[Nitemare3219]

So I've only got about 10 minutes of listening in... here's my impression so far.
 
I immediately popped on the large sized JVC Spiral Dot tips. They seemed pretty big... I put them up into my ears and they took a bit of persuasion to get into place. At first, the music seemed... cloudy. I was not impressed. After a few minutes, I replaced the stock tips that came on the A83's and things seemed much better - my money seemed like it might be worth it afterall, as they sounded pretty good. I thought perhaps the Spiral Dots are too big and are wrinkling or something, causing a bad seal. I swapped one tip back to the Spiral Dot, and pulled each ear in/out, and listened to both together. The sound seemed the same. I need to experiment some more with the tips obviously. I can shove my pinkie finger into my ear canal (not all the way obviously), and the stock tips are way smaller than my finger. Maybe the Spiral Dots will work, maybe they won't... bass is okay, not very much oomf behind it, but it punches and is tight, at least for my EDM tracks. Highs are quite nice, but I caught a bit of a shrill from some sounds that was unpleasant. Maybe the Spiral Dots will prevent this, but as I said, need a lot more listening time and will compare with the Westone's when they get here.
 
I plan on leaving them playing music on my computer for awhile to see if any "burn-in" helps. I played tracks on both my Note5 and PC sound card, and no real difference stood out. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I'll listen more, but certainly by this weekend I'll get some time in. I do have to say I am concerned about my hearing. I don't turn the music up even close to 100%, more like 60-70% on my cellphone (the point where I feel like I am hearing all the detail pleasantly), but I almost feel like it is too loud and might damage my hearing... any tips for this?

 

[Midgetguy]

  So I've only got about 10 minutes of listening in... here's my impression so far.
 
I immediately popped on the large sized JVC Spiral Dot tips. They seemed pretty big... I put them up into my ears and they took a bit of persuasion to get into place. At first, the music seemed... cloudy. I was not impressed. After a few minutes, I replaced the stock tips that came on the A83's and things seemed much better - my money seemed like it might be worth it afterall, as they sounded pretty good. I thought perhaps the Spiral Dots are too big and are wrinkling or something, causing a bad seal. I swapped one tip back to the Spiral Dot, and pulled each ear in/out, and listened to both together. The sound seemed the same. I need to experiment some more with the tips obviously. I can shove my pinkie finger into my ear canal (not all the way obviously), and the stock tips are way smaller than my finger. Maybe the Spiral Dots will work, maybe they won't... bass is okay, not very much oomf behind it, but it punches and is tight, at least for my EDM tracks. Highs are quite nice, but I caught a bit of a shrill from some sounds that was unpleasant. Maybe the Spiral Dots will prevent this, but as I said, need a lot more listening time and will compare with the Westone's when they get here.
 
I plan on leaving them playing music on my computer for awhile to see if any "burn-in" helps. I played tracks on both my Note5 and PC sound card, and no real difference stood out. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I'll listen more, but certainly by this weekend I'll get some time in. I do have to say I am concerned about my hearing. I don't turn the music up even close to 100%, more like 60-70% on my cellphone (the point where I feel like I am hearing all the detail pleasantly), but I almost feel like it is too loud and might damage my hearing... any tips for this?

Good luck with finding the right tips. And the Westone comparison will be interesting too since Westone has always been very well-regarded. I'm wondering if you came from IEMs with more bass as I feel the bass in the A83 definitely has enough weight to it in addition to being well-controlled.
I'm concerned for your hearing too actually.  In a home environment, I listen to my A83s at 30-40% volume out of my iPod Touch 5G (which is like an iPhone 5 as I mentioned before). A Note 5 should be able to provide at least as much if not more volume than my iPod, so it sounds to me like you might be going too loud. Unless your quoted sound level is while commuting on like a bus, because I was probably at 50-65% volume on my iPod when I used it on the bus. They just don't have good enough isolation for me to use them at any lower volume on a bus. But my opinion is that you definitely shouldn't be going that loud in a more relaxed environment.

