[axw]

I've just ended a brief session comparing Ety HF5, Westone 3 and 4, and B2 on some good quality trance flacs using the voodooed galaxy s. Both Westones and Etys sound way darker than B2. Or maybe, it is the other way around: B2 is exceptionally bright. 
 
I did not purchase B2 as I initially intented. To my tastes, upper mids and treble are too much exposed, brightness is on the edge of sounding harsh and unpleasant. I was interested in B2 because the reviews of CK10 indicate that the headphones are well suited for trance music. CK10 in turn are supposed to be similar (at least in ljokerl multi iem review) to B2. I suspect now that my reasoning was somewhat faulty, perhaps B2 are not really like CK10 when it comes to trance records?
 
Finally, I consider all the four headphones similarly detailed, perhaps Westone 3 being the least. The Westones have better bass than B2 and Ety.

 

[Anaxilus]

If the B2 has harsher treble than the CK10 to your ears you did not get a good fit or use the right tips. CK10 has the more fatiguing treble IME.

 

[FieldingMellish]

Quote:

If the B2 has harsher treble than the CK10 to your ears you did not get a good fit or use the right tips. CK10 has the more fatiguing treble IME.

 
Agreed. Sensaphonics seal test is useful. I found out none of the included tips other than the Comply truly sealed the B2 headphone in my ears. Difference was so profound, the test makes me want to reevaluate my collection to see what they really sound like.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

 
Agreed. Sensaphonics seal test is useful. I found out none of the included tips other than the Comply truly sealed the B2 headphone in my ears. Difference was so profound, the test makes me want to reevaluate my collection to see what they really sound like.

 
That is what I did when I first found out about it  Luckily I didn't have a million IEMs yet XD  
 
I actually found that the MEE A151 small tips sealed me the best on these (even though they are shaped extremely close to the stocks, they sealed differently).  Even compared to the Comply.  This, of course, is the opposite of what most people found.  I compared just about every tip in my collection.  Tested against things like Shure silicones, Sony Hybrids, Sony Hybrid clones, I forget what other tips I tested with these.  They do require the deepest, most sealing fit though in order for me to get the most out of them.  

 

[kova4a]

Well, I tested a lot of tips - ety tri-flanges, sony hibrids, hybrids clones, comply, shure olives and grey soft flex. I usually get good seal with most tips, so I get a pretty good seal even with the stock mid-size tips but the best seal I obtained was with M olives and I like how the b2 sounds with them. Actually, with some small sony hybrids I'm able to get slightly deeper seal and I can obtain the seal faster than with the olives but I also just prefer the feeling of the olives and the boosting in the bass. I just realised that I use mainly olives on most of my iems - modded olives, decorred olives, insanely stretched olives - I've become so profficient in fitting olives on everything that I was surprised to read some comments that the olives were very hard to fit on b2 as I put them on in like 20 seconds 

 

[goodvibes]

 

Quote:

 
Actually, If you really want to get into it, you can get some tweezers and wiggle the driver out. The surrounding is silicon and it isn't glued to the drive. BY NO MEAN USE THE WIRE TO PULL THE DRIVER OUT! You risk taking off the pads of the driver, which is not repairable. New drivers cost $50 each.
 
 

 
 
Here's proof you can pull out the driver.

Looks like there's a cap as crossover, high pass to one driver. That's actually wired correctly as per the data sheet but correctly should make them phase inverted as a pos V in will cause a decrease of pressure at the output. http://www.knowles.com/search/prods_pdf/TWFK-30017-000.pdf

 

[axw]

Quote:

If the B2 has harsher treble than the CK10 to your ears you did not get a good fit or use the right tips. CK10 has the more fatiguing treble IME.

 
I have never auditioned CK10, unfortunately. They aren't available to try out in my area. Moreover, it seems that Audio Technica does not manufacture them any longer (end of life?). This is why I became interested in B2 -- similar signature (according to |joker| multi iem review) for a about a half of the price of CK10.
 
If you claim that CK10 treble is even more fatiguing than B2, then probably both are not quite my cup of tea, even though I mostly listen to trance. Interestingly, if you check  CK10 reviews on head-fi, two of them say that CK10 is "made for trance" or "trance inducing".
 
 
Frankly, I am not really convinced that tips could explain the harshness of B2. In fact, I tried different tips (foam and default rubber) with Westones and Etys, they did never sound agressive or fatiguing.

 

[Inks]

The term 'out of phase' is not the one to be used here. It's 'phase inverted'. Out of phase means one channel is inverted to the other as opposed to the absolute phase being inverted on both. I just measured an apple cable. 1.2 ohms of resistance. Higher than most but definitely less than an ohm different.

