Elysian Acoustic Labs - Annihilator 2023

IEMs photographed left to right in first two photos: Unique Melody Mest MkII, Moondrop Variations, Moondrop x Crinacle DUSK, TSMR Halo, Thieaudio Monarch MkIII, Elysian Annihilator 2023, Elysian Diva 2023. I’ve also put a close-up photo of each IEM in the order they appear in photo one. Photography is not my skill so the photos are awful; whoops! This is just update post for my collection. Again, the post is mostly for me to look back on myself in the future (for example, I said in my last post I was looking for Diva 2023 and I finally got it courtesy of a Head-Fi seller). I’m not expecting anyone to care or be interested. But on the off-chance someone cares I’ll list a few rankings off here. You can also see the driver configurations of each IEM in photo three, listed top to bottom in the order I acquired the sets. My rankings are coming from the point of view of someone who values detail and treble extension primarily, with bass a secondary concern. Sound (most important of course): 1. Elysian Annihilator 2023 2. Elysian Diva 2023 3. Unique Melody Mest MkII 4. Thieaudio Monarch MkIII 5. TSMR Halo 6. Moondrop Variations 7. Moondrop x Crinacle DUSK Comfort/Fit (essential for long listening sessions): 1. Unique Melody Mest MkII 2. Elysian Diva 2023 3. TSMR Halo 4. Elysian Annihilator 2023 5. Moondrop Variations 6. Thieaudio Monarch MkIII 7. Moondrop x Crinacle DUSK Stock Cable (maybe interesting, maybe not): 1. Unique Melody Mest MkII 2. Elysian Diva 2023 3. Thieaudio Monarch MkIII 4. Elysian Annihilator 2023 5. Moondrop Variations 6. TSMR Halo 7. Moondrop x Crinacle DUSK (both cables) Finally, not photographed except for the boxes are my two DAPs. The iBasso DX340 is clearly the better of the two but I hesitate to say it’s ‘worth it’ as an upgrade to the R4. They’re both fantastic but as a value proposition I think the R4 is great. To conclude, clearly the IEM hobby is something of a chase for perfection which you will never achieve. There are tradeoffs to every IEM, DAC, DAP, cable and eartips. If you’re seeing this post and thinking about things like diminishing returns and these sets being nowhere near ‘worth’ their price – I’d say I agree. Diminishing returns (not a phrase I like much because everything has diminishing returns but I digress) set in quite early imho. For an all-rounder that you can use with practically any device the DUSK (as an example from my sets) could easily be the pinnacle of what you’re looking for and there’s really no need to chase the latest releases or constantly be looking to upgrade. Then again, I also disagree with people who look down on someone for owning more than one set – do we limit ourselves to one pair of shoes just because we only have two feet? (Bad example but maybe you get my point.) At the end of the day, yes, the IEM hobby is rife with consumerism, as are all similar tech products, but I think the craftsmanship and the various different designs, sound signatures and so on make it a fascinating hobby to be involved in. And on second-hand sites like Head-Fi (where I got my Mest, Diva & Halo from) or even r/AVexchange you can sometimes snag yourself a bargain, or at least meet more people to talk about this great hobby with. I’d be happy to discuss anything photographed if anyone has any questions (and made it all the way to reading this)! Take care and all the best, Rob

If budget is no consideration then Anni 2023. I don’t think any of these sets could really be considered a ‘bang for your buck’ kind of a deal but I think the best value of them would be the DUSK for its versatility.

I went from a Summit-Fi open-back, HE1000 Stealth to a Summit-Fi earphone Elysian Annihilator 2023. Fair to compare headphones and earphones by comparing those two things because they are both very bright, have proper mids, and don't have recessed bass, and pretty much everyone woukd consider them both top-tier if not the best. Headphones have poor bass response, weigh far more, worse stock cables, expensive and annoying pad replacements, get hair on the driver, harder to clean, terrible isolation, bad value, are larger, more risky to wear in windy or rainy weather, could more easily be broken by a child or pet, require a stand, are more power hungry. I think people assume headphones are higher quality because they are bigger and look more grand and have "better soundstage" and are "more neutral". They think headphones are more proper and sophisticated and think earphones are like toys that throw off tonal balance and are somehow impossible to mix music with. People will be like "Ah, I can't mix on earbuds lol *puts on DT 770*" I just like my good ol Annihilator absolutely blasting my ears.

