My Goldplanar GL-AMT16 Video Review is here:
And this is for those who like to read.
GOLDPLANAR GL-AMT16 AUG 21 2023
This one was so graciously loaned from a fellow audiophile code name Dennis and my many thanks for the opportunity to listen to these unique IEM’S
THIS IS A NEW USE OF A 40YR OLD DREAM
The Goldplanar GL-AMT16 is a single driver IEM utilizing a 15.5mm Air Motion Transformer
This technology was invented by Dr. Oskar Heil in the 70’s
Now let’s get into it: The Techy Stuff
I am going to be spending a bit of time explaining what a AMT is:
An AMT is a form of electrostatic driver a dipole meaning sound is produced on both sides of the driver.
Essentially there is the diaphragm membrane up front there are powerful magnets in the back and there’s a dampening material in the centre to absorb all the unwanted rear waves.
Where a conventional dynamic driver has a voice coil that pushes the cone around the edge, a AMT has its motor bonded onto its surface.
The AMT diaphragm is made up of a layer of Kapton - a type of polyimide film and a layer of aluminum bonded to it for the electrical signal to be passed through it.
The Diaphragm is actually, folded in a way with gaps between the folds.
When signal is passed along the circuit in opposing directions it causes the diaphragm to compress and expand the fold causing the air to be squeezed in and out like a bellow.
There is a lot of surface area in such a small space and to give you a idea how much this 15.5mm diaphragm is squeezed in there the equivalent surface area in a dynamic driver would be 120mm or roughly 8 times a conventional driver.
Now this is not new technology per say but because of the ultra linear response and quick speed Air Motion Transducers were used primarily in tweeters or upper midrange drivers in combination with conventional dynamic drivers for years in higher end speakers and monitors. The primary reason you didn’t see the tech everywhere in the past was higher cost to manufacture.
In 2020 a company called HEDDphone EX Adam Audio guys started using a full range AMT in their headphones. It has a frequency range of an outstanding 10hz-40khz! Admittingly, they knew the whole headphones were heavy and needed power as well. BUT THE SOUND.
We have seen a tonne of Planer Headphones and IEM’s at very reasonable prices. The difference between the two tech is that Planar is situated on a flat plane and not pleated and folded like the AMT. An AMT driver can move a lot more air with better control and distortion.
Now we see on the market a mass number of AMT drivers and the prices have come down by leaps and bounds. I bought a set for my car for under $100! And they sound amazing.
Car audio has joined the acceptance and application because of the off-axis dispersion is truly mind blowing and gives a massively wide stage even with a lesser than ideal placement.
It was only a matter of time before we saw a full range AMT squeezed into a IEM shell. Thus Goldplanar GL-AMT16 was born.
There will be more and more I am sure as the sound and technology improves with more affordable options.
I personally have a set of AMT Tweeters in my car and my Adam Audio Studio Monitors and love whey do and how they sound.
YOU’RE NOT DRIVING THIS ONE OFF YOUR PHONE NOR ARE YOU LISTENING TO IT ON LOW VOLUME. Funny statement because normally AMT tweeters are very linear in their scaling and work great on low volumes and remain incredibly smooth as you dial the volume control. The AMT16 not so much as you will read in the sound part of this review.
SPECS: Goldplanar GL-AMT16
More information can be found here and non-affiliated link: GoldPlanar GL-AMT16 15.5 mm Full-range Air Motion Transformer In-Ear Earphones – Linsoul Audio
Single Driver Configuration consisting of 1 15.5mm Full Range AMT Driver
Anodized Aluminum alloy shell
5 Interchangeable nozzles with ABSOLUTELY NO INFORMATION IN THE GIANT BOOK OF LITERATURE about what they do.
Detachable 0.78 2 Pin Modular cable 3.5 2.5 and 4.4 ends included. It’s a 8 Core cable with 6x 6N Single Crystal Copper and 2 Cores of silver plated Gold Foil.
Frequency response is rated at 15Hz-50KHz.
Impedance is 16 ohms.
Sensitivity of 102db
Weight is 7g ea without cable.
PRE-SOUND IMPRESSIONS - HOW DID I GET HERE:
Well Before I can get into how this sounded, I needed to go through the process of listening to each of the five available nozzles that you can swap on the GL-AMT16.
How much do I love nozzles just about as much as I love tuning switches, I wish this trend would be over sooner than later and manufacturers get back to a tuning that is not only appealing to most but with some reasonable thought and processes going into it.
