REVIEW: Soundmagic PL-30 earphones & Fiio E3 amplifier.

REVIEW : Soundmagic PL-30 earphones & Fiio E3 amplifier.

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Introduction:​

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After changing two Creative Ep-630’s in the past two years .It was time for an earphone upgrade to the next level. Did some research and listed down a few options including the CX 400 & Crossroads Mylars .Finally came across this http://www.techenclave.com/hot-deal...eal-soundmagic-pl-30-professional-125066.html
With such a low price and a free Fiio amp, I knew I couldn’t have got a better deal, so just ordered it from mp4nation.com.

After using the earphones extensively for last 2-3 weeks,I thought if writing a review for it.
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You will find direct comparisons with the EP-630 in quiet a few places, as I’ve used EP-630 for the last 2 years.
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[FaH33m]

Specifications

Type: In ears
Driver Unit: 9mm Neodymium Magnet Speaker
Sensitivity: 102+/-3dB/mW at 1KHz
Impedance: 12 ohms
frequency Response: 20Hz~22KHz
Rated Power:2mW
Max Power: 20mW
Plug: Gold plated 3.5mm headphone jack
Weight: 10g
Driver: Dynamic
Cable length:1m

 

[FaH33m]

Packaging & accessories

The PL-30 was shipped by mp4nation from Hong Kong. Though most people receive the shipment within 2-4 weeks, my order took almost 45 days to reach due to the Chinese New Year and low stock.Mp4nation had marked it as a gift item and also undervalued it to avoid issues with Custom duties.

The packaging was good enough.The PL-30 box was packed in a bubble wrap envelope which protected the box.The package also contained free Fiio E3 amplifier, without the retail packaging.

The E3 was just loosely kept in the packaging and could have suffered damage during shipping, fortunately it didn’t.

As you can see the box of PL-30 slides out and which has two different partitions, one containing the carry pouch (with earphones inside them) and the other partition containing the accessories.

The list of package contents & supplied accessories is as follows:

* Earphones (black colour)

* Cable winder

* A small hard case to keep the earphones

* Total 8 pairs of eartips

(2 Large,2 Medium, 2 Small eartips ,1 bi-flange and a pair of foams)

Earphone comes fitted with the black medium sized eartip

* Ear shaped cable guider (since it’s over the ear design)

* Warranty card and a Manual.

Earphone with cable guider attached.

Soundmagic was really generous to provide so many accessories with earphones costing as low as 30$.

I would give 9/10 for the accessories. (Especially the cable winder, carry case and bi-flanges are really useful)

 

[FaH33m]

Build Quality & Design.

The overall build quality of the earphones is quiet sturdy, It has a black metallic ring and is covered with rubber all over it. There’s also a small bass adjustment knob on top of it. The bass knob seems to be a bit delicate and needs to be taken care of.
Bass can be adjusted to two different settings –clear and deep. The knob needs some effort to turn and the earphones need to be removed from the ear to change the bass settings. At times while turning the knob it does feel as if it will snap off easily. I would advice to keep the knob at one particular setting that you like.
The cables seem to be of good quality.A shirt clip is attached to the cable and is quiet useful to keep it neat while traveling, especially in local Mumbai trains,so that someone in the crowd doesnt pull of the cables by mistake.

As you can see the painted label on the clip ,does wear-off due to extensive use.

Design.
The design is a bit weird, It seems as if not much research was done while desigining the earphones. In fact the initial batches of PL-30 had issues with the fitting.There were complaints of the unit slipping off the ears but Sound magic rectified this issue in the newer revision, which I’ve got.
The PL-30s are over the ear type i.e: they need to be routed from behind the ears, using the supplied earphone\cable guider (don’t know what exactly it is called). Without the ear shaped cable guider, the earphones don’t really stay over the ears comfortably.
It did take some time to get used to the a new design but after the initial few tries and switching the eartips to double bi-flanges, I was able to get a good fitting and almost a perfect seal.The seal isn’t as good as most other earphones, but it does the job pretty well.
One thing I noticed is the earphones are very comfortable, even after long music listening sessions. Maybe this is because of the weird over the ear design and light weight.

8/10 -for the Build Quality and Design.
The bass knob could have been a less fragile.The overall designing of the ear-phones does look weird but it actually helps the ear-phones be more comfortable for extensive music listening sessions.

 

[FaH33m]

The most important part-Sound Quality.
So let’s checkout if the PL-30's are really magical or not

Test setup.

Ipod Nano 3G 4GB,A Cowon Q5 borrowed from a friend, My PC.

I mainly listen to Electronic\Trance Music, but I tried covering a lot of other genres.
wont get into much details of the tracks but The one's I heard were from following artists.

*Armin van Buuren,Above and Beyond,Deadmau5,1200 Micrgorams,few other trance radioshows.
*Linkin park,Greenday,system of a down ,Hoobstank.
*Enrique Iglesias,Eminem , Akon.
*Bollywood : Slumdog miillionare ,Oye Lucky Oye,DevD.

