esanthosh
Skilled
And after a long wait, lots of patience, "it" arrived today. I had to keep my mouth shut as I had no idea when I would be receiving them. While I was not expecting them till early Jan, surprisingly, I got an early new year present (from myself) thanks to lot of others.
I ordered the SM3 long back, Nov 1st to be precise from Soundearphones for $320. Thanks to one of my friends and his influence on his friends, I was able to send them to a US address. But, I had no idea who'd bring it and when and IF it will come as the whole affair was handled without my involvement (apart from Paypal payment) by my friend. As I was impatient and had no contact with the 'carrier' of my potential eargasm, I had to route TF10 through my usual Borderlinx route and could not help many others in the process like I wanted to.
"It" finally landed in Chennai last week thankfully without much issues. But still nothing was clear about how it will reach me or when. My friend refused to send it by courier and I had to bide my time. The inevitable happened today out of the blue and there it was... finally.
Enough of background, let's get to the business.
First off, the build quality is not something I am inspired by for a $320 IEM. The cable is a twisted cable alright, but the overall thickness is not thicker than some of the other non-twisted cables like the e-Q5 cable. The Y-split is so far up that chin slider becomes chin hurter if you are not careful. But I've managed to wear them over the ears comfortably with the chin slider resting a few cm below my chin. If you have bigger heads, this might not be comfortable. The shells are plasticky and cheap. I feel like I could break them easily whenever I've handled them thus far. They are not much better than those of TF10. The strain reliefs are decent at the plug, Y and the housing. I have a few issues with the plug (with Clip+). It does not seem to lock into the socket as firmly as I have with other IEMs. Rarely a sudden movement makes me lose a channel requiring a good push in.
As for tips, I used the stock double flange. Shure Olives can fit on them without de-coring and that is what I use currently.
With all the waiting, my expectations were high for these. I put them on and I was ... not impressed. Too forward mids, not too much of bass, do not feel the width of the sound stage too much. Treble is recessed. This went on for another 15-20 mins. I stopped listening.
After a gap, I decided to background listen with some of my very familiar albums. With a twist and a fit, the light-weight shells comfy in my ears, I began to look for further ways to put down the "world's greatest universal IEM". A few times it pulled me out of the foreground work with clear separation and precise placement within the sound space like I've not experienced with lot of other IEMs.
A few things you read in forums are excessive and sometimes give you a very wrong (imagined) impression. The comments I read about recessed treble made me feel that SM3 is going to be a two trick pony with bass and mids. The treble is slightly recessed due to the very forward mids. Though they have the sparkle when needed, they never sound offensive. Treble is pretty smooth without lacking the details. This could probably because they are always behind the mids. Compared to it, the forward treble, bright IEMs like DBA-02 are more in your face with the treble. I don't hear any less details here, just that the balance in terms of presentation is different.
Bass - check, Mids - check. There's a slight veil there, but nothing you'd lose sleep over. Most people have written about the "veil" and a few have much trouble to adapt to it. I guess I am either too forgiving or expect too less. At no time do the vocals sound "clouded" as in the case of HJE900. As is usually said, YMMV. If you find the "veil" a bit hard to handle, be aware this is a BA, which does not "burn-in". If you can't beat them, join them or in this case get used to them.
The mids are always very forward. But this kind of presentation helps bring out a few nuances that I would not have noticed with other IEMs. For some, it might be a bit difficult to get used to. My brain was ready after reading many reviews. But, still I was taken aback by how forward it sounded. You can easily use terms like "In your face" for describing the forwardness. e-q5's mids in comparison are a hairline more forward. But since it has a more mellow and airier presentation, it does not feel like it's that much forward. In terms of tone, e-Q5 is more neutral, whereas SM3 is warmer and slightly more thicker with a bit more details adding to the perception of relatively more forward mids when it isn't. I can however say that SM3 is much more forward than FX700 or a TF10.
