I've made an error in my research and somehow thought that the Quintet included five driver types including an EST. That's incorrect! It has 5 drivers, but it's a combination of BA, DD, planar and piezoelectric. No EST. Apologies for the error!
Glad you liked it and thanks for your correction. I haven't replied to that comment yet, but yours and one other viewer's comments drew my attention to my mistake.
You also made one other small mistake, in briefly talking about the Elixer you said it has a piezo driver. It doesn’t it has a single DD as I understand it.
I have the Timeless and the Quintet. They are both enjoyable, but the Quintet made all my old music new again. No switches or filters. A more refined and cohesive presentation. Couldn't recommend them enough.
Awesome breakdown of these IEMS! I know it's not your focus, but the Quintets are absolute monsters for gaming, and they've quickly become my default set for that and most music. One VERY small correction is that there's no EST driver in the Quintet. It's actually 4 driver types but 5 drivers. 1DD+2BA+1MicroPlanar+1PZT :) Keep up the great videos!
Great one! Appreciate this kind of review. Really enjoy to watch. Looking forward for the next series. Perhaps it may include the Xenns Top, Shuoer EJ07M and EPZ 530. Keep them coming. Cheers.
I've already covered off the Xenns Top and Shuoer EJ07M in different videos, but I'll have more of these video series in the future. I do have a more traditional, single-video review of the Thieaudio Monarch MK2 and Prestige LTD coming soon.
@@PassionforSound Yup. I've watched those insightful reviews. Just wondering how do they compared to the new IEMs nowadays. Do they still relevant, something like on this video when you compared these new IEMs with the Elixir. Jus a thought though. Looking forward for the oncoming review of the Monarch MK2 and Prestige LTD. It will be interesting. Cheers.
Excellent series! I have loved this format. After today's episode, I'm going to go back and pull out my Elixir. There has been so much new stuff that it slipped into the background for the last several months. The Quintet is really good and you are spot on it can get fatiguing after about an hour. I seem to gravitate to single DD IEMs as my most enjoyable. They are not technical monsters but I love the smoothness and cohesiveness of the sound. Even though the MP145 is a planar, I find it exhibiting a similar quality with good technicalities. Anyway, so many IEMs so few ears!
I tend to agree, since I really like my relatively-inexpensive Sennheiser IE100, which includes but a single dynamic driver. I also liked the IE200 that I owned for a brief length of time. The IE300 should be arriving withing the next day or so.
I agree that single driver designs are often better and it's partly due to coherency and also the tunings are less peaky than the multi driver designs where a specific frequency can be boosted by one of the independent drivers.
I'm glad to hear that the MP145 won, since that is the only pair of planar earphones I own (apart, of course, from the previously-mentioned manufacturing DEFECT and poor customer service from Hidizs). I don't like wearing earphones if I can help it, so I'll be looking forward to HEADPHONE reviews more than IEM reviews, in future.
I can really recommend trying out the Timsok Ts-316. It brought me back into the hobby. A great W-Shaped tuning for an incredible price-perfomance ratio.
I goofed a bit in the explanation. It's got 5 drivers, but only 4 types of drivers. That said, it's still a marvel that they managed to create such a coherent and enjoyable IEM with the combination at this price.
@PassionforSound I have like 80 sets of iems. I am still waiting for an iem that will develop a driver who looks like a normal speaker . Rubber between the joints. Twitter in the middle. Open back with tubes like a speaker chamber that goes back and meets the noozle. That would be great. One of the best dd drivers for me is from fostex the japonese brand. The tone is great. Budget maybe simgot after I mod the iem. All my iems as mod. Well, at least 70 units, and then I notice what drivers are good in response and volume . Simgot and shanling have great budget drivers. But it requires mod. I notice that sometimes, the driver is a small part of the distortion issue. Like sennheiser in the ie 900 uses the noozle 3 cuts inside and the good quality capacitors like a a md of a speaker kiliph that you see some people doing that modified 50% of the sound or the twilight iem that uses the back chamber to have equal airflow to minimise distortion and that makes a huge difference that many companies not using this system to improve the sound and response of the driver. Sony was good at that. Excelente drivers and their Chambers are different from other brands, shame that they are leaving iem market and doing more wireless sets any way good luck.
All of the piezeo and electrostatic is wasted on me for the fact I hear nothing above 8khz. Old age and damaged ears. I look for what I can hear. So kick drum slam and rumbling sub bass. It's kinda changed the music I listen to. More Massive Attack, Nine inch nails, William Orbit, etc. I used to listen to near field monitors. Tubes. Like soundstage and images. I have a Mojo2. Project Red. Suggestions?
The Quintet sounds more technical because of its tuning, but it's hard to say for sure if it's really more technically capable or if it just happens to emphasise the "right" frequencies.
When the quintet first came out, I was really interested to see what Kiwi Ears could do with 4 driver types in a single shell because I enjoyed their budget Credenza so much. Based on your description I can tell right now I'll absolutely hate these. I really would like to hear what a planar can do but since I need a car I can't justify spending money on audio stuff. I have to be a responsible adult for once lol
