[kulakovs]

So just received my new AM-90's. Yesterday actually, gave them about ~10 hours of burning in.
 
I'm a bit worried about specification. They are supposed to be using armature driver but the driver type on the package is marked as dynamic.  PICTURE
And what about the odd frequency response 100 - 12'000Hz, what happened to the "usual" 20Hz - 20kHz?
 
Anyway they look great and feel well made however they sound a bit weird. I'm no bass-head considering I am satisfied with the amount of bass on my HD558 (according to everyone else they sound neutral with minimal amount of bass). But using standard tips I can't hear the low end AT ALL ! When using those long tips that go extra deep in your ear, the bass seems OK but the treble feels recessed, but I feel uncomfortable with the long tips. Is it me or the phones?
Note: I'm no audiophile, haven't got trained ear and can't properly explain what I hear.

 

[soundstige]

The text could be a translation problem, and the sound is typical of most single BA designs, lacking bass. However, these did sound from other reviews like they would be a stronger performer than you describe.
 

 

[baskoro888]

Quote:

So just received my new AM-90's. Yesterday actually, gave them about ~10 hours of burning in.
 
I'm a bit worried about specification. They are supposed to be using armature driver but the driver type on the package is marked as dynamic.  PICTURE
And what about the odd frequency response 100 - 12'000Hz, what happened to the "usual" 20Hz - 20kHz?
 
Anyway they look great and feel well made however they sound a bit weird. I'm no bass-head considering I am satisfied with the amount of bass on my HD558 (according to everyone else they sound neutral with minimal amount of bass). But using standard tips I can't hear the low end AT ALL ! When using those long tips that go extra deep in your ear, the bass seems OK but the treble feels recessed, but I feel uncomfortable with the long tips. Is it me or the phones?
Note: I'm no audiophile, haven't got trained ear and can't properly explain what I hear.

 
It looks like I got a similar problem with you.. I got this earphone yesterday and when I look at the box it also says that Driver Unit are "Dynamic unit". Honestly I don't really care about such thing, but the problem is the sound of this earphone when I try them for the first time are a bit weird too. But interestingly in my case this IEM gives a bass driven sound.. So much bass that made the mid and treble sounds very recessed. It's like listening to a $2 earphone, it's just not right to my ear.. I'm currently burning them using FM tuner, hoping the sonic will change (finger crossed..). Btw about the frequency response of this earphone, it actually the same as the spec given in astrotec's official site (http://astrotec.cn/product.asp)
 
When I read Magicman74's review of this IEM (http://www.head-fi.org/t/613309/astrotec-am90-a-hidden-gem-review), and look closely at the photos, I found another interesting fact. First, it's the inside of the package. In my package, I didn't got a white triple flange silicone tips, but got a black shirt clip instead. Second, when you look closely at the box, it actually spells "AAM-90", whereas in my case it spells "AM-90". Third, it's the printing on the IEM itself. In the official site, it spells AAM-90, but in my IEM it's AM-90. Strange thing though, in Magicman74's photo the printing at the IEM body spells AM-90 too (although the box spells AAM-90).
 
Maybe it's just different batch ? But what about the SQ difference? Quite confusing indeed..
 
EDIT : Sorry for the hasty impression.. When I listen to them for longer time it actually pretty nice. It's just a bit too warm for my taste but that doesn't mean it's bad. I'm just not used to warm sounding IEM, yet..

 

[garcsa]

Interesting. Here is my  divisive  [size=small]-thread-[/size]  about BW Betas. Maybe similar thing? Aspen Tsui made a BA IEM , sent to IjokerI - for testing , then changed the driver to some dynamic?  Just wondering....