The bass is not abundant in quantity, but good in quality and texture with decent extension. Though the bass is good enough for my regular music, I am not sure it could satisfy a Trance / Electronica fan. I find something like a TF10 or FX700 more suited for Trance as they have the requisite quantity and hit deeper. SM3 does have a good body when it comes to bass (compared to DBA-02), just not the deep punch and impact you require for Trance.
The sound stage sometimes expands and sometimes narrows according to the recording (like going from a Vocal based track to something well recorded like Tool). But the depth is pretty good. It cannot be said to have the widest sound stage, but it certainly has a bigger sound space to play with at most times. As said before, it's separation and instrument placement are excellent - may be the best among my current IEMs.
I am not sure I can call this kind of presentation very natural at all times though. When I tested a track off Nirvana's "Unplugged in NY", I remembered how my lowly (priced) HDSS earbud presented the (imaginative, fake) vision of the stage better. I can visualize the position of band members and crowd better. This is in no way to say that SM3 does not give me the perception of depth or width or does not give any spatial clues at all. But, HDSS does it even better probably because it does not have the forward mids to start with.
Being a BA, of course it goes without saying it has speed. I still feel that DBA-02 has a much faster driver. I have many IEMs now that can't be called a laggard, but DBA-02 is the only one which at times make me think that it can resolve three songs at a time. But let's be honest here - you don't require the fastest transients or the greatest ability to resolve complex music at all times. But when needed, an IEM should step up and shine. SM3, most of the BAs and even some of the dynamics are not going to lag too far behind.
SM3 has good detail across the spectrum. But, they also require a certain volume to shine unlike some of my other IEMs.
Is it the new King of my humble IEM collection? May be. With 3-4 hrs of listening, I am liking it more by the minute. Is it the best IEM ever? Unlikely. There are a few IEMs which does a few things better. But, from the point of view of the overall presentation, SM3 has impressed me thus far in a short period of time. If it continues to impress me after 3-4 months of listening and also survive lot of proper A-B-A comparisons, who knows? I may be listening to my favorite IEM right now.
I'm certainly going to, ok! fix that - I will try to not buy any more universal IEMs. With plenty already in the bag, I plan to listen to music, try a few new genres / artists, give each of my IEMs a proper 2-3 week listening in isolation and see how it goes. I hope I can cross the 6 month mark without further damage to my wallet :ashamed:
"It" finally landed in Chennai last week thankfully without much issues. But still nothing was clear about how it will reach me or when. My friend refused to send it by courier and I had to bide my time. The inevitable happened today out of the blue and there it was... finally.
Enough of background, let's get to the business.
First off, the build quality is not something I am inspired by for a $320 IEM. The cable is a twisted cable alright, but the overall thickness is not thicker than some of the other non-twisted cables like the e-Q5 cable. The Y-split is so far up that chin slider becomes chin hurter if you are not careful. But I've managed to wear them over the ears comfortably with the chin slider resting a few cm below my chin. If you have bigger heads, this might not be comfortable. The shells are plasticky and cheap. I feel like I could break them easily whenever I've handled them thus far. They are not much better than those of TF10. The strain reliefs are decent at the plug, Y and the housing. I have a few issues with the plug (with Clip+). It does not seem to lock into the socket as firmly as I have with other IEMs. Rarely a sudden movement makes me lose a channel requiring a good push in.
As for tips, I used the stock double flange. Shure Olives can fit on them without de-coring and that is what I use currently.
With all the waiting, my expectations were high for these. I put them on and I was ... not impressed. Too forward mids, not too much of bass, do not feel the width of the sound stage too much. Treble is recessed. This went on for another 15-20 mins. I stopped listening.
After a gap, I decided to background listen with some of my very familiar albums. With a twist and a fit, the light-weight shells comfy in my ears, I began to look for further ways to put down the "world's greatest universal IEM". A few times it pulled me out of the foreground work with clear separation and precise placement within the sound space like I've not experienced with lot of other IEMs.
