Sharp harsher sound and we had to push the preamp input a lot to get a even signal to the more epensive mocs.Īlso tested My fave mic for the price Telefunken Copperhead which was a winner for all the mics except the ELA M251 of courseĪnd lastly we did all these setups with the Neve 1073 Unison and The API unison channelstrip and tried a lot of settings with LA-2A and 1176 and also a few of the UA preset settings for Unison since we have all of the UA series plugins and they sound amazing and can't compare to lots of other DSP plugin powered interfaces. We also tried the same signal path with a Röde Classic 2 which was a waste of time since those mics are IMHO very crappy sounding and overpriced to say the least. ELA M 251E made the recordings even better and more bottom end and cleaner highs with perfect midfield sound.
Manley Ref C made the refordings very sweet sounding and full recordings Mics straight into the Unison on the Quads with flat input, no plugins or preamps except for the ones in the units. We used the following gear testing both old and new Apollos:
So paying like $2000 for a used mint Apollo Quad silver with Thunderbolt 2 card expansion or $3000 for the new one : I will stay with our silver units, both the Apollo Quad and our Apollo 16 both TBolt2 and wait for the prices to go down in a year or so. This is OUR OWN OPINION and should NOT be a benchmark to buy or not to buy, just what we found and The new Black units do have a ever soo slightly better preamps, we found them to be very slightly more open and cleaner and the 16 units were toe to toe frankly.
Since the earbuds are a little heavy they tend to limit you from wearing these for casual day use, with the weight having a small effect on how the ear tips mold to your ear after wearing these for mid periods of time they tend to slide a bit of your earmold yet the angle design salvages this by it naturally allowing for a good flow of sound into the ear without having to squeeze these into your ear in order to get the best sound possible or fit.We have one Apollo 8Pre and the new black Apollo 16 on loan to see if we are gonna upgrade to the new ones from the Thunderbolt ones we have today and in all honesty, we recorded two sessions each on both of them and then we listened with blidfold on all of us (9people) used to the best sounding gear and it was hit and miss there Guesstimates and those went both ways, one sec the older won and the next the 8Pre and we had both the older 16 and the new 16 connected to both Apollo Quad units and taking turns leaving the room to set them up for the rest of us so. The mids and highs also shine with heavy depth allowing you to allocate where the sound is and how it blends with the other sound ranges. The bass comes in a strong wave without disrupting any of the mids or highs. The equalizer shows the true POWER these earbuds have. It wasn't until I plugged these into the equalizer of my monitor speakers where The audio quality JUMPS into a prospective level of listening experience.
When listening to music on a phone the quality and volume is very controlled and has a clean experience. When listening to music on these earphones you are listening to what is natural song delivery and makes appreciate having a quality earphone like these. When going up against other commercialized brands they sound just as good but fail to show consumers how much potential these earphones have, these headphones give you those small details in audio that you haven't heard before. To say the least, these earphones deliver in every way when compared to other quality earphones. Play with the tips a bit to get a good seal with you ears so they don't fall out and give you better sound quality. And put these at the top of your list for the price/performance value. Do yourself a favor and stick with wired earphones whenever possible for better sound at a much better price. Huge bass does NOT mean better music! These have just the right amount. I like that they don't have that huge "V" shaped sound signature like the garbage that Apple and Beats churns out - wireless or not. They are smaller and fit under my helmet and/or my knit hat better than the bigger IEMs. Usually when I am out walking the dog or skiing these are my go-to's. The other times I am using some IEMs that were $500 (so, not really a fair comparison). I have several pairs of earphones and I find I go back to these about half the time. The sound is still very good and they punch way above their price level. I have had the quads for a couple of years now and they are holding up extremely well.