[audionewbi]

After a long love and hate battle with XBA-4 I want to say I am glad I kept them. I finally learned how to EQ them and with what amp makes them sound good, what music suits them best. 
I love XBA-4 soundstage, instrument seperation. I love the sound of double bass in jazz music, I love the sound of cello in classical music. If they were not as sibilant as they are now they would be one among the best.
 
Hopefully I can purchase the EX-1000 and get to compare them soon.
 
I feel I have something special in my hand, I think in about 10 years time we will be looking back on this IEM with great nostalgia. 

 

[a_recording]

Quote:

After a long love and hate battle with XBA-4 I want to say I am glad I kept them. I finally learned how to EQ them and with what amp makes them sound good, what music suits them best. 
I love XBA-4 soundstage, instrument seperation. I love the sound of double bass in jazz music, I love the sound of cello in classical music. If they were not as sibilant as they are now they would be one among the best.
 
Hopefully I can purchase the EX-1000 and get to compare them soon.
 
I feel I have something special in my hand, I think in about 10 years time we will be looking back on this IEM with great nostalgia. 

 
Haha it's great that you finally came around to liking them.
 
I don't know if we can look back nostalgically on the XBA-4, but hopefully we can look back and say it was the start of something great with Sony and BA's.

 

[Carlsan]

The new XBA-40's are the new and improved version.
They sound wonderful and resolve the issues that the xba-4's had.
My observations, great bass, controlled high end, excellent SQ all around with nice detail.

 

[Inks]

XBA4 is terrible, awful, no way around it. XBA40 will have to be a huge step forward, but the inherited issues seem to occur because of the fourth driver's placement. XBA30 sound a lot more interesting as XBA3 was by far the best of the line-up. 

 

[DMinor]

Sony could just do a better marketing job on the EX1000 and forget about the other IEM's. I meant Sony you set the bar so high (with the EX1000) now you know it's not easy to surpass that.
 
What I am trying to say is ... the EX1000 is ridiculously excellent.

 

[audionewbi]

Quote:

XBA4 is terrible, awful, no way around it. XBA40 will have to be a huge step forward, but the inherited issues seem to occur because of the fourth driver's placement. XBA30 sound a lot more interesting as XBA3 was by far the best of the line-up. 

My main issue with XBA-4 was its mid, how I could not pinpoint the cause, I assume it was due to the excessive in high and low freq. which made the mid to be non-in existence, however the sound stage was just spot on for me. Did you try the golden-ear app? For me it eq was spot on, it fixed the hig and low freq. greatly. 

 

[azmadu]

This is probably the best comparison I've read in my short time as a new member on Head-Fi.  I was contemplating so many different sets of IEMs and for me this review sheds light on the real differences between BAs and Dynamic in a way that I'd never knew and was wondering myself what are the differences of one over the other.
 
Obviously they both have their strong points and merits as well as their shortcomings and as someone that has an eclectic taste in music, including artists such as Vangleis, John Williams (Star Wars et al), Hans Zimmer, George Benson, Miles D, Euge Groove and many others, I think I've now decided that it's worth having the XBA-40s (the replacements of the 4s) for on the go which will provide me with better isolation and therefore more deep bass as I'm surrounded by ambient noise, and when I'm stationary (or is that sedentary) at my desk then the EX1000 would be the choice.
 
I guess I must have gone through so many headphones in my life as they all tend to die eventually so having replaceable cables sounds like a good thing for the EX1000, but does anyone have any experience/knowledge of how easy it is to find replacements if needed, and how costly they are?  Are other IEMs that have replaceable cables cheaper than the Sony's or about the same ball park?

 

[Carlsan]

I compared the XBA-30's the XBA-40's here, for anyone interested.
 
Found that the 40'S are slightly darker than the 30's, and the 30's handle mids better than the 40's.
 
May do more comparisons. Also found that the 40's sounded better with my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, it just seemed to feed them better, so some of the original complaints with the XBA-4's, about them being source dependent, may still exist with the 40's.

 

[Seekky]

If i gotta pick from one of them.
I'll pick the EX1000 any day.

 

[mugen3]

+1 I had the lower end EX600 and they were already quite a bit better than the XBA-4.

 

[a_recording]

Quote:

This is probably the best comparison I've read in my short time as a new member on Head-Fi.  I was contemplating so many different sets of IEMs and for me this review sheds light on the real differences between BAs and Dynamic in a way that I'd never knew and was wondering myself what are the differences of one over the other.
 
Obviously they both have their strong points and merits as well as their shortcomings and as someone that has an eclectic taste in music, including artists such as Vangleis, John Williams (Star Wars et al), Hans Zimmer, George Benson, Miles D, Euge Groove and many others, I think I've now decided that it's worth having the XBA-40s (the replacements of the 4s) for on the go which will provide me with better isolation and therefore more deep bass as I'm surrounded by ambient noise, and when I'm stationary (or is that sedentary) at my desk then the EX1000 would be the choice.

 
Thanks for the comments... I did try to focus on the actual practical differences between the models.
 
I am really intrigued by the repeated comments that the XBA-40 is different. I wish we could get some kind of comprehensive confirmation that that was the case!

 

[Carlsan]

Quote:

 
Thanks for the comments... I did try to focus on the actual practical differences between the models.
 
I am really intrigued by the repeated comments that the XBA-40 is different. I wish we could get some kind of comprehensive confirmation that that was the case!

 
I have both the 4 and the 40, my faulty memory tells me that they are different, but best to check with some A/B checking. If I remember correctly, I thought the 40 handled bass better, will confirm when I can.
I'll try to do some comparisons over the weekend and post back.

 

[Carlsan]

I just put up more comparisons here
When amp'd the XBA-40 sounds amazing, and yes, better than the XBA-4.

 

[mugen3]

Quote:

I am really intrigued by the repeated comments that the XBA-40 is different. I wish we could get some kind of comprehensive confirmation that that was the case!

 
Currawong confirmed with Sony that the XBA-30 had their sound tweaked. The same is probably true for the 40.

 

[a_recording]

Quote:

I just put up more comparisons here
When amp'd the XBA-40 sounds amazing, and yes, better than the XBA-4.

 
Quote:

 
Currawong confirmed with Sony that the XBA-30 had their sound tweaked. The same is probably true for the 40.

 
That does it. I'm going to get to the bottom of this myself. Ordered! :3 In the Champagne.