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Howdy audio goons. I'm looking for a new set of IEMs. Budget - $125 Source - Fiio BTR3 Isolation Requirements - IEM Preferred Type of Headphone - For the purpose of this post, IEM. Preferred Tonal Balance - I prefer heavy bass above all, but I would still like to get decent separation. Past Headphones - Sennheiser HD 558, Audio Technica ATH-M50, Fiio F9 (that I lost) Preferred Music - Metal, Prog, Ska, and Punk primarily, but also a bit of everything else. When I get a new set of cans I test/EQ them with Streetlight Manifesto's Walking Away and other stuff with really noticeable basslines to get the lows where I want them, then I use Muse's Newborn to fine-tune the higher frequencies, if that makes any sense? Also, I'd prefer a set with detachable cables. I'm looking to clip the BTR3 to my collar, and I'm probably going to be using a 3rd party short cable to get rid of extra weight. I'm looking at Fiio FH3's right now. The volume of options at this price point are staggering.
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Apr 21, 2023 07:53
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The current hotness at the $100 price point are the Truthear Hexa, if you want bass you might also want to consider the Truthear Zero.
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Apr 21, 2023 14:20
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Godzilla07 posted:This poster is currently compiling published 5128 measurements. To my knowledge all the other people who have 5128s just got them (crinacle, Resolve from headphones.com, LTT). crinacle's IEF neutral transposed to the 5128 might end up as the most useful target since I'd bet that Samsung is gonna sue the poo poo out of anyone who tries to reverse-engineer the 5128 Harman targets (see all the redactions for 5128 Harman measurements in this video) Necromancy I know, but Olive showed it at CanJam! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjqT3k7T54&t=83s
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Apr 22, 2023 07:27
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Pegnose Pete posted:Truthear Zero After watching so many YouTube videos and reading so many posts about Chinese IEMs I eventually ordered… the Senn IE 200s  All the options I was considering had positive word of mouth as well as people saying they were the worst thing ever, so I got tired and just made a decision. Grabbed an open box on Amazon for about 40$ off retail and put that towards some Final Type E tips and an upgraded cable. Additionally I grabbed a used LG V20 Pro for about 35$ to use as a DAP rather than fiddling with lossless on iPhone. It sounds pretty good! Although I think I prefer the sound of the Apple Dongle at the end of the day. The LG Quad DAC in the V20 Pro sounds very smooth and the Apple dongle sounds a bit cleaner. All in all though I should have a nice portable listening set up.
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Apr 22, 2023 10:18
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:I'm on this same journey and ordered a set of Maxwells that should be here in a couple days. What were the reasons that you rejected the Steelseries? I've been looking for a new wireless headset (PC hooked up to my TV and I don't want wires across the living room) and they seem to be pretty popular although a lot of garbage is. Last time I asked for recommendations here I got a similar recommendation of "Audeze has some stuff coming out that looks good" and I got the Penrose, but the battery life was abysmal and the sound quality didn't really matter when half of it was crackling because the connection was so terrible (even with the dongle in front without other devices plugged in and all the other troubleshooting steps whereas with my old kind of crappy sounding Corsair one I could just shove the dongle in the back with everything else and wander all around the apartment without issue).
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Apr 22, 2023 17:13
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AirPod Max is on sale at $450 at Amazon and Best Buy https://a.co/d/6WUg14S How does the thread feel about them? I love my AirPod Pros 2.0. Am thinking about buying these for plane rides and gaming at home.
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Apr 22, 2023 17:35
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I got them for my pops, if you like the AirPods Pro you’ll probably like them as well.
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Apr 22, 2023 17:54
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Vegetable posted:AirPod Max is on sale at $450 at Amazon and Best Buy https://a.co/d/6WUg14S If airpod pros are anything to go by, the bluetooth latency is a tad too rough to play games with, at least on PC. I'm not all that fussy about bluetooth latency, but it's really noticeable for me on my airpod pros 2. Maybe its better on mac?
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Apr 22, 2023 17:55
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Bluetooth has lots of latency [except for that one new AptX-LL codec I guess but Apple doesn’t support it] which is why all headsets, both gaming and office, use a different protocol.
