Save for the Xenns Ups IMO. Same type of tuning, but major steps up in terms of instrumental timbre, space, airiness, bass quality and texture and overall musicality.
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I have heard quite a a bit of mixed feedback about the up. I am not sold on it yet. But, itâs high on the list of choices for a video comparison.
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I know. But itâs still a hybrid. I am still a bit squeamish about that. So far, mixing drivers has not been great for me. I have not heard ESTs yet though. I was thinking about jumping straight to mest.
I also donât necessarily need a clone of the timeless. Different is fine, but able to best it in some capacities. For bass impact, I still have my Zen (I doubt Up or really, much of anything will beat it there).
I havenât had much luck spending a lot more money to get better results.
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Graphs can only take you so far. The UP sounds very different to anything else I have - itâs difficult to describe - and is part of the reason I wanted to get them. Also helped by another great rec from @hawaiibadboy as my library has a lot of overlap with HBBâs so I knew it would work for me. Itâs a significant chunk of money though and definitely a set to try and demo first if thatâs an option. They also look dope 
Edit: my ears arenât good enough to worry about coherency issues with different drivers though, either that or it just doesnât bother me - as ever ymmv
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I got the Ups a couple of days after I got the Timeless. I can say in my ears that theyâre similar in tuning but also quite different overall, and to me, the Ups are substantially superior in detail, soundstage, instrumental separation, etc. I definitely havenât noticed any problems with coherency despite the different drivers.
Itâs to the point where as good as I think the Timeless is, Iâve been considering selling since the Ups are seeming like my endgame for pretty much everything (classical, rock, electronica, pop, old school rap) other than modern hip hop (eyeing the Focus EDM for when I feel like bumping super bassy rap).
Also Iâve read the mixed reviews too, but I think thatâs largely the result of audiophile types preferring IEMs with the Variations/Monarch type of curve with a subbass shelf but a drastic drop in the bass and low mids. Or people who are reviewing the frequency graph and not the actual set, the Ups beryllium DD results in tamer bass than youâd think from looking at the graphs.
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Yes, and also 3.5 times the price of the timeless.
I do like BGGAR tuning. And the one thing I wish my Zen had was more elevated bass. Maybe this is a way to get best of both worlds.
Hopefully I will get to review them!
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The last two reviews
yeah, definitely, the Timeless is great value for the money. But if youâre chasing that better sound quality dragon, I think it makes more sense to me to save for a significant upgrade @ $600-700 over buying a couple of $200-300 sets that are really only sidegrades to the Timeless.
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Track to test the highs. Oh10 is tad too high for my liking. Timeless has better overall presentation. But damn the OH10 bass thoughâŠ
I own the dunu Zen. And have heard (and returned) higher tier. I have found price to have very little correlation with sound quality (after a certain point). I would take the timeless or oxygen over most of them. Same goes for over ears. Thatâs why I am interested in this price class. It seems this price class offers amazing options.
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I think thisâs a great album to test Timelessâs technicalities âŠ
mids, upper mids shineâŠâlipstick on the glassâ where as the mid bass/bass suffers from the sub bass boomâŠa slight tuning tweak and theyâve got it 
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Iâm not saying that more expensive gear is always better than less expensive gear. Iâm saying that it sounds like your tastes in tuning is similar to mine (Mele, Oxygen, Timeless), and in my personal experience, the Ups are a significant upgrade to those, with similar tuning characteristics but with overall a very different (i.e. better) sound.
It seems unlikely to me that youâll find a similar upgrade near the Timeless price range, which is your stated goal in the post I was responding to. I imagine if there was a significantly better set than the Timeless with similar tuning to the Timeless at the $200-300 price range, you would have heard of that by now.
So rather than spending $200-300 for several sets that end up being sidegrades like the Oxygen, one could just buy one $600-700 set that is a real upgrade for the same money. Seems like the smarter move to me if youâre after the best sound quality. If youâre after the most diverse experiences via sampling lots of gear, I suppose buying several sidegrade sets could fit the bill.
