[Tom Drinkwater]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowth /img/forum/go_quote.gif but would you use headphones for stage monitoring?

absolutely, if audiences would accept it...

but people are funny about it..

 

[pirate6955]

i have westone um2's with custom molds. i think they use vinyl for the clear molds. the first impression i got was done mouth closed. the seal would break whenever i moved my mouth around. i had them remolded mouth open. they seal tight no matter what. are super comfy and have no microphonics from the cordset. the sound is pretty good, they are very efficient.

i think westone has a good reputation among stage performers. the ES2 or ES3 should work well.

2 cents.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

pirate, what have you compared he UM2's with?

mine seem to seal fine, its just i'm not that impressed with the sound.

in general are IEMs less good quality for the same money than over ear phones?

 

[slowth]

u mean headphones?

 

[StudioAce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowth /img/forum/go_quote.gif but would you use headphones for stage monitoring?

I think that drummers can get away with using headphones on stage as they sit and stay in one place. I'm not sure how cool that would look for a lead singer wearing headphones down center stage fronting the band.

Your fans on the break would probably be saying to you "hey man have you seen those headphones you stick in your ears".

If you do use them please post pictures.

 

[slowth]

ha yeah don't tink frontmen look all too sexy with headphones

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

its the sexy cyborg look....

 

[slowth]

sexy mickey...

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

seriously though, do headphones perform better for the same money than IEMs? it sure looks like it to me at the moment.

are the best IEMs as good as audiophile headphones?

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

next step, I'm trying some futuresonic atrio M5s

i'm not getting customs till i find a universal that sounds ok to me... then i'll go for a custom of that.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

briefly here's what I've found.

* none of the IEMs were anything like as good as my AKG K271 headphones. even though some cost considerably more. This worries me. am i doing something wrong?

* UM1

the UM1s have a tight focused midrange, so far so good, they have very little bass and very little treble over about 8k. they have a fatiguing peak at about 3k.

If i EQ them quite a lot with a precise digital EQ they sound almost OK

* UM2

the UM2 sounds like the UM1 but with much much more bass. the 3k peak is less noticable, because the bass sort of counteracts it, but it is still there, the highs are the same as the UM1. sounds better than the UM1 overall, but with EQ i prefer the UM1. the bass on the UM2 is muddy and if you turn it down its still muddy, wheras the bass on the UM1s is tight, but theres very little of it, turn it up and its still tight tho.

it doesn't respond as well to EQ as the UM1, perhaps its faults are not just frequency respose , but include other problems like crossover related phase inaccuracies, which eq can't fix?

* atrio

these have a sort of smoother and more natural sound, less forward than the westone IEMs. but they have massively far too much bass which overpowers everything else. they also have a fatiguing midrange peak, a little higher than the westones, maybe about 5k, and less pronounced.

both westones fit very comfortably and sealed well, the atrios were also ok in this regard, but not quite as low profile in the ear as the westones

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

after more reading it seems that it is recognised that IEMs give poor price to performance ratio compared to headphones.

so can anyone tell me what price level i would need to go to to get a IEM with the sound quality of say a AKg K501 or K271 or equivalent midrange audiophile headphone?

 

[monolith]

If you haven't tried the Etymotic ER-4P you really should. They're very accurate to my ears with the exception of their light bass, but that's easily cured with some EQ.

I haven't read through this whole thread (you asked me to comment), so I don't know if you've looked into customs like Livewires, but I've heard good things about their accuracy.

I like the UM2s a lot, but they're not for your purposes it seems (ie. accuracy).

I have some Jays Q-Jays coming to me as well, which are said to sound like ER-4Ps with a little more bass, so you might want to look into those as well. In terms of sheer sound quality, the ER-4Ps rank very high among the headphones I own, perhaps a little under the K500s (which are excellent). They're difficult to compare however. I don't find it's very fair to compare IEMs to full size headphones.

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

thanks for the info monolith, unfortunately i'm exactly in the position of comparingIEMs and full size headphones, I'm very happy with the sound of my K271 (which i think is very similar to a K500 but closed) and I use them for studio tracking and live streaming internet gigs - but i need to get something in ear for streaming video and in person live gigs where the audience can see me, and i'd like it to sound as good as the K271s if possible.

I'm considering the livewires, but I'm so far fairly disillusioned with IEMs so I'm concerned it may be a waste of money...

 

[Tom Drinkwater]

anyone got both the ER4P and the livewires? comparisons?

I'm concerned that the etys may be less ergonomic for live performance, although i'd like to try them for sound.