ZeNmAc
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2008
- Posts
- 296
- Likes
- 16
I've had my NE-7M's for a while now. This post might seem like a rant, but it's all been building up for some time. I need all your opinions.
...So IEM's never seem to work out for me for some reason. There are a couple of problems that I always seem to have, that are the same between the 3 different IEM's I've owned. I started out with some sony ex-51lp, upgraded to some altec lansing uhp336 (super.fi 3 basically) and returned those quickly to finally get the NE-7M's I have now. Here are the problems I have.
I can't help it, no matter how I wear them there is a terrible peak in the mids. Some bands are ok since there is little musical content in that part of the spectrum, but for others it totally destroys the music. For example, we were going over to some friends house a few weeks ago (my family and I) and on the way I listened to a dream theater album (scenes from a memory) with my ne7m's and my ipod 5.5G. The vocals are somewhat high, so they are in the range of the peak I was describing. I had to turn down the volume because the mids were so harsh. That all added up to a mediocre listening experience. I lost the bass and treble, and missed a lot of musical content. I couldn't really follow all the lyrics, and lost track of the (uh...story for lack of a better term) a little over half way through. Keep in mind, I was sitting in the car, so I had nothing else to do besides focus on the music (I admit, I'm not the best at getting lyrics, but I usually can get them with better headphones). I was having this problem before, so I bought some shure silicon E2C tips. I'm using the medium ones. I admit they are very nice, much much better than stock silicon ones, but they still experience the midrange problems I was having before with both foam and silicon tips. In comparison to my older iems, the sonys had so little mids and so much bass the peak wasn't a problem. But IIRC there still was a problem with the mids when I eq'd down the bass. The uhp336 were a million times worse than either of the other two. I returned them because in order to hear bass, midbass, and treble I needed an insane eq and it still was an almost excruciating experience.
On a side note, I've tried using the rockbox eq, but I haven't pinned down the peak(s) yet, so I've never been able to completely fix the problem that way. Not to mention rockbox occasionally refuses to start up making me have to take forever trying to get my ipod to reset. Rockbox also doesn't load album art. I used to use it, but because of those issues I've mostly stopped using it.
Ok, so maybe that's just a coincidence and all of those IEM's have terrible mids (which from what I've read here, either nobody else notices it, or nobody else has the same problem with the ne7m's). But that's not all. I can never seem to get a good seal. Even if I do, it's usually uneven which annoys the heck out of me. It seems to be that I can't get the left side to stay in. It always slips out. For a while I was using foam ear tips which were a little better IIRC, but they still were hard to get in straight. I usually end up messing with the left side until I'm done listening. I usually get the right one in fine on the first or second try. Then I get the left one in ok, but it sounds different, so I have to straighten it, and it never goes in right. The shure ear tips are especially picky in that area since they create such a good seal that if you insert them too far, or pull them out a little, the air pressure messes up the drivers, so I have to find the exact right place where they're just resting inside my ear canals. I can never get a good deep insertion with those. And then if I ever move my head there's a good chance one of them will slip. So what I ended up doing on my aforementioned car ride was sitting perfectly still with my head slightly leaning to the right side so the left IEM wouldn't slip out. I also put part of the cable under the seat belt shoulder strap with some slack to take tension off the IEM's. I had to sit in that position fixing the left IEM every couple minutes for the whole drive.
Sometimes all this doesn't bother me, but occasionally it just leaves me frustrated because I know just how good the ne-7m have the potential to sound. The only solution I can see is buying some expensive IEM's and getting custom molds which may or may not improve my experience and which I won't be able to afford any time soon. (Not that I don't have the money, I just have other priorities right now). Am I really doomed to only be able to enjoy headphones? It's really frustrating, because it takes a second to put on my headphones and I have just as good a seal as ever before with virtually no midrange issues. Now I know the M50's cost a lot more, but seriously...aren't headphones supposed to have problems with resonance in the ear canal, and IEM's not? Even on my old cheap headphones I didn't have as much of an issue with this.
Any suggestions? Am I just using too cheap IEM's? Are my ear canals really that uneven?
