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.
