I believe this is what I’m experiencing with my Monarchs. There is something wonky going on, after a month with them, I’m beginning to notice that some female vocals come across pretty harsh. I look at the fr and nothing seems off there. I compare it with another set that has forward upper mids and nope, The timeless sounds great to me. It must be that EST.
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Cymbals were the other one that I noticed on EST.
I am going to tell you the same comforting words that a few people here pointed out to me.
Think of all the money this knowledge could save you.
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A whole lotta money, my friend, a whole lot 
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What is your current IEM? Obviously it’s all subjective and people value things differently, but for me - owning a CRA, Timeless and Mest MK2 and having Oracle/Excalibur as loaner right now - tonality beats everthing. I rather enjoy a cheap set like chu/cra (if it fits my taste) than a 2000 usd set like U12t (if it doesn’t suit my taste). That being said, I think overall the Mest MK2 is actually the best IEM I have listened so far but knowing what I know now I probably wouldn’t buy it a second time. I really like the Excalibur at half the price and when I listen to it I think to myself “is this really worse than the Mest?”. When I compare with the Mest directly, I realize why the Mest is better, but it is such a small difference, that I have to directly compare it… I couldn’t do it from memory for the most part. And than I wonder if that kind of difference is worth double the price. For me personally I could live with something in the 200-600$ price range as an endgame as long as it suits my taste well… but finding the right one in the price range is the difficult part 
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I’ve been hearing this so much lately about EST which makes me want to stay away from it.
that might be the greatest truth in anything with audio gear ever said
My current top 4 are
- Olina
- Timeless
- S12
- Mele
I have a CRA, don’t listen to it much, but I do like it. I also enjoy the T3+, but it is right at the size limit of what is comfortable in my ears for longer than a couple hours. The T3+ being a size issue, rules out most of the larger ThieAudio IEMs, since they tend to be big.
I borrowed an OG Tea, and was impressed. I get why people rave about it.
I am in a pretty good place, so not feeling like I “need” anything, and have thinking about a good hybrid, like Tea2 or Hekili. I can see spending $500-$600 at some point, but that gets me into tribrids, which I think I will avoid for a bit. 7Hz Timeless is still the most I have spent on an IEM, so Tea is a pretty sane next step, and lets me avoid EST, while I verify if that is what I am hearing.
I am borrowing a Clairvoyance in a couple weeks to test that again. I have a local friend that loves ThieAudio and buys most of the models above the Legacy series. I think he sent the Monarch back, because it was too big for him, and I am expecting the Clairvoyance will be on big for me, but worth giving it a try.
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I’ve actually tried the T3+ while I was failing driving the Monarch’s and ohhhh boy … if you think the T3s are big, the monarch’s are just next level, my friend. For me luckily, the Mons fit great. I’d actually say they’re my best fitting set besides the mele. They fit so comfortably in my ears, and since I switched out the cable to something thinner and lighter, I don’t experience any fatigue in a 2 hour session.
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It’s hard to describe. To me, the EST sounds like it has this metallic harmonic property to it in the 2k region. I’m absolutely no expert, but the Timeless having that graphed energy up there gives me 0 fatigue on female vocals, cymbals, guitars etc etc. while the Mons tend to actually sound like they’re peaking when the vocalist gives it a little juice. This was so confusing to me seeing that the graph absolutely does not reflect that. I may just have to try a different copper based cable or something.
I love my Timeless
Would you mind elaborate on why you think that Tea is an upgrade from Timeless? Thanks
I have Timeless and I really like it. I have been thinking about Tea but never pulled the trigger.
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I got to try the Tea and also own a Timeless. For me the Timeless and Tea are basically like night and day. The timeless has very forward treble&air, while it is thin sounding. The Tea is the complete opposite: Very recessed treble, but very immersive sounding (some may say it has a wide stage).
I like the timeless, but the Tea I like less. @Erokh also has the timeless, but doesn’t like them as much, but he loved the Tea.
Check out @Erokh (he also has a timeless) and my reviews:
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imo wasn’t an upgrade at all
pretty much this^ if you love the timeless you might hate the tea or find it a refreshing alternative (presonally I didn’t care for the tea and now I have 2 pairs of timeless lol)
Thanks everyone!!!
Same here. Been using them again for the last week or so, absolutely astonishing piece of kit for $220.
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I agree: 2 different beasts. They can’t be considered upgrade from one to the other. Maybe compliments, depending on your tastes.
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iBasso DX320 has officially been released together with a new amp module (AMP11Mk2s):
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Sorry, I was gone for a few days, I have been busy with a move, and trying to keep up with work, and some other chaos too.
I don’t really think it would be an upgrade, think of something more like a complimentary IEM to my current collection.
When Timeless came out, I was about ready to buy the original Tea, and instead did the Timeless, S12, then Olina. I am happy with all three, but I let the releases pull me around a bit. I have a few of airy, treble forward IEMs with those. Now I am looking for something different, and Mangird Tea or Tea2 seems like a good choice, plus I don’t have anything with good quality BA in my collection.
