bocky said:

I am impressed by the massive amount of reviews. Some of the reviews are very well writen and good references.

However, I am REALLY skeptical about the value for horizontal comparisons among the IEMs based on the scoring. Take IE8 as an exmple which scored 9.0 for sound quality. And a bunch of those that are etiher in the same price range or below are scored equal or higher than IE8 including those that are clearly not in the same league in terms of sound quality, eg. XBA4, RE262/272, GR07, EX600, etc. Some of the phones are also clearly not even comparable to some scored lower, such as Turbine pros, Miles Davis and MG7.

Thus looking at the appendixed scoring charts can be quite confusing.

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I don't understand what you're saying. Every phone you just listed sounds better than the IE8, which is in turn better than the MG7.

Looks like that old chestnut again : User preferences.

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zelda said:

i might get a pair soon. how do i check that channel imbalance?

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Channel imbalance means that the volume between the left and right earpieces is not the same across the entire frequency range. Mild channel imbalances are actually pretty common but when noticeable it gets annoying. Easiest way to check is to run a 20-20 frequency sweep. With a perfectly balanced earphone the source of the sound will seem 'centered' in your head at all times. With most earphones you'll hear mild deviations that don't really affect everyday listening but on occasion, such as with my R-50, there is a significant left- or right- leaning tendency. The R-50 actually bothers me during regular music listening which is why it probably has to go back. 

^ thanks. 
 
now (if you had them long enough for ), how was the isolation , comfort and fit , etc, of the R-50 ?

Got my UE 500, and I'm very satisfied with them. Many thanks, Joker.

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zelda said:

^ thanks. 
 
now (if you had them long enough for ), how was the isolation , comfort and fit , etc, of the R-50 ?

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All about on-par with the DBA-02 - no complaints whatsoever.
 
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mad lust envy said:

Got my UE 500, and I'm very satisfied with them. Many thanks, Joker.

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Glad you like em! Careful with the paint if you care about that sort of thing - it comes off far too easily.

I'll keep that in mind, though for IEMs, not really important, lol.

Thanks so much for your excellent review of the heaven S. I agree completely with your findings. I am glad I went for the S version over the other for the reasons you give. I too find it gives an airy presentation and I find it capable of resolving pretty much every genre of music I throw at it. For instance as I type I am listening to Simone Dinnersteins excellent Bach album, the way the weight of the notes played on the piano is portrayed really gives one a great sense of the atmospher and occasion. Likewise the tight bottom end and speed allow complex fast bass lines such as much of Peter Gabriel's work to be conveyed very well indeed.

I also have the ER4S's which I love, I find that the Etymotic's a little slower in comparison to the FAD's a little richer and warmer sounding. I think for me the high point of the FAD's is their ability to resolve transients so well, they really get the feet tapping and the hours disappear. Just listen to the piano in Bach's keyboard concerto in D minor, especially the Allegro.. Sublime!

I have found that Klipshch's opaque ovoid tips to work very well with these phones, they isolate a little more but not at the expense of the air and liveliness.

So I got my Ultimate Ears 500 yesterday.

They only cost $45, come with the silicone AND a pair of Comply foam tips (though I have a box of comply foam tips I got for the Monster Turbines that did not work well for them.)

The stock tips to gives me that terrible airplane pressure feel, so those tips are absolutely unusable for me.

I put the Comply foam tips on (both the ones that came with it and the ones I already had), and I was surprised that it didn't destroy the SQ like they did with the Turbines (the sound on the Turbines became pure mud and bass when using the foam tips, with absolutely no treble or other details). Dunno what the UE 500 did, but the treble still remained beautifully sparkly, the bass was just a hint deeper, and details were still basically the same.

Love the fact that they have flat cables too.

If I could compare their tonal balance to any full sized headphones, I'd say a cross between the DT880 and DT990 without the full sized soundstage or treble edginess. The bass was emphasized (more than the DT880, but not DT990 strong), the mids were akin to the DT880, and the treble was slightly less than both, meaning their is no jarring edge to them, though they are still sparkly.

For $45, these are just fantastic. They also sound fantastic with the Sony Hybrid tips I also have....