 

[JimmyTryhard]

I would definitely agree that the A83 is volume sensitive; after a certain threshold of volume, going any higher becomes too sibilant and too fatiguing to listen to extensively. For me though, the threshold is high enough, as going higher than that threshold really also just becomes too loud in general for my ears as I can feel my acoustic reflex kicking in at that point. If your acoustic reflex is kicking in, you're listening to some damaging volume levels already. No earphone should be constantly listened to at that level. To quantify my listening level, I would say that 50%-60% on an iPhone 5S is just about at the threshold for me. I can't really go higher than that without discomfort.
 
On a side note, my first listen to the A83 could also be summed up as "cloudy". I generally wasn't at all impressed by the sound; I couldn't really tell the difference between it and my GR07 other than the A83 having a bit more bass. I don't think there is any physical burn in as the mids/highs are managed by balanced armatures, so I think that my brain just adjusted after a certain period of time. After a while you will somehow be able to notice the detail retrieval or something like that.

 

[Paulus XII]

  Driver flex happening in one ear and not the other isn't really an indication of anything other than all ear canals are different.  One side might get a better seal upon insertion resulting in the flex whereas the other side might not be quite as good allowing the air to escape.  I certainly have more flex w/ more IEMs in my right ear than the left which lets me draw that conclusion because I usually find the Sony Hybrid tips the best.  So they just fit my ear better I guess...on the right side.

 
Exactly. I have this with DN-1000 and it's nothing to worry about to be frank. My right ear shape is completey different from the left ear where I don't have the flex.

 

[friedrice2307]

I have read that if the driver flex happens too often it can damage the iem

 

[Brooko]

I have read that if the driver flex happens too often it can damage the iem

 
Citation please - where did you read it?  I personally haven't had any drivers with flex fail.  It's annoying if it's too bad - but never been fatal in my ow personal experience.

 

[Paulus XII]

I have read that if the driver flex happens too often it can damage the iem

 
Not true. Google a bit more.

 

[Midgetguy]

  I would definitely agree that the A83 is volume sensitive; after a certain threshold of volume, going any higher becomes too sibilant and too fatiguing to listen to extensively. For me though, the threshold is high enough, as going higher than that threshold really also just becomes too loud in general for my ears as I can feel my acoustic reflex kicking in at that point. If your acoustic reflex is kicking in, you're listening to some damaging volume levels already. No earphone should be constantly listened to at that level. To quantify my listening level, I would say that 50%-60% on an iPhone 5S is just about at the threshold for me. I can't really go higher than that without discomfort.
 
On a side note, my first listen to the A83 could also be summed up as "cloudy". I generally wasn't at all impressed by the sound; I couldn't really tell the difference between it and my GR07 other than the A83 having a bit more bass. I don't think there is any physical burn in as the mids/highs are managed by balanced armatures, so I think that my brain just adjusted after a certain period of time. After a while you will somehow be able to notice the detail retrieval or something like that.

Exactly my experience! The higher the volume with the A83, the more the sibilance shows through. And regardless of how loud it is on the bus, that 50-65% on my iPod Touch is really as high as I'm comfortable listening to whether it's able to drown out the rest of the noise or not.

 

[friedrice2307]

Citation please - where did you read it?  I personally haven't had any drivers with flex fail.  It's annoying if it's too bad - but never been fatal in my ow personal experience.

Never did say fatal. Thats just what I read when i joined head-fi. I was trying to learn the terminology (its a bit much for me to learn at once) and I came upon a comment that said driver flex "can" damage your iems. And some do still think it does while others don't.

 

[friedrice2307]

Not true. Google a bit more.

How so? I did as you suggested and some still do think it damages while others dont. Those are opinions i suppose and i shouldnt have stated it as a fact. But i do listen to peoples opinions and keep an open mind on the matter. if you can provide me with the truth i would be highly appreciative considering i could not find any information except for what was on here and a couple other sites.