Now with being said my process of listening to this I am I started off with the default nozzles which are the narrowest bore now I should mention the difference between these nozzles in some companies with different IEM’s they put different tuning sponges or different tuning filters on the nozzle and in the nozzle to make the changes. With the gold plan ARD GL-AMT16 they’ve done something slightly different and in this case what they’ve done is they’ve changed the internal Diane diameter of the boar and what that does is affect the high frequency spectrum quite a lot as you will see from this graph and that changes the overall tuning quite a bit now in the graphs it doesn’t show that the base has changed very much but in reality when you listen to it and what our little brains do is because if we have less of the high frequencies we sound like we have more bass and I’ll get more into the tuning in a bit but let’s just talk about what the nozzles did for me and where I ended up.
So to start off I use the stock tuning which is the 5.5 millimeter outside bore with an internal diameter of 2.7 millimeters so right off the bat my impression of this particular nozzle and in this case I was still using a my favorite JVC FX-10 spiral dots that I love and my first impressions were that this was a pretty smooth tuning but the extension an the upper mid sounded a bit muted also there was a sharpness A sibling 's to the vocals with this particular nozzle.
And then I went to the opposite extreme I went to the six millimeter outside diameter with the internal bore of 4.4 millimeters now with this nozzle I also thought that the vocals sounded a bit thin and forward space was pretty light making instruments like guitar sound Finn with not enough note weight to them.
So, at this point I didn’t really need to go to all five of these nozzles to understand what the internal diameter bore was making the sound signature like, and I worked on more of what I can do to get it closer to what I think is the optimum tuning. After listening for a little while I decided to then graph what all five nozzles were doing at this point to get a better understanding from what I was hearing and see if that translated to the graph, and I could understand that on the graph.
What came up to my eyes and confirmation to my ears was that there was this peak at two KHz and that was causing some any ear resonances that would make it sound shouty and sibilant and thin.
So at this point I went onto the forums and got some feedback from other people who own this set and their impressions about what they did and one thing that was suggested to me was ditched silicone tips and go with foam tips and that helps quite a bit with the shoutyness.
So that’s what I did I found a set of foam tips that I liked I have no idea what brand they are or where they came from, but they work great for me next, I started playing with nozzle filters so I found that the I liked the most In the end of my nozzle rolling.
I found with the extra energy that the 6.0 dash 3.8 millimeter nozzle output and sounded, and that’s where I was going to stick for the remainder of my sound impressions. I like the extra energy up top but if I could just somehow knock down that 2 KHz. pina gain things would be a lot better in my happy zone.
Tips were a wondrous transformation helped quite a bit but there was still something that was off and then I started playing with nozzle filters I ended up starting off with a 400 level mash nozzle moved up to a Tanchjim Oxygen filter, found that was too much of a hit to the upper mids and made vocals too recessed, Next up I then went back down to a cotton filter that’s about a 400 level compared to a mesh one and found that was a happy medium and was close to my desired ideal.
With these changes everything got a lot better got a lot smoother the base became more prominent and started hitting with authority and overall the impressions I was getting about the analogue like sound signature started to really come to shape and I wanted to nurture that more, so that being said let’s play with sources so from there I went to my Geshelli Labs JNOG J2 with the topping A90D amp and then I tried the iFi stack and then I went into my Shandling UP5 and what I found was that the gold planar GL-AMT16 prefers a more warmer source and it really brings out the more analog sound signature on the more analytical sources I found that it really brought out the air the extension and the details but lost out on some of that magic sauce so happy in between was using the Truthear Shio with the CSS stack and that turned out to be a great pairing.
Another interesting Observation was that off of my Hiby R6 Pro2 that there just wasn’t enough juice even at high gain to drive these properly now you’d think that the she row having less juice would be less of a match I’m not sure what it is maybe it’s this DAP and these IEM’s but together it didn’t make the greatest sound combination.
Lastly, CABLES Normally in cables for me I can hear a difference between the differt allow mixes, and I was getting the impression that the stock cable with the copper gold and silver mix which probably not the right mix to have on this IEM. With the tuning nozzle with the more energy, So at this point I switched to a pure copper cable and found that was the magic sauce to put everything together with the less analytical source, the foam ear tips, pure copper cable 6.0 millimeter – 3.8 millimeter bore nozzle 400 level cotton filter on the nozzle I came to euphoria.
