IEM general discussion thread

Lol. Just like I knew someone would say go see a doctor, I knew you would misread my post which was carefully laid out. My implication wasn't that I had s blocked Eustace tube because I pushed earwax into it you moron. My implication was pushed earwax could be causing pain (maybe your colleague can verify this for you), bit that I didn't wait to see if that fixed the problem, and moved to clearing my eustachian tube. The issue eventually switched from my left ear to my right ear, leaving my left ear hearing function completely intact.

FYI, I didnt damage my ears. I developed an inflammation related to allergies which interfered with my eustachian tube closing (audiologist verified, maybe your colleague can check this for you too). I was prescribed a steroid, but opted to try benadryl first instead, and I haven't had any tinnitus or irritation.

Thanks for trying to be a physician. You really demonstrated WHY to avoid the internet for advice- because egotistical morons like you specifically go out of there way to make ridiculous assertions when actually completely wrong.

Let's recap

You made wild assumptions about what happened

You misunderstood my solution and misconstrued my logic

Then you returned to write out a large ego-charged rant to defend your original flawed thought process.

You care about people? PM the person then, instead of calling people names when you were in fact completely incorrect. It's pretty pathetic. You proved no points here. I have seen a regular physician and audiologist. My hearing has been assessed against numbers from 2 years ago and I have not suffered hearing loss.

You're a complete idiot

 

Ugh. Petty argument on internet on whose ego is larger really does not do it for me. (Unless there is like a sexy make up session afterwards.)

To get back on track, hope someone can make recommendations on alternative iems to the Noble X in the price bracket. Really digging the X but wondering if there is a better value performer.

 

Here is a post by @Marvey on that subject.

 

I've had some time with the AAW W900 demo and some thoughts with relatively quiet shop (for a shop) conditions using a Sansa Clip Zip (<1 OI):

• More smooth up top than Andro, Andro has certain relative peaks that the W900 doesn't have.
• Mids seems slightly more forward
• Less bassy than the Andro (w low OI sources) and smoother than the Andro (w low OI sources) without as much of a midbass bump.
• Soundstage (or headstage) is still within the head, I'd say the Andro (which is also within-head) is slightly larger, about 3cm smaller in diameter in rough head-sphere terms.
• Much less efficient than the Andromeda - rough ear-estimate volume difference of about 12 steps on a Rockbox'd Clip Zip.
• Bass has the proper texture vs BA driver Andromeda, but I don't know if it's because it's a sealed small dynamic driver, it doesn't have the full thump, incisiveness, and crispness in rendition that my MG6pro has.

 

I've been wanting to hear these for a while (listening to them now; courtesy of, and many thanks to @EricR - who loaned me his for a few days):





And then, as a result of being part of a 64 Audio tour for the U18 and tia Fourte, and the kind indulgence of @aufmerksam, and some fortuitous timing, I should have both 64 Audio IEMs and the Andromeda together (finally). Along with the EE Zeus R and the well-known SE846.

I may even get around to finishing the edits/impressions to all the IEMs I've heard lately when that's all done.

 

W900 still on hand? I would be interested to know how it stacks up, especially compared to Tia Forte...

 

No, but I can probably finangle something there ... depending on where in the cycle the tour unit for that is.

 

Thanks. Not that I can afford the Forte, but I would be interested to know what 64 Audio bring to the table for twice as much money...

That is the standout of W900 so far; cohesion. Even more so because it's a hybrid. Extension is pretty remarkable too.

 

Hmm, the w900 sounds promising. Maybe we should consider it for an SBAF tour?

 

Haven't heard the Tia, but the W900 should be fairly interesting for most folks. If the Andromeda is a downward sloping tuned (with some bumps in the highs and the midbass), the W900 is taking that line, ironing it flatter, but with slightly more prominent mids.

You lose some of that sparkle, but gain a smoother treble and a 'proper' low end.

 

https://world.taobao.com/item/550087478031.htm

So KZ caught a whiff of Campfire being a company that exists and decided to make their very own special clones! I probably will get these, because something's wrong with my brain and I like buying cheap garbage. And hey, seven bucks a driver? What a steal!

 

Does it just stop after 5 kHz? Midrange and bass looks well reproduced, but no treble

 

They claim it still has usable sensitivity up to 45kHz, but produce a frequency chart that has no X axis as support:


(And if you assume it starts from 10Hz it does end up seemingly dropping off a cliff after 3.5KHz)

Edit: Going through the Chinese threads now...

 

I'd agree on the W900 being amazingly cohesive - and that that is its best feature. I never would have believed it was a hybrid design. I couldn't hear any weirdness around any transitions between the dynamic and BA drivers. Just incredibly smooth, detailed, impactful and tuneful. The only place I could "fault" them was they lacked a sense of sparkle and air. And coming right off the Zeus R ... well, LOTS of things seem to lack sparkle and air.

Superficially the treble extension on the Zeus R seems better, but in practice I don't think that's really the case at all - just all that air and shimmer makes it feel that way. The Empire Ears unit, while not lacking on the low-end, isn't nearly as convincing and simply doesn't deliver the slam, impact or articulation that the W900 do so effortlessly.

Had I been able to buy the W900 tour-set and keep them (i.e. not have to let them finish the tour), I would have done so without any hesitation. And the only reason I didn't order a set for myself immediately was that they take 8 weeks to get and I was only a couple or three weeks from being able to hear the new 64 Audio units. I am not known for my patience, but even I was able to hold off on that one (it's not like the Zeus R aren't excellent, they certainly are ... but the W900 is a better match for me).

