[originalsnuffy]

I just bought FLC8S and am enjoying them but find the treble too sibilant. Playing with the filters didnt help me much, when I reduced the sibilance I felt I lost too much in the mid-range. There are just too many combinations of filters! I would appreciate if somebody can give me some advice on how to reduce sibilance without affecting mid-range too much... thanks...

I think the first thing you should do is share with us what filters you are currently listening with. That can help provide some suggestions for making the unit work to your satisfaction.
Some of the treble filters can definitely reduce treble (thinking blue here) but I think that may go too far. If I were you I would steer clear of the green filter. That would definitely not work for you given what you have said.

I think reading Brooko's review is helpful. He provides some offbeat tuning suggestions like going clear ULF and then no filters if I recall. The other key review in my view is the one from NMatheis. He tends to focus on more mainstream tuning options but there is a lot to be learned there also.

I tend to live in gunmetal which has a fair amount of high end. Most users here seem to like the gold high end filter which is more midrange forward. However my latest toy is also fairly treble forward in my view (Cayin N5II) so I may experiment a bit with gold I am holding off on that until my balanced cables come in from Singapore via LMUE.

These units do have something of a basic sound quality that is somewhere between fun and reference. It would help others to help you to know what other IEMs you like in order to provide some tuning thoughts. Also what is you signal source (phone, DAP, music types).

I really like these units and hope you can also find a tuning match that is to your satisfaction.

 

[lewinr]

originalsnuffy, thank you for the fast and detailed reply.

I didnt mention the filters I am using now because I went through so many combinations (including leaving some of the filters off) that I thought it would be better to just start with a blank slate and ask for recommendations. Right now I'm using Grey-Red-Gold with the smallest stock white/opaque tips which I think gives me the sound closest to what I like but is still too sibilant for me.

Tomorrow I have some Comply TX-400 tips coming which I read can help reduce sibilance, we'll see if that helps.

My source so far is my PC (MS Surface Book which uses the Realtek ALC3269 DAC/Amp) with 256 bit FLACs. I used the same setup with a few different IEMs without getting much sibilance so I dont think this is a source issue.

My all-time favorite IEMs were the Fischer Audio DBA-02 but I lost them and now they're out of production and impossible to find. (Trust me, I tried.)

My previous IEMs were the Etymotic ER4XR, which were a bit light on bass but acceptable. (I'm not a basshead but want to feel a bit of power from the bass. I bought the Westone UM Pro 50 but felt they were too bass-heavy and muddy in the mid-range and returned them after a few days, and instead bought the FLC8S which has a much better sound except for the sibilance...)

 

[Bubblejuice]

I just bought FLC8S and am enjoying them but find the treble too sibilant. Playing with the filters didnt help me much, when I reduced the sibilance I felt I lost too much in the mid-range. There are just too many combinations of filters! I would appreciate if somebody can give me some advice on how to reduce sibilance without affecting mid-range too much... thanks...

Are they really that silibant?

I'm pretty sensitive to silibance. It would be a shame if that were to ruin it for me. I wonder if the FLC8n have less silibance.

 

[Ang Probinsyano]

I don't find the stock filters of FLC 8s to be sibilant. Must be your ears too sensitive. What I don't like is its sound stage, not that wide.

 

[BB 808]

I just bought FLC8S and am enjoying them but find the treble too sibilant. Playing with the filters didnt help me much, when I reduced the sibilance I felt I lost too much in the mid-range. There are just too many combinations of filters! I would appreciate if somebody can give me some advice on how to reduce sibilance without affecting mid-range too much... thanks...

Forrest said this a few posts up and maybe it will help you:

Thanks for your understanding!
Test result shows that Spinfits reduce the treble extension, while our strong point is treble extension, so we'll not use spinfits and will not suggest to use spinfits on FLC's products.

So I'm guessing if you're getting sibilance - try the Spinfits.

 

[FlyingRhino]

originalsnuffy, thank you for the fast and detailed reply.

I didnt mention the filters I am using now because I went through so many combinations (including leaving some of the filters off) that I thought it would be better to just start with a blank slate and ask for recommendations. Right now I'm using Grey-Red-Gold with the smallest stock white/opaque tips which I think gives me the sound closest to what I like but is still too sibilant for me.

Tomorrow I have some Comply TX-400 tips coming which I read can help reduce sibilance, we'll see if that helps.

My source so far is my PC (MS Surface Book which uses the Realtek ALC3269 DAC/Amp) with 256 bit FLACs. I used the same setup with a few different IEMs without getting much sibilance so I dont think this is a source issue.

My all-time favorite IEMs were the Fischer Audio DBA-02 but I lost them and now they're out of production and impossible to find. (Trust me, I tried.)

My previous IEMs were the Etymotic ER4XR, which were a bit light on bass but acceptable. (I'm not a basshead but want to feel a bit of power from the bass. I bought the Westone UM Pro 50 but felt they were too bass-heavy and muddy in the mid-range and returned them after a few days, and instead bought the FLC8S which has a much better sound except for the sibilance...)

