After 60 exact days, this morning I received a package. It was from IpodPJ, and obviously contained the Triple Fi I bought on the 10th of October.
After such a painful wait, I finally have these long anticipated IEMs in my hands.
I have listened to them for about 8 hours now, and I'm ready to give my impressions.
About me
I'm a "portable audiophile". I've never heard a a Sennheiser Orpheus (there aren't in Italy), I've built an awesome balanced HD600 setup only to realize I can't afford to buy a balanced DAC and keep it, I've never heard Stax or others of the most awesome brands.
What I have experience are all the best IEMs now available, which I have owned, enjoyed and reviewed. I also know what sounds "real" and, even if it could be funny to say, I live in the world and know how voices sound (this will say something to people who think the Triple fi have sucked out vocals, I hope
), as well as noises and more pleasant sounds.
I've also compared some of the best mp3 players around, and put a lot of passion for it. I'm a portable guy.
I'm comparing the Triple.fi to the IEMs I have had for most time (Ety ER4P, Shure E500, modded Altec Lansing iM716).
I'll add a second part about the Apuresound recabled Etymotic ER4S when I receive them. This will be the Clash of Titans.
The Triple.fi
This review has been thought using the Shure black foam tips. in other words, the Triple Fi are being enjoyed (also right now) with a perfect seal.
At first I tried the silicon tips that came with the Triples. I didn't like normal tips, I was losing seal on my right ear every time. I switched to biflanges, which were better, but again, seal was being lost too often. Then I modded a pair of shure black foamies (cut them from their tube), and superglued them to the tubes of a pair of UE foam tips: perfect seal!
These are my sonic impressions (out of my JVC, a very good player, I think its nice built in amp was previously a part of JVC's MiniDisc line). Bass is lovely. Not "horizontal" (always present, like the shure e500 or the denon ah-c700), but "vertical", impactful. Drums are very pleasant to hear.
While Etys present bass in a way you hear it when it's there, the Triple Fi make you FEEL the bass. It's thunderous when it's there: deep, strong, but still very polite, clean. Never out of place.
Looking at Headroom's frequency graphs, it's easy to tell the Etys are deeper. What I can say is it may be true, but their deep bass is almost inaudible, as well as the rest of the bass.
Bass on the triple fi is deeper than what I used to obtain from equalized Etys and equalized Altec Lansing.
The midrange is not sucked out like some people said.
Maybe it's because I have the seal, but I don't think vocals sound sucked out at all. They are flat, detailed, not forward, not recessed.
Not insanely forward like the d-jays, not sweetly forward as the modded iM716, not as full sounding as the denon c700, not as poor/recessed as Atrios. More ety like. Unlike Etys, tho, midrange isn't the main character here: that role belongs to the bass and the highs.
Highs are more pleasant than using the Etys, never sibilant, and more forward than what I thought the Altec iM716 gave.
My impression is the midrange is the body of the song, it's honest, fast and detailed. It produces better vocals than the Shure E500 (where they sound syntetic, artificial... at the time I had them I used to say "vocals on the E500 sound like they are coming out of a subwoofer"). From this midrange, bass and treble raise and sound sweet, the former powerful and analogue/real, the latter just magical.
Soundstage is wide, probably wider than ER4P/E500 out of my JVC player. Its limit is the space of three heads, if it makes sense.
Instrument placement (one of Etys strenghts, on of Atrios main weak points) is top notch and made me remember why people talk about "vertical soundstage" with the Triples. Soundstage has also some depth, but nothing insane. All the "head-space" is filled.
Bass and soundstage together give a real feeling of a full size headphone. What I mean is the bass sounds like it's coming from something big. I had this feeling only when I listened to my Koss A250, and it was what I loved most of those cans. Never experienced the same with any IEM.
This is the best description I can give of the Triple fi. For now.
They don't sound anemic at all, and are full of energy. Bass and treble energy. Since it was one of my main concerns when I decided to buy the Truples, I'll repeat it: vocals don't sound recessed. They are very present and detailed, and the singer isn't part of the background. He's The Singer, he's one of the most important "instruments" in the song. Tim Buckley's "Lorca" and "Starsailor" are simply awesome, his voice reaches peaks of sweetness and crazyness, he's abilty to change and distort it followed by the Triple fi.
The Triples are very fun... meaning not a funny freqency response, which is actually very balanced. Enjoyable and not analytical.
Drawbacks? Whispers are not as easily audible as with the Etys. The ER4S are probably faster, more detailed, where the Triples are much more musical.
Classical (Shostakovich, the 15th Symphony) with the Triple Fi is a religious experience, as well as Robert Wyatt's "End of an ear" and "Rock bottom". These are some of my favourite albums.
All this means the Triple.fi are the best IEM I've tried so far.
