Joe Bloggs
Sponsor: HiByMember of the Trade: EFO Technologies Co, YanYin TechnologyHis Porta Corda walked the Green Mile
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I... sell shoes?
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After the EQ argument in the MMM vs LCD-3 thread, I traded pm's with kiteki. I told kiteki to try my EQ method (like he already said he would). kiteki told me to try some real phones. So I did.
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Now all I need to complete my pants-on-head clown image among head-fiers is to polish that up into a full blown shootout writeup between the four phones and post it in a new thread outside. ("outside", coz this here is the loonie asylum or something
) I've already decided on the title:
"Philips on Mount Akina: SHE3580 A-spec vs UM3X vs XBA-3 vs IE80 vs FXD80"
...because I felt like Takumi driving the wheels off his beater AE86 to beat every single supercar that dared challenge him on Mount Akina...
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Originally Posted by Joe Bloggs
I may have PAID somebody to draw this for me, yup I really am pants-on-head dumb
See, I've been recruiting Chinese artists to draw for Eden of Xeno (EOX). I do this as a favor for their CEO, since I got to know her from working on the Hanabira translation and she is going to pay me (a bit) for some manga I'm editing in Chinese for her. So I got to know this artist, who seems to make a living drawing stuff for people to pass off as their own online (and have people go gaga over their l33t drawing skillz) and I brokered a drawing deal between him and EOX. After I did v.1 of my pantsu Mai (which was just the picture of the head-fi wedgy photochopped onto her head) I got the idea to ask him to draw it for me. He said he'd do it for free as a favor, but with the amount of modification this went through I ended up asking the CEO to mail the artist an extra $100RMB for this. I told her I'd pay her back. I think she won't ask me to actually pay her, since she owes me favours for doing this recruitment stuff on my own time, but I'm not counting on it
Dammit man, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING?
I... sell shoes?
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After the EQ argument in the MMM vs LCD-3 thread, I traded pm's with kiteki. I told kiteki to try my EQ method (like he already said he would). kiteki told me to try some real phones. So I did.
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Per your suggestion, I went to Mongkok and demoed the best IEMs I could get my hands on.
I said before in ljokerl's IEM thread that tuning an IEM in detail with a parametric EQ is like no-holds-barred total racing spec modification for a car, even something like a Toyota Supra, in racing trim, can beat a stock supercar. That turned out to be the whole truth from what I heard today.
SHE3580 A-spec (standing for the A-shaped EQ curve, and also for full-on racing tuning) went up against
Westone UM3X
Sony XBA-3
Senn IE80
JVC FXD80
And none of them except the XBA-3 got even close without the help of the 10-band EQ on Poweramp.
I played pre-EQed tracks on the SHE3580 and the unaltered tracks I just re-loaded on my phone on the challengers.
Main tracks tested were
Hotel California (from Hell Freezes Over album)
Re-Sublimity (OP to Kannazuki No Miko)
The UM3X and IE80 sounded similar: bloated bass, muffled highs. I would even put the stock SHE3580 above them. (but below the FXD80 and XBA-3)
FXD80 sounded ok, except they had amazingly boosted high highs. Not at sibilance frequency but still, they sound good for about a minute and then it's time to either dial in EQ or take the phones off or claw your ears off.
The XBA-3 was the best of the bunch for me. It gets the balance about right, and with a boost to 1kHz and 2kHz on the equalizer the timbre is also about right. Without that boost vocals sound off. Still can't compare to the SHE3580 A-spec in smoothness in the highs.
I tried to pay attention to the imaging like you said, but couldn't find anything special in them. I demoed the IE80 because DustDevil told me those are supposed to have a reputation for great imaging, well I didn't hear anything like that. If anything thanks to the instruments sounding more realistic to me on the SHE3580 A-spec, they at least gain a more realistic presence in my headstage. None of the phones gave me convincing out-of-head imaging. The XBA-3 imaging was a bit different from the rest in that the opening guitar plucks off to one side in Hell Freezes Over sounded like they came from *right next to my ear* with the XBA-3, unlike with any of the other phones. I don't consider that a merit though, and for the rest of the piece it doesn't image particularly differently, except it images a bit better than the other challengers because it has the most realistic timbre among them.
Now all I need to complete my pants-on-head clown image among head-fiers is to polish that up into a full blown shootout writeup between the four phones and post it in a new thread outside. ("outside", coz this here is the loonie asylum or something
"Philips on Mount Akina: SHE3580 A-spec vs UM3X vs XBA-3 vs IE80 vs FXD80"
...because I felt like Takumi driving the wheels off his beater AE86 to beat every single supercar that dared challenge him on Mount Akina...
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