Are (High-end) Custom IEMs Overrated? - Page 28  

Seriously n-phect? Because you can't swear here by typing that you resort to Youtube videos? How is that acceptable?

 

And music, you don't see it unreasonable to warn someone and mention reporting him to the mods because they keep posting previously mentioned opinions but you just simply sit back and enjoy that youtube video?

 

How old are you guys? This must be the worst thread I ever subscribed here on head-fi...

 

Good luck in your bashing customs and customs owners

 

 

TThis sort of thing happens a lot with custom-anything, for example, guitar luthiers. The big boys charge a lot, the smaller guys try and undercut by offering built to spec stuff at attractive prices, loads of people think 'bargain!' and throw orders at them, and they end up getting inundated with work and haven't the manpower, or often the finance/business experience or power to run things properly, customer service goes AWOL, rushing to finish products creates errors/sloppy worksmanship, people don't receive their guitars, get angry etc. It's why if you're going to buy anything customised for yourself, err on the side of caution and go with those with a proven track record. There are custom IEM companies popping up left right and centre at the moment, which is good for competition, but if I was to order one, I'd stick with those with a consistently good customer service who've had a few years under their belt and haven't bitten off more than they could chew. It wouldn't put me off buying customs as much as making me fussier about who I order from in the first place.

Unfortunately, someones need to bite the bullet so that the little guy has the opportunity to learn and grow to be a respectable company with years under their belt. It's tough to start off with the qualities you seek for most small startups because frankly funding for such quality staffing and quality operations at a larger scale is probably very difficult to come by. Your attitude while prudent would ultimately stifle competition I feel, leaving no attractively priced options to put the big guys on notice.

I don't know about any bone conduction.  But I can say that foam comply tips are more comfortable to me than customs are.  Not to say that customs are uncomfortable, but I will take soft foam over hard plastic in your ear so deep it's almost touching your brain in the comfort dept.  But once they are in, it's no big deal.  I will take the sound improvement of more drivers w crossover any day over a slight decrease in comfort from universals.
 

 

FYI

 

It really does not matter what you pack in your ears, hard, soft, etc etc.  There comes a point where bone conduction will occur, you can even remove the osscicular chain and bone conduction will still occur.

 

That point is around 60dB and this will varry from frequency to frequency. What this simply means is if someone had the best, most premium ear plugs on, along with ear muffs, giving 60dB of REAL NRR value, they still will hear sound, when they are exposed to SPL of 60dB +-

 

There is a lot of information regarding this on the net, but to get you started:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17407895 

I think so; IEMs in generally are a bit overrated.  Really, on the go, you have to be pretty antisocial and absorbed in your music to really pay attentional to all the quality and details they're putting out.  I have an idea that the more input you're receiving( in this case, sound,) the less output, or even input you can receive in areas of your attention such as looking around, or awareness.  Now that may be BS, but I still fully back up my first and second statements

There is no reason to discount your opinion. The brain can only process so much information, even still, the brain is very amazing for what it does.  We are still not even sure how we hear. We have a fairly good idea, but not the total picture. 

 

 

That said, if I could, I would still buy a BMW M1 even if I can not technically drive the car to the point where I experience all the capabillities that the car offers.

Edited by FullCircle - 7/17/11 at 4:56pm

    Yes the customer may lose a few hundred dolars, but the owner of the start up company may lose his or her life's savings for producing failed products.  I think the burden or liability of risk lays much higher on a newly budding company than it does on the customer.

 

Also, it seems to me, new companies are held to a higher standard.....  as if folks are just waiting for a chance to say... "See, I told you so....."  

 

While other companies that have been around for a while can produce products that are not near to specs,(ex: missing art work)  or leave their customers waiting for 7+ months on pre-order product launch, or packaging that could not even inspire a yawn, and the list can go on and on.

 

All the while, the infant company is required to offer more service, better products, better packaging, faster turn around times, for less than half what the established companies ask for, it does not make since to me.

 

But it is inspiring to watch UM & others rise up, despite all of this.
 

 

 

Comparing oranges with oranges (both without EQ), I would never in my life fall back into the SE530's signature. Let's just say its absolutely lifeless, there is no bass and no highs. All you hear is mids.

 

Now after EQing (V shaped EQing), the SE530 becomes a very capable IEM, and it pretty much makes you wonder if the BA drivers in there are so capable, why isn't the crossover tuned more appropriately?

 

And that's where things are different. Not 3, 5, or 8 drivers. But how the crossover is tuned.

 

Good speakers have good crossovers inside, and don't need any equalizing to sound good.

 

EQ is just a way of fixing what is wrong with the transducer.

maybe the folks that tuned the x-overs idea of "good" sound is different from yours...?

Well, if audio quality was 100% subjective, head-fi wouldn't exist. I find that quite often what I think sounds good, other people find good too.