Please let us know if those are the mods needed to replicate your preferred sound profile for the KBear Rosefinch. Cheers 
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I’d say the preferred mods for the Rosefinch are a 350-400-450 (one of the three) grade mesh for the nozzle, and a 300+mesh on the front vent (there are two front vents: 1 directly next to the nozzle and one on the body where the driver is. You can cover one or the other, or both but I usually only cover one). Based on how much upper mid energy you want, you can play with the grade of the mesh, but the 350mesh on the filter and 450mesh on the front vent will get you this:
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Goober,
You da Man! with the plan and the IEM low down. You Rock!
I Appreciate U!
Cheers , Rafa
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So I knew I had great affection for Dunu Vulkan and how much of a direct upgrade on Tri Starsea it is.
Well that sure explains a lot lol
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I know how much you love that iem, the Vulcan was too spicy and sibilant for me. I am not a fan of that much BA timbre.
I did have some nice bass tho!
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@GooberBM I just looked at your rankling list. The description for Orch Lite is blank. Could you give your TLDR take on Orch Lite?
We both agree on Vulkan and Kailua (and other sets) so your opinion is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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I think I missed the “best bass overall” part of that. I think my attraction to the Olina was that it had both soundstage and satisfying bass. I have liked the two Simgot IEMs I have ( EA500 and EW200 ). I keep hearing people rave about the technicalities of the EM6L, but I am not seeing much on stage and imaging. Is this just a case where it meets expectations for the price, but doesn’t stand out?
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7th Acoustics Supernova or You Do What You Do Really Well But Do I Even Care?
So I’ve been out of the business of listening to a lot of new sets recently, thanks to being pretty content with my collection and busy life stuff happening. But then, thanks to @Sonofholhorse @VIVIDICI_111 @MMag05 and @cal_lando, I got an entire IEM collection worth of sets to listen to. I’m going to jump around a bit in the order of how I report my findings, and I’m going to start with one of the more hyped BA sets of the last year, the 7th Acoustics Supernova. What do I think of them? Let’s find out.
Songs to Listen to and Follow Along:
As usual, I’m going to write my thoughts in generalities, but I’ll give you a sample of songs that I listen to, that will relate to the concepts I write about. Feel free to ask for specifics, if you don’t keep up with my thought processes.
Playlist
Swashers/Bubbles - Yosi Horikawa (For imaging/detail retrieval (:00-1:00 Swashers), general technicalities check (both), soundstage depth/dynamics/layering/separation (:00-:30 Bubbles))
The Speedwalker (Live at Madison Square Garden) - The Fearless Flyers (For bass elements, particularly sub-bass/mid-bass interplay, drum kits, soundstage/layering)
DISINTER MY HEART - TRAILS (For treble response and resolution, male vocals, midrange response)
Savior - Rise Against (For rock bass elements, male vocals, layering and imaging, treble clarity :38-1:30)
When I Fall (Outta Love) - Kevin Olusola (For Imaging/detail retrieval :00-:07, tonality, timbre, male/female vocal interplay)
Fundamental Elements of Madness - Dax Johnson (For soundstage width 1:10-1:26, piano tonality)
Holding On (Rome In Silver Remix) - Dabin (For female vocals, tonality, mid-bass response within mix From 1:12-1:36)
1 Thing - Sophie Powers (For sibilance, harshness/shoutiness, high volume listening check 1:28-2:01
*Wire & Guns - KID DAD (For general tonality (warmth vs. brightness) and note weight :10-35, for high volume listening 1:34-2:08)
THE SOUND
Cause I’m like a princess in a castle high, waiting for a kiss to bring me back to life; But I don’t wanna spend my time, waiting for just another guy
A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard - Jeremy Messersmith
(IEM Tuning Style:Neutral-Bright)
So my experience with Supernova was heavily colored, multiple times, where I will admit biases and preferences got in the way of this set winning me over. The first difficulty came with the fact that @mmag05 sent me the Supernova to demo with the Aür Audio Aurora. In spending time with them, I obviously would have A/B’d them together to get a taste of how they stood against each other. Without going too much into Aurora (because that’s going to be a whole story in and of itself. If you know, you know), I found the two sets to stand on very even ground for the most part. I think Supernova brings enough bass to the music, but it’s not particularly emphasized: It’s there where it’s supposed to be, it’s a good quality where I’m not mad at it, but If I wanted Supernova to dig deep and bump in my ears, it can’t. As I said, what is there is very good, but it doesn’t have enough for my taste.