So that’s how I came to my final configuration and my listening impressions are based on that.
What I ended up getting was a very analogue sounding old school smooth sound signature great bass extension and the high frequency energy and extension were well balanced in the mix but an incredible amount of detail/air and positioning with a very wide massively open sound-stage that sounds way more like you’re in a concert 100 rows back then you are sitting behind a piece of glass in a studio.
Pictured in final configuration for sound impressions with Hakugei Peaceful Voice 7N Pure copper cable and some unknown foam Tips.
Subjective Part of my Audio Review -
What I Liked:
- Very Analogue presentation through all of the entire frequency spectrum
- Not like anything else currently on the market
- Unboxing Experience second to NONE
- Build quality and fitment should work for most people.
- AMT uniqueness translates into a wide open stage
- Natural way of replaying the music without effort and distortion
What I Though Needed Improvement: (Subjective)
- NOWHERE IN THE LITERATURE DOES IT EXPLAIN WHAT SOUND EFFECTS THE DIFFERENT TUNING NOZZLES DO TO THE TUNING. TRIAL AND ERROR AND NOT ACCEPTABLE.
- Mid Bass attack may not be for some as it was done in a way to be present to enhance rather than be fully present in the mix
- Packaging was overly done to my tastes and I found a bitt excessive even on a set costing $1499 Packaging clocks in at 3.2KG over TEN pounds!
- The 2KHz peak in all tunings adds too much of a forwardness and resonances that needs to be addressed a little bit with a tuning filter in order to bring it down to a more natural level in my opinion.
I share my impressions as I hear them with my ears.
As all our ears are different shapes & size so what I hear as bright or bass heavy -you might hear as dull and Vise-Versa; just something to be mindful of.
What makes my ears happy as a sound signature is a slightly more aggressive L shape. I love my Bass Sub and Mid Bass slam, love it all actually; and in balanced quantity. With the Bass, I prefer a faster decay the faster the better so as to not bleed into the mids., I am treble sensitive and prefer a slightly darker warmer replay with good treble extension.
I prefer the fast speedy bass of the Beryllium Coated Driver of my Xenns Mangird UP with a Beryllium Coated Driver. My reference is my Softears Twilight and my THOR Mjölinar MKII single DD. And the fabulous 64 Audio U12t that I hold in high regard as well.
Of course, there are exceptions in the market - as I also find the bass of the PENON 10th Anniversary IEM special - has some great mid bass snap as well as some serious sub-bass!
My music Library is widely varied from; Metallica, Great White, Cowboy Junkies, Pink Floyd, Adelle, Melisa Ethridge, Fleetwood Mac, Five for Fighting, Manikin, Poncho Sanchez, Jimmy Smith, Chopin, The Crystal Method just to name a few. When not listening to my test tracks the majority is Jazz or Alternative Rock especially Female Rock. Lorde, Halsey, Alanis Morrisette, Evanescence. All depends on my mood.
My Format has changed with community feedback. So now I will list the music tracks I used & why with my musical impressions of the playback using that track. I hope this will give you some context for my library and give you some context to compare using the same tracks.
THE GOLDPLANAR GL-AMT16 IS UNIQUE, IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A PLANER , NOR DYNAMIC DRIVER OR BA SET OR FOR ANYTHING-ELSE I HAVE HEARD.
SOME STANDOUT TRACK IMPRESSIONS:
Let’s Begin:
#1 “Bubbles” by Yosi Horikawa
- I found the sense of space the width the depth and the height all excellent done it sounded like it was done in a huge room and the mikes were far and closely spaced to get the effect that being said was it the most natural sounding and the best I’ve heard no I would definitely give that to the Softears Twilight it seemed to also be missing quite a bit of the note weight from the different balls he couldn’t tell that one was a ping pong ball and one was a basketball where on other IEM’s that had more base weight you could clearly hear and feel the difference.
#2 “Nothing Else Matters” by Miley Cyrus
- Very nice base texture on this track with an absolutely incredible extension and sense of air vocals we’re perfect the stage was wide but still fit entirely into your headspace I was getting a good sense of the staging at this point.
#3 “Poem Of Chinese Drum” by Hok Man Kim
On this track again it was kind of interesting for the bass you could clearly hear the resonances of the drum skin but what seemed to be missing again was the note weight from like a dynamic driver and the attack and decay though still very good still felt like something was missing.
