[LTUCCI1924]

I whent to radio shack and bought the comply T400 tips but they gave too much bass so I whent back and bought the AUVIO silicon tips by radio shack and wow they are just great for my hippo vbs plus they will last a long time over the complys.

 

[Hentai11]

I used the Monster triple-flanges when I wore them, and isolation was okay, not great. Next time I'll try my long Head Direct doubles and see how they work; they're a revelation on my TF10s.

 

[petervii]

I think the long Head Direct doubles are good with the Hippos (in general i lik'em a lot) but i find them to have two small drawbacks:
1.They are long,and the Hippos are also a bit long and they stick out of your eat too much
2.The driver moves further away from your ear and trebles aren't as clear as with the stock tips
 as for AUVIO silicon tips by radioshack, i will probably never know because radioshack is something rare (if any still open) here at the recession capital!(Athens)

 

[LTUCCI1924]

petervii HI: I have a pair of large and a pair of small AUVIO silicon tips that I dont use. I use the med size. If the large or small would fit you I would send you a pair at no cost of course.

 

[petervii]

Thank you so much for that thought! It's not that urgent i guess i'll find some tips that fit, but if i don't ,i'll let you know!

 

[JxK]

Has anyone managed to fit the sony hybrid tips onto the VB? Some users like dfkt said that the hybrids are their preferred tips, but for the life of me I can't figure out how they managed to fit the darn things onto the wide VB nozzle. Any advice please?
 
Note: the VB do sound really good though. Very balanced. Not linear and bass recessed, but just plain balanced. It presents a nice and neutral sound as defined by the fletcher-munson equal loudness contour.  Great low end rumble and nice sub-bass. But the bass doesn't intrude into the midrange. Highs are well extended. Mids are present and ever so slightly forward. I'll write some more thorough impressions in a mini-review later once I've had more time with them.

 

[Berserker]

Just got my Hippo VB's in. Sound good, but I do notice some sibilance. Have read that some burn in time will correct this. Like the sound overall. I think the 2 dot filters work best.

 

[Berserker]

Wow, even 10 hours burn in time took care of the sibilance.

 

[kai_]

Ordered in the Hippo VB's from Jaben in April (got here maybe end of April) and to me, the build quality seems a bit 'lacking'. Ths point has now been hammered home since one of the earphones is now cutting in and out. Think it's a loose connection. Does anyone know what kind of warranty Jaben provide for these? I've tried to send them an email about it but as of yet heard nothing back. It's only been 3 months of use.

 

[B[van]]

Quote:

Ordered in the Hippo VB's from Jaben in April (got here maybe end of April) and to me, the build quality seems a bit 'lacking'. Ths point has now been hammered home since one of the earphones is now cutting in and out. Think it's a loose connection. Does anyone know what kind of warranty Jaben provide for these? I've tried to send them an email about it but as of yet heard nothing back. It's only been 3 months of use.

Its usually a year from what I recall.

 

[lifestream]

One thing I noticed about these headphones is that it's especially important not to rush your evaluation. It's taken a lot more tinkering with than I thought to get a good sound of them. I'm a bit spoiled with my Audio Technica M50s and I almost immediately disliked the headphones as soon as I got them out. The no circle screws are boomy as all hell. I put in the 3 circle screws and two circle ones back and forth for the last hour, messing with eq settings. Coming from a non-iem user though, I didn't realize how paramount perfect fit is. I found a general sound I like for now (though I may change the screws) is the two circle screws and Rock, Acoustic or Flat eq setting. I feel rock smooths the phones out.

While I don't think they have nearly the same treble quality of the m50s, they're decent and I feel like they will get better with burn in time. However, when people sa it's got bass quality, with the right fit, plates and eq, this thing can be a bass beast. Excellent sub bass is something I believe this headphone has and IMO destroys my M50s in that regard.

At first I was extremely unhappy. but with time I now believe these headphones will make an excellent companion to the M50s

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

my experience with jaben has always been top notch.. no question asked replacement unit in a new box..

 

[sifka4]

My experience with Uncle Wilson was great, but the experience with the VB was not so good.  I was looking for the best bassy IEM I could buy under $100, and the VBs sure seemed to fit the bill.  I bought them and was surprised how quickly they arrived.  I listened to them for a good 3 weeks and really liked the sound signature, but something wasn't right.  After quite a bit of listening, testing, and switching ears, I determined that one driver was not reaching the same output as the other which lead to an odd, unbalanced feeling in my head.
 
