Multi-IEM Review - 239 IEMs compared (Alclair Reference added 05/24/12) - Page 7

I think rawrster's method of using a bit of electrical tape wound around so that the sticky side is fully concealed worked very well. The end result is quite similar (in form and function) to the sliders on the Ck10 and Ck100.

Have you tried Sony Hybrids? They work very well with the ADDIEMs and you shouldn't have a problem with getting a seal.

Ah yes, when your IEMs start sounding better than your home rig, it's time to upgrade your home rig . Or at least that's the slippery slope I went down.

How does it sound? I'm waiting for a few impressions to surface plus better availability. I like the other JVC carbon-series stuff (namely the HA-M750) but the FXC80s are currently ~$60, which is 4x more than I paid for the FXC50.

I think I've found a good balance with my AKG K601 + Alessandro MS2i + JVC HA-DX3 trio. The AKGs for mids, the MS2i for energy, and the DX3 for pure power. The top-tier IEMs I've tried do come very close to them. I think the age-old myth of greater bang/buck with headphones vs IEMs needs to be laid to rest because it really depends on what you're after. Yes, there will likely never be an IEM that can even come close to the K601 for soundstaging, but the high end IEMs I've tried really outclass the headphones in speed and detail. Sure the e-Q7 is pricier than the K601, but that's without factoring in the cost of my amp+dac+interconnects, which is like $700. I should have my hands on a DT770/250 tomorrow and will see where it stands, but I'm not expecting miracles. With that said, portable headphones are making less and less sense as IEMs get better and better .

Eh, I'm not so sure. The e-Q7 has significantly better bass texture and a more natural low end while the PFE doesn't roll off as early at the top (but isn't as smooth, either). The main difference though is that presentation of the e-Q7 has 'weight'. This is partly a side effect of the texturing, but you 'feel' the sound. The PFE is more armature-like in that it always sounds light and sprightly. Might be just me, though. Also, the PFE is slightly on the cool side in terms of tonality while the e-Q7 is slightly warm. I guess in the grand scheme of things they are close enough to each other, since the pfe sounds like a dynamic-esque armature and the e-Q7 sounds like an armature-esque dynamic-driver.

That's great, it looks a lot more readable than the one I've got. I'm thinking of following your example and taking out a lot of the boring ones and just leaving stuff that's somehow noteworthy. It should be noted that what we are all looking for is something as close to the top left corner of the graph as possible . It's funny but I think the Meelec M9, M6, and M11 are collectively closest to that ideal in terms of absolute distance. Shows that Meelec is certainly doing something right.

That was an artifact of my changing the scaling method to accommodate the e-Q7. I use a second chart to calculate SQ score. All of the scores fell a tiny bit since the e-Q7 textures better than any IEM I've heard but that was enough to pull the RE0 down enough for me to round it down to a 9.0 instead of a 9.5 like before.

Thanks. The system is more or less linear although it is intended to be more of a comparative scale, i.e. seeing where things fall in relation to each rather than being based on some unattainable absolute (which I have not heard). And of course I can't stress enough the importance of personal preferences.