Initial Impressions.

Out of the box, the PL-30 sounds really good . It’s better than the 630’s by leaps and bounds, and this is noticeable at the first listening itself.Quite a different sound signature.Really sweet and warm.

The sound quality seems to be comparable to the medium range earphones -saying this from my listening experience of the few mylar X3i,CX 500 and a shure model i have tried before.

Mids are Spot on, really superb! Highs are decent and acceptable.
But the vocals do tend to get a bit harsh and unnatural in a few tracks..
Coming to the bass department, most people would find it to be low specially EP-630 users.
I felt the punch \thump was absent, but after changing the ear tips to bi-flanges the bass was just perfect, not too boomy like the EP-630(yes I find the ep-630 bass to be boomy ) Getting a good seal plays a important role in bass.

The sound doesn’t get muddy at all ,the way it used to in the EP-630 at times. The separation of mids from the lows is really good.

 

[FaH33m]

More on the Sound Quality



Burn-in

The PL-30 do take some time to settle down.The change is noticeable after 30-40 hours of burn-in.

The bass is almost there ,with a little bit of punch where required & complimenting the mids and highs really well.The mids now sound even more magical and totally blissful

Highs settle down after the burn in,It's more sharp and refined now and the slight harshness is also gone after the burn in.

Treble seems to be lot more clear.

The soundstage is one the best Ive ever seen,in a similar range of earphones. :hap2:

Bass settings (using knob).

The bass settings can be changed as I’ve already mentioned before.

At stock the earphones come with the bass knob at the Clear position.

With clear settings..The bass is more relaxed and tight

Once you switch it to Deep mode, It gets more punchy and boomy to some extent. Some tracks sound good with clear setting while a few tracks benefit from the deep setting.(though changing the setting on the fly isn’t possible)

But with deep settings. It feels as if it’s mixing with the Mids and in my opinion, the sound isn’t really very pleasing.So I prefer keep to keep the bass knob at clear setting.

Overall view

Overall PL-30 provides a really good listening experience with fantastic mids (I noticed some instrumentals which I had never heard before in the tracks), almost perfect highs and a warm bass.It sounds good with most genre of music. Especially rock and Electronic dance music(though bass takes a back seat to some extent).

PL-30 is an excellent option for people looking for some real good sound quality ,under a budget. Especially folks upgrading from EP-630 and the likes .

For me such a change was unimaginable and I really love the way the PL-30 sound.

I would rate the sound Quality of PL-30 as 8.5/10 .

 

[FaH33m]

The Fiio E3 Amplifier.

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The E3 is a headphone amplifier, it is designed to improve the sound quality of MP3 MP4 Players, Computers or Mobile Phones when using earphones or headphones. It saves your player battery and lengthens the play time when playing music.

It’s not about Volume but Quality. A great pair of headphones can change you're listening experience--but only if they are driven well and properly powered. Put an E3 Headphone Amplifier between your music source and your favourite pair of headphones or earphones for an awesome personal listening experience right between your ears.
Features

*Designed for high impendence and low sensitivity headphones, with bass boost function;

*Small and easy to carry and use in the outdoors;

*Increase your music player's play time;

*Uses only one AAA battery, for 20 hours playtime.



Specifications:

Output Power : 70 mW (32 ohms Loaded)\12 mW (300 ohms Loaded)

Signal to Noise Ratio : >= 90 dB (A Weight)

Distortion : < 0.05% (10 mW)

Frequency Response : 10 Hz - 40 kHz

Suitable Headphone Impedance : 16 ohms - 300 ohms

Weight : 11 grams (without battery)

Power Supply : 1 AAA Battery

Dimensions : 55 mm x 23 mm x 14.5 mm

source : Product Show-FiiO Electronic Technology

 

[FaH33m]

A closer Look at the E3.

I never had plans of getting this .Handling a amplifier along with PMP + earphones sounded too complicated to me.But since I got this for

free, I did try them out with the PL-30, ep-630 and HD 201.

I had no idea what to expect, since I’ve never used a headphone amp before.I was in for a surprise when I opened up the shipment.The Fiio E3 is indeed very tiny, wasn’t expecting it to be so small. It runs of a single AAA battery. In fact it’s almost the size of a AAA battery.

To give you an idea about how small it is, I’ve compared the amplifier with a key and 2X Rs.5 coins.

Since the E3 i received was free with the PL-30 ,it did not come in any retail packaging.There was just the amplifier,cable and a small manual wrapped in thin plastic.

The amp design is pretty simple .It’s got one 3.5mm port at each end. One is for the Input from the source and the other for the earphone. A short 3.5mm to 3.5 mm cable is provided to connect the source input to the amp.

