Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peculier 
I tried the XBA-3 a while back.. Vocals had a slight metallic tinge to them, but that was probably because of the poor fit with the tips. With the new pricing I definitely think they are being overlooked.
An interesting article about impedance can be found here (thanks to luisdent):
http://www.head-fi.org/t/608553/review-comparison-two-flagships-pass-in-the-night-sony-xba-4-review-vs-the-mdr-ex1000
Search for "PSA: A Small Word On Tip Selection and Impedance".
Of relevance (which seems to relate to the xba3 as well):
"What we can gather from this is that the XBA-4 would sound quite different coming out of a Fiio E9, than say, an iPhone 4. Even when using Sony’s own players with impedances of around 3-4 ohms, there would be a difference in the highs compared to a low output impedance amplifier. Even an iPhone 4S with a ~ 2 ohm impedance would sound a little different from an iPhone 4.
There has been many complaints of the XBA-4 sounding somewhat disjointed, especially in regards to how the high frequencies do not mesh well with the lows. The XBA-4’s low / variable impedance could go some way (but not all the way) towards explaining some of these impressions. It could be expected that the XBA-4 would sound like garbage coming out of most of the listed desktop amps, with a gigantic 10k frequency spike. Besides simply changing the frequency balance, as I mentioned above, it would be expected that a 90 ohm spike in impedance would produce a challenge for some weaker headphone amplifiers, resulting in possible distortion.
When reading my impressions of the XBA-4 and thinking about how they might sound on your source, this is an extremely important consideration. For reference, the O2 amplifier and iPhone 4 I have been using have a relatively low output impedance of 0.5 ohms and 0.97 ohms respectively, with a great deal of power overhead for the XBA-4. The Objective 2 amplifier in particular is well regarded and is what I will be using for the critical A/B comparisons that follow."
But, I play my xba3 off of my samsung galaxy S2 which is 49 Ohms, and when using the light blue tips, they sound amazing.
Quote:
Can't say I like the asymetric cable very much, though.
I didn't at first either. But now I like it much better than the non-asymmetrical cables. By using a cable clip, and by having the right driver cable around the back of the neck, it means that when I want to pull out the drivers, I can do so and they just lay on the chest (or I can quickly throw them inside my shirt if I want to hide them), And they are ready to throw back in the ears at a moments notice. I can't figure out nearly as good a system with the symmetrical cables.
Edited by waynes world - 12/11/12 at 9:26pm