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Apr 22, 2023 18:02
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njsykora posted:The current hotness at the $100 price point are the Truthear Hexa, if you want bass you might also want to consider the Truthear Zero. Thanks for the recommendation. I got the Zero. It sounds great to me, way better than the $50 it costs would suggest
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Apr 23, 2023 04:16
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garfield hentai posted:What were the reasons that you rejected the Steelseries? The tl;dr is that while it has some features that are pretty neat, they implemented cheaply, the cans are pretty bad, and the ANC knob on the inside of the cans literally rubs up against your ear unless you wear them just so. The headset is full of pretty neat features. Being able to choose between BT and 2.4ghz is nice. Being able to fall back to a cord seamlessly is nice. The swappable battery that comes with the headset is actually a killer feature and I'm pissed other headsets don't come with it. However, the cord is cheap (but replaceable). The battery charging station is super cheap and getting the battery to actually 'lock' is a bit of a trick. The buttons on the station are either really cheap or touch and the feedback you get from them is awful. The menuing is obnoxious and could be fixed with 2 extra buttons trivially, but god forbid we spend the extra $0.30 on a set that retails for $350. Switching between wireless protocols is spotty. The cans are not good and are pretty uncomfortable. They get hot quickly. My HyperX Cloud IIs are just...better in every measurable way here - the Steelseries audio quality is dogwater even on this expensive set. I have a lot to complain about the Astro sets, but they do make comfy headsets at least. I was so disappointed in the sound, but it's a gaming headset so... The software is trash. It provides the most basic EQing and is otherwise a way to deliver ads and collect your information to be sold later. You drat right you need an account to access features. All of this would honestly almost be forgivable except for their loving atrocious implementation of ANC. There is a little knob that is doing the listening that is sticking out of the inside of the headset. If you are even slightly off center or have funny ear shapes, that plastic nub will rub on your ears and make them unwearable. It is unbelievable that this got past any kind of testing and I'm blown away at how awful this is on a 'premium' headset. The ANC crap aside, this a $99 headset with a couple features. I'd probably be OK paying $150. For the price they are asking, literally all of it could be way better. The control station, the batteries, the cushioning, the headband - it is all obviously built trying to cut cost as much as possible. For $350, it is a total ripoff.
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Apr 24, 2023 20:55
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Apparently the Auduze Maxwell's have 50ms of latency...over a wire. I haven't tested this myself yet as my order is in limbo of some kind but gently caress man. Can someone on this loving planet make a headset? Please? Can someone just not suck completely? I am willing to cut a check for whatever price you ask if you can manage to make one headset that can avoid loving up the basics and as far as I can tell, this doesn't exist. Adjacent to this: Is there a single headset reviewing site that is any good at this? Honestly, RTings is as close as they come since they have great data, but they fail spectacularly at the subjective. Canine Blues Arooo fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 21:07
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Thanks for the write-up, sounds like a pass from me. Also nice to hear that Audeze is continuing its tradition of ruining whatever sound quality it has with lovely connection issues. It's frustrating because everything I would want out of a wireless headset is out there - just spread out between a few different sets that each have their own lovely issues.
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Apr 24, 2023 21:32
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Apparently the Auduze Maxwell's have 50ms of latency...over a wire. I haven't tested this myself yet as my order is in limbo of some kind but gently caress man. Not that I've seen, headphone reviewers don't bother because no-one comes to them for headset reviews and gaming sites only talk about headsets in gift guide articles around Christmas. Rtings from what I've seen are the only site that even takes measurements, though Crinacle has measured a few on his old rig.
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Apr 24, 2023 21:56
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After spending some more time with me IE 200s, I think I really like them. At first I didn’t hear much of a difference between them and my EQ’d RHA 750s. Listening a bit more and trying different ear tips, I’m getting lots of bright details without much sibilance (unless it’s a particularly peak’s recording) and the Final Type E tips in the L size give me a perfect seal without any uncomfortable pressure. I feel a pretty good amount of bass slam and detail too. Definitely an improvement using them even without any EQ. On my V20 Pro’s quad DAC, it sounds a bit smoother and less punchy than the Apple Dongle. I’m really impressed at how enjoyable the listening experience is with the Apple Dongle. On fuzzy recordings like shoegaze and metal I might prefer the quad DAC. The left earbud seems to have a slightly rough connection and requires reseating the plug once in a while but I have a 3rd party cable on the way that may improve that. Overall very happy!