I contacted UW and they were more than happy to send a replacement.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that the replacement was even more polar than the first set.  One ear piece was just plain muffled compared to the other.  I didn't need to do much listening at all with that set and requested another replacement.  The third set finally came and it was much more like the first, but something was still off.  Was it my ears?  Maybe they were fine and it was just me....that thought went through my head so many times, but switching them back and forth between ears proved that it was indeed the earbuds.
 
I really wanted to find out what the problem was.  The exact problem was that one channel was slightly quieter overall and had dramatically less bass compared to the good side.  So, I got my flashlight and removed the screw plate from each IEM to try and get a better look.  Nothing inside gave a clue.  I thought about it some more, and it akin to one earbud not having a good seal.  I knew the seal wasn't an issue because I was using Comply foamies.  Then I thought, what if the driver is not sealed properly?  I know from my experience in car audio and my acoustics class that a speaker in a lossy enclosure, that is one that does not isolate the front and rear waves from the speaker cone, will have lossy performance.  Turns out I was right.  By using my mouth, I created an ever so slight amount of suction on the good earbud.  As expected, no air moved and there was a slight crackle from the driver being pressurized.  When I did this on the bad side, there was quite a bit of airflow across the driver.  For the skeptics, air was not entering through the wire entry because placing a finger on the backside of the enclosure to cover up the screw plate port immediately halted the airflow.
 
I wish I had thought of trying that on the first two pairs as I am fairly confident it was the same problem.  I know that a few Headfiers described a similar issue with their VBs.  For these reasons, I have to advise against purchasing them.  However, I will say that Uncle Wilson has EXCELLENT customer service, and they turned a really crappy experience into something positive.

 

[sulkoudai]

Quote:

My experience with Uncle Wilson was great, but the experience with the VB was not so good.  I was looking for the best bassy IEM I could buy under $100, and the VBs sure seemed to fit the bill.  I bought them and was surprised how quickly they arrived.  I listened to them for a good 3 weeks and really liked the sound signature, but something wasn't right.  After quite a bit of listening, testing, and switching ears, I determined that one driver was not reaching the same output as the other which lead to an odd, unbalanced feeling in my head.
 
I contacted UW and they were more than happy to send a replacement.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that the replacement was even more polar than the first set.  One ear piece was just plain muffled compared to the other.  I didn't need to do much listening at all with that set and requested another replacement.  The third set finally came and it was much more like the first, but something was still off.  Was it my ears?  Maybe they were fine and it was just me....that thought went through my head so many times, but switching them back and forth between ears proved that it was indeed the earbuds.
 
I really wanted to find out what the problem was.  The exact problem was that one channel was slightly quieter overall and had dramatically less bass compared to the good side.  So, I got my flashlight and removed the screw plate from each IEM to try and get a better look.  Nothing inside gave a clue.  I thought about it some more, and it akin to one earbud not having a good seal.  I knew the seal wasn't an issue because I was using Comply foamies.  Then I thought, what if the driver is not sealed properly?  I know from my experience in car audio and my acoustics class that a speaker in a lossy enclosure, that is one that does not isolate the front and rear waves from the speaker cone, will have lossy performance.  Turns out I was right.  By using my mouth, I created an ever so slight amount of suction on the good earbud.  As expected, no air moved and there was a slight crackle from the driver being pressurized.  When I did this on the bad side, there was quite a bit of airflow across the driver.  For the skeptics, air was not entering through the wire entry because placing a finger on the backside of the enclosure to cover up the screw plate port immediately halted the airflow.
 
I wish I had thought of trying that on the first two pairs as I am fairly confident it was the same problem.  I know that a few Headfiers described a similar issue with their VBs.  For these reasons, I have to advise against purchasing them.  However, I will say that Uncle Wilson has EXCELLENT customer service, and they turned a really crappy experience into something positive.

I think thats why they revised it.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/561773/fake-hippo-vb-or-just-a-revision#post_7592762

 

[onetonnoodle]

i've just received my hippo vb today. I was looking for a more bassier iem coming from an m6, and chose hippo vb as the best upgrade. With no burn-ins yet they seem to sound too warm even for my taste. And the bass seemed to be muffled from the sound of it. I've tried different bass plates, and am currently at the two dot plate.
 
Do you guys experienced the same harshness and extreme warmness from your vb at the start? I'm worried if burn-in will not give the vb the sound signature i was expecting as many others described.
 
Thanks in advance