Worst IEM you've ever heard. - Page 5

The worst I've ever bought were the Sennheiser MM50s, $79.95 retail - supposedly "one of the best on the market" (this was before I did any actual research on IEMs) but all I got was muddy, muddy, muddy. No treble, a muffled midrange and the bass was just blurt, no detail at all. Even after months of use (I kind of got used to their mediocrity) they were still horrible. They finally died at the plug and I moved on to UEs. It's interesting that even the IE8 is getting some grief here, I was considering picking a pair up but I might just skip them and look at Westones or Etymotic instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phntmsmshr 

The worst I've ever bought were the Sennheiser MM50s, $79.95 retail - supposedly "one of the best on the market" (this was before I did any actual research on IEMs) but all I got was muddy, muddy, muddy. No treble, a muffled midrange and the bass was just blurt, no detail at all. Even after months of use (I kind of got used to their mediocrity) they were still horrible. They finally died at the plug and I moved on to UEs. It's interesting that even the IE8 is getting some grief here, I was considering picking a pair up but I might just skip them and look at Westones or Etymotic instead.

no, every phone has it's critics and haters, the IE8 is well regarded by many (assuming the person likes the sound sig)

^ 1+

Coby:

Not an IEM.

High end-- SE530, sold them after one day

Middle end -- SE115, gave to my brother after one day

Though I didnt like these two Shures, I loved my SRH840s

Quote:

Originally Posted by tehort 

Audio-Technica CK7, decent bass, really thin mids, and some really really really huge treble/mid treble peak.... 

Did you try modding them by stuffing the backs of the earpieces with cotton?  I did, and it made a world of difference.  I also usually use them amped - Hornet or PA2v2.  They don't sound great, but they don't sound that badly straight out of the my iPod.

do you work for Coby?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJGeorgeT 

do you work for Coby?

lmao

Looking at your earphone inventory, the 710's sound great IMO. If you want good IEM's stick with them :D!

In therms f muddy...well take a listen to the 751's for a while and you will think they are muddy as hell, with the mids and higs lost...but with time...ie. burn-in they open up. 

Not hugely, but definitely an improvement.

Why i say this?

Westone's I've owned the w2's

They are GREAT phones and CS in the UK from HHA was outstanding - HOWEVER they are BA drivers in there, thus won't deliver even half the bass that the 710's provide you with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by phntmsmshr 

The worst I've ever bought were the Sennheiser MM50s, $79.95 retail - supposedly "one of the best on the market" (this was before I did any actual research on IEMs) but all I got was muddy, muddy, muddy. No treble, a muffled midrange and the bass was just blurt, no detail at all. Even after months of use (I kind of got used to their mediocrity) they were still horrible. They finally died at the plug and I moved on to UEs. It's interesting that even the IE8 is getting some grief here, I was considering picking a pair up but I might just skip them and look at Westones or Etymotic instead.

Apart from obvious low budget earphones, the worst experience I've had with an IEM was the q-Jays. Way too bright and forward, absolutely no bass, and they started distorting and became unusable after about 6 weeks. Customer service was rubbish at the time as well. I would personally never buy a Jays product again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totally Dubbed 

I first bought them from amazon, and was shocked how bad they were - thought they were fakes.

 

Then several months later, demoed them from Mark, and in reality the ie8's i had bought from amazon weren't fakes, just that they were so shockingly bad I thought they were worth not even £50. 

Not that I hold a grudge or anything, but I tried telling you at the time that your Amazon IE8s weren't fake and you gave me a hell of a lot of grief for it. I could tell from the pictures they weren't fake and guessed that you just didn't like the IE8s sound that much (which is understandable as they were highly overrated at the time).

Originally Posted by Totally Dubbed 

[Regarding Westone W2] ... HOWEVER they are BA drivers in there, thus won't deliver even half the bass that the 710's provide you with.

BA drivers can most definitely deliver powerful and tight bass. I don't know about the W2 but the UM2 has plenty of bass.

I also owned the 710's at one point, and I liked them a lot apart from the fit, isolation, but I much preferred the UM2 and if anything I'd say the UM2 had more bass.

In fairness though, the UM2 cost twice as much so you'd expect them to good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobSaysHi 

lmao

Double LAMO!

Anyhow, concerning the Shure530 I didn't sell it to anybody I took it back!

They cost twice as much so you'd expect them to be good?

For me:

The w2's were 4x as much as the ex500's yet they sounded crap in the bass department. 

The ie8's are 2x more than the 710's yet sound 5x worse.

Price isn't a determining factor. Personal taste is.

All i remember is that when i demoed the W2's and the UM2's i MUCH preferred the W2's.

Now I compare the W2's to the 710's the 710's destroy the W2's.

"I also owned the 710's at one point, and I liked them a lot apart from the fit, isolation"

WHAT THE HELL!?

The fit is one of the easiest, non-baring in-ears i've ever tried on!!!

If you think the UM2's are comfortable vs the 710's or even the w2's...something must be wrong lol.

More so, the isolation isn't PERFECT, but neither is the ones on the UM2's and the W2's unless you have the P-SERIES (medium) longs on them.

Apart from that, put some t-100 comply's vs the t-400's on the 710's and the isolation is practically the same.

I know that as i bike everyday, and i put on my earphones. So I know when I can hear things or not.

751's sucked in isolation so did the ex500-700's.

The w2's were MUCH better, and so are the 710 similarly. 

About the ie8's: you would expect £160+ earphones from senn to be much better, more so, the fact that head-fi was raving about them.

Truly disappointed with Sennheiser more than anything. I also learnt a valuable lesson: Everyone's ears are different :)

 

 

 

Originally Posted by TCD1975 

Apart from obvious low budget earphones, the worst experience I've had with an IEM was the q-Jays. Way too bright and forward, absolutely no bass, and they started distorting and became unusable after about 6 weeks. Customer service was rubbish at the time as well. I would personally never buy a Jays product again.

Quote:

 

Not that I hold a grudge or anything, but I tried telling you at the time that your Amazon IE8s weren't fake and you gave me a hell of a lot of grief for it. I could tell from the pictures they weren't fake and guessed that you just didn't like the IE8s sound that much (which is understandable as they were highly overrated at the time).

 

 

BA drivers can most definitely deliver powerful and tight bass. I don't know about the W2 but the UM2 has plenty of bass.

 

I also owned the 710's at one point, and I liked them a lot apart from the fit, isolation, but I much preferred the UM2 and if anything I'd say the UM2 had more bass.

 

In fairness though, the UM2 cost twice as much so you'd expect them to good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Totally Dubbed 
Price isn't a determining factor. Personal taste is.

 

Indeed.

ultimate ears super.fi 4. really bad iems. bass is bloated, mids are meh, and hardly has any treble. i should've taken the amazon reviews seriously.

SkullCandy Ink'd/FMJ/Hola(whatever they are, the wood piece of crap)

Apple original/first gen apple iem

some JVC non-in ear crap

some Marshmello thing...