Random IEM / Headphone Rants

I was listening for an hour or so to Brainwavz Delta last afternoon. How easy is it to remove universals, especially straight barrel designs to strike a conversation? :)

Brainwavz Delta is a pretty decent sounding IEM around the ₹1000 mark. It is very bass light and I hear some mid-bass and upper bass with bass enhanced recordings, but not much in the lowest regions. The mid range is reasonably good, slightly thin with a warmer tone. Vocals sounded good. The treble had plenty of sparkle. The sound stage is a bit smaller in width. It felt like I was missing a lot from the music, may be a few cuts in the mid range? Despite many reviews claiming this to be one of the best around $20, I still have some suspicions that can only be settled when I pit them against ES18 and E30. My 'suspicion' is that Delta performs in line with the price range, but not significantly better. Anyways, long time since I've heard any IEM in that range. So, let's keep that for another day.

Actually, I am surprised that I could listen to 4C and Delta just 3-4 hours apart and still listen to music with both of them. Brain is such a wonderful tool!
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Listening to 4C with UHA6S (Laptop -> USB). I think (of course, you can insert the usual disclaimer here : From memory comparisons are subject to change) that dynamics are a tad better with this combo. Listening to mechanized toad with throat cancer right now.

I think I am getting the hang of the cable issue - the problem region seems to be closer to the beginning of the memory wire portion. If I lift that part up, the sound is coming through fine. If not, like when that part is lower than the memory wire, left cuts off randomly. My replacement cable has already been shipped. I can do fine with this adjustment till then!
 
For the second week running, I got something from Noble Audio on Saturday. The cable was routed through Professional couriers and hence, delivery was delayed by a day, but it was still faster than the 4C courier. After changing the cable, I briefly tested to check both channels. But, I did not have time to try the 4C yesterday.

I have been using it for the past two hours with familiar music. I must say it is a great relief to listen without one channel randomly dying on you. As for the sound, ..... don't be surprised if I sell most or even all my universals one fine day :rolleyes:
 
Listening with Objective 2 amp + iPod HO with PFE232, after quite a long time staying with ER4P or ER4P2S. I can see why PFE232 is so revered and it is one of the top universal. Most important help came from cranking up the volume. When I listened to 535, raising volume always resulted in aggressive sound, lowering volume resulted in increased depth and dynamics. So if you worry where I'm going with this rant, its about how after n number of variables, the volume too plays important role in each earphones, in what I listened, only ER4P(S) don't lose any resolution, dynamics, prat, etc at lower or higher level volumes, PFE232 and 535LTD are in the extremes to be enjoyable.[DOUBLEPOST=1392000809][/DOUBLEPOST]
esanthosh said:
..... don't be surprised if I sell most or even all my universals one fine day :rolleyes:
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I wish to meet you in person and help the good cause if possible ;) My pick would be Ety HF or Earsonics most likely!
 
So I did some auditioning when I was Singapore and I was torn between the JH13 and the Miracle in the end. I wanted to try the UERM but I believe there's no dealer in Singapore at the moment. In the end I decided to get the Miracle (used) and have it reshelled by Custom Art. Was hoping for something similar to this - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.471825356271624.1073741835.223884597732369&type=3

Got in touch with a guy selling his Miracles and he was nice enough to meet up on the day I was travelling to India. I now have these on my hands :) ...................

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Got in touch with Blue Dart and DHL, I was quoted a little over 3700 INR to ship them Poland. Will try DTDC tomorrow, Santosh mentioned they charged him about 1700 which is considerably less. This should satisfy my need for monitor like signature and a more fun one. I used to keep selling and buying gear and failed to realise that I enjoy switching between signatures. I think I've realised I'm not really a headphone person and will settle with CIEMs, with the exception of the Hifiman HE560 if and only if its easier to drive than the HE4.
 
I know what my first Black Friday purchase for this year will be! 16GB Sansa Clip Sport (hopefully Rockbox would be available by then) :D

Anybody here following Discovery thread? Seems like there is a lot happening in the sub-$100 range. Anybody owns Xiaomi Pistons?
 
im really considering picking one up, but alot of fakes moving around so its very imp u buy from a proper place, alot of older versions selling too. that and the h3 pro .. xavi i think?
 
congrats ritvik on the miracles! how long will the reshell take? whyd u pick them over the jh's? piotr is making the harmony aswell right? did u guys check out the lear hybrids. their top of the line twin dynamic 4 ba driver, got some wierd name aswell,
 
Thanks!

