heatofamatch said:

  Sony's IEM tuning has come a long way. They stumbled through the EX700, XBA-single digit, XBA-double digit, XBA-H, to now arrive at the XBA-A/Z which I feel is finally fully formed and very well-rounded in spite of Sony's current sonic subservience to EDM. You can hear the quality underneath the tonal balance.
 
The ER-4S is an all-time favorite of mine, but if at all possible, try it on for fit before commiting to the purchase. There's also the cheaper HF5, which at least in the beginning was just the ER4 without the driver matching process in manufacturing.

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i tried HF5 couple of times ... it is good but was not impressed or liked it .... it is good iems but really lack bass and sound stage ... it is too in my head feeling 

mmet said:

 

heatofamatch said:

  Sony's IEM tuning has come a long way. They stumbled through the EX700, XBA-single digit, XBA-double digit, XBA-H, to now arrive at the XBA-A/Z which I feel is finally fully formed and very well-rounded in spite of Sony's current sonic subservience to EDM. You can hear the quality underneath the tonal balance.
 
The ER-4S is an all-time favorite of mine, but if at all possible, try it on for fit before commiting to the purchase. There's also the cheaper HF5, which at least in the beginning was just the ER4 without the driver matching process in manufacturing.

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i tried HF5 couple of times ... it is good but was not impressed or liked it .... it is good iems but really lack bass and sound stage ... it is too in my head feeling 

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all etymotics are like that. it's an acquired taste, and I wouldn't imagine jumping from sony IEMs or headphones to etymotic to be a seamless passage. sony is rarely light on bass(the xba-1 would give a slight idea of the how much bass and sub are to be expected, but the later monodrivers are already a lot).
anyway those who are curious about the signature at least, should first try one of the cheap ety stuff. mk5 or etykid would be the safest choices as they cost pretty much nothing and still have something close to the signature of an er4. not as sharp and precise, nor as well extended in the trebles, but close.
the hf5 is a great in-between, but paying for it just to try the ETY signature is too much IMO. also the hf5 will let you get some hiss from the A10. when all the others won't(less sensitive and/or higher impedance). I have them all, I only sold the er4 because even after changing the cable, the tips, using the clip and all the stuff you can read about on the er4's topic, there was still way too much mechanical noises for a use on-the-go(at least for me). the other models have different shell and cables and no removable cable, as a result they are less prone to what we wrongly call "microphonic noises".

I love my Ety but strongly suggest everyone to avoid MC5 at all cost. Also, I'll recommend Zero Audio DX200 for Classical as well. A10 should have no problem driving DX200 and get to keep a similar Ety-like sound without being too sterile.

Many people compared ER4 sounds to Aurisonics Rocket being almost  identical. I use Rocket with A10, so it kinda like ER4 in an iron man suit.

clieos said:

  I love my Ety but strongly suggest everyone to avoid MC5 at all cost. Also, I'll recommend Zero Audio DX200 for Classical as well. A10 should have no problem driving DX200 and get to keep a similar Ety-like sound without being too sterile.

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What i can say I love My MDR-1R's with classical, tough they required a long time to burn-in, now they sound awesome balanced and neutral

gerelmx1986 said:

  What i can say I love My MDR-1R's with classical, tough they required a long time to burn-in, now they sound awesome balanced and neutral

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MDR-1R is indeed an excellent all-arounder.

here is another pick .... Sense Me channels are very sensitive to changes ... change any little thing in the player ... even adding album art or so ... may ruin the whole thing and you need to update the channels from the beginning  

Currently my local Sony store only has the 16gb model available, they may get the 64gb one soon. Would it make sense to just get the 16gb model and put all my music on a 128gb instead of a 64gb model with a 64gb card?

beninnzorjp said:

Currently my local Sony store only has the 16gb model available, they may get the 64gb one soon. Would it make sense to just get the 16gb model and put all my music on a 128gb instead of a 64gb model with a 64gb card?

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yes ... get the 16gb one and the 128gb sd card 

This is my Japanese player has more volume than my A15!

mmet said:

  here is another pick .... Sense Me channels are very sensitive to changes ... change any little thing in the player ... even adding album art or so ... may ruin the whole thing and you need to update the channels from the beginning  

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any modified file will need a re-scan. your only alternative is to scan the files with mediago and then upload with it onto the A10. I use mediago only for that, as I find it to be a really poor ... everything else ^_^.
 

kvud said:

  This is my Japanese player has more volume than my A15!

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my euro A867 is also louder than the A15. it's a fallacy to make an assessment about japan vs euro exports based on 2 different models.

Does anyone upgrade from J3 to a15/a17? Upgrade like that makes sense? All I care about now is sound quality.

pietro77 said:

Does anyone upgrade from J3 to a15/a17? Upgrade like that makes sense? All I care about now is sound quality.

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all you care about is sound quality? or all you care about is sound quality as long as the DAP is small has crazy long battery and plays most formats? ^_^ because if you're really only after sound quality, then neither the J3 nor the A10 are the best you can get for the money. but you would need to make other sacrifices.

Maybe I wasn't precise enough. I meant situation when we talk only about j3 and a15,and I have to choose between this two. If upgrade don't make sense I will stick with j3.