Futuresonics Atrio M5 - Page 34

Yes, I tried reversing them - and that does indeed give me a better fit. I wish the Shure Olives had the same length as the stock Atrio foamies... but probably the form factor of the Shure IEMs requires shorter tips.

Over-the-ear provides a better fit for me, removed microphonics issues, keeps a better seal, and angles the posts better in my ear canals. You just have to work out a routine for getting them inserted properly. Bend the memory wire around the back of your ear after you've gotten them inserted securely so that you know about the right angle for next time.

Man this is sounding vulgar. Heh.

I agree. My ideal tip would have the size and shape of the FS larges, but would be made from the Shure foam. On the other hand, if the Westone Complys I just ordered turn out to be a little more dense and durable that the FS foamies, my search might end with them.

The reversed Shures gave me a pretty easy and consistent seal, but the greater insertion depth did seem to bring certain frequencies (crash cymbals, etc.) too forward for me. No one else seems to have been bothered by this, so I wouldn't worry, but I do think that the overall balance is different from that of the large flanges. Correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I think that the guys at UE get around this problem by hand tuning/trimming the UE 10 pro canals for each ear impression sent to them.

Now I should mention that without other options, I would still be content with the tips I have right now, and I probably won’t spend too much more time my tip options. Over-analysis of tip swaps and such tends to lead to cases of post-purchase tweaking fever in forums like this. Just look at what has happened in the Grado and Sony ex91 threads. I wouldn’t be surprised to come back here in a few months to find pictures of Atrios with holes drilled into their chambers, socks duck taped around the sound tubes, and balanced cables stuffed into the memory wire.

I posted my initial impressions of the Atrio M5 here:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=248917

I seriously wonder if Future Sonics changed the M5 recently, because I find a HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bump in the 3600-4800Hz range which makes these sound god awful. If I EQ it down, it's fine........ but stock it's just painful.

I'm going to keep them running, just in the hopes that they change, but I'm extremely skeptical. Too bad too, because they have such a nice bass.

If anything, my Atrios seem to roll off some at that frequency and above. I've played the sax for 15 years, and lowering the 4k range only makes it sound like it's being played into a pillow. Raising the range about 3db actually makes things sound a little more natural to me, but going too high makes things seem like they're taking place in a tin can.

I tried lowering the 4k EQ on other types of music as well, and it never made things sound better to me. It certainly didn't alleviate any stridency. Maybe I'm acclimated to a hump in that frequency range or maybe you're acclimated to a dip and have a bad pair to boot. There could be a lot of factors contributing to these perceived differences. See if you could try another pair or some other tips.

I actually ordered them direct from Future Sonics for 200$. When I do a sweep with my M5's ( http://people.umass.edu/dvonmalu/sweep.mp3 ), it's sooo painful around 8-10seconds into it, which corresponds to to the 3600-4800Hz range.

I will continue playing them for a couple of days, and if they don't improve (which I seriously doubt), i'll contact future sonics. Thankfully, I have 30 days to return them if I ever wanted to.

Thanks mark. Yea, it sounds like ours are completely different, because I couldn't see how anyone could live with this. My only guess is that:
A) my pair is defective
B) Future sonics changed something recently....
or
C) perhaps there is a difference between the M5 that future sonic sells, and the M5 that the ebay person sells......... I have no idea.

I'll be getting my m5's soon. But here I am again with a question about daps, like I did before in this thread. That moment was me adviced to keep my D2 as source for the M5's, but now i have sold it anyway. So now I am torn apart about deciding whether which dap now.
In the end I think it will be best to buy a 5.5 Ipod (price, size, battery, durable). But it's known for having a poor headphone out, though some people would say it's just fine. So I would like to ask M5 users what I will be missing/losing when I use M5's out of Ipod headphone instead of zune, ZVM or kenwood etc. Will it be anything significant?

I'd like to understand what's the sound signature of the M5. Yes, I know that it has a lovely bass, but what else? What are the differences in tonal balance compared to the Shure E500?

I don't know if this info would help, but I also ordered my Atrios from FS, but back when they were $169. Even before complete break in, they sounded warm and slightly veiled like the HD600+ series, as opposed to having the Grado sound signature. I sometimes find Grados, even the SR225s, a little too bright and fatiguing for my tastes. The only time I had any discomfort with my Atrios is when wearing tips that were too shallow, which seemed to bring some of the >4k frequencies too far forward for me.

Durable? That's the first time I heard that about an iPod... And the D2's battery life is second to (almost) none, with over 50 hours...

Any Cowon player should sound good, so do Meizu, iRiver or Creative... dunno about the price, but SQ-wise they should be on top.

by durable I mean that there is a pretty big chance you can return it when it still falls under the warranty and get a new one. It's a shame that iriver doesn't release a new harddisk player. I would certainly buy those, since I think the clix 2 sound would appeal most to me.