Is IEM soundstage a myth?

I am probably in the minority in believing soundstage in an IEM is pretty difficult to quantify. It almost seems that the quality of the treble influences the perception of a soundstage more than anything else. Just my opinion though.

yeah, no matter what, i always feel as if the sound is coming from the left and right hand sides of my head. i just cant get that projected forward soundstage feeling without really tryin to concentrate, and wat the use of that.

 

i find thats why i enjoy speakers so much

The seperation in triple-fi gives a nice soundstage feeling; its nice that it manages its highs well too for the subtle live performance noises.

 

I wouldn't quite say that it is a myth, because I feel a definite sense of 'soundstage' when listening to both hi-res material and cd-quality tracks. Soundstage almost certainly varies from earphone to earphone though. I can tell, for example, that the JH16s convey more 'space' than the hf5s. There are probably several factors that come into play here such as distance from the eardrum, as chelboed mentioned, as well as individual driver properties and the quality of the music being listened to.

 

Check out some binaural material, or a good live album. Also, check out tracks 2 and 8 here. The previews are at 44.1/16, but they do the job.

Try JVC FX700. Its soundstage is very similar to that of a hi-fi full sized can.

IE8 and triple fi 10 soundstage

I have the S4 and the TF10. the S4's soundstage is pretty dammed small; the TF10 definitely has a larger soundstage.

 

Is there anywhere in the western world you can buy those, or is it a pricejapan export only? Just curious as i've been reading James's thread quite a bit recently.

You can get them from Dimitri at Musica Acoustics as well. He charges a little more than price Japan, but he offers a lifetime warranty (even out side manufacturer warranty), has excellent customer service and usually the package gets to you super fast

Edited by TrantaLocked - 4/2/11 at 8:26pm

yeah i know it does as theres definite diferences and eterna's have huge soundstage, but i cant project it on front

The Fischer Audio Eterna definitely have a big soundstage due to their car sound presentation they come off sounding like a home theater extremely huge. If they could fuse the Eterna with the SM3....but one can only dream... I also quite liked the Dba-02 soundstage its almost like it gave everything a plane/foundation to stand on. The Pana does this to but not as well due to the insertion depth. Insertion and fit is what will break make your paticuliar soundstage.

I have a hard time hearing front stage as well. I don't know if audio is really even meant to be fully 3D (to front and back as well as horizontally) unless It's binaurally recorded.  

yeah, im totally with you. like i never feel that concert/stadium feelin people always talk about. i mean the soundstage of iem's are immersive and all, just not concert/theatre like.