64 Audio A18 Tzar

A Whole New Level of In Ear that Competes with Full Sized Exotic Headphones

The A18 has made me rethink in ear audio as I have never heard anything like this before. With the A18, I am not comparing to other CIEMs as it is at a whole new level - I am comparing to my full sized HPs. My HD700, LCD2.2, and my HEX are all now second class to my A18. The HEX is my best for sound stage, detail, sub bass, and everything else that maters to me in music, but the A18 outperforms it.

Like Marrying the Hot, Rich, Talented, Intelligent Girl from College – She’s Got it All

This sexy, beautiful, talented, old money rich girl has all the advantages having come from great genes, stepping on the shoulders of her ancestors to reach new heights. Inheriting all the best traits of her lineage and being groomed for success, she surprises me at every turn with new professional grade talents that I could never of imagined. Dancing with Fred Astaire, she makes him look like a hack. Singing with Marah Carey, she steals the show. Yes, she is that girl. She is both fun and disciplined. She will go camping with you, sleep in the dirt, and eat hot dogs while looking good and making it fun. And she can go to the opera or orchestra with you and talk music theory with the cast/orchestra leader or even fill in for a sick cast member at a whim. How did I get so lucky?


However, she is meant for great things and you do not want to be responsible for holding her down. Feeding her hot dogs will only be fun on occasion as she really has a taste for gourmet and exotic options. She also wants to travel to new sources to help expand her talents and to see how high she can fly. It is a great responsibility to support her ascension to greater things. By marrying her, I have an instant ticket to the good life, but to keep her happy I need to keep her challenged and improving.


BOTTOM LINE: If you intend to use an iPhone and low res MP3’s – look elsewhere as she deserves better. Even my Calyx M and Sony WM1A with high res where she can shine are middle class to her. To get the very best out of her, she needs some quality exotic desktop time with your full attention in a dark and quiet space. Treat her right, and she will elevate you.

Dual Personalities – The Dark Side



This elegant lady of refined tastes and talents has VIP passes to all genres, a jet set lifestyle, and knows all the right people. However, she has a dark side which loves to party and get funky with you. Being married to her is like having a wife and a mistress without the guilt. The M20 personality has all the right bodacious curves, punchy personality, fun lifestyle, and keeps you in non-stop smiles. The M15 personality requires getting a little more intimate to appreciate, but this is the intimidating hard body flexible yoga instructor that can speak 15 languages, has a PHD in everything, and can do a one armed handstand pushup while in scorpion pose. One personality is about discipline and excelling while the other is all about smiles – both cut from the same cloth. The M20 is all about smiles and fun and jet set lifestyle while the M15 will amaze you with an endless list of talents that are beyond refined.




Cataloging Her Talents
Enough gushing, getting down to the review we can walk down the typical path.

Beauty
Just take a look for yourself, she is a beauty!!!

• Build: The build is picture perfect as you can see here. The 3D printing is flawless, the face plate is perfection just as I imagined it, the modules seat perfectly, the cable fits snug – what more can I ask for?
• Fit: The fit is perfect, no hot spots, perfect seal, comfortable for hours of wear, they slip in smooth and easy and release with a slight tug.
• Cable: High quality cable that feels premium. The 64” cable is from what I hear silver over copper which I typically frown on, but I am not getting the sibilance that I typically get from it and the detail is in spades. Definitely a keeper even if I use my upgrade cables.
• Accessories: The case comes with a holder for each monitor with a cable wrap that securely keeps my baby protected when not in use. The case also holds a clipped in cleaning brush, a module pull tool, and inserts to hold both modules for both the M15 and M20 to keep them safe. The small case is very portable and even fits in my pocket in a pinch.
• Price: The price starts at $2999 before upgrades. I was at about $3400 after the cable upgrade and the custom face plate options.
• Warranty: 30 day fit guarantee and 2-year limited warranty.

Marketing
The 64 Audio A18 Tzar™ is the world’s first custom-fit earphone with 18 balanced armature drivers per ear. Designed for the most demanding listeners who are looking for the ultimate in reference sound, it features 8 low drivers, 8 mid drivers, and the incredibly smooth tia™ high and high-mid drivers. Sound from the low and mid drivers combines in the tia single-bore and blends with amazingly-detailed highs from the proprietary open balanced armature tia high driver. The result is an incredibly tight low end, super transparent mids, remarkable high-frequency extension, and an out-of-this-world depth and sound stage. A protective mesh covering at the end of the stem helps to keep out debris while apex™ module technology allows for customizing the sound signature and reduces air pressure inside the ear canal for fatigue-free listening. We pushed the limits with innovation and design to fit such a driver package in a custom earphone and are thrilled to finally drop this bomb on the in-ear monitor industry.