A few things you read in forums are excessive and sometimes give you a very wrong (imagined) impression. The comments I read about recessed treble made me feel that SM3 is going to be a two trick pony with bass and mids. The treble is slightly recessed due to the very forward mids. Though they have the sparkle when needed, they never sound offensive. Treble is pretty smooth without lacking the details. This could probably because they are always behind the mids. Compared to it, the forward treble, bright IEMs like DBA-02 are more in your face with the treble. I don't hear any less details here, just that the balance in terms of presentation is different.
Bass - check, Mids - check. There's a slight veil there, but nothing you'd lose sleep over. Most people have written about the "veil" and a few have much trouble to adapt to it. I guess I am either too forgiving or expect too less. At no time do the vocals sound "clouded" as in the case of HJE900. As is usually said, YMMV. If you find the "veil" a bit hard to handle, be aware this is a BA, which does not "burn-in". If you can't beat them, join them or in this case get used to them.
The mids are always very forward. But this kind of presentation helps bring out a few nuances that I would not have noticed with other IEMs. For some, it might be a bit difficult to get used to. My brain was ready after reading many reviews. But, still I was taken aback by how forward it sounded. You can easily use terms like "In your face" for describing the forwardness. e-q5's mids in comparison are a hairline more forward. But since it has a more mellow and airier presentation, it does not feel like it's that much forward. In terms of tone, e-Q5 is more neutral, whereas SM3 is warmer and slightly more thicker with a bit more details adding to the perception of relatively more forward mids when it isn't. I can however say that SM3 is much more forward than FX700 or a TF10.
The bass is not abundant in quantity, but good in quality and texture with decent extension. Though the bass is good enough for my regular music, I am not sure it could satisfy a Trance / Electronica fan. I find something like a TF10 or FX700 more suited for Trance as they have the requisite quantity and hit deeper. SM3 does have a good body when it comes to bass (compared to DBA-02), just not the deep punch and impact you require for Trance.
The sound stage sometimes expands and sometimes narrows according to the recording (like going from a Vocal based track to something well recorded like Tool). But the depth is pretty good. It cannot be said to have the widest sound stage, but it certainly has a bigger sound space to play with at most times. As said before, it's separation and instrument placement are excellent - may be the best among my current IEMs.
I am not sure I can call this kind of presentation very natural at all times though. When I tested a track off Nirvana's "Unplugged in NY", I remembered how my lowly (priced) HDSS earbud presented the (imaginative, fake) vision of the stage better. I can visualize the position of band members and crowd better. This is in no way to say that SM3 does not give me the perception of depth or width or does not give any spatial clues at all. But, HDSS does it even better probably because it does not have the forward mids to start with.
Being a BA, of course it goes without saying it has speed. I still feel that DBA-02 has a much faster driver. I have many IEMs now that can't be called a laggard, but DBA-02 is the only one which at times make me think that it can resolve three songs at a time. But let's be honest here - you don't require the fastest transients or the greatest ability to resolve complex music at all times. But when needed, an IEM should step up and shine. SM3, most of the BAs and even some of the dynamics are not going to lag too far behind.
SM3 has good detail across the spectrum. But, they also require a certain volume to shine unlike some of my other IEMs.
Is it the new King of my humble IEM collection? May be. With 3-4 hrs of listening, I am liking it more by the minute. Is it the best IEM ever? Unlikely. There are a few IEMs which does a few things better. But, from the point of view of the overall presentation, SM3 has impressed me thus far in a short period of time. If it continues to impress me after 3-4 months of listening and also survive lot of proper A-B-A comparisons, who knows? I may be listening to my favorite IEM right now.
I'm certainly going to, ok! fix that - I will try to not buy any more universal IEMs. With plenty already in the bag, I plan to listen to music, try a few new genres / artists, give each of my IEMs a proper 2-3 week listening in isolation and see how it goes. I hope I can cross the 6 month mark without further damage to my wallet :ashamed:
( can I? )