 

[Magicman74]

Quote:

 
It looks like I got a similar problem with you.. I got this earphone yesterday and when I look at the box it also says that Driver Unit are "Dynamic unit". Honestly I don't really care about such thing, but the problem is the sound of this earphone when I try them for the first time are a bit weird too. But interestingly in my case this IEM gives a bass driven sound.. So much bass that made the mid and treble sounds very recessed. It's like listening to a $2 earphone, it's just not right to my ear.. I'm currently burning them using FM tuner, hoping the sonic will change (finger crossed..). Btw about the frequency response of this earphone, it actually the same as the spec given in astrotec's official site (http://astrotec.cn/product.asp)
 
When I read Magicman74's review of this IEM (http://www.head-fi.org/t/613309/astrotec-am90-a-hidden-gem-review), and look closely at the photos, I found another interesting fact. First, it's the inside of the package. In my package, I didn't got a white triple flange silicone tips, but got a black shirt clip instead. Second, when you look closely at the box, it actually spells "AAM-90", whereas in my case it spells "AM-90". Third, it's the printing on the IEM itself. In the official site, it spells AAM-90, but in my IEM it's AM-90. Strange thing though, in Magicman74's photo the printing at the IEM body spells AM-90 too (although the box spells AAM-90).
 
Maybe it's just different batch ? But what about the SQ difference? Quite confusing indeed..

That's very weird.  Those pics I used were stock pictures. My box in fact say's AM-90 as well as my IEMS. As far as my " Extras" I got the triple flanges as well as a shirt clip.
Sound wise Mine sound nothing like you said. It's possible there are different models floating around? Some companies upgrade their stuff but the "older" model is still in the market place. My box does say " Dynamic unit" as well but I think that has something to do with the translation, Most likely. I'm sure mine has a BA, the sound sig is there. Nice tight bass, light, slight mid forward with superb clarity, and slightly rolled off highs.
I don't think Astrotec would have switched to a Dynamic driver as their whole thing is a low price BA, My guess is the tuning. My guess if your box is misspelled with AAM-90, you got an earlier set and they have made the correction along with a " Newer tuning" 
I'd contact your seller and see if you can switch them out with a new set, the IEMS do not sound like your review, so something isn't right for sure.

 

[ClieOS]

Those Chinese words are '动铁单元‘, meaning 'balanced armature'. The English part are just a typo. It happens a lot on Chinese products so don't mind it too much.

Also, I am pretty sure the FR of 100~12000Hz is just copied from the spec of the BA driver (which is also a common practice for the Chinese) and usually it refer to tolerance of +/-3dB. If you use a tolerance of +/-10dB, it will likely be close to 20~20kHz.. That is why spec is generally very misleading.

 

[baskoro888]

Quote:

That's very weird.  Those pics I used were stock pictures. My box in fact say's AM-90 as well as my IEMS. As far as my " Extras" I got the triple flanges as well as a shirt clip.
Sound wise Mine sound nothing like you said. It's possible there are different models floating around? Some companies upgrade their stuff but the "older" model is still in the market place. My box does say " Dynamic unit" as well but I think that has something to do with the translation, Most likely. I'm sure mine has a BA, the sound sig is there. Nice tight bass, light, slight mid forward with superb clarity, and slightly rolled off highs.
I don't think Astrotec would have switched to a Dynamic driver as their whole thing is a low price BA, My guess is the tuning. My guess if your box is misspelled with AAM-90, you got an earlier set and they have made the correction along with a " Newer tuning" 
I'd contact your seller and see if you can switch them out with a new set, the IEMS do not sound like your review, so something isn't right for sure.

Ah I see.. So the printing on the box as well as on the IEM of your unit are exactly the same as mine (even though that I didn't got the triple flanges eartips). Maybe astrotec did made a different batch of units which include a different sets of accecories, just maybe though..
 
