Unboxing of Sony XBA 4 SL (ver Jap) & First impression - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inks 

To me those are basshead levels, my tastes are different in this aspect though. How many customs have you tried? that's far too broad to be true imo. Having more bass isn't always a good thing, the more bass an iem the more lower midrange clarity you compromise no matter how refined, it's a compromise. 

umm, i've got 3 with me at the moment, 1 re-shelled shure420 done by UM/rooth? 1 shure 535 modified to the same construction as LS8(by rooth), and 1 16pro re-shell....

might be i didnt make it clear again, well what i meant is that to me, generally speaking, such like comparing mine se420 for before&after getting it re-shelled

i just find myself getting better bass impact from after re-shelling it, and from my little bit of knowledge that i guess its mainly due to better and tight fit. in which it allows the bass of 420 to be delivered in a better manner than before.

Such saying that i tend to get more bass then before, without having anything done to the configuration of the drives and crossover.

From this i got a rough impression that even when i have the exact same configuration IEM and CIEM together i would probably get better bass from CIEM instead.

and talking of demos that i've tried, i've tried the ES3x and ES5 demo, and will be trying out the demo for IERM/Em6/MG6Pro later on this year.....

but from the 2 ES series demo, even when it's universal fit demo, i just found that they have much more bass than my shures(when they were still universal fits) 

talking of which beside the fitting issue, i think i got my idea of "CIEM's got better/stronger bass than IEM" came from the fact that most of the CIEM's house a much larger bass drive than regular universal fits....that allow CIEM's to deliver stronger and better bass....

talking of which , i got stb to run a FR curve scan of the xba4, and surprisingly that the FR response of xba4 does not turn out to be as how i would be expecting ; a big peak? bump at bass , as it's got that "sub-bass drive"

but rather it's got a sharp peak at around 6~7KHz, which i think its consistent to my hearing experience about its hights being hush/rough and sharp .......

anyway see ya :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inks 

Well, a lot of those customs mentioned are said to have a boosted bass response. It really depends on how it's tuned, custom fit does help but i don' think it's significant enough to create a big difference as it's not increasing air movement, just trapping what's there. Bigger drivers do tend to have bigger bass, but smaller ones can manage the same with heavy damping ala klipsch x10. 

 

XBA4 does seem to have a v-shaped sound ala FX700. I would be wary of using high output impedance sources as those Sony players though as that may boost the problematic 6k region you mention. 

 

Thats very true, and the few customs I've had a also know to have bass boosted or just known to have good bass response, guess thats why i didn't find w4's bass that satisfying 

but i do think that having custom fit will differently give you a noticeable improvement in the quality of the bass response as they tend to be able to transmit the bass's vibration to your in a better manner...(as i never get a perfect fit with universal fits...which had always been 1 hack of pain for me)

And you are right, it does sound as if its got a V EQ sound signature and again i just aint too sure if my sony player actually did make its problematic 6k worst or not, as without any EQ applied to them . They sounded even better just from my laptop or mobile.

so like i said without EQ its alrite...(but being honest, I've been leaving it in dust for last week or 2.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericp10 

On continue play the XBA's bass doesn't sound as heavy as the W4's The W4 has continual bass/sub bass. The XBA-4's bass seems to kick in when needed, or depending on the recording - to my ears anyway. It's a similar effect that I get from the 1964-Q Although it has deeper and better quality bass IMO...

 

Wow, thats a surprising feedback, there's demo available around my place and from the feedback i've heard from the surrounding is that it can sure give a better kick than w4 when you have got an amp

so do you like that kinda of bass from your 1964-Q ?and xba-4?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cute 

 

I could really use a look at the FR curve.  Is there a way to post it here, a link, or PM me?
 

 

well, i only watched they doing it and saw the result on the screen.... i must admit its my bad to not taken a foto of that.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericp10 

I read some review where the poster stated the soundstage was small? We are certainly hearing things differently... Although the reviewer's English translation was poor to be fair.

no man, my write up sounded abit messy but i meant that if i apply EQ to it, it sounded it's got small soundstage and also it sound weird .... but without EQ its fine straight out my sony/laptop...

Quote:

Originally Posted by nooh 

UPDATE-

 

I got my XBA-4 and to be honest I didnt think they were the best pair of IEM's I have owned. I felt the triple-fi's are definately better. Only thing I dont like about them is that I cant put them as deep as I like in my ear. I also feel the same about the XBA-4.

 

Anyways after a few days of owning the xba the bass and treble started to rip. I showed it to few guys and they agreed that it was ripping. I have now sent them back.

 

They will hopefully test them and send them back , Replace them if need be.

Wow thats bad to heard your's aint working as it should, hope you get them fixed soon (or they would just get you a new pair?)

but i do agree with you that out of all the universal fits, they aint the best of what i've had...

even comparing them to Sony's own ex1000, i personally have doubts in theres any a fair game amongst these 2