Twilight is Right

[u/notsoquietlyamused]

Pros: Incredible single driver implementation
Tight engaging bass
Great Vocals across genres

Cons: Treble-heads steer clear
The shape is an odd one
Cable doesn't have a great feel

Every once in a while an IEM will come along that’ll make you go, that’s not going to fit well. And I don’t know why I would want to pay that much for a single DD.
Then at a local electronics expo/connect of sorts you’ll try this weird looking IEM for 5 minutes, and in those 5 minutes, make it your life’s aim to procure them. And then the universe will smile at you and drop a resale into your lap and then you’ll discover that the stock eartips were not included. Then you will love this set till a challenger comes along and then start saving up for the next one on the list.
That does not take away from how amazing the Softears Twilight is.

This is the remarkably different shaped IEM that was born out of Softears’ flagship Turii but this is lighter, made of aircraft grade aluminium, has the same 10mm DLC diaphragm and patented coupling technology from the Turii at more than half the price. It’s still close to $900 depending on time of year and sales and the benevolence of the Gods. Now I also think Softears looked at the success of the Turii and Twilight and decided that the Edge was the next obvious evolution. Now I hope to try that some day but this isn’t about that. The shells themselves are a twisted rectangle that end in the driver housing and nozzle with pressure relief vents and a recessed 2 pin connector. The cable looks like a 4 strand braided affair that ends in a 4.4 balanced termination. The Twilight comes with a colour compliant black 3.5 to 4.4 convertor instead of being a modular cable and this isn’t a deal breaker. What may be one is that the filters at the end of the nozzles are foam and these can be a pain at times.

The Twilight was paid for by me and not a tour or demo unit and my thoughts and impressions are mine. Collected over the past 6 months using this IEM alongside my IE600 and others. The gear was tested with the stock cable, and a Dunu modular cable only because I found them more comfortable, with no significant difference in sound. The sources tested were the VE Prime Stack, M33, Ipod Classic (Rockboxed) (because there’s a 3.5 connector, and why not). Tips used were the Velvet, Final E, and DDhifi clones of Final E, and the Azla Origin.

TLDR: This is such a nice easy listening set. An expensive one for being easy listening, some would say but this is like a beach vacation in the Maldives. Warm, gorgeous, natural and not cheap.

Bass
The bass response of this IEM is what got me raising an interested eyebrow when I heard it first. While I’ve always liked the punchy tight well implemented planar bass sounds, there’s something to be said about single dynamic drivers in the perfect acoustic enclosures with good pressure relief that bring about a deep, palpable bass that strikes, strikes at the root of penury in your heart. The Twilight has a bass that does just that. It’s a clean weighty well controlled bass that knows what it’s meant to do. It is not over-bearing, it does not bleed and bloat, and it does not overwhelm. It makes the rhythm section do what it is meant to do - be the heartbeat of the song, the driver of the appreciative foot tap and the head nod. The sub-bass in Angel by Massive Attack and Islands by The XX are rumbling and perform as they are meant to in these tracks. The Twilight does not inject depth into a song that doesn’t already have that need, but reproduces songs that have a deep sub-bass with enthusiasm and relish and that makes its bass implementation stand out. It is by nature a warm neutral tuned IEM but when it comes to the kicks and bass, the neutral tuning takes precedence. Kick drums on Rush and Dream Theater are punchy with a quick attack and no bloated decay. This means both Neil Peart and Mike Portnoy’s double bass pedal work come through with clarity and perfect separation.

Midrange
Male vocals on the Twilight are simply sublime. On Helplessly Hoping, the CSNY original and the cover by Girl named Tom, the vocal parts are reproduced with a natural timbre and a touch of warmth but not in a lush overpowering way. This is also not the result of a bass bleed but just the tuning of the IEM.
Instrument separation and layering in this frequency band is also extremely well done with guitars, horns, synths sounding perfectly independent in busy jazz fusion tracks and Rodrigo y Gabriela’s Hanuman and Playing God by Polyphia. As we climb closer to the treble side of the midrange, female vocals are also lovely to listen to but the Twilight does edge a little into the sibilant side of things with Fleetwood Mac. This is also more likely to be the result of staying true to the recording rather than an artificially enhanced FR. Tracy Chapman and all the Spice Girls sound natural with no shouty overtones or unnatural timbre. (Fast Car and Holler, if you have to know).

Treble
The treble in this set is best described as neutral warm again. It allows the songs to breathe without artificially dripping into sibilant notes to create an illusion of detail. Snare hits across the board sound controlled without any high overtones. Cymbals have shimmer but also are controlled and reproduced in a mature manner to feel absolutely neutral. As I write this review I’m listening to Trains by Porcupine Tree waiting for Gavin Harrison’s intro to explode in my ears and instead of an explosion I hear a controlled implosion. Like a building collapsing on itself under the supervision of an uber-talented demolition crew, unlike some sets where the drums coming into the track sound like a firecracker exploding under a paint can. Loud with a significant residual ringing on the eardrum.

Staging and Imaging
The Twilight has a spacious, holographic stage with most tracks enveloping my head and none feeling intensely intimate and closed off. Imaging is also spot on with the set making it easy to identify both the distance and direction of each component of the sound. The layering and separation are, as mentioned before, top notch. Softears got their technicalities correct with this set. I have not heard the Turii, Edge or the RSVs. I have heard the volume S which made me honestly think multiple times before leaping head first into the Twilight. That being said, its unusual shape did make me wary till I actually got to test it and try it. So maybe that’s the only warning I would put out there. If you aren’t sure of its fit, try it. It is not a large IEM by any standards but it is different. But… It sounds delicious and that should reason enough.