[scarfacegt]

I have both xelento and bose qc35.For me,the xelento isolate better,if you use the right tip.I have used the comply isolation tip.I also have the mandarin tip,but havent tried them yet.For me,anc headphones are disapointing,because you still hear background talking/background music.Iems provide much better isolation.I also have the bowers & wilkins Px.But only got them for the sound,bluetooth and easy allround use.

 

[csglinux]

Thanks for your detailed comments, much appreciated. To offer a bit more background from my side, I currently happen to be using the SE846 on my daily commutes, and have been for as long as the SE846's were first released. But I agree with you that I find the SE846's fit fiddly - maybe it is the shape of my ears or the shape of the IEM housing, I struggled with them for a long time until I found out that the best way to get the best seal on them was to use the triple-flange sleeves with the smallest part cut off, and this is because the bend in my ear canal is deep and I need a deep insertion to get a good seal, none of the foam or silicone tips have a deep enough insertion and they just pop out after a few seconds - the white triple-flange sleeves have a longer stem and the widest part of the flange could be inserted deep enough to seal, and I settled on this for a while. I have just moved to another part of the city and my daily commutes are now 1.5 hours long one way instead of 30 minutes, the sleeves inside my ears are starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable during the long journey, that's why I am looking for new IEM's with comparable sound quality. Sorry for the diversion to some other IEM's and I will stay on topic.

I have never tried the Xelento, but according to the reviews I have read so far, the fit seems to be quite easy and good, and most people don't complain about having difficulty in finding a good seal. I think this could work for me. I love the Beyer house sound (I already own the T5p.2 and T1.2) but the only concern with the Xelentos for me is how much they are affected by transit noise when used in such an environment. I don't expect to be listening analytically, but I don't want the experience to be ruined in such a way when I attempted the T51p in the exact same setting either.

P.S. ANC headphones are just not my cup of tea, I want to stay with IEM's and the T51p attempt was just an experiment.

I own both SE846 and Xelento. The SE846 handle the low end really well; Xelento does a better job of the upper range (although the SE846 can get close with the Knowles damper mod). Overall, I'd still prefer the Xelento in a quiet environment.

In a very noisy environment, you're not going to want to use the Xelentos. It doesn't matter how good your seal is - they're vented, so they're going to let in ambient noise.

A 1.5 hour commute is long enough that any deep-sealing IEM could get uncomfortable. Have you considered Sensaphonics custom shells for your SE846? They put no pressure on your ear canals, so you can basically wear them forever. If I were looking for maximum isolation, I'd go Etymotic or SE846 with Comply P series foam (nothing isolates better than P series foam!) until my ear canals hurt, and then I'd switch to the custom sleeves for the SE846. I'd then enjoy the Xelentos when I got home

 

[Edric Li]

I have a question regarding the Xelento's reported mediocre passive isolation and how does this affect your enjoyment in your daily commutes, i.e. in noisy trains or buses, or even in a plane. Does the outside noise impact the bass performance at all, or is this IEM best used in a quiet environment? The reason I ask this is, I have tried using my Beyer T51p in my commutes, and while the T51p is a decent pair of headphones in its own right when used in a quieter setting like a small office, I was less than impressed when I use them in a noisy train. The bass is noticeably subdued by the rumbling noise and the headphones are reduced to sounding bright and tinny (relatively speaking), but the T51p were quite V-shaped to begin with and it is already one of the better isolating on-ear headphones (I can't hear my co-workers talk when I'm wearing them). So I worry that if I get the Xelento they might not be the best when used in a commute environment, and am I best sticking with the Shure SE846 or something with much better passive isolation?

The Xelento has an overpoweringly excessive bass, more than that of Apple Earpods (I tested that), which compensates, by design, the perception of loss of bass when using outdoor or with microphonic cables. May be too boomy indoor just like the Apple Earpods. My UM Mentor and JH Layla sounds like heaven when used in a quiet place, but there's no bass whatsoever when using outdoor. For my listening style, I prefer Xelento's approach.

 

[csglinux]

The Xelento has an overpoweringly excessive bass, more than that of Apple Earpods (I tested that), which compensates, by design, the perception of loss of bass when using outdoor or with microphonic cables. May be too boomy indoor just like the Apple Earpods. My UM Mentor and JH Layla sounds like heaven when used in a quiet place, but there's no bass whatsoever when using outdoor. For my listening style, I prefer Xelento's approach.

I agree with this. It's the one thing about the Xelento I'd change if I could; the bass - specifically the mid bass - can sometimes be a little too much.

 

[pacman46]

I agree with this. It's the one thing about the Xelento I'd change if I could; the bass - specifically the mid bass - can sometimes be a little too much.

I agree. I like them out of my iPhone 7 Plus which to me is somewhat bright neutral ish. I can see the bass/ mid bass being a little or a lot too much on something warmer.i also backed off a tip size and went one size smaller and that seemed to help. Other then then that I find them to be done really well. A fun listen no doubt. Specially adding an amp.

