(Finished!!!) Review Set: UM3X, e-Q7, RE262, Triple.Fi 10, RE252, CK100, RE-Zero, Custom 3, OK1, HJE900

[rawrster]

It's a bit different than most reviews but I like it. It helps that you have reviewed a good number of those already in the past so it should be easier the second time around
 
On a side note tangling all of those earphones on purpose and then untangling them must have taken a good amount of time I'm also guessing that you bought one of the first RE-Zero if that adapter is any indication since the one I have is smaller and looks more polished if that's the right word I'm looking for.
 
edit: just curious but what's the testing setup for this?

 

[JoeyRusso]

Quote:

What do you guys think of the format?  It's a little different than what I typically do, but I think it might help people "follow along" with the reviews/impressions.  You can also listen to your own earphones and get an idea for what you hear or don't hear with the same information and how your particular earphones seemingly compare (although different ears/minds I know).  I haven't decided on picking "winners" for each selected piece as each tend to do certain things well.  I think it's more about what differences each individual prefers.  I may include some comments in my final thoughts for each earphone at the end that highlight certain strengths and weaknesses with each earphone, and that might help individuals pick and choose products for their own liking. 
 
I may end up adding some comments about each test sample discussing maybe what I'm looking for from each earphone, and that might help provide some key points that each of you should listen for while you go through it with your own hardware.  For example, brass instruments resonate.  They blat and ring at louder volumes.  There's a lot of texture in the notes that many earphones have trouble portraying.  The sound should have a warm, sweet sense.  Some earphones can't really make it sound like that object.  Do you or do you not hear the breaths of the player?  What about sense of the room he's in?  Does the earphone portray the reverberations of the room created from the instrument?  How does the earphone deal with subtlety and explosiveness of sound?  For the drums does the bass drum hit you?  Does it should hearty and well bodied?  During complex passages does the earphone keep all the sounds separated and unique?  Do all the instruments sound like they should?  Is there a good whack/thud?  Do cymbals crash, shimmer, and ring with a lengthy decay?  Are hits well textured as in do you hear the whack on the drum head from the stick and the vibration of the drum head and body? (drums are noisy devices)  How is the balance across the frequency spectrum?  Are deep bass hits as well defined as the midrange snare and crash of the cymbals?  Does anything seem lacking of overpronounced?  Did you notice the audience?  Did they sound well represented and distanced?
 
It may be these kinds of things.  I just haven't decided if I actually want to make you listen for specific things.  I think they might be things that you should or may not pick up on naturally as you listen.  Maybe me commenting might help you focus and think about some of the areas you might listen for in order to help determine if your own earphones over or under develop certain things.
 
Feel free to comment and make some suggestions.  I'm just toying with a slightly different format here and am curious what you guys might like to see from it that could be helpful.

 I like it.  I thought of doing something similar using some of the free tracks available from HDtracks.com.  Like you said, it's easier to follow along when you have the same material.  As for comments, get them out there.  The more you share, the more someone takes away from your experience. That and others can offer their findings, thoughts and opinions based on the similarities or differences they hear.  I'd even go as far as setting some time references to your comments.. and asking "What did you notice at (insert time here)??  Did you hear (insert X here)??  I learned quite a bit about my IEM's and Cans by using the test tracks that Head-Fi helped assemble with HDtracks.  They cover every aspect of sound and the liner notes are very descriptive and helpful.  They basically point out what you should hear or listen for on each track.  Great stuff... 
 Personally, I'm kind of leaning away from declaring definitive winners in my reviews going forward.  I'll leave that up to the reader.  I may declare a favorite for certain genres or recommend certain IEM's/cans for certain things, but that will come with the usual disclaimers.. for me, to my ears, based on my preferences, blah, blah, blah...  I say list their strengths and weaknesses and let the reader decide... but that's just me..  Anyways.. keep at it, can't wait to see how this evolves...  

   

 

[rroseperry]

This is a great format for side by side reviews.  Having the reference material gives a context, which I found really useful.
 
And it's great timing as I've been thinking about getting a new set of IEMs.

 

[Hero Kid]

Great work Matt! I love the format, the way the reader can easily listen to the same piece of music that you used to test the IEMs is a brilliant idea and should certainly help personalize the experience for each reader.

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

i always liked ur way of describing the sound production of iems mvw2.
as for the new approach.. i only skimmed thru.. but sometimes, less is more right?
i think what's important is the difference of iem A relative to iem B, C and so forth.. having owned or listened to one of them would give a clearer picture on how the other would sound like, kinda like a good reference point. hence it makes the review more neutral and valid.
i might still prefer ur brick wall of text description tho.

 

[Thecoolguy]

Love the fomat. Cant wait to read the rest!

 

[JxK]

Great start mvw2. I look forward to more.

 

[Thecoolguy]

 
"Number Six:
To be determined still.  I'm going to find a good full orchestra piece that I like.  I want something big and complex that will really test an earphones ability to portray a lot of mixed and complex information well, not just a single instrument but a sea of instruments.  I've run across a couple audio tracks in the past that I really liked, but I just haven't found a HD Youtube vid I want to use yet."

 

for your 6th track maybe you could do something from the okami soundtrack. Such as-

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGgsboOsbA4&feature=related
-or-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IABfh4StVck&feature=related

 

[germanturkey]

i thought this thread was old, so i didn't bother clicking on it.  but i chanced it, seeing as it was by you, and i'm blown away.  the format is great, and it offers a clean and precise view of what each phone can do vs different songs that emphasize different things.
 
its a good read.  out of the list, i really want to try the ck100, um3x and e-q7, but i'll probably never get the chance.

