Kennerton Magister Loaner

Got them yesterday.
Thanks

 

aufmerksam just received these.

Thanks for the opportunity!

P.S. Wrote a couple of impressions on the Magíster's thread.

 

I'm all done! Posted my thoughts in the measurements/impressions thread as well. Thanks UB!

 

I received these (Kennerton Magister in case with cable & paperwork and Kennerton Algiz metal earphones in box) on Wednesday, Dec. 23. I'm trying them out this weekend and will ship to the next person early this week. Thanks!

Edit: I opened the IEM box just to check that they were present but will not be evaluating them.

 

Good IEM tip: Get rubbing alcohol to soak them in to clean the tips.

 

I can't seem to get ahold of either @recarcar (next on the list) or @ultrabike to get the next shipping address. Perhaps it's due to the holidays, but I'd like to get this thing moving.

 

Got them.

Absolutely gorgeous and very well put-together looking. I didn't know these used genuine leather, wow. You really get your moneys worth on the materials side of things. The wood doesn't clash with the headphone's visual aesthetic at all; damn these look nice. Comfort is great even though it has some powerful clamp going on, and they're considerably lighter than I was expecting. From the moment I took these out of the box I really wanted to love them based on how they looked alone.

On to the sound:

For the sake of being fair, I'll only compare these to my closed reference; my modified Pioneer Monitor 10-II circa 1982.

These are absolutely masterfully tuned. Extremely slight V signature, barely noticeable. Fantastic midrange clarity and detail. Bass is kept in check and doesn't intrude. It also doesn't fall off a cliff, though the last bit of rock bottom extension is not present. Imaging is very good. Soundstage is a bit on the small side but not claustrophobic. I found these very engaging and enjoyable to use. However, there's still a fly in the soup, and that's the 2kHz bump that seems to be present on all variants of the FA-003/Ti. With the wrong song, it takes on an extremely harsh, grating character. And I do mean extremely. It caught me off guard because I didn't hear it with the first few songs I tried. Kind of disappointing.

Compared to the 10-II, the soundstage of the Magister is a head or two smaller in all directions. Its bass is shallower and flabbier, while the upper ranges aren't quite as smooth. The 10-II currently has a peak at ~7-8kHz that I'm having trouble getting rid of however, so its a pick your poison situation. The 10-II offers better performance basically everywhere (transients, distortion, extension, clarity, soundstage, etc) but its peak is much narrower and sharper than the Magister's 2kHz. The 10-II can pound your skull like crazy but the Magister has a more easy-listening character overall in the midrange. I find myself to be much more sensitive to the 2kHz region than 8kHz, so I pick the 10-II, but all ears are different. FWIW, if I fixed the 7kHz peak on the 10-II, there would be no contest at all.

At $800... I find it difficult to make a recommendation. $300 seems more sensible for these. The 10-II should not be better in technical aspects than the Magister but it is. I'm just not hearing the right level of realism or refinement that I've come to expect above $500. If you absolutely need something with good isolation, then these are on my table of recommendations, but so are a bunch of very very good IEMs.

That being said, this is still the best sounding stock closed headphone I've ever heard. Don't take that as an excuse for the problems though; the closed market is one I find sufficiently lacking in proper options, even with modifications.

TL;DR: best stock closed headphone I've ever heard but still not good enough. $800? f**k you. $300? Hell yes.

 

I just don't see the $800. If these were $500 or even $400 cheaper I'd be telling people to jump on it like stink on shit. At that price point, if you REALLY need closed, I feel like you'd be better served by IEMs.

 

I assume these are going to merv next? I'm gonna do some A/B tests with a paradox, after that I'm finished.

 

I might have some time to give them a review