vYu223
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2005
- Posts
- 964
- Likes
- 14
Hi guys, my name is Vince and I would like to provide a little background of my headphone-listening experiences. I remember only using my bro's headphones (the ones that wrap around the back instead of the top of your head) when I was little, and also the earbuds that came with the cd player (sony) he passed onto me.
Then, when I finally got my own pair of headphones, my mom went out to some store and bought one for me (because my bro and sis had their own and I didn't). They were the same wrap-around-the-back-of-the-head style. The sound quality of it was a bit worse than the ones I used before (my bro's), but, surprisingly to me now, I didn't care at that time! I just used them.
Then I remember asking my parents for an iPod, but then my sister just got one (I think), so I had to do something by myself. I dug up the old Rio mp3 player that my sister had trouble getting to work, and got it to work (she had trouble using the realjukebox software or whatever it was. I just used the thing as a hard drive and dragged music files into it. Worked like a charm). I used the same pair of earbuds I used with the cd player (oh yea I forgot to mention that that cd player died - just stopped working, so that's why I was looking for an mp3 player). I used it with my The North Face jacket (with the clip on the cuffs, or whatever it's called), and successfully listened to music during class (by routing the wire through the sleeve and clipping the headphone into place on the cuff part.
. Then the Rio mp3 player started dying. It sometimes just didn't turn on. Eventually it just stopped turning on. So I lived without portable music for a while.
Then, one day, my dad came back from a business trip to China, and, unexpectedly, he had a black box. It was an iPod. For me.
I thought that since the earbuds that came with the iPod have neodynium drivers, they are really good. I laugh at myself now.
I used to always go to the apple website and look around in the store. I thought that I'd have to spend a "steep" price of $40 for the Apple In-Ears and then I'd be set for life. Then I searched for "iPod" in Google, and iLounge.com was the first thing that came up. I read Jeremy Horowitz's (he's the guy that reviews most, if not all, of the products on that site) reviews for a very long time, and then found out about Head-fi when I was looking at the site that has instructions for building a Cmoy. I didn't really do much, and kept going to iLounge instead. I was really sure of buying the Etymotic ER-6i because of the reviews, and didn't really want to consider the iM716 because of the review it got (from Jeremy Horowitz). Then when I checked back to the page of the ER-6i's, I looked at the comments and one of them said something along the lines of, "Let's wait for a real audiophile to give us a review." Then I realized that Jeremy Horowitz, although a good reviewer, may not necessarily be an audiophile. Also, I realized that I shouldn't be getting all of my opinions about products from one person, especially from someone who may not necessarily be an audiophile. So I came back to head-fi looking for information. When I found out that the iM716's cost $70, I thought that Altec Lansing made a new version or something. Wrong. Amazon just lowered the price. Sweet! So I kept looking around head-fi for more info on the iM716s, and was convinced. I even made a pic of the iM716's my desktop background. It's still my desktop background! I got it from this thread: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ighlight=im716 Great thanks to kwkarth for providing such an excellent photo that perfectly fits my monitor resolution!
After more research, I finally got my dad to order me the IEM's from Amazon (I paid him back): http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=183991
Ok, now for the First Impressions. However, let me warn you that I have not really listened to any headphone that may have been worthy of head-fi. I only listened to the generic headphones. Therefore, I have no experience with high-quality headphone products, and cannot really compare the iM716's to anything. That said, let's move on.
I was just doing normal stuff in the house when I noticed a box on the coffee table in the living room. I was thinking, "Hmmm, from Amazon. For [my dad's name]. Did he order anything from Amazon? This can't possibly be the iM716's. Don't be excited. The order had the estimated arrival date of June 15-17th. It's only the 13th!" So I asked my dad if he ordered anything else from Amazon. He said no, so... This must be it!
Oohhh, the suspense!
The "bubble-wrap" -type packaging material
The goods
And finally, the headphones.
The front
The dreaded case
They even have "inMotion" engraved into the side of the styrofoam. That's fancy.
Opened it by peeling off the stickers and removed the chinese take-out style tabs. A lot of products have very sticky and difficult-to-remove stickers. This product is an exception. That's a plus. However, as with most stickers, it had the possibility of leaving a sticky residue. There wasn't too much residue right after I took off the stickers.
Wow, how fancy. They even have an indent/compartment for all of the instuctions, papers, and the coupon for FREE EARPLUGS. Very nicely packaged.
FREE ER-20's? Unbelievable.
Neatly tucked underneath the papers were the filters and the filter replacement tools, in their own little baggies (I kind of moved the baggies out of their original position before I took the picture).
You guys were right; the flanges DO have a tacky feel to it. They have better grip than the grips of my pens.
