Meteor

https://preview.redd.it/0egqj7jqc30g1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2fbf9ddc1b600292427a114f9d004488b4a0a2b The best part about the Meteor is (barring the fantastic sound), is the size. It's smaller than the Truthear Pure and even the Tanchjim Fission. Also, very good review.

Symphonium Audio is a recent yet powerful entrant into the world of audio, with their in-ear monitors (IEMs) and cables, and two of their offerings are into my personal list of the best I have heard, the Meteor and the Titan and now I have in my hands, their middle order between the aforementioned in the Giant, which doesn’t live up to its name. I received this unit from [Meesh](https://www.head-fi.org/members/meeshnomore.608194/) who, in collaboration with [Rishabh Negi](https://x.com/YourbroRishabh) sent me this unit, and I am supremely thankful to them. Symphonium kept the packaging minimal and straight to the point- it advertises the tech involved in the Giant which the bigger sibling in the Titan also has, Phase Harmony Attenuation Technology or PHAT. Sliding the cover out and lifting the Symphonium Audio branded lid, I found a nice card with an etched metal plate with the name of the IEM written along with its serial number. Past that, I found a small carry case that reminded me of the Crinear Daybreak, there’s company branding again and I found the IEMs inside the protective pouch along with the cable. There’s a box labelled Giant, where I found an IEM cleaning tool, a jar of silica gel and various eartips. I shouldn’t be voicing my displeasure but I have to say this, but these eartips have had some of the worst designing going on as the Giant has a rather large nozzle and these eartips have some of the smallest bores where I spent a good 10-15 minutes trying on the blue bore eartips specially and it was mostly the same with the other eartips I got.  Stock cable is modular and feels nice in hand, I like this stock cable more than the one that comes with the Titan and comfort is typical Symphonium: small shape and despite the large nozzle, it fit me very well and I had no problems wearing the IEM for extended periods, and there was no pressure buildup. Enough talk, here’s the sound. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Lows** The Symphonium Giant, compared to its other offerings both below and above its retail price, performs in a rather underwhelming manner: the delivery is poorly executed, the proportions bleed into the midrange and it just comes off muffled and too much in quantity as the quality is simply not there, and it feels veiled. In tracks like Daft Punk’s *Instant Crush* and *Get Lucky*, the Giant simply has the details blurred; I simply couldn't enjoy the otherwise clean and powerful bass lines that both tracks have. And the way the bass overall feels like a congested burp rather than a clean, healthy dollop. And since it sounds muffled while spilling into the midrange, tonality is adversely affected and vocals, as a result, sound thin. This slightly improves when I listen to tracks like Avicii’s Levels, but even in that track, the Giant didn't impress me. Situation for the Giant further worsens when I switch to tracks like Rush’s *Limelight*, where the granular details on the bass line are fully smudged over to deliver the quantity and ends up ruining the whole sound. Kick drums sound too punchy and lack refinement, and the way it extends — it's delayed and worsens the whole sound further. This also leads to vocals sounding too thin and strained because the bass keeps ‌intruding. The worst part is, towards the end of the track when Neil Peart concludes it with a roll, the bass feels so much so that I had to grip the cartilage of my nose as it was nauseating. **Mids** The Giant continues to disappoint me through the midrange by having the whole sound come off congested, strained in parts while delivering a wide stage, which again defeats the entire purpose of having a wide stage. What good is a healthy stage if the IEM cannot do details, instrument separation or tonality the way it should? In tracks like Animals as Leaders’ *The Woven Web* and Periphery’s *Marigold*, the Giant once again smudges the details that the guitars and cymbals should have. Tonality takes a hit as it cannot decide how it wants to sound, and I really had a hard time penning my thoughts here. Timbre, especially in toms and snares, felt very off — neither consistently natural nor consistently metallic; just simply off. It is the same when I listen to tracks like Tool’s *Pneuma* and The Police’s *Message in a Bottle* where only the relatively wide stage is the only saving grace. Imaging worsens as these tracks have a lot of instrumental work going on; guitars once again sound unnatural and blurred, vocals feel strained and a bit too laid back for my preference, and that's mostly just about it. **Highs** The Giant has its poorest showing here, where I had my hardest time keeping a level head and noting down its performance where I just wanted to take this IEM off my