Rocketfish is the Best Buy house brand of audio components/accessories. When I picked these up I was getting sick of the 'pinched' sound of my CX300ii series B, or whatever name Sennheiser has attached to them. By 'pinched' I mean boosted in the wrong places of the spectrum. I don't believe in spending $500 on iems that are going to be sweated on, tossed in a gym bag and otherwise abused. Hell I don't believe in spending $500 on iems period. You can get some fabulous circumaurals for that. So I went on a quest to see what I could get for less than ten bucks that would give me listenable sound without amping, eq, or heartache if I step on/spill beer on/(insert untimely earphone death here). I actually didn't have to go far because I picked these up while wandering through Best Buy, and haven't looked back.
<subjective listening impression>
Where my senn iems try to be something they are not (which is hi-fi) by boosting mid bass and treble (and doing it in the wrong spots), these simply don't do anything wrong. They have a slight boxy sound which is typical of anything in this price range, it isn't as offensive as you would think, and makes them quite listenable. Treble is rolled off but pleasant. In fact while listening to Iron Maiden's 'Fear of the Dark' I was surprised at how smooth overall these iems are all the way through the sound spectrum. The cymbals weren't harsh, the lead guitars weren't piercing. In fact I spent more time than I expected to just sitting and enjoying Steve Harris' bass lines. On to some Whitechapel where again, just warm smooth, and detailed. There's a bit of that 'cardboard snare' you tend to get in cheaper iems, but it's not as bad here as the senns.
On the bad side, where my more expensive senns can accept a ridiculous amount of sub bass without complaint, when I put on some DJ Billy E at low levels I could hear rattling so these are no good for hip hop or bass music.</subjective listening impression>
<subjective listening impression>
Where my senn iems try to be something they are not (which is hi-fi) by boosting mid bass and treble (and doing it in the wrong spots), these simply don't do anything wrong. They have a slight boxy sound which is typical of anything in this price range, it isn't as offensive as you would think, and makes them quite listenable. Treble is rolled off but pleasant. In fact while listening to Iron Maiden's 'Fear of the Dark' I was surprised at how smooth overall these iems are all the way through the sound spectrum. The cymbals weren't harsh, the lead guitars weren't piercing. In fact I spent more time than I expected to just sitting and enjoying Steve Harris' bass lines. On to some Whitechapel where again, just warm smooth, and detailed. There's a bit of that 'cardboard snare' you tend to get in cheaper iems, but it's not as bad here as the senns.
On the bad side, where my more expensive senns can accept a ridiculous amount of sub bass without complaint, when I put on some DJ Billy E at low levels I could hear rattling so these are no good for hip hop or bass music.</subjective listening impression>
