Sound impressions
I’ve been listening to Bonneville extensively over the past two weeks, and initially I didn’t quite gel with the sound. Out the box, I felt Bonneville sounded bass ‘light’ (a cardinal sin for my preferences), and I wasn’t quite jiving with the midrange voicing either. But the more I listened, the more I started to acclimatise to the balance, and a very fine balance it is too.
Tonality
I can say this much as a solid first impression: Bonneville isn’t going to ‘wow’ you out the box. At least, it didn’t wow me. There’s no massive soundstage, or pounding bass, or ultra-airy treble, or any other distinguishing feature that jumps out and makes itself known. While some people I’ve spoken to hear it as a U (or even V-shaped) IEM tonally, I think it’s much closer to W (or very flat U), but without any glaring peaks.
Bass is elevated and coloured for sure, but it’s not an extreme elevation by any means. In fact, comparing Bonneville to 64 Audio’s new Volür (reviewed here), I found Bonneville’s bass underwhelming initially. But the thing is, it’s not. Unlike Volür, which puts bass in the front of the stage, Bonneville uses its solid bass foundation to support the other frequencies.
That doesn’t mean bass can’t be prominent; it certainly can. Listen to Billie Eilish’s Therefore I Am and you’ll hear (and feel) bass that pumps and fills the stage. But vocals and effects remain clear and detailed, not veiled or smeared at any point, which is perhaps why my focus wasn’t initially drawn to the bass, as it is with bass-first IEMs. On the same track I’m hearing really nice texture on the bass, with decent – but not exaggerated – rumble, which speaks to Bonneville’s quality over quantity.
It’s Bonneville’s midrange that, to me, is the focal point of the sound. Male vocals on the whole are textured, chesty and detailed. Listening to Jon Middleton, Ocie Elliott’s lead vocalist on Slow Tide, I can hear a bit of dryness in his voice, but it’s mostly natural, heartfelt and expressive. Sierra Lundy’s supporting vocal on this track is very well imaged and separated; in fact I can distinctly make out what each of them is singing and can hear the lyrics clearly, even though they’re singing at the same time.
I often play Flower Face and her enchanting ballad, Another Life, to get a sense of space and vocal purity. Ruby McKinnon’s lead vocals are sweetly soft, but I do hear a hint of dryness in the trailing edges of her breath. Still, her delivery is full of emotion, quite forward and very detailed. There’s emphasis in the higher registers, which suggests some upper midrange elevation, but it’s not harsh or peaky. Bass plays more of a supporting role here, as it generally does with Bonneville, albeit with a decent kick in the drums, and well-controlled rumble.
I’ll need to experiment further to see if the dryness and occasional hollowness of female vocals is inherent to Bonneville’s profile, or is a factor of the trips I’m using, because the ‘issues’ are very slight and not always apparent. It could just be that Bonneville is so good at separating the elements of a track that I’m getting a deeper – or at least different – insight into familiar music than I’m used to with other IEMs, but I’ll get back to you on that.
Overall, I consider the midrange, more than bass or treble, to be Bonneville’s standout feature, and while I tend to hear it as a balanced sound in general, it’s the detail, tone and texture in the midrange that I’m mostly drawn to here.
Speaking of treble, there’s not that much to say here, which is actually a good thing given Campfire’s general treble tuning tendency. With Bonneville I’m not looking to tame any treble peaks or curate my library to find amenable tracks to play. That’s because there is no harshness, or peakiness or zing to speak of.
Pink Floyd’s Time is the quintessential treble bite and timbre test. Each clock has plenty of sparkle and just enough bite, sounding realistically metallic in a good way. Throwing on another treble-laden EDM track like Ilan Bluestone’s Will We Remain, I again hear treble effects that are smooth with no audible harshness. There’s no significant spice or zing either, but with more emphasis on macro than micro dynamics. I also get a really good sense of space, speed and air.
Neil Diamond’s Jerusalem is a livelier track, and a good test for treble harshness in the intro, of which there is none. All I’m getting is super clean, crisp and sparkly guitars, with good bite and decay on the cymbals and splashes. Drums are again in support rather than forward, while Neil’s trademark vocals are projected forward, coming across as clear and articulate, with weight and just enough warmth to make them very realistic. The light guitar strums and cymbal splashes add contrast and define the stage, and don’t ever cross the line to harshness, even at higher volume.
Bonneville’s treble is really interesting in that it lends plenty of sparkle to highlights without ever pulling focus away from the overall gestalt of the music. It also adds to the sense of cleanliness and clarity I’m hearing, a ‘clean’ space if you will, where every song I play is performed. There’s no sibilance either, but I wonder if something in the treble isn’t contributing to the sense of dryness I hear in some upper register vocals.
I think what Bonneville’s tonality comes down to is an interplay between a bold rawness, created with a solid and suitably weighty bass foundation, and a wholesome though not entirely smooth midrange, mixed in with a clean, clear treble that polishes up some of the rougher edges. It’s an engaging, involving sound that draws you in to the music rather than trying to impress you with finesse or technical astuteness.
Technicalities
Which brings us to the intangibles, technical elements we can perceive but can’t measure or graph. If I know anything about Ken Ball’s IEMs by now is that they’re not paragons of technical excellence. That’s not to say they’re not technically excellent, it’s that they tend to favour a very specific and often unconventional tuning over pure technical performance.
Bonneville flips the script in a way. It has a safer, more conventional tuning, certainly compared to Supermoon and Trifecta, and technically I think it’s at least the equal of Supermoon (which I consider a technically-gifted IEM) and ahead of Trifecta on most technical metrics.
On a track like Above & Beyond’s Mont Blanc Set Off (from the newly-released Arjunabeats presents: Chill Volume 1 LP), I get a sense of wide open space, with softer effects fairly clear, and a good sense of instrument and effect imaging. Piano timbre is excellent on this track, with natural sustain, though the stage feels wider than it is deep.
Staging is similarly wide rather than deep on Pink Floyd’s On The Run, a great test for imaging and resolution. While I can’t really make out what the PA announcer is saying, suggesting Bonneville isn’t going to threaten ‘detail monster’ IEMs, the imaging and panning of effects across the stage is top tier, about as good as I’ve heard it on this track with any IEM at any price. The effects themselves are beautifully rendered, and perfectly separated from each other while still sounding cohesive.
Switching to Time, the next track off the band’s magnum opus, Dark Side of the Moon, the famous clock chime orgy is clean, distinct, superbly separated, layered and imaged. There’s not a shred of harshness here, with exceptional detail in each channel.
While I take some issue with Ethel Cain’s dry vocals in the melancholic Sun Dried Flies, I also know some of that dryness is inherent to the recording. What’s not always inherent is the technical mastery of this track. With Bonneville, the standout here is imaging, spacing and staging.
The separation and simultaneous cohesion of the different elements is really well done. There’s also plenty of detail, cleanliness, and a comfortable warmth that never blooms or veils. At one point, there’s a trumpet playing in the background that’s so clear and articulate while never shouting over any of the other elements, an absolute delight to experience in a track I’ve heard dozens of times over, but rarely this good.
Depending on your yardstick, you’ll either find Bonneville’s technical performance quite average, or like me, appreciate the interplay of elements that showcase how good it really is. No, you’re not going to be gob-smacked by massive staging with miniscule details in all directions. But once you get a sense of how Bonneville is presenting the music, and hear how pinpointedly precise it images, separates and layers the various elements on its stage, I’m not sure you can be anything other than impressed.
Continue to closing thoughts…