 

[GoSUV]

Thanks for all your helpful responses. Sounds like the Xelentos are not for me for my intended application for now. Also it seems like getting custom sleeves done maybe the better and cheaper option for my SE846. Having said that, I still maintain an interest in the Xelento wireless version in the occasion that the lack of wires (running to the phone or amp) is a benefit, but that option does not seem to be available yet.

 

[pacman46]

Thanks for all your helpful responses. Sounds like the Xelentos are not for me for my intended application for now. Also it seems like getting custom sleeves done maybe the better and cheaper option for my SE846. Having said that, I still maintain an interest in the Xelento wireless version in the occasion that the lack of wires (running to the phone or amp) is a benefit, but that option does not seem to be available yet.[/

for a vented IEM I find they isolate quite well with the right provided tips. I could never from what I remember the time I had with the Sony ex1000 them isolating even close to these. I’m just using the ex1000 as an example of course as they to are a vented DD IEM too.I drive a noise refrigerated truck and they seem to do the job really well actually. Just my opinion.

 

[Edric Li]

If you listen to your IEM mainly on the go like me, i.e. while walking, on subways, on plane, etc. I don't see anything beating Xelento at any price point.
If you listen to your IEM mainly indoor, i.e. in a library, at home, at work, etc. KSE1500, UM Mentor and Vision Ears VE6 are the best of the best.

 

[Rlin987]

Xelento is very good and I plan to buy a second hand. But I am not quite sure the difference between t8iemk2 and xelento

 

[Roscoeiii]

If you listen to your IEM mainly on the go like me, i.e. while walking, on subways, on plane, etc. I don't see anything beating Xelento at any price point.
If you listen to your IEM mainly indoor, i.e. in a library, at home, at work, etc. KSE1500, UM Mentor and Vision Ears VE6 are the best of the best.

Bold statements, and as mentioned above, the vented nature of the Xelento is a strike against them as an on-the-go IEM. It is a fine IEM, but "at any price point" and not taking into account personal preferences is going a bit far.

Personally, I've preferred both the Campfire Vega (esp. the bass) and Andromeda (that treble and sountstage) to the Xelento. And then there are the IEMs at the $1500+ price points: 64 Audio, Empire Ears, etc. There are good reasons that some choose these over Xelento despite the price differences. For me, Crinacle's rankings feel about right, though I'd switch the places of the Xelento and Vega, personally.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cri...ies-lcdi4-isine20-cipher-updated-8-11.857498/

 

[tienbasse]

Bold statements, and as mentioned above, the vented nature of the Xelento is a strike against them as an on-the-go IEM. It is a fine IEM, but "at any price point" and not taking into account personal preferences is going a bit far.

Agreed.

Personally, I've preferred both the Campfire Vega (esp. the bass) and Andromeda (that treble and sountstage) to the Xelento. And then there are the IEMs at the $1500+ price points: 64 Audio, Empire Ears, etc. There are good reasons that some choose these over Xelento despite the price differences. For me, Crinacle's rankings feel about right, though I'd switch the places of the Xelento and Vega, personally.

Personal taste as you say.
I rate Vegas lower than Xelentos (worse ergonomy + less convincing mids).
I don't like Andromeda that much because of the bad ergonomy, and there are better options for vast soudstage in the same or in lower priceranges.

I won't even comment about 1500$+ IEMs, most of them are playing the BA number war and the result is merely a matter of tuning matching personal preferences (= so called "reference" sound is nonsense), which is an expensive game to play. The high cost of these is merely the result of the long manufacturing time it takes to painfully tune all these BA together to get coherence in the end.
And regarding bass, again personal preference, but I highly prefer when bass is handled by a dynamic driver rather than with these subwoofer-type BAs, hence my preference for hybrid designs, which use the best of both driver technologies.

In the end, you can ask 10 people and get 10 different rankings.
Which is why i agreed with you: absolute statements piled up one on another are the bane of hi-fi, since we all have different hearings and taste.

 

[Edric Li]

Bold statements, and as mentioned above, the vented nature of the Xelento is a strike against them as an on-the-go IEM. It is a fine IEM, but "at any price point" and not taking into account personal preferences is going a bit far.

Personally, I've preferred both the Campfire Vega (esp. the bass) and Andromeda (that treble and sountstage) to the Xelento. And then there are the IEMs at the $1500+ price points: 64 Audio, Empire Ears, etc. There are good reasons that some choose these over Xelento despite the price differences. For me, Crinacle's rankings feel about right, though I'd switch the places of the Xelento and Vega, personally.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cri...ies-lcdi4-isine20-cipher-updated-8-11.857498/

Well, I guess everything I say is about my personal preference, first of all.

My point was that, Xelento provides an unmatched adequate amount of bass when listening outdoors, when the outside noise is high and the cable rubbing against your shirt constantly. That's has nothing to do with the vented nature of Xelento and non-vented nature of others. If I were to pick my favorite bass among all IEMs when listening indoor, I'd say the UM Mentors and KSE1500. My problem with them was that when used outdoor, these natural-sounding IEMs becomes bass-light and treble-heavy. This makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

There are other IEMs that provides similar amount of bass as Xelento, such as Sony Z5, JVC 1200, but they don't compare to Xelento in other departments.

