[aiaosu]

Wow, the EX800ST with tape mod and amp is raw power. I've never felt every hit and kick of bass from IEMs before...it's a strange but addicting feeling.

 

[vapman]

Wow, the EX800ST with tape mod and amp is raw power. I've never felt every hit and kick of bass from IEMs before...it's a strange but addicting feeling.

Well there goes another one down the rabbit hole

 

[Deders]

My MDR XB90EX's have arrived and I'm very happy with them.  At first they sounded worse than my EX700's but sure enough after about 12 hours burn-in they really opened up and were everything I'd hoped for.  Wide soundstage, great separation and dat bass.  Meghan Trainor knows nothing of that bass (tbh I think she's confusing it with something else entirely)

I'm not sure why but I've had a feeling in the back of my head that the old MDR series lost some of their oomph after a year or two's use.  What I'm hearing now is much closer to what I heard with my first set of MDR EX300's.  My several year old EX700's sound lifeless in comparison.  Hoping it doesn't happen to these or I might need to order a lifetime's supply from Japan.

Plugging these straight into my Sony NWZ A829, it's clear that they don't need an amp with this particular DAP.  Tried it with the Cayin C5 and it just made them louder, no real difference in sound quality.  (Quite thankful really because the C5 is 2.5x the surface area of the DAP and they just look silly strapped to each other.  Plus the straps cover either the buttons or the screen) They already make my ears ring far too quickly if I crank the DAP to the max.  I'm still unsure why Sony would downgrade their headphone output and market it as a built in headphone amp for later models.  I've seen this bizarre form of logic from them on a few occasions, they do indeed work in mysterious ways.

Not sure if it's down to deterioration or what, but the XB90EX's are louder from the same source than my EX700's.  Could this mean they are easier to drive?
 

A couple of things that are bugging me:

No matter what tips I put on, when I put one in my right ear which has a smaller canal, it always forms a vacuum until I adjust it and let some air in.  This means at first I can hear absolutely nothing whatsoever in my right ear.  It's odd because I used the same size tips for my EX700 and it's never happened to me before.  I can almost hear a similar effect to phasing unless I have it in the right position.  It can't actually be phasing because my head (and hopefully brain) is in the way of the sound-waves actually meeting, it might just be slight differences in sound as it bounces off my different sized ear canals at different angles.  New tips are definitely needed.  To save searching back through 7500 posts, can anyone recommend me a few different types?

There also seems to be an unnatural hump at around 5KHz, something I noticed with the EX-650's that I bought for my GF.  It's not something I'm used to with any of the EX300/500 or 700's.  It also seems to vary depending on what position I have my right earphone in, probably due to the not quite phasing effect I described above.

Thankfully I've managed to tune it out in the (secret) service menu which has a couple of additional EQ settings.  I can choose a bass frequency and a treble frequency and raise or lower it.  for some reason these DAP's come with 50Hz set to -4.5DB.  Of course I rectified this and Set it to dip by 1.5DB at 100Hz (Seems to have more sub definition that just setting it to 0DB), I also set 5KHz to -6DB which is enough to even out the hump (I'd ideally like 6.5).

EQ wise, I can either crank it up with no EQ to get great bass, or I can lower the volume, raise the ClearBass up a notch and I still get the detail I expect in Massive Attack's unfinished sympathy (maxing the clearbass with these phones loses the detail) and not have to worry so much about my ears.  Plus I can increase the treble a couple of notches for crisper cymbals.  I also raised 1KHz, 2.5KHz and 6.3KHz, leaving 400Hz slightly dipped (relative to the others) which again leaves more room for the sub frequencies to have more of an impact.

I was hoping to get some sleep tonight, but I seem to have lost the ability to get these earphones out of my ears.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Can you help?

 

[vapman]

Glad you like em. The 90ex are not actually that hard to drive. It's just weak sources will make them seem power starved. I was using it out my Xduoo x3 last night and forgot I didn't have bass boost on.

 

[Deders]

Guys... guys... I still can't seem to remove them... guys, I need help..... anybody there?  I'm reaching for the rum.  This is not going to end well.

While I'm still making sense I noticed a suggestion for a few tracks for testing bass response and I thought I'd share three of my go-to tracks for bass.

