[b0dhi]

I listen to a lot of bass-heavy music. At high volumes the bass momentarily distort the mids and the rest of the spectrum when it occurs. This doesn't happen with 3-way speakers with seperate subwoofer, midwoofer and tweeter.

So, being an IEM noob, could the experts among you recommend the best value in a 3 way IEM? Please note that although some IEMs have 3 drivers, they are not true 3-way designs because they have 2 bass drivers and one tweeter, with no dedicated midrange driver.

Price range is under $400 if possible.

Thanks

 

[chef8489]

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif I listen to a lot of bass-heavy music. At high volumes the bass momentarily distort the mids and the rest of the spectrum when it occurs. This doesn't happen with 3-way speakers with seperate subwoofer, midwoofer and tweeter. So, being an IEM noob, could the experts among you recommend the best value in a 3 way IEM? Please note that although some IEMs have 3 drivers, they are not true 3-way designs because they have 2 bass drivers and one tweeter, with no dedicated midrange driver. Price range is under $400 if possible. Thanks

Only one that I know of that currently in production is the UE-11 pro. The westone 3 will be a 3way, but I think that is about it. Most are 2 way with 2 lows and one high.

 

[b0dhi]

Thanks for the reply.

*cries*

 

[Lil' Knight]

The UE11 is quad not tri

If you can't wait the Westone 3 try ES3

 

[chef8489]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil' Knight /img/forum/go_quote.gif The UE11 is quad not tri If you can't wait the Westone 3 try ES3

No the Ue-11 pro is a 3 way quad driver. It has a 3 way crossover with 4 aramatures in each ear, thus it is a 3 way no a quad.
I forgot about the es3 it is a 3 way 3 driver with a mid bump in freq.

 

[b0dhi]

Does the UE triple.fi 10 Pro have a seperate mids driver?

Edit:
Quote:

Housed within the universal body are three individual speakers and an integrated passive crossover circuit board that directs the low-end frequencies to a dedicated speaker for bass, the mid-range frequencies to a speaker for the vocals and the high frequencies to a speaker dedicated for treble.

But then the diagram shows dual bass drivers and a HF tweeter? What?

 

[chef8489]

I believe it only has a 2 way crossover. I think it uses both low for low and mid and has one high.

 

[Lil' Knight]

i think you should wait (i dunno how long?) for the Westone 3. It has all you need, 3 way driver and 399$.

 

[b0dhi]

I've learnt from waiting for Duke Nukem Forever never to wait for a product

You'll lose your hair by the time it comes out.

Jokes aside, is there any credible info on when it'll be out?

 

[jinx20001]

no1 knows when the westone 3 will be out but my advice to you would be all IEM's with 3 drivers per ear (dual bass) do not distort. what IEM's have you found do distort??

i emailed shure not long ago about how much the dual bass drivers can take before they start to distort (volume wise) and they told me my eardrums would pop and distort before the drivers broke a sweat! (not thier words but pretty much the gist of it)

but if you really must wait for 3 way crossovers even tho not many of us know the advantages to the ear as we have not heard them, then i would say the westone 3 look promising.

something i will point out is most people prefer the more balanced sound of the ue10 over the ue11 so to alot of people that 3 way crossover hasnt made a blind bit of improvement, although most do admit the bass is superb. you can almost guess the westone 3 wont have as good bass as the dual bass of ue11

 

[b0dhi]

It's not really bass distortion but intermodulation distortion between the bass and the mids that is the problem. It's not specific to IEMs (even the Taket H2 has it to some extent, although to a lesser degree than dynamic drivers). It would be even better if there were a single driver that didn't have intermodulation distortion, but since I don't know of any such driver, a 3 way design will have to do.

What I find surprising is that harmonic/intermodulation distortion is about 0.1% or less for a good single speaker, which is below the threshold of hearing. But, when you turn the volume up to loudish levels it's so obvious that each drum hit, in that moment, diminishes the mids very audibly. This doesn't happen with a 3-way design.

 

[elnero]

What IEM's have you tried that you've experienced these problems?

 

[jinx20001]

i think the problem you have experienced is possibly phase coherence. and to solve that problem you should get ultimate ears earphones which with dual bore tubes are designed to minimise the chances of phase coherence happening

 

[grommal]

I think I also read somewhere that Jays is working on a 3-way. If it's as good as their tiny 2-way q-Jays (from all the rave reviews here, I don't have them), that will be an interesting choice. No idea on when they might have it ready, though.

 

[IEMaddict]

If I were you I would get some Triple.fi 10 Pros. They are among the best when it comes to imaging in an earphone and the best universal-fit IEM when it comes to musical articulation. They stay very dynamic and not compressed sounding at all when you turn the volume up. The louder you play the music, the more the sound blooms. I love them. Bass isnt overwhelming at all compared to other earphones, its just perfect and remains very well controlled . They have very good mid bass, with the rest of the low-end being very well extended.