As for the sound impression I wrote earlier, well it's just that maybe I'm too hasty to write an impression about how this IEM sound.. When I listen to them a bit longer, it actually pretty nice. Warm, smooth, and full sound. I have no experience with BA IEM before as all my previous IEMs uses dynamic driver, so I can't tell whether the astrotec unit that I got using a BA or dynamic driver. I currently use superlux 381b IEM before I got the astrotec, so it may be another factor that affect my impression earlier. The superlux have a bit thin, cold, and clear analytical sound with a pretty strong presence of treble, while the astrotec is warm and smooth without much emphasize at the treble. That might be the reason why I feel the astrotec a bit veiled, it's just that I'm not used to warm sounding IEM after all (had to use some EQ on my DAP to alter the sound of this thing so that it suits my taste though )
 
I deeply apologize for the impression I wrote in the earlier post that might make people think that this IEM sounds bad. This IEM is actually a good performer, especially for those who love a warmer sounding set that you can listen to for a long time without any ear fatigue .  It's comfortable to wear too and the build quality is superb.
 
Found interesting link HERE.. You can find both AM-90 and AAM-90 displayed there

 There are indeed some astrotec package which doesn't include a triple flanges eartips, or so it seems.

 

[Magicman74]

Quote:

 
Found interesting link HERE.. You can find both AM-90 and AAM-90 displayed there

 There are indeed some astrotec package which doesn't include a triple flanges eartips, or so it seems.

Nice find, It looks like there are at least 3 different models. The AMM-90 & AM-90 look to be the same, just different extras, but look at the Am-900, it has a totally different housing/driver.
My guess the Am-90 is upgraded AMM-90, but where does the AM-900 fit into the picture?

 

[Magicman74]

I can't find anything out on the AM-900, I did run across this tho, Maybe they are a new product?....Looks nice IMO
http://bbs.ereadcn.com/thread-70639-1-1.html
 

 

[hyyz17200]

Quote:

So just received my new AM-90's. Yesterday actually, gave them about ~10 hours of burning in.
 
I'm a bit worried about specification. They are supposed to be using armature driver but the driver type on the package is marked as dynamic.  PICTURE
And what about the odd frequency response 100 - 12'000Hz, what happened to the "usual" 20Hz - 20kHz?
 
Anyway they look great and feel well made however they sound a bit weird. I'm no bass-head considering I am satisfied with the amount of bass on my HD558 (according to everyone else they sound neutral with minimal amount of bass). But using standard tips I can't hear the low end AT ALL ! When using those long tips that go extra deep in your ear, the bass seems OK but the treble feels recessed, but I feel uncomfortable with the long tips. Is it me or the phones?
Note: I'm no audiophile, haven't got trained ear and can't properly explain what I hear.

hey i am a chinese guy who just brought am-90 too.  Same like you feel strange about the sound.Sorry that i cannot understand all your words coz my poor english.Do you say that am-90's bass amount is too small? I am agree with you. Even my ￥30 (about $4.7) in-ear sound much better.I must say that am-90 can give me so much details even base-noise of my cellphone and my sb0610 sound card.But i can bear its bass.Also uncomfortable! Now I just use KSC-75 for home,am-90 for outgoing.
 
So i dont think its good  even has balanced armature unit.Hearing feeling is most important.
 
BTW i think burning is useless for am-90.

 

[hyyz17200]

Quote:

I can't find anything out on the AM-900, I did run across this tho, Maybe they are a new product?....Looks nice IMO
http://bbs.ereadcn.com/thread-70639-1-1.html
 

 
Yes new.check it out http://bbs.imp3.net/thread-10713094-1-1.html

 

[hyyz17200]

Quote:

Nice find, It looks like there are at least 3 different models. The AMM-90 & AM-90 look to be the same, just different extras, but look at the Am-900, it has a totally different housing/driver.
My guess the Am-90 is upgraded AMM-90, but where does the AM-900 fit into the picture?

AMM-90 is the test model of AM-90.just give to chinese headphone bbs member to test.AM-90 is the final version.
 
AM-900 is a new model better than AM-90.

 

[hoshiyomi]

Googled a bit, turns out AM-900 is Astrotec's first dynamic transducer IEM.
 
Better? I have no clue, but if the criteria be cheapest BA on the market AM-900 is not an alternative.