Dunno why the bass is so ridiculous looking on the graphs, but that isn't true to what you'll hear. Also, the treble was airier and sparklier than the Turbines, unlike what the graphs show. The mids are identical to the DT880 on the graph, which is how I remember it.

Unlike every IEM I have owned, the UE500 needs absolutely no equalizing for me. They sound just spot on in stock form (foam tips or Sony hybrids, stock tips sound too damn treble oriented, though I believe it's just personal fitting issues). That's saying something about their sound signature.

When is the 334 review?
 

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ianmedium said:

Thanks so much for your excellent review of the heaven S. I agree completely with your findings. I am glad I went for the S version over the other for the reasons you give. I too find it gives an airy presentation and I find it capable of resolving pretty much every genre of music I throw at it. For instance as I type I am listening to Simone Dinnersteins excellent Bach album, the way the weight of the notes played on the piano is portrayed really gives one a great sense of the atmospher and occasion. Likewise the tight bottom end and speed allow complex fast bass lines such as much of Peter Gabriel's work to be conveyed very well indeed.
I also have the ER4S's which I love, I find that the Etymotic's a little slower in comparison to the FAD's a little richer and warmer sounding. I think for me the high point of the FAD's is their ability to resolve transients so well, they really get the feet tapping and the hours disappear. Just listen to the piano in Bach's keyboard concerto in D minor, especially the Allegro.. Sublime!
I have found that Klipshch's opaque ovoid tips to work very well with these phones, they isolate a little more but not at the expense of the air and liveliness.

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Against all sensibility I found myself preferring the SB to the SA and A1. It's definitely got that fun factor that many find lacking in other armatures. The MEElec bi-flange tips I was using gave great isolation as well. 
 
Quote:

mad lust envy said:

So I got my Ultimate Ears 500 yesterday.
[...]

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+1, I don't think you can gleam how it they sound from that particular graph. They are neither hugely bassy nor dark-sounding.
 
 
 
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expatinjapan said:

When is the 334 review?
 

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Working on it . Was moving out of my college apt. recently and then on vacation so everything got pushed back. 

I'm really interested in the IE8's (IE80's more specifically).
However, I want to know just how bad the isolation is. Would they for example still be usable on a train or bus? Or are they really only for indoor use?
If it means anything, I find the level of isolation of my HD 25-1 II's good enough for such usage. More would be better, but not necessary. Less would be worrisome.

And would getting non-stock tips help? Or would e.g. comply tips degrade the sound quality by a significant amount?


Other suggestions for IEM's at around €200/$250 would be great too. I was interested in the TF10's as well, but they are actually more expensive than the IE80's as far as I've seen here.

I'm having a tunnel vision on the IE80's right now, and only the isolation is putting me off from buying them at the moment.

Tilpo, I'd recommend looking at auditioning the IE80 before you buy them. The isolation isn't bad, but it's the sound you should be worried about. I didn't find them to be all that good due to a certain graininess to the sound. I personally found the ie8 to e a better phone overall, with the ie80 sounding like a poorly eq'ed version of its predecessor.

eke2k6 said:

Tilpo, I'd recommend looking at auditioning the IE80 before you buy them. The isolation isn't bad, but it's the sound you should be worried about. I didn't find them to be all that good due to a certain graininess to the sound. I personally found the ie8 to e a better phone overall, with the ie80 sounding like a poorly eq'ed version of its predecessor.

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Not many options to audition them where I live.

I have never seen a store here in the Netherlands who'd let people audition IEM's, so let alone an IE80.
I'll have to go by my gut feeling and other's review on the sound unfortunately. And you know what? Up until know I never think I made a bad decision this way.

Having said that, do you have any other suggestions?

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tilpo said:

Not many options to audition them where I live.
I have never seen a store here in the Netherlands who'd let people audition IEM's, so let alone an IE80.
I'll have to go by my gut feeling and other's review on the sound unfortunately. And you know what? Up until know I never think I made a bad decision this way.
Having said that, do you have any other suggestions?

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It depends on your preferences, what you listen to, and your favorite full-sized.