The Emerald MKIII introduces structural innovation for the first time, enhancing the core formula by 30%, and strengthening the low-frequency envelopment and fullness. Additionally, a flat silver spiral structure has been incorporated on the exterior, increasing the music's detail expression, separation, and the lateral width of the soundstage by 30% compared to the previous generation. Due to optimizations in the low and mid frequencies, the overall listening experience now leans towards warmth, marking a distinct departure from the previous generation while still maintaining the classic style of the Emerald series. Between the main core and the spiral structure, we have implemented an isolation layer to allow different-shaped materials to better independently perform their functions. As a result, the differences between various tones become more pronounced, coupled with the black background provided by the materials, creating a lively and tense auditory experience. The separation of different frequencies in the music may give a sudden rush, deliberately introducing a style that brings significant changes to the system and, at the same time, surprises the listener.
Here's the description of Emerald MKII:
The original Emerald was released three years ago, and it has been warmly welcomed by many of our customers as one of the best-sounding products. Naturally, nothing is perfect. Some complained about its color and some voiced disagreement with its green color. In the Japanese market, the Emerald covers itself with a black sheath, using only an emerald-colored y-split part to reveal its identity. Since then, although we were somewhat caught in the quandary between our pride for the Emerald and opposing ideas, we eventually set our mind on upgrading the product so it can be welcomed by everyone.
In 2019, we revamped our brand image with the color combination of dark emerald and gold, which we believe best represent the philosophy and ideas that we inject into the brand. Green is the color of life, renewal, and energy, while gold is the color of the precious metal that asserts extravagance, wisdom, and power. Interestingly, in recent years, the younger generations of Chinese are associating green with the notion of forgiveness. Not only do we want our customers to feel life in their music through our luxurious products, but we also want our products to forgive the ramifications due to the imperfections in recordings during the compression process, so we can start to learn to forgive all the imperfections in life after having such a perfect acoustic experience. The new Emerald MKII, wearing the outfit of our brand color, is set to be the epitome of our philosophy.
Material and technology-wise, we upgraded the copper base of the Emerald MKII to a higher purity type of copper, and we mixed two new elements into the compound for a fascinating copper alloy. High purity silver tightly wraps around the copper core, and the entire material is then pulled into fine threads with our state-of-the-art technology, which is our forte. The end result is an amazingly soft and flexible cable body with further detailed high frequencies, more elasticity in the bass, a wider sound stage, and better overall clarity and transparency compared to that of the original Emerald. Of course, the Emerald MKII uses our usual elastic-inert isolating sheath to minimize unwanted microphonics and to ensure softness for comfort during use.
The 4-wire option has the advantages of being more economical and lighter in weight.
The 8-wire option has fuller sound, larger soundstage and punchier bass while still feels amazingly soft and easy to use.
The default length of our IEM cables is about 1.2 meters.
When designing this cable, we had an oasis in mind, not a number of a spec sheet. With copper and silver as our base material, we added elements that we have never used before. The addition of each element would provide a different acoustic effect, and equally importantly, the percentage of how much we should be adding of each element to the mixture can also change the sound drastically. You can imagine the number of permutations we had to evaluate. Nevertheless, we arrived at the oasis with memorable days of trial and error.
Apart from its amazing core, we have two thin sheaths, one pure copper and one pure silver, spiraling around the core. These two spiralsprovide acoustic tuning as well as isolation to the core.
Although we have been using single spiral designs on other products such as the copper spiral on the Vermilion MKII and the silver spiral on the Supernova MKII+, the dual-spiral design actually took much experimentation for getting to the ideal sound while not stiffening the cable for a comfortable experience.
Key Material: Silver Plated Copper
Sound Signature: Neutral, fast, with a little coloration in the upper-mid.
I'm a recent newcomer to the audiophile scene but I've been lucky enough to listen and try some amazing gear thanks to a dear friend of mine. My first experience was the Sony WM1ZM2 paired with the Oriolus Traillii. This is a great way to be introduced into this world. Well as you can imagine I was immediately hooked. I couldn't afford my dap at first so I bought myself a nice L&P W4. Which is an amazing dongle paired with UM Fabled Sounds I was in a dream world. But I knew I wasn't getting the best I could. So I did some research and settled on the hiby r8 ii. Man, I thought the L&P was doing a decent job and it was. But the Hiby makes everything sing. Every sound is more expansive, clearer, and detailed. And while I liked the Sony, the hiby has a lot more powerful features. There is a lot more control. Also, Andrew really is the best. Now I must get back to listening to music.
Let's start off with CONS:
1) Oriolus only grace the world with only 199 sets.
2) Heavy. It's heavier than OG Traillii and UM AP combines.
3) Pricey.
