If youāre dead set for soundstage and imaging, then I will not suggest Timeless. Planars have a soundstage that is flat as a pancake. There will be left and right but zero vertical positional cues. Except for vocals, which somehow floats on top of mass of instruments being played. Such is life, we canāt have everything. Planars have the best vocal timbre. Chefās kiss. But one would ask for too much to look for soundstage in a planar.
Iād suggesting saving up for IER-Z1R or get headphones. There arenāt a lot of iems with soundstageā¦ regardless of price.
I really didnāt compare them in that respect. Gonna put them in now. As a general rule, for something like pentatonix, I actually prefer less bass. On timeless, that will mean a wider bore. So any azla tip will likely let vocals be more vocal and less dominated by the bass.
The crystals help a bit there for me. Reduces the punchiness of the sonics just a touch.
I think the sedna earfit light are even a bit better. But the differences arenāt a lot. Itās hard to contain the timeless bass, itās always there and rich.
The epro horn tip things might be the best option.
I bought the linsoul euphrosyne because itās blue. Sounds nice. Good build. Probably massively over priced but works quite well. And for a thick cable, itās surprisingly good. I donāt usually like cables to be too thick or too thin.
I just got a pair. I donāt believe in burn-in, so Iām just enjoying them out of the box.
Iām not ready to give impressions yet, but I can share tip rolling results. I have not tried the stock tips at all.
Final E - A little rubbery sounding in the bass, but pretty good overall
Acoustune AET07 - Also rubbery, but less bassy than the Final E tips
Sedna Xelastec - Very nice, as always
KZ Starline Tips (left over from some ZSTs or something) - So far these are my favorite. Still good bass presence, no rubberiness, highs are clear but not harsh.
The only other $200 IEM I ever owned was the Thieaudio Legacy 4, and the Timeless is immediately better than that. No harshness, more open sounding, very nice so far.
EDIT - Oh, and the metal case is a joke. 1) I have to wrap the wire quite tightly to fit the IEMs back in the case, 2) it has exposed metal that Iām afraid will scratch the earpieces as I put them in the case, 3) the lining was already peeling on on side and 4) thereās some sticky glue or something on the hinge. Why, why this fancy but useless brick of a case?
EDIT 2 - Okay, even with the Starline tips, the bass is a bit too bloomy and male vocals on something like Toolās Parabola are a bit too recessed. Thatās usually a sign that I need deeper insertion, and sure enough the shallow tips that came with the Mele seem to fix both of these issues on the Timeless.
The Timeless should quickly make you a believer in burn in. The initial OOTB excessive bass should disappear after a few hours of use, followed by improved coherency and frequency balance for days to come.
Just a quick thought and I know itās your first.
Sound is very important and you may want to invest in a good mic that doesnāt artificially suppress noise (doesnāt have to be expensive, even a sub $20 lav mic will do).
Simpler shots of the items with not so much going on is actually enough (I like your inclusion in movement in the shots though, so keep that up).
I like that the background music isnāt distracting. Many people donāt get this right, and for a first attempt, good job.
Donāt forget to use the new YouTube time marking
My environment has some noise. I had to digitally filter it and then boost the volume. Otherwise the voice was too soft. I am working on a better arrangement for this.
I have an unlisted version that is better quality but lower volume. I could send that over to you privately to see if it is preferred. All the earlier private feedback said to make my voice louder. So I used software filtering to do it.
Not the first to say that. Will work on that in future reviews.
Awesome! Was going for subtle but present.
I honestly probably wonāt for sub 10 minute videos meant to be viewed as a whole. I actually had both titles and markers in one version and I found it took away from the experience. I could add markers for build, soundstage, resolution, tonality and comfort āsectionsā but probably not more than that.
