Wow I appreciate it. Assuming Everest at the end there is a resonance peak just from the coupler, that’s a pretty nice tuning, at least I think so. Could use some more sub bass though… might be moddable…
I’m going to spend the rest of my life cloning a good fitting Dark Magician. If he did custom shells I assume it would change the sound — plus I could never afford one brand new or customized.
If true I’m in the market for this Lotoo too.
I get my MiniDSP EARS next week. I’ll check if there’s such a resonance.
Against Soloist (metallicky upper-mids):
(more balanced, deeper stage, warmer without muddiness)
(warmer, but lest frequency separation less)
(warmer but congested, stage wider but muddy) (muddier, although imaging is good and balanced due to less bass body) (overall just dark and muddy)Soloist is getting better and better by day, but it could be brain burn in. But the one place that will make people avoid this set will be the metallicky, more sibilant (than average) high-mids. However, if one can look beyond critical A/Bing with other sets and just enjoy music, Soloist itself is a pretty fun set with great body, tonality, and frequency separation. The brain just needs longer burn-in with its unorthodox tuning, which employs the other frequencies to balance out that metallicky nature. Overall, I’m enjoying this set pretty much. I’d say Soloist is Metallicky/Sibilant done to perfection, but of course that’s a signature that not a lot enjoy, yet I don’t know how to explain it better that the overall balance overcomes that fatigue that’s normally very tiring for other sets. Soloist just does.
Oh, it needs power too. I need to run balanced 4.4 on my Zen Dac V2 with volume at 9 o’clock to get the full potential out of this set.
Using one word to describe this set: CRISPY 
I can confirm that the CCA CRA is excellent for its price point and at least matches the experience I get from the HBB Mele. This is incredible value, wowzers
Micro detail is incredible for this price point
What would be a clear upgrade over the CCA CRA in the 200-300 price range that improves on its tonality?
SeeAudio Midnight
I did order a Lotoo LE M1. I really really hope the gamble pays off. Running off almost nothing here…
Their ridiculously scaled official graph, their reputation for DAPs at least being good, a poorly recorded graph from a German reviewer, and the score that review gave (they never gave a score bellow 93% that I could see, so not worth much)…
Desperation to find something to spiritually replace the DM is real. Might have to blaze some trails.
Excuse my ignorance on the matter but is there such thing as a decibel meter for IEMs?
I received my MiniDSP and I can tell you there is no resonance peak at above 10kHz. Here’s my measurement of the ISN Audio H40 with the EARS:
I’m curious about your impressions of the Lotoos.
10characters
The shape of the curves still looks markedly different from the (IE11?) coupler I mainly see people using for IEM measurements. So there’s hope. The reviewer could also have had Insertion depth/tip choices that led to such a peak? I can only hope, at this point!
The graph Lotoo provides is so odd. Besides a squished y axis, to e x axis goes out far, they suggest one peak is close to the 20k mark which is usually beyond meaningful measurement?
That guys measurement is the strangest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’d guess he measured his wife’s frequency response while telling her he bought a new IEM and mixed up the graphs 
Many thanks would try later
Haha I hope for something like that!
A little fun experiment I had with my crazy iem collection (that’s about to be cut in half 
). Iems involved: U12t, VE8, V16, Monarch2, U6t, Violet and PMX.
Not a ranking or objective review. Just listening impressions in a fun format.
This is awesome! I’ve been looking for some impressions on the v16 and you made them out to be pretty good. Hard to find info on them… almost blind bought them. Might have to finally just pull the trigger
Man I need to rein it in. The following will surely allow for a bunch of comparison. My anticipation is that I will keep the Aladdin and the Olina, or the Aladdin and the Autumn.
Incoming:
Currently have:
I know what to expect from many of these, but there is a good chance the Autumn will be a phenomenal match for me (I truly love my NM2+ for quite a while, this seems to fix its tonal shortcomings while adding even more technicality… I’m a sucker for a 13mm DD)
And the Lotoo is the biggest unicorn of them all, or at least is shrouded in mystery. The last time I bought an IEM while knowing next to nothing about it was the Aladdin. I can only pray I’m so lucky with the Lotoo.
Oooh that was a nice shopping spree haha. Hopefully you’ll find a DD to your liking. Wonder what you’ll think of the Oxygen, now that you’ve tasted the DM lol.
