shotgunshane’s IEM (custom and universal) recommendations, favorites and classics

I hear Flares have significant build issues as well.

 

Shotgunshane, I've auditioned Andromeda today and it sounded absolutely amazing!
The aggressiveness when listening to heavier music genres is like nothing I've listened to before.
Thank you!

The salesperson also recommended S-EM9 to me so I gave it a try.
It seems that the separation and the airy-ness on S-EM9 are slightly better than Andromeda.
How would you compare these two?

Again, I'm looking for an upgrade from my current SD2.
I listen to over 80% of metal music and ~20% of female R&B.

Cheers!

 

If you like the InEar house-sound then maybe you should audition their ProPhile 8 flagship. I once tested the SD2 and I can say that the PP8 is quite an upgrade (alas also in price)

 

call me fickle but compared to inear and especially compared to any CA iems, earsonics feels "cheap" ... not fond of the look of them either with the exception of the velvet which costs the same as the Jupiter and the oriolus locally.

 

my gawd the microphonics of the fitear cables (006/001) for my F111 and TG334s are driving me bonkers! any suggestion for replacement cables (under $300) would be appreciated!

to me the ideal iem cable (aside from sonics) is the campfire litz but unfortunately, Ken already mentioned to the that they don't produce fitear terminated litz.

 

Seeing the Audio Technica CK-10 on your list brings me back when I first began getting into this crazy little hobby of ours! Must have been 5 or 6 years ago since I last had my CK-10. It was the first IEM that really WOWED me. I've since owned some of the SBAF favorites such as the UERM and Andromeda, and while both of these are fantastic in their own rights, something about that CK-10 still stands out as very special and has yet to be replicated for me. Unfortunately I sold it way back when to continue chasing incremental improvements that most of the time didn't end up keeping my interest.

These days I'm trying to scale back and would like to get my hands on the CK-10 again, but seeing as they have been discontinued for some time now, this task is proving to be somewhat challenging.

Is there a successor to the CK-10 that you'd recommend @shotgunshane? I really enjoyed the insanely quick bass and sparkly treble of the CK-10. Combined with the fact that it could be worn cable-down (which is preference) and that the cable is fairly resistant to tangling, the CK-10 might be the one that got away... Throw in that they were sold for around $250 most of their life, they're a relative bargain compared to a lot of the TOTL IEM's of today.

 

Just demoed several other IEMs while I am still in Hong Kong, brief notes below:

• RHA CL1: B R I G H T, it's like someone had a listen to the EX1000 and thought "That needed more treble (5-10k)!", could stand it for less than a minute before I took it off.
• Campfire Nova: A tad mid-centric and warm, some roll off in both ends, less lower treble and air than I like, relaxing listen, rather intimate staging, IMO rather splurge for Jupiter or save money with Orion
• QDC 5hifi: Somewhat bass-boosted, great bass texture and impact (esp. for BA), still not particularly airy, thick notes with body.
• QDC 3hifi: More "reference" tuning, top end energy more pronounced than 5hifi but not particularly excessive, less bass-boosted down low,

 

Hi, does anyone have comparison between the ASG-1 plus and CFA Orion?

 

I have to agree. I owned one of their iems and it felt so damn cheaply made. Felt like it would break rather easily, turned me off big time.

 

i ended up going to a local store to have a looksee and ended up getting a fitear to mmcx adapter made by PW (Peter Wong) Audio. This godsend now allows me to use all the mmcx cables i have on hand .

 

@shotgunshane did you have the chance to listen to the Jomo Samba?
Or will you have the chance in near future? Would be nice to read what you think about them!

 

@shotgunshane Got the ASG-1 plus instead based on what you said, and indeed it is a brilliant iem! Thanks you very much! Fit and isolation is great with the spinfits too. Curious, what is your main DAP you are using right now?

 

I tried the Campfire Nova for about 2 weeks of constant use. It is a fairly disappointing sounding IEM. My reference for comparison being a pair of very old Shure SE530. There is nothing in the sound signature that makes me say "wow". The detail and crispness of the SE530 is on a "wow" level for me. The bass was really quite muddy and rolled off. No soundstage. Decent mids and treble but definitely not enough to compensate anywhere close to the deficiencies elsewhere. The one big positive is that the build quality is absolutely top notch. That cable is very very good and despite it being a rather big IEM, it fit well and was comfortable to use with the memory wire. Solid metal construction and just an aesthetically pleasing IEM build if you're into that product designery raw machined look.

 

Well, the good news is that many iem folks would consider the se530 to have been surpassed in the bass and treble department by other iems. The bad news is that prices for flagship iems have gone way up. Try to demo an andromeda if you can.