FX17

**Background / My Rambling** After about 13 years of enjoying this whole audiophile hobby thing I decided to go for my first kilobuck IEMs. Throughout the years I've had close to 30 pairs of IEMs, mostly budget ones (particularly VSonic) in my earlier years, but there are some sets that were my regulars until they get upgraded. My upgrade path from the start to now (pictured) is Hifiman RE-400 -> VSonic GR07 Classic -> Meeaudio Pinnacle PX - > FLC Audio FLC8n -> Sony IER-M9. I've shifted between headphones and IEMs for serious music listening throughout the years, but recently I'm more of a headphones guy; with the Hifiman HE1000SE being my baby. But I decided to splurge a bit for my birthday and gave myself an upgrade over my 5-year-old M9's because they sound rather boring, though I love its comfort and any lack of offensiveness or wrongness in its sound. So, earlier this week I stopped by my trusty audiophile shop / happy place. After around three hours of listening, comparing, plugging stuff on and off my phone, and repeating the process the day after, mainly comparing the Thieaudio Monarch MKIV and MKIII, one of the salesperson offered me the Fiio FX17 to try and a hefty discount from 2699 AU$ to 1999 AU$, putting it within breathing distance of the MKIV's price. During those past two days I've been struggling to reach a conclusion between the MKIII and MKIV. I've listened to like twenty songs side-by-side and each time there's a 50:50 chance I'd like one over the other. Well, I've compared the FX17 with the MKIV on around ten songs and the FX17 came out on top every single time. So the decision was made then and there. After getting the FIIOs and listening to them for a couple of days, I'm starting to worry. I'm getting fatigued listening to them. The midbass is too much and there's something about that treble that irritates me. Then I recall that I used the tips that they offered me, which instantly prompted me to spend 60$ over at Aliexpress frantically buying tips; Spinfit W1's, CP100+, Final Audio Type E, Tangzu Tang Sancai, Dunu S&S and KBear 07. But I'm also curious about the tips that they used--which turned out to be Eletech Baroque tips--so since I've nothing to do over the weekend, might as well drop by and have another 3-hour listening session, this time comparing more than just three kilobuck IEMs. What better way to spend a Saturday right? **Setup** Let me preface this by saying that I'm not an expert; in another life I'd like to be one of the big-shot audiophile reviewers, but not in this one. Also, the impressions for these IEMs are written not on the spot, but through my commute back, so these are very rough and imperfect impression partially drawn from memory. This listing is based on my order of listening to them, but I have a preference ranking at the end. Audio chain: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 -> iFi GO Link Max Dongle DAC. I borrowed the dongle from them, I typically just use a Samsung USB-C dongle, which doesn't have a 4.4mm jack Eartips used: my Spinfit CP100 mediums (I think? Had these for a while) and their Eletech Baroque medium tips. **Songs Used** I do have a playlist of test songs from various genres, but since I tried so many IEMs today, I ended up only listening to a couple of comfort tracks I know well; which just so happens to be all weeb songs: * nano.RIPE - Tsuki Hana. This song has been my #1 go-to ever since I started the hobby and has now become a litmus test of sorts because of my familiarity. I like this song to test out timbre on acoustic and electric guitars. The huge amount of mid-bass in the song's opening is also useful test to whether or not an equipment is warm and smooth, or cold and clinical. * nano.RIPE - Yumeji. Great song to test guitar timbre, soundstage, bass texture, bass rumble and punchiness. The opening passage has a lot going on, so it's also a good track to test technical performance. * Sayuri - Sore wa Chiisana Hikari no Youna. This song is a very easy test for upper-mids and treble. You just need to listen to the chorus and ask yourself this question: "am I in pain right now?". If no, then your pair has a scooped out upper-mids and treble. I find level of pain to be an easier metric for IEM comparison rather than trying to memorize sound. Great song though, despite all. * Satoru Kousaki - Rainy Devil. This song is like a cheat code to test out attack and decay. Also good for testing overall bass profile because of the mid-bass presence and the rapid-fire of percussion in the song. * Minami - Kawaki wo Ameku. The most recent addition to my list of comfort songs. The prominent piano in the opening serves well to test the treble energy, energy and the rest of the song is great for testing female vocals. **The Contenders** 