(I like U-Shape) I had an HE1000 Stealth and it was great. Got an IE 600 and i found it better cause of the very strong sub bass, and then I got an Elysian Annihilator, and I seriously doubt ANYTHING has better sound than it, for my tastes. I don't know if it's even possible for a headphone to have the kind of bass the Annihilator has. Also, Annihilator has better mids and treble FR than every HiFiman. HE1000 Stealth was peaky and sharp in comparison. I've never seen a headphone with an FR graph nearly as good as Annihilator. There's no recession anywhere, and the treble boost has an intentional gap in the 6kHz area, where the HE1000 Stealth has a peak. Annihilator has very good stage width and imaging. With headphones, you have to deal with limited bass response, more external noise, replacing expensive pads, having long and ugly stock cables, heavy weight, sweaty ears, hair getting on the driver, higher cost, larger size and lack of portability, and worrying about things poking the driver. With headphones, they will get very dirty and be hard to clean, whereas with an earphone, you just wipe some little white bits of ear wax off the tips. Only downsides to earphones are that I guess they tend to have worse staging, can be unusable for people with ear deformities, block your voice wheb talking, and sounds weird when eating (im used to it) and there's ear wax but thats barely an issue.

Or you could just produce on what sound you prefer. Would make more sense for me to produce on my Annihilator I use for everything rather than switching to a boring headphone.

1. Headphones are basically pointless and earbuds/IEMs are simply superior. Headphones have pathetic bass. The bass is either recessed, far too lean, or muddy. They leak sound. They buzz from hair on the driver, weigh more, worse value, look worse, have to pay lots to replace padding, have awful stock cables, take up space, require stands, far more difficult to clean, open-backs are unusable outside, kinda. Headphones can leak sound into microphones when recording vocals. All these drawbacks for the sake of "soundstage". I have no idea how ANY headphone coukd sound as good as my Annihilator 2023. Same type of sound signature as the HE 1, but it has massively more bass. I used to have an HE1000 Stealth and it is weak and peaky and dull compared to Anni. Only issues with earbuds is that they block the sound of your own voice and they have earwax issues. Look at Annihilator 2023 graph vs the Utopia or HE 1 or Susvara or HE1000 Unveiled or 1266 or literally anything. No idea why there is so much of a focus on headphones over earbuds. People act as if headphones are far more sophisticated, when really, all the "summit-fi" ones have very similar measurements that include weightless bass. 2. Audiophiles tend to obsess over things that have nothing to do with sound. The earphone itself is the only thing that matters. DACs/amps/vinyl/power/cables are boring and pointless and do nothing. Zero 2 makes the Space Travel pathetic, and the Annihilator 2023 is massively better than the Zero 2, yet I can't hear any difference between running an IEM in 3.5mm on a little dongle vs my $530 desktop amp via 4-Pin XLR. 3. Driveability does not need to be talked about so much. You either have a dedicated amp or you don't. HD 600 can run at loud volumes on a $90 audio interface. Also, the idea that more power causes better bass response is ridiculous, and that's why nobody shows FR measurements to prove it. 4. Soundstage being improved by cables or sources is an absurd claim. How can a digital to analog converter make the sound wider??? 5. Neutrality is entirely pointless, and you can mix music well on everything that is not bad. The reason people think neutrality is needed for mixing is because they associate tonal coloration with bad earphones. The idea comes from "studio headphones" marketing nonsense and also musicians who have no idea how much earphones impact sound, and only see earphones as tools rather than modes of improving sound. They think they need neutrality and they talk about "translation" when in reality the goal of mixing is to make music sound good on earphones that sound good. The better an earphone sounds, the better it is for mixing. Also, why would I toss my Annihilator aside and listen to a neutral earphone for mixing? It would throw off my perception of the mix, because I don't listen to music like that. Also, these people often test their mixes with stock car speakers. A lot of the "studio headphones" they use are peaky or muddy or just terrible. 6. There's no such thing as "natural" when it comes to earphones. To assume an earphone is "natural" is to assume music itself is generally natural. Music is equalized and compressed and distorted and limited and clipped and sidechained and synthesized. 7. Term "rumble" suits midbass more than subbass. 8. I disagree when people say an earphone can only do certain genres well, and that you need multiple sound signatures for various genres. If you think an earphone is abd at a genre, then perhaps that genre generally has poor quality mixes, and you are compensating for it with a different sound signature. (Old metal music) The orchestral stuff I listen to has as much bass as the dubstep I listen to. 9. People should stop recommending things and calling things "good" without sharing their preferred sound signature. My idea of "good" is enormous bass and enormous treble, and anything that heavily diverts from that is irrelevant to me. 10. Boosted upper-treble IS "real clarity". Calling it "fake clarity" assumes that all music is perfectly clear in a natural manner and ignores the fact that equalizers are used in music production. 11. I like bright treble for the sake of intimacy and tonal aggression rather than "illusion of greater staging". 12. People often incorrectly use the term "sibilance" to describe any kind of brightness they dislike. 13. Would make more sense to buy an ideal earphone you like most, rather than having a bunch of various ones you like in varying degrees.

