[gldblade]

@dfkt

Thanks! I'll shoot Future Sonics an e-mail immediately

 

[allioxyzzy]

My olives arrived, medium size. At first I thought they were too small but after being firmly wedged into my ears it's probably the best seal I've ever got. This is the first time I've actually had trouble understanding people talking to me with the music paused. Amazingly comfortable too, they feel so soft.

Surprisingly I think the bass is actually a little toned down from what I was using before (Shure silicones), but not in a bad way. The sound seems more balanced with a little more emphasis on the mid range, vocals seem especially clear. But that awesome deep bass hit is still very much there.

Assuming these are fairly durable I've found my daily sleeves!

Edit: they also stick out of my ears less

 

[cn11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by allioxyzzy /img/forum/go_quote.gif My olives arrived, medium size. At first I thought they were too small but after being firmly wedged into my ears it's probably the best seal I've ever got. This is the first time I've actually had trouble understanding people talking to me with the music paused. Amazingly comfortable too, they feel so soft. Surprisingly I think the bass is actually a little toned down from what I was using before (Shure silicones), but not in a bad way. The sound seems more balanced with a little more emphasis on the mid range, vocals seem especially clear. But that awesome deep bass hit is still very much there. Assuming these are fairly durable I've found my daily sleeves! Edit: they also stick out of my ears less

Experiment with the Olives backwards on the Atrio's post. This way the Olive's flat end will seal up more in your ear canal. Some here on this thread find this more isolating and detailed than the normal orientation of the Olives, myself inlcluded.

 

[mmmjays]

Sigh...... just bought a pair of M5's. Had to pay 170 CAN though. I am planning to use the M5's with the new ipod that is supposed to come out soon. Lets hope they work well together. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think of spending 170 on a pair of IEM's. I really hope they are as great as you guys say! I will probably get shure foam tips as well, since it is so reccomended. You guys are killin me.... lol. But it could be for the better, i'll know in a few days when they arrive . Thanks Head-Fi. You bastards.

 

[dfkt]

You're welcome, you person...

Spend the most on your phones, less on your amp (if you need one - which is not the case with the Atrios), and even less on your source...

 

[LaBreaHead]

You guys are killin me.... lol. But it could be for the better, i'll know in a few days when they arrive . Thanks Head-Fi. You bastards.

___________________


Let us know what you think. Also, these will benefit from burn-in -- if you haven't done that before, research it in Head-Fi and elsewhere online, if necessary. It's pretty simple (I could even do it!).

 

[cn11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaBreaHead /img/forum/go_quote.gif You guys are killin me.... lol. But it could be for the better, i'll know in a few days when they arrive . Thanks Head-Fi. You bastards. ___________________ Let us know what you think. Also, these will benefit from burn-in -- if you haven't done that before, research it in Head-Fi and elsewhere online, if necessary. It's pretty simple (I could even do it!).

I wish I had known about the pink noise burn in when I got mine, but then again that was my first true high quality IEM or headphone purchase. What I did notice was that even after the first 4 hours of use they REALLY changed. At first the bass was a tad muddy and overwhelming, with the treble a bit pronounced too, and the mids sitting way back. After just the first 4 hours things balanced out noticibly. The bass settled down some, and the mids came in better. The rest of the first week was more, but more subtle, of the same thing. I was listening to some of Becks latest album, The Information, today and just marveling at the detail across all the frequency range. But sometimes when I read about doing the pink noise and how much that benefits the Atrios I think I would have liked to have done that to make certain that they're broken completely right, and if that would have made them that last bit better. Oh well.

-Chris.

 

[neoufo51]

When I got mine, I burned them in with pink noise for over 50 hours over an entire weekend. I was determined to not let myself be dismayed by what some people say about them when first trying them. It was tough not to put them in my ears but I just let foobar2000 chug along on the pink noise flac.

When I finally put them on, I got my Cowon A2 and put in the absolute best reference tracks I could find. Classical, Rock, Punk, Hits, New Age stuff, the works. There's something about these IEMs that just let them bring out the bass, clear vocals, and melodic mids and mid-lows to the fullest extent I've heard on an IEM and I'm hooked. I can never use another lesser IEM ever again. They're that good and I've spoiled myself rotten. To anybody reading this who is just like me and has usually stuck to buds and IEM's for under 40 bucks, do yourself a favor and get these and a pack of Olives and take care of them! 150 dollars total gets you a pair that will last you years to come. Forget worrying about how much you are spending on headphones because when you think about it, there's people here who have spent over a 1000 on SEVERAL headphones, and for $150, you can get one solid pair that will not disappoint. You spend much less than most people here do on their giant cans and you get something so much more than just another flimsy IEM that you can find on the wall at a Best Buy.

Many of you reading this were probably directed here by somebody who answered your question about which IEM's are the best bang for your buck, and I can definitely say these fit the bill. Read as much of this thread as you can, and if you have more than enough to cover the cost, go for it.

