The HY3 is a three-way, three-driver hybrid custom in-ear monitor from Sweden-based Cosmic Ears. It utilizes a dynamic driver for the bass and twin balanced armature drivers for the midrange and treble, which used to be a very rare configuration, although hybrids have increased in popularity over the past year. The bass unit looks to be around 8mm in diameter and has its own sound bore. The two BA drivers are integrated into a single unit and share a second bore. There is a integrated crossover in the BA unit for the mid and treble drivers, but there is no crossover separating the dynamic bass driver from the rest. Instead, the HY3 relies on the mechanical properties of the drivers to naturally limit their frequency response. As we will see later, this has a huge affect on the sound signature.
 
Cosmic Ears is a small and relatively new CIEM company with some of the lowest prices on the market. They offer a diverse range of models to choose from—from the budget BA1, with a single BA driver, to the reference-quality BA4, a four-driver monitor that comes in both a neutral R version and an F version with slightly more bass—all at significantly lower price points than similar models from competing manufacturers. Five- and six-driver flagships are also in the works and should be released within the next year.
 
Their top notch customer service is often raved about here on Head-Fi, and Phil, the owner, tries his best to be friendly, flexible, and accommodating to each customer’s needs. In fact, they recently stopped taking new orders temporarily in order to avoid being overwhelmed. This is a wise and noble move, seeing that other low-cost CIEM companies, such as Kozee and LiveWires, failed due to high volumes negatively impacting their customer service.
 
Packaging, accessories, build quality and comfort
 

 
Packaging is nothing special, just a couple layers of protective envelopes, which unsurprising for a company trying to keep costs down so that they can pass the savings onto the customer. The monitors, the cable, a 3.5mm to 1/4” adaptor, a cleaning tool, and two microfiber drawstring pouches are protected by a nice zippered clamshell case. The microfiber pouches also double as cleaning cloths for the shells. There have been at least four different variations of the case, of which I have three; the latest edition comes in a few different colours. All the accessories are of good quality, with the exception of the plug adaptor, which is slightly crooked and miscoloured despite what appears to be gold plating, but this is not a deal breaker at all, considering that most of us have a few extras lying around.
 

 
Overall build quality is excellent with no bubbles and very few visible imperfections in the hard acrylic shells, which are very smoothly polished for the most part. I settled for plain “Smoke” shells, which are a translucent grey in colour, but a variety of customization options are available, including different coloured shells, recessed cable sockets, and custom faceplates. The dynamic bass driver for the right channel exhibits a moderate amount of driver flex if you wiggle the monitors once you already have a good seal, but there is no driver flex while inserting or removing the shells from your ears normally.
 

 
The black cable is slightly on the thin side but very soft, flexible, and seems to be of high quality, with no memory effect whatsoever and is fairly resistant to tangles. There are almost no microphonics to speak of. The angled Westone-style connectors also look quite beefy, and the other end of the cable is terminated with standard molded L-shaped plug. It’s a three-wire braid from the plug to the Y-split, and a two-wire braid up to the connectors. I would’ve preferred memory tubing instead of conventional memory wire as the former is easier to work with. Cosmic Ears is working on designing some alternate cable designs, including a quad-braid cable, a clear anti-oxidizing cable, and a cable with microphone and remote buttons for smartphone functionality. I look forward to trying these once they become available.
 
As is the case with all custom IEMs, fit and comfort are entirely dependent on the quality and accuracy of your impressions, so I won’t say much about it. They should be very comfortable if your impressions were accurate, but they can also be extremely uncomfortable if your impressions weren’t made properly, so fit and comfort are usually not a reflection of the workmanship of the CIEM maker. I will just say that mine were comfortable but initially needed a couple of minor adjustments in order to get a good seal. With a proper fit, the seal should not break when you move your jaw normally, such as speaking or singing (unless you’re a Marc Anthony wannabe and make dramatic grimaces when you sing, but that’s a different story). CE has been very accommodating and made the process quick and painless, completing the refit within one day and covering shipping charges from Sweden back to Canada both times.
 
Overall sound summary
 
Listening was done using aYulong D100 MKII DAC, which has an excellent amp section, and straight out of an iPhone 4 with no external DAC or amp. The HY3 are highly sensitive; in fact, they are one of the most sensitive IEMs I’ve ever used. They are quite loud at less than 50% volume on the iPhone 4 whereas most IEMs need at least 75% volume to reach the same loudness.
 

 
The overall sound signature is warm and thick, with forward bass and even more forward lower mids. Without EQ, upper mids and treble are recessed, rendering the overall sound signature quite dark if you’re used to neutrality. It’s as if someone took a neutral earphone and applied a treble reducer EQ—the opposite of the overly bright JVC FX40 and FX31. Applying a simple treble booster EQ somewhat reverses this effect, but the mids are still not a clear as they should be.
 
This may be due to the lack of crossover to limit the frequency range of the dynamic driver. The bass driver produces frequencies well into the lower mids, which creates significant overlap with the lower mids produced by the BA unit. As a result, the lower mids are overly thick and overwhelm the rest of the frequency range. Upper mids and highs are virtually non-existent behind the booming of the lower mids.
 
