IEM Recommendation for AKG K701 Admirer. CK10?
May 3, 2014 at 4:24 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 5

tzeb

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Yes, yet another one. But here is the twist: no Triple.Fi and no ER4. Ha! :wink:

I am looking for a neutral IEM with good detail and nice treble, basically just as my K701. A little more bass than the AKG bass would be ok. As stated above, the Triple.Fi doesn't work for me since I have rather small ears. I just bought the Etymotic ER4PT but I am unable to get a good seal with either tip and therefore there are no bass frequencies whatsoever. I really dislike the deep insertion, too.

Genre wise I am listening to Jazz, Classical, Blues (-Rock), 60s - 70s Soul, Folk and Psychedelic stuff and the odd Trip-Hop track. Budget is about 150€, looking to buy used. These phones are for mobile listening only. For home use I have my AKGs and full size speakers.

What about the Audio Technica ATH-CK10? These have been mentioned in a similar thread.

Cheers
 
May 3, 2014 at 6:33 PM Post #2 of 5
Hi,
 
You could read about Brainwavz R3 Dual Dynamics (hard to recommend - quite controversial model), they aren't as revealing as my K702, but they provide open lower mids, surprisingly wide soundstage (grey tips) and fast bass response. They come with a lot of different tips, the smallest grey tips should work for small ears.
 
While they don't share the same tonality with my K702, I can live with both.
(R3s are less bright, specially in the lower treble region)
 
Best Luck!
 
May 4, 2014 at 2:25 PM Post #4 of 5
Hi, thanks. But I assume the Brainwavz would be too bass heavy for my taste. Even says so on the box... Any feedback on the Audio Technicas?

Brainwavz R3 are not bass heavy IEMs despite having a dedicated driver for low frequencies.
 
I was comparing their bass using the big grey tips (slightly more bass in comparison with medium grey ear tips) with the bass on my K702. The R3 with big grey ear tips have only slightly more perceived bass than my K702, but it is often quite hard to tell because AKGs have more upper mids so matching volumes is a relative thing.
 
K702 have just a tad more sub bass in comparison with K701 acording to this graph:

In my experience, a little bass boost is often a good thing when you use your IEMs in quite noisy places (a bus, for example). If you take a closer look at 'attenuation of external noise vs frequency' graphs you will find that lower frequencies are not as attenuated as the rest of the spectrum. Then if your IEMs provide a neutral bass, it could appear behind the lower frequencies of the external noise. 
 
Looking at some measurements you can clearly see that R3s are not bass heavy IEMs.
Here you have some useful graphs of this IEMs and some others that you could also find pretty interesting:
 
Brainwavz R3
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BrainwavzR3.pdf
 
Shure Se535
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSE535.pdf
 
Shure Se425
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSE425.pdf
 
Hifiman Re400
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANIE400.pdf
 
 
 
On the other hand, these are considered warm sounding (often: bass heavy) IEMs:
 
Shure SE846
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSE846BlueFilterSample2.pdf
 
Sennheiser IE800
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserIE8002013.pdf
 
Dunu DN-1000
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/DunuDN1000.pdf
 
Shure Se215
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSE215.pdf
 
 
Best Luck!
 
May 5, 2014 at 1:56 AM Post #5 of 5
The closest I know of ER4S and its variants. The level of detail is impressive. I've seen them on FS within your price range.
 

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