[mbwilson111]

That's what I'm trying to get at. Trying to figure out if the detail, transparancy, separation, etc. benefit from a better source/amping.


... and I just remembered the word I was looking for, does it 'scale'?

have you considered getting a small portable amp to use with your phone?

 

[seanc6441]

@Otto Motor

By the logic of the angle being wrong then all speakers, and most headphones in the world are flawed. As the shoot sound at you from the front, and sides.

IEM's are usually the only gear that directly fires sound into your eardrum.

So not sure if this actually improved sound quality other than changing the perceived frequency response as less of your ear system is doing the listening.

As long as earbuds are tuned correctly to negate the effects of the position/angle of the driver it shouldn't have much determental effect. Maybe some resonance? But is human skin really that resonating to cause a problem? Someone more sciency might know

 

[seanc6441]

I agree with you. For me, balanced earbuds needs to have a good amount of bass but not too much (vido is awesome, but for short period of time or some genres with less bass). The earbuds for me need to sound like headphones and Qian69 do it a quite well for it price.

My issue with many earbuds is the earbuds with the right amount of mid bass usually lack sub bass depth. Those with very boosted mid bass have adequate sub bass...

And I'm someone who enjoys punchy mid bass to begin with. I really cannot stand earbud with recessed mid bass and low mids. Sounds really lacking to me if the earbud doesn't portray a full tone.

 

[Marcos Fontana]

My issue with many earbuds is the earbuds with the right amount of mid bass usually lack sub bass depth. Those with very boosted mid bass have adequate sub bass...

And I'm someone who enjoys punchy mid bass to begin with. I really cannot stand earbud with recessed mid bass and low mids. Sounds really lacking to me if the earbud doesn't portray a full tone.

You should try to listen to ZoomFred. I believe that is exactly what you are looking for. It's my best and ones that do it better than anything.

 

[ClieOS]

That's what I'm trying to get at. Trying to figure out if the detail, transparancy, separation, etc. benefit from a better source/amping.


... and I just remembered the word I was looking for, does it 'scale'?

Most smartphones have either too high an output impedance, too low an output power (especially on the current side), too worst a channel separation and sometime some combination of them (if not all). Most entry level DAP from well known Chinese brand these days can easily compete with them, not to mention mid- to high-end DAP. If you don't want to use a separated DAP, I'll suggest a half decent amp/DAC at least. If your smartphone supports LDAC or aptX, then a good quality Bluetooth adapter like FiiO BTR3 or EarStudio ES100 can be very an excellent addition as well.

 

[Otto Motor]

Hence why I don't recommend a DIY repair. From what I know, Smabat already changed the MMCX socket on the new batch of ST-10 as there are reports of socket's tolerance issue and are offering exchange.

Message from Smabat on the MMCX connector issue:
"...I saw it, I am very sorry to have encountered this situation.
Our engineering analysis is that our headphone cable has caused this problem.
Contact us at AliExpress Customer Service to arrange a new headset and cable for you.
We are already solving this interface problem and it will be better later.
In this case, you can use small pliers.
As shown below..."

By the way: I did exactly as shown with the results exactly as shown...this didn't change anything.

 

[Otto Motor]

Those of you with the ST-10 and a better amp/source, does the ST-10 benefit from it?

I use the audioquest dragonfly black on the iphone SE and the ST-10 sounds much better with it: fuller, more volume.

 

[MelodyMood]

Any comparison between Remax RM-303 Vs FiiO EM3S? Especially how they stand against TP16 or Monk+?

 

[alias71]

Message from Smabat on the MMCX connector issue:
"...I saw it, I am very sorry to have encountered this situation.
Our engineering analysis is that our headphone cable has caused this problem.
Contact us at AliExpress Customer Service to arrange a new headset and cable for you.
We are already solving this interface problem and it will be better later.
In this case, you can use small pliers.
As shown below..."

By the way: I did exactly as shown with the results exactly as shown...this didn't change anything.

Bingo! I compared with a magnifying glass the distance between the two center contact's halves in the defective and the good earphone MMCX connectors and, in fact, the two halves in the defective one are noticeably more distant than in the good one.
On the positive side I got a message from Jim at NiceHCK that will send me a new ST-10 pair and pay for the expenses to send the defective earphones back. Great customer support!

 

[Otto Motor]

My wife went through her old tech garbage today to give to recycling...and came across an old Apple earbud: the second generation Apple earbud from 2006 (which is essentially the first generation Apple earbud with a chin slider) -- very rare.

