Changes on the zetian wu heyday ( comparing to original version ) :
I just goofed. I shouldâve indicated somehow that the video was MKI and not MKII. I couldâve said something in a card or I couldâve just said something to the camera during one of my commentary bits.
In my reduced time table, I suppose, I ran off of time to check and revise what I was doing.
Mistakes in editing and commentary were made 
Thats a quick collab with a new companyâŚyou must be impressed.
Wonder what drove the change in driver? Is the tech moving that fast?
Looking forward to the review
Looks fantastic, glad I didnât pull the trigger on the zetian in the 11.11 sale.
Hbb, if is possible, can you give us some details about the new tuning?
Man this one seems pretty nice. Does anyone have experience with Tubes and IEMs? Is it a good idea? Noisefloor issues, hiss?
I havenât used this one in specific, but hybrid tube amps can be quite good with IEMs. I have the xDuoo MT-602 and the SMSL SP100 and I have owned the MT-604 and others in the past. They can be great for warming up a sound sig and also for providing a sense of space with IEMs that can sometimes seem a bit compact in their staging. Basically, a hybrid tube amp can be great with IEMs for all the same reasons as with headphones.
They can have a higher noise floor, though I have generally only had problems with exceptional cases like my Andromedas. Nowadays, manufacturers have been doing a pretty good job of incorporating tubes in hybrid circuits and keeping the noise floor down reasonably low. Finding good quality tubes can play a big role in keeping the noise floor down and the detail retrieval up so if you get a hybrid tube amp your first order of business will likely be to find a tube or tubes that sound good and run quiet because most of them come with chinese tubes that donât bring out their full potential. Thankfully, they also tend to use tube types that you can find quality replacements for pretty cheaply like 6N3, 6J1, 12AU7 (this one), 12AX7, etc.
I have had good luck with xDuoos running quiet and sounding good and wouldnât hesitate to buy another one. I have actually been looking at a couple of their tube amp/DAC combos myself.
Just saw that the Legacy 9 existed, seems to be a close design to the Xenns Top.
The FR looks really nice to me? I never hear about this:
I havenât tried the L9, but I think the general line on them is that the bass gets sloppy and the technicalities are middling at best. Thatâs what I remember reading about them in general anyways.
Hereâs a crudely overlayed graph of the Monarch MK2 (green) and the Xenns Mangird Top (black). Iâve been comparing a bunch of Thieaudio graphs, and this one is the closest.
No oneâs said anything about Xennâs Top yet; Iâm especially interested to hear impressions against their other releases (UP and Tea 2) and stuff similar in price range. Shouldnât be long now that singles day is past before reviews and impressions start to pop up.
Iâm more excited about this one, but then again Iâm just a sucker for Thieaudio, theyâve been with me through almost every stage of my audiophile journey, starting with Legacy 3
Hopes: regular-sized shell (the Clair and the Monarch are just absurdly too big), great sub-bass and ideally I hope they start to experiment with how they do imaging, we need a crazy â3D holographicâ IEM from them
Regular shell with 4 EST, 4BA, and 1 DD? I hope so too, but I think you can safely assume youâre gonna be looking at something at least as big as the OG Monarch and Clairvoyance if not Monarch MkII big, but it doesnât hurt to hope, right?
I was supposed to have had that before the 11/11 sales week but I forgot and they forgot 
Very curious about the Prestigeâs DD; specifically, how technically capable it is. I said upthread I owned the Monarch MKII for a couple months before gifting it to my girlfriendâs brother.
The tuning was more or less what I was looking for at the time (referenceâish with bass boost). However, the more I listened to it, the more I couldnât shake the sense that its DD was holding it back; just not capable enough. YMMV as always.
The Monarchâs DD is only used for sub-bass frequencies (the rumbling) so what youâre hearing most out of the bass is mainly its BAs.
Why the bloody hell would you have a DD and not use it for the whole bass spectrum? That is ridiculous!
Itâs blaspheming against the bass Gods for sure. I would excuse the move if you had dual DDs covering the entire bass region, but it seems difficult to get that right judging by how few go for that configuration.
Sub bass performance is exactly what I find (most) lacking about the Monarch MKII, so my original point stands. Thereâs a lack of body/weight, whatever. It plays the notes, so again, not a tuning issue, IMO. Itâs simply a lack of technical ability.
speaking of bass gods. I did something blasphemous with EQ. I wanted to get a taste of that FatFreq life on my IE600. boy that is A LOT of bass.
EDIT: I personally though the IE600 just need a bit more so I decided to try EQ and then had the idea to go full basshead and see what the IE600 could handle. Well the driver definitely could handle the bass and it rattled my head to the point where I was getting dizzy I brought it down a bit and now Iâm really digging it. Its all pretty focused in the sub bass which is nice because it only really comes into play when listening to hip hop tracks and doesnât affect the rest of the sound signature which is just perfect for my library
Double EDIT: I have since turned off the my âbass boostâ as I started to miss the balance that the stock tuning has. Its nice to know I can flip a switch for some bass fun but I really do appreciate how well this is tuned!
