There is nothing brilliant about the marketing decision to make a $300 IEM and put an expensive cable on it. For example, when I put a DUNU hulk cable on Olina, it does not sound for 300 dollars. It’s the same here. If they want to sell their expensive cables, let them sell them, but this is a first fall in the marketing strategy.
Some “Reviewers” went completely crazy 
In mid 2024, an $800 IEM needs to have TOTL performance or close to it… just don’t buy it or buy something better for the same price. It is.
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One would thinks so, although stranger things have happened.
The Effect Audio Axiom, an IEM actually by the brand Effect Audio, shipped without a cable at all lol.
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The way I see it is the Pilgrim is what Elysian chose to release with the tuning they wanted. The Noir tuning was only released due to Effect Audio wanting to do their take/variant on it that also comes with their cable. So the Noir tuning was never intended to be released by Elysian.
Now, that’s just my opinion so has no weight or credibility to it.
I do understand why some people are unhappy with the price hike though, double the price is a bit excessive isn’t it. $600 would’ve made more sense for the Noir.
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I don’t like the Noir’s looks, they don’t show premium enough. They should have gone with a matte and gloss black like the silver of the normal Pilgrim, or if it’s not easily feasible, a matte black-polished silver.
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None of the marketing I saw says Effect audio did any tuning (idk how to strike through so ignore this. It looks like they might have?).
It’s co branded but not a collab as far as I can tell. The musictek page even says “Elysian house sound”. It does use effect audio wiring internally and “double the BAs for the lows and mids” although the driver count is the same so idk what that means.
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I guess here are the full marketing details on the upgrades EA “did”. I’m more annoyed that this got released at pretty much the same time as the pilgrim. It would be one thing to do it later down the road but they are effectively saying right off the bat “the pilgrim could have been better tuned and here it is”
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Honestly I feel bad since I kinda want the noir until I remembered, I’m buying it since it’s an Elysian?
Noir’s FR looks great but literally just go buy from another brand lol, like I’d rather grab a Maestro Mini or Scarlet.
I’d buy Gaea if I ever had the money for em
Makes me want to see about modding some iems with wooden /open caps. Looks sharp.
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It really, truly is the doubling the price for me.
Imagine if B3 and Dusk came out and Dusk was double the price. Pitchforks would come out.
Elysian and Effect do it? “Yeah, but look at all the improvements”.
No. Look at how they moved the goalposts for “affordable entry-level Elysian IEM” from $400 to $800. Nah, miss me with the ass kissing for anyone that wants to. You can do that if you want, but I’m not going to sign off and be like “Oh yay, look what a good Lee and Effect did” cause they bait-and-switched the community
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I wanted to clarify here when I used the word brilliant, cause I see some pitchforks coming out. When I used the word brilliant, I meant for them lol not for the community. I personally think it would be pretty foolish to spend double the money on essentially the same set of IEMs with a little EQ thrown in there but maybe that’s because I’m not a cable believer and I wouldn’t spend over $100 on a cable alone. It’s brilliant for them because they know you have the Watercooler threads of the world and some dudes over on Head-Fi claiming a dumb expensive cable can make your budget Penon set into a kilobuck killer… They know what they’re doing and the know there are plenty of people that’ll dump the extra $400 on the Noirs because of the cable and the small retune.
Bullshit strategy? Yes. Will it work? 100%. That’s my interpretation of brilliant marketing. But again, it’s just my opinion, y’all don’t need to kill me lol
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Companies wouldnt do this if it didnt work so yeah…brilliant on their part, sucks for the community though.
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Exactly, that’s my point.
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If it’s not brilliant for the community, then it can’t be brilliant for the company. Because these IEMs are made for the community, not them. I think this fraudulent business practice will reflect badly on them. It’s not done like that, study at the university in marketing 1 course 
,IMHO.
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The community, or at least a small subset of it (penon bois, cable memers, etc…) will likely fall for this. In which case it does work for the company. Whether they get more profit from this smaller subset than otherwise though, only time will tell. But companies wouldnt do stuff like this if it didnt sell you know…
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It probably is, but it’s still bad business practice. That’s what we call it in my country.
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Would’ve made more sense to release the Noir six months down the line. They’ve missed out as no doubt Pilgrim owners would’ve then bought the Noir too, rather than choose one or the other.
Doubling the price was definitely too much of an increase.
My peasant edition Pilgrim is due to be delivered tomorrow.
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I suppose they are triplets now. I had to go look up who Fresh Reviews was for that new ZiiGaat x Fresh Reviews Arete. Does lots of gaming mice, and some IEMs, seem very CoD focused. From the description it sounds like a Cincotres with a bigger bass shelf ( claimed 9db ) under 300 Hz.
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I can attest to that. Yeah If they waited, I would’ve replenished money and definitely bought Noir. Now I have 0 plans unless I can get it at like 300
Waiting for my Pilgrim to Arrive today, excited as heck
Lol now it’s 3 times as hard to choose
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I keep checking my mail for USPS to tell me it’s arrived lol, I want it now brrihaoird
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