Before hearing the Aurora, I would have chosen the Sun Copper for God’s Tears because till then nothing could have beaten it in terms of technicalities (resolution, separation, imaging, soundstage)… But LREY Aurora beat it in all those aspects along with everything else as well.
Ok so going by that metric then yes Aurora should be GODS TEAR and maybe Sun Copper down graded to the EGG
Mmm not really EGG, because it is still quite impressive in terms of techs…unless you have heard one of the EGGs and found them better than Sun Copper. I have only heard the Serratus, and SC was definitely better in terms of technicalities.
Totally different tuning tbh, so I guess it comes down to personal taste…I’d take Serratus over SC (but I’d like more time with SC to be 100% sure) but SC is not on the same level as Cypherus Audio Black Dragon Susvara imho, maybe Venture Electronics (VE) SMG is?
Have you heard the Black Dragon Susvara? Damn, I don’t think I will ever get a chance to hear them. Nevertheless, I am happy with my LREYs.
@AceBee the guy on Head-Fi selling his set was tempting maybe would’ve grabbed it if he was in the UK…(customs/taxes/insurance etc) but seriously I was impressed with Changs “work in progress” Bud…that sounded good even at that stage of development and I’d just put down the BDS’s.
Where would you place the W03 Pro? Just to have an idea on the difference between it and Aurora. Thanks
Maaate you need to get yours lol
Looking at what is in EGGS that I own (TGX Og Serratus, Ripples, Yincrow RW3000) I think it would be hard to put SC amongst them. It really does perform a little above that providing you can get a decent fit & pretty much not move an inch.
Perhaps a case for EXC…?
I have TGX Totem, SBS & VE Zen SL from that tier. For me Totem & VE SC would be close for performance quality, if far from similar. They sort of straddle the bottom end of the GT, Top end of EXC.
I havent tried the VE SMG, DS BS or CAX unfortunately. DS>VE SC though. Curious and will eventually find myself an SMG.
It’s good that the list is getting stricter at the top. I think we may need to look at getting more input on middle tiers as the focus on the top sets has made a little imbalance there - ie having the Zen SU / TGX Revelstoke & Fiio FF3 in the same tier is a little misleading on a pure performance instead of value disappointment perspective.
I AM FINALLY GETTING IT NEXT WEEK!!!
(What comparisons you want?)
Have you had much input on DBX & Sun Dice.
Perhaps in light of some of the stricter ranking - they could be up for a tier demotion. Sun Dice to me personally is more on Tantalus, Alpha & Riku Grand 2 levels.
I have a DB1 but not a DBX - I see one is up on the classifieds at Head-fi if you can convince someone to take one for the team
Also mate… awesome work on the list
hooray!!! hmm not sure about comparisons - to me, it is close in some ways to Ripples except for tonality and dynamics. So yeah, if you think W03 Pro competes with Ripples and Serratus, then it will get a promotion.
Very little input on DBX and Sun Dice
Yeah good point. I wish there was a price-adjusted way of doing this, because FF3 should not be comparable to Revelstoke without factoring in the price bracket.
I think if we keep it to a strict criteria of pure performance + the unavoidable price prestige (though demotions of Zen SU & Revelstoke shows price hasn’t been the overriding determining factor in the ranking) without accounting for other factors such as fit, genre specificity, tuning preference, etc will make it easier to apply price based ratios and tier weightings as factor boosters to help derive some form of value metric if we ever wanted to get that deep… Personally I’m not sure it’s necessary
I think keeping it broad brush regarding performance helps this process as otherwise everything gets lost in the details with community nitpicking. More universal considerations such as fit & build could eventually be considered and would be useful and easy from a weighting & assumptions perspective to implement … - but then SC gets demoted .
QC is hard to judge in the instance & handle in the ranking - I would just give anything with multiple QC issues a 1 tier deduction & a disclaimer. Keep it simple.
Should show off my latest shiny: it’s a one-off from TGXEAR
Steel Shell Bell Project X (SSBX). Pretty amazing
Special commission?
Yeah I think we did this for LREY but apparently the issues have been… Addressed?
Well, he had a set and I happened to message him at the right time haha. It’s got a composite 160 Ohm driver with a 1.6 T magnet
The SSB feels very premium. Nice heft to them
This is very unique - not seen that before.
How’s the fit?
Fit is not very different to mx500! I actually don’t need silicone rings under the foams like I do with mx500.
The cable is something special too - so supple. Shimmers in light. Apparently has gold and palladium - that’s the most fancy metals I’ve ever had lol. I’m not a big cable believer but I do like the aesthetics