🔶 Thieaudio Clairvoyance

Got this at an unexpectedly accessible price (never thought I’d own one of the twins).

I’m unfairly biased against it because ideally I would NOT want the IEM I settle in to be at the very very top of my budget. But…

Maybe more words later, but unfortunately in a nutshell it is"better", quite significantly, then anything else I’ve tried. I’ve tried write a few IEMs by now, and had got used to them having compromised in different areas, even the $250-$500 ones I had tried.

Can’t find a flaw in these yet (that wouldn’t be a preference thing like wanting more midbass at times).

They duct make me as excited about listening as some other tunings that have come with bigger trade offs, but sadly they are growing on me all the time.

I’ve listened to the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack a lot over the years but never watched the movie. Watched it last night. Watching even a movie with these was unlike anything else I’ve experienced.

The most “headphone” like experience I’ve had, I could say.

Sorry for no especially helpful details so far. This is a special IEM.

I always liked the fit of ThieAudio shells, this is the first time I’ve really liked the tuning this much too.

One niggle is how I get some suction issues with my right ear, so far with every type of tip except one, and that one doesn’t have weird the sonic profile I prefer from tips that do have the issue.

I may not be able to justify keeping these eventually, but money being no object, I would.

I have the Aladdin and OH500 coming, there’s a chance they if I have time and keep these long enough I can make comparisons.

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Keep them if you can afford them, they are awsome. Did you tried Spinfits CP100 with them? :slight_smile:

Haha I should have put a spinfits disclaimer I knew this was coming – yes, in a couple of sizes, and also the short stem variant (CP100-Z) :slight_smile:

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I don’t like what SF do to most sound signatures, but usually they have the best confort for me. What about radius deep mount?

Not sure I know those?

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Final E tips to the rescue again. They’ve also reduced harshness on some tracks (I’m looking at you live Joy Division recordings, but also about one in six from my collection generally).

Seems to have conquered the vacuum issue and improved the sound for my taste.

Yeah so anything I’ve owned (several $300-500) never really stood out massively from one another, the Clairvoyance is for sure a different tier.

They were “impressive” from first listen, but I am actually enjoying them more and more rather than being technically impressed alone.

Very headphone like.

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Thanks man, super helpful.

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The Clairvoyance is wonderfully tuned. Unfortunately, it is probably the least resolving of all the tribrids I’ve heard and it’s technicalities in general are sub par vs other IEMs in its “tier”. Because of its resolution & technical shortcomings, it’s quite a relaxed and enjoyable listen though.

This guy nails his description of the Clairvoyance vs the Oracle…

…and the Oracle is about $200.00 less. If the Clairvoyance’s price is too painful to stomach, the Oracle might be just what the doctor ordered.

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Here’s the kicker – I picked these up used on AVExchange at a better used price than the Oracles go for used. Actually I’ve never seen the Oracle at the price I paid.

It’s just still at the very very top of my budget, with is clearly smaller a lot of the users on here, at least frequent posters. If I don’t successfully sell off everything else I have, I won’t be able to afford keeping them. I guess I could always flip these and buy the Oracle used, the slight difference helping me to afford actually keeping the Oracles. I just hope they’d live up to the Clairvoyance. I’ll check the video.

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Imo, if you got clairs for less then oracles go used, I’d say you got a freaking bargain and keep it, as long as you can afford it financially. Clairs are hard to beat without spending some bucks and you skipped a 2 month queue of assemble! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Edited cuz why bother

Do not flip the Clair for an Oracle that would be a misake.
You have the best thieaudio has made to date.

When you are talking about enjoying something and someone comes in and says hey…look at this.
Ignore em.

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He scored.
Stand pat.
This hobby is a sinkhole.

Is Clair worth $200 more? I dunno. Depends.
Would I take Clair over Oracle for identical price?..Mmmmm…Yup. Immediately :+1:

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Hey! If we don’t agree, that’s cool. I’d like to hear anything you have to say. Why censure yourself? I’m always open to a good argument. I welcome it. I am rather open minded and more than willing to listen to other people’s perspectives. It’s how I grow and learn. As you know, I completely respect your opinions and recommendations. Look at how much stuff I’ve purchased because of you. It doesn’t mean we always have to agree.

Absolutely not.

I’d take the Oracle for the shell size alone. The Clairvoyance is my least favorite Thieaudio tribrid. I personally prefer Xenns Up more as well.

What is it about the Clairvoyance you prefer more than the Oracle or Xenns Up?

Posting this here since there isn’t any dedicated thread to the Oracle and it’s part of the Thieaudio tribrid family

Also thanks to @Resolution and @nymz for putting up with me as I was trying to decide on which IEM I’m gonna get with me as my first one.