Haven't heard any of the Lear models. I do know that Treeo over in SG carries their stuff. http://store.treoo.com/

Peter's Harmony is on hold for now, last I heard he ran into issues after finalising his design based on the manufacturer's pre-release versions . The driver manufacturer, Sonion, has delayed the release of the driver used in the harmony. Changes to the driver might also mean that Custom Art/Peter would need to go back to the proverbial drawing board meaning a further wait. Also I guess they'll be quite expensive, considering they will replace the Pro330 (already close to 600 Euro with a fixed cable) as the company's flagship.

I've decided to ship them out from Singapore, been too busy here since I have only 4 days at home. 4-6 weeks from the arrival of the IEMs is what Peter suggests would be the average waiting period, but I should have the Music Two to keep me busy during that time. I'm not sure if the miracle qualifies as a standard re-shell since there's a lot of tweaking and re-tuning involved to achieve the results seen in the link to the Custom Art Facebook page.

Picking the Miracle over the JH13 wasn't easy. While auditioning the demo units, there seemed to be a slight bass hump in the 13s, I also liked the highs on the Miracles a bit more.

After talking to Peter the choice was made a bit easier, I'm quoting here, "Well, retuned Miracles had very very "monitor" type of sound. Ultra fast and detailed but quite soft and pleasing. I felt in love with its highs, which was nothing I heard up till now. Closest match I can think of would be silk dome speaker tweeter timbre". This was close to what I want. Furthermore, Peter also had this to say, "I believe it would be possible to make Miracle remold with retune for you. I'm not sure about JH13.Miracles use so called "off-shelf" driver which means in case of malfunction it can be easily replaced while JH uses customized drivers which are pretty much irreplaceable."

Then there was the price. A new pair of JH13s from Jaben set you back close to 1900 SGD (inclusive of shipping). A new pair of Miracles are about 1200 SGD (inclusive of shipping, but with about another 60 SGD again towards impressions) if you go via Stereo the dealer in SG. The second hand pair of Miracles was 550 SGD (about 430 USD), shipping is about 10 to 60 SGD depending on the service used to ship to Poland. The reshell is about 200 USD, plus small surcharges if you pick non-standard colour themes.

Like I said , I would have liked to try the UERM, but again they're 1100 USD (I think) without impressions and shipping , no local dealer, no silicone option. A bit too much of a risk without the ability to try out a demo unit.
 
esanthosh said:
I know what my first Black Friday purchase for this year will be! 16GB Sansa Clip Sport (hopefully Rockbox would be available by then) :D
Anybody here following Discovery thread? Seems like there is a lot happening in the sub-$100 range. Anybody owns Xiaomi Pistons?
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Is the TFT to LCD the only change on the clip sport? Any word on the internals?

I used to follow the Discovery thread before it degenerated into the mosh pit it is now :hungover:
At 25$ those Beryllium driver Pistons sure have a following. All that hype puts it on my "want to try" list.

@toxicdrift
ibuygou seem to be the most reliable store for original pistons. Unbearably slow though.[DOUBLEPOST=1392651479][/DOUBLEPOST]Wow... Congrats @Ritvik. Miracles and the Music 2. Did you consider Noble?

Very soon we're going to need a dedicated Random CIEM rant thread. :p
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Hope the TE-05 lives up to the pre release hype.
And then there's this............. :)
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kenpachiroks said:
Is the TFT to LCD the only change on the clip sport? Any word on the internals?
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At best, the next version of SoC will be used with Clip Sport and if they release it, the next upgrade to Fuze+. The sound has been confirmed to be the same. Since I skipped upgrading to Clip Zip, the jump in screen size + the additional 8GB capacity on the go will be useful for me.

The latest impressions of X5 have been uninteresting. Currently, Calyx M is the only hyped player that I am interested in. If DX90 is somehow better than X5 (read: stable UI), I would think about it. If none of them turn out to be the singing angels that provide eargasm, then I would have no choice but to stick with a functioning, sturdy, non-audiophile, mass market Sansa :p

Fostex IEMs are really interesting.

This is also said to be interesting at $60 - somewhat of an in-between of RE0 and GR07 - bright and less bassy. But SOTRY KC06A has already been announced. So, if it fixes bass and brightness and still retain the $60 price tag, it would be worth a try!
 
