Massdrop x nuforce EDC3

Hey Jexby, we have been testing some samples... The Noble X lightning cable does work. We will eventually have some standalone cable options available. Working on it, if a little slowly.

 

Anyone know how these compare to other NuForce IEMs (HEM4/6/8, Primo 8)?

 

Thanks. I had the Primo 8 for a short time and is so far the only audio product I've returned because I disliked it so much. I have the HEM4s which I like for the price i got them.

Main reason I ask is that I see drops for all these NuForce IEMs all the time and wanted to see where things stand.

 

How does it fare with strings/violins etc? Does the EDC3 still sound veiled at all?

 

Interesting adapter for those of you who have a nice MMCX cable and want to use it with the EDC3 or any other 0.78mm pin IEM. http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=5779 Might not help with the looseness of the socket, though. I might get an EDC3 just so I can learn to make good 2 pin cables.

 

Just received an email stating the Massdrop x Nu-Force EDC3 In-Ear Monitors have arrived at the warehouse and Massdrop is planning on sending them out a bit early. They estimate the IEMs will ship by the end of next week - April 20. That's about 6 days early, IIRC.

[EDIT] Please keep in mind I got in on the first drop. This may not apply to those joining a later drop.

[EDIT #2] My order shipped 4/13. Nice job, Massdrop!

[EDIT #3] Order arrived 4/19. I like them a lot better than the EDC (which will remain my "go to the gym" pair).

 

That's great, but I think it only applies to those who ordered between February 15 and February 27

 

I was a fan of the EDCs, warts and all, but the EDC3s are just fantastic. They are super easy to drive too, driving the EDCs was like trying to roll a sleeping grizzly bear over sometimes. I'm running mine from the Fulla 2 and I certainly wouldn't call them rolled off (maybe the Fulla 2 is giving them a bit more top end energy). In any event, if the treble region was any more energetic I would sell them. The top end is near perfect for me.

I have next to no experience with IEMs, I have been a full size headphone guy and a speaker guy. I went from the Etymotic MC3 (whic h I hated but tolerated) to the Massdrop EDC now to the EDC3 before then it was all earbuds.

 

Tried the search function but couldn´t find any hit hence I hope you do not mind me asking this (in case this has already asked somewhere else):

which ear tips will fit on the EDC3?

Background of my question is that I received my pair of EDC3s yesterday and while trying to check the foam ear tips a piece of the "default" silicone ear tip broke when I tried to pull it off the phone.

Thanks in advance.

 

For Foamies:


For silicone replacements...CP800 is the SpinFit model that I am aware of.
I noticed that twisting as you pull the silicone tips off helps.
Others have had this issue and we looked at this but wanted to make sure the tips don't come off in your ear when you take them out.

 

Never fun when that happens.

The pliers on my Gerber multitool have a small enough tip that I can pull them back out while I'm on the go and generate large numbers of confused stares from bystanders.

 

^Hahaha, I can imagine!

 

For me at least, the very first time I popped in the EDC3, I knew this was going to be something I definitely would use every day. I don't mean to exaggerate, but I do have quite a long public transit commute every day and I generally listen to music during said commute.

The original EDC I did like for certain reasons. First of all, the ergonomics of NuForce IEMs is phenomenal. I have easily fallen asleep with them in, worn them for several hours at a time with no physical ear soreness. I cannot say the same for the Pinnacle PX, the CA orion, any of the Klipsch X series line, or the Beyerdynamic idx IEMs. Ergonomics aside, the EDC had very good soundstage and sense of head room for the price. I got the impression of a slight V-shape with the EDC, but it was mild enough that it didn't bother me that much.

This new EDC3 is quite different. To my ears, this EDC3 has a much more even overall tonality. Vocal intimacy is much greater compared to the EDC, where vocals can sound a bit distant. That did create the overall impression of soundstage and layers in the EDC and the EDC3 sounds much flatter in comparison as shotgunshane mentioned. However, certain sounds like kick drums or cymbals do on their own sound "voluminous". What I mean by that for kick drums is that they sound quite organic like a real instrument with a hollow interior as opposed to a flat or simply boosted presence. You don't get a sense of instruments distributed in a room, but you do get a sense of a little bit of air around the instruments themselves despite the fact that they are compressed into a flat stage.

I personally find these good for vocals, and I primarily listen to soul music using these. They are very very versatile, though, and rap, electronic, and classical all sound great on these. These have quickly become my commuting IEM, and I use them with my quad dac LG G6. The noise isolation and leakage are good enough that I don't seem to run into any problems in day to day use.

I also have the HEM6 for comparison as well. My primary gripe with the HEM6 is that it had a much more intense V shape than even the EDC and yet they seemed paradoxically veiled sounding. There was a distinct lack of air despite the fact that the treble was quite sharp on those. This left violins and several instruments that benefit from a sense of air kind of unnatural sounding on the HEM6. In addition, the bass in general but especially the midbass was boosted on those beyond any reasonable measure of neutrality.

I don't know how similar the manufacturing costs are or how the design process was navigated, but I will say that I'm encouraged by how refined the EDC3 sounds in relation to the HEM6.

 

My short reactions after using the EDC3 for a few days on various sources including laptop, OnePlus 3T smartphone with and without ES100.