 

[goodvibes]

Quote:

What do you guys think of the format?  It's a little different than what I typically do, but I think it might help people "follow along" with the reviews/impressions.  You can also listen to your own earphones and get an idea for what you hear or don't hear with the same information and how your particular earphones seemingly compare (although different ears/minds I know).  I haven't decided on picking "winners" for each selected piece as each tend to do certain things well.  I think it's more about what differences each individual prefers.  I may include some comments in my final thoughts for each earphone at the end that highlight certain strengths and weaknesses with each earphone, and that might help individuals pick and choose products for their own liking. 
 
I may end up adding some comments about each test sample discussing maybe what I'm looking for from each earphone, and that might help provide some key points that each of you should listen for while you go through it with your own hardware.  For example, brass instruments resonate.  They blat and ring at louder volumes.  There's a lot of texture in the notes that many earphones have trouble portraying.  The sound should have a warm, sweet sense.  Some earphones can't really make it sound like that object.  Do you or do you not hear the breaths of the player?  What about sense of the room he's in?  Does the earphone portray the reverberations of the room created from the instrument?  How does the earphone deal with subtlety and explosiveness of sound?  For the drums does the bass drum hit you?  Does it should hearty and well bodied?  During complex passages does the earphone keep all the sounds separated and unique?  Do all the instruments sound like they should?  Is there a good whack/thud?  Do cymbals crash, shimmer, and ring with a lengthy decay?  Are hits well textured as in do you hear the whack on the drum head from the stick and the vibration of the drum head and body? (drums are noisy devices)  How is the balance across the frequency spectrum?  Are deep bass hits as well defined as the midrange snare and crash of the cymbals?  Does anything seem lacking of overpronounced?  Did you notice the audience?  Did they sound well represented and distanced?
 
It may be these kinds of things.  I just haven't decided if I actually want to make you listen for specific things.  I think they might be things that you should or may not pick up on naturally as you listen.  Maybe me commenting might help you focus and think about some of the areas you might listen for in order to help determine if your own earphones over or under develop certain things.
 
Feel free to comment and make some suggestions.  I'm just toying with a slightly different format here and am curious what you guys might like to see from it that could be helpful.

I like it a lot. Maybe at the end, pick your favs, spend solitary evenings or days with them individually and give an emotional impression of each. Sort of relax, let the music take you where it wants and give us a goose bump factor. I'm not saying you're too analytical as I'm as guilty as anyone. I just think that the evaluation experience could be difficult to correlate to casual listening when you get to the top few. I found your frequency response graphs somewhat extreme but very useful to give us an impression of overall balance. Perhaps you could keep the curves and rescale the graph a bit. Obviously not if you disagree. Thanks for the wonderful impressions.

 

[mvw2]

The problem with me picking my favorites is they would only be MY favorites.  Everyone else has their own interests.  It's nice to give impressions of sound even though they are from my own ear/mind, but I kind of stop at favorites simply because that does personalize the selection too much.
 
Thanks for the suggestions TheCoolGuy.

 

[goodvibes]

I agree but how they actually convey a performer's message is an impotant part of the package and not one I'm saying is entirely missed here either. It would be your opinion just as what too much or too little bass is or the impression driven frequency response graph as opposed to a measured one but I think that opinion is very welcome.

 This is no criticism as I very much like your review as it is coming along but you asked. I will now shut up.

Thanks again.

 

[Confispect]

Quote:

 I like it.  I thought of doing something similar using some of the free tracks available from HDtracks.com.  Like you said, it's easier to follow along when you have the same material.  As for comments, get them out there.  The more you share, the more someone takes away from your experience. That and others can offer their findings, thoughts and opinions based on the similarities or differences they hear.  I'd even go as far as setting some time references to your comments.. and asking "What did you notice at (insert time here)??  Did you hear (insert X here)??  I learned quite a bit about my IEM's and Cans by using the test tracks that Head-Fi helped assemble with HDtracks.  They cover every aspect of sound and the liner notes are very descriptive and helpful.  They basically point out what you should hear or listen for on each track.  Great stuff... 
 Personally, I'm kind of leaning away from declaring definitive winners in my reviews going forward.  I'll leave that up to the reader.  I may declare a favorite for certain genres or recommend certain IEM's/cans for certain things, but that will come with the usual disclaimers.. for me, to my ears, based on my preferences, blah, blah, blah...  I say list their strengths and weaknesses and let the reader decide... but that's just me..  Anyways.. keep at it, can't wait to see how this evolves...  

   

 

 
Agreed, strengths and weaknesses, and most of all sound signature, they need to know if a IEM is warm or cold. Even slightly warm or cold, there no possible way they can be nethier it's just impossible. Saying word like slightly lush, not cold but on the cold side of the sprectrum.....I think it's more easier to say warm/cold/slightly warm/slightly cold. I guess 'slightly lush' sounds nicer to the IEM. At the end of the day it's your review, i'm curious to know the bitrate though..

 

[Hero Kid]

Free bump for those that don't realize you've added another track/impressions.

 

[mvw2]

And another.
 
I added some listening goals under the video to indication some of what I'm listening for.  It's not really does this song or instrument sound good with that earphone.  It's kind of what can and can't these earphones do, and listing for certain aspects does really start to show a few key weaknesses and capabilities of some of these earphones.