The Symphonium Crimson is a multi-BA IEM retailing at $1500 USD, that I’ve had the opportunity to listen to the for the past week. It has an impedance and sensitivity of 6 ohms and 84 dB/mW at 1kHz. A big thank-you to the AudioGeek EU tour for the opportunity!
The Crimson offers impactful low-bass and some good subbass, with kick drums having great physicality. Spatial details and treble elements come through with good clarity and separation. After some time though, I found the tuning of the IEM to not match my preferences. With the big caveat that treble perception varies due to individual ear canal shapes, so your experience may differ, I found the following:
Mid-bass and lower mids lack body, causing voices (especially male) and strings to sound a bit thin. Vocals can come across slightly nasal.
Upper mids and treble are forward in such a way that sometimes powerful female vocals sound abrasive or shouty. Some sibilance is present.
The forward treble can accentuate noise floor on older recordings, or enhance perception of the recording location on others (which can be nice).
Light shells with small nozzles allow for easy fitting with various tips. They seem unvented, so you get good isolation. However, them being unvented can cause an uncomfortable vacuum feeling when inserting. They just need some extra care when seating them. After experimenting with various tips, I found Moondrop Springtips to work best. Foam tips tamed the treble but diminished bass impact.
The Crimson benefits from a current-strong source. With weaker sources, bass becomes muted and treble more prominent. I did my listening primarily with the Venture Electronics RA2B-FE, which is very powerful and can output 3W into 32 ohms and 0.5A of current (equating to 114 dB @ 1kHz in the Crimson… plenty of headroom). It did’t perform as well from my weaker Quedelix 5K or iPod 5th gen.
The Crimson could suit listeners looking for an upper-mids and treble-forward set with impactful low-bass and good separation, who aren’t overly sensitive to sibilance/shout and have a powerful source.
What do you mean by club like bass? Like sub-bass? Maybe @domq422 or @GooberBM can help you better with that since they were the last ones who’ve heard it (currently on tour right now).
Depends on where PhoenixCall went wrong for you. If you don’t like anything it did (want more sub-bass emphasis, less v-shape, better timbre, more energy balance in the highs) then I would look at something like ISN Neo 3
I enjoy the S08 so much but I dunno if I’m too excited if this is the new thing lol, I’m more interested in seeing companies make the BC drivers really shine if possible
At least new tech is fun to see
Yeah I did enjoy the Phoenix somewhat but I feel like it’s just a lil bit too intense and I’m hoping Gaea is a more controlled version of the FR they were going for
I’m hoping you enjoy it as much as I do lol, the treble isn’t as sparkly as I’d want but I love how smooth it is to my ears so I end up really turning these up crazy loud
all I know is that if I’m not using my Mext, I’m using the S08 lol
lemme know how you like em, I’m genuinely interested if other people enjoy them the way I have
why does not the SR5 get any discussion? (t made it to the review list of @GooberBM …that in itself is a strong motivation for discussion in this free-to-speak forum i guess)
maybe no “review sample throw away campaign” undertaken for it by Sound Rhyme???
I have reviewed Crimson. I loved my time with that iem, main issue was treble and now with europa they fixed the treble. Now, this might m
Be my end game iem. Hope I get a chance to demo or review them
The SR5 is a good IEM when it comes to techs and a vocal forward presentation. It’s a little bright and thin I think for most folks and the bass is somewhat lacking in today’s market imo but other wise it’s a nice set for sure.
I didn’t respond because I don’t have an opinion on SR5 that I would stake anything on at this point. I haven’t heard it in too long, and I wouldn’t suggest it over stuff I know better.
