Brainwavz M3 Review-
Alright, seeing all these positive reviews is honestly making me sick. I must make my review for these headphones, as people must beware of certain things. All the reviews so far are creating a false impression for someone trying to find the right pair of headphones for themselves. I would like to emphasize that I have no bias against anything in particular here, even relative, and considering my love for the M2's and the great people I see that work for Brainwavz, I only look forward to their future products still. I doubt the M2's were an accident and the M3's were intended to sound differently, or rather, not just as a simple upgrade for a higher price. I can't exactly claim false advertising but rather, lack of information I should say, some reviews only having hinted at but never really exclaiming any of the following things as negative or especially mentioned really.
Now that that's out of the way, there technically isn't much of a point of getting into extreme detail just because the biggest flaw of the IEM's is that they sound artificial. Trying them, I was very focused on EQ and eventually, using my Cowon J3, I got it just right. It was very different than the M2's EQ and actually, relatively flat. That still hadn't changed its signature sound (which at the time I didn't know what exactly was) nor did it change its flaws. Artificial is the key word, because even though the EQ balanced the overall sound in what's more/less up front and overall just made the sound a bit clearer & more powerful, the mids still had a flat kind of sound (not relative to most headphones but definitely in comparison with the M2's), treble was harsh as hell, and no matter what I did, lows ALWAYS stayed the same - not enough.
Lows, Mids, and Treble-
Lows, regardless of song - regardless of the technical impact that literally even measured off the charts, were forced into a gentle touch. Were lows a tiny bit more extended than on the M2's? Sure. Was it audible at all times? If you blocked everything else out and really strived to hear it, then sure. Any beauty in any bass line was essentially gone. How can it not be gone when it's all made to sound mono-dynamic at a mezzo-piano (mp) level at most.
Mids were decent but I can't say anything positive because they're nothing worth the price - very average. They weren't in any particular direction. I guess vocals were clearer but not in all cases at all worth it as I'll emphasize in relation to the treble.
Treble was terrible. Clearer and louder does not make better. All the "T" and "S" sounds in vocals were ripping through my ears. That is an insanely low quality sound attribute which I should not even come close to getting a hint of on a pair of headphones considered this high caliber and of such price. Simply horrible. The sound in general was a bit dreadfully "trebly" actually. I never knew that Freddie Mercury could make such painful noises and have such negative qualities to his voice. This definitely contributes to an unnatural sound reproduction mentioned.
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The person that actually brought their general problem to my attention (what I can describe only as their sound signature) was my father one day when he took my player and the headphones and listened to some songs on Shuffle. The reason I overlooked it was because at that point, I was still optimistic and actually a bit biased positively. All the reviews were so great by people that seemed they knew exactly what they're talking about and by the same people who actually helped me before and accurately described the M2's; I had trust in the company and just couldn't imagine a more expensive similarly named model being so terrible (that's really a fitting word considering...) and I've invested enough of an amount to which I usually do a great deal of research for. Regardless, I always give a product a long long chance to prove its potential. I must say that the M3's lasted for one of the briefest periods (probably no longer than within a week).
To sum up and put it simply, in the words of my father who said this returning it to me, unbeknownst to using a new pair of headphones, no paying too close attention to quality really, "It sounds like I'm listening to all these songs through some kind of filter."
If you're looking simply for clarity and clarity only, these might be for you (though people still say the RE0's are better at that). As I've also mentioned, the sound IS in fact relatively flat or even balanced I should say, but it's not to a level good enough for accurate observation/mixing, so essentially it's pointless.