Like all 64 Audio Custom IEMs, the A18 monitors are 3D printed based on your uniquely shaped ear impressions and are fully customizable with a wide range of handcrafted finishes. They are inherently noise isolating and are designed to work with a wide range of personal audio devices including all hard-wired and wireless monitor systems.




Unboxing






Unboxing video:



Singing like Marah
Like Marah, my baby has endless range. She goes low as well as she goes high singing effortlessly at a whisper or a scream. There is no harshness, no bloat, no flaws. This is not a sterile sound at all boasting a nature timbre and huge heaping’s of emotion. This girl can make you laugh or cry at a drop of hat with her golden voice.


Bass
This bass is as good as I have heard in a BA configuration. I was turned off by the 8 driver bass configuration thinking one large bass driver would be better, but boy was I wrong. First, from my full sized sub woofer experience, I thought only single large drivers could go really deep and move 20 hertz air, but 20 hertz is full on with this girl. Better yet, it is not bass heavy, but bass perfect. In other words, balanced without the mid-bass hump, but not lacking impact anywhere in the bass spectrum. There is clarity in sub realm and punch with rumble at the same time that I am clearly hearing textures from mid-bass realms that are so resolute, that I can place both bass guitarist separately when there rather than hearing a single bass note typical in most CIEMs.


I say the best that I have heard in a BA because I feel that both the AAW W900 and tia Fourte’ have better bass performance in a hybrid design. But there are trade offs that are not worth buying them over the A18 including less resolution, and more fatigue. Neither the W900 or the Fourte’ are particularly fatiguing, but the A18 has none. The resolution in the A18 is definitely better, but the dynamic bass drivers in the W900 and Fourte’ have additional information/dimensions that I value that the BA configurations miss including the sensation of moving air and a rounded wavelike tactile impact that is reminiscent of standing in front of a high value sub woofer. All I can say is it makes me want to have both even though I am likely to listen to the A18 more.


Mids
The mids on the A18 are hard to describe as they don’t fit into the three blob category typical of the TOTL CIEMs. Mids are creamy when the music is recorded creamy, have edge or clarity, or euphonics, or anything else when recorded that way. The A18 mids are a chameleon that fit any genre in stride bringing out the detail, timbre, and emotion as intended. The mids are more a story about how everything comes together flawlessly and effortlessly to a cohesive sound stage that sounds lifelike.


Treble
The 64 Audio guys are really onto something with the tia drivers. Doing away with the sound tubes has done magic to the treble shaping a natural sounding treble that no longer is separate, but part of the whole. Treble is not about bright or shimmer, it is about integration with the other elements to etch out more detail in a bass note or texture into the mids.


Textures
The resulting SQ coming from the A18 is uniquely textured. The only CIEM that I have ever heard that has better textures is the Fourte’ with the hybrid configuration. These textures provide a lifelike feeling to the music that is unmatched. The textures are what makes the music feel full sized and drops you in the middle. The textures are so good that it gives you shivers in the right track. The textures also squeeze out every last bit of emotion.


Sound Stage
The 64 Audio sound stage has always been the unique feature that keeps people coming back for more, especially after the advent of the APEX modules. However, the A18/Fourte’ have taken the 64 Audio sound stage to a new level:

• Size: Massive, full sized headphone style that extends into the room. Both the A18 and Fourte’ required me to take them out to make sure that I didn’t just fill the room with music waking my sleeping family – it is that massive.
• Scale: I find that scaling the band/instruments to all sound as if they are on the same stage and are all human in size is not typical of CIEMs or HPs. The A18/Fourte’ nail this scaling with an intimate 3D view into the music that allows you to feel the textures all around you. None of the band members sound like miniatures or as if they are playing from another room. There is a very cohesive sound stage that allows you to place everyone. The big deal here is that the singers sound life sized as if they are in front of you.
• 3D: The A18 has surprised me on number of occasions where I could hear parts of the music flying around me where this was not obvious before. This is not an artificial circle, but like a bird flying up and down, toward and away, while circling around and around. This took my breath away more than once.
• Positioning: Depending on the song, you feel like you are in the front row or on the stage for a very intimate view of the music. The texture is great enough to provide the illusion of the performers being right in front of you and detailed enough that the texture slowing disappear when the music moves away from you for a realistic experience. Intimate is not normally a good thing with classical typic genres, but seems to work for some reason with the A18 providing a very cohesive experience.
• Depth: This is a very deep sound stage providing great layering – very different from the typical wide and flat. There is a sensation of an endless depth that goes beyond the instrument/band stage. You can feel reverb off the walls behind with the right song. However, scale is picture perfect.
• Width: While the majority of music is not that wide in typical recordings, the A18 does a great job of pulling the instruments apart on the sound stage with enough width to make it work effortlessly. However, occasionally, a wider recording comes along which takes your breath away with the sheer scale of the sound stage.
• Height: The height feels very natural and scales to the song. Big sound stage songs grow in all directions including height, and shrinks in poor recordings. There is just a very natural resulting sound stage that makes the music believable.

