[barondla]

I like my Flare R2Pro. So why don't I use them all the time? 1. I miss the airy highs of the Sony XBA - H1. Supposedly Sony builds their own ba drivers. The Sony ba tweeter is the most extended sounding of all my IEMs. I am very picky about high frequencies. They can't be spitty or forward. If they are, I stop listening. 2. Tired of the foam tips. IEMs get used for portability. Takes almost a minute to prepare, insert, let foam expand, wrap wires over ear before playing. Inevitably, at that point they have to be removed to answer some question or to hear the outside world. 3. Not balanced. Asked for balanced during the Kickstarter. Got new Flares that are only balanced when using Bluetooth. Couldn't care less about BT. The Flares are as hard to drive as the HD600! Balanced would make so much difference.

The Trinity have the most dynamics and the most clarity. They also have the most uneven frequency response. They don't sound any airier than the single driver Flare - only brighter. Even with added damping in the purple filters, the highs bug me after a while. They are kind of rough and mechanical sounding. Adding more damping doesn't change the quality of the ba driver.

So I am still searching. I am beginning to think IEMs took the wrong path a few years ago. More on that later.

 

[majo123]

I like my Flare R2Pro. So why don't I use them all the time? 1. I miss the airy highs of the Sony XBA - H1. Supposedly Sony builds their own ba drivers. The Sony ba tweeter is the most extended sounding of all my IEMs. I am very picky about high frequencies. They can't be spitty or forward. If they are, I stop listening. 2. Tired of the foam tips. IEMs get used for portability. Takes almost a minute to prepare, insert, let foam expand, wrap wires over ear before playing. Inevitably, at that point they have to be removed to answer some question or to hear the outside world. 3. Not balanced. Asked for balanced during the Kickstarter. Got new Flares that are only balanced when using Bluetooth. Couldn't care less about BT. The Flares are as hard to drive as the HD600! Balanced would make so much difference.

The Trinity have the most dynamics and the most clarity. They also have the most uneven frequency response. They don't sound any airier than the single driver Flare - only brighter. Even with added damping in the purple filters, the highs bug me after a while. They are kind of rough and mechanical sounding. Adding more damping doesn't change the quality of the ba driver.

So I am still searching. I am beginning to think IEMs took the wrong path a few years ago. More on that later.

I agree the trinity iems are not perfect but highly musical compared to a lot of iems..i honestly think the master are fantastic from a price performance ratio though. I break iems constantly so try not to go over the £500 Mark. I would love to try some of the campfire range but if I broke a just under £1000 iem I would be crying.
The flares pro are getting great writeups (so far) and within a price range that if i damaged acceptable, I too am not bothered by there Bluetooth adapter as I would only use them wired , I think the only niggle at the moment (there could be more arise with further opinion, hence the wait) is the reported foams which apparently are giving the best results being like paper. Fit and comfort have had great feedback and im just waiting on more comparisons on other products.

 

[barondla]

The Flare R2Pro with Comply foam are very comfortable. They are so tiny and light. For very long listening they are my most comfortable IEMs. Had to fix a Flare once. Fell asleep and rolled over. Had to remove the driver and resolder one of the tabs. Man it was tough. The whole driver is 5.5mm across. Even worse then phono cartridge leads. Plus the original Flare had a back that unscrews to remove the 1 piece driver/cable assembly. If they aren't screwed back in exactly the same the bass level changes. That takes time to get correct. But I do like the Flare. Might mid them to balanced drive.

majo123 what do you break on IEMs?

 

[Karendar]

Man oh man, I really love my Skullcandy!! What GREAT earbuds!!!........

Nothing to see here. Carry on.

 

[OldDude04]

Man oh man, I really love my Skullcandy!! What GREAT earbuds!!!........

Nothing to see here. Carry on.

Haha.

 

[majo123]

The Flare R2Pro with Comply foam are very comfortable. They are so tiny and light. For very long listening they are my most comfortable IEMs. Had to fix a Flare once. Fell asleep and rolled over. Had to remove the driver and resolder one of the tabs. Man it was tough. The whole driver is 5.5mm across. Even worse then phono cartridge leads. Plus the original Flare had a back that unscrews to remove the 1 piece driver/cable assembly. If they aren't screwed back in exactly the same the bass level changes. That takes time to get correct. But I do like the Flare. Might mid them to balanced drive.

majo123 what do you break on IEMs?

This year I washed my dunus , broke my p1 cable and blew a driver in my master lol .

 

[majo123]

Man oh man, I really love my Skullcandy!! What GREAT earbuds!!!........

Nothing to see here. Carry on.

Hahaha yes but your skull candys are in hand lol

 

[OldDude04]

Hahaha yes but your skull candys are in hand lol

LMAO! Touche. They may make sub par IEMs, but they can ship all of them you want, lol.

 

[majo123]

LMAO! Touche. They may make sub par IEMs, but they can ship all of them you want, lol.