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Apr 25, 2023 07:44
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Vegetable posted:AirPod Max is on sale at $450 at Amazon and Best Buy https://a.co/d/6WUg14S Ludicrously too expensive for what they are and how they sound, and bluetooth is not an acceptable solution for gaming.
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Apr 25, 2023 14:20
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Losing my will to live with my Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2. Connection drops are ridiculous, though the sound quality is good. Following on from this, the headphones finally stopped even turning on for me this afternoon. SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X - are these a decent alternative?
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Apr 26, 2023 17:03
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Following on from this, the headphones finally stopped even turning on for me this afternoon. I don't have any experience with that exact model, but if you look back at my posts you'll see that I consider the 2.4ghz wireless audio from the Arctis Pro Wireless (which I've used for years) to be fantastic, so much that I've taken the guts from broken Arctis headsets and stuffed them into other brands to gain those wireless features. It has a long range and is hard to disrupt, and imperceptibly low latency. That Nova 7X has a dedicated 2.4ghz dongle so I would guess the reception is comparable. I prefer open-ear headphones from a comfort/soundstage standpoint but that's just a matter of preference; if you were already happy with the Turtle Beach, then any Arctis wireless headphones should be a direct upgrade. The Arctis headsets all use plastic for some hinge-points that should have been metal; I've never broken a pair but I've been fairly stationary with them. If you sit on them by accident or fling them around in a backpack you might snap them so consider a hardcase if you transport them often. One look on eBay and I instantly spotted one with a broken hinge, so be aware: https://www.ebay.com/itm/285218792567
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Apr 26, 2023 17:50
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Zero VGS posted:I don't have any experience with that exact model, but if you look back at my posts you'll see that I consider the 2.4ghz wireless audio from the Arctis Pro Wireless (which I've used for years) to be fantastic, so much that I've taken the guts from broken Arctis headsets and stuffed them into other brands to gain those wireless features. It has a long range and is hard to disrupt, and imperceptibly low latency. That Nova 7X has a dedicated 2.4ghz dongle so I would guess the reception is comparable. I prefer open-ear headphones from a comfort/soundstage standpoint but that's just a matter of preference; if you were already happy with the Turtle Beach, then any Arctis wireless headphones should be a direct upgrade. Thank you my friend. I managed to flash my turtle beach cans again but I'm done now. I'll try to report back with the new headset.
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Apr 27, 2023 00:43
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Put my BLON BL03's back on after a long hiatus. Still awesome.
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Apr 28, 2023 13:42
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Auduze wrote a blog post about the Maxwell's bad response time measurements in the Rtings review: https://www.audeze.com/blogs/publication-reviews/in-response-to-rtings-coms-maxwell-review Their testing shows latency of about 24ms over wireless, and about 14ms over a wire. The wireless latency is very good here, but still seeing some latency over a wire is a bit of an issue, although it's a very manageable amount here as opposed to the Rtings measured, which was triple that... Now, the question here is, 'who is wrong'. I still don't have my headset, but I am definitely going to try and measure this at my house and see who hosed up. What is very stupid is that the data from this Auduze blog post isn't somewhere on their marketing page. Instead of saying, 'Ultra Low Latency' or whatever, maybe just publish your tests instead of making me guess what that means and then having to default to a potentially 'wrong' review since it's literally the only data point on the Internet.
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Apr 28, 2023 18:10
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RTINGS is taking another whack at it, fwiw
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Apr 28, 2023 21:18
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Im telling you people. Simgot EA500 is phenomenal and worth $300 at least.
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Apr 29, 2023 02:22
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redeyes posted:Im telling you people. Simgot EA500 is phenomenal and worth $300 at least. Any suggestions on tips though? The seal is not the greatest for me with the stock ones.
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Apr 29, 2023 02:28
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Passburger posted:Any suggestions on tips though? The seal is not the greatest for me with the stock ones. Surely you have something that can work? I have no issues fitting em. Maybe some nice Comply Foams? Tips are like underwear, highly personal.
