Random IEM / Headphone Rants

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Lately i'm loosing interest in earphones, dunno why? it just happened one day:confused:. Petite IEM's are still desired but its the chubby full size HPs which have caught my fantasynow :D. So after the Super Lux HD660 & ATH-A900, I ordered the Sennheiser HD380 pro last week, received the pros today. OTB initial impressions are, they are overall better, detailed,smoother and more layered than HD660. Bass though good in quantity and quality , needed a little more tightness for me ,smooth detailed mids which are very,very engaging. strings and instruments like Harmonica sound so much natural.For ex- Blue rodeos- 5days in may- those subtle change in notes of the harmonica and the solo guitar are so clearly audible with a natural decay in the notes, absolutely enjoyable. Soundstage has better width & depth than the superlux. Oh! and very,very comfortable. But still, these don't beat my sibilant ATH-A900 in comfort and sound. Let's see if burn-in (ear-brain-diaphragm) improves them ;). Also getting the DT990 pro 250 ohms next week :cool:.
 
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Santhosh, I know you don't want people saying it, but I'm really sorry for your loss. Can't imagine what that's like.

It's been a while since I last checked out the forums, work has left me with little time to enjoy my full size cans and even carrying a 3 tier stack of the iphone + CLAS -dB and SR71B was a hassle.

Sold pretty much everything I own and was using the AK100 with Tzar 350 for a long time, sold the IEMs and started saving for the JH13 FQ. It was around then that Noble Audio came around and then Jerry Harvey announced his Roxanne thing. Annoyed, I'm now waiting for reviews of all this new stuff. Have a pair of LCD2s to sell and then its just the just AK100 and Brainwavz Delta.

In recent times the only audio equipment that's had me interested have been the RSA lightning and the ALO International. The International has a bit of an edge since its more versatile with both single ended and balanced outputs. They're both great amps, super silent and so small!

Back to the Brainwavz Delta, its fantastic for its price. If you're in the market for a low end IEM then this is one to consider. Gone are the days when low cost iems just meant muddy bass and nothing else. I'll leave the reviews to the more eloquent lot on the forums....the Deltas don't get a lot wrong, are cheap and ship for free! Can't ask for much more.
 
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HiFinage has brought HiFiman to India! RE-400 for 6766Rs shipped(5% off coupon valid until the 17th of this month). (~107$)

I just placed my order. They arrive on monday! Haven't been so excited in so long :woot:
 
I never had this confusion before. Considering that all are similarly priced
  1. Philips Fidelio S2 (Amazon JP -> Tenso, excluding customs)
  2. Hifiman RE-400 from Hifinage
  3. TDK IE800 from eBay ($95 shipped, Ex-customs, cheapest)
which one should I buy? Damn! I should relax my norm to one IEM per week :(

It would also be interesting to compare SA C-12 to MH1C and LG QB2 :)
 
The C-12 loaner program is still on going . Some of the members ended up keeping the sample for too long and some ended up buying them eventually since they liked it .

@hzant6681, Yours should be dispatched soon.

@esanthosh , Since you are back to IEMs do let us know if you would be interested in reviewing the C-12 .
 
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We are wondering if we should get iBasso DX50/ DX100 to India or the Astell and Kern AK100 / AK120 , A&K have already approached us but we are not sure how many people would really be interested in a 1000-1200$ PMP .
 
This may not be news to most, but I have been out of commission for the past year.

FLAC vs MP3
  1. The Test
  2. Procedure
  3. Results (This is the one you need to see)
  4. Discussion
  5. Subjective Descriptions (Very interesting ;))
______________________________________________________________________

Also read this Schiit Loki review where the linked interview has this piece

A number of people including myself and Stereophile's Stephen Mejias have commented on the sonic qualities of DSD playback. Stephen said it very well in his RMAF show report, "There’s an overall smoothness and effortlessness, combined with wonderfully natural and powerful dynamics." Is there some technical aspect of DSD that you could point to that accounts for DSD's superb dynamic capabilities?

We talked about that already above a little. I think it is DSD’s lack of any “sharp edges” in its characteristics that make it sound superior. Wherever there are sharp edges in nature funny things happen. That is true with sun light hitting the corner of a house, radar dish antennas and also with audio encoded in PCM with a brick wall.
Click to expand...

