[IPodPJ]

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Originally Posted by Spyro /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just received mine today. Beautiful IEM's... Sound: What the &%#*&!!........Where are the highs?? Compared to the reviews I would think I have a defective pair?? I tried every tip...with Ipod alone unamped and with a more powerful mini-system and everything seems there (big bass, nice soundstage and mids) but the highs seem completely veiled??? Reference point is E4 and ER-4p/s. Out of box ER-4...hell, even E4 has much more detailed highs compared to this. I will let them burn in overnight but I am not impressed at the moment. And coming from Etys...it ain't no fit issue. I know how to insert them. Stay tuned...I will report back.

You just got the Triple.Fis?? Read all my posts on them.
They need a good SOLID 10 hour to 25 hour burn in time. They sounded extremely veiled to me at first too... But listen to the highs, they are smooth and crisp and don't roll off... and they are very extended... If you are used to other IEMs, they definately take some time to get used to but are some of the most transparent IEMs I've ever heard. But yes, let them burn in.... from an amp... the sound will improve dramatically from the 10 - 25 hour mark, and even moreso from the 25 - 40 hour mark. Beyond that, I couldn't tell a difference. But a better amp and better cable sure made them sound better.... a LOT better.

 

[mastercheif]

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Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif You just got the Triple.Fis?? Read all my posts on them. They need a good SOLID 10 hour to 25 hour burn in time. They sounded extremely veiled to me at first too... But listen to the highs, they are smooth and crisp and don't roll off... and they are very extended... If you are used to other IEMs, they definately take some time to get used to but are some of the most transparent IEMs I've ever heard. But yes, let them burn in.... from an amp... the sound will improve dramatically from the 10 - 25 hour mark, and even moreso from the 25 - 40 hour mark. Beyond that, I couldn't tell a difference. But a better amp and better cable sure made them sound better.... a LOT better.

That's odd, usally Blanced Armature drivers don't burn in. It's probably more getting used to the sound sig than it is burn in. It took me a good week to find the details in my e500s.

 

[Spyro]

Okay...I just went out several hours to drown my sours over this $400 purchase to find that there is still no different sound. As you can all see, I have been a Head-Fi member for 4 years and I hate to cry conspiracy on these Triple Fi Pro's (reviews) but I must be missing something? Right now, my back up pair of ER-6i's crush the Triple Fi Pros in the clarity/detail department. I know I sound like I may be over-reating but when you spend $400.....Jeez... I will give it 2 days of listening and burn in and report back but at this point I would have to say Ety still reigns (BI FAR!!) kings of detail and clarity by a landslide for less than 1/2 the price.

I hope I can come back here and eat my words.

 

[PiccoloNamek]

The TF10 pros have an upper midrange (the most important area) suck out, just like every other non-Ety universal IEM. You can't expect them to have the kind of clarity or freshness than only an ER4 can provide.

 

[Trager]

THe triple.fi phones have a really nice sound.... on everything except for vocals. The upper midrange recession just sucked the life out of vocals for me. I think my Etys spoiled me. Even more so now that I'm using ER-4S most of the time with a Go-Vibe 6. I wish I'd had hte amp while I had my triple.fi, they might have been better that way.

I used my triple.fi phones for four weeks on and off, with a program of my own devising burning them in when I wasn't listening (it uses a combination of a randomly generated single tone in each octave for 10 seconds and pink noise). The sound got better after some burn-in/time to accustomize myself to them, but I could never really deal with the lack of energy in the upper midrange. It certainly wasn't worth the extra couple of hundred dollars over my Etys.

If you've never heard Ety's, the triple.fi is GREAT. If you're used to that level of detail and clarity, you might find the triple.fi a bit disappointing, as I did.

 

[Spyro]

Yea, I'll give them more time. As mentioned above, I recall other reviews where users didn't warm up to them for a while. They DO have a huge and spacious sound, much like headphones. Love the bass but cymbals just don't seem right (yet?). Yes, I hear the detail but there is no sparkle.

 

[The Monkey]

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Originally Posted by Spyro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea, I'll give them more time. As mentioned above, I recall other reviews where users didn't warm up to them for a while. They DO have a huge and spacious sound, much like headphones. Love the bass but cymbals just don't seem right (yet?). Yes, I hear the detail but there is no sparkle.

Spyro, I know you're coming from the Etys, so you have plenty of experience with seal/fit. But I suggest playing around a bit more with the seal because the form factor of the UE universal iems makes it sometimes tricky to get right. As we know, usually this would manifest itself as lack of bass, but I'm wondering if maybe one of the drivers isn't hitting the sweet spot in your ear.