The first I've mentioned a few times is Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy which has a lush reverb on the initial bass notes that get muddied out when the wrong kind of EQ is applied.



I'm using the full album rips because the "best of" CD and Vevo video's are heavily compressed, dynamic range is lost and the impact of the bass drum in this next track is lessened, making the test pointless.

For this next one, it's how clear the bass drum sounds along with the initial bass.  I'd expect any modern bass oriented headphone to pass this one without distorting.


 
Now for the full bass treatment, this is a truly immense bass sound.  Note it is not the actual Skrillex track, it is the Noisia remix.  This is how the track should have been made.  Wait for the drop.



Let me know if any of you find this useful.
 

 

[chillaxing]

Guys... guys... I still can't seem to remove them... guys, I need help..... anybody there?  I'm reaching for the rum.  This is not going to end well.


While I'm still making sense I noticed a suggestion for a few tracks for testing bass response and I thought I'd share three of my go-to tracks for bass.


The first I've mentioned a few times is Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy which has a lush reverb on the initial bass notes that get muddied out when the wrong kind of EQ is applied.





I'm using the full album rips because the "best of" CD and Vevo video's are heavily compressed, dynamic range is lost and the impact of the bass drum in this next track is lessened, making the test pointless.


For this next one, it's how clear the bass drum sounds along with the initial bass.  I'd expect any modern bass oriented headphone to pass this one without distorting.




Now for the full bass treatment, this is a truly immense bass sound.  Note it is not the actual Skrillex track, it is the Noisia remix.  This is how the track should have been made.  Wait for the drop.





Let me know if any of you find this useful.

 

Rum, xb90, lots of bass tracks? It all adds a up to a good time.

Dont seem like a problem to me.

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

Wow, the EX800ST with tape mod and amp is raw power. I've never felt every hit and kick of bass from IEMs before...it's a strange but addicting feeling.

 While bass testing for the purpose of this thread I pushed these so hard they ****ed up my ears.
 Not with anything except bass. I am investing in some over ears to allow my ears to recover.
True story.
 
Only IEM to **** my ears with bass.
 Be careful not to blow an eardrum. I hate when folks say **** like that as if they ******* care...but seriously...these will hurt you if you let em

 

[Deders]

Rum, xb90, lots of bass tracks? It all adds a up to a good time.

Dont seem like a problem to me.

Quote:

 
How it went....
 


How it should have gone...

 
I can get quite excitable when submitting myself to audio stimulation.  This post sums it up nicely.  I probably won't see the problem until it's too late....

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

  I probably won't see the problem until it's too late....

 
 
It's already too late.
 
But hey...
 
 

 

[aiaosu]

 While bass testing for the purpose of this thread I pushed these so hard they ****ed up my ears.
 Not with anything except bass. I am investing in some over ears to allow my ears to recover.
True story.

Only IEM to **** my ears with bass.
 Be careful not to blow an eardrum. I hate when folks say **** like that as if they ******* care...but seriously...these will hurt you if you let em

I appreciate it. It's fun but a blown eardrum would not be. You know it's a legit hobby when you can get hurt doing it.. Haha

 

[Deders]

   
 
It's already too late.
 
But hey...
 
 

 

[Deders]

Seriously, I've had days like this.

 

[Mtlhd]

   
 
It's already too late.
 
But hey...
 
 

 
 

 

 
yeah this happened 2 nights ago, wife away, house to myself, new 90ex's.......got waaaaayyyy outta hand, didnt realise at the time was sooo good & baaasssss sssoooo clean 
then did a comparison with v-moda m100's, same tracks.........got the e12 juiced nearly flat out  was totally sick
still got the headache today + tinnitus is just that little bit worse 
 
hope you all enjoyed yourselves 

 

[Deders]

   
 
 
yeah this happened 2 nights ago, wife away, house to myself, new 90ex's.......got waaaaayyyy outta hand, didnt realise at the time was sooo good & baaasssss sssoooo clean 
then did a comparison with v-moda m100's, same tracks.........got the e12 juiced nearly flat out  was totally sick
still got the headache today + tinnitus is just that little bit worse 
 
hope you all enjoyed yourselves 

It's an epidemic,  Could bring the world as we know it, to a halt.

Note to self, need more rum.

 

[Deders]

OK, woke up late this afternoon to find the Ivy is now completely missing from the front of the house.