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Apr 29, 2023 16:00
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Passburger posted:Any suggestions on tips though? The seal is not the greatest for me with the stock ones. spinfits, moondrop spring tips, jvc spiral dots, epro horn tips, sedna xelastec, final audio, foam somewhere in that list is the tip that works for you, but nobody can tell you which one 
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Apr 29, 2023 16:10
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redeyes posted:Surely you have something that can work? I have no issues fitting em. Maybe some nice Comply Foams? Dr. Fishopolis posted:spinfits, moondrop spring tips, jvc spiral dots, epro horn tips, sedna xelastec, final audio, foam I get that, I'm not expecting *the* tip, but just some suggestions or recomendations so I can have a gander and try a few out. Well I have some foam tips but they end up pushing the iems out. Anyway, I guess got a few names to look for now. Thanks!
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Apr 29, 2023 17:12
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Passburger posted:I get that, I'm not expecting *the* tip, but just some suggestions or recomendations so I can have a gander and try a few out. Well I have some foam tips but they end up pushing the iems out. I agree with this others that it's quite personal but if you want a red I really like the recently released Spinfit W1s
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Apr 29, 2023 17:17
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I'm considering IEMs for my extremely noisy commute. I often see Etymotics praised for their isolation, but many users refit them with Comply foam tips. Couldn't you just put triple flange or comply tips on any IEM and get the same isolation then? Or is there something else special about the Etymotics?
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Apr 29, 2023 22:50
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Etymotics come with triple flanges specifically for isolation but they go DEEP in your ear which can be uncomfortable for long periods of time. Foam tips with Etys are more for making them comfortable than added isolation.
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Apr 29, 2023 23:00
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strange feelings re Daisy posted:I'm considering IEMs for my extremely noisy commute. I often see Etymotics praised for their isolation, but many users refit them with Comply foam tips. Couldn't you just put triple flange or comply tips on any IEM and get the same isolation then? Or is there something else special about the Etymotics? They are extremely unique, no other tips fit them, and they sit much deeper in your ear canal than anything else. also, they're typically unported, so there's no path to outside air. the construction of the IEM has as much or more to do with the isolation as the tips.
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Apr 29, 2023 23:25
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strange feelings re Daisy posted:I'm considering IEMs for my extremely noisy commute. Noise cancelling not enough?
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Apr 29, 2023 23:32
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Final Type E (clear) have been really nice for me. Just simple silicon tips but the fit and feel are nice.
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Apr 30, 2023 00:56
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:They are extremely unique, no other tips fit them, and they sit much deeper in your ear canal than anything else. also, they're typically unported, so there's no path to outside air. the construction of the IEM has as much or more to do with the isolation as the tips. 101 posted:Noise cancelling not enough?
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Apr 30, 2023 01:04
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I love my ER2XR but the stock cable is bad and finding a good replacement is a bit difficult, plus (and this is the big one) it's kind of a pain to get them in and out of your ear even once you're used to it. that unfortunately makes them difficult to use for me at work or out in public, but they isolate incredibly well and sound great.
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Apr 30, 2023 01:29
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Yeah I pull them out every few weeks and go "gently caress this is how music is meant to sound" every time and then after an hour of glory my ears are unbearably itchy and I have to take them out again.
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Apr 30, 2023 02:06
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:I love my ER2XR but the stock cable is bad and finding a good replacement is a bit difficult, plus (and this is the big one) it's kind of a pain to get them in and out of your ear even once you're used to it. that unfortunately makes them difficult to use for me at work or out in public, but they isolate incredibly well and sound great. I too have yet to find a nice cable replacement for mine. Got one from lunashops only to find out their version of the connector makes the iem stick out quite a bit compared to the original.
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Apr 30, 2023 03:05
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njsykora posted:Yeah I pull them out every few weeks and go "gently caress this is how music is meant to sound" every time and then after an hour of glory my ears are unbearably itchy and I have to take them out again. Hey speaking of which AirPod Pros 2 are incredibly comfy to the point that I often forget they’re in, save for the fact that they make my ears itch every now and again. Anyone got any aftermarket recommendations for tips that are a bit kinder?
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Apr 30, 2023 03:44
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The Grumbles posted:Hey speaking of which AirPod Pros 2 are incredibly comfy to the point that I often forget they’re in, save for the fact that they make my ears itch every now and again. Anyone got any aftermarket recommendations for tips that are a bit kinder? I like the SpinFit SuperFines. Very comfy and they don't pop out when I bench press like the default tips do
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Apr 30, 2023 12:52
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101 posted:I like the SpinFit SuperFines. Very comfy and they don't pop out when I bench press like the default tips do 
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Apr 30, 2023 19:21
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