Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
at 1k, this is practically a no brainer, with the only issues being the terribly long wait times, and the possible issues about dealing with massdrop's customer service should anything go haywire (for the international customers).
personally owned a zeus XR before (the zeus with a switch on the faceplate, switching between two tunings, the zeus XIV and Zeus R).
I practically more or less left the switch turned to the XIV as, for me, the XIV is far superior to the R for vocal based music. Off the WM1A's SE output, the zeus XIV is undoubtedly the best IEM i have heard.
A deep staging reaching down deep along the Y-axis, with above average coverage of the X and Z-axis, the zeus XIV has a unique stage among the TOTL's of the iem world, Easily portraying a 3- dimensional soundstage.
Layering is superb, as instruments and vocals line up along the Y-axis. The "thick" sound of the zeus comes from the blend of all the instruments in the background, with certain instruments coming out of the blend occasionally and effortlessly fading back into the background. Every instrument is blended evenly in the background and can be easily distinguished at any moment as a instrument playing along the Y-axis. Just like a multi-layered cake, the layers of the zeus can be easily distinguished, yet they maintain perfect harmony.
Vocals are nice and thick, meaty with soul and body. They are the best mids i have heard, rivaling even the UE18+ 2nd gen off the chord mojo. The vocals do not bleed into the bass or treble region, they are tastefully balanced to ensure no part of the sound is overshadowed.
Treble is well extended and is well defined and not overshadowed by the midrange. No dips or peaks, the treble comes across as effortless, well extended and yet not shrill.
Bass is textured and sufficient. It kicks in when needed and is tastefully balanced with the midrange. Quality bass, in sufficient quantity.
Highly detailed across the spectrum, microdetails are easily coaxed out by the XIV.
TLDR;
Pros: -Unique 3d staging - Excellent layering -Texture is excellent throughout -Mid Centric IEM that avoids pitfalls of the popular mid centric tuning: "overshadowed bass and treble" -impressive coherency for a 14 driver iem, not the best, but insanely good for a 14 driver iem -Does generally well across all genres, despite the "thick" sound type, the superb layering helps to easily distinguish between the instruments, even in classical music. -$999 for a TOTL. enough said.
Cons: - not your reference tuning - hd800 lovers may want to consider the prophile 8 instead. This IEM is thick and more hd650 than hd800. -the xiv is coloured - looking for a natural timbre? consider the UE18+ gen 2. the 18+ is boring off the wrong sources, king of the TOTL's when paired with the right sources on the warmer side. the timbre of the zeus is coloured, but is a easier iem to enjoy than the 18+ off neutral/bright sources. -14 drivers per side - when you have more parts, the risk of failure is multiplied. EE's QC is vigorous, but balanced armatures are bound to fail at one point or another -Classical lovers may want to consider another iem, however there are very very few iems at this price point that is capable of this level of detail retrieval, layering, texture and 3d like soundstage. - Impedance: 10 ohms at 1 kHz . With a 10ohm impedance, there was a large amount of hiss, on the slightly noisier SE output of the WM1a. Invest in a iematch to go along with the zeus if you're planning on using the xiv with normal sources (pc, laptop,phone). - Fit. Due to the zeus XIV having 14 drivers, the iem is very large and may not fit comfortably in smaller ears. My ears are average sized but due to the large size of the zeus, the shell jutted out (can be seen on the massdrop pics also). seal was not as good as i would have liked, but that was probably due to my particular model being excessively large, since it was once a demo unit and it also had the additional switching circuitry of the XR. I also think the spinfits tips i used were too small for me.
Hopefully with the redesigned ABS shell and lack of the additional circuitry of the XR, the XIV should be a average fit for people with average-sized ears.
I would highly recommend this IEM to all audiophiles and at this price point, its a no brainer.
now if only 999 magically appeared in my wallet... i sold the zeus xr due to the fear of one of the 28 drivers failing on me as i had bought it used, but with massdrop's warranty coverage and it being a brand new item, i think this is a no brainer.
seriously pissed that i dont have enough money for it... psst hint hint...i would appreciate it if a zeus XIV magically appeared at my doorstep......JUST kidding! LOL
just keep doing these collabs for TOTL stuff massdrop, i just hope to see more TOTLs of the audio world having their own massdrop exclusive debuts.