I’ll just add that I never thought I would care about size or if I could lay down with my IEMs until I got the vortex and tried it. They are truly tiny and it’s size has come in handy more times than I would have previously thought.
1 Like
Yes indeed very enjoyable.
Bass felt a little boomy first but after removing the mesh from the nozzle it got much better and more textured
I never tried a mod, nice find!
HBB mentioned it in one of his videos and i was reading only posivtive feedback about it so i tried it from day one already and it really did the trick 
2 Likes
I put small size ePro Horn tips on the Up, and now I’m more confused than ever because listening through songs I’m familiar, everything checks out as sounding as though I have the Serial in. I’ll have to be very careful in songs to use for comparison, and keeping things in my memory. I got the Up at a very reasonable price, so whichever ends up having a clear advantage over the other, will stay as far as I’m concerned. Probably won’t have a good listening session until tomorrow morning early though.
3 Likes
Oooooh boy!!! The problem (I say that relatively because for many it’s not a problem at all) about the hobby is that with enough time, gear (sets, tips, cables, sources, EQ and other modding resources etc.), and money, you are chasing a White Whale. When you can make a $15 set sound like a $100 set, make a $100 set sound like a $500 set, and find a $500 set that’s better than kilobuck sets, there is no end to the hole we can go down. But that is seriously terrifying, that after all the love and praise you’ve put on the Serial you’re having a “wait, this can sound like that too???” moment.
As long as we’re in the hobby, we’re always going to be chasing something 
4 Likes
I was messing around with squigs, and just trying to approximate the one Vortex squig to compare it to other sets. Based on your hearing, does the Kato EQ look generally close to what the Vortex sounds like? Especially as you’ve described it against the Serial?
Because if it does, I have some interesting findings to share.
Well, I liked the Vortex so much, I checked out reviews of the Serial, too. I asked one reviewer at Head-Fi whether the Serial would be even better than the Vortex. He said it’s not so much better as it is complementary (more luscious bass, mainly). So I took the plunge. Just received the Serials less than a week ago, and now switch between the two. Really, they’re both great (in my limited experience), and I tend to switch arbitrarily. It sort of boils down to…
Sometimes I feel like a nut! Sometimes I don’t!
5 Likes
I would say the bass and miss look pretty close to the other graph although the sub bass doesn’t roll off that much.
2500k and up isn’t too close imo. Graph shows it pretty flat up to with a 5 db dip at 7k and then it drops hard at 10k
1 Like
Thanks for the input! I put more effort into getting up to the treble correct, because everything after 7k is to be taken with a grain of salt in ideal conditions and I’m straight up bullshitting here. Translating to HBB’s squig/rig, sub-bass can be -2db compared to other squigs, so that’s a good catch. Other than that, if you imagine the 5-9k dip is less than that screenshot, I give you a graph comparison without commentary…
I might need to pickup some ePro’s. One of the more common tips I don’t have. I’ve been exclusively using the stock tips on the UP. I wonder if any of the BGVP tips are ePro knockoffs? I ordered about everyone just haven’t really felt a need to roll with the UP.
I was thinking of how to summarize my experience with Monarch MK2, and one word comes to mind - 'limp". If it has more air that’ll add character to the set
1 Like
Nope, e-pro doesn’t have a knock off as far as I know.
1 Like
Bought Seek Real Airship today. Nozzle is too damn short for my blackhole ears. The 2 pin connection is very very loose - they got detached everytime I remove the IEM from my ears. Any idea how to fix that?
In another news, Moondrop S8 has delicious treble that I even considered buying it
do you know if the cable you are using is 0.78mm or 0.75mm?
Tripowin Altea 0.78
shouldnt be a problem then…is there an issue with the stock cable?
Both the stock cable & my Tripowin cable exhibit this issue. I plan to return them tomorrow if I can’t fix it
sounds like its the iem then…
1 Like
After seeing the graph on the new Salnotes Zero, it looks like a great option to the Chu. The detachable cable and a slightly better graph in the 5-8k range are both appealing.
3 Likes