The case was quite easy to get acquainted with.
The case close with the headphones inside, with a quarter for scale. This thing is quite cumbersome. Look how thick it is! I mean it's a bit smaller than I expected (from other people's complaints) from an above view, but I now realize what they mean. It is TOO THICK! I have a lot of trouble fitting it into my pocket, even it is the only thing in that pocket. The design of the case allows things to get inside. I found pocket lint all over the flanges.
The clip is very inconvenient. By clipping it to the collar of my shirt, I had a fear that if I lowered my head, I might crush the pod with my chin. I just let the thing hang when I'm sitting down. Since I go to a school that requires collared shirts, it will be easier to find a place to clip the pod onto. But school is out and now it's summertime!
This is to show the size of the earphones, with a quarter for scale. They are actually smaller than I expected, since I read about many complaints stating that the earphones are too big. They are actually ok.
The earplugs went into my ears fine, and it was not that difficult getting a good seal. This surprised me, since this is my first time using IEM's. Maybe it's because I grew up using an ear-thermometer whenever I got the fever or flu or something.
When I began to listen to some music, I had a fear of turning the music up too far, since I had no ambient noise to compare the sound levels to. I was afraid of turning the volume too high, so I left it at a very modest volume level. It turns out later that it was far too low. When I first listened to the earphones with the volume that low, I could hear the details and such, and it was ok... It kinda sounded like someone put a pillow over the speakers, but that was because the volume was too low (with the vol. pot on the pod maxed out), and I didn't realize that (that the volume was too low) at the time. So I played some music and was a bit impressed... But I don't think that it was even qualified as "listening", because the volume was so low. I played the online first-person shooter America's Army (americasarmy.com), and the sound sounded a little bit... muffled. Like a pillow over the speakers, but a bit more severe than when playing music. I thought that that was normal, and that it would just get better after burn-in, so I just left it as is.
Also, almost forgot to say... The first time I inserted the IEM's into my ear, I was afraid of taking them out (didn't want a flange stuck in my ear). So I left them in my ears for maybe four hours. Lol, it was silly. I had the headphones plugged into my computer stereo (connected via usb), so whenever I had to leave the computer, I stopped the music and removed the jack and walked around with the headphones on. When my sister got irritated of having to repeat herself excessively, I decided that I had to take them out. I didn't want a flange to be stuck in my ear, so I gripped the top part of the flange when I was removing the units from my ears, and they came out, sometimes awkwardly, because the flanges are like hooks... they kind of hook onto the walls of my ear canals. But after practice, insertion and removal was a snap. I got the whole thing down within a day. Maybe it's because my ears coincidentally match the size that AL or Ety made for the flanges.
At 2:00 A.M. (I know I should be getting to sleep sooner), I was about to go to sleep, then decided to let my headphones go through burn-in while I was sleeping. I read in the sticky that you should put the volume one notch above normal listening levels, and that low volumes would not help burn-in. So I decided to turn it up. WOW. It was amazing. I heard details I've never heard before in songs that I listened to all the time. The bass was a little bit MORE than enough for my tastes. Nah, that would be exaggerating. The bass was PERFECT for my tastes. It was more than I expected, because from reviews, people complained about the Ety's or Altec's having very little bass. The listening experience was like being inside the concert hall itself. The piano sounded lively, and the bass... I felt it (in a good way). So I left the headphones to burn in while I went up to bed.
The very next morning, I checked the headphones, and the bass sounded a little bit... I don't know. I turned on/off the DFX plugin and turned on/off the SRS WOW effects plugin. I turned both of them off, but still in some of my music, specifically Hans Zimmer (I think the song title was "Brothers" or something), some of the bass sounded like there was a snare drum set in the "on" position (bass vibrated the snares) nearby. So I don't know about the bass. Everything still sounds good though.
I never tried the foamies yet.
Another thing is that my family kind of despises these headphones. When my family tries to say something to me to get my attention while I'm wearing my iM716s, I'm completely oblivious of their presence.
Also, will these IEM's hurt my social life and deteriorate my relationships? Sounds a bit extreme, but my family is a pretty pissed.
Conclusion:
I really like these earphones; they provide excellent detail and a sufficient amount of bass. They are comfortable to me; however, I wouldn't know how they would fare for others.
The packaging of the iM716's (I'm not talking about Amazon's packaging. I'm talking about the styrofoam packaging of Alec Lansing) is very fancy.
There's a coupon for Free ER-20's (or AL's version of it)!
The case is too big and overwhelmingly thick
The case's design allows foreign substances to become in contact with the headphones (pocket lint on flanges).