Fortunately, even without a huge quantity of bass, Supernova does not suffer from thin or light tonality. Supernova’s midrange is great, which is a hallmark of well tuned BA sets. There’s full clarity in the midrange, with nary a hint of mud to be found, and sparkly vocals. Male and females alike sound splendid and Supernova has real juice here. It does have a bit of an energetic upper-midrange, counter to Aurora’s approach, which I find super interesting. As I turn the volume up, I don’t find sibilance; Sophie Powers’ “1 Thing” does not get piercing, but I still find myself dissatisfied by how Supernova sounds at higher volume. I just find the quantity of the upper range off-putting, even if I don’t think it does it badly. The treble is very clear, with great resolution and extension. But maybe somewhere in the upper mids or treble I could use a little bit of a cut, to take that bit of energy off.
The soundstage of Supernova didn’t give me much special, either positive or negative. I didn’t perceive it as anything but average in height, width, and depth. I did get some good feelings from the technicalities: Imaging and layering/separation was very good. Supernova handled my usual detail tests of “Swashers” and “If I Fall” very nicely, giving me a sense of being near the water and hearing wind swirling respectively, though I didn’t get the effects that the absolute best sets have given me.
THE GOOD
- Great midrange performance (with one caveat)
- Very good tonality, for a brighter than neutral playback
- Better than average technical performance
- Passable BA bass, particularly without tuning for high quantity
THE BAD
- Upper midrange energy just hit me wrong, for some reason
- Only passable bass is not my preference
- Nondescript soundstage is disappointing at the…
- Price
WHO IS THIS SET FOR?
- People who want that clean midrange for their vocals
- Someone who needs a more elevated treble playback versus neutral
- Boutique IEM company supporters
WHO IS THIS SET NOT FOR?
- Anyone that prioritizes bass
- This set ain’t here for that
- I’d preach caution to anyone who might have a hot spot in the upper-mids or treble
- Might be a “demo check” set just to be sure you’re good
- People who aren’t down with a 3 month waitlist period to get your own set new
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Am I being a nitpicky asshole? Yeah, probably. Did I enjoy my time with Supernova? Yeah, I did. Do I see this as a set for me? Not really, but it is a set for a lot of people, and I respect and honor that. This set has a lot going for it, but it also has a lot going against it to my preferences: It’s a great vocal-centric set, but it’s an expensive boutique all-BA IEM that isn’t fully my taste and takes a lot of time and patience to get a hold of. That kind of value proposition has a lot to overcome for me to fall in love, and that just didn’t happen here. But I can absolutely tell you that if you aren’t down on BA sets, and don’t have a high-quality vocal-centric set in your collection, this absolutely should be on your shortlist to get ears on. You very well may love it, even if I don’t. And that’s going to be it for this review. Enjoy your days, and take care till next time!
Rank for 7th Acoustics Supernova: B+
Rank With Personal Bias: B+
Recommendation Level: Highly Recommended (Neutral-Bright)
Rank As a Food: Black Truffle
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Does cost affect your final ranking or is it based purely on performance (sq, build quality etc)? I must have missed a disclaimer
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The first grade is just meant to account for sound quality, coming from my ranking list. The grade with bias is affected by my personal…bias (value, build quality, my enjoyment of a set relative to whether I own it or would buy it).
First grade is my best attempt to be objective. Second grade is completely my subjective experience.
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I was asking because for example Supernova is B+ in non- biased ranking, Simgot EA500 and EM6L are also B+. Are they all on the same level to your ears from SQ for given sound signature all things sound related considered on second thought?
And don’t get me wrong - I also feel that a pricetag of IEM is much more precisely telling the buyer of how fancy the packaging of that product would be than of how good is it going to sound 
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Actually, on my rankings spreadsheet, Supernova is a B+/B+, without bias/with bias
EA500 is a B/B+ and EM6L is a B/B, currently.
Supernova is a better vocals set, but both Simgot have bass I would prefer, so they come down to preference.
