[Tom Yum Goong]

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I'd have bought them on Ratfarm's review, but I'm not willing to risk an IEM costing this much around insane tomcat. In fact, I'm not willing to risk detachable ones around him at all - he thinks they're edible and I can't believe that all those rare earths would be good for the feline digestive apparatus.

Why not use the the included soft bag? It's not that bad.
 
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Some reviews of headphones and IEMs are extraordinarily puzzling.
Firstly, if the sound signature is "too neutral" then why not use the EQ?

 
I don't have anything against EQing. But from what I read in some threads here, a lot of people seem to look down on the whole EQ stuff. I'm just saying that people who don't like EQing and don't like a neutral sound signature won't be very happy with the SM64
 
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Forgive me if I missed this... But you compared the 334 the SM64 back to back, while both were in your possession? And you came away with the impression the improvements were minimal at best?

I do not posess the 334 and I don't plan on doing it. Forgive me my ignorance, but after listening to the SM64 for almost 300 hours now, I can't really imagine how an IEM could sound better. Okay, that is a subjective opinion and if my explanation is too clumsy for the people, feel free to call an admin and let him delete my posts on this whole "334 can't really be that much better" topic.

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

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Did anyone order directly from earsonics site? 

I did. Their webstore does it's job but don't expect anything fancy. The folks at Earsonics normaly respond to emails within 2 days.

 

[bobeau]

[quote="Tom]
I do not posess the 334 and I don't plan on doing it. Forgive me my ignorance, but after listening to the SM64 for almost 300 hours now, I can't really imagine how an IEM could sound better. Okay, that is a subjective opinion and if my explanation is too clumsy for the people, feel free to call an admin and let him delete my posts on this whole "334 can't really be that much better" topic.
[/quote]


No need to get melodramatic. Every single impression is a subjective opinion. But without first hand experience you're just speculating, and that's harmful to people who are looking for data points based on actual experience.

There's only two people I can see in this thread who have heard both, and one says they're on the same plane (but he no longer owns the 334s), and the other one who has both says they are not. People are always looking for higher value, I get that, I also get the idea its hard to imagine improving on a particular sound - but until youve experienced for yourself how can you say?

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

Quote:

No need to get melodramatic. Every single impression is a subjective opinion. But without first hand experience you're just speculating, and that's harmful to people who are looking for data points based on actual experience.

There's only two people I can see in this thread who have heard both, and one says they're on the same plane (but he no longer owns the 334s), and the other one who has both says they are not. People are always looking for higher value, I get that, I also get the idea its hard to imagine improving on a particular sound - but until youve experienced for yourself how can you say?

You are right. Let's just stop that off-topic stuff. It's just that I'm still amazed how much the SM64 are better than everything I listened to before. An yes, that is actually not much, like I stated in my review
And I have to admit that the fact that the SM64 COULD be almost as good as the glorious TG334, got me a bit too hyped.
Sorry for that.

Let's just get back to more impressions and reviews

 

[Audiowood]

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I disagree, so you are saying all the people whom buy high end iems are fools wirth more money than senses?

. I have not heard the sm64 but to me the fitear 334 is clearly better than the shure535, westone w4s and pfe 232..

 
 
Yes I agree 100% that the fitear 334 is clearly better than all those phones u mention, just not clearly better than the SM64 IMO as SM64 is also clearly superior than shure 535 and even the formidable EX1000 itself.
 
 U need to borrow one, loan or rob someone and hear it for yourself.

 
Here is my story, I walk into Jaben looking for something to try on. Someone trust the SM64 into my hands and my first thought were, these look too plastic for my liking. I put it on and shut up for a long time.. I ask them if there are any IEM better than this, and he said, any better you should look into custom as he showed me his JH customs (probably JH16 or JH11)
 
I looked clearly into these plastic and wonder how can this sound so good , I must be wrong.. I requested the TH900 for sanity check and I wasn't wrong, the SM64 does not belong to the Shure 535 or even the EX1000 league, it goes beyond that.. I cannot say its better than TG334, or AkG3003i, they are just different. I walked away with SM64 in my hands.. I just can't pass on this one...

 

[scuttle]

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Originally Posted by Tom Yum Goong /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
[Cats eating iems]
Why not use the the included soft bag? It's not that bad.

 
When I'm not using IEMs they live in a hard case. (The Really Useful Box company make tiny boxes that are good for the job - not as tough as a Peli, but a lot lighter and still strong enough that you can stand on them and they won't squoosh) Or those IEMs wouldn't live long.
 
The problem is not that the cat tries to eat IEMs when they are in storage, but that a 20lb stealthy, super-agile feline psychopath constantly waits for moments when I put them on, take them off, or just remove them for a moment to hear what someone is saying. His tally so far is two pairs of cheap JVCs and one pair of SHE5390 (destroyed, not swallowed, because they're non-detachable.) My Etymotics only survive because I won't use them in the house.
 