 

[IPodPJ]

Now maybe I am missing something that you Ety guys like, but I love highs, very nice smooth extended highs, which the Triple.Fi do have. Again, I will say that they MUST (or should MOST DEFINATELY) be paired up with a decent amp and cable. With my new Silvercab, the highs are almost too damn harsh... UE are known for having recessed mids, but that's how they are, and if you prefer vocals more than instrumentation, the UE sound may not be right for you.

That being said, different UE models have VERY different sounds. IMO, the SF5pro sound absolutely NOTHING like the Triple.Fi, except they both have slightly recessed midrange (the SF5pro have much worse midrange). Just like the UE-10, the Triple.Fi are extremely transparent IEMs. If you don't have a decent amp and cable to back it up, you won't hear what you're looking for. If you like extreme upper range sound, then absolutely use a silver cable. Copper has a much warmer tone to it, and IMO, is not nearly as spatial and immersive as silver.... I'm sure Gold would be even better, but only when annealed properly (According to Qables' Hans).

UE has even confirmed my original suspicion of burn-in, and most especially with the Tri.Fi. For some reason, they just require it. Several people at UE have said that. But most certainly if you are used to Etys, then there might be a big "midrange suckout" as you say, to your ears. But when you begin to get used to the sound and allow them to burn in for a good solid 25 - 40 hours, you will begin to hear just how extended and smooth the highs are, and how detailed and low the bass can go (which is pretty darn impactful at times, too, depending on the original recording and how it was mastered).
But let there be no doubt, if there is a peak signal in the recording, you WILL hear the distortion in the form of buzzing from your Triple.Fi. Like I said, they will reveal everything -- whether it be good or bad in your amp, cable, source, DAC, or the recording itself. And this to me is a strong point. The headphones demand a good rig to drive them properly (and I'm not saying they don't sound good straight out of an iPod, because they are okay, but it does them complete injustice... if that's your intention for use, save your money and get a cheaper IEM).

I hear how good Etys are in the mids and highs, but wheres the bass? I don't hear too much positivity on the bass factor, and that is just as important as any other part of the frequency range. If you aren't getting a good, solid and strong bass response, you aren't hearing a lot of what was meant to be there.

Many people prefer vocals to be the most important thing they hear. And that's fine. Not for me though. The brain naturally focuses on tones in the vocal range (around 1kHz), so it automatically picks them out above all other sounds. I think that is why UE has chosen to recess the mids just slightly, so that the other instrumentation is just as apparent and easily audible. To many, that's considered "midrange suckout", but to me it's called "natural sound".

 

[PiccoloNamek]

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The brain naturally focuses on tones in the vocal range (around 1kHz), so it automatically picks them out above all other sounds. I think that is why UE has chosen to recess the mids just slightly, so that the other instrumentation is just as apparent and easily audible. To many, that's considered "midrange suckout", but to me it's called "natural sound".

It isn't the brain that selects for these sounds. The ear itself physically boosts frequencies in the vocal range. When you insert an IEM into your ear canal, the natural mechanism that accomplishes this is circumvented. So, when there is a huge suckout in the upper midrange, the effect is doubly obvious and very ugly sounding. "Natural" sound will logically have the upper midrange frequencies louder than the rest of the frequency range, because that it how we naturally perceive sound.

 

[Spyro]

Sorry, and I don't have the techno-knowledge, I'm just a regular guy....but why in the world would you need an amp for IEM's with Ohm rating under 30?

EQ capability? Yes, definitley, but I think the whole amp thing is grossly over-rated with IEM's. Total waste of money in my opinion. Isn't that the whole point of 95% of IEM's?? Portability without an amp????

Granted , I realize my ER-4S benefited greatly from an amp, but ONLY if the amp had EQ to boost that bass up.

IMHO, if you are going un-amped, Ety's bass will always seem shy, even with ER-4P version.

I'm actually starting to warm up to these Triple Fi's. It's weird. Not sure if it's burn in or my ears just getting used to them but man...they definitely have a BIG FULL SOUND! I'm not really noticing any kind of "suck out" but maybe I'm not sure of my frequencies. And this is my first pair of Ultimate Ears.

 

[The Monkey]

I have found that the UE-10 pro improves with an amp. Of the other UE offerings I have owned, I find that only the UE-5c also improves with amping and only marginally at that.

I have not tried the triple.fi 10 pro, but since it reportedly bears similarities to the UE-10, then I would not be surprised if an amp rounds it out a bit. Source is far more important, though, IMO.

