[csglinux]

I use Qobuz with success with USBplayer pro, the Qdelix 5G or the graphic EQ of the WM1A or Kann Alpha.
I think I always found a way to use so EQ with my daps till now.

The problem is with offline Qobuz/Tidal, which won't work with UAPP because of licensing issues. Lotoo Paw Gold touch has a system-wide parametric eq, but no streaming. Astell & Kern's 20-band 'parametric' eq has been broken for years and is totally worthless:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/astell-kern-new-flagship-a-ultima-sp2000.906255/post-15910105. Want a sportsman's bet that A&K won't ever fix this in our lifetimes?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of parametric eq, but it's just not that widely available. Most consistent option seems to be to go through some Bluetooth pipeline to a second device, but then you're dealing with all the usual issues of Bluetooth.

OTOH, if you're totally happy with whatever parametric eq you have, why hang out on a Xelento thread? You could save yourself about $700 USD by hanging out on the $5 Skull Candy thread?

 

[csglinux]

Ha ha ha.... discover by accident

That's how all the best discoveries are made

 

[newworld666]

OTOH, if you're totally happy with whatever parametric eq you have, why hang out on a Xelento thread? You could save yourself about $700 USD by hanging out on the $5 Skull Candy thread?

I didn't say that exactly .. I would more say, if the IEM or Headphone is fast enough on most of frequencies and can handle some PEQ adjustments without noticeable distortions => then I could find a way to PEQ almost my favorites headphones (HEDD, Ultrasone ED15 Veritas, Z7M2, Xelento and IER-Z1R) almost all other I bought these last 15/20 years have too limited specs to be clearly improved with EQ or too far too slow to give clear impacts and no soup.
The Xelento, is defintely one of my IEMs that can be clearly improved with some PEQ.

 

[csglinux]

I didn't say that exactly .. I would more say, if the IEM or Headphone is fast enough on most of frequencies and can handle some PEQ adjustments without noticeable distortions => then I could find a way to PEQ almost my favorites headphones (HEDD, Ultrasone ED15 Veritas, Z7M2, Xelento and IER-Z1R) almost all other I bought these last 15/20 years have too limited specs to be clearly improved with EQ or too far too slow to give clear impacts and no soup.
The Xelento, is defintely one of my IEMs that can be clearly improved with some PEQ.

Yeah, I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek there

 

[csglinux]

Yeah, I was being slightly tongue-in-cheek there

P.S. But it's an interesting question as to how good you make a cheap IEM with a good parametric eq.

 

[PureViewer4t1]

As I use Neutron Player Usb Player Pro .. it's worth to adjust EQ of the xelento to bring clearer bass impacts..
Oratory proposal is

And Crinacle


I don't go so far.in lowering those frequencies . But for sure, with some EQ the Xelento becomes really usable in the night for sleeping and not so far from my day time IER-Z1R (with some EQ too).
For sure, I will be sad to quit the Xelento due to no beyedynamic after sale services ... (with the grilles)

I use these profiles with Neutron too. For me Oratory's is a bit out-of-head and speaker-like while Crinacle's is more like a wide wall of sound. I also tame 4kHz by 6dB because it just becomes too hot.

But then you really have to experience these with XBass+ and 3D+ switches of micro iDSD BL. Such an experience it is!

 

[RIGATIO]

For any Xelento owners that might be stuck at home (for whatever reason) with some time to kill, I've got something for you to try.

I recently learned something interesting about the Xelento's vents. @earfonia pointed this out to me, so I should give him credit for this little discovery. I'd not even bothered testing this before because vents and ports are usually there for a good reason, and it's usually wise to not mess with them. Case in point - this is the effect if you take a piece of electrical or packing tape and completely cover the entire back faceplate and all around its seam:


You now get an almost perfectly linear bass response from 20 -> 500 Hz. That's interesting, but if you like that kind of sound you're probably in the wrong place and should probably be browsing this thread instead: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/if-you-still-love-etymotic-er4-this-is-the-thread-for-you.538615/. The thumping sub-bass is one of the coolest features of the Xelento and most of us probably don't want to lose that. But here's the interesting part. There's a very consistent plateau region of the FR that we can reach if we tape over both port holes (to the left and right of the word "Beyerdynamic" on the face plate, but leave a tiny gap exposing approximately 1 mm of the seam between the faceplate and the IEM body above the lettering, like so:


Within quite a margin of play on the packing tape, I'm able to get a very consistent response, which now looks like this:


This is magical The main weakness with the Xelento for me has always been its slightly heavy mid-bass. This port mod fixes that. It's now objectively a better headphone, measuring closer to the Harman target, meaning ~2/3rds of you ought to prefer this sound signature over that of the unmodified Xelento. If anybody's feeling brave, it's just a one-minute modification and it's easily reversible if you decide you prefer the original level of mid-bass. I'd be curious to hear people's impressions of this mod.

