[kiteki]

Quote:

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He liked the ex1000 better than all of them 0_o. Recessed mids on the XBA-3 according to him. XBA-4 also disappointing... Looking at his other reviews they score lower than the tf10, ie8, er4, Tributes, w3, & se530
 
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Looks like I need to hear them myself, opinions are quite divergent.
 

 
They are divergent, I think one reason is that any device with more than 1 ohm output impedance will most likely cause violent FR changes in the XBA-4.
 
I'm not sure how the IE8, ER-4 and Tributes could possibly be better, but okay.
 
 
 

 

[Inks]

How can some of those not be better, surely is possible. They could be flop for all we know, proprietary drivers may mean lower performance, manufacturers go to knowles because they know their stuff. I think theres too much wishful thinking for the product. 
 
I do have high hopes for the TDK, they seem to have a Klipsch X10 like bass with a smoothed out ER4S treble response. The Sonove graph is what caught my interest

 

[kiteki]

 
Yeah OK there is some wishful thinking, but Mkubota1 said the Sony XBA series "stole the show" of the Tokyo headphone meet.
 
He said he was shaking his head in disbelief and thought the XBA-4 was very exotic sounding and not like any IEM's he's heard.
 
 
The ER-4S is the best single-driver BA I know of, I don't personally (imho) think it can compete with UE700 and SE425 apart from high-end clarity, extension and note decay, so if the XBA-4 is worse than the ER-4 then I hope a dozen people are fired at Sony.

 
The TDK BA200 does look appealing.
 

 

[Inks]

"Exotic" usually means colored, pretty much all speculation at this point. I personally don't think these will be as serious (reference level) as the BA200s or CK100pros, I expect a more consumer oriented sound. 
 
Haven't heard the SE425 or UE700, but I like the PFE more than a lot of multi-BAs out there. ER4S just needs bass, treble extension is fine same for the PFE though the bass is better. 1 BA does tend to fall short in covering the whole spetrum but they tend to be more linear and the shortcoming is traded off by this anyway. The problem with multi-BAs is not they can't cover them it's just that it's harder to tune them for coherency, most are actually too colored ime and tend to drop/hump more in certain areas. I think a dual configuration is a good sweetspot, but there really aren't that many if you consider the TWFKs are shared by a lot.  
 
You tend to equate performance by personal preference since I haven't heard your method for it. That's fine for your individual needs, but I'll consider that inaccurate if trying to really push it as such. 
 
Personally I rate performance by how linear the IEM is with compensation in mind. This means that I do think IEMs need some emphasis in the bass to compensate for the lack of full body vibration and treble filtering since they're so close to the ear. Certain amounts are hard to decide, if I had a multi-IEM thread I'll level them by tier than trying to rate one over the other individually as that's closer to a subjective rating imo. For performance II'll say frequency response is king, how you get there doesn't really matter at the end of the day it's how you lay it out. Soundstage and timbre will be those little extra factors that may push things a certain way though. 
 

 

[tomscy2000]

Inks, have you yet heard the TDK BA200? The only one I know who has written anything about it has been ClieOS and even he hasn't put out anything at length. I'm curious b/c I can procure it for ~$175. I may just just pull the trigger on it, considering that they're so affordable and that they seem to be built pretty solidly.
 
Quote:

"Exotic" usually means colored, pretty much all speculation at this point. I personally don't think these will be as serious (reference level) as the BA200s or CK100pros, I expect a more consumer oriented sound.

 
 

 

[Inks]

Haven't heard it. Saw a graph from Sonove and it looks great, pretty well balanced. 
 
Seems like a warm, polite, midcentric sound. Unlike most iems of this type, treble extension seems great. 

 

[tomscy2000]

Cool. Haven't read up on Sonove in a while; I'll go check it out.

 

[Inks]

I  think he only posted it on his Twitter page, so it will be hard to find. So, here it is. I think it may be using the Etymotic driver for the midrange and treble based on the similarity of the response. I wonder what kind of bass driver is used though, because the depth and emphasis seems great. Similar response to the FADs A1 and SS which Sonove measured. 
 

 

[tomscy2000]

thanks. i was just searching on his page just now like a mad man and couldn't find it. (i don't have twitter)
 
 
that's pretty well extended. even the sub bass. looks impressive.
 
very.
 
 
 
tempting.

 

[Inks]

Destroys the X5 in the treble and the Etys in the bass department there. I'm close to pulling the trigger myself. 

 

[i2ehan]

That FRC looks very tempting indeed... this may be my next venture... 

 
EDIT: I think I'll wait out ClieOS' review. According to the preview list over at inearmatters, he has the TDK BA200 / BA100 / ST700 / EB950 all listed for future coverage. 

 
RE-EDIT: Just noticed the following statement by ClieOS, in a response to user comment:
 

User comment: So the TDK BA200 are good? What sound signature is it closest to? I can probably get it for ~$185 here, so it might be a good deal for me.
 
ClieOS: BA200 is smooth, warm and sweet. Consider it sharing a large portion of sound with Westone UM series. Performance wise I'll consider it on the same level as UM3X, but less thick and more energetic / fun.

 

 

[kiteki]

 
Well I hope the TDK BA200 isn't sharing the same drivers as the J-phonic K2 SP, that was a very dull IEM that made instruments sound flat, without any real tone, this despite it's FR balance/extension and unrivalled technical performance in attack and decay.
 
Even the RE252 had much more realistic and involving instrumental tone, I'm not sure how that's measured other than looking at square-waves.
 
I tend to use the Teclast T51 (S:Flo 2) and the same music with all IEM's, if that helps, but personal preference can get in the way yes, I don't care about the mid-bass or upper-bass very much, for example, but I like nice sub-bass performance I guess that's why I'm attracted to the XBA-4 apart from it being the flagship of the series, and I hope it can perform like the only other (exceptional) 4-driver I've heard, the UM Mage demo unit.
 

 

[tomscy2000]

Fear not, for I am close to pulling the trigger, dependent on whether or not I can sell off my DBA.
 
ClieOS told me on his blog that he likens the BA200 to the UM3x but with more fun and energy injected. Doesn't sound like the K2-SP to me... maybe it's like the MX version?

 

[kiteki]

My K2 SP went to i2ehan and then to ljokerl, I think they share my thoughts but not to the same extent, I remember linking i2ehan to this song, which is the first one I was browsing on the net where I decided it was lifeless with a very flat scope of tonality.
 
I'm selling my RE252 to user "yooss" now, he's another K2 SP user.
__________
 
Some people are excited (myself included) that Sony have developed their own drivers in this new series, it could be a Sonyism of 'keeping everything internal' as they like to do, but hey... at least their dev. team have a positive track-record recently with the EX600 and EX1000.
 
4 drivers under $300 is unheard of in the IEM scene and will increase competition, it wasn't long ago when Jays annouced the first 4-driver x-Jays at £399 = $622 USD.
 

 

[ClieOS]

... maybe it's like the MX version?

Doubt the K2 MX will be in anyway similar to BA200, granted that K2 SP is very different from BA200.

...it wasn't long ago when Jays annouced the first 4-driver x-Jays at £399 = $622 USD.

That was almost 2 years ago. Time flies.