A brief summary about myself:
I, like most people I know, are just casual music lovers, however, instead of using earpods, I found myself reading and demo-ing lots about IEMs in the search of an IEM that I will finally settle down with. I will not consider myself an audiophile of any sorts, nor am I proficient in the technicalities of describing how an IEM sound, thus what I'm writing will probably appeal more towards newbies and casual readers. I have owned the 3SH for a few months and decided to write about it since it's relatively unknown.
A little about qdc:
From what I know, qdc is one of the biggest (or the biggest) player in the CIEM/IEM game in China, with their products being used by lots of musicians in China. Their sister company, QDC, produces audio equipment for the military.
Even though the 3SH is universal, the design can be customisable to the user's liking. Almost all their products in their lineup are offered in universal and custom and are the designs are both customisable, except for the lower range 1 driver Neptune.
Accessories:
The 3SH comes in a big black box, providing an airplane adaptor, 6.3mm adaptor, a carrying case, 4 pairs of standard eartips and a couple pairs of bi-flangle eartips and a cleaning tool. Nothing too fancy, nothing lacking, I have no issues here.
Built and Fit:
The cable and IEM itself seems top notch, not your typical cheap 'made in china' quality. The fit is very good, the basically a custom type shell with universal form factor. The 3SH is not very big, is fairly light, thus it sits very well in my ear.
Sound:
My first impression with the 3SH is that it is relatively neutral and balanced, where no frequency dominates another, however, all frequency are lifted a tad. After a few songs, I notice that the mids are slightly forward compared the the treble and bass, but not by much, giving it a very pleasant musical sound. One word to describe it would be neutral-warm.
The treble of the 3SH have just enough treble that the 3SH sounds sparkly, but never once did it sound overly bright or piercing. The lightly lifted treble sounds very good to me, though for people used to a darker sound may find it too bright at first.
The midrange is where I fell in love with this IEM. Being someone who owned mostly V-Shaped IEMs, I immediately realised what I was lacking all these years. Vocals sounds closer up, instruments sounds more realistic, resolution is top notch for the price. The midrange do carry some body, but it's not too thick, which I personally like.
Bass is nothing to shout about in this particular IEM. I personally find the bass to be good enough, with a pretty good punch in the mid bass while the sub bass is present but not emphasised. The bass reminds me of the Andromeda's bass, where some find it bass light, some find it to be perfect, and a small portion finds it to be bass heavy. I'd say the bass is only a hair shy of the Sony XBA A3's bass.
The details pickup up by this IEM is pretty good at this price point and slightly beyond, picking up lots of detail, without sounding analytical at all. Then there's the soundstage, which is the only let down in this IEM for me. It's quite small, which may cause music to sound a little congested. For an IEM at this price point (roughly $500) to have such a small soundstage is quite disappointing. However, that is the only aspect of the 3SH that let me down, overall I still believe that the 3SH sounds above its asking price, with a very good price to performance ratio,and a fun musical tuning that actually turned my grim mood to a more cheerful mood quite a few times. If they fix the 3SH's soundstage, this would be the perfect IEM for me... actually their flagship Gemini/8 Driver sounds like a fully grown up 3SH, with a lot better soundstage, but the extra $1000+ put me off hence why I ended up with the 3SH.
I, like most people I know, are just casual music lovers, however, instead of using earpods, I found myself reading and demo-ing lots about IEMs in the search of an IEM that I will finally settle down with. I will not consider myself an audiophile of any sorts, nor am I proficient in the technicalities of describing how an IEM sound, thus what I'm writing will probably appeal more towards newbies and casual readers. I have owned the 3SH for a few months and decided to write about it since it's relatively unknown.
A little about qdc:
From what I know, qdc is one of the biggest (or the biggest) player in the CIEM/IEM game in China, with their products being used by lots of musicians in China. Their sister company, QDC, produces audio equipment for the military.
Even though the 3SH is universal, the design can be customisable to the user's liking. Almost all their products in their lineup are offered in universal and custom and are the designs are both customisable, except for the lower range 1 driver Neptune.
Accessories:
The 3SH comes in a big black box, providing an airplane adaptor, 6.3mm adaptor, a carrying case, 4 pairs of standard eartips and a couple pairs of bi-flangle eartips and a cleaning tool. Nothing too fancy, nothing lacking, I have no issues here.
Built and Fit:
The cable and IEM itself seems top notch, not your typical cheap 'made in china' quality. The fit is very good, the basically a custom type shell with universal form factor. The 3SH is not very big, is fairly light, thus it sits very well in my ear.
Sound:
My first impression with the 3SH is that it is relatively neutral and balanced, where no frequency dominates another, however, all frequency are lifted a tad. After a few songs, I notice that the mids are slightly forward compared the the treble and bass, but not by much, giving it a very pleasant musical sound. One word to describe it would be neutral-warm.
The treble of the 3SH have just enough treble that the 3SH sounds sparkly, but never once did it sound overly bright or piercing. The lightly lifted treble sounds very good to me, though for people used to a darker sound may find it too bright at first.
The midrange is where I fell in love with this IEM. Being someone who owned mostly V-Shaped IEMs, I immediately realised what I was lacking all these years. Vocals sounds closer up, instruments sounds more realistic, resolution is top notch for the price. The midrange do carry some body, but it's not too thick, which I personally like.
Bass is nothing to shout about in this particular IEM. I personally find the bass to be good enough, with a pretty good punch in the mid bass while the sub bass is present but not emphasised. The bass reminds me of the Andromeda's bass, where some find it bass light, some find it to be perfect, and a small portion finds it to be bass heavy. I'd say the bass is only a hair shy of the Sony XBA A3's bass.
The details pickup up by this IEM is pretty good at this price point and slightly beyond, picking up lots of detail, without sounding analytical at all. Then there's the soundstage, which is the only let down in this IEM for me. It's quite small, which may cause music to sound a little congested. For an IEM at this price point (roughly $500) to have such a small soundstage is quite disappointing. However, that is the only aspect of the 3SH that let me down, overall I still believe that the 3SH sounds above its asking price, with a very good price to performance ratio,and a fun musical tuning that actually turned my grim mood to a more cheerful mood quite a few times. If they fix the 3SH's soundstage, this would be the perfect IEM for me... actually their flagship Gemini/8 Driver sounds like a fully grown up 3SH, with a lot better soundstage, but the extra $1000+ put me off hence why I ended up with the 3SH.