For me, my Annihilator is not too uncomfortable unless its un my ear for like 6 hours, then it grts pretty irritating.

How does neutrality prevent peakiness and harshness as opposed to a tasteful coloration? Neutrality isnt a magic tonality that prevents mixing issues. If anything, it would be harder to know if something is harsh on a neutral set. I make music with the Annihilator 2023. How would neutrality make the mixes less harsh? I like treble and bass boosts. If other people dont like that, they wont get those, because it translates. If there is peakiness in the song, or the bass is muddy, or the mids are ugly, how would that be caused by the Annihilator's tonality? I mix on what sounds good, because that's what matters, abd is what I'm used to. Why would I mix on a shitty "studio" open-back instead of the greatest earphone of all time? "Ah, yes. Mix music on earphones you don't listen to. Mix on earphones most people don't prefer over the one you already use."

I haven't been here for that long and only posted my unboxing experience post with my anni23' but seeing the staggering amount of people specifically looking for "gaming iems" is high key crazy. Any iem that doesn't sound like it's going through a tincan will work. Observe FPS pros or highly skilled independent players such as Aceu, NiKo and others. Aceu has literally used the stock Apple Earpods (don't know if he still does, hence, "used") and NiKo has changed from time to time. So many pros have also used the really shitty razer earphones from back in the early cs:go days too. You can attempt to gather some kind of consistent trend amongst FPS pros or gaming etc and you won't be able to find any. Not to forget, they also just used sponsored gear as part of their contract while on stage and while streaming. There is even more of an argument AGAINST it if not playing FPS. Just find a good iem that fits your budget that is also adherent to your preference in sound signature!?! Soundstage is a meme in iems as well.

I mean the day the elysian annihilators driver configuration and tuning which is a price you pay for is offered at 50$. I think price always carries a level of return that you inherently purchase. But it must hurt knowing you haven’t listened to a expensive iem and compared it to something much cheaper.

Ok so this if from my personal experience.... I have several iem range from sub 100 until 500 some I lent to my friends or I just keep on my house...I have several friends which audio hobbyist they have audio store so I have opportunity to try before I buy one..so someday I want buy 1000usd iem, read reddit and head-fi forum then go to my friend store...so I tried moondrop chu2 compare to my kadenz yes the quality is very different, compare again with letshuoer s15 the s15 better than my kadenz for my taste...so when I put monarch mk3 it's blow my ear, damn this iem so amazong and I decide to bought it....then several weeks later my friend call me then say I have 64audio tia demo and annihilator just come....with fully excited I'm going there when I tried both of them, I dont feel WOW like I tried monarch mk3 the first time then at that time I realize, mk3 is my peak and I cant tell the significant difference between mk3 - annihilator and tia So thats why I like to try and buy several 100-500usd iem and sometimes sub100 too because I can tell the difference and I can choose whats signature I want..like a week ago I choose simgot ea500lm rather than ew300 because I found the sound more aggresive because mostly my iem is warm and neutral.... So from my story, I have limitation and taste for me, spent 1000 iem in monarch mk3 is one of the best choise I ever made and beyond that price point my ears cant tell fhe difference so..but back again thats my experience and opinion....

My perception of bass is strong so Annihilator has enough bass for me and beyond that the songs just become boomy unless bass is vented like in Grand Maestro you can hear elevated bass yet songs never become boomy as ut is vented. So Grand Maestro is my absolute bass head IEM. Empire Ears Legend Evo in my opinion the bass bloats the low end

The Elysian Annihilators are definitely a fantastic set, but I get the need for something that really brings the bass for genres like hip-hop. Out of the ones you’re considering, the FatFreq Grand Maestro is a solid choice! It’s known for delivering powerful, impactful bass while maintaining great clarity and detail—perfect for hip-hop. The Omega is also a strong contender, but if you’re looking for that extra bass depth and slam, I think the Grand Maestro could really complement your Annis. Have you had a chance to hear them yet, or are you still deciding based on reviews?