[MICHAELSD]

I've come to find the comfort of the headphones is fine, but only when fully stationary. If you move your head just a tiny bit, the entire cable moves with it and you feel the weight of it pulling on the drivers.

This design would work well in a wireless form factor with some additional fitment improvements. Eventually.

 

[SilverEars]

headwhacker is right, Lotoo Paw Gold is a well match for the iSine. I will say it sounds oddly great out of it. This is unexpected. It's like Lotoo Paw Gold was born to drive the iSine only. Hehe. I wonder if this is how the Cipher cable sounds out of an iphone?

Anyway, headwhacker's EQ sounds great on Lotoo. I see why he highly recommend it as a source.

 

[SilverEars]

For portable players without parametric EQ, and can't specify frequencies/bands/q-factor/filter group gain, I just bump down 1khz and it sounds fine. I think that's the primary tuning needs to be done, and with some players, I don't get resonance in the highs, so therefore 1khz drop is enough for me.

I still have a hard time grasping filter group gain. Does that gain only apply to the filer bands that were applied and not the rest? Or the whole EQ get's shifted down -12dB?

The issue with -12dB filter group gain is, if I turn the filter off, the volume goes way up and can damage my hearing.

 

[wazzupi]

I've come to find the comfort of the headphones is fine, but only when fully stationary. If you move your head just a tiny bit, the entire cable moves with it and you feel the weight of it pulling on the drivers.

This design would work well in a wireless form factor with some additional fitment improvements. Eventually.

use the clip it doesn't move at all for me.

 

[headwhacker]

@SilverEars, yes I agree, the main culprit is the hump between 1 - 2Khz. If you cut it without touching anything else it improves the overall response significantly. Tyll, mentioned that anything above 8Khz is just about right. I played around changing above 8Khz, and it does not affect the sound much unless you boost or cut it by significant amount.

For me, dropping 1kHz to 2Khz (center Freq at 1550Hz) and raising 2Khz to 8Khz (center Freq at 4500Hz) will make most people happy. Anything else is just gravy.

FYI, group gain in LPG affects everything whether the frequency is touched or not. It is similar to a Preamp cut. You can reduce the cut or none at all, if you don't hear any effects of digital clipping.

 

[headwhacker]

I have posted my LPG PEQ presets before, but this is my latest revision and imho the best I have come up with as far as LPG goes.

FilterGroupGain
-12dB (You can change this as close to 0 as possible to avoid blasting your ears when you turn off EQ while you are listening. Unless you are not hearing any effects of clipping. Otherwise, unplug your headphone set the volume low before you turn off PEQ)

Filter1
100.0Hz/+6dB/LSF/1

Filter2
1550Hz/-7dB/BPF/1.0

Filter3
4500Hz/+12dB/BPF/1.0

Filter4
11000Hz/-7dB/BPF/1.0

Filter5
13000Hz/+5dB/HSF/1.0

 

[SilverEars]

I tried many DAPs/sources, and including KMann's convolution wav files loaded to EqualizerAPO representing the group filter. Software EQ on the computer to a DAC doesn't work so well as a EQ on a DAP. The problem with many DAPs are they do not support parametric EQ. Lotoo does fortunately and likely Rockbox ipods or other DAPs with it. If you can, try to audition the iSine coming out of a Lotoo and apply headwhacker's EQ. Even without EQ, you can tell iSine works better out of Lotoo compared to other sources. You can hear the potential from the Lotoo. It does make the sound articulate and tightens it up.

 

[headwhacker]

^ tried different DAPs as well. So far the only DAP without EQ that works as good is QP2R. I still can't make it sound similar on my AK DAPs. Now with DX200 I am trying 3rd Party Apps with PEQ. (Neutron, UAPP)

 

[Wyd4]

I found the meridian explorer 2 to be a fantastic pairing with the isines.
No eq.
We all have different tastes. I personally loved the isines sans EQ. I found while I could get a more technically accurate sound using the eq that it sounded fake to me.
I thought, from my Alo cdm in particular, the isine20 had a wonderful natural tonality.

 

[MICHAELSD]

use the clip it doesn't move at all for me.

The clip is a must with the iSine but

use the clip it doesn't move at all for me.

The clip is a must and makes a huge difference, but it still isn't the best-fitting IEM.

 

[AlwaysForward]

I can't count how many times I've heard Audeze reiterate that these are good headphones first, without EQ, and that the EQ is the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, it seems to be creating cognitive dissonance among the user base. Specifically,as a strong example, is that in the Roon/Audeze DSP thread. Users are now applying the "if it needs DSP to work, don't but it" logic to the LCD series. IMHO, anyone reads through LCD Reviews prior to this summer, they'all find Sentiment to be quite positive.

When Tyll reviewed the wired $1500 Noise Chancellor from AKG, he noted that DSP manipulation on-board could be the future of headphones and is likely something we'll see much more of in the future.

Computer miniaturization is changing sound as we know it and I'm happy to jump on board to reap the benefits as I maximize what is already a VERY competitive IEM.

 

[Audy]

Is the sound audible to others, in an office environment?

 

[headwhacker]

I can't count how many times I've heard Audeze reiterate that these are good headphones first, without EQ, and that the EQ is the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, it seems to be creating cognitive dissonance among the user base. Specifically,as a strong example, is that in the Roon/Audeze DSP thread. Users are now applying the "if it needs DSP to work, don't but it" logic to the LCD series. IMHO, anyone reads through LCD Reviews prior to this summer, they'all find Sentiment to be quite positive.

When Tyll reviewed the wired $1500 Noise Chancellor from AKG, he noted that DSP manipulation on-board could be the future of headphones and is likely something we'll see much more of in the future.

Computer miniaturization is changing sound as we know it and I'm happy to jump on board to reap the benefits as I maximize what is already a VERY competitive IEM.

Because they sound different that anything most people hear before. It did sound fine on some tracks at first listen. Until you listen to as many recordings you will realize something is wrong. I have the same first impression, (airy, detailed, expansive, sound nothing like an iem). Not after I listen down to all the list of the demo tracks where it reveals it's own faults.

Their is no denying the iSine and LCDi4 have technical capabilities that is lacking on most other iems/headphones (e.g. transient response, low distortion, tight sound). It's just the response curve is very odd. Which is why EQ works well on these headphones without almost any side effects.

if you collect 100 FR curves of different headphone. You can easily group those headphones and find similarities. (Usually falls, on common signature groups e.g. Neutral, V/U shaped, warm and mid-centric and bright). However, the iSine don't have anything similar. It has a flat lows-mid lows, a hump at center mid and huge valley at mid-high. I just can't think of any group to place the iSine. It's just odd and totally different.

 

[headwhacker]

Is the sound audible to others, in an office environment?

It is audible but not as loud as most open-back headphones. It will still depend on how your colleagues are sensitive to sound they hear.

 

[Audy]

It is audible but not as loud as most open-back headphones. It will still depend on how your colleagues are sensitive to sound they hear.

Better stick with closed back options.