I might grab the Zeus XR Adel this week (assuming the chap that has them doesn't sell them to someone else), just for comparison (if they weren't available essentially same-day I wouldn't bother):

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Now, a few initial impressions/thoughts on the tia Fourté ...

The first thing I will say is that I found them immediately "impressive". This is, by no means, always a good thing as many of you have no doubt experienced. It is very common for me to find stuff that impresses right out of the gate becomes fatiguing or exhibits other issues with more listening. That hasn't happened so far (I've spent about 12 hours listening to the tia Fourté so far, including one 6-hour-straight session), but it's early days and we'll see where things end up in a couple more days.

I almost wish they weren't this way as it sets up red-flags for me ...

Beyond that ...

They are fast. VERY fast. Transients are up there with the best speaker systems I've heard. Attack is startling ... and only when it is supposed to be. Notes will start and stop instantly when that's what the music contains, but decay is properly preserved as well. Individually plucked strings are incredibly vivid.

Tunes played in the bass, and growl and rumble in the sub-bass, are easily heard and convincingly reproduced, and the level of impact, slam and articulation is, from memory, as good as the W900 (we'll see if I stand by that statement if I can get them back-to-back) and I think better than the Campfire Audio Vega (itself an IEM I enjoyed, but not to the point where I wanted to own them).

Detail and resolution are first-rate. I wouldn't call it analytical, but it isn't letting anything escape. In fact apparent resolution is so high that it's possible to get caught up in listening to the detail and not the music. This is the first real point of potential concern I have, as if that winds up not being an "initial wow" thing, it could pull one out of the sense of immersion in the music. We'll see how much that happens over the next few days - but listening to Tubular Bells (at about 14:40 and on) I did find myself "peering into the mix" in a fascinated and rather amazed sense, teasing out the overlay of instruments, and being surprised at just how "uncomfortable" the discordancy in overtones was conveyed (that's a good thing ... that's how it is supposed to sound and often gets rendered in a more "polite" fashion ... the LCD series is bad for that for me).

The sense of space and air here is enormous. The stage (left to right) is easy to pick apart. No three-blob stuff here. Which, to be fair, isn't a problem with the Zeus R or W900 either. But things here are definitely easier to separate. If you've heard the ADEL equipped U12/A12 ... well, this is more expansive and open even than that.

And there is plenty of extension, sparkle and shimmer in the treble when it is present in the recording. No sibilance I can detect that isn't part of the actual music either. This is one area where I personally like the tia Fourté more than the W900.

Overall balance is slightly tilted towards the low end, but I wouldn't call these a bass-head unit (at least not driven out of the WM1Z, X5iii or Pro iCAN). I'm not finding this causes problems with being able to indulge in the lucid, fast, detailed, musical mid-range. While the first track I played gave me the impression of a somewhat pronounced "U" shape to the tuning, that didn't last long and the gentle downward slope to the higher frequencies doesn't seem to lessen their vibrancy.

Cohesion/coherence ... here's where things get interesting (at least on so little listening time) ...

The tia Fourté are demonstrating the best layering and separation I've ever heard in an IEM (and possibly any headphone). It is trivial to pick things out and follow them individually. And I'm not sure if this is harming coherency or not yet. I'm not hearing any tonal or dynamic weirdness or lumpiness that would indicate issues in blending the output from the drivers. But at this point I'm absolutely aware of every individual instrument, voice and sound ... and it's too early to say if that's going to be a major strength or if it is going to be a weakness (at least from a musical-immersion perspective).

 

I've not heard either of those, but the U12 with MAMS with various sources (Mojo, A&K, desktop stuff, w/ and w/o impedance adjustment in the chain*) were, to that point, the most expansive IEMs I'd personally heard. Bear in mind my exposure to various IEMs is a more recent, and far more limited, thing. It is by no means and area in which I have extensive experience (unlike, say, DACs).

I went from ER4-S (which I still have) to the Shure SE846, and then added the Zeus R a few weeks ago. I've heard a number of units at meets, but that's never enough listening time for me to get more than a sense of whether I want to do more listening with a particular unit or not.

I've heard this same comment from a number of people now. My interest in the ADEL equipped Zeus XR is more for the purposes of making such a comparison than it is any intent to actually keep them (and the fact that I don't have to wait to get my hands on them nor pay new prices ... so unloading them wouldn't necessarily be at a loss).

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I'd prefer not to, especially as it works out at $4K for me, since 64 Audio is local!

At the same time, I'd rather have one IEM that I want to use all the time than be in the same boat that I am with headphones which currently requires four different flagships to cover all my preferences fully. I thought the Utopia was going to let me get rid of everything else, but while it's my favorite single headphone, and gets the most head time, it's not perfect and other units do better (for me) with some genres to a sufficient degree that I don't want to let them go.

W900 (custom) + Zeus R (universal) would be all I'd need, in this case, absent hearing more IEMs, but if the tia Fourté (or A18 or something else) can replace both then it'd be worth it for the simplicity (at least for me).

I absolutely get where you're coming from on this. I'm just not sure if it's actually a problem for me, or a benefit. The only way I can fathom that one is to see where my listening time gets spent and what I gravitate to using by default.

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*Which would be iEMatch today, but I've done my own similar things in the past. Any comments made here are straight out of the various devices/amps though (unless otherwise stated).