[chupacabra314]

  People always make bold claims in threads like these which makes the hype machine go crazy. The IT03 are very good, yes, but they do not really compete at the same level as totl iems. When it comes down to personal preference, its totally possible to prefer the it03 over some totl stuff, but to claim its better... well take those claims with a grain of salt. And for reference, I own the it03, and can compare it to the campfire vega, which I also own. The vega is better in every way. It is not 5 or 6 times better as the price would indicate but it is better. Though again, some might prefer the sound signature of the it03 over the vega, but that does not necessarily mean it is technically better.
 
But if the it03 matches your sound signature preferences, it is extremely good for the price.

Couldn't agree more.
 
If you need a good vehicle to go off-roading of course a Ferrari will suck and will be obnoxisouly expensive.
If you want a fast track car and you can afford it you get a Ferrari and you don't care it sucks as a grocery-getter.
If you want a nice all-rounder you can take your kids to school and have fun in it you get a nice sports sedan and accept the compromises it makes to be somewhat good at everything.
 
The good news is with headphones you have a much greater choice! It's also a curse because you need to try a lot of them before deciding what works best for you.

 

[mariowar]

" Quote:
Originally Posted by mariowar View Post

I just got back from Canjam.

I had the itch of trying every iem to upgrade for something better. I was almost sure that the Lola's would be the ones......

Well, here are my impressions after 2 days of acute Canjanitis.

1- The It03 reigns supreme. Forget about "the best at this price range", these overachievers , to my ears out of an iPhone 7 and zero eq. listening to jazz, vocal jazz, contemporary jazz, and hard rock sounded better than ANY JH, ANY Noble, ANY 64 ears and ANY Campfire........
2- None of these holy cows got even close to the bass of the It03. I am talking about quality, tightness, detail.
3- None of the them had the amazing sparkle in the high end of the It03.
4- The it03s were only beaten by the Kaisers in soundstage width but not by much.
5- My itch is in remission.
6- Long Live It03s.

I had the pleasure of trying 2 humble iems that I enjoyed as well. The One More Quads, which are very good.... $200 , wow. Good bass, not as deep as the It03, nice treble, not with the airy sparkle of the it03, very good soundstage, comfy, excellent packaging and accessories. The only drawback is the non removable cable and their efficiency. I had to turn the volume more than I am used too.

And last but not least, Modular Ears. These newcomers from Taiwan had a wonderful prototype of a 4 armature + 1 dynamic armature that I loved !! Wide soundstage, very good bass and the best treble I have heard of any iem. On top of that, they are modular for different audio signatures. It seems that the price will be around $300. You will be able to find them on Facebook.

The Isine 20s were great, however, they are not designed to be used in loud environments...... I really liked them. However, If I am home, I am with my beloved TH900s...

The Aeons were TERRIFIC if you were looking for a allrounder. Very comfy, good noise isolation, very efficient at just 14 ohm, and awesome sound. Punchy tight bass, astonishing mids and great detail.

Wow, I wanted to try noble n campfire so bad. Is ibasso it03 really that good? Don't get me wrong, i got mine, but i havent really exposed my ears to all other high end IEM because, well, i'm poor and there isn't much demo available in Malaysia especially noble n campfire. I wonder how do they really sounded. Perhaps like some headfier said those iem needs proper amp to be fair to them. But then I'm proud if my it03 is on par with them out of the box without amp. Currently use fiio A5 to make the soundstage bigger. I guess i might just wait for it04 instead of buying campfire/noble. But then again, as i said, I dont have much experience. Maybe they suit me if i have a chance to try them. Currently eyeing for xba-z5 for my collection. Thankx for the sharing though.

Anybody else has a big opportunity to try a lot of iem at Can Jam?"

I am not new in the headphone world.
I started with Sony Walkman many decades ago and I have been a Headfier for a very long time.
Sound signatures are led by trends.
What sounds good for some people might not be the signature that most people enjoy 20 years from now.
Many Headfiers do not trust their ears, they just fall pray of others claims and price.
I think that the 100% armature technology as we know it plateau years ago. That is why the armature count war began.....
Take a look to Jh Audio Lola with the dynamic driver for mids, less armature count than Laylas and better sound....
Check out the Tia Forte. I had the pleasure to speak to the 64 ears owner. Eventually, that tubless technology will tricke down their iem line.
If you read my original post, you will find that my firm purpose to attend was to leave with a pair of "high end" custom iem.....
From Noble I really liked the humble Tridents, masterfully tuned which beat the Sages that had a weird bass boost that I did not like,
The Kaizers and Katana. Both had a wide soundstage. They both were excellent and had a somewhat lusher presentation than the It03.
I did not like the Campfires at all......