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loving the valentine gift from my wifey! lol time to hunt for a amp, for now just playing them for the long 200/500hr burnin :)
u guys have any recomendations? wish i had kept my c&c bh v2 , will haveto wait till march when my nephew comes back with that and the c3 colorfly

IMG_20140211_233520_Snapseed.jpg
 
itsvel06 - that 4 hr battery life sounds crap, after using the 80 hr c&c bh .. i dont like id like to charge this every now n then, even though its supposed be a good amp, there is nothing changed .. and its hardly a size difference. dont think alot of people r gonna jump on the micro. im really considering usb dacs right now since the hd25 dont really need a amp to shine, output from my onboard dell sux aswell.... confused between the aloaudio the key / audioengine d3 / dragonfly 1.2 / and the underdog, stoner acoustics - ud110 v2
/ also something that im really considering is a e17 fiio. want to keep my iems fund good so dont want to go all mental on the amp. lol
i get to try them with e17 in march when benny drops in for the mumbai meet, and my bh v2 will be in bombay by then 21st aswell when my nephew comes down for his holidays.
is there anything im missing on the usb / mobile device dac front. will be using it with my nexus 5 aswell.

@esanthosh - yep those r the ones, a friend will be trying them out soon, lots of good gear coming out in a few months, lookin fwd to early impressions and reviews.
 
@toxicdrift,

How about i-fi iCan Nano? The one problem I see is that the inputs are at the back, while HO is in the front.

I don't know if you can wait longer. I'm waiting to see how Geekout turns out. There would be at least a few who would have expected the sky and got disappointed / got Geekout along with Geek Pulse / just wanted to try it out, who would sell it in May/June. By that time, it should be clearer on how it actually performs against DragonFly.

As far as I am concerned, I am restricting myself to 4 audio things per year. I already have Music Two this year, so there is three more to go. It should be between another Custom IEM during Black Friday (JH13FP / UERM / ?) / Calyx M (con: battery life), Sansa Clip Sport / X5 / DX90 (none if I pick Calyx M) and another thing. I am in no hurry to finalize, so I'll let the appreciation threads run to hundreds of pages and faults pronounced before taking a plunge.
 
guptaji said:
My impressions of the Westone 3 so far:

1. The mids are extremely recessed and the vocals sound really subdued
2. The bass tended to be boomy on some of the tracks I listened to and seemed the veil the overall sound signature
3. The highs were sibilant at times
4. The cable is one of the best I have seen: no microphonics, well-built and very light weight
5. with the right tips, they are extremely comfortable
(Source: iphone 5S, 320 kbps and FLAC files; Music: classic rock and rock n roll primarily – Led Zep, Doors, The Stone Roses, Floyd etc.)

Overall, I am just really disappointed with my purchase. I was expecting sound quality that would blow me away. Over the past few days, I’ve been tinkering with the EQ settings on some iOS apps and the results have been better but still not what I expected. Another concern have been the tips: only the smallest silicon tips are comfortable for my ears. Everything else is too uncomfortable to wear beyond 10-15 mins. (Lack of a comfortable fit was the reason I gave up my TF-10s)

In hindsight, my puny Nuforce sounded much better, clear vocals, punchy bass but not overpowering and the guitar solos sounded like a dream on them.
I do not know whether its my source that is inadequate or whether it’s the tips or something else that I am not doing right: the bottom-line is that I am not happy with these..!
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Following up on my initial impressions of the W3:
I've really begun to enjoy these over the past few weeks. I have been experimenting with different tips, song quality and EQing. I've found the star silicone tips to suit me best in terms of comfort and sound quality. The mids are easily corrected by EQing them appropriately. The highs also can be toned down with the right EQing, but I think the highs are what make these IEMs really fun to some extent. Overall, I'm really happy with these IEMs (now it could well be that i have adjusted to the sound signature :)) The music sounds very engaging!
Although, I still feel that these could better with a better source and maybe a deeper insertion/fit. I just wish I had a source better than an iPhone to experiment further.
P.S. does any one have spare small sized triple flanged tips that I could buy for these?
 
The furthest I've come on my audio journey has been the RE-400. The most significant too, as it lifted me out of a world where enjoyability was a quotient of bass response alone.
A high end IEM had always been a dream. I've literally had dreams of listening to high end IEMs. But, as I was on a college budget, I knew it would be a considerable time before I owned one. I wished I could at least have the opportunity to audition/try them. Sadly, none of my friends/acquaintances shared or understood this mad hobby of ours.
So, I settled in for the few years I estimated it would take for me to allow myself to splurge on a high end IEM .
But.................
That has now changed, with the arrival of this!!
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All thanks to our fellow audio "enthusiast" @esanthosh

Impressions to follow soon :)
 
@kenpachiroks - Those RE-272s look great! Congrats. I loved all the Hifiman IEMs that I managed to try. I was an unlucky owner though and had all of them fail on me, wasn't just cable issues, the drivers themselves would cease to work.

As for your earlier question about the Noble ciems. I did consider them but it was working out to be quite a bit more expensive. I wanted to stick to silicone since my older JH13s did cause some discomfort after long use, the Noble silicone options were way over my budget :D
 
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