IEM Tour Group Europe (ITGE)

Creating this topic for future use😊

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Kinera Imperial Divine Mark Loki impression

Loki is provided by Kinera for a tour in Europe. A big thank you to them for the opportunity! The tour is organized by IEM Tours Europe, (ITGE).

About me

A little bit about myself: I am certainly no reviewer! I am merely a 53-year-old music and gear lover, with IEM’s as the preferred transducer. I prefer more neutral leaning sets, or QDC-like tuning, with some, (or a lot of), bass boost​:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:, but have a wide tolerance for different sound profiles! I also have a fondness for all BA or BA+EST IEM’s, but overall sound and fit is the important part, not the tech’s. Having heard a lot of great gear the last few years I have realized that I like most IEM’s… Both affordable and ridiculously expensive, both mainstream and niche tunings! There have to be some really big negatives for me not to find redeeming qualities in almost any monitor! I say this so that you understand I can adapt to most gear, and my impressions should not be your only reference​:sweat_smile:.

The following is my super short subjective take on this IEM!

Divine Mark Loki is a 3400USD 1DD+6BA+4EST+2BCD IEM with excellent packaging and two excellent free of choice cables. (Flash Acoustics or Effect Audio). Should you want too you can of course buy cable number two also at an extra cost. (999USD). The tour kit came with both cables and a slightly different case than retail units.

This is a Top Shelf IEM which also have Top Shelf sound to me! It absolutely belongs in the very top collection of IEM’s I have ever heard, and is the absolute top of tour IEM’s I have been lucky enough to hear. The tuning suits me to a T! No part of the FR falls short of excellent for me. This is perfectly balanced all rounder sound, (to me), where all voices and instruments sound as I believe they should. Also, for the first time in my life, I think I notice the difference between two cables. Not enough to be totally certain, but I perceive the EA cable to extend/elevate the sub bass in the slightest, while the FA cable is the most comfortable and the one I like the best overall. To me it also looks the best with the monitors. I have not heard the other versions of Loki, but for sure this one is a banger!

The build and look of DM Loki is superb! The looks is of course highly subjective to taste/preference​:sweat_smile:, but it is beautiful to look at in my eyes. Nothing to complain about regarding build quality either. It comes with a great selection of branded silicone and foam tips, (see the product page: DM Loki). I ended up using Divinus wide bore or regular but the included Whizzer ET100’s do the job equally good.

I am not the full review kind of guy, I am sure someone else on the tour will do a better job at that than I could ever do! I still hope this short impression will give some of you the urge to check DM Loki out!

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Hidizs ITGE tour package impressions

The two IEM’s and the AP80 Pro Max Dap is provided by Hidizs for a tour in Europe. A big thank you to them for the opportunity! The tour is organized by IEM Tours Europe, (ITGE).

About me

A little bit about myself: I am certainly no reviewer! I am merely a 53-year-old music and gear lover, with IEM’s as the preferred transducer. I prefer more neutral leaning sets, or QDC-like tuning, with some, (or a lot of), bass boost​:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:, but have a wide tolerance for different sound profiles! I also have a fondness for all BA or BA+EST IEM’s, but overall sound and fit is the important part, not the tech’s. Having heard a lot of great gear the last few years I have realized that I like most IEM’s… Both affordable and ridiculously expensive, both mainstream and niche tunings! There have to be some really big negatives for me not to find redeeming qualities in almost any monitor! I say this so that you understand I can adapt to most gear, and my impressions should not be your only reference​:sweat_smile:.

The following is my super short subjective take on these items!

ITGE received these items from Hidizs:

AP80 Pro Max Dap with the black Leather Case,

MP143 Salt Limited Golden Titanium Edition Planar IEM, and

Hidizs MK12 x DucBloke Single DD IEM.

I’ll start with the MK12 x DucBloke. I am not in the target audience for this set. I never EQ, and this set needs EQ to suit my taste​:sweat_smile:. Stock it is too warm and too rolled off in the highs. It sounds a bit blunt to me​:sweat_smile:. I didn’t use a lot of time on the x DucBloke. Really this is a sin, as it’s a high quality build with high quality accessories. No complaints there! The cable and tips is nice, and was used on the MP143 most of the time. I believe I would like the original MK12 Turris more, judging from descriptions​:sweat_smile:.