So starting off with build and fit, I already mentioned this on another thread, but I’ll go over it again here. I absolutely love the fit! It sits perfectly in my ear with barely any weight, both the IEM itself and the cable. I was worried at first about the cable going over my ears, but I absolutely had no issue, super comfortable, just a slight learning curve because it fits so well it’s sometimes a tiny bit difficult to remove. It’s so comfortable that I already fell asleep with them in my ears twice since I got it, no soreness or discomfort at all when I woke up. I also absolutely love the looks, with one faceplate being purple while the other being green, probably a manufacturing mistake using the stock from a Clair’s faceplate that ended up on mine.

Now for what everyone is here for, the sound. And once again, I am absolutely in love. I’ve mainly listened to them on the Ifi Zen Blue for now while I have a Fiio Q3 arriving in about a week.

Detail and resolution: My library has a mix of some regular MP3s and FLACs and I got to say that both formats are definitely being played to their fullest as I’m running them through a proper source. Smaller details that I never noticed before, like the backup vocals in My Immortal by Evanescence at 0:49, I always thought it was some kind of reverb effect, I never noticed that detail and I can totally make it out. Speaking of reverb, god I never knew how captivating and spacious reverb could be. The echoing of vocals or certain instruments were just magical, it made my listening experience sound so much more open.

Soundstage and imaging: Good lord, listening to normal stereo earphones is just never gonna sound the same again I finally understand what people mean when they describe that a piece of gear sounding wide and spacious and the Oracle definitely delivers on that front. To my inexperienced ears the most noticeable thing is in the drums, I can totally picture the drumset being played in a song how it’s set up from where certain drums or cymbals or high hats are. Some instruments in some mixes almost sound like they’re floating, coming from above or below it’s so surreal.

Sub bass: That sub bass shelf on the FR graph is absolutely spot on, Nice deep physical rumble out of them like I’ve stuck my head between a pair of subwoofers, which funnily enough I know from experience the thump and energy coming from them and it’s amazing coming from such a tiny piece of gear

Bass: I am not a basshead, but I can appreciate bass and I have to say that for me the Oracle absolutely slams when it comes to bass very fast and dynamic and doesn’t bleed or overtake the mids. Going back to just the amount of detail the Oracle can put out, bass guitars are so vivid that I can hear the strums and plucks and even the decay into sub bass, compared to my CKR which presents bass guitars as like a low hum, its crazy. Kick drums too, finally I get what people mean when drums have texture

Mids: Mids are absolutely crazy, I mentioned already the detail retrieval is just amazing. Vocals are center stage and they just pop, breaths and vocal huskiness and cracks, small details that I couldn’t hear in my old set are just so audible now. Honestly when I was listening to the Oracles for the first time I was just overloaded with information. Male vocals have authority across the whole spectrum, deep growling from Disturbed or the mongolian throat singing of The Hu’s Wolf Totem all the way to the epic high screams from The Highlander by Lost Horizon at 10:30. Female vocals are just as amazing, Loreena Mckennitt, her voice just sounds so angelic and airy with absolutely no sibilance even as she reaches those high notes in The Highwayman. Acoustic guitar, holy hell, Rylynn and Drifting from Andy Mckee were just magical, each pluck, strum and fingertap were so crisp and clean and even in Drifting I didn’t know that the reverb was that pronounced and spacious in that song! Even in Wings by Jeff Williams sung by Casey Lee Williams she sounds so clear and bright, still no sibilance, and at the 1:54 the sudden strum of the electric guitar were so well done that I could see the pick on each string.

Treble/highs: Absolutely no sibilance in any song I listened but holy hell the detail I’m getting, did I mention detail? I’m just absolutely blown away, I never knew cymbals could sound like that, they were always muted in every earphone I owned, but now I could hear the crash and decay from cymbals in so many of the songs in my library. Synths sound incredible in The Final Countdown by Europe

I can’t find anything I dislike about this set or what it doesn’t do well in my library. It’s gonna take a long while and a lot of listening to more of my library to find the limitations of of this set, but right now I am absolutely totally in love with it. With my limited experience I can definitely say that it’s absolutely worth the money I paid for it.

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Got a B stock for $500

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That’s a great price. Give us your first impressions when you are ready, hehe

initial impressions sounds like a slightly more tonally balanced focal clear have yet to find anything offensive on these (as in sharp treble/overblown bass etc.) for the focal clears there are a couple songs that were on the edge of being offensive for me but those are somewhat outliers for my playlist.

kept cranking more and more volume into them and they still sounded relaxed even at ear shaking volume… but still gives you all the detail…

did the Clears and H.D Zeus have a baby? :joy:

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I agree with that. They are very well tuned for almost anything.

Not aggressive at all and very neutral.

My only problem with them is that my most liked genre is electronic, from ambient and chilled to hard techno, and they lack some bass and treble gets tiring after a while. EQ helped with wavelet, but it is still not ideal.

Other than that, everytime I return to them I get shocked at how well they sound.