A place for chatting about TSMR products, a la thread on head-fi.
Iāve recently ordered the TSMR-X 10th anniversary IEM, and thereās a lot of hype building around that. I know there are a some others here waiting to receive theirs, and perhaps even a few that already have their hands on 'em? Figured itās nice with a single thread to concentrate thoughts and reviews on TSMR stuff!
The Sands was my most regretted IEM purchase. The Sands was impeccably crafted but it has a tuning similar to Styrofoam rubbing together. I wonāt buy another TSMR IEM.
I think they look absolutely gorgeous. What are your thoughts? I couldnāt see dropping $400 on them without more reviews and a graph
They truly look stunning and Iām sure pictures do not do them justice. BUTā¦ for 399$ they might be a decent blind by BUT 699$ is a big OOF.
Directly from Penon
*Here is the graph of TSMR X , itās for reference only and does not represent the sound of the IEM!
Green is 100 Bass mode, Blue is 020 mode.
The $699 price looks like a marketing gimmick to build FOMO on this. Who launches a premium product and then immediately marks it at $300 off?
Driver configuration isnāt everything; but what makes this a $700 IEM? Itās 2 DD and 4 BAāsā¦just like the $399 Hype 4. Oh it has a āfilm retarding driverāā¦whatever that is. Thereās no ESTās in this.
I canāt help but think that this is a $399 IEM and they just slapped an inflated MSRP on it to make it look like some increddible deal.
Bingo, it might be a great $400 IEM but itās not a $700 IEM. Some people at head-fi were saying that $700 is Penon saying itās āsound valueā is $700, whatever that means. I hope people who bought early at $400 arenāt assuming they can flip it for $400+ cause āitās a $700 IEMā
Slightly off topic but holy shit has the world attempted to squeeze every last bit of profit out of everything. With the huge variety releasing (it seems monthly now) the saturation is growing. All these companies are more or less just taking each others ideas and just making it work instead of making it WORK.
There are some varied members at head-** that really like the X. From that, the X must be better tuned than the Sands. But, is the X better than the Moondrop Blessing 3 or Penonās Serial?
Looking forward to getting my hands on them. Iām not a big fan of the esthetics, but hoping the shells lean blue rather than green in person. I was drawn the the initial hype, and adjustability of the sound signature with what sound like well-implemented tuning switches (actually make an audible tuning difference), and the venting which seems like a simple ripoff of 64audios APEX system. Seems like a simple damped port connected to directly to the nozzle. Them calling it a driver is ridiculous.
@metafour yeah, a pretty standard marketing gimmick that evidently works (at least on me 
). Will be interesting to see what the post-pre-sale price stabilizes too. I guess Penonās been pretty consistent with sticking to their prices, or can anyone report otherwise? I.e. with the Penon 10th AE, which also had a substantial initial coupon but has since been going strong at the full advertised price as far as I understand. In contrast, I understand that the Fan 2 has been on sale (mailing list) a few times since its release, but not so much with their more expensive offerings.
@HTT based on the impressions Iāve read it sound like a pretty different tuning that the Serial, less of a lush-mids situation and perhaps more u-shaped (at least with the standard 020 switch tuning), 100 being more bass-cannon, and 003 being a bit more neutral. People seem pleased with the tuning so far, at least if you donāt mind generous bass.
Looking forward to someone else measuring it on Squig who has other known references measured on their rig to compare to.
Had my eyes on these also, and will be lucky enough to demo them soon enough thanks to the wonderful @ErKil !
Take this with a huge grain of salt: Someone on the Elise Audio Discord posted this. It wasnāt graphed by them, but I believe they converted the Penon graph over to squig. Needless to say, I like what Iām seeing!
Nice, thanks for sharing! Much more recognizable in that format.
I like what Iām seeing there, the 2k dip feels a bit reminiscent of hifiman tuning (I like my anandas), and the treble extension looks good. As I undestand it, 003 will drop the green 3db in the bass.
Ahh, great to have audio buddies around to share the goodness. Canāt wait to hear what you and @ErKil think.
In my book they sound wonderfulš. They stand steady on their own two feet regardless of price. Would I have bought at 700? Probably not without hearing themš . To say that they are better of worse than Serial og Blessing is difficult. They donāt sound like Serial, but both are good if you ask me. Have not heard Blessing 3. I certainly have heard more expensive stuff I have liked less, so price isnāt everything. They are green leaning slightly to blue but look better in real life vs pictures. (Also IMO).
Hard to say how everybody would like them, but I canāt imagine anyone finding them bad sounding, at least if the point is to enjoy music!
BTW I do not think the module works exactly like the Apex module. Regarding price I have 64A U4s and I slightly prefer these all around. I also have QDC Anole V14, and would not disregard one over the other. I am perfectly able to enjoy both and also 20$ IEMās for that mather. I generally lean far more towards musicality and nice tuning than technicalityās. As I say the whole point is to enjoy musicš.
I personally wouldnāt put any confidence in a ported graph. Thereās are too many differences in rigs and too little known about that published graph for there to be any value in it imo
Yeah, good point. 
For sure, the graph needs to be taken with a shovels worth of salt. Edited to note just that. Hope a proper squig comes along soon enough
Graph is almost identical to my clone 711 graph. My graph falls some more over 10K, but the clone 711ās is not accurate over 7-8K anyway.
Edit: Up to 8K the graphs are mostly identical.
Looks like @Leonarfd has got his paws on the TSMR X now! Looking forward to hearing your impressions 
Ooo, @Andy_Pickard too, lucky guys!
