MMR's Gae Bolg (renamed by me to Hellboy) - a not-so-initial set of impressions
As I've discussed in the past, I absolutely love initial impressions. I both enjoy writing them, and I also find that they best represent what my actual experience is with a product, before I've gotten used to it, found the optimal pairings and whatnot - they're in a way a more pure and straightforward expression of what I hear from an IEM, HP, DAP or whatever. This time around I'm basing my "initial" impressions on over a month of listening and using the Hellboy as my EDC - take that as you will
I'll be mentioning this in my full review too, but considering that I am quite friendly with MMR, I will try to be additionally critical in order to compensate for any other bias I have towards the company as a whole
To give you the executive summary - I think that the Gae Bolg is probably the closest I've heard to complete neutrality, making up for what's a slightly too linear tuning with a really good set of technicalities. By linear I really mean linear - I can't hear any emphasis on any frequency region except maybe the very high treble (14k and higher) to give it some sparkle, extension and sense of space, but other than that we're talking dead neutral over here
To complement the rather safe tuning, the shell that MMR have gone for is also very safe and ergonomic. I've had 0 troubles or fit issues with it
The bass on the Gae Bolg is IMHO the least memorable aspect of the experience. The subbass reaches very low and has a very gentle lift compared to the mid-bass, which I find is just slightly too diffused. You can feel it is there, but it isn't the traditional BA experience where you get a really punchy and defined midbass. It has an oddly long decay to it, which makes it rather pleasant to listen to, but here I'd probably prefer to have a faster and tighter low end as it would play nicer with what's one of the best midranges I've heard
Whoops.. Kinda gave the next paragraph away
The midrange on the Gae Bolg is generally speaking the star of the show. While you don't have any exaggeration taking place in the lower or upper mids (unlike the Homunculus which is also a mid-centric IEM but I quite disliked it due to the upper mid spike), you have an extremely good balance between clarity and texture. Vocals don't sound overly large or exaggerated, but they have really good warmth and body to them. The Gae Bolg is genuinely one of the best monitors for something like Lana Del Rey's Video Games, but also plays very well with deeper and darker vocals like those of Johhny Cash.
It does especially well for vocals if you enjoy having them on the same plain as the rest of the performance while also having body and texture. As you know I've complained a lot about upper mid forwardness in the past, and I absolutely love hearing a vocal-centric tuning that achieves it through quality as opposed to quantity
I'd say the Gae Bolg is in the same family as the Noble Katana and VE Elysium where the midrange is the focus of the IEM. It doesn't match the Elysium's texture (let's face it, nothing does), but it does have a much more spacious presentation.
The treble of the Gae Bolg is in line with the rest of the performance - a very safely tuned, very linear response with a little emphasis on the upper registers. It extends very nicely, and has really good sparkle.
MMR won me over with the Thummim's staging - I am still yet to hear anything achieve the dimensions of the Thummim, and the Gae Bolg has some of that going for it. It doesn't go as crazy wide or crazy high, but it actually has height which is rather impressive for an IEM in its price range, and it stretches very well too. I generally speaking prioritize staging width over instrumental placement, so the Gae Bolg really hits the sweet spot for me there
The Gae Bolg has good instrumental separation without it being extremely emphasized, and rather good detail mostly as a result of good dynamics as opposed to a brighter tuning that tends to bring the details to the forefront.
I'll be writing up a full review, but all in all, I love it and will be purchasing a unit of my own once MMR starts shipping them out. The demo unit I have with me pretty much stays permanently hooked up to my RME, and I've been using it daily since I've received them - lovely lovely work by Joseph and his team
However, the LPG is still giving me significant improvement, which is reassuring.
