Custom in ears, does more drivers mean better sound quality???
Apr 8, 2013 at 8:54 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 20

tannerbnd

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Aka: rivers1724
Aka: rivers17
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Sorry if this is a dumb question but would moving from a quad driver to a custom with 7 or 8 drivers bring better sound quality per se or just focus more on deeper lows and mid lows, etc...
 
Apr 9, 2013 at 6:22 AM Post #4 of 20
Quote:
Sorry if this is a dumb question but would moving from a quad driver to a custom with 7 or 8 drivers bring better sound quality per se or just focus more on deeper lows and mid lows, etc...

 
Not necessarily, I think that would depend mainly on the design, tuning and actual BA drivers used. Our ears and SQ perceptions are often very different too, there really is no substitute for hearing/experiencing the differences between IEM's for yourself.
 
Apr 9, 2013 at 6:30 AM Post #5 of 20
Not necessarily, I think that would depend mainly on the design, tuning and actual BA drivers used. Our ears and SQ perceptions are often very different too, there really is no substitute for hearing/experiencing the differences between IEM's for yourself.


In addition to the above, the more drivers you add, the more things can go wrong. Notwithstanding that, you need to be able to implement each driver accordingly to reproduce the 'right' sound. But that's another thing altogether.
 
Apr 9, 2013 at 3:05 PM Post #9 of 20
Coming from mobile audio, I would have to add that how the frequencies are crossed over makes a huge difference with the use of multiple armatures. If they are all playing full range, the sound is limited to the response curves of the BA's used. If the BA's are crossed over and each has been chosen to reproduce frequencies based on their strengths - that's another thing. They should sound amazing. Should. If there is too much tinkering with crossovers, whole frequency ranges can be omitted, or neglected and SQ suffers. Since IEM's use only passive crossovers, too many crossover points can lead to a fragmented sound. The tuning of the BA's is the biggest determining factor in the sound, IMHO, as everyone for the most part is using similar armatures - It is the choosing of crossover points and quality of materials (lousy electronics saps signals) where the magic happens.
 
Apr 9, 2013 at 4:36 PM Post #10 of 20
There are also very high quality dynamic driver earphones and custom-fit monitors. In that case, all you need is one and yes, they can and do compete very well with multi-ba designs.

Like everyone has said, it's all about the specifics of the design, not just the number of drivers.
 
Apr 10, 2013 at 10:53 AM Post #11 of 20
As a professional live sound engineer by trade, the idea of having tons of drivers packed into an IEM confuses me.
 
I can understand having a 3-way (Low-mid-high) or even a 4-way, considering the nature of balanced armature drivers.
 
But how does having two drivers per crossover (2 x low, 2 x mid, 2 x high) make a substantial difference, to anything but volume?
 
(Am I making much sense? Sorry, I just finished a long shift 
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)
 
Apr 10, 2013 at 10:56 AM Post #12 of 20
More drivers means more sound means more quality means more everything means better ah. More drivers = best. 
 
Jokes 
wink.gif

 
Apr 10, 2013 at 11:05 AM Post #13 of 20
Quote:
As a professional live sound engineer by trade, the idea of having tons of drivers packed into an IEM confuses me.
 
I can understand having a 3-way (Low-mid-high) or even a 4-way, considering the nature of balanced armature drivers.
 
But how does having two drivers per crossover (2 x low, 2 x mid, 2 x high) make a substantial difference, to anything but volume?
 
(Am I making much sense? Sorry, I just finished a long shift 
frown.gif
)

Siamesed drivers cancel vibration. It also lowers distortion and allows for more linear dynamics but those 2 can be debated.
 
Apr 10, 2013 at 11:17 AM Post #14 of 20
How would they cancel vibration - and of what? More drivers = more moving surface area = more vibration. At least, that's how it is in the big rig world.
 
I've seen a few owners of 6 to 8 driver IEM's say that it "Lowers distortion". I've got a few pairs of 3-way IEMs, I don't really notice any - am I hearing incorrectly? I only really use them at probably a third of the possible volume output they are capable of, so I don't think they are struggling to keep up..
 
Anyway, I'm definitely curious, as I've sent my UM3X away to be remoulded, and I'm wondering if I should start looking into some of the 8 driver, 4-way customs. But at this stage, the logic part of my brain (which desperately needs sleep) is currently asking me "why?"
 
Apr 10, 2013 at 12:20 PM Post #15 of 20
IMO more drivers mean better frequency response, more soundstage, more bass, better imaging and higher resolution sound quality. It is hard for one BA driver to tune offers all like Etymotic ER4P/S are very high resolution sounding IEMs but when compared to multidrivers BA IEMs then small soundstage, light bass response become more apperent.
 

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