I apologize for the long post. I appreciate any comments you have. Thanks in advance, and thank you for taking the time to read this.
...So IEM's never seem to work out for me for some reason. There are a couple of problems that I always seem to have, that are the same between the 3 different IEM's I've owned. I started out with some sony ex-51lp, upgraded to some altec lansing uhp336 (super.fi 3 basically) and returned those quickly to finally get the NE-7M's I have now. Here are the problems I have.
I can't help it, no matter how I wear them there is a terrible peak in the mids. Some bands are ok since there is little musical content in that part of the spectrum, but for others it totally destroys the music. For example, we were going over to some friends house a few weeks ago (my family and I) and on the way I listened to a dream theater album (scenes from a memory) with my ne7m's and my ipod 5.5G. The vocals are somewhat high, so they are in the range of the peak I was describing. I had to turn down the volume because the mids were so harsh. That all added up to a mediocre listening experience. I lost the bass and treble, and missed a lot of musical content. I couldn't really follow all the lyrics, and lost track of the (uh...story for lack of a better term) a little over half way through. Keep in mind, I was sitting in the car, so I had nothing else to do besides focus on the music (I admit, I'm not the best at getting lyrics, but I usually can get them with better headphones). I was having this problem before, so I bought some shure silicon E2C tips. I'm using the medium ones. I admit they are very nice, much much better than stock silicon ones, but they still experience the midrange problems I was having before with both foam and silicon tips. In comparison to my older iems, the sonys had so little mids and so much bass the peak wasn't a problem. But IIRC there still was a problem with the mids when I eq'd down the bass. The uhp336 were a million times worse than either of the other two. I returned them because in order to hear bass, midbass, and treble I needed an insane eq and it still was an almost excruciating experience.
On a side note, I've tried using the rockbox eq, but I haven't pinned down the peak(s) yet, so I've never been able to completely fix the problem that way. Not to mention rockbox occasionally refuses to start up making me have to take forever trying to get my ipod to reset. Rockbox also doesn't load album art. I used to use it, but because of those issues I've mostly stopped using it.
Ok, so maybe that's just a coincidence and all of those IEM's have terrible mids (which from what I've read here, either nobody else notices it, or nobody else has the same problem with the ne7m's). But that's not all. I can never seem to get a good seal. Even if I do, it's usually uneven which annoys the heck out of me. It seems to be that I can't get the left side to stay in. It always slips out. For a while I was using foam ear tips which were a little better IIRC, but they still were hard to get in straight. I usually end up messing with the left side until I'm done listening. I usually get the right one in fine on the first or second try. Then I get the left one in ok, but it sounds different, so I have to straighten it, and it never goes in right. The shure ear tips are especially picky in that area since they create such a good seal that if you insert them too far, or pull them out a little, the air pressure messes up the drivers, so I have to find the exact right place where they're just resting inside my ear canals. I can never get a good deep insertion with those. And then if I ever move my head there's a good chance one of them will slip. So what I ended up doing on my aforementioned car ride was sitting perfectly still with my head slightly leaning to the right side so the left IEM wouldn't slip out. I also put part of the cable under the seat belt shoulder strap with some slack to take tension off the IEM's. I had to sit in that position fixing the left IEM every couple minutes for the whole drive.
Sometimes all this doesn't bother me, but occasionally it just leaves me frustrated because I know just how good the ne-7m have the potential to sound. The only solution I can see is buying some expensive IEM's and getting custom molds which may or may not improve my experience and which I won't be able to afford any time soon. (Not that I don't have the money, I just have other priorities right now). Am I really doomed to only be able to enjoy headphones? It's really frustrating, because it takes a second to put on my headphones and I have just as good a seal as ever before with virtually no midrange issues. Now I know the M50's cost a lot more, but seriously...aren't headphones supposed to have problems with resonance in the ear canal, and IEM's not? Even on my old cheap headphones I didn't have as much of an issue with this.
Any suggestions? Am I just using too cheap IEM's? Are my ear canals really that uneven?
I apologize for the long post. I appreciate any comments you have. Thanks in advance, and thank you for taking the time to read this.