Pen style clip is not very convenient; an alligator style clip would be preferred.
IEM's isolation combined with society's ignorance of IEM's affects social life.
The bass sounds a bit raspy sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that's probably my stereo (connected via USB). My stereo is the Philips az2555 ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282 ) (got these from costco, hehe).
Then, when I finally got my own pair of headphones, my mom went out to some store and bought one for me (because my bro and sis had their own and I didn't). They were the same wrap-around-the-back-of-the-head style. The sound quality of it was a bit worse than the ones I used before (my bro's), but, surprisingly to me now, I didn't care at that time! I just used them.
Then I remember asking my parents for an iPod, but then my sister just got one (I think), so I had to do something by myself. I dug up the old Rio mp3 player that my sister had trouble getting to work, and got it to work (she had trouble using the realjukebox software or whatever it was. I just used the thing as a hard drive and dragged music files into it. Worked like a charm). I used the same pair of earbuds I used with the cd player (oh yea I forgot to mention that that cd player died - just stopped working, so that's why I was looking for an mp3 player). I used it with my The North Face jacket (with the clip on the cuffs, or whatever it's called), and successfully listened to music during class (by routing the wire through the sleeve and clipping the headphone into place on the cuff part.
Then, one day, my dad came back from a business trip to China, and, unexpectedly, he had a black box. It was an iPod. For me.
I thought that since the earbuds that came with the iPod have neodynium drivers, they are really good. I laugh at myself now.
I used to always go to the apple website and look around in the store. I thought that I'd have to spend a "steep" price of $40 for the Apple In-Ears and then I'd be set for life. Then I searched for "iPod" in Google, and iLounge.com was the first thing that came up. I read Jeremy Horowitz's (he's the guy that reviews most, if not all, of the products on that site) reviews for a very long time, and then found out about Head-fi when I was looking at the site that has instructions for building a Cmoy. I didn't really do much, and kept going to iLounge instead. I was really sure of buying the Etymotic ER-6i because of the reviews, and didn't really want to consider the iM716 because of the review it got (from Jeremy Horowitz). Then when I checked back to the page of the ER-6i's, I looked at the comments and one of them said something along the lines of, "Let's wait for a real audiophile to give us a review." Then I realized that Jeremy Horowitz, although a good reviewer, may not necessarily be an audiophile. Also, I realized that I shouldn't be getting all of my opinions about products from one person, especially from someone who may not necessarily be an audiophile. So I came back to head-fi looking for information. When I found out that the iM716's cost $70, I thought that Altec Lansing made a new version or something. Wrong. Amazon just lowered the price. Sweet! So I kept looking around head-fi for more info on the iM716s, and was convinced. I even made a pic of the iM716's my desktop background. It's still my desktop background! I got it from this thread: http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...ighlight=im716 Great thanks to kwkarth for providing such an excellent photo that perfectly fits my monitor resolution!
Ok, now for the First Impressions. However, let me warn you that I have not really listened to any headphone that may have been worthy of head-fi. I only listened to the generic headphones. Therefore, I have no experience with high-quality headphone products, and cannot really compare the iM716's to anything. That said, let's move on.
I was just doing normal stuff in the house when I noticed a box on the coffee table in the living room. I was thinking, "Hmmm, from Amazon. For [my dad's name]. Did he order anything from Amazon? This can't possibly be the iM716's. Don't be excited. The order had the estimated arrival date of June 15-17th. It's only the 13th!" So I asked my dad if he ordered anything else from Amazon. He said no, so... This must be it!
Oohhh, the suspense!
The "bubble-wrap" -type packaging material
The goods
And finally, the headphones.
The front
The dreaded case
They even have "inMotion" engraved into the side of the styrofoam. That's fancy.
Opened it by peeling off the stickers and removed the chinese take-out style tabs. A lot of products have very sticky and difficult-to-remove stickers. This product is an exception. That's a plus. However, as with most stickers, it had the possibility of leaving a sticky residue. There wasn't too much residue right after I took off the stickers.
Wow, how fancy. They even have an indent/compartment for all of the instuctions, papers, and the coupon for FREE EARPLUGS. Very nicely packaged.
FREE ER-20's? Unbelievable.
Neatly tucked underneath the papers were the filters and the filter replacement tools, in their own little baggies (I kind of moved the baggies out of their original position before I took the picture).
You guys were right; the flanges DO have a tacky feel to it. They have better grip than the grips of my pens.
The case was quite easy to get acquainted with.
The case close with the headphones inside, with a quarter for scale. This thing is quite cumbersome. Look how thick it is! I mean it's a bit smaller than I expected (from other people's complaints) from an above view, but I now realize what they mean. It is TOO THICK! I have a lot of trouble fitting it into my pocket, even it is the only thing in that pocket. The design of the case allows things to get inside. I found pocket lint all over the flanges.
