Does lightning strike twice?
Some time ago, a good friend of mine bought a DAC, which, during transport, decided to let some parts roam free inside its generous case. My friend had to open it up, reattach the escapist board and screw everything back together. Easy peasy. But, somewhere along this process, he had lost interest for said device, and he promptly sold it.
History repeats itself and this is where Schizophrenia (the IEM) comes into play. A somehow similar story, involving a 4,4mm plug that is minimally shorter than standard (keep reading for further details). Just enough to give my friend problems with his DAP. Schizophrenia, then, started on the wrong foot with him.
The day he lent it to me, I attached an aftermarket cable to it, plugged it into my Teac UD-507 and thought: boy, this IEM really needs more bass. I did my usual routine: change cable to LL Venom, change tips to fat, narrow bore ones, source rolling, but the bass seemed to be rather shy.
The next day, as I wasn’t ready to give up, I noticed that the bass is actually not that shy. By then, Divinus Velvet were chosen as the best tips.
Day three marked the move towards the stock cable, a nice, thin and soft business. The plug is indeed a bit shorter than usual, but with my devices it worked quite well. I am not sure if it was the stock cable, but the sound was markedly better, which is odd, taking into consideration there are no DDs inside the Schizophrenia and thus burn-in* should not be a thing.
Let this be a cautionary tale: do not judge an IEM solely based on the first impressions, some are late bloomers.
So, what is Schizophrenia? According to Musicteck, a 14 BA IEM. Impressive scarcity of details.
My observations following the three days spent with Schizophrenia are as follows:
Treble is the most impressive part of the set, having the kind of energy ready to knock your socks off. It isn’t just energy though, it is doubled by a very good definition and an accurate timbre. Cymbals strike with a crystalline sound, thick body and a strong sustain. Both the initial impact and the wash are powerful, forward and at the same time not overwhelming. This makes Schizophrenia very good with genres with intricate cymbals works, like metal and jazz.
Mids are relatively clean and detailed, with slightly above average texture, but this texture becomes more apparent in the higher mids. Female voices have thus a slight advantage over male voices, where a bit more chestiness could have been present. Like Epic Audio Apocalypse, this is a very lively set, it will owe you or exhaust you, but it will not leave you impassible. Pianos have very impactful attack, in particular the first note (especially if higher) being like a shock to the system. This means that also guitar solos are electrifying, bringing a jolt of adrenaline to the experience.
Bass is a two fold story. On one hand, it is undeniable that Schizophrenia aimed for reference, or even under-reference bass tuning. The bass is fast, with average articulation, a decay so fast that if you blink you’ve missed it and less texture richness than I’ve come to expect from my IEMs. In keeping the bass very fast and accurate, that sparkle of life is lost, for me. Of course, it works wonderfully for black metal albums produced in the famous style I like to call “bottom of the barrel” – which, to be clear is a feature and not a fault. The blackest black is right there, on the bottom of the barrel.
Stage is where things go haywire for me. Despite a large and tall stage, Schizophrenia has me puzzled by its perceived lack of depth. While the voices are slightly closer than the instruments, the way it should be, behind the voice, all the instruments are located in the same plane, like a wall-paper. No sense of depth emerging, which may work very well with jazz, but with metal sounds congested and quite frankly, boring. There is instrument separation on the Y axis, even on the X axis, but someone forgot to draw the Z axis. There can be possible explanations here, maybe I did not have enough time to unlock its potential, maybe the tips I’ve used, trying to achieve a deeper fit, in order to extort the last drop of bass out of them. So take this with a pinch of salt.
Wait a minute, you’ll say, “what about those switches, what do they do? Don’t they fix your issues?” Well,…No, they don’t! First of all, none of them addresses my only formal complaint: Stage! Then, the differences are rather small, one could even wonder if they exist, just by looking at the graphs. However, I can assure you the differences are present, but tiny and in general hard to asses accurately, as a tiny different insertion can yield more variation than activating the switch.
In the end, Schizophrenia is a well accomplished IEM, with a big caveat. Should one manage to unlock the stage depth, this IEM is as detailed as the Apocalypse, albeit with less bass. It works great for metal and jazz, it shines with vocal centered music and it underperforms with bass heavy genres. Ambient lovers are also better served by more holographic options, with Unique Melody Asahi being the best I’ve heard in this regard.
*burn-in is considered by some, mere snake oil. While I have my reservations when it comes to hundreds of hours of burn-in for an IEM, I do believe there is some change in sound in the first hours.