InEar Stagedivers

Any opinions on the Inear Stagedivers? I've heard all besides the SD 1 and personally own the SD 2 which I feel has the best price to performance ratio, although I did get them before the SD4s were released.

 

Check with @keanex

He loaned me the SD4(?) SD2 a while back. I thought it was pretty meh but I'm a lewser who prefers deep insertion Ety-style tips and single-driver coherency and immediacy.

 

Funny... after about an hour with the ER4S today, I was lack "Ack! I despise deep insertion." And i was wearing them with Westone Star Tips, which aren't as deep as triflange. The rest of the day I wore the SE215 (w/ star tips as well) and didn't have the same problem.

All that to say, I found myself looking at the Stagediver 2 today. I'm really pretty much out of ideas looking for quality universals, especially with good isolation. I bounce back and forth between Shure and Westone offerings, but that's about it. Stagediver seems an option. I was looking at the Audiofly AF180 and Nuforce Primo, too. It makes me consider customs, but I think they'd be more intrusive than the Ety...

 

I have both the SE425 and SD2s which are both dual drivers. For their respective prices I think they are a pretty solid offering especially the SD2s. Have never tried the ER4 before though. Regarding the 425s and SD2s, they both offer a relatively high quality build and sound. That price range ($409 for the shures and $569 for the SD2s in SGD) are pretty much my limit on my student budget.

 

The SD2 is what I lent ya OJ. I think that one leans more warm/balanced and out of the line offered the best performance/cost ratio.

 

Keanex what cable are you using with the SD2? I'm currently using the Brevity from Null after the original cable oxidised, but I feel like its a bottleneck in performance.

 

BlueElephant, any thoughts how it compares to the SE425? Have you heard the SE535 by any chance?

 

I'm not a cable believer at this point. I don't know if I ever will be, unless I could reliably abx them. I'm not saying that there is or isn't a difference, but I don't subscribe to the cable ideology.

With that said I had the stock silver cable.

 

I'm would say the SD2s are neutral sounding ish while the 425s are tuned flatter in sound. The SD2 has more air to it and a larger holographic sound as well. The SD2 feels really clear while the 425s, murkier but because of its flat tuning and not any lack in clarity. The SD2s are much faster imo as well. I would say that the extra you pay for the InEars over the Shures is very worth it. I've demoed the SE535 LE and the 846 but I feel for the price the SD2 is about as good as it gets. The increment in performance over price for the 846 doesn't feel all that worth it. The 535 doesn't really appeal to me as I prefer flatter-neutral sounding over fun I guess.

 

Heard it at a meet and thought it was meh. Not bad though, pretty fun signature. To my preference, a bit bassy and dark than neutral. Slower and muddier than Noble 4 which has essentially the same price. At similar price you can get custom made Alclair Reference+ear impressions which I recall more neutral than SD2.

 

Never had the chance to hear the Alclair or noble before. But I presume that the SD2 has a better fit compared to the noble due to its unique shape? Again I haven't heard either or tried them. Who is Alclair's distributor in SG though

 

I'm not sure if Alclair has any distributor - they seem to sell direct only. They're just a small and minor brand. After all the AR is custom made so there is no point to compare the fit. Admittedly Noble 4's fit was a disaster for me, and SD2 gets a huge thumbs up here.

 

Yep which is why I referred to the Noble's fit only. The InEars are undeniably superior in fit, which honestly plays a huge part imo. Regardless of how good an iem sounds if it feels atrocious in your ear you're going to want to take it out