Audeze iSINE 10 & iSINE 20: Audeze releases two new IEM planar magnetic earphones
Apr 30, 2019 at 4:33 AM Post #6,376 of 7,347
I received my iSine10 Black/Silver B-Stock today. It comes with V1 Cither cable (not an issue for me as I don't use iPhone). It comes with 2 pairs of ear hooks but no ear locks.

The earbuds bodies are in like new condition. I find the sound quite balance with the 3.5mm cable with my LG V20 phone.

I also like the Black/Silver color scheme, making the iSIne10 little brother of my SIne DX.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 4:43 AM Post #6,377 of 7,347
I received my iSine10 Black/Silver B-Stock today. It comes with V1 Cither cable (not an issue for me as I don't use iPhone). It comes with 2 pairs of ear hooks but no ear locks.

The earbuds bodies are in like new condition. I find the sound quite balance with the 3.5mm cable with my LG V20 phone.

I also like the Black/Silver color scheme, making the iSIne10 little brother of my SIne DX.
congratulations! let us know how the sound compare please.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 12:08 PM Post #6,378 of 7,347
congratulations! let us know how the sound compare please.

Tonight I plugged the iSine10 to the same audio-gd M7S + SA31-SE setup I used for the Sine DX to do some comparison. The SIne DX definitely resolves better and have less bass roll-off below 100Hz. The iSine10 has more treble above 6.5kHz and above 10kHz.

I am happy with the iSine10 given its price. I shall try some different tips to see if it would improve the bass roll-off.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 12:50 PM Post #6,379 of 7,347
Tonight I plugged the iSine10 to the same audio-gd M7S + SA31-SE setup I used for the Sine DX to do some comparison. The SIne DX definitely resolves better and have less bass roll-off below 100Hz. The iSine10 has more treble above 6.5kHz and above 10kHz.

I am happy with the iSine10 given its price. I shall try some different tips to see if it would improve the bass roll-off.
Sounds like you don't get a perfect seal.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 1:30 PM Post #6,380 of 7,347
Sounds like you don't get a perfect seal.
I agree. These things have superb bass output when properly sealed. Remember @borrego : the tips should be resting on the entry to your ears, not in them for an optimal seal. It's a shame the earlocks are so hard to find nowadays; they made that seal effortless to achieve.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 2:35 PM Post #6,381 of 7,347
Yea, these things are finicky af but once you get them seated right there's nothing like them. It doesn't help that the ear hooks that come with them are straight junk.
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 8:14 PM Post #6,382 of 7,347
Question. I bought the iSine 10, but will use them with my Fiio DAP. If i used the Cipher cable and ran it through a Lightning > 3.5mm dongle, and plugged that into my Fiio DAP, would i still get the benefit of the Cipher cable EQ? Or would the Lightning > 3.5mm connector negate the Cipher cable EQ settings?


My initial impressions of the iSine 10 are good, but wow do they sound different than my normal day-to-day IEMs (Shure 535). Some songs sounded immediately better in the iSines due to the big soundstage, but others sounded muddled... but not sure. Look forward to doing a lot of listening over next few weeks to build impressions.
 
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Apr 30, 2019 at 10:57 PM Post #6,384 of 7,347
My initial impressions of the iSine 10 are good, but wow do they sound different than my normal day-to-day IEMs (Shure 535). Some songs sounded immediately better in the iSines due to the big soundstage, but others sounded muddled... but not sure. Look forward to doing a lot of listening over next few weeks to build impressions.

Have you tried with both i-device and Fiio DAP? If you use DAP, EQ maybe needed...
 
Apr 30, 2019 at 11:42 PM Post #6,385 of 7,347
Question. I bought the iSine 10, but will use them with my Fiio DAP. If i used the Cipher cable and ran it through a Lightning > 3.5mm dongle, and plugged that into my Fiio DAP, would i still get the benefit of the Cipher cable EQ? Or would the Lightning > 3.5mm connector negate the Cipher cable EQ settings?


My initial impressions of the iSine 10 are good, but wow do they sound different than my normal day-to-day IEMs (Shure 535). Some songs sounded immediately better in the iSines due to the big soundstage, but others sounded muddled... but not sure. Look forward to doing a lot of listening over next few weeks to build impressions.

You'd be better just use iSine10 3.5mm cable, plugging directly to your Fiio DAP and use the EQ function on the Fiio. The iSine10 frequency respond is flat enough for applying simple EQ of boosting base <100Hz and reducing treble > 6.5kHz.