Back to the 'Objective' side of things, this is how upsampled DSD plays out against PCM (Read the subjective impressions as well)

I can't help but wonder if what's happening here is like tube amps and analogue playback (eg. vinyl). Objectively the DSD conversion adds distortion but the anomalies are not perceived as objectionable and in some material, the added noise and imprecision actually makes it sound less "sterile", "clinical", more "real" (conversely being in an anechoic chamber is disturbingly unreal due to the profound silence). It would make sense to me that some people could prefer DSD64 over DSD128 upconversion since DSD64 will give you more of that distortion. Even though the noise is ultrasonic in nature as measured off the DAC, nonlinearities in the playback system like your headphones and speakers (perhaps certain amps as well) could create audible intermodulation. Maybe for certain music, this could be especially beneficial.
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Finally listening to MH1C. Shortly listened to them after receiving from @hzant6681, but didn't feel great about them. Mine says MH1C and only has the Sony name on the IEM (as mentioned by clieOS in his review), but also says produced by Sony Ericsson in the tag. Anyways, that may be irrelevant as far as SQ goes.

The cable is one of the worst I have ever encountered. It has microphonics even while wearing them over the ear. When worn over the ear, the buttons tend to get discomforting after a short while. On the plus side, the housings are smaller and yield well for an easy and good insertion. Isolation is pretty decent.

Mine is not 'burned in' barring the 30 mins I used previously. But, I guess the insertion is right this time. Also, the volume. I kept my 'normal' volume which was not enough (-35 to -40dB on RB-ed Clip+ for FX700, around -35dB for EX-1000, but closer to -30dB for MH1C).

I read that there are 'bassy' and 'not so bassy' versions of MH1 / MH1C out there. I would think mine is the not-so-bassy version. The bass is clean, extended and carries decent punch. The focus is a touch more on sub-bass on mid-bass, which hardly worries me, though in some bass heavy tracks I tried, the bass quantity feels a touch too much. IIRC, a touch less worrisome than XBA-3 did the first time. The mid-range sounds too veiled when using lower volumes, but carries decent clarity at the volume levels I am using now. The mids are warm, smooth, inoffensive with the right note weight (neither thin nor thick) though a slight bit recessed. The treble likewise is smooth, in balance with the mid range. Unfortunately, I cannot vouch for treble extension as my hearing has started to roll-off pretty early at 13.5 Khz. In this session of casual listening using Clip+ (and briefly, QA350 -> UHA6S MKI), I do not feel like missing details. The sound stage has good depth, though I don't feel it's wide - which may be because I am coming straight off sessions with EX-1000 and FX700. Separation is pretty good and imaging hasn't felt wrong. In all, an inoffensive, warm, smooth set that does nothing much wrong to my ears. When did I last write that? Probably in the Yamaha EPH-100 review. At the low end, probably Philips SHE3750?

As for the hype that MH1C beats everything high end, I can say that it clearly is not on par with EX-1000, FX700 or even HJE900 - which have been my go to IEMs for the past few days. It would be interesting to compare to several others in the 1000-3000 bracket though!

PS: Damn! It took so much time and effort to write that down. Lot of 'ring rust' as far as audio lingo is concerned.
 
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Same here I never felt these to be high end, actually even I differ from Clieos, Ljoker and others who said its a Killer IEM but for a headset within 1K its awesome.Never heard high end IEMs that you have mentioned but, in my opinion its much better than soundmagic E-10,E30, Vsonic G06 & Eterna(my bro has them now) , though Eterna has that very unique sound signature, infact very very unique. Yeah! you're right the microphonics are very annoying but, for somebody who is not bothered about cable noise, it'll go unnoticed and emerge as an excellent musical mobile headset. Glad that you feel that it can compete within the 1-3k price with other IEMS :-).
 
I would think so, though I have to do the comparison against Eterna sometime before confirming. Eterna, despite it's shortcomings, is indeed unique. But, I still don't get how it was on top of clieOS ranking at one time.

I'd say Joker's SQ rating is about right - a step down from the likes of RE0/RE-ZERO, but over Brainwavz M series, on par with Silverbullet - sounds about right. I would compare it against M4, Eterna and XCape v1 just to confirm. Also will put it against Ety HF2 since I have read that MH1 > ER4S ;).
 