 

[hcin]

Can anyone compare the it03 with the inear stagediver 4? Sound sig, fit, isolation

 

[falcon1125]

People always make bold claims in threads like these which makes the hype machine go crazy. The IT03 are very good, yes, but they do not really compete at the same level as totl iems. When it comes down to personal preference, its totally possible to prefer the it03 over some totl stuff, but to claim its better... well take those claims with a grain of salt. And for reference, I own the it03, and can compare it to the campfire vega, which I also own. The vega is better in every way. It is not 5 or 6 times better as the price would indicate but it is better. Though again, some might prefer the sound signature of the it03 over the vega, but that does not necessarily mean it is technically better.

But if the it03 matches your sound signature preferences, it is extremely good for the price.

Souukaaaaa... I guess you are right. In my own preference i think it03 is a little bit muddy. Still its a great iem for the price.
I also agree about the better part. I managed to demo fitear mh335 and i kinda like the soundstage better and as u said, its not like 3,4 times better, but its better in some ways. I guess in the path of audiophile, subtleties make the all difference huh. If not, people wont spend so much on cable itself.

Anybody can recommend a best fit iem for classical/instrumental? I dont know if this is the right thread, but IMO IT03 is not suited for this genre right? Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm right can someone give some suggestions? Someone recommend me Savannah.

 

[Lucif6r6th]

Souukaaaaa... I guess you are right. In my own preference i think it03 is a little bit muddy. Still its a great iem for the price.
I also agree about the better part. I managed to demo fitear mh335 and i kinda like the soundstage better and as u said, its not like 3,4 times better, but its better in some ways. I guess in the path of audiophile, subtleties make the all difference huh. If not, people wont spend so much on cable itself.

Anybody can recommend a best fit iem for classical/instrumental? I dont know if this is the right thread, but IMO IT03 is not suited for this genre right? Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm right can someone give some suggestions? Someone recommend me Savannah.

IT03 actually do fit the classical/instrumental genres. Very well in fact. But it is all down to personal preference

 

[Cloudtastrophe]

I dont know about muddy. I think the IT03s have some of the best clarity, air, and resolution out there under 1000 dollars. Went to Canjam this past weekend and listened to the entire lineups of Noble, Campfire Audio, JH audio and 64 ears among others. After i left i popped the IT03s in and BAM they sounded so good! They defintitely hold their own against those models and I would choose the IT03s over a significant number of those models, most, if not all, of whom cost much more than the IT03 msrp.

 

[mariowar]

"I dont know about muddy. I think the IT03s have some of the best clarity, air, and resolution out there under 1000 dollars. Went to Canjam this past weekend and listened to the entire lineups of Noble, Campfire Audio, JH audio and 64 ears among others. After i left i popped the IT03s in and BAM they sounded so good! They defintitely hold their own against those models and I would choose the IT03s over a significant number of those models, most, if not all, of whom cost much more than the IT03 msrp."

I am not alone after all ...

 

[bavinck]

"I dont know about muddy. I think the IT03s have some of the best clarity, air, and resolution out there under 1000 dollars. Went to Canjam this past weekend and listened to the entire lineups of Noble, Campfire Audio, JH audio and 64 ears among others. After i left i popped the IT03s in and BAM they sounded so good! They defintitely hold their own against those models and I would choose the IT03s over a significant number of those models, most, if not all, of whom cost much more than the IT03 msrp."



I am not alone after all ...

 


You are not alone. I have heard and owned a few TOTL earphones and agree the IT03 is indeed completing with them. My Zeus, for example, has a more detailed sound - but that is what the Zeus does and why you pay for it. Otherwise the IT03 competes with it is many aspects. IT03 imo is punching to TOTL territory. It does have a lot of bass, though, so it is not going to satisfy in signature a neutralhead. I would also say my Zeus is perfectly coherent, and the IT03 is pretty coherent but not as much as Zeus. I like the IT03 better than Andromeda for a couple reasons.