#4 “99 Luftballons” by Nena
The gold planner GL dash and T16 does vocals amazing this track no exception smooth clear clean articulate and with the correct energy to bring forward female vocals and yet keep a good balance in the track between the base and the high frequency energy.
#5 "Lux AEterna " by Metallica
- The speed of bass was well presented the what I found was that I was missing the snap that you would get from my dynamic driver or a BA transducer I thought it sounded very analog sounding again but I was kind of missing that extra energy to give it more attack and thus more excitement into this track.
#6 “Trust” by Sixpence None the Richer
- Such an analog sound. The piano was absolutely bang on vocals were perfect you could hear her actual lips coming together a few times when she is singing such a cool experience and a rare one at that to hear that kind of level of detail was a real treat.
#7 “New Year Day” by Taylor Swift
- Track what came to mind was that the presentation was a very organic smooth and wonderful replay I wasn’t listening to any gear at this point I was simply just enjoying the music.
#8 “Hey You” by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- OK so how did the GL-MT16 do on an orchestral piece well it had a wonderful extension, and the dynamics were great the flute and all the instrumental was done so nicely there was just a hint of warmth maybe that was just the analog sound coming through but whatever it was wonderful.
#9 “Time” by Roger Waters
- The opening of the bells in the clock will put a huge grin on your face. The smooth treble was such a nice presentation and Rodgers vocals had weight and a husk to him that sounded very natural.
#10 “Witchy Woman” by Eagles
- A perfect example on this unique analog presentation the gold planner did this with such a uniqueness that I haven’t heard before what a treat.
#11 “She’s A Lover” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
- On this track there was some very nice base hits and the weight was great not the fastest but a very nice punchy low end there was zero base bleed outstanding male vocals.
#12 “Wot Gorilla?” by Wind and Wuthering
- An amazing ton of high frequency energy and all done so nicely excellent separation sparkles no harshness or sibilance was very cool
#13 “Give Life Back To Music” by Daft Punk
- Throwing some EDM here to actually figure out how the bass was going to do and on this track I thought the base was very organic again not very speedy but nicely weighted with an old school analog thump would this be my first choice for this kind of genre probably not but I will tell you one thing you can probably go pretty loud and listen to it for many hours that was a given.
#14 " Ghost Story" by Sting Alright
- so I’m trying to listen to some male vocals and the guitar which sounded very nice the sting’s voice is a very smooth melody again I’m -going to use that analog sound didn’t sound like he was in a studio it sounded more of a bigger presentation and that’s kind of unlike most replays I have heard from this song on other IEM
#15 “Thank You” by Dido
- Very organic sounding vocals so smooth.
#16 “Walk On The Wild Side” by Lou Reed
- On this track the Bass on the guitar was missing a lot of that mid bass to make it sound acoustically correct the vocals were amazing but the overall presentation just seemed to be lackluster without that sharpness that I came to expect and maybe that was kind of the analog tuning of this set, but it had me wanting for more.
#17 " Way Down Deep" by Jennifer Warnes
- Well, if you’ve ever listened to this track with Jennifer Warnes’s voice it is an exceptionally well recorded track here you can hear great height excellent details amazing high frequency extension the drum hits we’re a bit weightier and punchier that was a bit of a surprise from the previous tracks.
#18 " You Look Good To ME" by Oscar Peterson
- How did jazz do well I got to tell you that the little triangle instrument sound at the very beginning sounded amazingly real. The strings are also very good, but the base was light overall the whole presentation was lively and fun. Would I use the gold planner GL-AMT16 for my first choice listening to jazz music no I would probably say not there’s just not enough wait too the bass guitar and the drums to give it a realistic replay but the presentation and the space that it presents in is also very appealing.
#19 "Hey Now " by London Grammar
- This track is a perfect example of what the AMT 16 does best very analog you hear the noises the pops then the Super incredible vocals you hear it all very detailed done in a way that again I found it was very special.
#20 " The Feeling Of Jazz" by Poncho Sanchez
- On this track the trumpets sounded fabulous but again they’re Achilles heel of the Goldplanar GL-AMT16 is of the bottom end where Poncho’s drums just didn’t sound like they had the Poncho punch to them
OK that was jus some tracks that helped my get to my overall impressions.
