That, simply from reading over a dozen reviews about them, is exactly the sound I would expect, so without having heard them I can only say you must be spot on. I think I would fall in love with their liveliness and not doing anything wrong, which is probably a great compliment for any IEM under a thousand bucks. But coming from Apogee Duetta and Revel Ultimate Gem loudspeakers on Mark Levinson sets I’m afraid I’m probably something of an audiophile boomerang that is slowly picking up an old hobby again, meaning that soon enough I would probably want more than the FH7 can deliver on an absolute level. Knowing how nitpicky I am I will probably focus on anything it doesn’t do perfect instead of focussing on what it does well. As such I thought I’d be happiest with something like the Kiwi Ears Orchestra that apparently is very hard to fault, without doing anything top notch. I think that behaviour would keep me closer to what it’s all about: The music.
Happy to help! Yeah the FH7 isn’t for you then if you’ve had plenty of exposure to high-end audio. It would likely be a stepping stone rather than a final destination. That’s what the FH7 was for me.
I hope the Orchestra does it for you! But if it doesn’t, just ask here or message me. Compared to how nuts speakers can get, IEMs are a bargain to get top quality audio.
Mmmmm. Yes, but FH7 in my opinion is well above the price! IEMs with a much higher price cannot reach it. There are some drawbacks, but overall it is exceptional, even for 2021.
Thanks for that… I have crossed the RSV from my list because it had too many No’s for the price. That last addition is important for me as indeed I can find more than a handful IEMs that are better on average, but they all seem to come with a couple of let downs that wouldn’t make me comfortable paying that much more.
Having quite some experience with electrostats I don’t really think I would appreciate having them included on an IEM in this price range. I do like them very much (I spent weeks with a Stax Lambda Pro) but I recognize too many “faults” in the mid-fi category reviews that more often than not leads to a rather disconnected sound balance. This is not only because of their sound characteristics but also because of cross-over issues. Yes, they add something very special to the sound, but my experience so far isn’t that great. I guess we can’t expect an extraordinary integration with the rest of the sound at this price level. Fair enough. Although I would kill for a single driver EST setup I will never do so under $1,000 or so.
I’m even hesitant about a dynamic / balanced armature combination to be fair. They’re simply 2 completely different beasts that need a lot of tricks to play very well together. Yes, sound-wise it can be just fine, but having to use many cross-over tricks to solve timing and phase problems in the end leaves a lot to be desired once you’re talking rhythm, soundstage, dynamics, etcetera.
If I had to choose between dynamic-only, BA-only, and EST-only, then in an ideal world I would always pick EST-only. But sub $1,000 I think dynamic-only is probably the best compromise, were it not that there’s not too much available. Probably mostly because people want to buy something with a strong V-shaped curve, that sounds very dynamic, with impressive specs, that looks gorgeous, and can be had for less than $200. How they hold up timbre-wise against real world accoustic instruments is not that important in a world built around electronic instruments that are based on distortion - or so they say.
Most important sentence of my rant: There’s not a single system that is better than others as it’s all about compromises and how it’s executed.
The FD7 has a 100% pure beryllium diaphragm, not just coated like the FD5; I imagine that is a big part of the extra cost. Whether or not it is worth it is another matter. I have seen 1 review so far that was very positive:
But I need more reviews to be sure it is worth the price. So far the jury is still out imo.
From the rather luke warm reviews I pick up here and there it sounds like a $500 price tag would be perfectly fine to make it a very decent contender in the Dunu Studio SA6 / ThieAudio Oracle / Kiwi Ears Orchestra / Moondrop Variations league. I’m guessing there will be a reduction to $550 max pretty soon to not only attract FiiO and berrylium fan boys.
I saw BGGARs review and thought it sounded interesting so I decided to roll the dice. I’ve only had it a day but thus far i really really love it. Way more put together than the Dunu Zen (o.g., not pro). This may actually be getting close to to what I’m looking for in an IEM, which is a kind of Focal Elex/Clear sound. It’s not the last word in extension up top, but it’s not as rolled off as the zen, vocals are very natural as well, just a bit lifted but not “shouty”. Not quite hearing Campfire bass here but i’ve heard folks say you need 100+ hrs on them before they’ll settle in so I won’t call that one just yet.
I’m interested in the FiiO but since the other poster talked about the 7Hz I thought I’d help him, as he tried to help me by suggesting the 7Hz. It definitely fills in the “or” in the title of this thread! I’m active on the 7Hz thread as well so I may have caused some confusion all the same.
I’m currently doing a whole study (!) for anything between $200 - $1,500. Started with just over 30 candidates and have narrowed it down to 7 by now, driven by having to gamble on fit issues reviewers warned for, and the most balanced / neutral / coherent sound. I’d be interested to hear what you come up with.