 

[Kerouac]

You are not alone. I have heard and owned a few TOTL earphones and agree the IT03 is indeed completing with them. My Zeus, for example, has a more detailed sound - but that is what the Zeus does and why you pay for it. Otherwise the IT03 competes with it is many aspects. IT03 imo is punching to TOTL territory. It does have a lot of bass, though, so it is not going to satisfy in signature a neutralhead. I would also say my Zeus is perfectly coherent, and the IT03 is pretty coherent but not as much as Zeus. I like the IT03 better than Andromeda for a couple reasons.

 
Imo Zeus is absolutely a step up in resolution, detail retrieval, imaging etc. Although that's probably the case when you compare it to most (c)iems out there...
 
I also think IT03 comes very close to TOTL territory, but I'm curious what (couple of?) reasons makes you prefer the IT03 over Andromeda 

 

[bavinck]

   
Imo Zeus is absolutely a step up in resolution, detail retrieval, imaging etc. Although that's probably the case when you compare it to most (c)iems out there...
 
I also think IT03 comes very close to TOTL territory, but I'm curious what (couple of?) reasons makes you prefer the IT03 over Andromeda 

I like the bass of the it03 better, and I find the upper mids more revealing and lively than Andro. Andro is very nice, but I feel like it03 is giving me more insight into the music.
 
Zeus is a detail, imaging and transparency monster! The fact that I can enjoy the it03 in the same week as Zeus says something pretty strong about the iBasso offering.

 

[Kerouac]

  I like the bass of the it03 better, and I find the upper mids more revealing and lively than Andro. Andro is very nice, but I feel like it03 is giving me more insight into the music.
 
Zeus is a detail, imaging and transparency monster! The fact that I can enjoy the it03 in the same week as Zeus says something pretty strong about the iBasso offering.

 
Aaah I see. DD lows are hard to beat by BA drivers I guess. They often have something special (more holographic) about them.
Owning the IT03 for quite some months now, it also still gets plenty of playtime over here

 

[falcon1125]

  I dont know about muddy. I think the IT03s have some of the best clarity, air, and resolution out there under 1000 dollars. Went to Canjam this past weekend and listened to the entire lineups of Noble, Campfire Audio, JH audio and 64 ears among others. After i left i popped the IT03s in and BAM they sounded so good! They defintitely hold their own against those models and I would choose the IT03s over a significant number of those models, most, if not all, of whom cost much more than the IT03 msrp.

 
I searched the muddy term, i guess i was wrong, what I meant was more about warm maybe. Again as I said, maybe if I can listen to other TOTL i can make a better comparison. Sorry for my bad explanation, I need to clarify in order to do justice to IT03. Maybe some other people reading might have a wrong idea when they read what I wrote before. 
 
Thanks @mariowar for telling me. 

 

[Lucif6r6th]

IT03 is where the sound signature is done right. Technical aspects wise, it falls short of totls; though not very far. But at this price, it really isn't a fault

 

[Cloudtastrophe]

   
I searched the muddy term, i guess i was wrong, what I meant was more about warm maybe. Again as I said, maybe if I can listen to other TOTL i can make a better comparison. Sorry for my bad explanation, I need to clarify in order to do justice to IT03. Maybe some other people reading might have a wrong idea when they read what I wrote before. 
 
Thanks @mariowar for telling me. 

Yes it is pretty warm. At east the sound signature is L shaped instead of just being bass-heavy which is a relieve. The midbass is comparitively reference level except maybe a touch elevated. The frequency response is relatively even (bit of boost in the treble) all the way down until you get into the below 100hz region then it spikes like a rocket. if there were 2-4 less db of sub bass i would consider this iem perfect.
 
Cant wait for what they do with the IT04s!! I hope its as sexy as the it03. @Paul - iBasso please make the shells of the it04 clear like the rendering of the it03 on the box!
 
Was really disappointed to find out the IT03 was not ):

 

[mariowar]

One important variable  to consider is gain.
 
I love these iems due to the fact that they allow me to fully enjoy them at  moderate volume (  Fletcher-Munson Curve), saving my ears in the process.
 
For all of those who think that their audition will overcome age and abuse they might find its sound signature too bold  for their neutral taste.