Panasonic CZs (HJE900) Appreciation Thread and Pending Review - Page 2

I say the sound gets refined, and if you check the original threads most people seem to agree.

I find the mids to be pretty much perfectly balanced with the rest of the spectrum, although I did also find vocals a teensy recessed when I first got them. What did you have before? Perhaps they were mid-upfront headphones.

Try different tips.

To each his own =P. To me, their bass is just for the most part, with a bit of that midbass hump. Most things sound like the "should" sound to me. I'm almost wondering if you've accidentally turned on bass boost everytime you listen to them XD. Honestly, I've never considered myself a bass-head at all, but any less bass(overall) and I'd prolly be a bit dissapointed.

For massive bass, theres the sony XB series =P

As for balanced, you might have misread me, or I didn't make myself clear. I didn't mean to say the whole spectrum these produce is balanced, but rather that mids feel "just right" in tune with the rest of the frequencies. I suppose "life-like" as james described, is the word. They are by no means balanced in terms of actual frequency response.


Same stuff with balanced vs lifelike, and yes I do agree they sound quite U shaped out of the box, though I found just burning in flattened out the sound a bit. I'm also using sony hybrids, which slightly lessened the treble spike while warming up the overall sound. However, I preferred the overall sound sig of the original tips which I lost, so I have meelec UE style tips on the way, as per jokers suggestion.

I normally wouldn't reply, as everyone has their own ears and stuff, but this is an appreciation thread, not a "discourage people from buying thread" =P Just would like to say that those impressions mostly go against the large majority of impressions for these. I've only seen a small amount of posts complain about the mids being recessed. I mean people have mentioned it, but nowhere nearly as much as phones like the FX500 or TF10. But of course impressions from all sides of the opinion camp are important.

Comparing them side to side to quite mid forward Thinksound Rains, quite balanced(if laid back) PX200-IIs, and warmer sounding RX700s, I don't notice a recession of mids at all anymore while A/Bing, so I don't think it's just my ears getting used to them. I'll try again when I get the meelec tips, though even with my radioshack auvio tips which should theoretically sound more similar to those than the hybrids didn't give me any mid recession problems. My FC700s definitely sound more recessed.

Oh, the default tips suck for isolation. They won't ever be super isolating, but it's not that bad. But I'm not someone who wants super isolation anyways, I like being aware of my surroundings. I can listen to them on a rush hour NYC subway with no complaints.

How long did you have them for? Your impressions somewhat resembled my initial ones, though I quickly decided to let myself get used to the different sound.

The vent thing is very true. I had issues stuffing tips with complies because of this, as often the foam would cover the holes, and the sound definitely seemed to suffer.

I haven't worn both, sorry, but I can help out a bit I hope. The HJE900s are quite comfortable for IEMs to me. I also have no issue wearing them over the ear(I actually think the long cable connctors/strain relief kind of help for this), but I prefer them under the ear most of the time. They don't go very dep in your ears because of the housing and stems, so I don't think you'll have comfort issues with that. As usual, wearing them over the ear allows for a deeper insertion and more secure fit. The default tips are nothing special, though they do give you a clean sound sig. I'm using sony hybrids, which are very comfortable, because I lost my originals, but have meelec tips on the way. Comply T400s worn backwards sound great and give you an excellent fit I lost those too though =[. If you use the t400s the normal way though, they kill all the sparkle of the treble for me(might be ear canal shape related). A plus about the housing not going in too deep, and the overall shape of the housing, is that unlike other IEMs, I have no fear of anything happening to my ears should I sleep with them(indeed I do most every night). They simply can't go deep enough to cause any damage, and the housing is short enough that I can rest on one side of my head without any discomfort. Not quite flush, but not nearly as bad as some other IEMs.

Isolation on these is average. I prefer it this way though, I don't like hyper isolation, as I prefer to not be hit by cars.

I think you'll be happy with the HJEs over all of those you mentioned, though i have no experience with them. The PL-50 are supposed to be hyper comfortable though.