For me not at all and I’m definitely not a fan of spicy sets.
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Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $29.00 | 7N single crystal copper plated 18K gold posse rock popularMMCX 0.78CM ie900 n5005 earphone upgrade cable 4.4mm 3.5mm 2.5mm 6.35
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mt6DL9E
Would that be the same as Penon Vocal?
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You might be onto something there, Sir!
Been wanting to try the Vocal, to see if it really changes vocal regions, but the price and the over-the-top looks have had me hold my breath.
That alternative BlackSoul cable also looks gooood!
I thank you both! @ToneDeafMonk
My wallet, however, does not 
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Yes it is I asked he is the wholesaler for PENON and ISN cables as well.
I have both
If you ask Penon for earhooks you get this exact cable with the nicer ends IMo
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrDfDc0
ISN G4 cable With Modular Right angle ends for less money.
His descriptions are legit without all the marketing bull shit.
If you ask nicely TDM style you might also get a discount he gave me $10 off on the cables below. I bought the gold Graphene and the Silver Gold Graphene
THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN 5 MINUTES FOR FEAR OF REPRISAL FROM HEADFI THREAD.
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Well, that’s insane…
Bitch, you are doing God’s work lol
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This is now my favorite 2 Core SPG cable very well built love this cable.
Feel like Bob Barker $
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Funny enough, I linked that cable to @GooberBM off the record just a few minutes ago 
that thang sure is perty
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First Mest MKIII review/impressions.
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I’m definitely surprised they didn’t upgrade the cable on this one, but regardless, thanks for all the insight on this set, @ToneDeafMonk 
I love the way the FR looks, I bet those sonion BAs sound smooth as silk.
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Dang that reminds me of the OG Tea but with more mid-bass
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That sounds f***ing AWESOME 
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Oh yeah up for 4k down for 5k baby, that’s the way!
At lest for me that keeps vocals engaging but not “pointy”
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The quad Sonion mids OMG and after a few hours the bass just started to slam very organic sounding with shit loads of MB slam.
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My $1599 Nightmare Experience with the Diva - Elysian Acoustic Diva Review
So, I’m sure many of you have heard of Elysian, and the Diva before as it comes with a heavy title, with enthusiasts and reviewers both claiming it as their favourite IEM when it comes to vocals. But instead of just reviewing the sound, I’m also going to reveal the Diva’s biggest flaw so you don’t end up like me… but let’s start with the vocals. Long read ahead, so if you rather watch me talk:
Part 1 - Vocal Diva
They sound absolutely ANGELIC. Natural, airy, open, and detailed - is it the best? Wellllll… depending on the switch or in this case - the dial - the tonality can be anywhere from neutral bright-ish to a good amount of bass boost. Usually, high frequencies absolutely destroy my ears, so I was truly relieved that my initial impressions of them were smooth sailing, and that I didn’t just waste my money on these… right? We’ll get to that later.
Stage wise the Diva is very open and you definitely feel the airiness, with vocals sitting at a comfortable distance without giving up any details or sounding harsh. Female vocals especially are sparkly and dazzling, like a Diva, and the notes resonate and extend beautifully, but aren’t thin or light (unlike moondrop). They’re slightly forward leaning with fairly smooth dynamics, key word, “fairly”.
The Diva has the best vocals… at mid volume. But as soon as I start turning that knob up that’s when shit starts hitting the fan. For example,”Say it” by Yorushika feels too energetic and bright at high volumes. The guitars have a lot of bite that makes it stick out, and takes away focus from other elements in the track, for example her voice that’s already a little thin and hard to hear to begin with. To give you guys some context, I would just be minding my own business, listening to Weyes Blood, Lana Del Rey, or a similar musical sound, and the vocals and instruments are perfect - I’m super immersed.
But then a different song comes on, let’s say, “Runaway” by Carly Rae Jepsen, and now since it’s produced so differently the vocals are positioned further away with the singer’s voice being also lighter, higher pitched, and there’s more energetic instruments as well. However, I’m still at the same volume, but now it’s harder to hear the singer, so I turn up the knob. But, because the production of “Runaway” is so different from “God Turn Me Into A Flower”, more exciting instruments like electronic elements or cymbals are now too sharp and fatiguing, and it takes me right out of the immersion.
Ok, so, just turn down the volume, right? Well, I wish it was that simple, because now the vocals are harder to pick out again. So after readjusting, rinse and repeat, I just sit there, accepting the fact that I’ll never find that balance. Now, to be fair this scaling issue doesn’t happen on most songs, for example, I can listen to Lana Del Rey, Adele, or Hua’s albums perfectly without touching the volume even once, but artists like The Weekend, or J-ROCK and KPOP can get harsh with their extra uppermids energy - so although you can definitely crank it up with some artists, however on other tracks you’ll just destroying your eardrums, and we need those.
