[kukkurovaca]

Just for s**** and giggles, and because it's always good to occasionally re-check your preferences to see if they've changed, I'm doing some quick comparisons now between my current two most-used IEMs (Advanced GT3 Superbass and BQEYZ Spring 1), and the closest thing I have on hand to a T2 in terms of bass roll-off (going by graphs, at least), which is the Koss KSC75.

The KSC75 has rolled-off bass, the GT3 Superbass -- despite its over-the-top-name -- has relatively linear bass with slightly elevated subbass, and the Spring 1 has more forward midbass and lower mids (with still good subbass extension).

With bass roll-off, most things sound thin and dry to me. I'm not even sure I'd say it's an improvement for analytic listening purposes. Particularly as regards any detail or texture within the bass frequencies themselves. However, when the midbass is too much, as on the Spring 1, that certainly also negatively impacts detail. So for me, what seems to work best is midbass that's about level with the mids, give or take, and subass that is elevated to taste -- which in my case is usually by quite a bit.

The only time I want less subbass is when I'm listening to a track that happens to have just a vulgar amount of bass on its own. : )

In case anyone's morbidly curious, here's what I'm listening to, which includes double bass (tracks 3-4), pipe organ (tracks 8-9), and electronic music with strong bass (tracks 15-18) alongside other tracks where bass isn't necessarily a prime feature.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/2a8f042a-c535-4f05-82f3-4bbe1d41101b

Anyway, not a judgment on anyone else's preferences, just where my (bass?)head's at.

 

[snip3r77]

Can anyone advise if I should get the turn v90?
I have the t2 and blon. Does it complement well or are side grades

 

[TheVortex]

Can anyone advise if I should get the turn v90?
I have the t2 and blon. Does it complement well or are side grades

I have the T2 and Blon and I would say go for the V90 as it has a different sound signature. Also the comfort is great in my opinion.

 

[DynamicEars]

Can anyone advise if I should get the turn v90?
I have the t2 and blon. Does it complement well or are side grades

Have 3 of them, i will say that v90 is the most v shaped from all, separation will be a little bit better than the two, more details in highs but smooth presentation, mids more recessed if you are comparing to the T2 and BL03, but with decent resolution. Timbre not the best but catching up with those two, with BL03 is the best in timbre. Fit is great.

So if you like a bit more v shaped signature, v90 is a decent IEM for sub $50

 

[mbwilson111]

I just happen to have better taste than most

Wow... lucky you.

 

[HungryPanda]

 

[silverfishla]

Mate. Have a read back. Did you mean this? Really?

Haha. I think it’s okay to bloviate every once in a while! . It’s what makes us the king of species and the destroyer of worlds!

 

[CoFire]

Starting with CP145s I get fine bass and that increases with wider bore tips, that works for EDM, hip-hop, anything. My definition of Hi-Fi is not light bass, you're funny to think the T2 has light bass. It has slightly too much with wide bore tips imo, I prefer something between CP145 and wide bore personally.

But maybe u like this sound and think it's HIFI

Yes T2 is generally on the lighter side of bass relative to other popular IEMs but still a great IEM.

Nice Kenwood! I'm sure that's someone's cup of tea and we all start somewhere. Is that my idea of Hifi? Not today but thanks for asking. There are more intelligent ways to ask about one's audio taste.

You are underestimating the complexity of this problem. As Tyll Hertsens once said: "With regular speaker listening, you get a significant amount of visceral input from the low notes through your body. For example: chest and nasal cavity compression is audible; as is bone-conducted sonic impact. With headphones, you don’t get these. (You get a bit of bone conduction with full-size circumaurals --- tap on the skull bone behind the flap of your ear, it’s quite audible.) So I agree that headphones should have some artificially high bass boost beyond what’s technically correct to compensate for these visceral input losses. As an example, Jerry Harvey has a particular low-frequency profile he prefers, and I agree with his tastes. Mead Killion at Etymotic bumped up the lows in the ER4P over the more technically correct ER4S because people wanted more lows. So, yes, more bass can be a good thing."

Not everyone's head is the same shape or has the same bone structure, nor is everyone's ear shape the same, and in-ear headphones are bypassing all the outer features of the ear (and thus it is up to the earphone to re-create the sound profile that most matches a particular listener's outer ear structure for it to sound correct for that listener). And then on top of that we have the problem that Tyll outlined regarding bass and how we experience it and how necessarily unnatural it is when we listen on earphones. I know that I am always chasing a dragon when I try to find the "perfect" set of earphones because NO set of earphones will ever fully re-create bass as you experience it with live music or on speakers. And what each person's particular dragon is like depends on them and their body.

A great post! Probably the biggest challenge for IEMs in terms of a newcomer training their brain to hear bass and not so much feel it.

Ok but regardless, too much bass to try to recreate a "visceral" impact is bad for fidelity, it distorts the driver(s), bleeds into the mids etc.

Not always true by any means. Essentially the whole point of this thread is to identify good, cheaper IEMs and get feedback on their sound and character. I think many posters covet less bass bleed into the mids. As well as has been commented, there are many factors that can lead to the perception of bass bleed.