The tonality should work great for my library, since I am classic rock guy, and HBB and I listen to a ton of the same stuff. He ranked Timeless just ahead of Tea when it released, so I took a chance, and am glad I did. If you drop out his hip-hop and plug in progressive rock for me, that is almost the perfect view of what I listen to.
Audio Hekili is the only other hybrid that has been on my radar, but I haven’t read enough about it to drop $300+ on it. It has a spike around 5k that I try to avoid, but some extra bass that might be fun.
To show how fast things change, when Timeless came out it, it just nosed out Tea on HBB’s rankings, and they were in the top 10. Today Timeless is 16th, and Tea 26th. The only IEMs under $400 in the top 26 are Tea, Hana 2021, Oxygen, Canon, Timeless, S12, Serial. Chris leaves his own stuff out, so Olina and Mele are missing from the list ( and certainly Olina would rank in there ).
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Your the most knowledgeable about Penon here. I take it obviously your Serial has been fine and Canon fine right ? 
I don’t listen to classic rock so I usually take HBB’s recs with a grain of salt for my library.
Do you find the 5k on Olina to be bothersome. I found that 5k doesn’t work for me. On Oxygen, it made some sounds/voices sibilant.
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My journey with Penon
If it’s true, it’s a strange thought - once upon a time my only experience of their products was the Orb and the Fan. The Orb I thought to be just bad tuning, and so far it’s still unredeemed. I cringe to see it recommended as an “analog set” with “beautiful mids”. The mids are not stand-out, the treble is non existence, and the bass is a ridiculously over-bouncy mid-bass focused bass. There is no way it should be recommended in today’s market, most especially at its price.
The Fan was such an unexpected disappointment when I first heard it that I wrote a long post about it on Head-Fi, probably still one of the non-favorable posts in the “Penon official” thread to date. That story did change however… with wide bore tips, and more power, the Fan really is quite a special IEM and I certainly like it. I was only just able to put it up for sale lately, because it was fun to dip into on occasion. But the bass has none of the detail/feel that the Serial’s bass has, and the V-shape is just a tad too steep overall in the tuning. It’s fun at first but I find the bass fatiguing over a while. Excellent stage, timbre, and overall enjoyment. So that was one I actually did a 180° on.
I liked the Globe quite a but, and still do. However I find with that set the bass glide goes a little too far, and like the Fan is not match for the characteristic bass of the Serial. Quite V-shaped again, because the treble is sometimes a bit much if I turn it up to boost the mids. It is a good warm tuning, I had a spectacular listen to “There there” by Radiohead on them quite recently.
I have not tried the Sphere, Volt, or Legend. One is a single BA so is very unlikely to check my boxes for timbre and note weight, and the other two are cost prohibitive. I’m also more and more sure that single or multi DD are the only way for me.
Sorry a more detailed start to that reply than I imagined, but it gives some context to definitely not being a Penon fanboy even if I’ve tried several of their sets.
The Serial is currently my favorite IEM, and if I didn’t mind the slight difference in timbre, and slightly less defined (but still well textured) bass, that spot could easily have gone to the Canon. So in answer to your question, I think the Serial and Canon are fantastic choices, and at the very top of my IEM recommendations.
I’m only slightly interested in the Vortex because I doubt it will cost much less than I paid for my used Serial, but I just can’t see how it could achieve the same or better tuning with 1DD than the Serial is doing with 3. I think the best case would be that it matches the Serial as best they can, with slightly less extension or resolution here or there because it would all have to be squeezed from 1DD. And in that case, I’d just keep my Serial anyhow. If it’s a bright neutral tuning, that’s what many single DDs are tuned to and it’ll have tough competition. If it’s bass-centric, then they are undercutting their own Fan. So I’d imagine it’s a more affordable version of the Serial, going for neutral with bass-boost?
I’m a bit clueless where it will fall in their current line-up.
The Serial has the timbre and coherency I’d want a single DD for, but the extension and overall sound is more than I’d expect from a single DD.
By contrast the Canon had remarkable imaging and a very engaging tuning but lost some of the viscerality and timbre of DD. There have been other sets that had the same “uncanniness” for me - notably the planar Timeless, or full BA T800 - where I love the tuning, but because the sounds are teleported to my brain without the physical air being pushed to do so (slam, etc.) they feel like they lack breath/weight, and I’m constantly distracted from losing myself in the music. Instead I end up impressed with the sounds, or the IEMs themselves… the saying goes “Listening to headphones with music instead of listening to music with headphones”.
This doesn’t mean the Canon’s timbre is bad, far from it, I doubt I can actually word the precise difference, it’s just something I subtly notice in the experience that feels different to the Serial. If all Serials vaporized tomorrow I would go about my life very happily with the Canon, once again this is not a quantum leap in “superiority” between one set or the other. Each has a different feel.
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