I do not know if there is such a thing of 3.5mm > Lightning adapter (the common ones are Lightening to 3.5mm adapters). Even if there is such a thing, there will be additional ADC involved which would degrade the sound.
 
May 1, 2019 at 12:46 AM Post #6,386 of 7,347
My B-stock iSine 10 came with no earlocks and V1 Cipher cable but this wasn’t a surprise because I read the fine print.

I guess I’ve not read enough about the new V2 cable because I’m very happy with these for the ridiculously great price of $150. They appeared brand new cosmetically. Love them!
 
May 1, 2019 at 4:06 AM Post #6,387 of 7,347
My B-stock iSine 10 came with no earlocks and V1 Cipher cable but this wasn’t a surprise because I read the fine print.

I guess I’ve not read enough about the new V2 cable because I’m very happy with these for the ridiculously great price of $150. They appeared brand new cosmetically. Love them!

perhaps worth the while to purchase NEW stock i10 for the v2 cable???

v1 is rumoured to be warmer.
 
May 1, 2019 at 6:21 AM Post #6,388 of 7,347
perhaps worth the while to purchase NEW stock i10 for the v2 cable???

v1 is rumoured to be warmer.

I have both V2 and V1 and prefer the latter. It's more transparent and brings out what initially made me fall in love with the iSine's in the first place.

The V2 cable is more convenient in that it's lighter, but has a couple of downsides. It's far warmer and compromises on detail, particularly low mid and bass separation. Some may like it's more 'analog' sound so to speak, but I find it needs a lot more EQing to get a satisfying result. Even then it doesn't quite sing like the original cipher cable.

Second, the volume steps on the V2 cable are HUGE. Using the volume controls on the remote leaves you no room to adjust the volume between either too loud or too quiet.

If you have V1 consider yourself lucky as they are no longer available as far as I know.
 
May 1, 2019 at 6:58 AM Post #6,389 of 7,347
I agree. These things have superb bass output when properly sealed. Remember @borrego : the tips should be resting on the entry to your ears, not in them for an optimal seal. It's a shame the earlocks are so hard to find nowadays; they made that seal effortless to achieve.

I tried all the medium and large size tips this afternoon and end up coming back to smooth medium tips I first chose. The ridged medium tips are slightly larger and give slightly better sealing, but are less comfortable.
 
May 1, 2019 at 11:00 AM Post #6,390 of 7,347
Tonight I plugged the iSine10 to the same audio-gd M7S + SA31-SE setup I used for the Sine DX to do some comparison. The SIne DX definitely resolves better and have less bass roll-off below 100Hz. The iSine10 has more treble above 6.5kHz and above 10kHz.

I am happy with the iSine10 given its price. I shall try some different tips to see if it would improve the bass roll-off.

I'm not familiar with the DX, but you should make sure it's seated right and consider EQ. Audeze publishes these with their Reveal plugin (depending what playback software you use) and Roon has this the Audeze plugins already built in. I know some have reported different results with tips (e.g. foam).

I agree. These things have superb bass output when properly sealed. Remember @borrego : the tips should be resting on the entry to your ears, not in them for an optimal seal. It's a shame the earlocks are so hard to find nowadays; they made that seal effortless to achieve.

I wouldn't say a "seal" is required like other iems to get bass. It seems like the tube with the isine is more of a funnel for the sound, so seal isn't super critical, but you do want to get it positioned right.


Question. I bought the iSine 10, but will use them with my Fiio DAP. If i used the Cipher cable and ran it through a Lightning > 3.5mm dongle, and plugged that into my Fiio DAP, would i still get the benefit of the Cipher cable EQ? Or would the Lightning > 3.5mm connector negate the Cipher cable EQ settings?


My initial impressions of the iSine 10 are good, but wow do they sound different than my normal day-to-day IEMs (Shure 535). Some songs sounded immediately better in the iSines due to the big soundstage, but others sounded muddled... but not sure. Look forward to doing a lot of listening over next few weeks to build impressions.

The Cipher cable is a DAC and EQ, so you it's needs to receive the digital signal via the lightning port. what you're doing won't work since 3.5mm is analog (you might also have digital out, but again, you need to do that via lightning). So, EQ would be what you would need to match what the cipher is already natively doing. I don't have specifics of what those settings are, but others might (or it's probably in some post on this thread).
 

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