Guys please help.Noob here. Never ordered from overseas until now . I mailed to www.headphones.com.au inquiring about Replacement earpads for ATH-A900 and got this reply.
[QUOTE][/QUOTE]Hi Harsha

Delivery to India starts at $15 for an air mail service, with registered services starting at $20 and express services starting at $60. To organise an order we will need both the order placed through the website and an additional Paypal transaction to cover the postage costs.
What's the difference in choosing air mail service or registered service? Does he mean that I should make two different payments?

When I proceed to pay after choosing the country option as "others" there are only two options Direct Deposit & Credit card no mention of paypal. Should I mail them back asking about this or am I missing something.I'm confused o_O.
 
One should always choose Registered Air Mail service and I believe that $15 is just the normal Air mail service in which there is less possibility of the delivery. So you need to pay for the Product Price + Registered Air Service.

If they have not added paypal on their payment page so you may need to know their paypal email ID and then you can send the payment to their email ID through Paypal.
 
esanthosh said:
I never had this confusion before. Considering that all are similarly priced
  1. Philips Fidelio S2 (Amazon JP -> Tenso, excluding customs)
  2. Hifiman RE-400 from Hifinage
  3. TDK IE800 from eBay ($95 shipped, Ex-customs, cheapest)
which one should I buy? Damn! I should relax my norm to one IEM per week :(
It would also be interesting to compare SA C-12 to MH1C and LG QB2 :)
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Tough decision :/

Gear: What gear will you be using? Dsnuts swears the S2 scales beautifully with better gear. RE-400 not so much and they're running great off my RB-clip. IE-800s need considerable juice don't they?

Isolation and comfort: S2 won't isolate as much as the others(obv), but maybe its a fair trade off for the soundstage and overall space. I would say the RE-400s isolation is average and insertion depth dependent. Deep insertions isolate better, though I feel its due to the ventral vent placement. Fussy fit with the S2, a breeze with the RE-400. Both require a good fit to perform their best.

Sound: The S2 was my first choice. Tied with the XBA-30. Damn Philips :shifty:. But....great Odin's beard! the RE-400s are blowing my V-shaped mind away. (Thank you so much for your advice btw). Every song/music I felt the HiFiman would be terrible at, was a revelation. How can bass be this quick? Sub-bass heavy songs feel a tad thin for my liking though. The depth to the vocals is astounding:singing:... I'll put up a short review later on :writing:. Some say the BA-200s are better than the RE-400. Somehow that doesn't worry me especially considering the price. . Already in love :shy:..... until the next one :troll:

The Tenso-S2 s are tempting. That price is amazing. Honestly, if the Indian post wasn't involved, I'd be holding the fidelios by now.

Are the QB2s on their slow way to you? ;)
 
PristineNote said:
We are wondering if we should get iBasso DX50/ DX100 to India or the Astell and Kern AK100 / AK120 , A&K have already approached us but we are not sure how many people would really be interested in a 1000-1200$ PMP .
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Oh, the iBassos without a doubt. The aesthetic A&Ks are let down only by their price.
Besides their fantastic sound, the iBassos, with the recent firmware upgrades and the sleek looks, are ticking all the other boxes.
The A&Ks may be great, but its near impossible to justify that price(especially here in India), with the other options around.

Congratulations on the attention the C-12 has been getting. Hope I get a chance to give them a listen.
 
@kenpachiroks

Gear: Everything in my head-fi profile ;)

Isolation is not an issue for me as I'd be using it in a quiet environment most of the time.

With QB2, it is my eBay shopping cart waiting to be clicked. But, I am a little hesitant because this is exactly what I did last year. What happened? I ended up with a huge lot of sub-5K IEMs which I do not use at all. I'd rather save and buy an IEM that adds something unique in my sound signature collection than spread it across 10 different budget IEMs. Besides, my goals have shifted in the interim. Earlier I was highly inclined towards quenching my curiosity about how different devices / IEMs sound. These days, I am more inclined towards different experiences / value additions.
  • Instead of say RE-400 + IE800 + S2 + QB2, I'm thinking more on the lines of getting say, a Fostex TH-600 or an Active Speaker (which do cost more than double that combo), but which may give me a different kind of experience.
  • BA200 would still appeal to me. I don't exactly have a mid-focused IEM in my collection (SM3 is more lower mids + home theater like sound stage).
  • A Lynx Hilo could be considered as well (Resonessence Labs Invicta or Stax setup is too far beyond what I'd be willing to spend now, but they definitely are in my wants list).
  • While something like a Geek Out may or may not be a great DAC, it sure adds a huge convenience of carrying a DSD capable DAC + Headphone Amp with the laptop.
But, once I get started on buying IEMs / other portable gear, all of this 'wisdom' melts away. I just hope that I keep my head off my a$$ this time :)
 
