Beyerdynamic Xelento!

[Tenlow]

Well you place the Xelento in a context of other single DDs which is fair enough. For me personally it doesnt matter which technology has been used. I compare all iems purely on sound quality and what they are able to offer for their price. Xelentos for me offer too little for the asking price.

The arguably compete with the Sennheiser IE900 - at least so I’ve read several times in reviews. Completely different tuning of course bit still. They are even quite a bit more expensive (1499€). So it’s all relative, I guess.

 

[freelancr]

I got 150€ off on a corporate deal and got the second gen for 849€. Thought it was still a solid deal. Have to pay the extra for the gold plated logo and a handmade in Heilbronn, Germany It’s rare enough these days

Same deal I got (hello Mitarbeiterangebote). I'd happily pay a premium for German build IEMs. Unfortunately there aren't many offerings. The Sennheiser IEMs are not my cup of tea and they are also build in China afaik. Then there are smaller manufacturers like Vision Ears which I need to visit someday. Although I doubt I could be convinced to pay >2.5k € for an EXT or something like that.

All in all I think the Xelento 2 is priced well. The typical Tesla driver sound signature is there. The frequency graph is not another Harman target tuning. They have their own character which is a big plus. They took a risk in that aspect and I think it payed off.

 

[Scubadevils]

Same deal I got (hello Mitarbeiterangebote). I'd happily pay a premium for German build IEMs. Unfortunately there aren't many offerings. The Sennheiser IEMs are not my cup of tea and they are also build in China afaik. Then there are smaller manufacturers like Vision Ears which I need to visit someday. Although I doubt I could be convinced to pay >2.5k € for an EXT or something like that.

All in all I think the Xelento 2 is priced well. The typical Tesla driver sound signature is there. The frequency graph is not another Harman target tuning. They have their own character which is a big plus. They took a risk in that aspect and I think it payed off.

The IE600 and IE900 are made here in Ireland! Not sure on models below though. But indeed, Xelento 2 offers a different flavour in that approximate price category - I love IE900 for genres like D&B or techno, but find X2 a better all-rounder- especially also from a comfort perspective. There are certainly some fantastic sets out there for a lot less that offer excellent bang for buck, the SonicMemory SM2 is a great example, similar tuning to the much more expensive Turii Ti - my personal favourite single DD… but more of a specialist than a generalist in my opinion.

 

[RIGATIO]

The ie900 are even more overpriced than the Xelentos so not the best example but i get what you mean. I see there is favoring german companies here and nothing wrong with that. The quality of build and the service are all great so it can justify higher price tag. I myself think that Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser are good companies even tho the tuning of most of their headphones isnt great (Moondrop is way more consistent in this area). Sennheiser havent topped its own hd600 until this day (the hd800s are great when properly EQ'd). We had to wait many years for a proper tuned iems from Sennheiser, the ie900 was the first step towards the good path, the ie600 is finally there, competing with the rest of the market. Now the ie200 which is supposed to fight with chifi budget iems, kuddos to Sennheiser. Xelentos are very nice, smooth, great bass, my favs in Beyerdynamic whole product menu.
But.. lets be honest. Neither of them can pick a fair fight against similarly priced UE Mest 2 or Thieaudio Monarch 2. These are on a completely diffetent level looking objectively. These compete with u12t, Annihilator, QDC Anole VX etc.
What im trying to say is in favor of a customer, the market should push companies to be more competitive and then the customer wins- better quality for less money.

Im sure i didnt spoil the air here as we are all adults and able to look at things objectively. Besides, the Xelentos are really fun so its hard to dislike them

 

[Scubadevils]

I have zero favouring of any specific country of origin - as mentioned, the Turii Ti is my personal favourite IEM, and that’s from Softears in China. This is an incredibly subjective hobby, and you mention MEST MKII - I found the IE900 much more to my preference, and I disagree that IE600 is a step ahead of IE900 too, but indeed again subjective - I urge caution with statements like that as it can influence buying decisions when actually it may not suit the buyer - best understand what someone is looking for, then describe a set based on your experience. IE600 in my experience is a safely tuned, easy to enjoy set - but I ultimately found it a bit too ‘safe’ sounding and less enjoyable vs IE900, or indeed Xelento 2.

 

[vladzakhar]

Xelento is more about comfort for me. It's the only Iems I can sleep with on and you can't beat them on the go. Of course they don't sound as good and detailed as more expensive BA/DD Iems and this is why we have more then one in our collections.

 

[RIGATIO]

I have zero favouring of any specific country of origin - as mentioned, the Turii Ti is my personal favourite IEM, and that’s from Softears in China. This is an incredibly subjective hobby, and you mention MEST MKII - I found the IE900 much more to my preference, and I disagree that IE600 is a step ahead of IE900 too, but indeed again subjective - I urge caution with statements like that as it can influence buying decisions when actually it may not suit the buyer - best understand what someone is looking for, then describe a set based on your experience. IE600 in my experience is a safely tuned, easy to enjoy set - but I ultimately found it a bit too ‘safe’ sounding and less enjoyable vs IE900, or indeed Xelento 2.