The E3 doesn’t have any On switch .nor does it have any volume\gain control knob. The amplifier turns on as soon as you connect the headphones. (Provided there’s a battery in it). A small Red LED near the headphone port glows once the amp is on.

 

[FaH33m]

The Difference.

Most earphones \headphones which are not very sensitive can be connected to the E3. It synergizes quiet well with the PL-30.

The Fiio E3 mainly introduces a gain in the bass department.The bass gets very punchy and tight.It almost kicks in at every instance of low frequency. You can feel the thump.This is actually good for pop and Electronic music.The Highs are crisp, there isn’t much noticeable difference in the mid range.

The overall sound signature also improves to some extent

The E3 makes the PL-30 sound more rich and clean.The sound retains its details while adding some real kickass bass to it. The overall improvement in SQ, by the tiny Fiio E3 amplifier is quiet remarkable.

Battery life.

On single AAA Duracell battery (non rechargeable) and the volume of source PMP at 50-60% ,the Fiio powered the earphones for almost 12-14 hours before the sound started distorting,which is a sign to change the battery.

With a recharable 650mah Eveready the Fiio E3 ran for approximately 16 hours.Getting a rechargeable battery seems more sensible in the long run.

Though mp4nation ships the E3 free with PL-30 it retails for a price of 7-8 $ on various sites (mp4nation, dealextreme and head-direct).

For such a low price the E3 definitely is a worthwhile addition to a good portable audio setup.

A word of Caution:

Once the E3 is connected, the volume needs to be brought down by 20-30 %. At very high volumes the volume is way too loud and even gets distorted. This may damage the earphones as well as your precious ears.

 

[FaH33m]

Conclusion​

Soundmagic PL-30

Pros.

*Blissful Midrange

*Very detailed & Natural sounding.

*Adjustable Bass knob (not of much use actually , depends on the listener.)

*Very Comfortable (once you get a proper seal).

*Really good Soundstage

*Lots of ear tips and accessories supplied.

*Cheaper compared to other similar sounding IEM’s .( A total steal for 30$ with the free Fiio E3)

Cons.

*Design might not suit for everyone, and some might find them uncomfortable.

*Flimsy Bass knob, might break easily.

*No warranty/support in India.

Fiio E3 amplifier

Pros.

*Significant Improvement In bass.

*Really cheap .

*One of the smallest headphone amps around.

*Powered by a single AAA battery.

*Not really the best amp out there , but a good one to start with.

Cons.

(For the price it sells for (7-8 $) ,once shouldn’t actually expect a lot of features ,but still )

*No ON/OFF switch.

*No volume control knob.

*Build quality isn’t all that great.(Plastic casing with glossy finish)

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[FaH33m]

Very nice review But why split in so much posts ?

Thanks. I am glad that you liked the review.

Since there are no page breaks the way it's there in Reviews section I had to split the different pages into different posts .Looks better that way.hyeah:

 

[bottle]

The pics were clicked using a N73 so they may not up to the mark.
Since this is my first review and I am not really good at it, please bare with me.

please dont start off your review with an apology :lol: doesnt look good for some reason

great review otherwise

 

[FaH33m]

^^ edited .

 

[sri_rng]

Very extensive review dude.. I don't understand why they didn't provide page breaks in this section!

 

[Metalspree]

Great review faheem.Btb when are u gifting the headphones to me

 

[j1n M@tt]

nice review

 

[FaH33m]

Thank You ,guys Incase you have any suggestions,doubts or criticism your welcome .

Great review faheem.Btb when are u gifting the headphones to me

Thanks buddy, but are you not getting the HD 555 or AD 700 ? Let's exchange :tongue:

 

[Metalspree]

Thanks buddy, but are you not getting the HD 555 or AD 700 ? Let's exchange :tongue:

OT,Will be getting the HD280 Pro not keen on the 555's as they are closed cans.

 

[chiron]

Nice review. From what I can tell, this sounds like a nice deal. How comfortable is it using the E3 while travelling? Does it create too much of a mess with the cables?

Btw, I just sold my ep-630s to a friend for Rs 300. Finally rid of those pos.

 

[FaH33m]

Nice review. From what I can tell, this sounds like a nice deal. How comfortable is it using the E3 while travelling? Does it create too much of a mess with the cables?

Btw, I just sold my ep-630s to a friend for Rs 300. Finally rid of those pos.

E3 is really small and can be kept in shirt pocket or the pocket of the trousers. But since the provided cable connecting the PMP and E3 amp is very small , one has to keep the PMP and amp in the same pocket..

so it depends on the size of the PMP/pocket too

overall it's not very messy..

Infact if one can send some extra cash ,the Fiio E5 is a better option as it i smaller than the E3 too and also has built in battery,a shirt clip and volume+ on/off control.

and yeah IMO, the EP-630 are not really a POS ..they are better than what most stock earphones which people use and a good option for budget IEM.