[Darner]

So, I am going to start this little story...

 
Great post, glad it worked. Those soldering successes are so damn rewarding...

 

[Lorspeaker]

your hands dun shake n the eyes are clear? keep soldering

 

[Shawn71]

So, I am going to start this little story on my B3's with the disclaimer, don't do this unless you are willing to risk all with your B3's and you may not even like the result... but it was such a journey and has given interesting results so I thought I would share anyway  



 



I received a second set of B3's and like my first they didn't have any bass in the left ear compared to the right which is odd as I often have seal issues with my right ear not my left. So after exhaustive burn-in and testing myself in circles I concluded it wasn’t just in my head. My last pair cost me a month and shipping to HK to get me in the same situation so I thought screw it, I will open them up and see if there is an obvious issue…



 



After extensive fiddling I concluded that one of the two left drivers wasn’t firing properly (or at all, it is hard to hear such small parts). Then the unthinkable happened and they stopped completely… so, after trying other things, I started playing with the contacts and the series by touching the rear of the drivers together to see if I could get a sound to come out… and it did…



 



So, out came the soldering kit and I have added a new bridging wire in (as I said, please don’t do this unless you want to risk all, I was close to throwing mine out) and the results are really interesting…



 



1.     It is now a really sensitive iem…



2.     The bass ‘seems better’



3.     I originally thought I might have killed the soundstage but I have been doing comparisons this morning to my earmax er80 and I have been surprised to hear that it is still much more spacious and clear than the earmax



 









 



I would love to hear thoughts on what I may have done to it and PLEASE take my impressions with a bucket of salt as I am doing a lot of this from memory with the original (possibly faulty), not direct comparison. I am posting for interest and investigation sake… if you choose to play you do it all at your own risk J



 



 

So the new bridging(red dots) with a jumper wire sort,is actually between positives of the two micro drivers?

 

[Shawn71]

your hands dun shake n the eyes are clear? keep soldering

LoL.....yeah,too delicate to solder these micros........if its too hot or more power rating soldering,it cld damage the VC/the track.....

 

[n05ey]

So the new bridging(red dots) with a jumper wire sort,is actually between positives of the two micro drivers?

Ummm... tbh, it was between the two points that when put together made the drivers sound again (tho admitting that makes me sound really daft). I was definitely sweating in it all but I really had nothing to lose by that point, it was either success or bin

 

[flib372]

Hi there,
I would like too know of there is anybody who heard the havi pros AND the TDK ie800. Owning the ie800 but cannot listen too these too long because of the amount of treble and the overall thin presentation. Could the havi proII be an option or is it really that much worse than the pro I?

 

[Baycode]

Hi there,
I would like too know of there is anybody who heard the havi pros AND the TDK ie800. Owning the ie800 but cannot listen too these too long because of the amount of treble and the overall thin presentation. Could the havi proII be an option or is it really that much worse than the pro I?

 
Haven't tried ie800 but as an owner of both B3 versions I can safely say that skip the Pro2 if you're not after a different signature (less clarity, narrower sound stage, slightly more bass depending on tracks).

 

[flib372]

The thing is i am looking for an relatively dark sound signaturen, dont mind some xtra bass. I believe you saying the pro i is better but i think that there might be too much treble. Almost every iem i own is too bright for my taste exept the Fischer eterna which is ultra warm sounding because of its really big midbass. I can remember that anybody wrote that the pro II is quiete dark sounding so i thought i could give them a chance .

 

[Baycode]

The thing is i am looking for an relatively dark sound signaturen, dont mind some xtra bass. I believe you saying the pro i is better but i think that there might be too much treble. Almost every iem i own is too bright for my taste exept the Fischer eterna which is ultra warm sounding because of its really big midbass. I can remember that anybody wrote that the pro II is quiete dark sounding so i thought i could give them a chance .

 Please give me some time to compare them in detail. What is your musical preference (tracks, albums?) ?

 

[flib372]

So cause there are for on the go i will use them with my moto x phone and will listen to hip hop , deep house and Jazz via soundcloud so quiete bassy and often not the very highest quality records thats why i like it darker. For at home nothing will ever replace my Fidelio x1 which just perfekt for me in bass too treble presentation and lets me enjoy every single genre i ever heard of .
Got an brainwavz m3 which i like but it sometimes got too screetchy mids, i know im ultra picky but i guess thats what this forum is made for

 

[Baycode]

So cause there are for on the go i will use them with my moto x phone and will listen to hip hop , deep house and Jazz via soundcloud so quiete bassy and often not the very highest quality records thats why i like it darker. For at home nothing will ever replace my Fidelio x1 which just perfekt for me in bass too treble presentation and lets me enjoy every single genre i ever heard of

.
Got an brainwavz m3 which i like but it sometimes got too screetchy mids, i know im ultra picky but i guess thats what this forum is made for

 
Comparisons finished. Pro2 suits better for HipHop and Deep House according to the signature preference of yours. For jazz I have to say Pro1 is excellent choice. But Pro2 is not far behind. Pro2 is easier to drive as well. From a cell phone should give better results compared to Pro1. But Pro2 presentation is laid back and also bass is more pronounced. I have added Brainwavz S1 to the comparison. Its a different iem, highs closer to Pro1, bass closer to Pro2, in between. Also good soundstage and clarity. But I cannot call it as laid back.
 