OVERALL SOUND IMPRESSIONS:
The Goldplanar GL-AMT16 is unique it is unique on the market for now because it is one of the very first air motion transformer IEM’s out there. As more sets like these become more mainstream and the costs come down I think more people will really get to enjoy a truly analog sounding I am.
I have listened to IEM’s that had one component of them whether it be the bass the mid bass or the mids maybe the vocals and even sometimes the high end that had the element of an analog replay old school style sounding but the gold planner AMT-16 does this in a way where it presents an analogue impression on you through and through the entire frequency spectrum and that’s what makes it unique.
This IEM doesn’t sound like I dynamic driver doesn’t sound like a balanced armature set it doesn’t sound like a planer set, nor like any hybrid set using a combination of different drivers. It sounds like an air motion transformer with a big wide huge open stage an incredible extension and the fluidness in the way it presents music.
I love my AMT tweeters in my Adam audio studio monitors it presents in a way with a massively wide stage in fact when I started monitor rolling on my desk, I just had to go back to the Adam audios with AM tweet tweeters because nothing else sounded even remotely close to being as natural without coloration true to the artists intended tuning.
Same as my car audio system the first component I swapped out was the factory Dome tweeters with a set of AMT tweeters and what I found again was what I experienced in all my other dealings with this driver was that it was very linear from very low frequencies or low volumes to higher volumes and it kept its composure and one of the biggest things I noticed in the car probably one of the worst places you could put a sound system is that the stage again opened up a great amount and placement and time alignment was less of a factor. Staging with the AMT tweeters in the side pillars sound like the left side is 6tf outside the car!
What I found strange about the gold planner GL-AM T 16 was that it was different from my experience using this in other applications where I found at low listening volumes it wasn’t a good experience in fact I didn’t enjoy them at all sounded muted and dark and then it wasn’t until you started putting some juice to them where they would really liven up and that’s what kind of threw me off a little bit and in order to get a really good impression of this sound signature you kind of needed to crank it up a bit and give it some juice then they came alive and they sounded natural.
Also when it came to your tips was a bit of a surprise I normally get excellent results with big open board wide nozzles in silicone but in this case this IEM really needs to have foam tips in order to just take out a little bit of the - I don’t know what you would call it maybe glare or sharpness where that 2KHz. bump is affecting the overall tenor and timber to the vocals while giving a sense of boosted bottom end.
Bass on this one it is nicely weighted but it’s still missing some of that snap and attack in the mid base area that is more tuned toward my preference.
The mids and the vocals of the gold planer GL-AMT16 are spot on male and female with my final tuning and configuration I found mids are very neutral - balanced in the mix upper mid in my journey I feel we’re missing some of that energy in four to 5K area I still wish there was a bit more there and not so scooped out.
For the treble you couldn’t ask for anything nicer very clean very crisp and effortless as well as very articulate and resolving set. The GL-AMT16 is also plays very honestly if you have a poor recording, you hear everything the pops the squeals the noise in the recording you can completely tell if this was a vinyl rip and that just says a lot about how resolving this IEM is.
I think the only hits against this set is for me wishing again more of that mid Bay snap and attack and I found sometimes vocals can sound a bit recessed and thick without tracks with more high frequency energy.
The stage you can easily describe this IAM as having a very wide-open stage definitely more attuned to a concert sounding versus a studio recording I still found that the headspace is all very still intimate. I didn’t find a great amount of death credit card project nor height. I would not describe this I am stage presentation as being very 3D at all.
Conclusion:
Overall if you were willing to take a chance on this set you would get probably the most analogue sounding experiences currently on the market and you would also need to spend some time as well like I did with this set to bring out its best definitely tip rolling cable rolling source rolling are all going to be a must as I would expect you would do nothing less for a set that cost this much money.
Owning this set you will get something unique something other technologies don’t quite bring to the table and for that I’m not sure if the gold planer GL-AMT16 is so unique because of its tuning or is it unique because of its technology the uniqueness of its sound may be determined when more sets come out onto the market and we will get a greater sense of their characteristics when crammed into an IEM shell.
As it is for now, I am humbly thankful for experiencing this set and have enjoyed my time quite a lot. I think it’s one that would be great in your collection if you’re looking for this kind of sound signature and uniqueness. If you think you would enjoy the way the Goldplanar GL-AMT16 have such unique analog sound and have an extra $1499 to spend this is one you may want to consider!
Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
My Video review is here:
TDM
