Head-Fi Basshead IEM thread (lists page 1)

[Basstion]

  @Basstion Project Polaris by Garage 1217, not iFi. I never damaged any of my IEMs or headphones with driving it with a lot of power. I am also careful not to push them too hard, though. Just because I am using 1.5w does not mean I am listening at extremely loud volumes.
 
You can damage IEMs wih 540mW, sure, I have no doubts about that.
 
All my life i've seen people shove high power amplifiers behind stereo speakers and blow the speakers out.... yet I have a more powerful power amplifier and never ever blew a speaker once. All that power can be dangerous if you're not careful with it.
 
 
 
 
Anyway.... I'm really thinking I might go ahead and spend $1k on my "end game" IEMs.
 
Yeah I know that really is just code word for "preventing upgrades by way of getting the best item possible.

Oh, my bad, do not remember exactly. You had better luck than I did with iems super fed 

You have already tried several iems list, get that final $ 1k game and let us know your impressions.

 

[thejammonster]

The Aurisonics Kicker is one of the metallic coated ones?

I've owned a lot of metallic coated headphones over the years. Got rid of all of them pretty fast and now I just avoid them... that said I still want to try the kicker.

I had one set of Ultrasones I liked but I ended up selling them. They had pretty decent bass, I don't remember exactly what I didn't like a lot about them.

@Whataudiophile
Only if you find a used MDR 7550 that cheap, which won't be easy, aside from that the 90EX is the best i know of, I honestly still use it almost daily.

Bravo series did not have titanium coated drivers. The new Fender line does.

 

[thejammonster]

 
Been itching to get a new IEM but if I don't see a nice sale on the kickers somewhere i'm gonna just get a second pair of XB90EX.

Taped + pinhole 7550 is sometimes as good, sometimes a little better than the 90EX.

Likewise there are song the ASG 2.5 does better than the Sony 16mm's, and vice versa.

Vapman, taking advantage of you says, I read some time ago that you were using IFI amp with 1.5W and I think that although the XB90 so much power swallowed smoothly, sooner or later end up damaging a driver. To me it happened to me with my fiio X3 (540mW-16Ω) and high gain.

Just because an amp can put out X amount of power doesn't mean it will suddenly force that much power into your headphones all at once. Power translates to volume, so if you have your amp on high gain and crank the volume to max you WILL be pushing the max power and possibly blow your drivers out. I use a Schiit Magni 2 Uber with my ASG-2.5 which could put about 1.1W into 41ohm. I use a Schiit Lyr 2 with my Fostex TH-600 and TH-X00 which could put 6W+ (!) into 25ohm. I've even used the ASG-2.5 on the Lyr 2. I've never had any problems or even thought I might be close to causing an issue. I would probably lose my hearing before blowing out any drivers.

 

[vapman]

Bravo series did not have titanium coated drivers. The new Fender line does.

Thanks for the reassurance.
 
The 2.5 was good at bass but after getting to hear some Kumitate Labs IEMs they became nothing special.... so I am hoping the Kicker having better bass response with lower power sources will make them a little more fun to use. However it is more likely I will wait for my chance to be able to buy a Kumitate.
 
I had a complicated relationship with the ASG 2.5. It is a good bass IEM but it will be surpassed.  There are songs I had to raise the EQ and gain as much as I could with the 2.5 to get a level of bass I was happy with, and some of the Kumitates without extra gain provided more & better bass. Some songs I actually had to turn the bass down because it was getting exhausting.... with the Kumitates, NOT the 2.5!
 
funny enough the 90EX was still great to listen to even after experiencing the Kumitate lineup

 

[Basstion]

Just because an amp can put out X amount of power doesn't mean it will suddenly force that much power into your headphones all at once. Power translates to volume, so if you have your amp on high gain and crank the volume to max you WILL be pushing the max power and possibly blow your drivers out. I use a Schiit Magni 2 Uber with my ASG-2.5 which could put about 1.1W into 41ohm. I use a Schiit Lyr 2 with my Fostex TH-600 and TH-X00 which could put 6W+ (!) into 25ohm. I've even used the ASG-2.5 on the Lyr 2. I've never had any problems or even thought I might be close to causing an issue. I would probably lose my hearing before blowing out any drivers.

Ok, I understand, thanks for the clarification.
 
In my case, adjust the volume 60 ~ 80 of 120 steps, high gain and hardware bass (+ 10db) Therefore, I believe that was over 200mW recommended by Sony for xb90ex.

