Brainwavz M3 review

Brainwavz M3 Review

Disclaimer: This is my first review of an IEM. This is the most expensive IEM I have tried so far, I have been using the M3 for more than 3 months now. I mostly listen to them with my rockboxed clip+. These impressions are just my thoughts about the IEM, it might not be accurate. Please read the review and let me know your thoughts and also please bring in to my notice if there is any mistakes.

Specification:
Type: Dynamic Driver
Driver units: 10.7mm (CCAW Drive units)
Rated impedance: 20Ω +/-10%(Rated impedance)
Sensitivity: ≥115dB (at1000Hz 1mW 20upa)
Frequency: 20-20,000Hz
Distortion: ≤0.5% 94dB (20?pa)
Channel Balance: ≤2dB (at1000Hz)
Maximum Input power: 40mW
Plug: 3.5mm 5μ 24Kgilt stereo plug
Cord: 1.3M Y-cord (Cu/Ag)PUR

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Build Quality & Accessories: The overall build quality of M3 is great. The cable is good, I am using the similar cable with my M1 for almost 7 months now. It feels sturdy and durable. It has a bit of memory effect that you will notice when you use it after keeping them in the pouch for a long time. But the housing of these does not seems to be fixed perfectly. One day when I was trying to
remove the sony hybrid like tips, the housing got opened and the driver was visible. I just pushed it back and it got joined with a tick sound, It was not glued as I thought it would be. The M3 now comes with 1 medium sized COMPLY S-series Foam tip, 3 silicone tips, shirt clip, Ear glide and a hard carrying case.

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Fit, Comfort & Isolation: M3 has a unique design with an arm which makes it difficult for wearing down the ear at least for me. For me it starts paining after wearing down the ear for some time. But it fits perfectly and very comfortable when wearing over the ear. Because of wearing them over the ear, I can not sleep on my side with them. I am using the Bi Flange tips which came with Meelec M11+ and it fits perfect for me. I tried this after seeing Brendon's post regarding the improvement in soundstage when used with Bi flange, I agree with him 100% on this and I can clearly notice the difference. The isolation of these are not great for very noisy environments, but they are decent for use in normal listening conditions.

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Sound:

Bass: The bass is tight and has good extension and impact, it has good quantity as well as quality. But it is not neutral at all, the bass and the midrange have slightly more emphasis than the high end of the spectrum. The bass comes into picture only when demanded by the track, otherwise it is so clean. Bass is definitely a strength of this IEM. In “Love Lockdown†by Kanye West, it hits deep and I can feel the rumble. But the bass in my opinion is little slow for trance and other fast music. When I listen to “Louder than boom†by Tiesto, the beats feels slow at times.

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Mids: Mids are another key strength of this IEM. These have the best midrange I have heard so far and it feels exactly like I wanted the midrange to be. The midrange and vocals are warm and full, it is free of any bass bleed either. In “Eskimo†by Damien Rice and in “Only The Lonely†by Diana Krall, the vocals feels simply magical.

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Treble: The treble is very smooth and non fatiguing, no sibilance and harshness either. It has good extension and details too but it lacks the sparkle and energy some(like me) would expect. Also IMO, the treble is slightly under emphasized compared to rest of the spectrum. I usually listens to them by increasing the treble by two points in my rockboxed Clip+ and that makes me happy.

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Soundstage and presentation: The M3's soundstage has good depth and decent width. The M3 sounds very spacious, that is the first thing I notice whenever I switch to M3 from any of my other (all less expensive than M3) IEM's. The overall presentation is very relaxed and well suited for long listening sessions.

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Conclusion
You will like this if you are looking for an IEM with a relaxing and enjoyable sound which can do almost everything good without any major flaws. If you are looking for a neutral and analytic sound, or if you want good sparkle and crispness in treble, you should look elsewhere.

Pros: Spacious and balanced sound, warm and full mids, good bass and very relaxed.
Cons: Lacks sparkle and energy in treble, can not sleep on my side with them.
 