ears and listen to something else because it's just poor. In tracks like Adele’s *Easy On Me*, the piano maintains a recovery curve in tonality which gets destroyed the moment the vocals kick in: undesirably weighted, thick and completely off in tonality. I just couldn't enjoy this song and especially when the climax of the track comes in where the Giant suddenly sounds fatiguing while losing weight; and I don't want to elaborate further, it was simply just a horrible listen. In tracks like Kendrick Lamar's *Alright*; I slightly enjoyed listening to it as the Giant offers the punch that this track has but again, the vocals overall felt lethargic and the background hums felt slightly out of place as the Giant prioritized having the horns take center stage. I perceived the cymbals to have a subtle, minute sibilance and, yes, that's about it. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ ***Comparisons:*** * **Versus the Symphonium Meteor:** this will be short. The Meteor, despite being more affordable in price, outperforms the Giant by a considerable margin. Lows are clearly more pronounced, have better detail; vocals have a healthy amount of weight, timbre is minutely better comparatively, and there's no fatigue. Not to mention, putting eartips on the Meteor is much easier. * **Versus the Symphonium Titan:** no contest. The price bump in the Titan proves its worth and lays the definition of what “visceral bass” means. Feed the Titan to a good source and just simply enjoy the thunderous, detailed sub-bass that the Titan has. The stage does take a hit, but details, instrument separation, and timbre on the Titan are miles better than the Giant. Again, to summarize, Titan simply is the much better IEM. * **Versus the Punch Audio Martilo**: this convincingly worsens all arguments for the Giant, as a similar delivery but with more detail and a better, controlled punch in the Martilo puts a big fat question mark on the Giant’s asking price. The only argument Giant has against the Martilo is a much smaller fit, resulting in better comfort and little to no pressure buildup. * **Versus the Dunu Davinci:** as much as I was dissatisfied with the Davinci, I would hilariously take this over the Giant as despite having worse details in the lows and a mid-bass that I feel bleeds a bit too much, the comparatively impressive midrange, significantly better tonality, imaging to go with a comparably wide stage and extending highs, make this a better purchase than the Giant. * **Versus the FatFreq Deuce:** this part will be simpler and short; the Giant in comparison with the Deuce is a substantial improvement barring sub-bass texture. * **Versus the FatFreq Maestro:** Giant wins in matters of fit and comfort and the Maestro is one of the biggest IEMs that I have tried, but sonically, the Maestro has a far deeper extending sub-bass with an equally enjoyable amount of detail and deliciously smooth highs. Vocals too are so enjoyable on the Maestro. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ **Concluding notes:** I feel I have described more than enough with the Giant, which makes this section massively small. This, in my book, is one of the most disappointing IEMs I have heard and opined on in 2026. I was not expecting Symphonium to miss its mark so heavily on the Giant, given how good the Meteor and Titan specially have been in comparison. If Symphonium wants to drop a competent middle order between both of the aforementioned IEMs, optimistically I would hope for something a lot better than the Giant. With a heavy heart, I rate the Giant and ***C.***  Also, please, people shouldn't be spending more than half an hour just to put the stock eartips on. Will I buy this at retail? **Never.** Will I buy this used? **Absolutely not.** I won't be giving genre recommendations for this IEM because it simply just cannot handle anything that felt satisfying to my ears. **Sources used:** Shanling M9 Plus on high gain, Shanling M9 Plus + iBasso PB5 Osprey stack, FiiO K5 Pro on high gain, FiiO KA17 on high gain + desktop mode, SMSL Raw MDA-1 on low gain. **Eartips used (ranked in order of performance):** Dunu S&S, Spinfit W1, stock blue bores, KBear Coffee, Moondrop Spring, Tangzu Sancai Balanced, AZLA Crystal 2, Final E. **Tracks:** * Animals as Leaders: The Woven Web * Rush: Limelight, Spirit of the Radio * The Police: Message In A Bottle * Tool: Pneuma, Schism * Periphery: Marigold * Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here, Time  * Tesseract: Juno * Tame Impala: The Less I know, The Better * Avicii: Levels  * Kanye West: Stronger, Flashing Lights, Devil In A New Dress  * Altin Gun: Goga Dunya * Timbaland: Give It To Me  * Adele: Easy On Me Live, When We Were Young  * Celine Dion: All By Myself  * Pavarotti: Nessun Dorma * Mdou Moctar: Tarhatazed  * Cigarettes After Sex: Cry  * Meshuggah: Bleed  * AR Rahman: Tere Bina  * Alice in Chains: Down In A Hole (live) * Allen Stone: Give You Blue

I don't think Dusk beats the Meteor, I reviewed both and I found the Meteor wholly enjoyable.