Transparency/Clarity
The A18 is very fast. Very fast. This speed provides a nice black space between instruments that aid its transparency and clarity. There is no haze here, even with euphoric/euphonic songs that have that tube like quality to them.


Dynamics
The speed greatly aids the A18 dynamics. The plucks, the front and back of notes, the booms – go zero to big instantly as well as big to zero instantly. Don’t read this wrong, there is a nice natural decay with the notes, just no fuzz – all clarity. The Fourte’ does beat the A18 in dynamics given its hybrid design – from zero to boom, but the A18 beats it in speed providing a better back side to the note. The Fourte is very transparent and clear, but IMO the A18 is better. I feel that the A18 dynamics are close to the Fourte, but the greater clarity and transparency of the A18 drivers gives it an edge. While I don’t consider the Fourte’ to be fatiguing, the A18 is significantly less fatiguing. For example, falling asleep with the A18 in my ears all night long, no issue. The Fourte’ after falling asleep all night in my ears leaves me waking with a bit of fatigue like I went to a concert the previous night. Again, the Fourte’ is not a fatiguing CIEM, but the A18 is even better.


Timbre
I have covered timbre in the other sections enough, but felt I needed to state it one last time that this is a key reason to buy the A18. Everything sounds so real.


Full Sized Sound
This also needs to be pointed out as a key or unique reason to buy the A18 – the sound is at being there size as if the singers and instruments are full sized and in front of you. I have only found this to be the case with a few exotic HPs – Abyss, 009, LCD4, Utopia, and now the A18. This is another reason that the music sounds so real from the A18.


Volume Performance
This is a big deal to me in defining true audiophile equipment. Quality audiophile equipment sound coherent, correct in balance and scale with proper dynamics and punch at all levels of volume. The volume simply moves you closer to the music with everything getting larger. Poor equipment in not coherent until enough volume is present and typically mid focused without dynamics in the periphery. Turning up poor equipment is more like tuning a radio station that is out of tune until a proper tuning can be found and gets to a point of blaring when too loud. Quality equipment sounds great at all volumes. The A18 sounds great at all volumes with great dynamics throughout the spectrum and periphery from the lowest volume to the highest without blaring. That is saying a lot.


APEX (New) vs. ADEL (Old)
The old ADEL technology was amazing and may be less fatiguing than the new APEX technology, but at a large cost in SQ. My experience with ADEL was mainly with @ericr’s U6 and U12 that were amazing, but warm and lacking in transparency. The ADEL U6 vs. the V6 Stage was a clear step up in sound stage size, but lacked the detail that the V6 Stage was famous for. Worth it at that point. The U12 was amazing and fun, but that sound stage, wow. So sound stage lovers as well as those concerned about retaining their hearing were all on board. Having heard other brands at RMAF playing with ADEL, I was able to A/B ADEL vs. non-ADEL versions side by side and started to figure out what we were giving up as I ended up liking the non-ADEL versions better for the superior SQ.


Now, trying the new APEX, I hear all the fidelity and clarity that I felt was missing from the ADEL tech while retaining that insane sound stage. The ADEL had boomier bass that was fun and bloomed, while the APEX is tight. The sound stage seems to be a draw, but the transparency and clarity achieved in the APEX blows the SQ of the ADEL away. Hands down, I would take the APEX over the ADEL for SQ. The fatigue question is the harder one to speak to as I don’t have an ADEL version of my A18 to compare, but my guess is that we have reached the perfect compromise of no fatigue with the greatest SQ. The only difference, is that I believe that I could turn up the ADEL louder without ill effect, but I am a lower volume listener so it doesn’t matter. The flip side to that which I cannot answer without the AB is can I listen softer without issues with the newer APEX tech? While this is a pointless conversation given that the ADEL is no longer available with 64 Audio, I don’t care as the APEX is obviously the better option.


