guy as it gets, and really easy to get along with. When he told me about his new product concept, going crossoverless and tubeless, I knew immediately it was something I had to collect for myself.

    IMG_4364 (1).JPG
     
  18. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    It's cool to see a deeper analysis of this IEM.

    Personally, I find the sound of this IEM "interesting", but... there are songs that sound good with it, and then there are songs that sound really "off". I'd fairly assess this as an "interesting" sound, but not really good for all genres.

    Personally, I prefer Soranik's Quad-estat IEM. It has a more "normal" sound.
     
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Soranik Mystery IEM
    Impedance curve and electrical phase
    upload_2021-2-18_14-45-57.png

    Not super reactive like Andros, but sources with higher output impedance will result in a brighter sound signature.
     
  20. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    I have been trying to figure out this, but I think you are onto something. The easiest "tell" is listen to some drums. Like, well recorded drums. All the nuance of the snare and the toms are gone. Everything sounds thin. All you get is the attack...no body. Stuff that has fast decay already, synthesizers and the like, will sound fine. Even vocals, because there is hardly any release (as in ADSR). Fast horns will also reveal this - they will sound sharp, then just die. But to me, being a drummer, drums wound up sounding 3x smaller, dryer, and paper thin. This issue is regardless of volume. And no, EQ can't fix it either.

    More drivers can help. I did not find huge offence with SE846. Some BA designs are not as as bad as others. There are only like what, 2 manufactures of BA's. Knowles and then some Chinese company that only sells to Chinese headphone makers, like KZ - which are even more peaky.

    This BA issue, is why you will see many drummers use headphones on stage. Most of them can't stand them and would just wear regular headphones, like M50's or 840's.
     

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