I just wanted to verify that turning on the DSEE-HX nearly doubled my battery play time. I got 5.5 hours out of my “bad” pair on a plane trip earlier in the week. Since the improvement in sound quality with DSEE-HX is unnoticeable on a plane trip and since I’m more interested in reducing the...

Sony WF-1000XM3 A few brief comments about the WF-1000xm3s. I’ve had them since Aug 4th now. They arrived burning hot in the Texas summer heat; a bad sign for devices containing lithium-ion batteries. I liked their sound signature from the start. There’s adequate non-boated bass, the highs...

My E8s shift left about every other outdoor walk I take. The shift happens immediately after a drop-out. The soundstage shifts from centered to the 10am position (if a watch face was parallel to the ground). I've been able to quickly fix this by turning off bluetooth on my iPhone, then...

I got my second copy of the BeoPlay E8s. Unfortunately, they exhibit the same low level right bud crackling when reproducing piano/acoustic guitar type program material as my first copy. Additionally, this copy has slightly less transparency than the first, though the first has 3 weeks of...

I've compared these back-to-back with the Sony WF1000xs. In short, the sound signature of the E8s are much better than the WF1000xs in my opinion, and the E8s have far fewer dropouts. - The Sony's have a prominent mid-bass hump that is not present on the E8 - The Sony's don't have as much...

An update on the right bud crackling issue I mentioned last week. It goes away if I turn the volume of my iPhone up to 90-100%. Normally, I listen at 60-70%. Go figure. I'm bemused. (There's a thread on BeoPlay's forum mentioning the crackling as well. It seems to be a characteristic of...

Out of curiosity, what version of software do you have on your E8? Perhaps I have a bad copy of the E8, or perhaps my ears are just preternaturally attuned to listening for buzzes, crackles, and hums after having spent thousands of hours in studios and churches tracking down such issues...

You may be right. The distortion may well be the in the E8 hardware and how it interacts with tracks (though I hope there’s a software fix). Unfortunately, the crackling is happening on lots of tracks, mostly on soft piano music or other percussive pitched instruments (harp, DX7 electric piano...

Thanks for your feedback. To take out the question of the IOS BT hardware/software, I listened to the SoundCloud track on a Samsung Tab S2. The crackling was still there in the E8 right bud. Next, I listened to the "Shards of Heart" with my Etymotic ER4S IEMs. There is a noticeable hiss with...

To remove Spotify from the discussion, I found "Shards of Heart" on Daniel Ketchum's SoundCloud page. You can hear the same right bud issue in the SoundCloud version. This distortion is not present on the Sony WF1000x, the Bragi Dash, the Sennheiser Momentum 2 wireless, the Shure SE846 or the...

The BeoPlay E8 at V5.4.0 has lots of Codec artifacts: I purchased the BeoPlay E8 from Amazon to compare to my one day old Sony WF1000x set that I find a bit muddy in the low mid to upper bass regions. My goal is to find a truly wireless set that can compete with at least my UE700s or Klipsch...

You need a low impedance source because the SE846 impedance is non-linear. The impedance is higher for the low frequencies than it is at high frequencies. If you have a few ohms on the output, the HF will be attenuated as a result, resulting in boosted bass. I find the iPhone with the...

I just returned from Singapore last week where I compared the E70, IM04 and LS300 at Jaben Audio. Not having done my research beforehand, I didn't know the pedigree of the various IEMs, only that I wanted to try Audio-Technica after having made satisfying purchases of the M50x and MSR7 the...

By the way, Westone is selling their old stock of UM PRO 50s for $436 on Amazon. I'm picking up a pair to compare with my new ATH-IM04 and 1More Quad in relation to my W3s, W4s, and SE846s (maybe even the my Etomotic Er4s.) Source will be FiiO X5II. I'm hoping they're not too warm and that...

The metal around the plastic molding is shielding. A great deal more care has gone into it than would be needed for analog circuitry only; look at what appear to be micro electro-welds to ensure tight tolerances. The would suggest quite a bit of native digital processing in the dongle. An ADC...

As mentioned above, I've been working on a comparison of the detail possible with the different IEMs in my collection after noticing issues with the UM Pro30.  The specific detail used for comparison was fingernail clicks on the keys in the track performed by Marc-Andre Hamlin, on "The Composer...

You'll get some HF roll-off.  You could correct this with EQ if your player has it.  I notice quite a difference between the signature of the iPhone 6+ vs. the Fiio X5ii.  The Fiio X5ii is just brighter than the iPhone 6+ with the SE846s.  Interestingly, the Fiio X5ii is a bit warmer than the...

A couple comments on the slowness with a large library:   1) My iPhones have no problem with large libraries.  My iPhone 6+ has about 17000 tracks on it and exhibits no slowness in browsing.  And the iPod classic has all the 28000 files as on the X5ii without any of the lag.  I got the X5ii...

If the impedance of the IEM is not constant with frequency, you'll want an amp with an output impedance much less than the IEM's lowest impedance.  Otherwise, each amp will impart a different sound "signature" to the IEM since the amp impedance will interact with the IEM impedance to emphasize...

I have similar delays with a library of over 28000 tracks. I gave up on trying to navigate with anything but folders. For example, selecting a genre takes over a minute, getting out of genres takes a minute per push, etc. I divided up my library by artists, into 8 different folders, ABC, DEF...

  The difference is not large enough to indicate the HF drivers are out, but enough to dull the piano.  Plus, the muffled HF is the same in both ear pieces.  It's a tuning choice made by Westone, or a manufacturing variation in the driver/crossover response, or my old UM3x's filters have...

I got a pair of UM Pro 30s a few days ago and have had a chance to do a back-to-back comparison with my existing UM3Xs.  I find the UM Pro 30s to be a bit warmer than the UM3Xs, dropping more of the high end that otherwise lends atmosphere and sparkle to music.  When listening to piano, the...

I was using the white filters, but switched back to blue when I began noticing this effect under the premise that the lower frequency ranges wouldn't cause as much cochlear fatigue.  After all, the "A" weighted curve used to determine detrimental environmental sound exposure derates frequencies...

I bought an E12 for my SE846 to see what the HF response of that IEM would be with a very low impedance output amplifier.  The E12 is advertised with an output impedance of < 0.1 ohms, which is great for an IEM with as low and non-linear an impedance as the SE846.  There was a noticeable...

Do you adjust your volume based on the strength of the bass or by the mids and upper-midd?  I'm thinking that ignoring the strength of the bass is causing the problem.  As mentioned, my other everyday IEMS (UM3X, W3, SM3s, UE700) don't cause the issue.