Pairing the A18
The A18 makes everything sound great from the iPhone to the best DAPs, but the better the source, the better the A18 seems to sound. This is a section in process given my move from WA to AZ, but I will do what I can.


Calyx M
The Calyx M is an amazing DAP that pairs amazingly with the A18. The M pushes out an extremely black background with dynamics that seem to spring out of nowhere. It is fast with unrivaled clarity and seems to have an endless sound stage. Best of all, it is one of those quality pieces of equipment that sounds great at all volumes with full dynamics out to the peripheries, detail, and balance from low to high volume. Does any of this sound familiar? If not, go back and read again as I just described the key strengths in the A18 providing a perfect platform for it to thrive in. This is a match made in heaven.


Sony WM1A
TBD: While I am in love with the Sony having heard it at RMAF and knowing what it can sound like, my new Sony is not sounding right. Let’s just call it user error, but I may have to send it in for repair. Should be a great pairing for a fun sound, but I will have to get back to you.


Desktop: Havana 2 > Eddie Current Black Widow > Balanced Cable
TBD: My desktop setup is in boxes waiting to be delivered to my new house in AZ. So I will have to get back to you on this one too.


iPhone 6
Amazing…. My Hidition NT6pro doesn’t do this. Like I said, you can feed her hot dogs and sleep in the dirt and still have fun with her. Just don’t stay here as she deserves better. While it sounds great, the sound stage loses depth and layering becoming the more traditional wide sound stage. Dynamics are great with gobs of texture, but there is a looseness to the sound and a fuzz in comparison to my Calyx M.


Comparing the A18
There are a great number of fantastic CIEMs in existence, if I could only have one it would be the A18, with the tia Fourte’ coming in a close second. The 64 Audio bros are doing us a solid……..


Fourte’ (Universal)
The A18 going back and forth feels more intimate, but that may be a difference in impedance as the Fourte’ feels like it needs more power. The Fourte’ feels like it has the same speed and transparency as well as the same tia treble driver. The Fourte’ feels like it has a bit more dynamics vs. the A18 with a bit bigger sound stage. The A18 feels like it is a little more 3D in the sound stage while the Fourte’ has a more natural bass boom and decay. The A18 has more bass and sub-bass definition where the Fourte’ has a little more rumble. All these statements are worthless as they change with the songs, so feel free to ignore. In the end, I want both, but would take the A18 over the Fourte for a little more detail, transparency, and a little larger sound stage, but that is just what I am hearing. I still want the Forte for having most of what the A18 has but with better bass dynamics and impact. Both have incredible texturing, but the Fourte’ displays it in a fun style where the A18 goes for emotion. Another big advantage that the A18 has over the Fourte’ is versatility in the M15/M20 differences in sound signature. They both win and no one could go wrong either way, but I chose the A18 as she is my girl.


U18 (Universal)


Hidition NT6pro (Custom)
The Hidition is known for its speed and bell-like clarity, but it has changed after going back to Hidition for a remold. The sub-bass has slowed down for a better decay, but this has filled in some of the transparency that it was famous for adding some warmth to the overall sound. The Hidition is an intimate CIEM with up close detail, but just cannot stand up to the A18 in detail or texture. The pro has a sparkle to the treble that many like, but it sound less cohesive than the better blended A18 treble. The bass on the pro is fun, but does not kick as hard or have as much detail so it feels bloated after listening to the A18. The pro is one of the very best I have ever heard and stood its ground through all the tours I have held until now. It has been demoted to EDM or gym duty as it again – just not at the same level as the A18.


Rhapsodio Galaxy V2 (Universal)
With a proper fit, the Galaxy SQ is irresistible with a meaty dynamic bass that reaches real deep and a clarity that bests my Hidition NT6pro’s bell-like clarity. It is hard to believe that this is all accomplished by a single 10.3mm dynamic driver. However, compared to the A18, the Galaxy is set back several rows so the textures and emotion are removed based on that distance. It is not to say that the Galaxy cannot hold its own against the best TOTL CIEMs with a good fit, but the A18 is just at another level of performance.


Wrapping it Up
I am being completely serious when I say that the A18 brings a whole new level of in ear that competes with full sized exotic headphones. The sound stage, the full sized sound, the life like timbre, the emotion …… this is everything I have been looking for in a CIEM. The only thing that I am leaving on the table is the hybrid dynamic bass driver bringing the Fourte’ into a close second place. I may have to have both, but I have lost my drive for more with the A18 which by itself is unique. I think I will be married to her for a long happy life.