 

[warrior1975]

vapman-Sounds like you had bad 2.5's or underpowered. To me, it's similar to the Sony Xb90ex, Sony edges them out, but it's very close.

 

[vapman]

@vapman-Sounds like you had bad 2.5's or underpowered. To me, it's similar to the Sony Xb90ex, Sony edges them out, but it's very close.

My 2.5s were not bad or underpowered.
with the project polaris or Arrow 5TX they sounded great.
what i'm saying is the Kumitates blew the 2.5's away
 
Yes it's possible there's a IEM with more bass than the 2.5. Believe it!
 
edit: I re-read my post you refer to and I can see why you thought they were underpowered. The songs I had to turn up were not bassy songs to begin with, or had all their bass as real sub bass and no mid bass (read: 30hz and lower only). For three days I did nothing but use my Arrow 5TX with max bass settings, just switching between the Kumitate and 2.5 every couple songs, and listening to the same few songs over and over. It was very clear the Kumitate simply had more refined bass, more bass impact and quantity all around. Not every model Kumitate was a bass star but a few were truly standing out in my testing as superior IEMs.

 

[warrior1975]

vapman- I know there are IEMS with more bass, I did say that specifically in my post!!

Just the way you worded it, as if there wasn't enough bass, which you'd be the only person here to say that, which is why I said what I said. It didn't appear that you were just saying the kumitate were better, just that the 2.5 were lacking in bass. Regardless, I apologize for my assumption.

On that note, I'd love to check these out, so thanks for sharing. More bass is always better brother!

 

[thejammonster]

Are there or will there be IEMs with more bass? Yes. Will they "blow away" the 2.5? Doubtful. Diminishing returns will come into play. Comfort is where I think the 2.5 can be blown away - which is why I have impressions scheduled for Friday to buy a pair of AS-2.5 CIEMs

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

 
My 2.5s were not bad or underpowered.
with the project polaris or Arrow 5TX they sounded great.
what i'm saying is the Kumitates blew the 2.5's away
 
Yes it's possible there's a IEM with more bass than the 2.5. Believe it!
 
edit: I re-read my post you refer to and I can see why you thought they were underpowered. The songs I had to turn up were not bassy songs to begin with, or had all their bass as real sub bass and no mid bass (read: 30hz and lower only). For three days I did nothing but use my Arrow 5TX with max bass settings, just switching between the Kumitate and 2.5 every couple songs, and listening to the same few songs over and over. It was very clear the Kumitate simply had more refined bass, more bass impact and quantity all around. Not every model Kumitate was a bass star but a few were truly standing out in my testing as superior IEMs.

 
 
Which one was the one you speak of?
 
I am sick and pissed that tour got shut down....FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
So which ones were the best in bass?

 

[vapman]

   
 
Which one was the one you speak of?
 
I am sick and pissed that tour got shut down....FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
So which ones were the best in bass?

If you want I will PM you my notes which go in more detail but were just my bullet point style thoughts as I was listening....
 

• KL-REF with bass port set to full. No EQ needed for full & satisfying bass. With EQ... it can take at least as much as the 2.5 and it will make you realize new possibilities of bass with IEMs.
• KL-SANKA, has at least much bass as the open bass vent 2.5, was a direct competitor in most cases

 
The KL-REF is a 2 dynamic driver + 3 BA. The Sanka I may be wrong but I think it is same as 2.5, 1 DD and 2 BA (correction: SANKA is 4 or 6 driver switchable)

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

 
FLC8 unbox
 
 


 
 
These are going on the list

 

[gikigill]

Adding another 1.5 to the stable, hopefully.

 

[Koolpep]

If you extend the ring straight the tube with the filters fits perfectly in the cavity you talked about
 
Cheers!

 

[unknownguardian]

If you want I will PM you my notes which go in more detail but were just my bullet point style thoughts as I was listening....

1. KL-REF with bass port set to full. No EQ needed for full & satisfying bass. With EQ... it can take at least as much as the 2.5 and it will make you realize new possibilities of bass with IEMs.
2. KL-SANKA, has at least much bass as the open bass vent 2.5, was a direct competitor in most cases

The KL-REF is a 2 dynamic driver + 3 BA. The Sanka I may be wrong but I think it is same as 2.5, 1 DD and 2 BA.

KL-REF bass are truly deep and hits very low. you can feel the punch and airness of the bass at very low frequencies. that being said, i felt that there is a slight dip in sub/mid bass.

and KL-SANKA is a 4 driver or 6 driver(switch on)