 

[Andrew Pielet]

It really is crazy how bad the triples are out of the box. No clarity, no definition, no bass, just bleech. Compared to my Sony D77 they were HORRID. Doing an A-B I was really upset that they had nothing better or similiar to offer. After exactly 30 hours, they changed. I agree with all posts on this thread, they have a neutral quality like Etys, but more balanced in tone, volume and soundstage. That brings me to my one disappointment. These IEMS don't rock. Even my Etys rocked. My D77s rocked. These are balanced, beautiful, accurate music reproduction machines. (Not accurate in a perfect reproduction of sound way, just very subtle, chill, WLIT way) WLIT is the lite classic rock station in Chicago, think: Fleetwood Mac, Elton, Whitney Houston, etc. Kind of like easy listening. Even when you throw on something like GnR or Dire straits, or Van halen, or even U2, it takes the RnR out of it, but does play every single note and nuance you are looking for.
I think this is the reason why IEMs like this and the new Westone 3 are tailored for audiophiles, or listeners rather then a studio setting. We want our music to move us, not the notes itself, but the feel of the notes, or the way a song was recorded. like the Buena Vista Social Club in the Egrem studios. It took all I love out of that album to play the notes the way they should sound. What happened to the venue sound? the whole reason why I love these recordings from Ry Cooder?? The Triples get the notes themselves PERFECT. Everything that has to do with the vibe of the recording itself seems gone. Like the whole stage setup up of the BVSC, Or the Egrem studio wood echo sound is lost for the sound of the notes. I just don't get rocking like I have before, like with etys, which IMO, only lack bass. I must Say a few things that I love about the Triples. They get the bass so right, its like there is a subwoofer in these things. The decay, the slam, the tone, the feel of the bass makes me forget Im wearing headphones. The mid-high to high end is so perfectly clear, no screechy, shreiky tones coming from anywhere like all other IEMs and headphones. They somehow did what no other headphones/IEMs could do and that is get the high end perfect. Etys sound great, but boy do those highs get painful to listen too!!

I am hoping for 2 things. 1. A tomahawk improves the fun of these things. 2. I hope that Westone's gets all of what these have, plus a fun factor, and I dont mean bloated bass and tinny highs for us to think we are listening to more then there is.

Been a long time since I wrote a long winded post on this site, but I was just waiting to put in my 2 cents sometime!

 

[Spyro]

Yea, they are definitely a laid-back presentation. Not out front and in your face at all which can have fatigue drawbacks. These are incredibly UN-fatiguing. You could listen to these things around the clock and not tire of the sound. I've never heard such a big bassy sound that was as detailed as this.

 

[IPodPJ]

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Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif It isn't the brain that selects for these sounds. The ear itself physically boosts frequencies in the vocal range. When you insert an IEM into your ear canal, the natural mechanism that accomplishes this is circumvented. So, when there is a huge suckout in the upper midrange, the effect is doubly obvious and very ugly sounding. "Natural" sound will logically have the upper midrange frequencies louder than the rest of the frequency range, because that it how we naturally perceive sound.

Mr. Piccolo

I like ya, but, I think you're contradicting yourself here. If the ear itself boosted the frequencies in the vocal range, then you would want the vocal range to be somewhat recessed from the IEMs... that way, all the frequencies would balance out.
You will never give in to the fact that there are in fact other great sounding IEMs out there besides Etys, will you?

If we ever meet, just listen to my rig.... and please, tell me it doesn't sound sonically pleasing.... Well, maybe you wouldn't like it... Who knows... I've heard the ER4 and it just doesn't do anything for me... maybe now that I've been in this hobby for awhile, they would sound better... but the fact that they lack in bass would kill it for me... also, I can't wear bi or tri-flanges... They just don't fit in my large ears, and I have never been able to achieve a seal, even when I insert them so deep it hurts... and I don't need to use the large silicone tips on my UEs.. just the medium ones...
but for some reason, and I know I've gone back and forth on this, but the gray tips seem to seal better than the black ones. The black ones of course look better on the triple.fi, but they just don't seal as well.

You know, people always tell me not to talk about UE stuff in a triple.fi thread --- so why are you semi-pushing Etys in a Triple.Fi thread?

 

[PiccoloNamek]

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I like ya, but, I think you're contradicting yourself here. If the ear itself boosted the frequencies in the vocal range, then you would want the vocal range to be somewhat recessed from the IEMs... that way, all the frequencies would balance out.

No, I am not. It is the outer ear primarily that boosts the frequencies in the upper midrange. Using an IEM bypasses the outer-ear. Therefore, the upper-midrange response of the IEM itself must be boosted for accurate sound. Recessing it can only dull the sound further.

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Well, maybe you wouldn't like it... Who knows...

I wouldn't.

I probably couldn't even fit them in my ears. That's why I had to return my super.fi 5 pros. (That, and because they sounded WAY too dark.)

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but the fact that they lack in bass would kill it for me...

"The fact", huh?

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You know, people always tell me not to talk about UE stuff in a triple.fi thread --- so why are you semi-pushing Etys in a Triple.Fi thread?

Because somebody else brought it up first.