[Nabillion_786]

I am glad that you finally have a pair you like!

Is there any chance that you have the rotating nozzle pointed differently? I notice that mine sounded very muted until I figured out the best direction to wear the nozzle.

Very good point and you are absolutely right about the way to wearing them having a huge impact on sound quality. On all 3 pairs I realised that wearing them around the ears with the correct rotation instead of hanging down is the way to go as this improves the bass, stage and isolation greatly for me. Also another point worth mentioning is that I found all 3 pairs to give off a different type of sound presentation when switching the cables the other way around. One way sounds less realistic with a wide stage but everything sounds slightly recessed whereas the other has a more upfront and correct sounding presentation to my ears. Worth trying out if you feel something is not right.

 

[SilverEars]

The fit reminded me of TF10, but being able to adjust, or rotate to change the angle of the out portion. I can see why people would have issue with fit, it has some awkwardness to it. I ptefer to wear over the ears, but the cable wasn't designed for it. Luckily, the Spiral dots fit quite nice even if it's a shallow fit.

Technicalities seem good with the driver, but tonality however doesn't jive with me. The upper mids seem to lean toward 4-5k with some treble emphasis than I would like. I prefer the smoother Moondrop tonal response, which sounds more natural to my ears. My KPE sound stage and imaging is larger. Driver speed seems good. I like a little more bass though. I can see why some would EQ the response.

 

[PhoenixClaw]

The fit reminded me of TF10, but being able to adjust, or rotate to change the angle of the out portion. I can see why people would have issue with fit, it has some awkwardness to it. I ptefer to wear over the ears, but the cable wasn't designed for it. Luckily, the Spiral dots fit quite nice even if it's a shallow fit.

Technicalities seem good with the driver, but tonality however doesn't jive with me. The upper mids seem to lean toward 4-5k with some treble emphasis than I would like. I prefer the smoother Moondrop tonal response, which sounds more natural to my ears. My KPE sound stage and imaging is larger. Driver speed seems good. I like a little more bass though. I can see why some would EQ the response.

Which filter are you referring to? I find that stock (a la FD01) is difficult to listen to, but the blue filter seems to hit the spot.

 

[SilverEars]

Which filter are you referring to? I find that stock (a la FD01) is difficult to listen to, but the blue filter seems to hit the spot.

I didn't like what the other filters did to the response. Smoother, sure, but the response had some oddness to it as well. Stock just seemed to be the best response, at least for me.

I wouldn't say stock filter is difficult to listen to, but the upper-mids/lower-treble is outside my preference. If it was tuned slightly different, I would prefer it more as I find the driver to have technical potential.

I would say the upper-mids/lower-treble causes sibilence emphasis.

I was listening to some jazz with my KPE, which I enjoy due to it's natural timbre, and noticed the audience clapping sounds more natural. I like the KPE's fit with the deeper nozzle, and I think the deeper nozzle contibutes to how the sound is heard that probably won't show up on measurement from a coupler.

 

[Nabillion_786]

I didn't like what the other filters did to the response. Smoother, sure, but the response had some oddness to it as well. Stock just seemed to be the best response, at least for me.

I wouldn't say stock filter is difficult to listen to, but the upper-mids/lower-treble is outside my preference. If it was tuned slightly different, I would prefer it more as I find the driver to have technical potential.

I would say the upper-mids/lower-treble causes sibilence emphasis.

I was listening to some jazz with my KPE, which I enjoy due to it's natural timbre, and noticed the audience clapping sounds more natural. I like the KPE's fit with the deeper nozzle, and I think the deeper nozzle contibutes to how the sound is heard that probably won't show up on measurement from a coupler.

I 100% agree... Stock filters is the way to go for me as I find the other filters less clear and more dark sounding with a slower response that sound a bit dull for my ears. When comparing to kpe I do honestly find the fdx1 a bit smaller and less expansive in stage and I also find the kpe to have a slightly more natural response as it is probably the most natural sounding iem I have ever heard. That being said I definitely prefer the fdx1 more as its technicalities and especially the clarity is exceptional for a single DD iem.

 

[SilverEars]

I 100% agree... Stock filters is the way to go for me as I find the other filters less clear and more dark sounding with a slower response that sound a bit dull for my ears. When comparing to kpe I do honestly find the fdx1 a bit smaller and less expansive in stage and I also find the kpe to have a slightly more natural response as it is probably the most natural sounding iem I have ever heard. That being said I definitely prefer the fdx1 more as its technicalities and especially the clarity is exceptional for a single DD iem.

You pretty much took the thought off my mind. The stock filter does seem to sound faster with good clarity, but at the cost of elevated sibilance expression. Which goes to show the perception of speed is frequency response related. Due to KPE's nature, the obvious area I find KPE better performing is vocals. FDX1 does well with electronic due to the perception of speed with the crispness, , but with vocals it's less to be desired.

Moondrop has a particular type of tuning that's pretty consistent, and this tuning extends to their BA. Their BA tunings definitely are not analytical sounding.

I found Oxygen to have even smaller sound stage with a bit muted dynamics. It didn't sound like Oxygen move a lot air, and seem to be least quality driver of the 3. Was surprised how small Oxygen really was. The housing is quite small. It also has shallow fit (difficult for some due to short nozzle), and I believe shallow fit has some effect in the treble region.

 

[Nabillion_786]

You pretty much took the thought off my mind. The stock filter does seem to sound faster with good clarity, but at the cost of elevated sibilance expression. Which goes to show the perception of speed is frequency response related. Due to KPE's nature, the obvious area I find KPE better performing is vocals. FDX1 does well with electronic due to the perception of speed with the crispness, , but with vocals it's less to be desired.

