IEM for a stupidly small amount of money

Knowing Eke, I say Rockets as well.

 

The Rockets are frigging awesome. I have settled on them for the foreseeable future and don't plan on up/side grading anytime soon.

 

Going by the pics in this post, the S5 driver has a rear vent just like the Tenore's, which could be damped if desired. The rear housing however doesn't seem to be vented, which explains why they sounded the same to you without the faceplates.

Yup, the low end has a lot of weight on these. I'm sure it could be brought down with further modding, but I use mine on the go, where a bit of extra bass thump doesn't hurt. Subjectively, they isolate decently and sound pretty well balanced in noisy surroundings like buses or trains.

 

james444 Which series did you get & can you please compare to Fostex ?

 

Please read my previous post:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-small-amount-of-money.2298/page-8#post-63272

Overall, the Series 5 sound significantly fuller and weightier than the Fostex 02n, but have pretty good resolution nevertheless. First priorty to bring out the best in these are wide-bore tips, since the narrow stock ones impair treble. Bass can be tamed as desired by the reversible front-mod using silicone strips, by poking the stock vent membrane (harakiri mod) and likely also by damping the driver's rear vent. Lots of modding options actually, and the S5 are definitely worth the effort imo.

 

Stock rear damping (circle of whitish membrane over the back of the driver) removed ...



Custom rear damping applied ...


Both measurements with Harakiri mod applied.

 

@stratocaster, what is the red curve? a target curve?

 

This is how the S5 (with the harakiri mod applied) measure on my system.

 

Ok, I'm just having trouble understanding the chart. So red is the S5 with mod. What is the green curve in the top chart? Unmodded? Because then the green and red are closely aligned in the second chart.

 

Red lines: S5 with harakiri mod, everything else stock.
Green line in the first pic: like above, but with the rear damping membrane removed from the back of the driver.
Green line in the second pic: custom damping inside the shells at the back of the driver (in replacement of the stock damping membrane)

As for the sound, so far I would prefer the stock version with harakiri. More bass control, less bleeding into the mids. But I will try to flatten the bass curve, because the bump at 1.8kHz has been brought down, reducing the shout. Will not be easy though, because denser damping does exactly what I am trying to get under control. It elevates the region between 1 and 2 kHz.

 

Nice work! How about increasing the front leakage while leaving your custom rear damper as is? Would you lose too much sub bass that way?

 

You would need a bump between 2-3k

 

Hm, by removing the metal grille, bass gets tighter and reduced. It doesn't only get brighter/shoutier.
The alco swab can't be too broad or thick, mucks up everything. Good thing is that the alco swab doubles as small leakage in place of silicon ribbons.
I couldn't put the grille back, the brightness is slightly annoying but I simply could not give up the added clarity. These no longer have this unforgiving nature and artificially deep soundstage.

 

TFZ stand for the The Fragrant Zither?!
https://www.amazon.com/Fragrant-Zither-TFZ-HiFi-earphones/dp/B01HEI1SCY/

 

Noticed that yesterday. That is so weird - I like it!

 

Resolution with the grille removed and two layers of swab on there is actually pretty freakin ridiculous. As I said previously, these pretty much don't give up anything against the UERM or the Andro to my ears while just plain sounding more "right" to me than either. The UERM definitely is the most resolving of the three in terms of treble but I feel the S5 is just slightly warmer than it. I was talking to eke the other day about he how he felt there was this huge disparity in note weight between bass/ mids/treble and I honestly simply can not relate. I even spent like 3 hours after that going back and forth between rockets, UERM and S5 across multiple genres. I honestly think it's a fit thing as these are definitely bassier with certain tips.

The tips I'm using are the Penon Audio tips I linked to and the seal is on the looser side and the silicon is a bit stiffer so I'm honestly not getting bonkers bass at all. Bass levels are always in check no matter what I listen to and is approximately the same weight as mids/ treble at all times. To my ears it's extremely similar to the UERM in terms of tonal balance. Edit: Actually, I should say that these are extremely similar to the Andro in terms of tonal balance (as in proportions between bass/mids/treble), except the actual midrange definitely veers closer to the UERM due to the more forward upper mids vs Andro's more laidback upper mids.These are definitively NOT like the Flat-4 series where yes, I definitely note very thinnish mids/ treble in relation to very sizable bass.

Very interesting regarding the vent on the back tho, especially now that telecaster has removed and measured the result. That kinda opens up even more modding possibilities for sure.

Exactly. Now you know what I'm talking about. I would honestly put these up against literally anything. I don't care if it's got 20 drivers or is some titanium hybrid or whatever. I've heard variants of all of that tech. It is not appreciably better to my ears at all. I can and do listen to these for hours at a time at a good volume. Zero discomfort on my end.

 

Red line is a measurement of my S1 (with harakiri mod) and the green line depicts the same hp with the front metal mesh + filter removed:




As you can see, removal of the front metal mesh plus filter does not directly affect bass response. It elevates everyhing above 1kHz, so they sound more forward and clearer up top with that.
When changing the response of a certain part of the audible spectrum, we will also perceive the other parts differently, because their relation to the part you have changed is different. So, when you bring up the upper mids and leave the bass unchanged, you will necessarily also perceive the bass differently, because in relation to the elevated mids the bass will be less prominent than before.

 

First mod you did looks better than the current one.

 

Tonally:
Tomeito - tomato.
On absolute scale, spl wise, yeah it's more brightness. Relatively, it's just less bass. I agree that with less bass, hp-s usually feel tighter.

It is not all about tonality, the metal mesh mushes high-mid bass somehow, and imaging is much better without it, as is clarity. Low bass is unaffected, save for quantity.
With the metal can in place, I'd call it's imaging shit, simply the impressive depth was enough to forgive for it.
I hope you agree that one can't add clarity with soft eq ? It's about dynamics, low distortion and fr response.

Maybe distortion or phase measurements would show it.

Strato have you tried alco-swabs ? These kill some of the shout and peaks.

 

This is an uncompensated measurement!

FYI, below some distortion measurements:

With mesh and filter in place:


Without mesh and filter:


Finally, my most recent mod, S5 without mesh/filter and custom internal damping: