One thing I was slightly concerned about before getting the Timeless was the reports of them being very analytical. I have had one set of audio gear that was overly analytical and killed some of the enjoyment of music for me, and they were a pair of Genelec monitors. Highly recommended for music production or desk listening of well recorded musicā¦
ā¦but Iām a music nerd first and foremost, and 80-90% of my library is comprised of poorly recorded moments of inspiration caught by boomboxes, practice room four tracks, studio personnel who had no idea what was going on, albums done in couple takes by groups of people heavily inebriated, you catch the drift
While I test new gear with better recorded music - hip hop, techno, heavy metal, soul, jazz, hyper pop (Sophie is one that can be tiring to listen to since I wanna turn it up to hear all the bass but there are a lot of treble things going on including her voice), I need to balance it out and listen to stuff that represents the poorly recorded majority of my library.
Zero issues there. I am fully enjoying the moment listening to stuff like old hardcore / punk. The slightly elevated bass guitar here (what I call āspeed bassā and I donāt mean the velocity of it) hits like it should and I do not for a moment feel like switching to Steely Dan (no slight on Steely Dan) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysAeqP9hNCU
I looked around a bit and found this an interesting frequency response measurement example about the influence of impedance. Not planars but very clear nonetheless:
My timeless replacement set arrived. Interesting observation: Either these are different or my brain adaptation to the shouty, screechy crazy has continued in their absence. No issue at all on first listen.
I couldnāt help but put them in and use a new linsoul euphrosyne cable I also got. Blue.
I missed these. Need to remind myself to order a backup set.
I feel like I am going bat crap crazy. But these donāt sound quite the same as my previous set. Gonna process and compare them to dusk and teas. Crazy. Bat. Crap.
You just confirmed my suspicion that their QC might not be that good and itās the reason why itās causing all this controversy regarding this set.
The one with good QC have a good soundstage while others do not. Itās also clearly visible on Crinacleās graph.
As a rule, I donāt Beatles on headphones or IEMs. I canāt deal with the one sided instruments. I did find some stuff stereo remixed. Might look for that.
My test tracks for this feel much more sane. It certainly hasnāt gone to a low energy IEM, but metallica didnāt try to burn my ears.
And there are some other differences as well. Gonna wait until I can re-compare them to dusk, teas and hopefully a repaired Zen.
Yeah, thatās the thing that got my attention. Thriller happened to come on and the footsteps walked around behind me. I pulled the IEM out of my ear to check that I wasnāt on the teas. And I started going through my test tracks and didnāt find any of the offensive stuff offensive.
I need to compare again. Which is good cause that is what I am doing for the next few days in preparation for a 3 way between dusk teas and timeless.
Suggested that album as something that sounds as harsh as can be, if you dont notice it there then you know theres been a major change.
Btw, curious hows the channel balance? Did you have any imbalance on your old set, and hows the new one in that regard?
As i do get some swings, by testing with this generator. Most notable starting at around 3KHz.
I am able to flip through and listen to 10-15 seconds of each song during a break. 2015 version with a lot of stereo re-mastered and mono tracks.
Itās bright, but this is nothing like the cacophony of pain that metallica was. I would say itās even typical beatles bright when you hear them on something decent. Vocals have an edge to them. But if itās not beatles if they donāt? (paperback writer, is a good example).
This isnāt crossing the line for me. Intensity is good, killing my ears is bad. This stays on the intense but acceptable side of the equation. Will compare this specifically to teas and dusk so I can put it in context when I start comparing.
The problem with brain burn in here is I have been listening to other things for a while. and some of the changes are soundstage. I do think it is different.
Anywho, itās great. And the biggest concern here is QC more than anything else.
Yeah, it might be the QC issue thatās been making channel imbalance and huge impact on SS/imaging. Was skeptic between this or Tea on holiday sales, guess Iām crossing this one out atm.
It gives me a funny feeling when spending $500+ sums on Chinese products to be honest. I think for the 7Hz price level the quality is possibly unprecedented, and we have to understand that price is totally incredible because of killing competition. How many new ones come out in the $100-$300 range this year? 100? 150?
Equally important is that with rave reviews on and ditto forum posts we create so much of a hype that 7Hz gets their production planning oversubscribed by maybe 500%-1,000%. The products are produced by manufacturers that have their production lines planned by other companies as well so will try to cut corners - IF thereās enough materials that is. And then we also want top notch quality control on top of that, and can I have it within 1 week please? Seriously, this is completely impossible if youāre asking me.