1. Fiio FX17 A week ago I would not even imagine that I would listen to these and not immediately think of staying away as far from it as possible. These have an almost unhealthy amount of mid-bass; the kind of sound signature that for the longest time ever I thought I hated. But for some reason I quite enjoy these. Using my Spinfits they sound terrible however. The soundstage, while decently deep and tall, is quite narrow. Then you have the mid-bass bloom, that forms a wall around you. Listening to these is tiring. These are detailed IEMs, but they force the detail on to you, so when combined with the congested soundstage it becomes really overwhelming. Changing the tips to the Eletechs significantly improved them. They cut the mid-bass significantly and expanded the soundstage massively in all of width, height and depth. But even with these the FX17's are a very mid-bassy, warm IEMs still. I find that what helps their soundstage and wow factors is what they did with the bass. The bass is very detailed and textured, so tracks that have intricate basslines sound like heaven. Percussion hits are also given a bit of a bloom, so they fill in the soundstage and help with the sense of height, but they didn't bleed over to the midrange. Even with the copious amounts of mid-bass they are still very detailed; it's the kind of magic that thirteen drivers per side and 2K$ gives you. Overall their strengths are wide soundstage with some decent height and depth, and just the general wow factor of its prominent bass while still maintaining good quality across the entire frequency range. 2. Thieaudio Monarch MKIV I listened to these with the Eletech tips and instantly found out what it would sound like if all of my favorite musicians have their percussions replaced by their nearest Fisher-Price equivalent. What an absolute terrible pairing these were. So, I put my Spinfits on them and now I understand what everyone was talking about regarding these IEMs. With the rumble switch turned on apparently these are warm-neutral sets, but next to my FX17's these might as well have zero-bass. Switching it off makes it dry and anemic, so I kept it on.They're not supper bassy even with the switch on, which corresponds to a very clean bass that never bleeds over, resulting in a detailed sound and a good sense of "blackness" in its soundstage, which promotes good instrument separation and imaging. I do find them a bit too dry still, though. The soundstage is wide, but is a bit lacking in height. Overall, even with the improved tips, I still prefer the FX17's over these. 3. Thieaudio Valhalla Now THIS is an upgrade over the FX17's, for only almost double the price. I find these to have a more balanced sound compared to the MKIV's and a lot more exciting. They have more punchiness and energy, with a good amount of warmth in the low end and sparkle in the top end. The soundstage is excellent and is only outperformed by one of the IEMs listed below. From my memory I'd say that the soundstage is slightly narrower than the MKIV's, but it's so well balanced in width, height and depth. On instrumental passages, there is a blank space in the middle and all the instruments are well-placed circling that space and when the vocals come in, they take that center stage. Overall, these are definitely worth the hype. 4. Unique Melody MEST II These were recommended to me by the salesperson in one of my previous visit. Apparently these have bone conduction drivers inside, which is wild stuff. They are very unique in terms of the soundstage, but not in a good way. Yes, the bone conduction drivers help with creating some of the uncannily wide soundstage ever in an IEM, but there's practically no height nor depth to the soundstage. It's like the sounds are coming in a horizontal line in front of you; I can never get used to this. Aside from that, they also sound too lean and there's a metallic timbre to everything, which is always one of my pet peeves. On a final note, these have driver flex, which makes them feel cheap. 5. Unique Melody MEST III Basically a more refined and balanced MEST II. It is slightly bassier and warmer set with a more natural timbre and a slightly taller soundstage, but still overly flat. These also have driver flex, perhaps due to the bone conduction drivers? 