Figuring I usually travel around the city to demo earphones, this series was created. Welcome to Impression Archives, a place where I dump several short earphone impressions over time, usually from local meetups or audio events. These earphones where I talk about here are usually those that I deemed to have the chance to listen "once in a blue moon".

To summarize, the intention of these posts is nearly the same as a quick impression post, just a difference is this serves more like a "Travelling log".

So, if anything, let's just get started to it.

Before going into the post, if you are new, please read this before having any comments regarding my writing or point of view‌.
Usual disclaimer with measurements applies, expect a resonance peak at around 8kHz  unless stated otherwise.

And yes, my dummy head forgot to take pictures all the time, I will just include those if I happened to remember.

Sony IER-Z1R:

Sony IER-Z1R frequency responses
  • Price: ~$2000
  • Drivers: 2 DD, 1 BA

I actually have listened to the IER-Z1R several times before this post so writing this is more like a revision.

People who have personally talked with me already know how much I love the IER-Z1R and honestly, if I have the money then I would buy this earphone. Talking about it right now would be a copy paste due to the appearance of my impression post that I wrote half a year ago and most of what I wrote are still true: Thin mids, deep rumbly bass, sparkle trebles with amazing headstage... It has a lot of quirks that lines in with my personal preference but giving the issues about the Z1R's fit, I don't feel confident in recommending it.

There is also the problem with the mids being thin, which is also something that turned people away from the Z1R, but that's much I can think of honestly.

64 Audio u12t:

64 Audio u12t frequency responses
  • Price: ~$2000
  • Drivers: 12BA

I think I messed up the resonance peak when I measure this, the resonance peak on this measurement is probably at 9kHz

With 64 Audio, I actually have listened to the u18t before trying out this earphone today, although the memory of the u18t is somewhat blurry to me so I might have to listen to it again when I have the time.

Turning to the u12t, to me, it is at least a good earphone. Let's talk about the bass first since that's something I heard a lot about the u12t. Comparing to other earphones that use BA to handle the bass, I can agree that the u12t is on the better implemented side: There are traits of the bass being tight and fast, it is also quite engaging. That being said, there is something about the u12t that doesn't quite cut it for me which I cannot describe right now.

For the rest of the spectrum, the u12t is quite alright, again, the mid is thin to my ear which is a plus in my book. Female vocal is alright and doesn't show any clear abnormal traits to my ear yet. Although, I do feel like the u12t sounds somewhat dark.

I might need more time to listen to this earphone. Until then, being good is what I can only say about the u12t, I would want to find out how good it is to me.

Ikko OH10:

IKKO OH10 frequency responses
  • Price: ~$190
  • Drivers: 1DD 1BA

This is actually the first earphone that I got to listen when the offline started. Although for some reason I forgot to take a picture.

Nothing much to say about the OH10 so I will get straight to the point. It sound dark and more vocal centric to my ear. Female vocal do shows sign of being shouty and the OH10 is also quite thick. Cymbal and Hi-hats lack sparkles and is somewhat smeared into each other. Bass for the most part is ok, but my impression on this region is a bit unclear due to my short listening time (15 - 30 mins). I would like more listening time if possible but giving the fact that the owner of this earphone had to leave early, I didn't have much time.

As far as my initial impression goes, the Ikko OH10 is not something I prefer but I do imagine people liking this earphone due to how "easy to listen" it is. It reminds me of the Soranik ION v4 but I think the v4 performs slightly better.
I do an A/B comparison if I want to find out.

Honorable mentions:

I won't go in depth about these earphone and mainly leave the measurements if people want to do some research. Will add some comments under if I feel it is necessary though.

Ignore this part if you want since it is mostly uninteresting anyway.

Empire Ears Legend X:

Empire Ears Legend X Frequency responses
  • Price: ~$2300
  • Drivers: 2DD 5BA

For the record, the EE Legend X is decent. That is as far as I can remember about it today. I got the chance to demo it by the end of the meeting but 5 minutes of listening and the fact that I was pretty exhausted made my impression blurry.

Will need to go to a better café next time, dealing with a 32 - 40°C heat using a subpar air conditioner doesn't work that well.

Shure SE846 (custom reshell):

Shure SE846 (custom reshell) Frequency responses

This is a Shure SE846 reshelled into an CIEM. Now, I don't have the original SE846 so I cannot provide a comparison graph.

Since I have a relatively small ear... force fitting doesn't seem to go well. Although I did managed to do it at some point though. That being said, it wasn't stable enough for me to get a seal, left alone trying to listen.

Would like to try the original SE846 instead, maybe on a nice day.

Acoustune HS1695 TI:

Acoustune HS1695 TI Frequency responses

Yep, this unit got channel imbalance issue. F

I think I will release my impression once this got sorted out, for now I will just leave this here.

Conclusion:

Quite a fun day I got today, I think beside having the opportunity to listen to these IEMs, I also got some more experience on measuring, the Vietnamese community,...

Expect more content like this to come in the future when I got the chance. Until then.