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kenpachiroks said:
Oh, the iBassos without a doubt. The aesthetic A&Ks are let down only by their price.
Besides their fantastic sound, the iBassos, with the recent firmware upgrades and the sleek looks, are ticking all the other boxes.
The A&Ks may be great, but its near impossible to justify that price(especially here in India), with the other options around.
Congratulations on the attention the C-12 has been getting. Hope I get a chance to give them a listen.
Click to expand...


I agree, even though I'm using the AK100. The DX50 and perhaps the Colorfly c3 and the X3 as well, think the lower priced DAPs with card slots would sell better in India.

The only reason I'd be willing to spend a bit more on the AK is its half decent user interface, which is not so common on higher end DAPs. Terribly overpriced, especially the AK120 which to my admittedly not so golden ears didn't sound too different from the AK100.

BTW, any IEM suggestions for a predominantly Blues and 60's Rock and Roll listener? Auditioned quite a few but cant settle on a single one. Somehow I keep circling around the JH13s again but would like to try something new rather than buying something I used to own.
 
esanthosh said:
@kenpachiroks

Gear: Everything in my head-fi profile ;)

Isolation is not an issue for me as I'd be using it in a quiet environment most of the time.

With QB2, it is my eBay shopping cart waiting to be clicked. But, I am a little hesitant because this is exactly what I did last year. What happened? I ended up with a huge lot of sub-5K IEMs which I do not use at all. I'd rather save and buy an IEM that adds something unique in my sound signature collection than spread it across 10 different budget IEMs. Besides, my goals have shifted in the interim. Earlier I was highly inclined towards quenching my curiosity about how different devices / IEMs sound. These days, I am more inclined towards different experiences / value additions.
  • Instead of say RE-400 + IE800 + S2 + QB2, I'm thinking more on the lines of getting say, a Fostex TH-600 or an Active Speaker (which do cost more than double that combo), but which may give me a different kind of experience.
  • BA200 would still appeal to me. I don't exactly have a mid-focused IEM in my collection (SM3 is more lower mids + home theater like sound stage).
  • A Lynx Hilo could be considered as well (Resonessence Labs Invicta or Stax setup is too far beyond what I'd be willing to spend now, but they definitely are in my wants list).
  • While something like a Geek Out may or may not be a great DAC, it sure adds a huge convenience of carrying a DSD capable DAC + Headphone Amp with the laptop.
But, once I get started on buying IEMs / other portable gear, all of this 'wisdom' melts away. I just hope that I keep my head off my a$$ this time :)
Click to expand...

:eek: A lynx hilo could be considered?? What are you doing, mucking around in the budget-fi world? :D

I took a look at your gear on the head-fi list. Man.... one heck of a journey. Are the DT880s your go-to headphones ATM?
Looking at your *gulp* list, I guess you're right in choosing gear that would give you a new experience. That brings me to my biggest qualm regarding the earphone/headphone scene in India. Auditions and returns. Okay, auditions may not be feasible when you have a country this large(where online purchasing is preferred). But a return policy? Head-fi thrives because people can go "Meh, I'm sending it back". Not only so that people can make the right choice but the experience brings us closer to understanding sound and our preferred sig. Sigh..maybe some day :rolleyes:

I always thought the SM3s were mid-forward-in-your-face. The Heir 8.A s could fill the mid-forward iem space in your collection:troll:.
I do hope you get to try the RE-400s. They seem way too under-priced at 100$.
Were the Se-535, UM3X, monster tributes on your mids-list? Although the BA200s and RE-400 could be the more well rounded options. Also, you've tried the 262 right?

I've been following the Geek updates. Its pretty darn impressive and ambitious. A true game changer if it delivers.
On the headphone scene I found the Alpha Dogs quite intriguing. Also expecting greatness from the upcoming Fidelio L2s. I had a chance to audition the L1 s, and boy, they sure can sing.

.
.
PS: Who wouldn't want some sr-009 honey on flowing into their ears :headphone:
PPS: Forget the QB2s for now. :p Unless you'll really use them, of course.
 
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