The AP80 Pro Max and MP143 were great though! The Dap works great with IEM’s, including the Planar MP1453! It is in many aspects the perfect Dap! Small and light, but with usable touch function on the little 3 inch screen, even for thick fingers. Plenty power for IEM’s, great features including Parametric EQ. I believe this is a first for Hiby OS. There was really just one thing I missed; Since I use streaming from Apple Music 99% of the time, I would have loved a possibility for the Apple Music App, but the Hiby OS dont allow for this. AirPlay from my iPhone worked flawlessly though, so the problem was minimal. Playing music I have bought in different formats also worked fine, it just isn’t my normal use case.

The MP143 ltd is a great planar IEM. I like planars in general. So no surprises there. With the gold nozzle, (you get three pairs of tuning nozzles), it is very close to Letshuoer S12 2024 and Ultra which I have, so sound wise it’s an excellent planar for me. Even in titanium it is heavier than all the S12 variants, but the fit and stability for me is perfect. The one thing I dont like is the cables, which you get two of, one 3,5mm and one 4.4mm. they are identical apart from the termination. They are thin, light and comfortable, but look like they belong to a cheaper set. I would have preferred for example a SPC cable in white of the same 8 core material belonging to MK12 x DucBloke for example.

All in all this was a great introduction to Hidizs for me! I wouldn’t mind owning the MP143, and will for sure look for a AP80 Pro Max, preferably the copper one, or maybe the upcoming Pro Ultra!!?

Typical use case for me​:sweat_smile::

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We got Mega7 on tour now and I wrote a little about it! Great earphones :slight_smile:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/hisenior-mega7.28743/reviews#review-41653

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We got Tanchjim Soda for a Tour!

I wrote about it and made a Waifu…

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/tanchjim-soda-universal-iem.28859/reviews#review-41676

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Single DD shootout

After what feels like weeks of stuffed ears and sinuses, I’m having a little single DD shoutout between Melody Wings Jupiter, Twistura Beta and Aune IR300. Beta and IR300 courtesy of @leonarfd, who got them from Twistura and Aune respectively. Leonard have graciously lent them out to ITGE for a tour between interested members. The Jupiter is a tour unit from NexGears. TLDR; This ended up not being much of a shootout​:joy:. I really can’t call one categorically better than the others since all three are really good​:sweat_smile:. All are great quality IEM’s with good tunings, where one is better at one song than the other two, or equal really. They differ more in build and use case. Beta and IR300 are beautiful metal build with excellent modular cables, (Betas cable is top notch for me). Jupiter are a resin build with nice wood faceplates, and a USB C cable which plugs directly into your phone. In the cold winter weather of Norway, this is the only of the three I would dare take outside out of fear of condensation in the metal built shells of the other two. The Jupiter USB C cable will also be the first dac-cable I have been happy using! It is comfortable and light, and have an actual usable volume scale, where around 50% volume is comfortable listening level, vs more like 10% on the other cables I have used. The problem with that would be just two or max three usable volume steps, with too big jumps in volume between them.

Jupiter is the V-shaped of the gang, with the arguably most fun presentation, while the other two are more neutral or neutral bright, where Beta is brightest. IR300 have a lot of adjustability btw, (and Beta also have different nozzles), so it is the most versatile of the bunch. I used it open with the rose gold nozzle the most. (Beta also with the golden nozzle).

No losers between these three! Personally I might favor Twistura Beta all in all, mostly down to the cable actually, or Jupiter right at this moment since I have to go out and shovel some snow in my driveway​:sweat_smile:

It has been a few days since I wrote this, but I never got around to posting it​:sweat_smile:. At least the snow shoveling got done​:grin:. The Aune and the Twistura have toured on, but I am still enjoying the Jupiter, which I have to say is growing on me big time. Highly enjoyable affordable monitor! Have an excellent weekend guys!

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Our member J3n5 who is not active here wrote a very good review on Horizon, a set I think should not be lost in time as new sets gets released at high pace.

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/authors/j3n5.502479/reviews

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