Bass
 
Bass is mildly boosted by a few dB over the lower mids but far from overwhelming. Quantity is somewhere in between the VSonic GR07 and the GR07 BE. The dynamic driver gives the bass a much greater sense of power, authority, and extension than purely balanced armature monitors are usually capable of delivering, with sub-bass extending with authority below 30 Hz and a soft rumble down to the very lowest audible frequencies. The trade-off is that the HY3’s bass lacks speed, tightness, and punch compared to BAs and some higher end dynamics. The bass is slightly soft, but still has a decent amount of texture.
 
Midrange
 
The midrange of the HY3 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the mids are lush, warm, fluid, and engaging. Voices and acoustic instruments have a romantic and euphonic character to them while simultaneously having the speed, resolution, and detail that usually characterizes balanced armatures. On the other hand, due to the drivers overlapping in the lower mids, the upper mids and treble have much less presence than the lower mids, resulting in a dark and muffled stock sound signature. Everything above 1 kHz is severely recessed compared to everything below.
 
Fortunately, despite the strong warm tilt, the frequency response of the HY3’s midrange is very smooth with no obvious dips or peaks, so the HY3 responds very well to EQ. Even a simple Treble Booster preset will do the trick. With this EQ in place, the mids sound very close to neutral without losing their fluid, euphonic quality. Unfortunately, clarity and resolution in the lower mids suffer a bit due to the slower dynamic driver.
 
Treble
 
The HY3’s treble, along with the upper mids, is quite weak due to the overpowering lower mids. It’s not that the treble is at all bad; in fact, it’s quite good—smooth and inoffensive but well-extended and detailed, with a little bit of sparkle. It’s just buried in gobs of lower mids produced by the bass driver. The shelved frequency response above 1 kHz makes everything sound veiled and muffled, without much clarity and detail. The soundstage is similarly blurred, with the separation between instruments somewhat fuzzy.
 
The good news is that the HY3’s treble, like the midrange, is very smooth with no dips or peaks, and therefore responds very well to EQ, and a simple treble boost will really open up the soundstage and bring out the micro details in the treble. Clarity and instrumental separation improve dramatically. Again, the simple Treble Booster preset on an iPod will do the trick.
 
Soundstage and presentation
 
Without EQ the dark sound signature muffles the details, but with the upper mids and treble boosted, the level of detail is quite astounding. You can hear the singers' every breath and lip smack, and during solo passages you can even hear their tongues clicking against their teeth as they pronounce words. Soundstage is nice and full but not very large. Width is about average while depth and height are somewhat above average. Although instruments are not spread out very far, imaging and soundstage layering are superb; there is a very accurate sense of space for each instrument, and a very small step behind the pinpoint accuracy of a full-sized headphone like the Q701. Imaging and instrumental separation are the areas that benefit most from a good source amplification. Although they are highly sensitive and very easy to drive to decent volumes, the space between instruments is somewhat fuzzy out of the iPhone’s headphone jack but much better defined out of the D100.
 
Conclusion
 
Like Cosmic Ears’ entire lineup of custom in-ear monitors, the HY3 is a tremendous value. If I could choose again, however, I would probably have ordered a pure BA-based set instead, as the sound signature of the HY3 is too forward in the lower mids for my tastes. However, by increasing the treble, it turns into quite a different beast altogether.
 
Regardless, in addition to the great prices and a wide selection of models to choose from, the impeccable customer service from Phil makes Cosmic Ears easy to recommend.

The SRH440 was the first $100+ full-sized headphone that I ever owned, back before I joined Head-Fi. I was looking for an affordable, closed monitoring headphone for home studio use, and I found the SRH440 and SRH840, which had just recently come out, to be more engaging/exciting sounding compared to the studio standard, the Sony MDR-7506, while still maintaining relative neutrality. Another studio staple, the once Head-Fi favourite Audio-Technica M50, sounded slightly better but cost over 50% more. The SRH840, which sounded even better, cost twice as much, so I ended up buying the SRH440.
 
Build quality and comfort
 
Build quality feels decent in the hand, if a bit hollow and plasticky. The coiled cable is thick, rubbery, and detachable. The little wires leading from the cups to the headband, while exposed, are reasonably thick compared to the dismally thin ones on the basshead favourite M-Audio Q40, for example, and should hold up fine with many years normal use. The pleather underside of the headband, however, tends to crack and peel after a while.
 
Once on the head, the creaky structure becomes obvious. The hinges and swivel mechanisms are not smooth at all, and the slightest head movement will cause loud creaks, which is annoying when you’re trying to listen to the music. The ear pads are similarly noisy when rubbing against your jaw, skull, or worse, glasses.
 
The SRH440 is my go-to benchmark for “average” comfort. Headphones that are less comfortable than the SRH440 (e.g., M-Audio Q40, AKG K81DJ, Sennheiser HD25) are below average in comfort; headphones that are more comfortable than the SRH440 (e.g., Denon D600, Sony MDR-1R, Sennheiser HD600) are above average in comfort. What does this mean? Weight is slightly heavy but not too heavy; pads are reasonably thick but not nearly as soft as the SRH840 pads; the driver grills touch your ears but not in a very bothersome way. Notwithstanding the creaking and your ears getting sweaty inside the pads, they are perfectly tolerable for short listening sessions.
 