 

[H20Fidelity]

In a worst case scenario I owned a 'very used' pair of Monster Turbine which suffered long term driver flex. Basically constant back n forth since thier birth. What ended up happening is when you increased the volume past a certain percentage the driver would 'pop out' (flex) and stay in that position with almost no sound. You'd need to back off the volume and adjust the housing until it 'clicked' back into place. It's the only pair that's ever done it to me, and only one side.

 

[dbdynsty25]

In a worst case scenario I owned a 'very used' pair of Monster Turbine which suffered long term driver flex. Basically constant back n forth since thier birth. What ended up happening is when you increased the volume past a certain percentage the driver would 'pop out' (flex) and stay in that position with almost no sound. You'd need to back off the volume and adjust the housing until it 'clicked' back into place. It's the only pair that's ever done it to me, and only one side.

 
I think that was a flaw with the Turbines in general as that happened to a lot of people, even with new products.  It happened to me as well.  No other headphone has had the same symptoms (the no music stuff) even though I've found plenty w/ driver flex clicks upon insertion.

 

[Elric]

Wow.  Just wow...
 
JCN Digital cited head-fi and this thread as justification that driver-flex is absolutely normal with the a83.  They will not be replacing my iems.  I can take it up with Michael Lin...
 
I apologize to whoever the JCN rep monitoring this thread is, but this is poor customer service.

 

[Midgetguy]

  Wow.  Just wow...
 
JCN Digital cited head-fi and this thread as justification that driver-flex is absolutely normal with the a83.  They will not be replacing my iems.  I can take it up with Michael Lin...
 
I apologize to whoever the JCN rep monitoring this thread is, but this is poor customer service.

Ouch, that sucks. You should have better luck with Michael, though I hope whoever he has sending out the replacement does it in a much more timely manner than my RMA. His distributor in my case was quite literally useless in the RMA process; I backed 2 different IEM Kickstarters in that time and both went from start of the campaign to production to final delivery in half the time that my A83 RMA took. If you find yourself RMAing with Extreme Audio Engineering, beware; you're at risk of a century-long turnaround time, lies, and receiving old stock. It sounds like I'm unfairly bashing Extreme Audio Engineering, but so be it as it was the absolute worse RMA experience I've ever encountered. Thank god for Michael's fantastic service on his end or I likely wouldn't have an A83 again (simply because I already acquired 4+ other really nice IEMs during that RMA nightmare, not because the A83 isn't worth it).
 
Whoever it is at JCN isn't doing a very good job of reading this thread. We do all agree that driver flex can happen, that much is certain, but at no point do I feel like we even implied that it's normal. We said that it can happen occasionally and we're mostly in agreement that it's not really damaging necessarily, but my opinion is that persistent and noticeable driver flex shouldn't be normal for ANY IEM. Good luck man.

 

[Elric]

 
If you find yourself RMAing with Extreme Audio Engineering, beware; you're at risk of a century-long turnaround time, lies, and receiving old stock. It sounds like I'm unfairly bashing Extreme Audio Engineering, but so be it as it was the absolute worse RMA experience I've ever encountered. Thank god for Michael's fantastic service on his end or I likely wouldn't have an A83 again.
 
Whoever it is at JCN isn't doing a very good job of reading this thread. We do all agree that driver flex can happen, that much is certain, but at no point do I feel like we even implied that it's normal. We said that it can happen occasionally and we're mostly in agreement that it's not really damaging necessarily, but my opinion is that persistent and noticeable driver flex shouldn't be normal for ANY IEM. Good luck man.

 
Extreme Audio Engineering is the after-market service provider.  (I had already been in touch with Michael Lin)
 
I am sad because i have no other iems or headphones to fall back on while waiting. (I have not started the RMA process yet),  I am going to try to finish out one full week to see if the driver flex lessens or goes away.