The clip is very inconvenient. By clipping it to the collar of my shirt, I had a fear that if I lowered my head, I might crush the pod with my chin. I just let the thing hang when I'm sitting down. Since I go to a school that requires collared shirts, it will be easier to find a place to clip the pod onto. But school is out and now it's summertime!
This is to show the size of the earphones, with a quarter for scale. They are actually smaller than I expected, since I read about many complaints stating that the earphones are too big. They are actually ok.
The earplugs went into my ears fine, and it was not that difficult getting a good seal. This surprised me, since this is my first time using IEM's. Maybe it's because I grew up using an ear-thermometer whenever I got the fever or flu or something.
When I began to listen to some music, I had a fear of turning the music up too far, since I had no ambient noise to compare the sound levels to. I was afraid of turning the volume too high, so I left it at a very modest volume level. It turns out later that it was far too low. When I first listened to the earphones with the volume that low, I could hear the details and such, and it was ok... It kinda sounded like someone put a pillow over the speakers, but that was because the volume was too low (with the vol. pot on the pod maxed out), and I didn't realize that (that the volume was too low) at the time. So I played some music and was a bit impressed... But I don't think that it was even qualified as "listening", because the volume was so low. I played the online first-person shooter America's Army (americasarmy.com), and the sound sounded a little bit... muffled. Like a pillow over the speakers, but a bit more severe than when playing music. I thought that that was normal, and that it would just get better after burn-in, so I just left it as is.
Also, almost forgot to say... The first time I inserted the IEM's into my ear, I was afraid of taking them out (didn't want a flange stuck in my ear). So I left them in my ears for maybe four hours. Lol, it was silly. I had the headphones plugged into my computer stereo (connected via usb), so whenever I had to leave the computer, I stopped the music and removed the jack and walked around with the headphones on. When my sister got irritated of having to repeat herself excessively, I decided that I had to take them out. I didn't want a flange to be stuck in my ear, so I gripped the top part of the flange when I was removing the units from my ears, and they came out, sometimes awkwardly, because the flanges are like hooks... they kind of hook onto the walls of my ear canals. But after practice, insertion and removal was a snap. I got the whole thing down within a day. Maybe it's because my ears coincidentally match the size that AL or Ety made for the flanges.
At 2:00 A.M. (I know I should be getting to sleep sooner), I was about to go to sleep, then decided to let my headphones go through burn-in while I was sleeping. I read in the sticky that you should put the volume one notch above normal listening levels, and that low volumes would not help burn-in. So I decided to turn it up. WOW. It was amazing. I heard details I've never heard before in songs that I listened to all the time. The bass was a little bit MORE than enough for my tastes. Nah, that would be exaggerating. The bass was PERFECT for my tastes. It was more than I expected, because from reviews, people complained about the Ety's or Altec's having very little bass. The listening experience was like being inside the concert hall itself. The piano sounded lively, and the bass... I felt it (in a good way). So I left the headphones to burn in while I went up to bed.
The very next morning, I checked the headphones, and the bass sounded a little bit... I don't know. I turned on/off the DFX plugin and turned on/off the SRS WOW effects plugin. I turned both of them off, but still in some of my music, specifically Hans Zimmer (I think the song title was "Brothers" or something), some of the bass sounded like there was a snare drum set in the "on" position (bass vibrated the snares) nearby. So I don't know about the bass. Everything still sounds good though.
I never tried the foamies yet.
Another thing is that my family kind of despises these headphones. When my family tries to say something to me to get my attention while I'm wearing my iM716s, I'm completely oblivious of their presence.
Also, will these IEM's hurt my social life and deteriorate my relationships? Sounds a bit extreme, but my family is a pretty pissed.
Conclusion:
I really like these earphones; they provide excellent detail and a sufficient amount of bass. They are comfortable to me; however, I wouldn't know how they would fare for others.
The packaging of the iM716's (I'm not talking about Amazon's packaging. I'm talking about the styrofoam packaging of Alec Lansing) is very fancy.
There's a coupon for Free ER-20's (or AL's version of it)!
The case is too big and overwhelmingly thick
The case's design allows foreign substances to become in contact with the headphones (pocket lint on flanges).
Pen style clip is not very convenient; an alligator style clip would be preferred.
IEM's isolation combined with society's ignorance of IEM's affects social life.
The bass sounds a bit raspy sometimes, but I'm pretty sure that's probably my stereo (connected via USB). My stereo is the Philips az2555 ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282 ) (got these from costco, hehe).
