[wayofthedawn]

From my experience, properly tuned IEMs with EST drivers tend to have a very huge and wide soundstage.
Like the JQ Hua Jiang. If i compare the JQ Hua Jiang to the Sony IER M7/M9, both the sony's are basically a no contest, the JQ Hua Jiang is much much better. The soundstage of the IER M9 actually sounds small compared to the JQ Hua Jiang. While IMO the soundstage of the Sony IER M9 is not small at all. Again from my experience, it's the EST drivers that really add to the soundstage.

 

[baskingshark]

My 2 cents is that soundstage and imaging are not mutually exclusive.

Some IEMs have vast soundstages but poor imaging, so things sound very fuzzy so to speak. There's a big sphere of music around the head, but we can't pinpoint instruments well. Then there's some IEMs that have small soundstages, but good imaging, so music is tight and one can pinpoint instruments precisely, though perhaps the space is a tinge claustrophobic.

Ideally of course, one would want something that has both a vast soundstage with excellent imaging, but sometimes at the budget segment, there's compromises to be made. But between the 2, I would take a tight imaging with a smaller soundstage over something that has a vast soundstage but is fuzzy with imaging.

 

[redrol]

I think imaging is left to right spacial positioning. 3D holographic is the rest of the 3rd dimension, depth, height, behind, below.

 

[Jitu13]

I think imaging is left to right spacial positioning. 3D holographic is the rest of the 3rd dimension, depth, height, behind, below.

Why would imaging will only mean that? I mean the word itself conveys a picture which should be at least 2 dimensional. So maybe the perception of depth will go in the 3d holography? Like the idea of how far or close an instrument is?

 

[DynamicEars]

My 2 cents is that soundstage and imaging are not mutually exclusive.

Some IEMs have vast soundstages but poor imaging, so things sound very fuzzy so to speak. There's a big sphere of music around the head, but we can't pinpoint instruments well. Then there's some IEMs that have small soundstages, but good imaging, so music is tight and one can pinpoint instruments precisely, though perhaps the space is a tinge claustrophobic.

Ideally of course, one would want something that has both a vast soundstage with excellent imaging, but sometimes at the budget segment, there's compromises to be made. But between the 2, I would take a tight imaging with a smaller soundstage over something that has a vast soundstage but is fuzzy with imaging.

@Jitu13 he already written what i wanna say. Wide soundstage is easier to achieve, with large shell, or boosting 8khz to perceive more air. but real great imaging, very accurate one is harder to get, usually come with great driver quality.

 

[G777]

I'm assuming good imaging requires very well-matched drivers with low THD? Perception of soundstage depth should vary between person to person because of outer ear and head shape I believe, especially with IEMs. I often see varying impressions on proportions of the stage in IEM reviews.

 

[CK Moustache]

In my experience out of hundreds of in-ears, perceived soundstage size and expansion is most of the times highly related to a specific tuning. For example, I have noticed that IEMs that have an elevation somewhere between 7 kHz and 13 kHz are usually perceived as having quite some spatial width, and that a recession in the upper midrange/presence range usually leads to more perceived spatial depth. Those tuning quirks don't even need to be all that distinctive to have an effect.

Anyway,

Spontaneously, the Campfire Audio Andromeda and DUNU Titan 1 come into my mind. For perceived spatial with only, the Eternal Melody EM-2.

the old, discontinued Ultimate Ears UE18 Pro definitely belong on that list as well and impressed me quite a bit with their sheer soundstage size. Too bad that the frequency response and timbre were underwhelming.

 

[Ony38]

Best iem in term of air/seperation & soundstage technicalities : Alambic Ears Noosa

 

[ChrisHeld1989]

My setup for holographic goodness is now Tanchjim Oxygen with a pure silver cable on a E1DA 9038s (Minimal phase fast filter). Really nice. Love it!

 

[CT007]

My setup for holographic goodness is now Tanchjim Oxygen

I would like to try it. But how is the fit? I don't feel I have any particularly spacious IEMs yet. YBF is ok, and FD5 has great imaging, air and extension at least. Legacy 3 has a good size to it.

 

[Tawek]

Hi guys, and girls of course. I'am searching for iems, that have a huge and massive stage and holographic three dimensional imaging. It must be some iems, where you can close your eyes while listening and you can "see" instruments floating around in a huge space. Left and right, back and forth, up and down and diagonal. The price doesn't matter. It can be anything from cheap to expensive. Please make a list.

Obravo Ra -c
Lcd i4
Sony mdr ex1000
Sony mdr ex500 sl

 

[Malfunkt]

Really headphones, including IEMs don’t do a great job at soundstage and imaging when listening to stereo music. The reason for this is that music is engineered for speaker listening in a room environment. In a room, each ear hears a blend of both the right and left channels in addition to room reflections. When listening on headphones, each ear hears each channel discretely and this completely changes the perception of the stereofield . The result sounds like the channels are hard-panned left and right missing a front or center. Also, you don’t get the natural room reverberation.

However, headphones can do an excellent job with binaural content but it requires the headphones are tuned to a certain frequency curve and it will depend on the recording techniques and if it approximates a general HRTF that is close to your own.

One of my favourite iems for spherical soundstage are actually Etymotic. The ER4B was designed for binaural recordings and the ER4 series is still close in tuning.

I’ve been able to use spatial DSP to process stereo and multichannel content and the ER4SR does a great job with this. I’ve found the Waves NX app on iOS to work particularly well with the etys but the app is no longer supported (though it’s free). The app is a bit finicky and sometimes it resets the effect intensity or doesn’t play your files. But it’s worth the hassles. nPlayer of iOS also has Dts-x and on the traditional setting is more like a good crossfeed with some spatial DSP applies.

 

[Gizmo1k]

Anyone know how the MEST compares in Soundstage and Imaging? I seem to hear a lot of buzz about it lately and wondering how it does in this department.

 

[michaelc]

Anyone know how the MEST compares in Soundstage and Imaging? I seem to hear a lot of buzz about it lately and wondering how it does in this department.

Depends on what you're comparing. It's one of the best in soundstage and imaging in the price range.

 

[ehjie]

My 2 cents is that soundstage and imaging are not mutually exclusive.

Some IEMs have vast soundstages but poor imaging, so things sound very fuzzy so to speak. There's a big sphere of music around the head, but we can't pinpoint instruments well. Then there's some IEMs that have small soundstages, but good imaging, so music is tight and one can pinpoint instruments precisely, though perhaps the space is a tinge claustrophobic.

Ideally of course, one would want something that has both a vast soundstage with excellent imaging, but sometimes at the budget segment, there's compromises to be made. But between the 2, I would take a tight imaging with a smaller soundstage over something that has a vast soundstage but is fuzzy with imaging.

This is a very accurate observation.
The Solaris Gold, is an exception.
V. large sound field on all axes, excellent separation, pinpoint imaging.
The multiple voices and instruments are fantastic on them....