Another example is Celest PhoenixCall. Objectively, I don’t think it’s better than Supernova, but if you put both of them in front of me, I’d pick PC more often because it’s more fun and engaging. My bias represents that
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Uh oh uppermids energy—>me 
But excellent write up as always brother
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I’m not saying they’re bad or shouty, and they’re not really sibilant to my ear. There’s just something I don’t like about them
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Shortbus Audio Fat Cosmos or An Experience Unlike Any Other
So a little while back, I spent a lot of time with Shortbus Audio Glamdring and was incredibly impressed as it’s a fantastically (re)tuned IEM, that took the S12 (an IEM I didn’t care much for) and made it the best all-around IEM I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. That said, I had some personal nitpicks about it, chief amongst them that I felt at times Glamdring could be a little too clean, in the midbass. Michael Bruce answered that with his Fat Earth mod, which put plenty of midbass into the S12 and looked like an especially tasty version of his vision. But I asked a simple question: What if you give the S12 ALL of the midbass? From that question came an answer: Fat Cosmos (EDIT: no longer Fat Glamdring, my set has been rechristened because it’s not really a Glamdring. It’s fatter than Earth!)! Let me tell you about what insanity a simple question has wrought.
Songs to Listen to and Follow Along:
As usual, I’m going to write my thoughts in generalities, but I’ll give you a sample of songs that I listen to, that will relate to the concepts I write about. Feel free to ask for specifics, if you don’t keep up with my thought processes.
Playlist
Swashers/Bubbles - Yosi Horikawa (For imaging/detail retrieval (:00-1:00 Swashers), general technicalities check (both), soundstage depth/dynamics/layering/separation (:00-:30 Bubbles))
The Speedwalker (Live at Madison Square Garden) - The Fearless Flyers (For bass elements, particularly sub-bass/mid-bass interplay, drum kits, soundstage/layering)
DISINTER MY HEART - TRAILS (For treble response and resolution, male vocals, midrange response)
Savior - Rise Against (For rock bass elements, male vocals, layering and imaging, treble clarity :38-1:30)
When I Fall (Outta Love) - Kevin Olusola (For Imaging/detail retrieval :00-:07, tonality, timbre, male/female vocal interplay)
Fundamental Elements of Madness - Dax Johnson (For soundstage width 1:10-1:26, piano tonality)
Holding On (Rome In Silver Remix) - Dabin (For female vocals, tonality, mid-bass response within mix From 1:12-1:36)
1 Thing - Sophie Powers (For sibilance, harshness/shoutiness, high volume listening check 1:28-2:01
*Wire & Guns - KID DAD (For general tonality (warmth vs. brightness) and note weight :10-35, for high volume listening 1:34-2:08)
THE SOUND
I just came to my senses, I stay in another dimension; Fear is nonexistent, suit up and swing through the city; Annihilate. I’m wide awake, be very afraid; I’m in my own world, gimme space; I’m in my own universe, gimme space
Annihilate - Metro Boomin
(IEM Tuning Style: Bassy-Dark)
(Credit to mmagtech.squig.link, normalized to 1000Hz)
So in the evolution from Glamdring to Fat Earth to Fat Cosmos, the defining feature is a reduced pinna gain. While Glamdring is more sub-bass over midbass, and Fat Earth is midbass emphasized, neither measure out as having more than 5.3dB of pinna gain. Fat Cosmos was customized to have even less pinna gain, and it has measured out to actually be no pinna gain. In practice, this inverts the frequency response: Most times we see tunings that flatten out the midbass, in order to not interfere with the upper midrange. Fat Cosmos flattens the upper midrange, in order to not interfere with the midbass. You’ve probably never heard anything like this, and if you’re not someone with a vision of prioritizing bass, then this will not make any sense to you. Frankly, it’l be gross to you. In that case, you can stop reading and just move on. This ain’t it for you.
The way Michael described this set to me, after it was tuned, is something that sticks out to me: He said that for him, Fat Cosmos was as close to having speakers in an IEM as he’s heard. Spending enough time with FC, I think I am in agreement with him on this but let me explain where I’m coming from. I absolutely am not saying FC is on par with a speaker system, or can any way replicate the way sound hits your ear from a speaker system. What I am saying is I get the types of mental sensations that remind me of listening to speakers, because this IEM is tuned so radically towards the bass. The vast majority of IEMs are allergic to bass and lower-midrange, even sets with a lot of bass. This is because most sets cut the amplitude of bass off by 300Hz, so you get clean sub-bass, but often a lack of midbass and lower mids. This leaves a lot of IEMs with an antiseptic sound that prioritizes vocals and bright upper range energy. Fat Cosmos (and Fat Earth) embrace having that scruff on the music, the way you’d hear it in a club. No club I’ve ever been to sounds like Dunu Vulkan or 7th Acoustics Supernova. They sound more like Fat Cosmos.