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Itâs not an upgrade, itâs simply something with unique and special properties. The timeless has that. The fiio fh7 has been recently suggested to me for some unique properties. I havenât tried it yet.
I own the zen because of its unique capabilities. Very little is likely to beat its slam and other presentation. The oxygen is good and I enjoy it, but it doesnât have that same uniqueness. Itâs not uniquely good at anything, itâs generally competent at a lot of things. The oxygen is my favorite background daily driver for that reason.
The xenns up might be that. But the way people talk about it, it sounds more like the oxygen. And thatâs great. But, itâs not really what I need or want.
The reason for this price class is there are gems in it that have a few capabilities that run close to elite options. The mangird tea is fantastic for vocals, that didnât stay in my collection because of other issues.
Also, there is such a thing as too much bass for me. For some of my music both the oxygen and timeless cross that line. But they still handle those things well due to their other attributes.
So, yes, itâs more a collection of things that I would reach for for uniques reasons.
Odd, that sounds very different from the post I was originally responding to:
Iâm not sure why youâve dug in your heels like this on something you havenât even heard but Iâll withdraw my recommendation. I personally like it when people say âI like the same things you do, and here, hereâs something like that but better that you havenât triedâ but my posts seem to have rubbed you the wrong way. At this point, it sounds like itâs personally important to you to be ârightâ about this, so I would guess given how opinions and perceptions work that youâll find things to dislike about the Ups at this point.
For anyone else who might be wondering about possible upgrades, I do think the Ups is one of those, a pretty noticeable upgrade despite how much I like the Timeless. And I notice that Dan of Danâs Audio Reviews is selling his set for $525, a screaming deal I would jump on if I hadnât already bought mine.
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The only IEM Iâve sold lol.
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The only IEMs I will keep 
.
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Agree to disagree 
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I think you made a great recommendation for the general listener that others should hear (and I agree with, even not having heard the xenns up yet)
But I wasnât asking and havenât really shared my full goals. But since itâs causing confusion here, I will:
I am building a collection of IEMs that donât cost an arm and a leg for reference points on quality.
Let me give you an example: kz dq6. This crazy inexpensive IEM has the most well rounded soundstage I have heard to date from an IEM. Now, I have not heard the âbigâ soundstage IEMs. So that may not be a great statement. The primary difference is it has a much stronger center imaging capability than just about everything else I have heard. The next IEM for well rounded soundstage (and I will compare them directly later) is the 3dt. I will keep the dq6 while I wonât keep the 3dt. As of today, it is the reference point for soundstage.
Bringing this back to timeless, cause this is the timeless thread, it does a number of things better than some of the higher tier stuff I have heard. I find its sub-bass more elevated and intense than any un-equed over ear planar I have heard. Itâs extended treble, though intense, is much smoother than any IEM I have heard so far. And it very much provides that smooth planar clear sound.
The zen provides the cleanest and most impactful bass I have heard in an IEM (and frankly, also beats most overears I have heard). But I bought the Zen well before the goals of my collection were well established. Itâs not leaving the collection because it serves a purpose, but, if I were building from scratch today, this probably wouldnât be in the collection due to cost. (Though the fdx1 might have stayed if I didnât own the zen)
The dusk wouldnât be in it either. But, again, bought it almost a year ago.
So, the xenns up donât fit that goal. It has very little to do with it being a good recommendation for a timeless upgrade.
Sorry for the confusion.
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I received the timeless today, and I have a problem with them, in the R side it rattled arround the mid to upper mids (firsts seconds in the music count the people . My hope is to be the filter that rattle so if I can pull it off maybe stop it, but I donât know how to do the extraction, if someone could help me I be really grateful
Ps: if I did a big grammatical mistake tell me, Iâm Brazilian and Iâm trying to learn
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