First, thanks for the review,
@amirm!
When I started the company we had very poor gear; the very first thing we did when cash flow allowed it was invest in the GRAS. We actually mostly voice by ear and use measurements to verify what we hear, but we start by ensuring the core technical parameters line up before we voice, so we only build the rest of the system up once we have a foundation of low THD and dood time and frequency domain behavior.
Different driver architecture gives the Ether class an output advantage. Not enough space to apply the same architecture in AEON, plus that's part of the cost reduction, we traded some efficiency in AEON to avoid degrading driver performance.
We will send one. I meant to and forgot...
We no longer sell the ETHER C that was the basis for the Drop product. The ETHER C Flow has an enhanced motor design, and a lot more bass.
I've actually come to focus on listening to acoustic sweeps and tones to assess linearity, and found that perceptually this is kind of close to the Harman curve, but not quite the same. From this I've kind of evolved to a curve that's got more bass, as all our more recent products suggest. The exception is VOCE, but we did work to rebalance the midrange and highs to sound more linear with a flatter measured response, VOCE sounds way better than bumping the bass, I suspect there's something going on there due to the 88mm driver and how it couples but this is just a guess.
That statement relates to the ETHER C, not the Drop ETHER C. As noted, the Drop version retuned it and modified pads as well, the Drop ETHER C is a definite upgrade to the original ETHER C and closer to C Flow in many respects except bass output and soundstage where C Flow does a better job, at least without EQ.
Not at all. Bruce was very generous in answering a few questions I had when we started out, one of his answers sparked the idea that led to our v-planar patent, and because I wouldn't have had the idea without the chat and his insight we added him to the patent. But we