- Joined
- Oct 6, 2013
- Posts
- 15,499
- Likes
- 49,418
Finally found out what my problem was...apparently the polarity of the sockets in the Tia Fourtes were opposite to my other iems. Therefore my initial impressions were based on the out of phase sound that was coming out of them. However after I made this discovery, I found that the bass was a bit too thick with the 1960 cable so I went out last week to try out a bunch of different cables. Finally ended up with the Brise Audio UPG Ref and enjoying them immensely so far.
Hang on, I'm a bit confused, and by some of the comments above this is snowballing into more confusion for others as well
What cable were you using during your initial impressions, stock or 1960 or something else? And how did you have it attached? When it comes to polarity, the socket has 2-wire connection which is symmetric as long as you are consistent between L/R earpieces. So, for example, if you are using stock cable, it has Red (right side) and Blue (left side) dots to make sure you are consistent with both dots facing the same way when connecting the cable. With 1960 cable, you have pre-shaped earhook and need to be sure that you attach L/R sides correctly (marked on the cable with red R and blue L), while pre-shaped earhook goes only one way to guide you when attaching the cable. It's designed to be foolproof unless the cable has no markings, then you have to figure out which side is left/ride (in a worse case attach the cable and play with Balance control of your source to fade left/right so you know if you got it), and look at the plastic housing part of the connector above the pins to make sure the side with a notch in the middle is facing outward.
Among others, I have UM Maestro, Earsonics SEM9, and UE UERR/18+Pro, and with an exception of UE having a different diameter pins requiring me to use UE stock cable, UM and Earsonics work fine with all of my other universal 2pin connector cables. And the same with Fourte and U18, nothing is reversed or requires special cable or anything unique. As long as you are consistent between L/R sides with a cable's 2-pin connector polarity - you are all set!