H20 Surge IEM Measurements and Review (Quick)

Well, probably more measurements than review. @rhythmdevils already covered this here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/40-dynamic-iem’s-that-sound-good-and-are-waterproof-to-12-feet-indefinitely.9569/

And I've finally gotten to this months after the fact. Thank you for your patience. The move from CA to TX was big and it took me months to move into a new place and get my measurement gear set up again. Anyway, not only are these IEMs neutralish, but also quite good sounding. Technically much better than their $40 price. The downsides are their rather non-impressive (but waterproof) construction and less than stellar channel matching. However from a clarity point of view, these are very good, better than some IEMs costing thousands and thousands of dollars.

The lower to middle midrange sounds flat to my ears. The lows do sound slightly elevated. Bass texture is surprisingly evident. There isn't much pinna gain built-in, which is fine by me. On the other hand, the 2-3kHz region isn't depressed either. There is a dip around 5kHz (subjective and objective) that takes the edge off of snare drums and bite out of trumpets. The lower and mid treble are about right, but high treble, last octave air is missing. I really cannot complain for $40. Besides many single driver DD IEMs, even some high-end ones, lack air as well.

H20 Surge
Frequency Response (CS/SBAF comp)

The measured peak near 8kHz is a measurement artifact from my coupler.

H20 Surge (BLU/RED) vs GAudio Nair* (GRY)
Frequency Response


*Gaudio Nair IEM: consensus view by the Masters of the IEM Universe as the most neutral IEM evar. Note that Sean Olive does not belong in this club because he is deaf and actually a malign influence to good sound. Think of him as audio Darkseid. Then again, it's also been said in some circles that @rhythmdevils is deaf because he is white and lives in the USA.

 

Obligatory photos:


This low cost IEM comes with a ton of different tips. I usually do not like foam tips, but I ended up with them for the best quality seal while without too bassy or dark of a sound. I'm sure anyone can find a tip that works best for them with the included package. The AZLA tips worked too, but Imma notta gonna recommend expensive tips for this bargain IEM.



It's getting late for me. I will follow up tomorrow with distortion measurements.

 

Distortion plots below. There a distortion spike around 900Hz which I do not think is a distortion artifact. Maybe a resonance in the housing. Otherwise distortion isn't great, but it's decent. We have a nice pleasant pattern with second order being higher than third order. The looks to be a DD. In general, the performance of the H20 Surge is pretty good at lower volumes. Second order distortion does fall apart when we crank it up. Third order distortion from the mids on up is low.

H20 Surge
Distortion vs Frequency per SPL

Note: 200Hz D3 spike looks to be a measurement artifact.

The most time consuming part was finding the right tips, and even then, it didn't take me that long. I knew the AZLAs would work right away. I just didn't think the included foam would work. Agreed that SBAF members should just pick them up to at least experience what a DD with non-F'd treble sounds like. (I don't think I've heard a DD with non-F'd treble of some kind yet at higher price points*). This could be too laid-back or not bright enough for a lot of folks though.

For comparison, Sony IER-M7 distortion (another good neutralish w/ low emphasis IEM) here:

Sony IER-M7
Distortion vs Frequency per SPL


I applaud Sony for trying to put their own spin on BA drivers to make them sound less BA, but more often than not, their experiments do not yield good results across the board.

 

H20 Surge
Impedance and electrical phase

 

Hmm, I don't know the exact size, but the Comply tips that came with Andromeda seem to be the same size and will fit. I used the largest size blue one (inside the bags of the photo above) with fairly shallow insertion. Deeper insertion was not possible for me given their design.