Finally if you want a darker or laid back presentation with good amount of bass (and easy to drive from cell phone) B3 Pro2 may suit well.

 

[flib372]

Thanks a lot! Will order the pro II after my ivery 1 has arrived but i dont rlly expect anything from it . So i may report in some weeks about the pro II .
Btw does the havi have a chinslider?

 

[Baycode]

Thanks a lot! Will order the pro II after my ivery 1 has arrived but i dont rlly expect anything from it

. So i may report in some weeks about the pro II .
Btw does the havi have a chinslider?

 
You're welcome
 
Yes it has the chin slider.
 
May I suggest you to ask your question (on the below) in the Chinese/Asian Brand thread if you haven't do so. It's always good to collect different opinions. But there are not too many whom heard the B3 Pro2.
 

 Originally Posted by flib372 

So cause there are for on the go i will use them with my moto x phone and will listen to hip hop , deep house and Jazz via soundcloud so quiete bassy and often not the very highest quality records thats why i like it darker. For at home nothing will ever replace my Fidelio x1 which just perfekt for me in bass too treble presentation and lets me enjoy every single genre i ever heard of

.
Got an brainwavz m3 which i like but it sometimes got too screetchy mids, i know im ultra picky but i guess thats what this forum is made for

 

[ktan3142]

     I just got mine in the mail today, and I've been listening to them for about an hour (typing this up as I'm still listening). First of all, thanks to Baycode and various other contributors on this thread for recommending the Havi-B3. As far as initial impressions go, I'm super pleased with the packaging/presentation as well as the all extra goodies that Penonaudio packed with it. I've never seen packaging as fancy as this besides the now-discontinued RE-262. Now before I get into initial impressions of the sound, I should first make a disclaimer: yes yes, it's only been an hour or two, so this "review" should be taken with a grain of salt. I am aware that the Havi's sonic characteristics will change over time. Also, since this is my first in-depth review of some sort, please go easy on me. I will only give generalizations and not do any A-B comparisons anytime soon until these burn in, or at least until my brain adjusts to the transition. My audio chain for this is Foobar2000 -> O2 amp -> Havi, and the IEMs I usually use are the TDK IE800 (at home) and the RE-400 (on-the-go).
 
     The first thing I noticed when I plugged these into my ears is how darned hard it was to get a good fit. It was about 15 minutes later after tip-rolling did I realize that the default tips that Havi put on the B3 was the large ones and not their medium ones (I thought most IEMs have their default tips as medium). After settling with the red-black medium tips, the second thing I noticed was the amount of sub-bass that was hitting me. The sub-bass is plenty and satisfying, but the amount of mid-bass is too much (I even think the RE-400 has a bit too much bass), that for a moment, I thought I ordered the Pro-II by accident. I know Baycode said that the bass settles down after burn-in, so we'll see about that - I'm not going to make any senseless speculations.
 
     The mids are less warm than the RE-400, which I believe made mids on the Havi sound more "clear" in a sense. The treble didn't particularly stand out at the time of this write-up, but it did have a slight sense of airyness and slight sparkle that I've been searching for since my RE-ZERO died about two years ago. The other IEMs I've been trying around the $60-$100 range either have slightly hot and/or metallic treble (XBA-3, TDK IE800, HSA BA100), or was a bit too smooth for my taste (RE-400). As far as efficiency goes, I don't think these are any less efficient than my RE-400, since I used the same settings for both and got comparable volumes. Maybe the sound details of the Havi don't show up as easily without an amp, who knows?
 
     Concerning the soundstage, I'm going to repeat what many others have said. The soundstage is this IEM's forte, and everything sounds so... coherent (for a lack of better word). I have a feeling that the RE-400's mid/vocals would beat out the B3's if only the soundstage on the RE-400 were bigger. From memory (big disclaimer), the B3's mids aren't ridiculously so much better than the other IEMs' mids that I've tried, but the soundstage is what makes things work. Without it, it would probably end up sounding like the RE-400 with more bass and more airy treble. And of course, there's the obligatory "OMG I heard new things in my music that I didn't before." No, I didn't hear new instruments or whatever, I just heard a couple of new notes here and there that I struggled to make out with the previous IEMs. Again, it could be due to the soundstage and the separation that makes each individual instrument easy to track. One slight "disappointment" that I had was that the soundstage width wasn't as amazing as the RE-262's width. When I used the RE-262, there were occasions where I literally turned my head because I thought someone was talking to me (the people on the subway looked at me funny). Based on the compliments on this thread, I thought I would have a similar effect, but hey, this is only a fraction of RE-262's $100 price tag. 
 
     Value-wise, I think these are amazing for $59 (WOAH, not even $60). The clam shell case they included is so polished that it beats a lot of hard cases included with other IEMs (Etymotic, Brainwavz, ME-Electronics, HifiMAN, etc.) The pouch case is a nice bonus, but I don't think I'll ever use it. But wait, there's more!!! They even included a microfiber cloth for wiping... the glossy surface on the B3? Normally I'd just use a wet towel to wipe the earpiece and the wires, but it's nice that they included a microfiber cloth. Anyone with an amp should give this a try (I haven't tried it without an amp - I'll do it tomorrow when I head out). For $59 I am not disappointed at all sans the soundstage width compared to the RE-262's =P.

 

[flib372]

I would appreciate some more words about the tdk ie800 and the havi in comparison, because you noticed the metallic treble and thats exacly what i hear and dont like.