I had one of these, which had come with the 2nd generation ipod shuffle (that one that looked like a pack of Wrigley's spearmint gum), and absolutely loved it...after losing it on the bus, I replaced it with the [imo inferior] Sennheiser MX560. The later Apple earbuds were inferior to this one, too -- and were eventually replaced by the EarPods.

Boy was I happy: these old Apple earbuds rock..when comparing them to a pair of current $65 buds, these didn't quite have the treble and bass extension, but they had a similar tonal quality. Now I am more confused than ever about the correlation of price and quality...also known as value.

Anyway, great to have these back 11 years later...my wife gave them to me.

 

[Otto Motor]

Bingo! I compared with a magnifying glass the distance between the two center contact's halves in the defective and the good earphone MMCX connectors and, in fact, the two halves in the defective one are noticeably more distant than in the good one.
On the positive side I got a message from Jim at NiceHCK that will send me a new ST-10 pair and pay for the expenses to send the defective earphones back. Great customer support!

Smabat told me not to return mine at all.

 

[MelodyMood]

My wife went through her old tech garbage today to give to recycling...and came across an old Apple earbud: the second generation Apple earbud from 2006 (which is essentially the first generation Apple earbud with a chin slider) -- very rare.

I had one of these, which had come with the 2nd generation ipod shuffle (that one that looked like a pack of Wrigley's spearmint gum), and absolutely loved it...after losing it on the bus, I replaced it with the [imo inferior] Sennheiser MX560. The later Apple earbuds were inferior to this one, too -- and were eventually replaced by the EarPods.

Boy was I happy: these old Apple earbuds rock..when comparing them to a pair of current $65 buds, these didn't quite have the treble and bass extension, but they had a similar tonal quality. Now I am more confused than ever about the correlation of price and quality...also known as value.

Anyway, great to have these back 11 years later...my wife gave them to me.

They are nice. I also have them. From 1st Gen iPod. Very nice sound. Much better than the available earbuds now a days. Not sure why Apple stopped them and went for very uncomfortable Earpods. I wish I can get new pairs of these 1st or 2nd Gen ones with Mic

 

[assassin10000]

have you considered getting a small portable amp to use with your phone?

I did briefly but I carry enough as is and don't want to add more to keep track of.

Most smartphones have either too high an output impedance, too low an output power (especially on the current side), too worst a channel separation and sometime some combination of them (if not all). Most entry level DAP from well known Chinese brand these days can easily compete with them, not to mention mid- to high-end DAP. If you don't want to use a separated DAP, I'll suggest a half decent amp/DAC at least. If your smartphone supports LDAC or aptX, then a good quality Bluetooth adapter like FiiO BTR3 or EarStudio ES100 can be very an excellent addition as well.

I'm using a Samsung Note 4, snapdragon processor. It does support aptx and i think ldac too.

Supposedly it's dac is decent and fairly low output impedence. It may or may not have the wolfson dac the exynos versions have. I'm guessing probably so for the low power voice recognition pickup. I didn't look all that hard into it. There is a thread here on head-fi where someone measured this phone having a .67ohm output impedence. No noise floor or sound issues with low impedence iems.

I'm now using my mmcx earbuds mostly with the TRN BT20. Which has aac & sbc and currently only sbc with my android phone (well unless I bother to change the o.s. again). The convenience of true wireless makes enough of a difference to me, that the loss of quality vs wired is fine for my use. I'm using these out and about: going to the store, working in the garage, walking around, etc. So mostly no critical listening and not at high enough volumes that I'm unaware of my surroundings.

I use the audioquest dragonfly black on the iphone SE and the ST-10 sounds much better with it: fuller, more volume.

Cool. I've got plenty of volume but a fuller, more detailed sound may be worth trying a new device. Either a dac/amp or something like the btr3 or es100.

Food for thought. For now.

 

[cocolinho]

You should try to listen to ZoomFred. I believe that is exactly what you are looking for. It's my best and ones that do it better than anything.

I wish I could try them one day, it will avoid an expensive blind purchase!

 

[subwoof3r]

Smabat told me not to return mine at all.

Did you get your pair from NiceHCK or directly from Smabat.com ?
My pair seems also to suffer from MMCX loose and bad contacts too, this is a bit annoying sometimes.
The recommended trick from Smabat above is far to be secure, it is a very fragile part of MMCX connectors. I'm surprised they recommend to do this by ourselves.