All i wrote is based on my personal experience and ive been using Xelentos for a couple years, carefully searching for a worthy successor.
Most my recommendations are iems that are neutral allrounders which IMHO are a better choices for a proper library playback consisting of rock, classical, jazz and bit of electronic music. Ive been recommending the Monarch 2 over Xelentos 2 in this thread a couple months ago and yet there are still people joining Xelento family. And thats great because not everyone chases the neutral Harman with bass boost. Im just giving my views and an extra object of consideration. All my impressions base on A/B tests i did myself.
So as i wrote before, i dont think people will start leaving Xelento ship because of my posts. I know how addictive Xelentos can sound, my main concern was their price tag thats all.

 

[vladzakhar]

You right, they are overpriced. But is everything in this market. Look at 3-6K Iems. Do the worth the price? No way. I hate to pay that much money for something that was done for fraction of the price. But still paying.

 

[Scubadevils]

Yes exactly, the market is in general overpriced, especially up at this level and beyond. That’s a different conversation to my preferred IEM is ‘better’ than your preferred IEM - a top choice for me at present is the JVC FW10K, but I’d add several caveats if suggesting anyone buy it, likewise a reference set such as IER-M9 or Monarch MKII by all accounts, some just don’t want that tuning and often find boring.

 

[Scubadevils]

But just to add, I loved the IER-M9 and miss it a lot! They aren’t vented and unfortunately caused pressure build for me, I might still explore Monarch MKII at some point as I would like a reference set in the collection again.

 

[Tenlow]

I do get a kind of metallic sounding "clicking" noise, especially on the right bud when inserting, moving and even only touching them. It's kind of irritating, honestly. Is that the "driver flex" issue that was so heavily discussed with gen1? If yes, anything I can do about it? Maybe with regard to insertion depth or tips etc.

If not, what else could it be and does someone else have a similar issue? Thank you!

 

[vladzakhar]

Yes it's driver flex. My set have it too. I just got use to it. It's only happens when inserting. Foam tips can help to some extent.

 

[RIGATIO]

I do get a kind of metallic sounding "clicking" noise, especially on the right bud when inserting, moving and even only touching them. It's kind of irritating, honestly. Is that the "driver flex" issue that was so heavily discussed with gen1? If yes, anything I can do about it? Maybe with regard to insertion depth or tips etc.

If not, what else could it be and does someone else have a similar issue? Thank you!

Its a driver flex which still exists on a 2nd version. From my experience only foam tips were able to eliminate this issue. If you still want to use silicone tips, try to lift the auricle a little while applying iems. That should relieve the pressure a bit. Fortunately the driver flex is unlikely to destroy the driver.

 

[Tenlow]

Thanks guys. It's just irritating that it is much more prominent on my right bud/ear. The left does have it as well but only if I really "try". Haven't had that issue on any other set so far (luckily).

 

[baskingshark]

I do get a kind of metallic sounding "clicking" noise, especially on the right bud when inserting, moving and even only touching them. It's kind of irritating, honestly. Is that the "driver flex" issue that was so heavily discussed with gen1? If yes, anything I can do about it? Maybe with regard to insertion depth or tips etc.

If not, what else could it be and does someone else have a similar issue? Thank you!

Yes that may be driver flex. Driver flex is when the driver crinkles, usually during insertion, cause air pressure has no where to go and deforms the driver.
It is usually due to a too tight seal, and is partially related to the tips we use and/or our ear anatomy, maybe sometimes it occurs in certain IEM shell designs with insufficient venting. I found a few ways to mitigate it, YMMV:

1) Use foam tips instead of silicone tips, works sometimes for me. Probably cause the foam is porous and lets air escape thru the foams rather than going into the IEM shell.

2) Sometimes using another silicone tip that has lesser isolation/seal may reduce driver flex, though at the expense of isolation. Try a variety of different ear tips and sizes if you can, some tips give more driver flex than others.

3) Try opening your mouth and pulling up the earlobe before inserting the IEM, this opens the ear canal a bit for more space to insert the eartip (this is what ENT specialists do before inserting a ear probe). Hopefully some air can escape during insertion with the bigger diameter of the ear canal. This technique usually helps me get rid of driver flex 90% of the time.

4) Insert the ear tip slowly or not too deeply initially, and slowly make fine adjustments to push it in. Or insert it at an angle.


I have written in to a few manufacturers asking about driver flex, most of them claim it won't damage the drivers. But I have read anecdotal reports in audio forums of users saying their driver died after a very bad case of driver flex. So far, I've not had a single dynamic driver die on me due to driver flex, but YMMV.