Bass
 
Bass is very punchy and visceral despite being modest in quantity. In fact, the SRH440 have the sharpest bass impact of any headphone I’ve tried due to its speed. There is a mild mid-bass hump but the bass remains tight, controlled, and textured at all times. However, the low end gradually rolls off below 90Hz. That’s not to say that these headphones can’t produce the lowest sub-bass, which they can. It’s just quieter than the rest of the frequency spectrum and a bit of EQ can improve bass extension without distortion or compromising bass control.
 
Mids
 
Clarity is exceptional on these headphones. No matter what music you play or how much you mess with extreme EQ settings, nothing will make them sound muddy or veiled. Timbre is not always ultra-realistic like on an HD600, but everything sounds nice and crisp, and for the price it’s hard to fault. Acoustic guitars in particular are just magical on these headphones due to the slightly forward upper mids. There’s a slight tilt towards the upper mids but the overall midrange presentation is smooth with no obvious peaks or dips. Of particular importance is the fact that I hear no shoutiness at 2 kHz that ruins vocals on many headphones in this price range.
 
Treble
 
There’s a large mid-treble peak that’s quite obvious without any burn-in. This initially gave instruments a “shimmery” quality that was quite engaging if not technically accurate. It worked quite well for adding “air” around a few specific instruments, but once the mix got busy all that “shimmery air” became crowded together and turned “cloudy” instead.
 
In any case, after a hundred hours or so, that peak became less noticeable and the upper treble opened up. Now the treble is just wonderfully energetic and extended. It’s still slightly emphasized, giving the overall sound signature a slight tendency towards brightness, and given the quantity there is a bit of grain, but it’s also never harsh or sibilant.
 
Soundstage and presentation
 
The SRH440 remains impressively detailed across the whole spectrum, thanks to the treble extension, midrange clarity, and bass speed. Presentation is pretty forward and in-your-face so soundstage is about average for a closed headphone in this price range; decent, but nothing to write home about. Imaging is again quite decent for the price range. You can pick out individual instruments, but there isn’t a whole lot of space between them. Coming from a higher end, open-back headphone like the HD600, the presentation of the SRH440 sounds downright claustrophobic, but still 3D and immersive. It's almost like you're on stage, with the entire band is playing in a semi circle all around you, but each band member is only a couple feet away.
 
Conclusion
 
The Shure SRH440 is one of the best sounding neutral headphones at around $100 and a great buy despite some build quality and comfort issues, most notably the tendency towards creakiness. It’s a better value than the slightly better sounding Audio-Technica M50, as the latter has gone up significantly price as a result of its popularity, and as a bonus the Shure doesn’t have the midrange shout at 2 kHz that the M50 does. Admittedly I haven’t heard the supposedly excellent alternatives from Superlux and Fischer, but of the $100 headphones I’ve heard, only the Sony V6/7506 come close. Recommended.

I've had these for a while but I figured it's time to write a mini review. These are my primary on-the-go pair right now as I wait for my CIEMs to be made.

Unlike many people I find the fit very good. These are the first IEMs I've owned with memory wire, so for the first few days I had trouble figuring out which side was left and which was right without looking at the (barely visible) markings on the housing. Once I got used to it they were very easy to put it. I use three fingers - I hold the housing with my thumb and index finger, and use my middle finger to push the memory wire over my ear. Push inwards, twist backwards, and it's in. Very little microphonics, and won't fall out during any type of physical activity unlike most universal IEMs.

Bass is definitely emphasized in a typical consumer-oriented fashion but not overwhelming and doesn't intrude too much into the mids. Mid-bass is balanced out with sub-bass which is nice. Too many consumer-oriented headphones end up a boomy, muddy, mid-bassy mess with no real extension into the sub-bass (cough*Beats*cough). These extend very well and still strong past 25Hz. It's not heavily textured like higher-end sets but still very musical - definitely not one-note bass.

Mids are clear and surprisingly linear for a budget set. Resolution and clarity aren't on par with my $100+ headphones or even the JVC FX31, but nothing to be ashamed of, especially at what these cost. Mids are on the lush, warm side of things but not overly thick.

My biggest problem with the M6 is a huge spike centred at 6k that makes the treble painfully harsh and bright. Mind you, this is with the tips I use, and with my ears. Everyone's ears hear differently so you may or may not have this problem. Using a free-form equalizer I was able to fix this, and otherwise the treble is very good. It doesn't have much sparkle but is extended and smooth.

Edit for clarification: in order to EQ out the 6k spike you will need a free-form equalizer such as the iOS "EQu" app. A narrow 4-6dB drop centred at 6k (back to neutral at 4k and 8k) will do the trick. A standard 10-band equalizer will likely not work as they typically only have bands at 4k and 8k, which would drop the whole 2k-16k range, resulting in a very dark sound with no treble. With the EQ fix, these earphones sound very decent against other budget-fi sets.