As I said, statistically, more people ought to like this change than not, so it's a bit of a head-scratcher that Beyerdynamic didn't give us a tuning like this to begin with.

Wow! Is it just my brain or i can really hear clearer sound? I always liked this midbass bump but now the sound became even airier. The subbass depth is even more pronounced due to reduced midbass. Thanx for this tip!

 

[RIGATIO]

For any Xelento owners that might be stuck at home (for whatever reason) with some time to kill, I've got something for you to try.

I recently learned something interesting about the Xelento's vents. @earfonia pointed this out to me, so I should give him credit for this little discovery. I'd not even bothered testing this before because vents and ports are usually there for a good reason, and it's usually wise to not mess with them. Case in point - this is the effect if you take a piece of electrical or packing tape and completely cover the entire back faceplate and all around its seam:


You now get an almost perfectly linear bass response from 20 -> 500 Hz. That's interesting, but if you like that kind of sound you're probably in the wrong place and should probably be browsing this thread instead: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/if-you-still-love-etymotic-er4-this-is-the-thread-for-you.538615/. The thumping sub-bass is one of the coolest features of the Xelento and most of us probably don't want to lose that. But here's the interesting part. There's a very consistent plateau region of the FR that we can reach if we tape over both port holes (to the left and right of the word "Beyerdynamic" on the face plate, but leave a tiny gap exposing approximately 1 mm of the seam between the faceplate and the IEM body above the lettering, like so:


Within quite a margin of play on the packing tape, I'm able to get a very consistent response, which now looks like this:


This is magical The main weakness with the Xelento for me has always been its slightly heavy mid-bass. This port mod fixes that. It's now objectively a better headphone, measuring closer to the Harman target, meaning ~2/3rds of you ought to prefer this sound signature over that of the unmodified Xelento. If anybody's feeling brave, it's just a one-minute modification and it's easily reversible if you decide you prefer the original level of mid-bass. I'd be curious to hear people's impressions of this mod.

As I said, statistically, more people ought to like this change than not, so it's a bit of a head-scratcher that Beyerdynamic didn't give us a tuning like this to begin with.

I'm just hoping that this trick won't affect drivers lifespan due to the increased air pressure in the chamber.

 

[csglinux]

Wow! Is it just my brain or i can really hear clearer sound? I always liked this midbass bump but now the sound became even airier. The subbass depth is even more pronounced due to reduced midbass. Thanx for this tip!

I definitely prefer the change. The tape will be staying permanently on my Xelentos.

I'm just hoping that this trick won't affect drivers lifespan due to the increased air pressure in the chamber.

The average pressure in the IEM won't change; it will still be that of ambient/atmospheric. The diaphragm excursions are a function of the SPL (and vice versa), which, if anything, are a bit less now you've reduced the mid-bass (assuming you keep the same volume level, that is).

 

[RIGATIO]

I definitely prefer the change. The tape will be staying permanently on my Xelentos.

The average pressure in the IEM won't change; it will still be that of ambient/atmospheric. The diaphragm excursions are a function of the SPL (and vice versa), which, if anything, are a bit less now you've reduced the mid-bass (assuming you keep the same volume level, that is).

Thx for the reply. I used transparent tape and it will definitely stay on my xelenos too! Now most of my music sound even more life-like. The space between the subbass and the mids increased noticeably. Now i got very spacious soundstage from my pioneer 300r.

 

[RIGATIO]

Unfortunately needed to remove the tape. The air pressure in my ears was too high after 10 min of listening session. It got very uncomfortable. Now after coming back the sound is flooded by mid bass again

 

[csglinux]

Unfortunately needed to remove the tape. The air pressure in my ears was too high after 10 min of listening session.

Were you on a plane? Deep-sea diving? Otherwise, the pressure in your ears after 10 mins was 101325 Pa - exactly the same as after zero minutes. There's no physical mechanism here that could cause a build-up of pressure in your ear. Maybe you're just listening at too-high a volume?

I don't think your experience is going to be typical. A huge number of (e.g. balanced armature) headphones have no vents at all. In fact, you want no vents if you want good isolation.

 

[RIGATIO]

Were you on a plane? Deep-sea diving? Otherwise, the pressure in your ears after 10 mins was 101325 Pa - exactly the same as after zero minutes. There's no physical mechanism here that could cause a build-up of pressure in your ear. Maybe you're just listening at too-high a volume?