6. Noble Viking Ragnar One of the salesperson recommended me to listen to these as this is what he personally owns. The RRP on these are a whopping 6000 AU$ according to him. Listening to them I can tell why. I remember being absolutely floored when I first listened to a pair of Electrostatic headphones, the STAX SR-009D, earlier this year on my trip to Japan. Well the Ragnar is pretty much the IEM version of that. These have lightning-fast attack and decay, perhaps industry-leading even. They also have that holographic imaging with a wide, deep and tall soundstage. Unfortunately, the not-so-good stuff about them electrostats also remain; they're thin and cold sounding with weak bass and have a metallic timbre. These win the day in terms of the wow factor, but they would SUCK as your only pair because of the tonality. I asked the salesperson and he agreed that you should have these alongside other IEMs, before offering me to test his other set: The... 7. Noble Agis II ...which is an excellent companion set to the Ragnars. He described these as having a W-shape sound, which sounds about right. This is one of the most impressive pair of IEMs I've heard where the wow factor is in its sheer balance; not in terms of balanced sound, but in terms of how this is a very impressive balancing act. Good thump and energy on the bass with a good amount of treble balancing it out. Some mid-bass warmth balanced with great clarity. Hell, even the soundstage is even in width, height and depth. It's like having all the cakes and eating them too. 8. Unique Melody MEST Jet Black I wasn't expecting much from these thanks to the previous MESTs but these surprised me greatly. The Jet Blacks are not just improvements over the aforementioned two MESTs, but a straight up revolution. It exchanges a bit of soundstage width in favor of massively improved height and depth. This is by far the largest soundstage I've heard amongst all of the IEMs I've heard in this session and is the one that outperforms the Valhallas in this department. Although these don't position the soundstage as nicely as the Valhalla's. The overall sound is still slightly metallic, but is a massive improvement over the MEST III. 9. Sennheiser IE600 Now for a bit of a wildcard, a sub kilobuck set. These went on a sale for under 450 AU$ a couple months back and I was thinking on snagging one. Listening to them I'm glad I didn't, because it'll be a sidegrade from my M9s. I can definitely tell that these are in a different price bracket compared to the others; they lack the refinement nor the wow factor of the other sets. These are touted as being V-shaped with a spicy treble, but I'm resistant to treble so the highs don't sound too harsh to me although they are definitely present. The soundstage is kinda meh, but even. The bass is clean, which helped with the imaging because these have quite a black background. Didn't have much to say about the sound because I didn't listen to them for a long time. Oh, and I lied about the surprise factor thing because these do have one: the size. Seriously, how'd they make these so small. Replace the cable with something comfortable and doesn't have that terrible stiff wire near the ear loop and you got yourself possibly the best IEMs for sleeping. 10. Dunu Glacier The wow factor in this comes when you pick them up. Their cable is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but also very nice to the touch. It's a braided cable, but the fabric is so soft to the touch that it didn't feel like a braided cable. It's also very, very tangle-resistant and is a joy to handle. Unfortunately these are not sold separately. Also unfortunately, I don't think these sound very good. Word on the street is that these are V-shaped and while they're definitely treble-heavy, I don't think these got enough bass to justify the moniker. The treble response also doesn't sound right to my ear. The overall sound is too thin. The soundstage is decently high and deep, and also very wide, but the combination of the thin sound and the wide soundstage creates this phenomena where it feels like instruments are pushed soooo far away, but unlike the other wide soundstage IEMs I've heard that somewhat fills the space around the instruments, these do not. So the sound feels like there's a lot of empty space. 11. Thieaudio Divinity V16 These IEMs have a similar sound profile to the Sennheiser HD600, or at least my recollection of what those headphones sound. The sound is a bit wooly and fuzzy. The treble is slightly muted, but not the point of being dark. The soundstage is decently large in all three dimensions. Generally a good sounding, if inoffensive pair. In retrospect, I think these can be a good upgrade for the Sony IER-M9, but I didn't test them side-by-side. 12. Campfire Audio Andromeda 10 I fell in love with the first-gen Andromeda when I first listened to them about 9 years ago and am curious to see how these have evolved. When I first saw them in front of my eyes I have to do a double take. When the cable is detached they look normal, but then you try to attach the cable and be like "wait, what do you mean the plugs go on THAT side?" Super weird. You know what's also weird? The sound. These sound so wrong in so many ways, BUT I highly suspect that this is an issue with the tip. I think that both the Spinfits and the Electechs' bores are too wide. Super hard to describe how these sound, but probably not worth it because this is likely to be human error on my end, and by this time I'm about overdue for a huge lunch so I didn't bother to check with other tips. **My Ranking** Based on these very short and imperfect comparison, I would rank these IEMs from worst to best as follows: 12. Campfire Audio Andromeda 10. With the caveat that there's probably an issue with the eartips I used. Feel free to ignore this one I guess. 