Mind you the amount of iems that I break perhaps I should be skull candying

 

[barondla]

Mind you the amount of iems that I break perhaps I should be skull candying

Wow, you are an inventive IEM destroyer. My father is the same. Constantly losing and tearing foam and ear tips. Ripping wires out of connectors, etc. Bought him Venture Electronics Monk+. 6 months and all he has managed is 1 lost foam. No biggie there are extras in the package. He loves the sound and the fact that the right ear piece foam is red and left is blue. Easy for 80 year old eyes to sort out!

He used to listen to Koss Porta Pro. He has 3 sets. Each have been repaired twice. Crushed ones by koss, wiring problems by me. His Schiit Magni amp has lived thru it all! When he finally breaks the Monks, they will be replaced. $5 makes a Skull Candy look expensive. Love Wild Lee and VE!

 

[CactusPete23]

Hi, Love the idea behind this thread!

This seems to be a safe place to ask what may be a stupid question... And I am pretty ignorant when it comes to Audio Electronics Theory, etc...

But I was looking at a DAP on Kickstarter, the AP200. It listed 2 Output Impedance levels. 4.8 Ohm, and then it said (32 Ohm Loaded).

Can any of you help me understand what the "32 Ohm loaded" means?

- The 4.8 Ohm impedance already has me worried because I have heard of the 1/8 rule, where the output impedance of an amp should be 1/8 the impedance of an IEM/Headphone to reduce risk of coloring the sound.... Meaning IEMs should have 8 X 3.2 or higher than around 24 Ohm impedance for lowest risk of problems.
- And 32 Ohms would mean all my IEMs would be way out of that range, as none are over 250 Ohms to match the 1/8 rule; Heck the DAP says it's for headphones from 16 to 150 Ohm...
So something tells me that the "loaded" impedance shouldn't be used with the 1/8 rule.

Thanks for any ideas !

 

[majo123]

Wow, you are an inventive IEM destroyer. My father is the same. Constantly losing and tearing foam and ear tips. Ripping wires out of connectors, etc. Bought him Venture Electronics Monk+. 6 months and all he has managed is 1 lost foam. No biggie there are extras in the package. He loves the sound and the fact that the right ear piece foam is red and left is blue. Easy for 80 year old eyes to sort out!

He used to listen to Koss Porta Pro. He has 3 sets. Each have been repaired twice. Crushed ones by koss, wiring problems by me. His Schiit Magni amp has lived thru it all! When he finally breaks the Monks, they will be replaced. $5 makes a Skull Candy look expensive. Love Wild Lee and VE!

I have a pair of ve monks and yes for the stupid amount of money they cost there pretty much throw away which with my clumsiness isn't a bad thing....unfortunately i prefer a better sound else I would buy loads of them lol.

 

[majo123]

Hi, Love the idea behind this thread!

This seems to be a safe place to ask what may be a stupid question... And I am pretty ignorant when it comes to Audio Electronics Theory, etc...

But I was looking at a DAP on Kickstarter, the AP200. It listed 2 Output Impedance levels. 4.8 Ohm, and then it said (32 Ohm Loaded).

Can any of you help me understand what the "32 Ohm loaded" means?

- The 4.8 Ohm impedance already has me worried because I have heard of the 1/8 rule, where the output impedance of an amp should be 1/8 the impedance of an IEM/Headphone to reduce risk of coloring the sound.... Meaning IEMs should have 8 X 3.2 or higher than around 24 Ohm impedance for lowest risk of problems.
- And 32 Ohms would mean all my IEMs would be way out of that range, as none are over 250 Ohms to match the 1/8 rule; Heck the DAP says it's for headphones from 16 to 150 Ohm...
So something tells me that the "loaded" impedance shouldn't be used with the 1/8 rule

Thanks for any ideas !

I have not heard of the 1/8th rule and my knowledge of output impedance is limited, but I'm sure someone will have more extensive knowledge on here, all i can say is have a look at other dap specs to compare and see what others are driving from them....the colorisation i have not heard of before.

 

[barondla]

The output impedance affects the amps ability to control the speaker drivers frequency response. Say a speaker has a peak of 2db at 50 hz. A higher output impedance might allow that that 50hz peak to bump up to +3 or 4db. All dynamic speakers have multiple dips and peaks. Look at a frequency response graph. So an IEM's sound signature could vary from low to high output impedance DAPs. Sometimes the sound is subjectively worse, but sometimes it can be an improvement. Multi drivers and crossovers also are harder to drive.

Now the disadvantage of low output impedance. To get low output impedance down in the 1 ohm range the amp has to use negative feedback. Negative feedback can make the amp sound unnatural. Ayre Acoustics hates negative feedback. So the PonoPlayer has none. This means an output impedance of ~ 3.1 ohms single ended or ~6.2 balanced. But every earphone I have compared, including the Trinity Atlas, sounds better balanced. To be fair this might back fire with some of those 8 driver per ear 8 ohm IEMs. I am actually interested in Hidiz now.

 

[CactusPete23]

I have not heard of the 1/8th rule and my knowledge of output impedance is limited, but I'm sure someone will have more extensive knowledge on here, all i can say is have a look at other dap specs to compare and see what others are driving from them....the colorisation i have not heard of before.

Here is where one place saw the 1/8 rule.... with some explanation... http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/headphone-amp-impedance.html