āIn my opinion the P1 is a niche IEM despite its apparent popularity, it isnāt quite the āsafe pickā for most accounts, especially when you consider the killer 10kHz+ spike that would kill most younger ears with sibilanceā
The P1 has a very pronounced DIP at 10k, not a peak.
Also as a side note, Iāve never understood his criticism of the P1ās transients. Iāve always found them to be rather quick and resolving, not slow and blunted.
Edit: he still finds the P2 to be ābluntedā. Does anyone else hear this in the P1 or P2? It just really confuses me since the P1 seem to me to be rather fast and accurate. All his other criticisms are understandable but I feel like this one is like saying the TH-900 needs a bass boost.
"For those who feel like denouncing me after this article for my views, do note that I use an iFi Micro iDSD Black Label for testing and reviews. A DAC/amplifier combo rated at 4W @ 16 ohms.
Thatās not 4 milliWatts. Thatās 4 Watts. Donāt complain."
The p1 was a great match with the micro bl, I would assume the p2 is as well but canāt say for sure. Plenty of power, dynamics, and control, did smooth and warm them out a tad (I wonder if thatās partly where the blunted comes in), the bass boost was very helpful as well. Although typically the micro bl will prevent treble harshness depending on the dac filter setting so there is that
Slight rant on the importance of source gear
This isnāt supposed to be a knock on crin but if you look at his tier list itās extremely colored by the fact that he only uses a micro bl for his source gear imo. Mainly all the things on the top of his list are more amp insensitive flagships (sony, 64 audio, qdc vision ears, thieaudio) which makes sense because those would more easily reach their potential on a micro bl, but there are some imo higher preforming iems that either rank lower or much lower that end up being fairly amp sensitive and picky, so you can see how that can affect things. The micro bl is a well rounded powerhouse and for consistency sake it could be a good thing, but heās really shooting himself in the foot when it comes to higher end iems as most of the time the micro bl wonāt cut it once you go past that 1.5k range depending on the iem imo (or lower but again it depends on the iem), generally the higher end you go the more demanding the source gear needs become for the totl iems, I know for a fact that without some of my higher performing source gear I wouldnāt enjoy some of the iems I have for sure. If you arenāt planning on really investing in high end source gear, there are some higher iems that donāt need it to sound good, but they still want and and would appreciate it, whereas some iems just sound like ass on the wrong setup (for the price)
I donāt know then. I tend to like his reviews and like I said, all his other points are perfectly valid. I just canāt wrap my head around that blunted comment. I guess it comes down to different people have different ears (or maybe Iām just ignorant and donāt know what good transients are).
I can kinda see it, generally something blunted will have a more rounded impact or initial attack (not rounded sound in general) that can feel like aggression and punch was subdued and smoothed off, compared to other dynamic and ba iems the comment might make more sense, but generally it wasnāt offensive enough on the p1 to bother me for the price (micro bl might slightly further this as well, itās a softer amp at times)
It is in the higher end yes, but also just because itās high end doesnāt mean itās the best match for all iems (or good at all, but the qp2r is good lol)
So the pricing of P2s here in my own currency is at Php 15,393 at least or $319.39 in US currency. So basically these are more expensive than the P1s, for me at least. I think with that budget I could probably get a lot of other IEMs that at least could rival or at the same tier as the P2s but with a cheaper budget in hand.
Iāve been trying to mod away the treble peaks of the p2 with foam tips and various damping material and EQ. none of it really worked. But last night I got some xelastic ear tips and Ill be darned, that seems to have fixed the tuning. Getting that deep and solid seal destroyed that huge 8k peak and brought these back to a much more neutral sound. Iām really pleasantly confused. If you have the p2 I highly highly HIGHLY recommend xelastics. like a night and day difference. Iām able to crank the volume now without dying of treble poisoning.
I also just got the Legacy 5 and can say its on the other side of the world from the P2 sound. Its overall very mellowā¦ too mellow. It has good tonality, decent everything, but doesnāt stand out anywhere really. its just very inoffensive. Its nearly impossible to compare to the p2, because the p2 is so over eager to prove itself in every area that its too much at times. While L5 doesnāt really care what you think.
The p2 is ultimately much more interesting. The l5 is more relaxing or perhaps boring. If youāre looking for a Thieaudio that gets you a more similar experience to the p1 or p2, Iād point you in the direction of the much overlooked Voyager 3, which has way better soundstage, imaging, detail, and extension (in both directions) than the L5, not to mention an engaging tuning with 2 dipswitches. (again the xelastics work really well on them).
I know everyoneās moved on from p2 at this point. I just wanted to report that I fixed the crazy treble by sticking the filter mesh/screen from the 7 hz timeless over the p2 nozzle. Now that I can listen without pain, itās a truly astounding iem. This went from being last pick to first pick in my iem stable.