Moondrop has a particular type of tuning that's pretty consistent, and this tuning extends to their BA. Their BA tunings definitely are not analytical sounding.

I found Oxygen to have even smaller sound stage with a bit muted dynamics. It didn't sound like Oxygen move a lot air, and seem to be least quality driver of the 3. Was surprised how small Oxygen really was. The housing is quite small. It also has shallow fit (difficult for some due to short nozzle), and I believe shallow fit has some effect in the treble region.

You hear your iems quite similar to how I do because I also agree with your oxygen assessment. However, I am a cable believer and found the tanchjim upgrade cable to improve its soundstage and fullnes soo that is worth a try for that iem. Not all cables work well with every iem but you need the right one. My 175 cable sounds horrible on my fdx1 but great on more fuller sounding iems. What the fdx1 needs is a bit more meat on the vocals and then that would be the perfect iem for me soo this time I'm choosing the isn s16 cable for them. Let's see how it sounds once that arrives.

 

[SilverEars]

You hear your iems quite similar to how I do because I also agree with your oxygen assessment. However, I am a cable believer and found the tanchjim upgrade cable to improve its soundstage and fullnes soo that is worth a try for that iem. Not all cables work well with every iem but you need the right one. My 175 cable sounds horrible on my fdx1 but great on more fuller sounding iems. What the fdx1 needs is a bit more meat on the vocals and then that would be the perfect iem for me soo this time I'm choosing the isn s16 cable for them. Let's see how it sounds once that arrives.

But, Oxygen at it's cost should have been tuned better with all that it came with. I agree about FDX1 needing a bit of meat, and it sounds the way it does is because it has a gradual rise tending to 4-5k, and cutting off 3k a bit due to the way it rises. This cause less full sounding vocals. I'm sure even more so than even the ER4 series.

Personally, I don't like gradual rises like Prophile 8, Elysium, or Anole VX. It causes a bit too much emphasis in the lower treble. I find that up to 3k and gradual decline is the way to go, but how should it decline is the question. I've recently seen the response of Galaxy Buds+ which looks like the closest Harman, but there is too much emphasis somewhere in the upper frequencies. One would expect it to be the highest point in the measurement at 3k, but when I played around with EQ, it was really the 7-8k. What is odd is that, Harman target doesn't show any emphasis there. I'm starting to think the lower treble should be tapered on the Harman target. I really don't know we can concusively say Harman target is at issue due to one iem (Galaxy Buds), but a good sample size tuned to Harman explored would better tell us about the target.

 

[surfgeorge]

For those interested - I posted a quick comparison of the modded JVC FD02 (should be very similar to the FDX1 with medium filter) and the Sony EX1000 and Astell & Kern T8iE MKII here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/jvc-ha-fd01-class-s-solidege.868414/post-15498978

 

[Nabillion_786]

Ok the isn s16 cable has really changed the game with the fdx1 for me. With this cable this iem is just insane! Honestly I hear about 50% more depth and better instrument separation that leads to an even more clearer image then the fdx1 already have which is crazy. Very clear window with these. But the best thing about this cable is that it increases the thickness of the sound by a considerable amount and combined with the depth and clarity this is a cable influence that I have never heard before. Highly recommended for people who find this iem sounding thin and for people who don't want much bass increase either.

 

[surfgeorge]

Ok the isn s16 cable has really changed the game with the fdx1 for me. With this cable this iem is just insane! Honestly I hear about 50% more depth and better instrument separation that leads to an even more clearer image then the fdx1 already have which is crazy. Very clear window with these. But the best thing about this cable is that it increases the thickness of the sound by a considerable amount and combined with the depth and clarity this is a cable influence that I have never heard before. Highly recommended for people who find this iem sounding thin and for people who don't want much bass increase either.

Good to hear you are happy with the sound! I also found the FD02 to respond very well to cables, but was somehow expecting that the FDX1 cable is already very good.
I think the best sound I got from my DIY pure silver/Teflon cable, but the best everyday solution for me is the ALOaudio pure silver cable (non-litz)
I feel it gives up a tad clarity and tightness but is extremely comfortable.

How is the comfort of the isn s16 ? This looks pretty heavy and thick.

 

[Nabillion_786]

Good to hear you are happy with the sound! I also found the FD02 to respond very well to cables, but was somehow expecting that the FDX1 cable is already very good.
I think the best sound I got from my DIY pure silver/Teflon cable, but the best everyday solution for me is the ALOaudio pure silver cable (non-litz)
I feel it gives up a tad clarity and tightness but is extremely comfortable.

How is the comfort of the isn s16 ? This looks pretty heavy and thick.

For me the comfort is fine but it is very thick so I probably would not recommend it much for outside use. There are no earhooks but because of the thickness I feel it wraps around my ears nice and tight. When it comes to sound I would like to add that it will add a bit more warmth to the sound aswell which is a very slight con for me. It sounds slightly less precise then stock cable but adds amazing depth and thickens the sound with slightly better separation.

 

[exitfire401]

Just received my shipping notification today. My JVCs are on their way back with the eartune fidelity tips. Should be here Saturday. Miss them a ton. The FA1s are alright, but there's no comparison between them and the FDX1. It will be nice to have a little bass impact again after a month.

 

[exitfire401]

Received my FDX1 and eartune fidelity today. The tips don't seem to effect the stock filters too badly. With the eartunes, it honestly sounds as good as the spiral dots with the blue filters. Tames the treble a little bit and doesn't otherwise effect the sound. This will definitely be my daily for the foreseeable future.

 

[morndewey]

Like to sell my KPE. PM if interested. Thanks