Review | SoundMAGIC E10 - Page 6

Unfortunately for metal, the highs aren't present enough for the guitars to sound good, and bass is nearly overpowering. I listen to lots of electronic music, and so far it sounds much better with the e10 than metal does. I was hoping both would sound good.

Bought SM E10 based on many glowing reviews on head-fi and other headphones forum ...got a defective unit with bucketful of
treble and very little bass at all. I thought with burn in it would get better ...but after 50 hrs of white.pink and my playlist ...it was still the same . Piercing is the word I would use to described ...so much so that you can only use it for like 10 minutes or less before u tell yrself enough ...is enough. The bass is still very minimal like when you hear someone using their headphone so loud that the person next to it can hear some of the music leakage from it. Maybe its just my luck that I got a faulty unit.

Send email to Soundmagic customer service to enquire whether it was posible that i got a fake or faulty batch ...but before that did check with the serial no on their website and it is genuine. So happy got a reply from a Mr Tom requesting the serial no and where I bought it and from which country I was from ( sent on 14-2 and SM Tony replied on 18-2 -2013 ) Email below

On Feb 18, 2013, at 9:07 PM, "tom" wrote:Hello Eric     Please send the serial number to me.     You can tell me the retailes name and your country. I can contact the distributer and retailes to check and deal with the problems. Best regardsTom 

On 28-2 send another email to Mr Tom of SM to follow up on my faulty E10 but no reply .

On 11-3 sent my final email to the name listed in the SM website to enquire whether about my faulty E10....

Up till today no reply of any sort ...maybe its just that customer service are only for the priviliged and head-fi supremos like yrself or joker dsnut or clieos ...but ordinary buyer like us dont get that kind of service.

All in all ...i m still very much impressed with E10 ...friend of mine has it and like all fan of E10 ...excellent sound quality for the budget conscious ....but for me it leaves a bad taste in my mouth or ear ...when u get a reply from them and then ...total silent.
I would have prefer no reply at all if it make any sense.

 

I have seen other describing similar impressions on other IEM before, and it usually turns out to be a fit issue. These are the classic symptoms of poor / loose fit. You should make sure that you get a tight and fully sealed ear canal first, with the right size of eartips and a complete insertion.

Wow ...reply from the great one ClieOs ...never thought that would happen. To elaborate further ...did have issue with fitting like i had with Monoprice 8320 but after changing it to Comply ear tip ...it definitely make a different in how it sounds.

Coming back to my E10 ...tried it Comply ear tip and bi flange and all the silicone tips that i can find in my house ...the sound is still the same . Have tried deep insertion and shallow but it is just painful to the ears. The sound that is coming from my E10 is like coming out of a tin can with high piercing decibel that will make u cringe especially when I listen to heavy metal song like Metalicca and the bass is definitely not very audible ...more like whispering ...if I increased the volume the bass is non existent and pracically covered by the sharp piercing painful treble like u r standing beside the cymbal player banging away.

Thanks for the advice though.

E10 is indeed a bit on the bright side, but I won't expect it to be bass light (unless your previous IEM is very bass heavy, then anything less bassy can be perceived as bass light).

The problem is a good friend of mine has the same model E10 but the volume level and the sound of his compared to mine is like night and day ...plugging in his E10 into my DAP with the same volume n eq setting produces sound like what most fan of E10 have been raving about but when I plug in my E10 ...i have to increase the volume to even hear the vocal and of cuz sounding like its coming from a tunnel....significantly different where my friend's E10 has punchy bass (not basshead level like JVC HAFX1X) and yes bright as u described but mine is nothing like that all ....Im sure my unit is faulty.

I bought online fr Focalprice and they wanted to me pay another USD20 for sending me another unit which I felt was too risky reading other buyer blog who had similar problem like mine ..faulty item . Once paid the amount requested ..they will tell you out of stock and request you to buy other higher price item . When i offered to pay only shipping cost ...they ended giving me coupon worth USD18 and the end of the story. So I tried to post my review on this item and my experience ...my review was rejected...so I'll be very careful purchasing from them. Also wrote to Soundmagic ...posted in my 1st post also not much help (pasted below)

Send email to Soundmagic customer service to enquire whether it was posible that i got a fake or faulty batch ...but before that did check with the serial no on their website and it is genuine. So happy got a reply from a Mr Tom requesting the serial no and where I bought it and from which country I was from ( sent on 14-2 and SM Tony replied on 18-2 -2013 )

Email belowOn Feb 18, 2013, at 9:07 PM, "tom" wrote:Hello Eric     Please send the serial number to me.     You can tell me the retailes name and your country. I can contact the distributer and retailes to check and deal with the problems. Best regardsTom 

On 28-2 send another email to Mr Tom of SM to follow up on my faulty E10 but no reply .

On 11-3 sent my final email to the name listed in the SM website to enquire whether about my faulty E10....Up till today no reply of any sort ...maybe its just that customer service are only for the priviliged and head-fi supremos like yrself or joker dsnut or clieos ...but ordinary buyer like us dont get that kind of service.

Anyway it is expected ..that manufacturer will always sent free review unit to expert reviewer for marketing purposes but for the ordinary joe its another thing. What i will take from this experience is that I will buy from reputable manufacturer that actually provide after sales support and not just lips service..

Thanks a lot Shotgunshane ...will do that. Yup ...junk folder checked. Guess what ......went to the mall this afternoon and got me self a good deal. Bought me self a PL50 for USD 47 ...apparently they are trying to clear last year stock which include some of my wish list item ie Fisher ,Westone and Marshall cans. After testing a few of the cans ...magically the sales person said do I wanna try some Soundmagic iem....in my head the theme song from Twillight Zone n Psycho was playing in a mash up version ...sounded very sinister. Anyway I said okay ...let's have a go at PL50 ...one word came to mind ....the right amount if depth n volume for bass mid n treble ...especially when I plugged in to my DAP playing Howlin' Wolf Smokestack Lightning .....I was in seventh heaven.

Now back home ...does burn in works for balanced armature iem ..but anyway it is on burnt mode alternating with pink n white n my playlist ....so happy with PL50 n it also comes with warranty and replacement guarantee from the shop within a year if manufacturing defective.

I got these a week ago and I think they are pretty amazing for the price ($35) on amazon. The sound is very good. It's a bit better sounding than the pair of Monster Turbines i had a while back. I don't know how some are getting a bright and or bass light sound. The bass is a bit loose and is very present.

 

Id say these are probably the best IEMs you can get under $50. Plus these look awesome!

I don't know why I went through so many others (some 10 times its price) before trying these out.

A little fix in the eq in poweramp made it god of all earphone that i've owned under $100.

My eq setting allows the bass to be warm and powerful but not overpowering the highs at all.

Mids I reduced a lot as it isn't as important to me unless I'm listening to certain music where the mid tone of the vocals play a major role.

I've never heard anything better that matched my taste under $100. Maybe even up to $200.

I even choose this one over my jvc fxz200 sometimes due to it's poorer isolation.

These can definitely be compared with others way beyond it's price range considering the sound signature, balance, isolation, comfort and build.

Don't really care much for the packaging and the accessories.
Most of soundmagic's line is bass-oriented so don't expect any uber clean crisp high.

All in all this one is a real bang for the buck.

A little bit of tweaking from your dap makes it shine like no other in it's price range.