I had the same issue with sibilance, particularly around the upper mids where it sounded a bit sharp.

I find that tuning down the bass filters helps with reducing this for some reason. I've settled on grey-grey-black or gold-grey-black which is a nice balance of bass texture and impact with clear and forwards mids (with gold) or nicely extended treble (with grey).

I find using either of the max bass or sub-bass filters accentuated the upper mid peak (i think around 1k). The milder bass and sub-bass filters seemed to bring this into acceptable range for me, although it is still a little on the aggressive side. I use spiral dots as tips btw. Hope that helps

 

[dc655321]

If I can't find those measurements, I'll try to re-do them at the weekend. My recollection was that the modded black fell (roughly) between the gray and stock black LF filters.

@csglinux were you able to find or reproduce those measurements?

 

[duo8]

I see there's a FLC8n now. What's the difference between this and 8s?
Also are these IEMs sensitive to source? Things like noise floor and output impedance.

 

[470221]

Nobody knows. Until Forrest shows new IEMs on some non-chinese sites. Penonaudio and Lendmeurears features only 8S model.

 

[Nalin]

Thanks for your understanding!

Test result shows that Spinfits reduce the treble extension, while our strong point is treble extension, so we'll not use spinfits and will not suggest to use spinfits on FLC's products.

In my testing of stock tips and various other non branded ones i find that all of them lack clarity. Spinfits on other hand provides most clarity with enhanced sub bass and upper highs.

I believe stock tips provide nice slam with lesser bass texture and definition. I also hear some vocal sibilance with stock tips but still i don't find them as bright as spinfits which are much more brighter sounding.

With spinfits i hear much more details too which i can't hear with stock tips.

 

[leobigfield]

I see there's a FLC8n now. What's the difference between this and 8s?
Also are these IEMs sensitive to source? Things like noise floor and output impedance.

A new FLC model? Interesting...

 

[Flcforrestwei]

In my testing of stock tips and various other non branded ones i find that all of them lack clarity. Spinfits on other hand provides most clarity with enhanced sub bass and upper highs.

I believe stock tips provide nice slam with lesser bass texture and definition. I also hear some vocal sibilance with stock tips but still i don't find them as bright as spinfits which are much more brighter sounding.

With spinfits i hear much more details too which i can't hear with stock tips.

You are right, the shape of SF tips is sharp, They can be inserted deeper, so the room of the ear channel is smaller, sound pressure of the subbass is a little higher, but channel of SF tips are longer, so frequencies around 6k to 10K Hz are higher, so it sounds brighter, but the frequency response of SF tips over 10khz( I call them as treble extension) is much lower than the stock tips.

 

[csglinux]

@csglinux were you able to find or reproduce those measurements?

I did find them. I thought I remembered these measurements as being more exciting than this.
I was shooting for something in-between black and gray. When I first heard the FLC8S I couldn't get happy with either the black or gray LF filter. Black was too much boom in the mid-bass, but I felt gray killed off that juicy sub-bass. A tiny piece of acoustic damping foam in the black filter worked for me. But looking at this graph now, I can't believe my ears were this fussy. The effect looks really small from the graph below. I may have to revisit this again one day.

 

[csglinux]

FLC has a stronger bass, the treble is not as bright as FLC8s and FLC8n, so the treble extension sound much better.

Do you mean the FLC9 will have a stronger bass than an FLC8S with red ULF and black LF filters? Yikes!
Less lower treble/more upper-treble would be nice - if I've interpreted your comments correctly?

Coherence is better and the separation of bass, mids and trebles is excellent.

I have to confess ignorance of scientific acoustic terminology and nomenclature. I didn't understand any of those comments.

You are right, the shape of SF tips is sharp, They can be inserted deeper, so the room of the ear channel is smaller, sound pressure of the subbass is a little higher, but channel of SF tips are longer, so frequencies around 6k to 10K Hz are higher, so it sounds brighter, but the frequency response of SF tips over 10khz( I call them as treble extension) is much lower than the stock tips.

That's a really interesting comment. Thanks. I'll have to revisit my own measurements with the various eartips. Like @Thearcade12, I'm also a fan of SpinFits. For my ears, I didn't find the stock FLC tips to be any kind of improvement. The only tips I've heard and measured as giving better treble extension than SpinFits are the Symbio hybrids (but they're painfully uncomfortable!).

 

[Flcforrestwei]

You are right, the shape of SF tips is sharp, They can be inserted deeper, so the room of the ear channel is smaller, sound pressure of the subbass is a little higher, but channel of SF tips are longer, so frequencies around 6k to 10K Hz are higher, so it sounds brighter, but the frequency response of SF tips over 10khz( I call them as treble extension) is much lower than the stock tips.

The treble extension is the most difficult part to achieve, so many people loves Flc8s just because its excellent treble extension, so I think we should not sacrifice the treble extension for a brighter treble.