Gaudio Nair & Clariden Reviews, Impressions and Discussion

Ahh, shitballs. Why do manufacturers bake so much sensitivity into their IEMs? Or is it merely a byproduct of other design priorities?

I seem to remember UERM as being fairly immune to hiss.

 

BA IEM design.

 

Mildly confused.

UERM and PP8 were relatively silent from memory and they are multi BA IEMs. I realise it is related to the amplifier output stage it just seems like such an oversight to design IEMs that are so prone to hiss.

 

Thanks, that makes sense.

Is Nair as challenging as Andromeda to keep quiet? At this stage, I really just want a headphone that can work without magical dongles (that always seem to collapse the stage), resistors, etc...

 

It isn't hard to drive them, but they do pick up noise than other IEMs in my experience. Like when I play on my Nintendo Switch, I'll never use the Nair since the Nair will pick up a lot of internal noise from the Switch. My cheaper DD IEMs don't.

 

By noise do you mean musical/chirping/emi noise or amplifier induced hiss? I think we may be talking about different things...

 

Mostly chirping/emi noise.

 

For those few of you who've owned both the Gaudio Nair and the Camfire Ara, has one become your favorite over time? If you chose one of the two, which was it (or would it be, if you had to choose)?

 

Nair since for me it is less stressful in the upper treble. Ara is much higher resolution than Nair thou.

If you still have my IMR-M9, the Nair is a complete 180 that is flatter than the M9.

 

Nair for me. I find the Nair has BA timbre, but the Ara has it's own weird dry timbre as if it's trying to mask BA timbre and I don't personally find it that resolving or more resolving than the Nair. Tonally the Nair really beats the Ara, it's pretty much perfect in tonality and FR while the Are has lower treble issues as @YMO pointed out and requires fiddling with tips for very deep insertion. as well as the dry tone that really sucks the life out of music for me.

Ara has better bass quality, but not by that much IMO.

I just don't think the Ara does anything much better than the Nair and the Nair beats it by a lot in tone and FR. Which timbre you would prefer is totally personal though. I can't stand dry timbre like the Ara has. Or HD650.

I'm not a huge fan of the Ara in general. I tried to like it, listened to the loaner and bought a pair, but sold them.

 

I have been comparing these with my usual reference, the ER4SR. These are an obvious technical improvement from the Etys but does anyone else feel like the Nair's treble extension is lacking a bit? I know the Etys are often considered bright but the Nair's seem to be missing the top octave when ABing.

 

I don't personally find the ER4 bright with a good fit but also don't find the Nair particularly bright. It's an unusual earphone for me in that I have been habituated to the ER4s upper extension. I love the technical improvement I hear from the Nairs compared to the ER4, and its overall tonal balance, but I am finding the lack of air makes them sound a little strange timbre wise.

The ER4s definitely have some of the plasticy BA timbre and it's interesting as the Nairs have much less of it, yet the timbre of some instruments sounds a little dull or rounded off and soft due to its lack of extension. I am also, at least with my admittedly very average sources (phones, old daps), not convinced that the bass quality is better on the Nairs than the Etys. It seems to roll off earlier on the Nair as well as have a little lack of texture in comparison.

I will post more impressions and some comparisons with stuff I have around, mainly the Zen Pro, as I get more listening time in. These are interesting phones for sure but I am definitely left wanting in terms of upper-end extension, especially for something I am looking to use as a portable mixing/mastering tool.

 

Welp, I lost my ear hole virginity to @recarcar 's Nairs and just noticed this thread. After figuring out tips and insertion depth as an IEM noob, I spent 4 hours listening on a flight last night. I'd say their strength is tonal balance. I.e. no spotlighting, theatrics, or "fun" tuning. I'd say the bass is about right to slightly depressed in quantity, and high-average in terms quality. The Nairs are a bit smooth, and lacking in texture up and down the audible range. I won't call it soft, but definitely a bit easy-going. I did try out some close mic'd acoustic guitar and you definitely get some bite on hard picking. But not as much as I'd expect to get from, say, OG Clears. Presence might be a hair accentuated with the Nairs (?), but not bothersome. Treble is definitely not bright, probably rolled at the extreme high end and yet I never felt like I was listening to outright dark headphones. That last bit of shimmer and high end sustain is probably missing, though.

All in all, a very easy listen. Not exciting. Not boring. I might compare to the Thieaudio Monarch II for shits and grins.

Edit: I was listening with a CEntrance DACport HD, which is a 4490 with a little Class A output. I never thought it was overly velvety, but it might not be doing Nairs any favors either.

 

@bazelio Totally agree. That was really my only nitpick with this IEM. With my sources, it did sound a bit rounded off and a little too polite sometimes. I think this was coming from the lack of upper-end extension, but I definitely would not call them dark sounding either. Their biggest strength is their tonal balance, something that most IEMs seem to really struggle with IME

 

Well, I destroyed the teeny weeny 2-pin connectors on the cable that came with @recarcar 's Nairs. One of the pins even broke off inside the female receptacle, but I was able to get it out with tweezers. Pulling IEMs out of your backpack by the cable turns out not to be a good idea. So I got this cable as a replacement. I picked this cable on the basis of it being the only one that Amazon would deliver the same day and surprisingly enough, I found I like the sound better now than with the original cable. It woke these Nairs up with slightly crisper transients and definitely more high end sparkle or brightness. Turns out the stock cable is made by Satin Audio and they had one left in stock, so despite it being 80 bucks, I went ahead and got another one in case I sell these. This also allowed me to confirm the difference side by side. Linsoul Tripowin FTW lol.