That said, this does limit what sounds exceptional on FC. Vocals are not great on FC: They’re not hidden or drowned out, but there is the muddy thickness that will turn off lots of people. Fat Cosmos is also genre-limited because of the nonexistent pinna gain. Fat Earth must sound better, with a wider variety of genres, because of that extra pinna gain. This set is definitely meant for a certain mood and/or type of music.
What is a sneaky important thing to note is this still has the bones of S12’s soundstage and technicalities in it, but it’s kind of on crack: The sheer amount of bass makes the soundstage feel engulfed in sound, while maintaining better than average imaging and detail retrieval. With songs that are mixed to play with these qualities, FC is on a different level than even Glamdring. In deciding to prioritize the experience over being accurate, Fat Cosmos has a lower floor for being an all-around IEM but it has a ceiling that might be unrivaled for creating a fullness of sound that is unique to anything I’ve heard.
THE GOOD
- One of the most unique tunings I’ve ever heard - You cannot invert the FR more than this
- Bass: This set isn’t bass-emphasized. Fat Cosmos is bass
- Not just quantity but actual quality too. You don’t get it like this often, if ever
- Crazy soundstage
- Not as good as Glamdring but better than it has any right to be with this bass shelf
- Planar imaging is still top-notch
THE BAD
- One of the most unique tunings I’ve ever heard
- If you don’t have the imagination to conceptualize an inverted FR, this is going to sound like trash to you
- Extremely genre-limited for almost any listener
- Even I’m not saying this set is versatile. It’s not
WHO IS THIS SET FOR?
- Me: This is a 1 of 1 custom set. If you want something like this, you’d have to get Shortbus Fat Earth
- (As an assumption of Fat Earth as I haven’t heard one yet): The bass hungry, I’ve been told metal is really good on Fat Earth which I think would sound better on it than FC, this much bass with a little more versatility
WHO IS THIS SET NOT FOR?
- People who live for sets on the other end of the spectrum: Your Butastur, Supernova, Simgot, Harman types. Even Harman-neutral types would struggle with this
- Anybody who has a limit on what is “Too Much” bass. Even as a bass lover, if you conceptualize such a thing as too much, then you can’t do this set.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
It doesn’t mean much, but it means everything. It doesn’t mean much because you can’t get this IEM (and that might be for the best, honestly. I’m a psycho). But to me, what Michael Bruce created here is kind of everything because in an IEM world where everything is so much closer to the same than not, this IEM is a monstrosity, and I say that with a heart full of love. I’ve heard sets that you can play at a high volume that make you tap out from the upper end energy getting to that point of overwhelming. I’ve never heard an IEM that scales to the upper-mids, until you have to tap out to the bass like this before. And that’s what I was looking for when I asked for this tuning: I wanted a set that had the bones of the tuning he’s done but is like nothing else out there. This fits that bill to a tee. While I can’t put my playlists on shuffle and just enjoy, which is my usual test for greatest enjoyment, this set simply doesn’t care. I can put on my lo-fi, background instrumental playlists and be assaulted by a cacophony of sound that takes lo-fi and makes you feel like you’re IN it. It plays back metal in a way I haven’t heard before, emphasizing the low-end expressly and taking the bite out of the guitars, but leaving the treble in place, and not being overly congested. This is a concoction that should not exist, but I marvel at what it can do.
(Credit to mmagtech.squig.link, normalized to 500Hz)
In a sea of normal, dare to be different. If you’re bored with the status quo and want something special, hit Shortbus Audio up (Find him on his discord or ask for his order sheet. If you need an in, the community will get you there). Love it or hate it, you’ll have an experience unlike any other. And that’s going to be it for this review. Enjoy your days, and take care till next time!
Rank for Shortbus Fat Cosmos: S
Rank With Personal Bias: S+
Recommendation Level: One-Off Custom Build (If interested, get Fat Earth)
Rank As a Food: Turducken
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Pheww. What a ride. What a fucking ride reading that review
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Wait goober, did you tried the Butastur?
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Not yet. It’s on its way to me to demo
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