Upgrade 12-12-2007: Recabled ER4S, first impressions (unamped)
Ok guys, I have the ER4S Apuresound in my hands. Another headfier member (a friend), nc8000, has been so kind to send his pair to me.
They are a beautiful thing to see. I really love the looks of this braided cable. They feel hand-crafted (well, they are). I'm listening to the them now.
One thing you have to keep in mind is I'm playing them unamped. The volume is set at 23/30, the same I used to enjoy my Altec Lansing at.
My very first impressions are sound more digital compared to the Triple fi (this is what I find when going straightly from the triple fi to the Etys).
Another think I find, is that they don't sound more detailed than the Triple fi, and whispers and lip-touches are not so apparent as they were with normal ER4S. This can be a good or bad thing, but it's one of the distinctive characteristic of the ER4S, which is lost (ok, sometimes I used to find disgusting to hear some singers' furred tongue with the stock ER4S). Highs are drier than highs on the Triple fi. The overall feeling is harsh when AB-ing them.
Again, please keep in mind that I'm using them unamped: as much as I find my JVC player good, it might not have enough power.
When I say digital, I mean they don't sound as natural as normal sound should be. I shall receive my iBasso T2 in a matter of days, so we'll see how better things become.
What I can say for now is the Apuresound ER4S don't seem to have "ER4S' detail with a natural tonal balance", as I was expecting. They still sound metallic, thin. I have been told they sound great with the Lisa III and bass knob turned 25%. The bass is better than ER4P, it hits harder, still detailed. I have some compaints about vocals, which sound digital, as said. When I say "digital" I think to a sound signature that comes out of a cheap speaker.
Sorry, I might be too harsh (sorry Jan), but I was really expecting something different. I'll have my ears get more used to this sound, then get back to you folks.
Sibilance compared to the ER4P? From memory, I don't find many changes: the ER4P lost their sibilance as soon as I put the Shure black foam tips on them.
Best trait: soundstage is out of the ears, especially vocals. This is the real great thing of these IEMs. Usually the ER4S sounded in my head when unamped. Soundstage is so awesome I might need a pair of these APS Etys just for it.
For now, what I think of the Recabled ER4S is similar to what I used to think about the normal Etys: they are like an empy box, detailed, extend very well. When this box is filled (ie their sound signature is coloured with a GREAT amp), they will sound awesome.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (04/04/2008):
Instead of people reading the huge thread, I'll try to sum things here.
Apart from the in-ear fit (which I solved with Shure black foam tips), in December I had another problem that made me hate the Triples. The cable was so stiff that used always to get in the way, press against my face, move the earpieces in my ears whenever I was turning my head and shoulders, and so on. I'm very sensitive to comfort, and this cable and its nasty structure completely spoiled my listening. I tried a number of things to make the cable user friendly, but it was impossible.
All this discomfort made me sell the Triple fi in a couple of weeks. I could have ordered a Westone cable and try to fit the Triple.fi (people like Uncle Wilson at Jaben can file the pins to adapt the removable cable to that of the Triple.fi), but couldn't afford to keep them in a drawer for a 1-2 months (this is the time needed for Italian Customs to release an object from outside Europe... I think it depended on that period being near Christmas).
I tried different alternatives. Yesterday, 04-03-2008, I got the Triple.fi again from a friend, as trade (in exchange for my ATH-ESW9, good hotel room portable cans-perfect for his needs-, not enough isolating for the road or train as requested by myself). The Triple.fi came with a Westone ES cable and Comply T400 tips. The Westone cable, as noted elsewhere (with my previous Super.fi 5 Pro), is a lot more flexible and thin. Extremely comfortable, it feels like it disappears after being worn.
Comply tips are much better than Shure black olive foamies. While Olives weren't made for the Triple fi, and had to be adapted, feeling huge in the ear, Comply are perfect and make the Triples feel small and comfortable. It's a soft feeling: the Triple fi seem to lay at the entrance of the ear (this can be felt when pulling them off). Anyway, these two mods improve comfort extremely and make Triple.fi on top for convenience, as well as sound.
Additional information is that Apuresound will come out with his own recable for UE IEMs, hopefully improving the SQ. We'll see when it comes out.
Trivia:
-Westone ES (Elite Series) cables and Ultimate Ears Custom cables are exactly the same. This can be confirmed by FeedMeTrance, who owned both. They both need to be trimmed in order to fit the Triple.fi earpieces.
-The closest full size headphones to Triple fi in sound are Sennheiser HD650. The HD650 obviously have bigger soundstage, while the Triple fi have slightly more sparkle in treble (and possibly less midbass). Tonal balance is similar: HD650 are more relaxing, Triple.fi more exciting. I've noticed that the Triples handle sibilance better, when it's present in the recording.
Tony