Yup, corrected, the B2s and MKIIs have inverted phase. Being out of phase will mean that one channel is inverted and the other is absolute. Thanks for the correction, I hope this clears things up. It's not a BA characteristic, dynamics can have inverted phase as well. The  Inverted phase on these isn't an issue, no big fuss. Being out of phase would be a problem, but these don't experience that. 
 
Hmm it seems the iPhone cable would add more resistance. I remember a user praising the Hisound Studio for making their DBA02s smoother in the treble, I think that just happened because the Hisound added resistance due to it's high output impedance. Thus it seems the DBA02/B2s have less presence in the treble with added resistance. This will be revealed soon ; )
 
The CK10s have a shorter nozzle stem which makes them more prone to being brighter than the B2s. The nozzle is also thicker, which kind of forces you to use tips with a bigger output bore diameter, another factor making them brighter. I had to use long tips with the CK10s to counteract this, or placing a cut stem of Sony Hybrid stems at the bottom of it's nozzle to make the tips longer. This and I had to really stretch tips that helped tame that brightness because such tips were made for thinner nozzles, like Klipsch ovals and Ety triflanges. 

 

[goodvibes]

I had a cable left over from one that went bad and just measured before I posted. Hard to imagine much more resistance than that without something in line. I measured an old PL50 cable as well and it was 1/2 that. I'm actually surprised that they're this high.
 
I do a similar thing with a pair of modded ADDIEMs, Put a couple thin washers on the nozzles before the olives to keep it longer.

 

[PanicoNFL]

Received my Brainwavz B2, now with Angled-plug

I'm getting used to the signature... out of the box, they sounded thin, but now is getting better.
Bass with 2 or 3dB boost sounds perfect for me, they have a clear sound but sometimes I felt they don't have enough body...
 

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

Received my Brainwavz B2, now with Angled-plug

I'm getting used to the signature... out of the box, they sounded thin, but now is getting better.
Bass with 2 or 3dB boost sounds perfect for me, they have a clear sound but sometimes I felt they don't have enough body...
 

 
Play with tips...  Although I didn't, many had problems with stock tips.  Ensure a seal with Sensaphonics seal test as well.  The IEMs actually do create a large enough body for most uses, but requires an extremely deep fit and seal.  

 

[PanicoNFL]

Quote:

 
Play with tips...  Although I didn't, many had problems with stock tips.  Ensure a seal with Sensaphonics seal test as well.  The IEMs actually do create a large enough body for most uses, but requires an extremely deep fit and seal.  

I'm using the Comply T100 that come with. When using the silicone tips I heard a lot of sibilance, now with the Comply they almost desappeared. The seal is perfect, tested with sensaphonics.
When I refer to body, is the sensation of "fullness" in the music, sometimes they sound thin.
The soundstage... WOW, almost close to a Full-sized closed headphones.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

I'm using the Comply T100 that come with. When using the silicone tips I heard a lot of sibilance, now with the Comply they almost desappeared. The seal is perfect, tested with sensaphonics.
When I refer to body, is the sensation of "fullness" in the music, sometimes they sound thin.
The soundstage... WOW, almost close to a Full-sized closed headphones.

 
OK, you're a thin vs thick sound.  Got it.  These IEMs do tend towards the thinner side.  When I say body I normally go towards the word presence to describe it XD  So yes, these are a little thinner.  

 

[PanicoNFL]

Quote:

 
OK, you're a thin vs thick sound.  Got it.  These IEMs do tend towards the thinner side.  When I say body I normally go towards the word presence to describe it XD  So yes, these are a little thinner.  

Sorry if I can sound strange, english isn't my native language. Btw, I'm listening to them right now and changed to eric clapton... What a sound, they sound much rich and clear in the vocals, a lot of details. The thin sound is only with drums in some songs by pink floyd. Indeed they are on another level compared to my GR06 

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

Sorry if I can sound strange, english isn't my native language. Btw, I'm listening to them right now and changed to eric clapton... What a sound, they sound much rich and clear in the vocals, a lot of details. The thin sound is only with drums in some songs by pink floyd. Indeed they are on another level compared to my GR06 

 
It's not strange.  You're fine.  Everyone here has varying definitions of different words and what they mean to them.  "Analytical" was our most recent debate in this thread.  Since sound description is figurative (not literal), our descriptions won't match up 100% (ever).  Glad to see you're starting to enjoy them.  Do let them (and your tips) break in.  They will sound better with time as you get better fits and the drivers settle.