Personally I dislike the Vega and Andromeda. To my ears they have too many unnatural bumps and dips throughout the FR, which makes listening to even the most familiar tracks a brand-new experience, but not in a good way. As for Crinacle's ranking, I disagree with a number of his comments regarding comparisons. For example he said Hidition NT6 Pro is "a V-shaped version of the NT6. The change in tuning kills the technical ability slightly", which is not true at all to my ears. So I'd take all his ranking, though a good reference, with a grain of salt.

 

[csglinux]

Bold statements, and as mentioned above, the vented nature of the Xelento is a strike against them as an on-the-go IEM. It is a fine IEM, but "at any price point" and not taking into account personal preferences is going a bit far.

Personally, I've preferred both the Campfire Vega (esp. the bass) and Andromeda (that treble and sountstage) to the Xelento. And then there are the IEMs at the $1500+ price points: 64 Audio, Empire Ears, etc. There are good reasons that some choose these over Xelento despite the price differences. For me, Crinacle's rankings feel about right, though I'd switch the places of the Xelento and Vega, personally.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/cri...ies-lcdi4-isine20-cipher-updated-8-11.857498/

I sincerely respect the effort Crinacle has devoted to producing his measurements and rankings and the portable rig he devised to measure these IEMs is pure genius, so I hate to be critical. But I'm going to be anyway...
In my experience, to really know how two very good headphones perform relative to one another, I have to spend days going back and forth. I don't know how any human being could, in their lifetime, possibly do that A/B with every possible combination of so many IEMs, even if you owned them all. joker made a good effort at ranking IEMs a while back, but he had simultaneous access to them all. I doubt Crinacle does. So I take those rankings with a very large pinch of salt. For example, he started the KSE1500 off in the B rankings and it only moved up after I suggested it was in the wrong place. (Personally though, I'm fine with his current relative ranking of Xelento and Vega!) The other problem is with his measurements. Look at his SE846 measurement. The SE846 is an IEM I know really well (and have measured a zillion times, with a zillion different cables, filters, eartips, etc.) and Crinacle's measurement looks nothing like any SE846 I've ever measured. And the differences have nothing to do with mic/soundcard/DF calibration curves - no way does its resonance peak go that far past 10 kHz under any circumstances. The other problem with this measurement database is that there's never a mention of the eartips used. That's a serious omission; eartips make a vast difference to the FR. In addition - the SE846 has many different filter options (including three stock options) and Crinacle doesn't even mention which was used. Without this information, the whole database is kind of useless, IMHO, even for internal comparisons.

 

[pacman46]

I sincerely respect the effort Crinacle has devoted to producing his measurements and rankings and the portable rig he devised to measure these IEMs is pure genius, so I hate to be critical. But I'm going to be anyway...
In my experience, to really know how two very good headphones perform relative to one another, I have to spend days going back and forth. I don't know how any human being could, in their lifetime, possibly do that A/B with every possible combination of so many IEMs, even if you owned them all. joker made a good effort at ranking IEMs a while back, but he had simultaneous access to them all. I doubt Crinacle does. So I take those rankings with a very large pinch of salt. For example, he started the KSE1500 off in the B rankings and it only moved up after I suggested it was in the wrong place. (Personally though, I'm fine with his current relative ranking of Xelento and Vega!) The other problem is with his measurements. Look at his SE846 measurement. The SE846 is an IEM I know really well (and have measured a zillion times, with a zillion different cables, filters, eartips, etc.) and Crinacle's measurement looks nothing like any SE846 I've ever measured. And the differences have nothing to do with mic/soundcard/DF calibration curves - no way does its resonance peak go that far past 10 kHz under any circumstances. The other problem with this measurement database is that there's never a mention of the eartips used. That's a serious omission; eartips make a vast difference to the FR. In addition - the SE846 has many different filter options (including three stock options) and Crinacle doesn't even mention which was used. Without this information, the whole database is kind of useless, IMHO, even for internal comparisons.

Amen! Since personal preference plays a huge roll those ratings could be so different from one person to another. I get it takes a lot of work and time to do all those comparisons, holy crap a very long time but everyone’s ears are different and like different sq’s. and to me,and this is just my opinion, it takes time for me to get use to a signature. How he found time to compare all those IEMs is amazing actually. But it’s flawed imo. I’ve owened some that I liked right away only to not like them or get bored of the sq after awhile. And Vica versa, not really wowed at first but then loving them in time. Everyone’s ears are different. Just my opinion.

 

[Roybenz]

I agree with this. It's the one thing about the Xelento I'd change if I could; the bass - specifically the mid bass - can sometimes be a little too much.

I just got them. The mid bass is destroying these for me. Any tips on how to make them not so boomy? I really dont like it on most tracks.

Edit: i changed to a smaller size tip, seems like it helped a bit. Hmmm