Hill Audio × Alpha Omega Voyager

Low Frequency
The Voyager for the Hifi Version as we speak, presents low-end that could be described as lean, tight and polite. There’s a sub-bass roll-off at 60Hz, which affects the sub-bass extension as most rumbles were soft and vastly could only be heard instead of being felt. Listening to the bass rendition at the start of the song Would? (MTV Unplugged) – Alice in Chains, the Voyager could not provide the subtle grunt and rumbles off the rendition clearly. Despite that being said, this IEM presents the rendition tonally well, there’s adequate bass weight and texture behind the notes to execute the song competently although the clarity was decent at best.

Moving on, the Voyager has a superbly tight mid to upper bass that definitely gave an element of surprise, due to its capability to deliver a bass impact that felt similar to a quality dynamic driver. Each bass hits were tight, tactile and anticipated with great attack although in terms of impact is rather on the more polite/soft side. Reverberations and bass decay/transients were short, not the most dynamic sounding but positively expected from a BA driver. Testing the Voyager with Hunter – Björk and Angel – Massive Attack definitely had the IEM struggles to keep up with the rumbles and extension although its capable to deliver adequate impact rapidly.

Mid Frequency
Midrange is where the Voyager thrive, as it posseses a tuning that’s being a midrange oriented. This IEM has a solid midrange performance for a budget pair, the extra emphasis into the midrange by a couple decibels definitely gave the Voyager obvious colouration but as well as unwanted muddiness.

The Voyager has a warmly lush, forward and detailed midrange, it presents vocal brilliantly well with solid clarity and articulation, the added warmth made vocals are much emphasised but it might be a tad shouty and intense occasionally for females, sopranos, trumpets and other similar instruments. Although that’s the case, separation on vocals was solid on this IEM. Tuning into First Love – Hikaru Utada and Off The Wall – Micheal Jackson, vocals were separated brilliantly with strong forward presence detached into its own spotlight really well, alongside other instruments and elements in both songs.

Timbres on percussions and instruments sounds quite organic and were easily distinguish from each other, with a warm tonality. Listening to usual test track which is Mediterranean Sundance – Al Di Meola, acoustic guitars sounds lush, detailed and a joy to hear upon each pluck, but a tad overly warm. Meanwhile, testing using the song Psychosocial – Slipknot every elements were well separated with solid detail and clarity, cowbell hits on the far right side was clearly audible and free from melding with other elements

High Frequency
As we reach the top, the Voyager has an overall inoffensive, crisply detailed, musical and cool treble. Despite that being said, it can be somewhat veiled occasionally. There’s a definite lacking in terms of treble extension, which does unfortunately affect the airiness to some extend. Treble sparkle were also seemed to be blunt and certain sound such as crashes and snares could be heard splashy.

Moreover, the Voyager suffers slight sibilance that might turn into a deal breaker for certain audience who are sensitive to harsh and sharp treble. Despite that being the case, the provided blue eartips does slightly deter the problem to a much tolerable degree.

Nonetheless, tonal wise for the treble on the Voyager favours much towards the warmer side as well, there’s minimal amount of additional note weight and warmth on brighter sounding stringed instruments and percussions. For example, sounds of swords clashing at the background in the track Artemis – Lindsey Stirling sounded much warmer and chlunky as supposed to be brighter and metallic sounding.

As I fiddle around with plenty of eartips and cable to try on the Voyager. Higher quality silver-plated copper (SPC) cables gave a noticeable upgrade compared to the stock cable, as it helps to add more clarity into the midrange region that was affected by the muddiness/bass bloat. Treble sounded much airy and extended as well. I did also try to pair the Voyager with pure silver cable, which gave almost similar effect but stumbles along the way as it accentuate the sibilance which became far too fatiguing for me to enjoy.

For the choice of eartips, I simply prefer a medium density foams such as the Acoustune AT02 and Hill Audio Ergo Pro as it provides the much needed airiness and treble sparkle that the Voyager needed without affecting the bass lesser as thinner foams do. The FiiO HS18 also deserves to be on the lists due to its capability to provide a bouncy, meatier bass impact.

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