shotgunshane’s IEM (custom and universal) recommendations, favorites and classics

I've thoroughly auditioned the Prophile-8, but haven't heard the S-EM9. Actually, I liked the P8 a lot with my test tracks, and even though my preference leans generally more towards DDs than BAs, I came away highly impressed.

What is it about them, in your opinion, that makes a lot of recordings not sound good to you?

 

James Blake's latest album for one is a bit harsh sounding. Some punk music like Jay Reatard as well. I would have to check again to let you know more precisely. I don't know why, I am always impressed by the P8 with my well mastered test tracks, but then when I just let my albums play, there is always one every three or four that is not so pleasurable to listen to, while all albums sound good with my SE5 Ultimate. I think it is a mix between the ultra tightness of the bass and the lack of thickness of the mids...at this stage I am considering letting them go.

 

@james444 and @Mimouille

Have you heard Noble Katana? Which one is more neutral between Katana and PP8?

 

I haven't heard the Katana. A guy on Facebook compared.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1048917465129014?view=permalink&id=1395912937096130

 

Possible to quote the reply? Can't view, getting errors.

 

I would need to ask him authorization. Easiest is to ask to be member of headpie on facebook, and you can see it. You can leave the group just after if you don't like to.

 

Well you kind of gave the explanation yourself, in your replies here and over at head-fi. A warmer / darker phone will gloss over treble deficiencies to some extent, so some aggressively mixed albums will become easier to tolerate. For example, the James Blake album you mentioned has upper mids and treble extremely forward in the mix, probably in order to convey intensity / immediacy.

Ultimately, I think everyone has to decide for themselves whether they want a phone that "tells it like it is" or one that's "easier on the ears" with regards to the upper half of the frequency range. And last not least, have you tried listening to the darkly mixed tracks I posted, and did they sound good to you with warmer / darker IEMs? Does the latest Kate Bush live album sound good to you with warmer / darker IEMs? To me, darkly mixed tracks easily tend to become muddy / murky with phones that are on the warmer side of neutral.

Haven't heard the Katana, I'm afraid. However, just as a side note, the problem I see with two phones that are both (presumably) close to neutral, is that individual HRTFs of listeners may well differ more significantly than the sound signatures of the phones in question.

Check out my post here on measurements that show that variance of sound arriving at our ear drums can reach up to several decibels between different listeners. So it's entirely possible that out of two "close to neutral" phones, one may sound more neutral to listener A and the other may sound more neutral to listener B. In other words, let's keep in mind that, contrary to popular belief, "neutral" is not a sharply defined target.

 

Will do, thanks! Main issue was that I can't even see what group to request permission for, since all Facebook returns is a generic error message.

 

Thanks James. I think the main issue is that I have been lacking sleep due to new family member and thus become more sensitive to aggressiveness in my iems. This is why I will not sell them and give them today. Listened today and they sounded lovely. I will often use the bass switch on the make they sound a bit more toe tapping though.

Now I am really interested in the Jomo Samba which is supposedly similar with more subbass and more extended treble.

 

James, and others, I am looking at DD these days. I have the AA900 coming in, hope it to be the "perfect" hybrid...we'll see. Otherwise I am looking at Vega, Dream (not out yet) JVC FW01 and the latest Flat-4, the Keyaki. I know James you said the Vega is not in your opinion a high performer for the price, and since the Dream is not out, have you had (you or Shane or someone else) the opportunity to compare the JVC with some Ocharakus? A good friend told me the JVC were nice but lacking air and sparkle in the treble.

 

Dream... Quite expensive. Heard the other ditas, was less than impressed. I was very disappointed with them.

 

It's hard to find really good DD IEMs these days, all the more because in my experience, a higher price doesn't in the least guarantee better performance. My personal situation, as a fan of quality DD sound, is such that I have the funds and would be willing to shell out for a real TOTL DD IEM, but can't find anything I'd consider worth buying. I know the Vega has a lot of fans, particularly over at Head-Fi, but tbh for that kind of money, I'd expect something less colored and free of treble issues.

The Ocharakus I owned some time ago (SUI) didn't convince me either, sharp treble and funky tonality overall, so naturally I'm rather skeptical towards the newer models. Same goes for the Ditas, several trusted ears told me they've been less than impressed with the older models, so on what basis would I get my hopes up for the Dream?

Granted, the FW01 are not among the most sparkly IEMs out there... probably because people like you have complained about fatiguing treble on the older Woodies, so JVC went for a more downsloping tuning this time. Pick your poison. Personally, I concur with your friend and would indeed prefer a tad more treble sparkle, but at least these are really solid DD IEMs, with great timbre and no major tonal issues in my book.

Speaking of which, another pair of recommendable DD IEMs without major issues I heard lately are the Porsche Design Motion One (made by KEF). These are well-balanced and nicely refined, with a bit more treble sparkle than the FW01. They come with both detachable cables and wireless bluetooth neckband, which makes them pretty versatile and almost a budget deal imo, at $250.

 

Never liked any of the Dita's... Didn't agree with the voicing.

@james444 what about the AK T8iE? I saw quite some hype about it, although haven't heard it myself.

 

@james444 thanks I might check some of these out. The Kef are actually closer to 350$ in China.

The latest Ocharaku have supposedly much improved upon the first, especially on treble...but the general tonality will be close I guess. I did like the Kaede when I had them, but did not like the lack of isolation at that time.

On the Dita, those that were impressed by the Dream liked the earlier models as well so....

@Grahad2 I tried the first T8ie and while they sound nice, I was left unimpressed for the price. Plus the shallow fit is finicky.

I own and appreciate the KSE1500 a lot but it needs the coupled amp....

 

Well I guess that comes with the iriver territory. Possibly a better deal used.

 

From what I've heard the Vega driver really is impressive technically so hopefully it can be tuned up to be ToL.

Maybe we can hope for an Andromeda to the Vega's Jupiter?

 

Will you be testing the Jomo Samba soon? I heard that they are selling universal version of the Samba, too. I listened to the PP8 once and while I didn´t find them to be fatiguing, I also thought that a bit more sub-bass rumble would be nice. Then I stumbled across flickenick´s Samba review over at THL and instantly thought that this could be the one IEM to look out for. So please keep us updated if you get the Samba. Would be nice to hear what you think about them!

 

The mostly flat tuned flagship dynamic driver Rhapsodio Galaxy v2 may be coming around in a few weeks.

 

Any recent thoughts on the Cardas A8? I can't find much outside Head-Fi aside from general positive impressions with no details, including here.

 

Haven't heard them, but the AK T8iE MKII are among the IEMs I'd like to hear at some point. Going by the measurements I've seen, they're less warm and more balanced than the first version.

Plus, Beyerdynamic are about to release their own version of the AK T8iE, named Xelento. And those might be voiced differently from the AKs.

Exactly my thoughts as well. I would have wished for the bass switch to boost mainly sub-bass, instead of the entire range below 200Hz.