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I have had these for good amount of time and didn't like the sound stage at all, they were not at all spacious for me :(

Or maybe something is wrong with my ears cause i found pl-30 much much better than these in the soundstage department.

Anyways a good review.

Repped. :)
 
Faraz said:
I have had these for good amount of time and didn't like the sound stage at all, they were not at all spacious for me :(

Or maybe something is wrong with my ears cause i found pl-30 much much better than these in the soundstage department.

Anyways a good review.

Repped. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks dude.
I have heared to pl30 long back. I dont have it anymore, but if my memory is correct, pl30 also had a good soundstage. I dont remember the sound enough to compare them now. Have you tried the M3 with any biflanges ?
 
nizarp said:
Thanks dude.
I have heared to pl30 long back. I dont have it anymore, but if my memory is correct, pl30 also had a good soundstage. I dont remember the sound enough to compare them now. Have you tried the M3 with any biflanges ?
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I did but was not impressed so sold them on TE.

Was thinking of moving to the full sized headphones now. :)
 
The sound stage of PL-30 from what I remember was well wide. But, I did not audition it as much as other IEMs, so don't remember it that clearly except for a vague memory of - a wide sound stage, nice balance, fatigue free listening, but slightly dry and boring. May be Faheem can chip in here to compare the sound stage and spaciousness.

@nizarp,

Nice first review. That broken housing is worrying. Have you come across others having the same complaint? Tried Super glue?
 
I missed the broken housing part.

The driver housing of m3 i owned also came out when it reached the buyer, pristine got them repaired.
 
esanthosh said:
@nizarp,

Nice first review. That broken housing is worrying. Have you come across others having the same complaint? Tried Super glue?
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Thanks santhosh, I was hoping some suggestions or corrections from you. :)
The housing part is really worrying. Now i am very careful when handling it. I havn't tried Super glue, I already had a bad experince with it when tried to fix a problem with my mobile. :(
 
^ As far as the sound description goes, my description and yours match. The bass extension is one thing I did not observe too much back when I reviewed the M3, but I used the single flange and it could be just the double flange doing the trick. Probably the only thing missing compared to my own reviews is the "who will like this" section. But, it pretty much covered everything else.
 
esanthosh said:
^ As far as the sound description goes, my description and yours match. The bass extension is one thing I did not observe too much back when I reviewed the M3, but I used the single flange and it could be just the double flange doing the trick. Probably the only thing missing compared to my own reviews is the "who will like this" section. But, it pretty much covered everything else.
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Thanks for the suggestion Santhosh, I just added the Conclusion part to the review.

Regarding the Bass extension, I said it is good when compared to my other IEMs like M1, Meelec M6 and M11+. The M11+ has good Bass impact but I think M3 has slightly more extension in comparison. I don't have them right now with me, so can't confirm this. Anyways I don't think there is any improvement in Bass extension when using with my Biflanges compared to the stock singleflages.
 
Nice first review. From your description the sound is practically 100% matching of how I perceive them to be. :)

@Esantosh - Since you have my M3s why don't you try them with biflange tips ?
 
Good attempt considering this is your first. You may like to consider the following. Some pictures of the box and accessories would have helped. I see you have some good sounding MP3 players. It would have been great to hear your opinion on different MP3 payers, different tracks. Tracks should be so chosen to bring out different aspect of sound quality, so that you would have been able to judge them in those department.

You have not mentioned much about detailing, that is the section where Premium Earphones/Headphones differ. I assume that you like treble. Think yourself as a chef cooking for others. Every product has a different taste, please do not use the equalizer to change the product to your taste. Spend enough time with them and get used to the sound signature of the product. You will then be able to judge the strength and weakness of the product better.

Thank you for your review. A very good first attempt indeed :)

Do not worry about housing issues, go ahead and use them like the way you want them to. As Brainwavz distributor we would always help with any issues.

We have send a M3 review sample to Faheem some time back. He should be coming forth with a review of them shortly.
 
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