I did try the other “switches”, and I like the blue dial the best because of that FAT sub-bass that’s still very well controlled and doesn’t bleed. But again, I still couldn’t’ listen to Yorushika past 80dbs even on the blue one, so take what you will from that. But vocals aside, how are the Diva’s technical abilities, and can it compete with the heavy hitters?
It’s good, pretty great even, but it’s what I’d expect paying $1599. Separation, layering, and resolution competes with other endgame IEMs like the MEST MK2, the Monarchs, and the SA6 Ultra, so in other words, very very respectable. Resolution is sharp, but natural - guitar strings and piano notes are clear without things being pushed too close or overly-sharpened. The best analogy for the Diva is that of a Sunny Spring Day. The mid-range is very clean and crisp like right after it rains, but also has a hint of sparkle from the treble - THIS is what endgame mid-range should sound like U12T, get that scoop outta here.
Cymbal crashes are airy and lively on songs like Model with the attack being splashy, but decays quickly and doesn’t overstay its welcome. This creates a sense of sharpness and resolution without coming off as fatiguing and overdone, or continuing with the Sunny Day analogy, it’s bright but gentle like the spring sun. In other words the Diva is dazzling but without the extra flashes, and sounds perfect with ballads, indie, and bands, which is what I recommend - oh, but don’t get it twisted… the RSV is still my #1 guy when it comes to vocals only and I’m not gonna stop shilling it.
For a quick comparison both have completely different presentations with the RSV being all intimate and in your face with that vocal goodness, very powerful and immersive, whereas the Diva is more lively, spacious, and less forward but still hitting that spot, although not as hard. If the Diva is like sunbathing, then the RSV is like “you’re literally in the sun, man”. In-fact, when I first heard the Diva I thought it was just an airier RSV with better technical performance. I thought “Oh my lord, I think I finally found my endgame…” Until the bass came on - then I was like, WTF.
Part 2 - Crazy Hot Chick
Ok, so here’s where things went downhill, fast. You see, The Diva is kind of like the crazy hot chick that you want to date. She’s stunning to look at (and listen to), and after months of chasing, or in this case, saving up - you guys finally start dating. Things seem great at first and you’re both having a great time, but one day you accidentally hit shuffle and then that bass comes on, and that’s when you realize… She’s got a severe channel imbalance. And clipping too.
Now to be fair - the clipping varies depending on the volume, cable, and sources - so in other words, inconsistent, like a crazy hot chick. Initially, it sounded like it was dying, but, after crying, and then giving it another shot on a different source and cable - I don’t hear the clipping anymore, well, kind of, because sometimes it comes back again, so I’m not sure what’s going on. One minute it brings me tears of joy on one song, and the next, it just brings me tears, and pain, and a lot of it.
But that aside, how bad is the channel imbalance?
Yes. Yes. I can definitely hear it on low-end heavier tracks like Kendrick, Tyler, and pretty much the whole Polyphia album. But then I switch songs, and it’s completely fine… I don’t really notice it with ballads, rock, songs with less low-end, or a broader dynamic range. So, it’s very hard to rate the bass because it’s so on and off, but if I were to describe it in 2 words - BA Bass.
Fast, clean, well-separated and controlled, you know the typical BA stuff, and just like every BA the Diva feels softer and not as tactile and physical versus the DD from the Blessing 3 for example or even the Quartet, which uh, costs 15x less. So to my bassheads out there, no, stop, don’t even think about it, the sub-bass is not the same. Now, of course the huge disclaimer is that I’m not sure if the channel imbalance and clipping affects the bass quality, which is why I reached out to Lee, the founder of Elysian Acoustics, for a replacement, and… this is where the real nightmare begins.
Part 3: Chifi-QC & Apple
So I already showed you guys the graph, but the cherry on top is the box.
You can’t make this shit up. Now, to be fair to Lee, I did purchase my Diva off head-fi, because everything was out of stock, and wait time was horrendous. So maybe, potentially, the channel imbalance was caused by someone else… BUT, I am also fully aware that chi-fi and QC do not get along very well.
Like many others in this hobby I also had my fair share of duds here and there, and personally, I haven’t heard anyone getting channel imbalance after using it, it’s usually already there when you purchase it, so, most likely QC since other owners were complaining about their Diva’s as well when I talked to them on discord. What I don’t understand is, many premium brands like the most recent Symphonium Helios Elise collab comes with a QC graph, so, why no graph Lee?
To give you guys some context, Michael Bruce, or Shortbus, is selling his Glamdring for $250, and that comes with a graph - and he also personally hand tunes every Glamdring to your own music preference - it’s insane. So, when you compare the Diva with those two, paying $1600 to get channel imbalance like this is a joke, and I’m not laughing.
Look, I can let it slide if it’s $20, $35, or maybe even $50 because in that price bracket companies operate on very thin margins, so it’s more palatable if there are some issues, but that’s still not ideal, and certainly doesn’t justify poor quality regardless. So imagine that, but with the Diva which costs like 15 times more and “hand-built”. Now, luckily, my Diva was still under warranty, so, I asked Lee if he could cover the shipping to get it fixed so I could give the Diva a fair review, which seemed fair to me because there’s a defect in your product so it doesn’t make sense that your customer pays for your mistakes right - I didn’t come here to beta test your product… but no no no no hahahaha… Lee hit me with that policy card.
