Grand Maestro (Universal Fit)

This was my holy grail for a minute but the shell was so insanely uncomfortable that I had to resell them.

FatFreq Grand Maestro. Fantastic IEM. That bass quality, details and soundstage (with soundstage modules) are so good. But the fit killed my ears . They need really deep insertion which requires tip rolling. Not recommended for medium or smaller ears :-( Otherwise Fiio FX17.

Awesome set , owned it for a while . The biggest deal breaker beside its price is the fit . You need good tips and deep fit , otherwise the treble can get fatiguing! But its bass is definitely something special ! If Fatfreq manages to pack this kinda sound into smaller shells with a decent nozzle, I would consider buying it again .

Some IEMs do surpass full-size heaphones but the price of those are in the several hundred to thousands. I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a canjam this year and had 4 of my best IEMs that can deliver all aspects of music really well. The IEMs I had were the FirAudio's Xe6 and Rn6, 64Audio's Volür, and FatFreq's Grand Maestro Anniversary Edition. Only some of the top-of-the-line full-sized headphones from ZMF, Meze, Grado, T+A, Sennheiser, Hifi-man, Focal, and Audeze could compete with those IEMs in terms of detail retrival, layering, instrument positioning in 3D space, and musicality. Soundstage and bass were done better in full-sized headphones due to physics of driver size but otherwise those IEMs I own were competing quite close and easily surpassed other full-sized headphones. The company representatives at those headphone booths where I let them try the different IEMs (while I was trying out their respective full-sized headphones) to compare to their showcase full-sized headphones agreed as well that those IEMs easily competed with their top-of-the-line full-size headphones of similar price ranges as the top-of-the line IEMs I had brought.

a proper good expensive set for normies is the annihilator or grand maestro anniversary. The u12t is annoyingly boring and it's just not that great overall unless it really agrees with your HRTF. And maybe the iems didnt agree with his hrtf/preferences? why would you think he doesnt want to be impressed or something lol.

i feel you on that shell size complaint, that’s a real bummer at this price point. honestly if comfort is a dealbreaker but you still want that fun low end, i’d check out the Thieaudio Monarch MKIII or the 64 Audio Nio - both have way smaller footprints. also since you mentioned the Grand Maestro likes power, the [iFi Audio Go Blu](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=iFi+Audio+Go+Blu) or [Qudelix 5K](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=Qudelix+5K) are great portable matches that won’t choke the dynamics. your review was super thorough btw, rare to see someone actually test with different modules and sources like that.

the shell size on the Grand Maestro is no joke - my ears hurt just reading that. for anyone dealing with that fit issue the [Spinfit CP155](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=Spinfit+CP155) tips help because they extend the nozzle a bit and change the insertion angle. the power module bass needs some current to really control that 14W output. something like the [iFi Go Bar Kensei](https://featherab.com/shopit?search_keywords=iFi+Go+Bar+Kensei) handles that low end slam better than most dongles.