Encouraged by his success, he recently moved onto attacking HD25s, but at least he can't swallow those. I was going to buy a pair of used Stax, but I'm worried that the voltage through the cables is too high.
 
Oh - and my other cat ate the antenna on my wireless router. Well - she chewed it, even if she had the sense not to try to digest it.
 
Soft bags...

 

[scuttle]

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Why not use the the included soft bag? It's not that bad.
 
 
I don't have anything against EQing. But from what I read in some threads here, a lot of people seem to look down on the whole EQ stuff.

 
Well, yes, but this is insane of them; read the pink noise eq  article. A test of an IEM without EQing this way measures its interaction with your ear cavity, not its absolute quality. You don't even provide a meaningful guide to how well it really works with no EQ, because that will always depend on acoustic interaction with the ear cavity. The only way to remove - or at least reasonably limit - the effect of this interaction is to tune the IEM for your ear cavity listening to pink noise.

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

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The problem is not that the cat tries to eat IEMs when they are in storage, but that a 20lb stealthy, super-agile feline psychopath constantly waits for moments when I put them on, take them off, or just remove them for a moment to hear what someone is saying. His tally so far is two pairs of cheap JVCs and one pair of SHE5390 (destroyed, not swallowed, because they're non-detachable.) My Etymotics only survive because I won't use them in the house.
 
Encouraged by his success, he recently moved onto attacking HD25s, but at least he can't swallow those. I was going to buy a pair of used Stax, but I'm worried that the voltage through the cables is too high.
Oh - and my other cat ate the antenna on my wireless router. Well - she chewed it, even if she had the sense not to try to digest it.
Soft bags...

I know what you are going through...first victim of my cats was an AKG 601. After that the killing spree went on with my crappy old headset, some cheap sony in-ears and the USB cable of my Galaxy S3.
I just wait for the day when they start coughing up copper/plastic balls instead of hairballs :/

I also have to look into this pink noise thread...sounds interesting.

 

[scuttle]

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I know what you are going through...first victim of my cats was an AKG 601. 
 

Ouch - I hope it was repairable; the 601's are one most beautiful headphone designs in production as well as sounding good.
 
Did you see the post by the guy who dog had destructive habits? So he bought those indestructible zirconium JVC iems that are regrettably out of production - but they were detachables, so the dog just swallowed one. So he had to force it to drink salt water to throw the potentially poisonous thing up. My memory is that it still worked afterwards, but it might be playing tricks.
 
Otoh, there's a thread in Cables about a cat that became a hero - he dissected a $150 "designer" cable and revealed that it was a standard one with a thin wrapper around it, with the space between filled with sand...

 

[bobeau]

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You are right. Let's just stop that off-topic stuff. It's just that I'm still amazed how much the SM64 are better than everything I listened to before. An yes, that is actually not much, like I stated in my review
And I have to admit that the fact that the SM64 COULD be almost as good as the glorious TG334, got me a bit too hyped.
Sorry for that.

Let's just get back to more impressions and reviews

 
Cheers for that.  My main interest here is more than anything, that it's an improved 4.ai which someone has found for themselves - which I've been hemming over picking up for awhile... a more strongly neutral/clean thing, but perhaps even more refined with better PRAT.  It would also be great to hear any impressions against the UE900s if anyone has those.

 

[delancyst]

Again: where does this taboo against EQ come from? Unlike attack and bass definition, sound signature is so easy to alter. Yes, you can make a mess of using EQ and probably did when you played with it on your parents hifi as a kid, but it's pretty easy for an adult to learn to do right.

I don't think you understand my statement.
I'm not against eq-ing, in fact i agree every component in your audio chain does alter the EQ.
But does that suit your music genre? It all varies.

 

[Gasdoc]

Did anyone order directly from earsonics site? 

I ordered from Earsonics directly. They were at my house in 3 days.

 

[Gasdoc]

I am listening to the SM64 right now and I am loving them. They are so awesome. They are what I wanted the W4 to be. Better clarity, instrument separation & awesome treble.

Ratfarm has a strong point about diminishing returns. I could be happy with just these.

 

[Gasdoc]

I have decided to purchase this before I purchase the EX1000. I have never owned anything from earsonics, it is a good start. 

You won't regret it. These sound a lot like the EX1000 but the ergonomics are stellar. I sold the Sonys as the fit was marginal.

 

[feverfive]

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I am listening to the SM64 right now and I am loving them. They are so awesome. They are what I wanted the W4 to be. Better clarity, instrument separation & awesome treble.

Ratfarm has a strong point about diminishing returns. I could be happy with just these.

 


I'm totally feelin' what you're saying.  I had some sort of muddled "upgrade path" mapped out in my mind when I made the accursed decision to visit Head-Fi again a couple weeks ago, but I'm quite satisfied w/ the SM64.  I've sworn for years I'd never go the CIEM route, so it's nice to see so many good universals out there.  Of course now I'm contemplating significant $$ for a "high end" portable source (RWAK100 or CLAS Solo -R).  This madness needs to stop.