I have spent the last hour A/B’ing the Solaris and the Solaris 2020. First, I use the Cube; for the most part, it has a black background. Today my tinnitus is barely a bother, which at times it is difficult to differentiate between a hiss and tinnitus white noise. With Cube, I hear zero hiss, but that is with either IEM. I will plug in the QP2R; it hisses with sensitive IEMs. I know one of the complaints with the OG Solaris was the fact that it hisses with many sources.

I am very hesitant to give many impressions as 2020 has maybe 6 hours on it, and my OG is well seasoned. So keep that caveat in mind. The second caveat is all of the differences are very slight; it requires concentration. The third caveat, I have never heard the SE.

I utilized the same tips(Spiral Dot ++), the same Dap (Cube), the same volume, duplicate songs, and the same song sections.

2020 needs a slight bit more power. I haven’t read the specs to see if this makes sense.

2020 has a touch more fullness, and part of this perception could be the mids, which I have read as one difference between the OG and SE Solaris. There also appears to be a slight nudge in the bass of 2020. The combination of the mid-range presence and subtle bass lift could offer the perception of more fullness. I love the signature, but I am happy with both.

Treble extension is so close to equal between the two models. That said, my well-seasoned Solaris OG at times feels more dynamic. This is my experience when a DD needs more time to settle in.

Detail retrieval is so similar, but it revealed itself in different sections of a song on both of the IEMs. Certain cymbal strikes for example would be more prominent on one IEM and then another section would be more prominent on another. 2020 appears wide and dynamic, but maybe the OG has a tiny bit more air, which creates the holographic stage in the OG. Possibly due to 20% smaller shell. To decide which has more dynamism is difficult, at times I felt the OG did and times I felt 2020 held its own. The volume would play a part…example if I were at 75, the OG had a more lively, dynamic tone. Bump the volume, and the gap narrowed and became almost non-existent.

Comfort-wise I had the problem of readjusting the OG frequently, and 2020 alleviates that, no shocker there. Fit is the biggest change, and if you struggled with the fit, you should be good to go with 2020.

The smoky gray stock cable hands down wins on 2020, and there is no memory wire.

Please don’t discount either the Solaris OG or Solaris 2020 at this point. With 2020 the best is yet to come. It is quite the technological feat to shrink the shell and make it a fact that I have a headache, from critical listening, to decipher the changes.

More to come…