I wish I had a simple reply to a statement like that, but I don't... but let me give you an example of my process. I have found what for me is a good ear tip pairing for the BQYEZ Spring1. I also have the LZ A6mini. Someone had asked me to compare the two, I gave a quick comparison, based on the ideal (for me) Spring1 tips and the best tips I had found while using the black ("reference") filter set with the A6mini. After a few days I was reflecting on what I had written, I realized I should revisit my comparison since I hadn't really done comprehensive tests with the other A6mini tuning filters and all the ear tips I have (several dozen different varieties). I plan to follow up in the future, and I'm currently testing the red filters (3-7kHz -3dB cut) with different ear tips and I've found a combination that I think is much better than what I could get with the black filters. I've read a review or two of the A6mini that completely dismissed the red filters, but I don't recall either reviewer talking much about ear tips, which in my experience can make a great difference in the experience, especially in terms of bass (some of which I think is due to bass conduction, because the higher mass/greater density silicone ear tips give me a greater sense of bass impact, especially sub-bass). But there are also factors such as the length of the eartip which can create it's own resonances when coupled with the ear canal, and bass is also impacted by the inner diameter or bore size of the eartip. For most of my tests, I'm not encountering driver distortion (modern drivers I think do a much better job not distorting these days, especially when they have nano carbon and DLC coatings). Certainly bass can "bleed" into the mids (i.e. overwhelm our perception of the mids at many listening volumes if the bass is too high in volume relative to the mids), and I try to find the best set of overall compromises when searching for the ideal balance, which I think is tricky.

One more thing - don't forget about the the Fetcher Munson Curve. That is, in human hearing as the actual loudness changes, the perceived loudness our brains hear will change at a different rate, depending on the frequency. On this forum we aren't level matching (i.e. making sure we're all listening at the same dB at our ears) when we talk about headphones or earphones, and the level we're listening at can make a big difference in terms of how much bass and treble we hear (and that's ignoring any other factors, like driver performance at a particular dB!) This makes equating our experiences even more tricky. For my part, I do my best to remember to test headphones and earphones at a range of dB as well as my preferred dB and then relate a kind of snapshot composite of that experience, so that it has the best chance of mapping to the widest range of other people's probable experiences (but it's not like we've collectively formalized a process for having a dialog on performance characterization here).

Another great post! Very rarely do people mention the volume they listen at. I'm often astonished how loud others listen.

I just happen to have better taste than most so I'll just leave it at "the tin T2 has plenty of bass", not really interested in arguments trying to defend untasteful consumer oriented tunings, we're on head-fi after all not on "which Beats has he most brainless untextured bass with super slow decay to try to reproduce a crappy Dr Dre concert" forums.

Sorry if that sounds harsh but with the recent chifi boom there's an overload of ppl with no taste and ears whatsoever asserting with the greatest authority how their 30$ ultra v-shaped iem is everything one could ever wish for, and it's annoying.

LMAO! Maybe you need to start a thread someplace?

 

[kmmbd]

Finally got around to reviewing the BLON BL-03s. They are, by far, the best IEMs you can buy under $50, or at least among the many that I've tried. Fantastic tuning that just gets out of the way and lets you enjoy your music. Definitely a must-have on this 11.11 for those who haven't bought it yet.

Review link: BLON BL-03 Review

 

[ozziecook]

Finally got around to reviewing the BLON BL-03s. They are, by far, the best IEMs you can buy under $50, or at least among the many that I've tried. Fantastic tuning that just gets out of the way and lets you enjoy your music. Definitely a must-have on this 11.11 for those who haven't bought it yet.

Review link: BLON BL-03 Review

Uh oh. What have you done?! I’m getting my coat too. Haha. Hope you eventually find peace and what you’re looking for guys!

 

[tanjinyi]

The price of the BLONs this November is pretty good, it's a steal at USD26. Too bad the fit is atrocious and blocks almost no noise when you're in the train. Since the fit isn't as snug as other IEMs, the bass quantity is lowered to a level that I appreciate while keeping the mids and highs fairly well.

 

[Veyska]

potentially Audiosense T180, 260, 300

Tennmak Pro (or Piano) also might work [each of those costs around 10 bucks without cable]

They're a bit buried, but I don't really remember Tennmak Pro being particularly isolating. Audiosense T180's pretty good though, both in sound and isolation.

 

[chinmie]

The price of the BLONs this November is pretty good, it's a steal at USD26. Too bad the fit is atrocious and blocks almost no noise when you're in the train. Since the fit isn't as snug as other IEMs, the bass quantity is lowered to a level that I appreciate while keeping the mids and highs fairly well.

even with snug seal, the Blon seems to have smaller isolation than other IEMs that i own. i agree with you that the Blon is one of those IEMs that doesn't suffer too much on the mids and treble when it shifted a bit on the ears.

 

[FastAndClean]

Finally got around to reviewing the BLON BL-03s. They are, by far, the best IEMs you can buy under $50, or at least among the many that I've tried. Fantastic tuning that just gets out of the way and lets you enjoy your music. Definitely a must-have on this 11.11 for those who haven't bought it yet.

Review link: BLON BL-03 Review

Beautiful

 

[citral23]

Mate. Have a read back. Did you mean this? Really?

Doesn't everyone thinks he has superior taste and that he's making the best possible purchases?

Then goes to forums to detail in great length why his purchase is so great and recommend it to everyone else?

That's what forums are made for, I am shocked that you're surprised.

Anyway, enough sarcasm for a few weeks I think. Let's concentrate on the incoming wave of DIAMOND LIKE COATING single DDs, because all the other brands now want a piece of the BLON pie.