11. Sennheiser IE 600. Overall lacking in any wow factor except for its cute, tiny shells. 10. Unique Melody MEST II. I would prefer not to have my sound be literally one-dimensional, thank you. 9. Unique Melody MEST III. I would prefer not to have my sound be literally one-point-two-dimensional, thank you. 8. Dunu Glacier. Weird treble response and overly thin. Looks very similar to my FX17's; tempted to get Dunu's cables if only for the fact that my FX17's can cosplay as them. 7. Noble Viking Ragnar. I drew the same conclusion about them as I did with the Stax SR-009D. They sound so different, they floored me and I would never, ever want them as my only set. 6. Thieaudio Monarch MKIV. A bit dry for my tastes, but has great detail and soundstage. Is this what reference sound is like? 5-4. Thieaudio Divinity V16 and Fiio FX-17. Considering their wooly sound, I thought I wouldn't like the Divinity much, but these trade blows with my FX17's. The Divinity have better soundstage and more balanced sound, while the FX17's doesn't have that wooly sound; they're tighter and more authoritative 3. Unique Melody MEST Jet Black. As a soundstage addict, obviously this is going to take one of the top spots. I like these a bit better than my FX17s which gave me a bit of a buyer's remorse because this is only slightly more expensive (RRP 3699AU$, discounted to 2199 AU$), and is actually slightly cheaper if I buy them without cable (RRP 3099AU$, discounted to 1849 AU$). More companies should allow this option IMO. I'm tempted to get these as well, but I just bought my FX17's this week and I obviously don't want to buy another one so soon haha... unless... 2-1. Thieaudio Valhalla and Noble Agis II. I wish I had more time to compare these two, but from my memory I think I like them about equally; maybe the Valhallas a bit more. Nonetheless, you can never go wrong with any of these. They perform excellently, but more importantly, they are overall balanced and can work for all genres. I think I'm abit atypical compared to most other people in this hobby because I prefer to have just one set to rule them all instead of having options, which is why I'm going to definitely be revisiting these two in the far future as my one-and-only chosen one once I got enough F U money. So in conclusion, tip rolling matters SIGNIFICANTLY, this hobby rocks, and until I win the Powerball and got enough money to have anything I want, my FX17's will be my endgame (\*cue laugh track). For now I just bought the Eletech eartips. They're expensive sure, but I just thought of the 35 AU$ I spent as an admission fee. I'll start tip rolling proper once my Aliexpress haul arrives Happy to answer any questions you may have and would also love to hear about your audiophile journeys.

Noble wasn't really on my mind when I stopped by, but I'll take a look at them next time I'm around. There are a couple more Noble sets over there. Unfortunately that store didn't have some of the recent emerging brands like the Flipears and Elysian you mentioned; Australians don't use IEMs much I find. And yes, I understand that the V16 has a slightly different sound signature, but overall still pretty balanced. I find it to be quite reminiscent to the Sennheiser HD600, which is like the most widely-recommended headphones, but I'm a bit of an outlier since I don't find them that impressive. Different strokes for different folks apply even more in this hobby.

Yeah, it's certainly not enough. I really want to stay for longer over there, but the place was getting kinda crowded and I felt bad hogging one of the chairs for hours. I'm really tempted to get some of the IEMs recommended in this sub so I can have a proper comparison between them and know more about my own tastes, but there are more important things to spend money on right now.

I'm tempted to say that Valhalla is a safe buy because of its balanced sound that works with everything and sheer performance, but any thing that costs that much must not be bought blind. If you're planning to visit Singapore or Japan in the future, you should visit Hangout Audio or E-Earphones and spend an entire day there. These places are heaven for audiophiles.