Zerstorer_GOhren: A Legacy One With Some Twist-BQEYZ WINTER ULTRA

Pros:

● Still retains a neutral sound profile that the original WINTER has but with some tweaks on its tuning that makes it a bit brighter sounding and even less bassy.

● A well-balanced bass response with a rumbly and enough punch on it.

● Clear, transparent and clean midrange presentation.

● Smooth male vocals and an energetic sound on some female vocal types.

● Clear, crisp and brilliant sound on some instruments especially on strings and woodwinds which are quite ideal with their tonal characteristics.

● Lustre and airy treble response with a good sparkle.

● Excellent resolution capabilities.

● Spacious and openness on its perceived head stage just like almost all BQEYZ sets.

● Well-built and pretty robust aluminium alloy shell chassis.

● Like all BQEYZ sets, it is well-packed with accessories.

● Three types of ear tips to choose from.

● Premium quality stock quality with modular termination plug feature.

●Cobalt blue is indeed a looker (Subjective).

Cons: 

● Absolutely not for bass heads as it has less authoritative and robust bass response.

● A bit brighter tuned therefore treble-sensitives should take caution on this type of tuning.

● Quite pricey than the original WINTER.

● Again just like the original WINTER, the included stock ear tips don't do justice to the ambient-feel coming from its piezoelectric bone conduction driver, therefore you need to find a third party ear tip that suits well.

Performance in each range

LOWS/BASS:

This one presents a more balanced bass presentation as it has an ample sub bass presence and a sufficiently mid bass texture. It conveys a punchy, incisive and adequate tactile bass response that is well-segregated and clean as it does separate from other parts of the frequency response.

This type of bass will surely not be a cup of tea to some ardent bass heads; it sounds less authoritative and boomy on their liking.

On its sub bass quality, there are some fairly reverberations that can be perceived that are generated coming from electronic, percussive and string instruments like synthesisers, drum machines, bass guitars and double-basses.

The mid bass has an ample texture enough to give a note weight definition on bass-clef instruments and male vocals. Bass guitars have more resonant and sustaining sound while double-basses have a raspy and yet a bit wafting sound, and kick bass drums sound resonant and sustaining.

Deep male vocals which are known for their low octave register noticeable have lesser quality on depth and volume to have that dark tone to sound dense and woolly but at least has some reverberating presence on their respective vocal types.

MIDRANGE:

The midrange presentation of the WINTER ULTRA is quite neutral and almost linear with a clean and transparent sound with enough warmth and at the same time, evidently energetic.

The ample warm characteristic is somewhat enough to give that note texture on male vocals and some instruments mainly on percussives and brassy ones while its energetic tuning will give the clear, radiance and openness on female vocals, and also on strings and woodwind instruments.

On how the male vocals sound, baritones sound smooth and resonant although they lack warmth and lushness, tenors have a clear and dazzling voice, and countertenors have a tender and a glowing voice that makes their vocals sound more expressive.

As for female vocals, contraltos have that rich but less strong and depth as it sounds less husky and full, mezzo-sopranos have more fiery and coppery sound from their vocals, and sopranos which is probably strongest point of this set has sounds crystalline and shimmering for energetic and spacious voice quality which are quite suitable for lyric and coloratura types.

Depending on the type of instruments, it registers a clear, crisp and detailed sound on them especially on woodwinds and strings. The woodwind instruments like concert flutes, piccolos, clarinets and saxophones, a silvery sound from concert flutes, the bright and intense sound of piccolos, the liveliness sound coming from clarinets and the reedy and forceful sound of saxophones.

Meanwhile on string instruments, guitars sound crisp and bright while violins have vibrant and brilliant sound from every bowing on its strings and cellos have a more lustrous and incisiveness on their sound.

As for other types of instruments particularly on brasses and percussives, trumpets have full and brilliant sound, a powerful yet penetrating sound on trombones, a clear and resounding sound on horns, hard and sharp sound on snares, a resonant sound on tom-toms, a menacing sound from field drums and last but not the least, a resonant yet a bit dry sound from kettledrums. Pianos seems to have a more bright tone as it sounds clear and brilliant albeit it has that metallic sound from it.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

The treble response of this one is definitely on the brighter side as it has that clear, shimmering and surprisingly airiness coming from the bone conduction driver that handles this frequency section.

It has an accentuated upper-mids and presence treble as it highlights the clarity and definition on vocals and instruments as it somehow improves the articulation of the vocals while it adds more rendition on the attack of instruments.

Although, some treble-sensitive folk should take caution on this one as it might sound a bit sharp and aggressive on their tonal preferences but the sibilance was kept under controlled and it has a piercing sounding for brightly tuned IEMs

As I mentioned a while ago that its brilliance part has a good amount of air with an intense sparkle on it. The sparkle will also underline the sound qualities on treble-clef instruments as it gives more glistening sound on cymbals, a shortened buzzing sound on hi-hats, a shimmering sound on celestas and a brilliance sound on glockenspiel.

SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING & OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

The WINTER Ultra is quite capable of presenting a perceivably spacious sound/speaker stage dimension as it has wide lateral span from left to right, good height ceiling and depth that makes it pretty expansive within my head room.

Its stereo imaging projects an atmospheric presentation with a well-layered soundscape and good separation of each musical element like vocals and instruments in which I can pinpoint its placement within its spatial audio dimensions.

The cohesive performance of its hybrid driver is relatively solid as the dynamic driver is able to deliver a fast transient response for its bass quality while its supporting bone conduction driver is able to convey a clear and detailed sound without any phasing issues.

As for its resolution capabilities, the macro-dynamics on this one is quite consistent as it was to highlight the varying degree of loudness level on both chorale section and instrumental lines while its micro-dynamics has a sharp definition as it was able to extract details, nuances and subtleties like notational attacks, vocals ends and reverb tails.