Hi Everyone,
New guy here. Been skulking around head-fi for months now, but haven't felt the need to post. I have learned a ton of info from this site, so am feeling the need to start contributing. I'm an old school hi-fi guy who got out of it about 5 years ago because I became tired of the frustratingly complicated and expensive nature of it all. Back then, I had and still have a pair of Etymotic er4P/S, but never really gave them there just due. I just used them when I traveled and that's it. Now I'm fairly new to the headphone world. I started on this journey a few months ago and have been thoroughly bitten.
Here's a list of the gear that I've already bought, tried and mostly returned because I apparently have a very picky ear:
Fiio e5, e11, e07k, e17, eo9K (returned all)
Aune T1 (keeping for now)
Centrance Hifi M8 (totally keeping for ever!)
BSG CMOY 18v amp with AD712 op amp, with the AD8620ARZ on order. ( A fun little amp to play with)
AKG K550 (returned)
Sennheiser Momentum over ear (returned)
Sennheiser Amperior silver (returned)
Pioneer se-a1000 (still have, but will probably return)
PSB M4U-1 (keeping cuz they are the best I've heard compared to all the others I've tried, period)
Hifi man re-400 (keeping as of recent discoveries)
I bought the re-400's because of all the great reviews. I honestly wasn't very impressed with them at first, but kept them around because they were so cheap. Well as time went by, I was actually getting ready to return them because now I'm pining for a pair of Mad Dogs. I just didn't like the way the midrange sounded forward and compressed, especially with classical music and violins. Thing was, I looked at all the tips, which mine came with like 10 pair, and at first grabbed the foam Comply tips because that's what I was used to using with my er4's. I thought they were the best because they gave the best isolation. After a bit, I didn't like the sound, so I cut the ends off so that the opening was larger. This didn't help much, so I put them away for awhile, then I happened on Rin Choi's Headphone Analysis blog (
http://rinchoi.blogspot.com), which is pretty impressive with the detail and measurements he does. Anyway he wrote about how very important it was to get the re-400's exactly at the second bump in the ear canal to sound they're best. So I busted out all the tips for them again and this time tried them all, so I though. I first thought the clear medium sized silicon tips were the trick. They certainly improved the bass and tamed the midrange compression a bit. I listened to them like this for a couple of days and still wasn't totally pleased, then I realized that I had forgotten about the very small black silicon, double flange tips that came with the headphones were in the bottom of the box they came in because I thought they would be too small for me. I slapped those puppies on and jammed the re's into my ears as far as they would go. The back of the re is flush with the nub of my ear hole. Well, Holy Moly! This is what I've been missing! Now I get it! The midrange compression is gone. In fact the midrange is beautiful and lush and big. The bass is nice and not too big, but there where it needs to be. I'm listening to these puppies now, connected to my hifi M8, which I recently learned was using wrong too because of this site. I was using the impedance switch backwards. Anyway, I am now loving these iem's and now understand what all the fuss is about. So, my long winded point is that if you are not liking these, make sure you try all the tips, find the ones that let you jam them into you're ears as far as possible and still keep a good seal. You will be richly rewarded when you find the right ones.