1) Extremely comfortable and light. I really can't feel them in my ears.
2) Great choice in cable material in that they don't tangle. Cable is a bit long though imo.
3) Sound characteristics are pretty "unoffending". I don't think they are particularly standout and they work with all genres of music. They do seem somewhat flat at times and the soundstage is kind of lacking. Tame your expectations on the EDC3 being mindblowingly good in any particular department. It's solid enough across the board is my opinion on it right now. The ergonomics and comfort are really the highlight of the product imo.

 

Just got the EDC3 a few days ago. Comparing this to the ER4XR which is what I've been using for the past year.

Really enjoying their comfort, coming from the ER4XR, and the isolation is OK for regular commute use (won't save you from a baby crying next to you or the low roar of a plane, that's reserved for ER4).

The fit is much better for me because my left ear canal is shaped somewhat more narrow and twisted than my right, so I have to keep fiddling with the ER4 fit to make sure the volume and fit matches. Moreover, the EDC3 seals up to just after the first bend of your ear, meaning you won't feel the strange scratchy feeling inside your ear when you move your jaw (to drink, eat, whatever else).

Sound wise, I think it's plain in terms of presentation, but the plainness hides that it's very capable. Like what everyone has mentioned, there's nothing wrong or outstanding about the sound, which I think is absolutely fine, and it's better than getting something glaringly wrong.

Compared to the ER4, It's a bit more polite, and slightly soft in the sense that the transients and leading edges of notes isn't as pronounced as the ER4. The treble response is slightly lower in amplitude, and there is slight roll off, so you do lose some sparkle. But that's about it in terms of what's lacking to the ER4.

The EDC3 on overall sounds cleaner than the ER4. Texture, timbre, and cleanliness of everything below low treble is better than the ER4. The ER4 (probably only the XR version) sounds slow and veiled in the bass to low mids, and there is a slight bass to mid bleed. The EDC3 doesn't seem to have this problem, and the bass hits hard enough when it needs to, with far better balance and finesse.

In terms of resolution, I find that it's still every bit as detailed as the ER4, and I feel like it's just a difference in presentation rather than capability of the driver. It's strange to say this, but everything is there, just less "sharpened" than the ER4. I'm not familiar with why this could be the case, probably something to do with impulse/phase - perhaps someone else more familiar can explain? (Phase issues with multi driver IEMs?)

I actually prefer the EDC3 to the ER4XR especially in regular pop, rock, jazz, metal recordings.
In fact, for most music recorded in the past few years, I find that the less pronounced DF tuning and slightly softer presentation allows me to enjoy the overall music better than being forced to confront it, especially with the increase in amount of stimuli in the mishmash that is modern pop.

Downside is that the sensitivity is too high. I'm at about 20% volume on my iPhone. It's almost unusable with my amp and computer at home. I might consider making or getting a volume attenuator, with the added advantage it increases the output impedance to about 3 ohms, which should mildly boost the treble based on the impedance graph by @purr1n https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/massdrop-x-nuforce-edc3.5780/

Still, I'm pretty surprised at what I got for 100 bucks. I think this handily beats anything I've gotten at this price range in the past (1More/Xiaomi multi driver crap, RE-400, Fiio EX1, GR07, Philips S2), and what was once considered flagship multi-driver IEM (UE TF10).

 

i heard the primo 8, those are excessively bright sounding iem's, i found them awful to be honest. no bass whatsoever, some sibilant highs, i genuinely cannot think of anyone enjoying those. the owner sold them in no time, too, and he's into balanced/bright sound.

i just heard the edc3 today. i have a bunch of hybrids and dynamics, and one thing in common in those: slow bass. even my akg n40's are lazy in that regard. now, these are lightning fast sounding iem's, even when connected directly to my phone (meizu pro 6). sound is pretty balanced, some people might miss some sub-bass, but i found bass satisfying for electronic music, too. they sound almost completely flat, with the slight bump around 2k that is noticeable on the frequency response curve, too. with that bump, female vocals sound great at least. a grown up sound from a cheap iem, quite a surprise. soundstage was meh, then again, the source was my phone with a meh soundstage by itself, so i wouldn't judge the edc3 in that regard. separation is fine, even with the phone. these are easy to drive, just as you'd expect iem's with similar sensitivity and impedance. the meizu drove them to deafening levels. comfort is excellent, very lightweight, nice fit with the factory tips. i'll still have to try them with one of my portable dac's, but i think i'm ordering them regardless. the sheer speed of those sold them in 10 seconds.

 

After a few weeks with these, here's the one warning I have to give: tolerances are not completely top-notch, which is kind of expected for a $100 pair of iems. I got a pair of EDC3 with really loose cables, that would fall off if you looked at them wrong. After contacting support, they sent me a replacement. The new pair has much tighter connections, almost to the point of making it impossible to insert the cables into the 2 pins. Both these pairs are different from the pair I got on the SBAF loaner, which had tight connectors that were still easy to insert cables into. I'm going to keep the tight pair and return the loose ones but if you have loose connectors, contact customer support immediately. The low-impedance nature of these IEMs means that loose connections could increase the impedance (not an engineer so not completely sure) and change the sound signature greatly.

Another tip: when removing the tip from the IEMs, pull out the tips at the inner core, not the outer wall/membrane part. Lots of people have reported ripping the membrane from the inner core and are blaming Nuforce but the way the IEM is designed, the nozzle isn't like a mario tube but is just a straight tube so there's only friction holding the core on, making it pretty easy to slide your nails under the inner core and push the thing out without having to pinch and rip anything, especially the section attaching the inner core to the membrane.