[rangerid]

Loved my IE8s with Supreme Pro Cable and most recently, the Starkey SA43s =D

 

[Omnirai]

Ortofon e-Q5/e-Q7, and in the same vein the EX1000 (to my ears a souped up e-Q5 with just the little better sound but worse ergonomics). "Romantic" is the word often used to describe the sound signature of these - it is not without reason!

 

[Buckie]

Romantic, wow! Yeah, I was wondering about those ortofons. Folks say those are similar to the Grados though.
So right now I sort of narrowed it down to the GR10, TF10 and possibly eQ7 just by reading up on what people say.
Wonder how the difference between the Grados and the UEs could be described in a few words.
And what's with Fischer Audio anyway? Browsed around on their site and they seem to have a LOT of cheap **** with little differentiation. Why?

 

[rangerid]

Fischer Audio DBA02s are amazing sounding tho and definitely one of my all time faves. 

 

[lee730]

Quote:

Loved my IE8s with Supreme Pro Cable and most recently, the Starkey SA43s =D

 
Is the Starkey SA-43 a good upgrade to the  IE8s? That is the custom I'm leaning towards.Hopefully they can make them look a bit better than what I've seen from pictures though. The JH audio did the appearances just right.

 

[rangerid]

They are better in every possible sonic quality, but that is to be expected coming from a top CIEM. The biggest strength on my IE8s with Supreme Pro cable were the soundstage size, bass, and natural sounding. The SA43s are about 1/3 bigger than the IE8s with SP Cable and annihilate the regular ones. The second best thing on the IE8s were the bass. When a song calls for it, the SA43s with the bass switch off can produce more bass, hit harder, and reach deepter than the IE8s. With it on, it is about equal to roughly 3 dials up or so on the IE8s without the midbass hump (From impressions on 2 songs lol so I guess it isn't saying much).  However, they are so much better controlled and feels much more effortless. 
 
Yea, the SA43s are not the prettiest CIEMs with the switches, but IMO all CIEMs are a bit hideous to look at to the average person who has never seen them or heard of them. I have longer hair and they cover up 3/4 of the SA43s in my ears. 
 
I will have a review up for them in a few weeks and go into how big of a jump they are from all the top tier universals I have heard. 

 

[lee730]

Quote:

They are better in every possible sonic quality, but that is to be expected coming from a top CIEM. The biggest strength on my IE8s with Supreme Pro cable were the soundstage size, bass, and natural sounding. The SA43s are about 1/3 bigger than the IE8s with SP Cable and annihilate the regular ones. The second best thing on the IE8s were the bass. When a song calls for it, the SA43s with the bass switch off can produce more bass, hit harder, and reach deepter than the IE8s. With it on, it is about equal to roughly 3 dials up or so on the IE8s without the midbass hump (From impressions on 2 songs lol so I guess it isn't saying much).  However, they are so much better controlled and feels much more effortless. 
 
Yea, the SA43s are not the prettiest CIEMs with the switches, but IMO all CIEMs are a bit hideous to look at to the average person who has never seen them or heard of them. I have longer hair and they cover up 3/4 of the SA43s in my ears. 
 
I will have a review up for them in a few weeks and go into how big of a jump they are from all the top tier universals I have heard. 

Sounds good. That is most likely gonna be my first Custom IEM. Unless I opt for the 5-series. But I want a large sound stage and I haer the SA-43 is quite large in this regard. So the IE8s sound stage is still bigger than the SA-43? I've heard the Starkey is a very detailed monitor while having somewhat of a darker sound signature. Would you consider this true?
 

 

[rangerid]

The SA43s are about 1/3 bigger than the IE8s with SP Cable and annihilate the regular IE8s.  So I'd say the SA43s are 1.333x wider than the IE8 with SP cable and clobbers the IE8 in terms of depth and placement of instruments in the soundscape
Other top tier universals don't even come close

I too was looking into either the 5way or the 43 and it was literally toss up. I ultimately went for the 43s due to the switches/ability to change the signatures and I too wanted the absolute largest soundstage as i can't stand small/medium soundstages. 

 

[lee730]

Quote:

The SA43s are about 1/3 bigger than the IE8s with SP Cable and annihilate the regular IE8s.  So I'd say the SA43s are 1.333x wider than the IE8 with SP cable and clobbers the IE8 in terms of depth and placement of instruments in the soundscape
Other top tier universals don't even come close

I too was looking into either the 5way or the 43 and it was literally toss up. I ultimately went for the 43s due to the switches/ability to change the signatures and I too wanted the absolute largest soundstage as i can't stand small/medium soundstages. 

We may have similar sound signature preferences. I of course love detail but I don't want to go deaf either lol.
 

 

[rangerid]

My SA43s isolate like the end of the world lol. They are the first IEMs that I have used where I can use the identical indoor listening volume as outside. Insertion depth for my ears are about the same as Ety's with Shure Olives but man the isolation feel twice as good. With the Ety's I can still hear some traffic noise and it is at a higher listening volume than the 43s, which blocked out 99.9% of noises at an indoor listening level. 
 
This, of course, is dependent on your ear anatomy and I think I was extremely lucky in this department. 

 

[lee730]

Quote:

My SA43s isolate like the end of the world lol. They are the first IEMs that I have used where I can use the identical indoor listening volume as outside. Insertion depth for my ears are about the same as Ety's with Shure Olives but man the isolation feel twice as good. With the Ety's I can still hear some traffic noise and it is at a higher listening volume than the 43s, which blocked out 99.9% of noises at an indoor listening level. 
 
This, of course, is dependent on your ear anatomy and I think I was extremely lucky in this department. 

I have giant ear canals. I needed to use the large flanges to get a seal. Not even the monster double flanges could give me a seal lol. But surprisingly I managed to get decent isolation with the IE8s. I mean even at a pretty moderately low volume I could block out most noise, even at the bowling alley. So I could imagine how these would do.
 
 

 

[rangerid]

The only silicon tips i have ever gotten a seal with were the Extra Large BiFlanges from Hifiman. Even with those on the IE8s I was getting very inconsistent seals, especially on my right ear, which was still too large for them lol. In the end, I modified the tips by taking Comply foams and stuffing them inside the BiFlanges to expand them out even further. Then I would be able to get a sufficient seal but there would still be the odd days when it would be close to impossible to get a seal on my right ear. Many people had troubles with fit on the TF10s and I was nearly able to cram the whole thing inside my ear lol. But in the end nothing beats the Customs built to your ears. 

 

[Carsonwen]

Westone 3 is great.

 

[imackler]

To OP: I'd really recommend the SE535! Reading your description, they were the first that came to mind. One caveat: I'm recommending these w/o knowing your musical preferences. I'd not really recommend them for classical. But for pop, rock, acoustic, folk, even some hip hop, I'd go for it.
 
 
Quote:

Grado GR10

That being said...I'm dying for my GR10 to get here!!

 

[dfrost]

Fischer DBA-02 (or the equivalent Brainwavz B2). The later ones are very slightly warmer/darker then my early version, and the B2 is probably same as the newer ones.