I won’t share the email screenshots because it’s going to make him look worse 100%, and I’m not trying to purposely destroy someone’s livelihood, but basically the gist of it was something along the lines of “according to our warranty, buyer covers shipping, I don’t see problems with our terms and conditions”, and then he compared himself to Apple who apparently doesn’t cover shipping in Malaysia…
Lee, you’re not Apple - maybe Samsung if you’re lucky, and your policy shouldn’t just be JUST based in Malaysia because I’m sure you have many customers who aren’t from Malaysia, so it doesn’t make sense to me to base your standards and practice solely in one country. I would recommend updating your policy to be more international. If I was a new competitor like Elysian, and I’m trying to establish myself, built trust with my customers etc etc, and my product ended up causing a major disappointment, and inconvenience because fixing and shipping is going to take at least one or two months, then I would just be like “hey my bad let me get a new one for you asap” (like Elise Audio, but more on that later).
And just to make things clear, Elysian will still fix the Diva for me, but they want me to cover the shipping expense. Now, I don’t mind covering shipping, I already dished out $1600 so some extra shipping isn’t the issue here - the issue is that your ruined your customer’s initial impression of your brand (and first impressions are very important as you’re starting out and just in general) but most importantly, you ruined their experience and destroyed trust, and instead of trying to work something out - you just point to your policy.
I mean it’s also just good PR because your customers are more likely to tell others and recommend to them how good your service was afterwards, like Elise Audio! But surprise - that didn’t happen, so here we are. If you’re gonna print “never compromise” on your box and try to create an image or associate yourself with luxury and quality, then you probably shouldn’t compromise when it comes to not only the channel imbalance and clipping, but also the entire experience regarding that same product - because then, you’re compromising!!
A great product is the overall experience, including the service, and everything else, and not just the hardware. Instead of me telling everyone “wow Elysian’s product, and customer service is amazing guys - I highly recommend them”, now you end up just losing a customer, well, actually more like 10 just from the people I talked to, and definitely even more after this, so you’re just hurting your own reputation and trust at this point. You probably lost at least $10000 just from the people I know, over, what? $50 of shipping? Really? This strategy doesn’t look very sustainable in the long-run, especially if you plan to position yourself as a luxury/premium brand - which INCLUDES the customer experience.
And to everyone reading, I’m not telling anyone to boycott Elysian, no, please don’t do that, I’m just letting the community know what you might be dealing with if you do decide to go with Elysian. Because the Diva still sounds amazing even with the channel imbalance - it’s still at least an S- overall in my books, that’s how much I like them. But man, Lee, you gotta work on your customer service and PR.
Lee, if you’re reading this feel free to reply so we can have a conversation… Because technically, Elysian did nothing wrong, they followed procedure, and yeah the policy did say buyer covers shipping for warranty, but that’s not the point now, is it. Now let me finish up with Elise Audio to drive home this point
So, a friend of mine recently bought the new Symphonium Helios Elise collab, and his unit got slightly scratched via shipping with some minor imbalance, and it comes with a graph. The owner/sales rep? - Ahmed, saw this on HIfiguides and reached out to him personally to offer a replacement voluntarily. No hassle, none of that “according to our warranty and policy” BS - no, he just said ya, our bad, here’s a new one on us. IT’S REALLY THAT SIMPLE. The “damage” on my friend’s Helios was way less than my Diva that had both clipping on top of the severe channel imbalance. So Ahmed was actually more justified to just say, “oh but according to our policies blah blah blah blah”, and he would’ve been technically right, like Elysian.
But that didn’t happen, and it doesn’t matter to him because Ahmed cares more about his customer’s experience with his products. Same thing with Mike from Shortbus, the man literally does not ship out any Glamdrings unless the QC is pristine (something like within 1db variance I believe). Now, I’m not saying Elysian doesn’t care, but their service certainly doesn’t reflect the same commitment as Elise Audio, or Mike.
So, Elysian gets an F for handling this situation, but the Diva gets an S- for now, probably an S without this whole QC ordeal. Vocal wise it’s #1 for me at mid volume, and cracks the top 5 at higher volumes behind the RSV, Tea, and EJ07. Tied or better than the DM depending on the song (for vocals - the Diva is noticeably better technically than the DM). But ya, sorry for the long post, and thanks for reading till the end!
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Watched the video and bro, I am extremely impressed with how you handled yourself and spoke about the situation/experience. You were very fair, professional, and didn’t take shots at anyone, as much as make a call for Elysian to do better.
This is the kind of video and review that can make you a star or an afterthought. I think you nailed it! Kudos!!!
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If anyones crazy enough with all the Head-Scam stuff going on then this’s a 
deal…don’t know the seller…
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