Here is my sound impressions of the UP.
XENNS MANGIRD UP a new classification? “BASS-Fi”
Pros:
▪ Shell is super comfy, Build quality is top notch.
▪ Holographic Sound stage, Very Wide , Decent depth, Height is just ok. (Intimate sometimes , Sometimes 3D)
The UP can legitimately portray the venue's space ( Club, Big Studio, Small Studio, Garage, Open Air Concert that’s a rare trait I have found.
▪ Bass and Mid Bass are large. Great sub extension, bass just smoothly transitions into warm and fluid mid bass. No bloat on well recorded songs.
▪ Treble gets its own point as the graph leads you believe with this much bass the treble would suffer but that simply is not the case for me. ( See my point on sources below )
▪ You can easily tell well recorded music quality and really shines with it.
▪ Vocals are defiantly a bit laidback in a good way to give you a sense of warmth. Very clear & crisp vocals but still smooth like a Penon IEM House sound but with the proper amount of high frequencies.
▪ Micro and Macro Dynamics are very well done and the UP lets the emotion of the recording and mix forth to make the UP a very fun IEM.
▪ Absolutely Non Fatiguing.
▪ Percussion is fabulous , as was piano and instrumental.
▪ All genre's of music was enjoyable could not fault the UP here.
▪ Scales with power but was fine on all my dongles no worries off of my DAP or phone
Cons:
▪ Not for treble-heads or people who prefer a lot of top end of the music spectrum.
▪ Female Vocals a tiny tad thick because of the amount of Mid Bass ( Perfect for me )
▪ OMG Source sensitive. ESS was almost edgy, and a mix of sharp & edgy (The E1DA-SG3 normally very resolving was UGHHHH NO!, Cirrius Logic was beautiful from the DX160, AKM of the Geshelli Labs J2 was a perfect pairing. UP likes a slightly warm source IMHO.
Things I commented on previously with the UP:
Stage is more intimate that other IEM’S I have ( GS SE12 - Killer Stage ) That being said the UP never really left me wanting more and I honestly like this mix of intimate and wide hard to put into words the UP is special.
Not only is the UP super source sensitive but highly sensitive to poor recordings, people who listen to MP3 will find the UP plays back not great recordings exactly as they are. LOW RES. The UP will sound muddy and all the good things I said above are gone.
Now let’s get into it a bit deeper.
Completely Subjective Audio Review - XENNS Mangird UP
Hello all: Thanks for reading my feedback.
I share my impressions as I hear them with my ears.
As all our ears are different shapes & sizes so what I hear as bright or bass heavy -you might hear as dull and Vise-Versa; just something to be mindful of.
What makes my ears happy as a sound signature is slightly more aggressive U shape. I love my Bass Sub and Mid Bass love it all actually; and in large quantity. With the Bass I prefer a faster decay the faster the better as to not bleed into the mids., I am treble sensitive and prefer a darker warmer replay with good extension.
I prefer the fast speedy bass of the Beryllium Coated Driver of my Xenns Mangird UP and KiwiEars Cadenza. Of course there are exceptions in the market - as I also find the bass of the Bio Diaphragm used in the Yanyin Canon special - has some special sauce like a 8" subwoofer that feels like a 12" Has the slam and some serious sub bass! And the super cool Copper Alloy Shell IKKO Obsidian OH10 does some magic to the bass.
My music Library is widely varied from; Metallica, Great White, Cowboy Junkies, Pink Floyd, Adelle, Melisa Ethridge, Hania Rani, Vilvaldi, Fleetwood Mac, Five for Fighting, Manskin, Poncho Sanchez, Jimmy Smith, Chopin, The Crystal Method just to name a few.
That dripple being said:
And as such here is my take on the: XENNS MANGIRD UP (Bought with my own.
Sources: E1DA SG3 (ES9038), Shanling UP5 (ES912), TEMPOTEC Serenade X (ES9219) Geshelli JNOG J2 with AKM4493 chip. iBasso DX160 (Cirrius Logic CS43198)
DAP/TRASPORT: From Lenovo Laptop with Amazon Unlimited ULTRA HD, iBasso DX160 ,Samsung S22 Ultra with DSD Files.
Amps: LoxjiP20 tube amp and Topping A90D
Tips Used for Best Result for me and completely subjective: Short Wide Bore are my go to and I wanted to bring forth as much vocals as possible with maximizing stage. Mission accomplished with the ML AZLA Crystal tips.
Cable after rolling I used is the Hakugei Peaceful Voice I could hear a slightly warmer ummmm; over the same cable than in a OFCC cable. That’s just me I never want to come off as a cable shill but thought I would share my experience with my journey with the UP.
Some cant hear cable differences but I can not in a way that does something magical but just sounds different from one another to me.
COMPARISIONS:
Not some detailed comparisons I can offer because I only have 3 upper end IEM’S to compare.
So I did lots of back and forth with my Resin EJ07M retuned with a 3db Sub Bass bump and the GS AUDIO SE12 full BA/EST set.
LETSHOUER Custom tuned resin EJ07M - I observed that the Bass was similar in it’s speed and decay of the lows. The XENNS UP hits a bit lower with more note weight, authority and emotion. Kick drums kick ass!
The Up has a larger stage than the Ej’s not as 3D though, Better depth again goes to the UP - many have commented how 3D Holographic the LETSHOUER’s are and I would agree but the Up’s stage sounds more enjoyable to me maybe call it more intimate but if honestly makes me enjoy it more with less fatigue. Sometimes I feel the EJ’s are forcing me too much information around me instead of just letting me sit back and enjoy the music.
The EJ’s male vocals seemed a bit thin and not as natural as the UP , I prefer the warmer more natural tonality of the Up.
Micro Dynamics are better on the EJ’s plays with more emotion more things going on around you and sounds like a smaller venue vs the UP sounds more spacious in its depth and adds to its unique replay.
Female vocals on EJ are spot on and sometimes a tiny little bit thick on female vocals with the UP.
The GS AUDIO SE12 also using full on Sonion BA & EST is a sound stage monster its what’s makes this one special.
Bass is large , super fast , too fast for me I like the slower decay and note weight of a DD. The tuning is more V shaped and has a lot more high frequency energy than the UP , making the SE12 a detail monster. I prefer the more laid back presentation of the UP.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The UP is a freaky special IEM. I did spend a shit tonne of time source, cable and tip rolling to get me to my special mix of perfectly balance of copious bass and silky smooth vocals with enough treble to give me the sparkly.
The Sonion BA and EST Drivers are superior to Knowles for me, they bring a smoother presentation to the sound less edgy than the Knowles.
I find Sonion EST have a great extension for the high frequencies that is perfect for me laid back and still detailed.
The UP does not cheap out anywhere. A great Implementation of a Beryllium coated driver for snappy Bass without bleed, thumpy fantastic note weight but still tight love it. Sonion EST65DA01 for the Ulta-high-frequency drivers, twin Sonion custom high-frequency drivers and 2 more Sonion 2300 series for the mid-highs. So the expensive BA & EST drivers do the magic. Its just the package of DD & Sonion that makes the UP different in its tuning and playback.
Cheers The(Tone)DeafMonk.
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