I don't think your experience is going to be typical. A huge number of (e.g. balanced armature) headphones have no vents at all. In fact, you want no vents if you want good isolation.

Maybe it's just me, besides I've noticed this mainly in my right ear. Anyways i put the tape again and try to not focus on this issue. There is no way back for me after expiriencing such a huge improvement in sound. Now I know how xelentos should really sound.

 

[sinquito]

Hi everyone:

I´ve been reading this whole thread for the past couple of day (currently at page 80 or so). I have in my sights the remote version of the Xelento, I wanted to know if it´s still a relevant IEM in 2021, I can get them from my local Amazon for around 550 USD with taxes, so not too shabby, but also not pocket change (at least for me) and also a bit worried about the driver flex thing and lose mmcx connection.

I have/had the following IEMs for reference:

• Ety ER4SR: love the detail and the tuning is really good, maybe a bit bass-lite, I don´t like the fit and the 2D-like imaging.
• Vsonic GR07 BE: probably my favorite IEM (I stopped buying IEMs for like 4 years after buying this), I love the way it sounded, very delicate, to me it was as if a small band was playing inside my head. I broke them and can´t get a detachable-wire version new.
• Sony EX800ST: probably my second favorite sounding IEM, besides the awkward fit and lack of isolation, sometimes I find it very thin and harsh with some type of music (like metal), goes best with acoustic.
• AKG K3003i: my favorite AKG out of the three I own, sounds very good, but I guess nothing special about it, the cable is terrible and the shells are very heavy.
• AKG N5005: very dark even with the least damping filter (I think is the white one), the only thing that is better vs the K3003i is the removable cable and lighter shells.
• JVC FDX1: sounds a bit bassy to me, otherwise I can´t complain, to be honest I think there was more hype about this IEM than what was deserved.
• FLC8s: reminded me of the K3003i, I hate the cable and I didn't feel like playing with all the filters, but probably is a good sounding IEM, maybe.
• Sony WF1000X3: the best sounding TWS iem I have heard, I think it sounds better than some wired more expensive IEMs, very spacious, punchy bass, a lots of detail in the treble.

Also, for reference I quite like the Sennheiser HD600, probably my favorite Headphone, also I have a Beyer DT1990 which I found a bit harsh in the treble and not very musical, I enjoy a lot more the Fidelio X2HR.

Sorry for the lengthy post and happy listening.

 

[PureViewer4t1]

Hi everyone:

I´ve been reading this whole thread for the past couple of day (currently at page 80 or so). I have in my sights the remote version of the Xelento, I wanted to know if it´s still a relevant IEM in 2021, I can get them from my local Amazon for around 550 USD with taxes, so not too shabby, but also not pocket change (at least for me) and also a bit worried about the driver flex thing and lose mmcx connection.

I have/had the following IEMs for reference:

• Ety ER4SR: love the detail and the tuning is really good, maybe a bit bass-lite, I don´t like the fit and the 2D-like imaging.
• Vsonic GR07 BE: probably my favorite IEM (I stopped buying IEMs for like 4 years after buying this), I love the way it sounded, very delicate, to me it was as if a small band was playing inside my head. I broke them and can´t get a detachable-wire version new.
• Sony EX800ST: probably my second favorite sounding IEM, besides the awkward fit and lack of isolation, sometimes I find it very thin and harsh with some type of music (like metal), goes best with acoustic.
• AKG K3003i: my favorite AKG out of the three I own, sounds very good, but I guess nothing special about it, the cable is terrible and the shells are very heavy.
• AKG N5005: very dark even with the least damping filter (I think is the white one), the only thing that is better vs the K3003i is the removable cable and lighter shells.
• JVC FDX1: sounds a bit bassy to me, otherwise I can´t complain, to be honest I think there was more hype about this IEM than what was deserved.
• FLC8s: reminded me of the K3003i, I hate the cable and I didn't feel like playing with all the filters, but probably is a good sounding IEM, maybe.
• Sony WF1000X3: the best sounding TWS iem I have heard, I think it sounds better than some wired more expensive IEMs, very spacious, punchy bass, a lots of detail in the treble.

Also, for reference I quite like the Sennheiser HD600, probably my favorite Headphone, also I have a Beyer DT1990 which I found a bit harsh in the treble and not very musical, I enjoy a lot more the Fidelio X2HR.

Sorry for the lengthy post and happy listening.

Can't comment about sound signature compared to what you have, but I personally have not had any issues with driver flex. I don't swap cables much, but from the two cables included, the one with remote tends to rotate in MMCX connectors much more easily than the other cable, so I have to adjust it every time. And I would have personally bought the Wireless version if I could. The remote cable doesn't make that much sense unless you want to listen directly from your phone's headphone jack.