 

[Caribou679]

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoufo51 /img/forum/go_quote.gif To anybody reading this who is just like me and has usually stuck to buds and IEM's for under 40 bucks, do yourself a favor and get these and a pack of Olives and take care of them! 150 dollars total gets you a pair that will last you years to come. Forget worrying about how much you are spending on headphones because when you think about it, there's people here who have spent over a 1000 on SEVERAL headphones, and for $150, you can get one solid pair that will not disappoint. You spend much less than most people here do on their giant cans and you get something so much more than just another flimsy IEM that you can find on the wall at a Best Buy. Many of you reading this were probably directed here by somebody who answered your question about which IEM's are the best bang for your buck, and I can definitely say these fit the bill. Read as much of this thread as you can, and if you have more than enough to cover the cost, go for it.

Your posting reminded me of Head-Fi slogan:


Welcome to Head-Fi, sorry about your wallet.


regards,

 

[darthdiddy]

I have had my m5's for a few weeks now and I am absolutely loving them! I would like to take the time to thank everyone in this post for steering me in the right direction. This is one of the best purchases I have made recently and hopefully I will not be looking for another pair of headphones for along time to come.

 

[sjp3003]

My report on the M5's after 4 hours of use...

I could not wait to give these a try pre-burn-in, so I hooked them up to my Zune/Corda Move for an initial listen with the fitted silicone plugs straight from the box. I had mostly been using ATH CK9's with the Zune, and previously used Ety 4P's, so my ears had burned into iem's that are very clear and emphasize mids/highs.

True to warnings on this thread, my initial impression was that the M5's presented much fuller bass than the others, but sounded muffled as the mids and highs were not as clear. After listening to different genres about 1 hour (best sounding genres seemed to be latin jazz, rock and electronica), I began experimenting...

First up were the foam plugs. The smalls proved to be too small, so I tried the larger ones that provided me with a good fit. The improvement in sound quality overall was very positive. So good, that I returned to this thread to see what others had been using & order a few as replacements. Shure Olives or more of Future Sonics' own foamies?

Rooting around the FS site I noticed their custom-fit silicone plugs. That got me thinking... abut 8 years ago I was looking for an iem setup for motorcycle riding that would fit comfortably within my helmet (no flames pls...this was for rural riding at low sound volumes).

The ticket among many riders back then was a set of cheap Koss Plugs ($15) with custom molds. I was assigned overseas in El Salvador at the time, and took my project to local audiologist. She was a bit intrigued but gladly obliged, making molds of my ears and producing custom silicone plugs that mounted to the cheapo Koss iems for about $75.

Wondering if the old custom plugs would fit the M5 stems, I dug them out of the bottom of my nightstand drawer and yanked the plugs. The fit was perfect on the plug as well as in my ears, sweet!!! No no need to order foamies for the M5's and the seal is perfect.

As for the sound...it's still too soon to properly rate them. The initial negative impressions on the mids & highs have been reduced but they are not as clear as the AT's. Having said that, the tonal balance on some music sounds spot on (such as Steely Dan's Gaucho re-issue) The bass is whopping for an IEM and the overall sound is much warmer than the AT's.

Many have said amplification is not necessary, so I've compared the sound with & without the Corda Move. My conclusion is that you can certainly generate high volumes straight from a Zune or other similar source, but the depth of the sound is better wth the amp, and of course the Zune itself does not contain cross talk circuitry which I tend to use (although comparisons were done without it).

 

[meusickfrek]

Just ordered a pair of med. olives but I may have made a mistake. I thought the small FS fomies were mediums, is this correct that the small supplied FS fomies are smalls? And if I like the fit of these smaller supplied fomies will the meds fit? I did try the sleeves and the med were a little big and the smalls were a little small. Any quick advise would be appreciated since I just ordered from idealsound. I love my atrios but only put about 25-30 hrs of pink noise, should I put more?

PS I am using a new meizu mini and at first I thought it didn't have enough power(bad source), once I got a good recording, wow plenty of power and great sound. Still havent ripped any studio stuff, what is the preferred program to rip? I hear alot about lame but also hear it is difficult to use, any comments?

 

[warrior05]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meusickfrek /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just ordered a pair of med. olives but I may have made a mistake. I thought the small FS fomies were mediums, is this correct that the small supplied FS fomies are smalls? And if I like the fit of these smaller supplied fomies will the meds fit? I did try the sleeves and the med were a little big and the smalls were a little small. Any quick advise would be appreciated since I just ordered from idealsound. I love my atrios but only put about 25-30 hrs of pink noise, should I put more? PS I am using a new meizu mini and at first I thought it didn't have enough power(bad source), once I got a good recording, wow plenty of power and great sound. Still havent ripped any studio stuff, what is the preferred program to rip? I hear alot about lame but also hear it is difficult to use, any comments?

Sounds like the mediums will suit you fine.

As for ripping - I like to use EAC. There are step by step instructions out there so though it may be relatively tedious to set up, at least it'll be spelled out for you. By the way, Lame is not a ripping program. It is an application to encode audio files into the MP3 lossy format.

 

[oli84]

Question about foamies on the M5's..

do the smalls fit the M5 well? I'm asking because I have a pair of the smalls from when shure had just released them, and they are very loose on the M5s and get stuck in my ear. has anyone tried using (newer) smalls on them yet?

 

[neoufo51]

Which foamies are you talking about? The Olives? If those are what you refer to, yes, they fit.