Love the L shape terminal from new cable. Cable looks very familiar to the PW1960. New cable material consists of pure silver, gold-silver alloy, copper vs 1960 pure copper.
I thought Traillii was perfect. Oriolus somehow manage to improve the vocal and treble. Traillii TI sounds like an open back headphones...very airy.
Warm natural sounds when pairing with Sony M2.
Turn on Hyper and let the bird with titanium wings sings to you if you have Cayin N30LE.
Por el precio que tienen son insuperables y a decir verdad son mis IEMs favorito, no venia con la case Dygnis pero a decir verdad no es importante para ml
It’s been 5 weeks since CanJam NYC. My mission, try as many IEM’s
I left the Grand Maestro until the end of the day.
Sound Impressions:
BASS: Thick, Fast and Deep. The GM has what they call NOAH modules that can be swapped out to change the Bass frequency response, without impacting the upper frequencies, bringing the mids and treble appear to be more forward, through less bass (blue module). This impacts the sub-bass most and leaves the slam of the mid bass region intact. The black module, which comes stock, gives the most sub-bass. This is what many reviewers consider a “Basshead” sound. Having listened to the Scarlet Mini in comparison, I would say the Mini is a “Basshead” set. The GM is, however, not…just a Basshead set.
MIDS: I found midrange to be very well balanced, with both female and male vocals very clear and engaging. Giving the sound signature a slightly warm feel. But this is where Fatfreq has another trick up their sleeve. There’s a toggle switch just behind the 2pin connector. It sticks up about 1mm and allows the listener to turn the bass down on the fly and bring the midrange and treble slightly forward. My listening preference is always slightly warm, but for certain tracks and artists this setting is preferred.
TREBLE: The treble is crystal clear and very well extended, but never fatiguing.
TIMBRE: This is where the GM sets itself above all others I’d heard. The quality of the sound across the entire frequency range was best in class. Every instrument could be isolated with all the details present. 10/10
TONALITY: The balance of the instruments to the vocals is, again, the best I’ve ever heard. It’s like some little man (the crossover) inside working his soundboard, and making the IEM completely in control of the concert in my head. Getting the most out of every last bit of sound detail and making sure no part over powered another. 10/10
SOUNDSTAGE: Ok, this is some next level shit! We’re not talking about a soundstage that was ultra wide. Rather something I’d never experienced before and directly related to the timbre and tonality. Instead of having visualisation of the instruments playing on a stage, it feels like I’m sitting on the stage and Stevie Nicks is singing next to me, Mick Fleetwood is playing behind me and on my other side is Lindsey Buckingham playing his guitar with smooth precision.
SIBILANCE: I’m ultra sensitive to sibilance and have test tracks I use to see just how controlled an IEM is to lower it. Without a doubt the GM is the least sibilant of any IEM I’ve heard.
MASKING: This was probably the biggest and single most distinguishable difference between the GM and anything else I’ve heard on the market. Similar to the experience in soundstage, the instruments and isolated to themselves, making all the details present. On busy tracks that would normally sound like a bunch of different things happening on top of one another, but GM has a magical way of creating a space or protective zone around each musical element. If I could explain this another way, imagine hearing a track recorded in the late 60’s, with its hiss and imperfections, where it sounds like there’s a fog or layer of pollution present that makes everything sound just a bit layered into everything else. Now imagine you take the full stage in dip down into a pool that cleans all of that away, raise it back up and now you hear only the instruments as they were originally intended. The GM takes old tracks and “remasters” them. And takes remastered tracks and makes them even better! 10/10
BUILD QUALITY: Just look at the photos. I was also lucky enough to get the gold upgrade cable thrown into the deal for free! 10/10
CUSTOMER SERVICE: I had heard some stories about problems in the past, but after reaching out to Fatfreq post sales and asking for certain things that were missing from the sale, because it was a floor model and being contacted by Ben himself, I was very happy with how they handled everything. I used to live in Singapore and can tell you the people are amazing!!!
I think some of this has to do with just how much power these IEM’s really need. More than any that I’d tried on the day. Now remember I was driving these with a FiiO M17, a BEAST of a DAP that puts out round 1,500mW on the 4.4mm plug @32ohms. These IEM’s are power hungry! They take every bit of that and deliver it with surgical precision. I spoke with Ben, the CEO of Fatfreq and he told me the M17 is a great pairing for the GM and that they have a few at their HQ in Singapore. They also have a technology called Linear Impedance, which I believe levels the playing field for the different drivers in the set. I think the impedance of this set is 32ohms, but it sure seems like it takes more to drive it than other 32ohm sets I have. This higher impedance and power requirement also contributes to eliminating the background noise, giving a cleaner listening experience.
