[DobsOnly]

I originally thought I would wait a week before posting some thoughts on the iM716. After 8 or 10 hours of use over the last few days I think I can make some comments since I doubt things will change very much between now and then.

IEM – Altec Lansing iM716

Price paid - $69 Amazon.com

Packaging – Arrived when promised and nicely packaged. Amazon always seems to do well in this department. The Headphones are neatly packed in Styrofoam. The package contained the headphones, with tri-flange tips attached, a set of foam tips, 2 replacement filters, a filter replacement tool and a kind of large funky carrying case to pack these in.

Fit – The headphones come with tri-flange tips attached. Evan though I have used IEM’s for over a year I found it hard to get a good seal with the tri-flange tips. The material the tips are made with have an almost tacky feel to them and don’t want to slip into your ear canal without some lube. After inserting them I had to continue to move them around to get a good seal. So I quickly changed to the foam tips. That helped out getting the seal but it can still be a chore getting them rolled up and inserted, as they are slightly large for my ear canal.

Source equipment – Since these are mainly for portable use all of my listening was done with my RIO Karma as the source. All files are 192kbs/mp3. I have listened to these in combination with my Cmoy and Pimeta amps.

Music – I tried several different types of music through these over the last 3 days. These are just a few.
Eric Clapton – From the Cradle and Unplugged
Allison Krauss and Union Station – Live
Paul Simon – Grace land
Steely Dan – Aja
Metalica – S&M
Audio Slave – Out of Exile
Wilco – Being there

On all types of music the first thing that became apparent was Treble. These things really seem to extend on the high end. As well as being very extended on the high frequency end it also seems that this part of the sound spectrum is slightly forward or aggressive. The treble that is reproduced is very detailed and fast but to my ears can quickly get to the annoying level. I caught myself reaching for the volume a couple of times to reduce the affect. In comparison the ER6 has a slightly softer rolled off high end. I never thought I would say that about the ER6.

Midrange and Vocals – Vocals and midrange again are very nicely reproduced, but I wouldn’t call them natural. The have a very detailed, quick, slightly edgy sound. I did notice on some cuts a slight touch of sibilance. That could have been more recording issue since I did not detect it across the board with all my music.

Bass – The iM716 is equipped with a switch for HD, High Definition and Bass mode. In High Definition the Bass is slightly more extended than that of the Ety ER6. It is well defined and controlled. “I like the switch” Blasphemous as that might be, it was nice to be able to add some Bass as well as a little more body into the lower Midrange. I do not like the Clip. I prefer the Alligator style clip on the ER6 much better. I also found the Bass mode to work well with lower volume levels.

Performance
Amp or no Amp? My Rio Karma was able to push these to ear splitting sound levels without any problem. For those that have a Karma or ER6’s, the iM716 required about 2 additional clicks on the Karma volume to be at the same level as the ER6. With the Cmoy or Pimeta in line with the iM716 things get a little fuller sounding and more open. This is the same thing I have found true with the Ety ER6 and most of my other Headphones as far as that goes. The Pimeta was the best of the 2 as it has a lower noise floor and is less aggressive than the Cmoy. The Cmoy can get a little bright or forward sounding and these IEM’s don’t need any help there.
Headstage, like the ER6 the iM716 is very much an in your head experience. It does however seem wider or more open than that of the ER6.
Separation and detail is amazing. Each instrument, each voice, every sound seems to have it’s own unique space. There is no problem locating, and listening to Guitar, Piano, Bass, Tambourine, whatever it might be. Each can be targeted and audibly dissected into its most minuet parts. This was really apparent on Clapton Unplugged, which these headphones do a great job with.

Conclusion
First off, at this price point these are very, good IEM’s. At a higher price I’m not so sure I would be as happy. But for detail and treble lovers these could be the ultimate portable fix. Since I don’t have the vocabulary to describe my thoughts in audio terms I’ll try this. Comparing the ER6 and the iM716. For the iM716 think of a musical composition as a puzzle with all the pieces being the various vocals and instruments. Then separate all those pieces on the table and leave a little space between each piece. When you look at the puzzle every individual piece is very well defined. Each piece is vibrant with sharp edges and definitive separation between each piece but it is a little hard to make out the picture that the whole puzzle represents. The ER6 puzzle pieces are softer around the edges and have only a little space and sometimes no space at all between pieces. The composition or picture as a whole is much easier to see with the ER6. If that makes any sense then you’ll understand why, if I could only have one set or the other I would take the ER6. Not because it is more accurate has better bass or is more detailed, but because I enjoy the way it presents music as a whole, a composition of many details melded into a song.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Very nice and thought-out review. In the end, it is up to your ears and preferences, as you have stated.

 

[Gino]

Nice puzzle analogy. What you described is what I may call analytical (for wide spaces) and warm (tight spaces).

Analytical phones are very responsive to quality of front end, cables, and amps. Warm can be forgiving with equipement. So unless you will upgrade your components, the ER6 is better for you.

The sibilance and edginess you hear are characteristics of your cable and amps. They may be distortion. I have none of those in my rig.

 

[richard]

When I first got my im716s, they had some siblance on some material. It went away after a few days of use. FWIW, I had not previously believed in burn-in.

 

[jSatch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by richard When I first got my im716s, they had some siblance on some material. It went away after a few days of use. FWIW, I had not previously believed in burn-in.

It is my understanding that anything with a voice coil will "burn-in". How much different the sound is before and after burn-in will be highly dependent upon the unit itself and the sensitivity of the associated equipment, including your hearing. Burn-in is like glacial movement- you will not observe it changing while you are listening (or watching the glacier move).

I've observed noticeable changes in dynamic (room) speaker units I've worked with, but I know much less about the miniscule drivers in earplugs. I do know the iM716 after 2 weeks sounded fuller and less bright.

Physical Parameters of Burn-In:
All speakers go through frequency nodes in the upper frequencies. This is where the voice coil is pushing one way while the outer edge (for the 1st freq node) will still be traveling in the other direction. This ‘flex’ or node point occurs close to midway between the outer edge and the point where the voice coil meets the diaphragm. Theoretically keep halving this as you enter into the next node, etc, up the freq range. Each results in a sharp peak in the treble region. Soft tweeters, for example, exhibit this within the range of hearing and music, but the soft material and surround dampens the amplitude of the peak. Thus, the peaks are low and are not (very) offensive. Thin plastic, curved diaphragms of mid and bass units are often considered polite due to the same reasons. Metal diaphragms, such as on dome tweeters, maintain a very good response much higher into the freq range due to their very rigid structure. But when they do go off, whew! What many people with exceptional hearing call an ‘oil-can’ breakup, or some such thing. But, all else being equal, this rigid diaphragm is far more accurate in its response. The peak can be padded down somewhat with a circuit, or in the case of the Ety / Altec IEMs, the filter unit (my presumption only!). Crappy amplification would tend to exacerbate this situation.

The diaphragm may loosen up at its frequency node points (flexure) over time and become less harsh.

Spiders, which keep the alignment of the speaker cone/voice coil centered, also tend to loosen up in time and let the sound flesh out (increase in mid-bass and bass).

Reputable driver manufacturers allow for these parameters to set in for their final sounding.

 

[jSatch]

Sorry- double post.

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gino Nice puzzle analogy. What you described is what I may call analytical (for wide spaces) and warm (tight spaces). Analytical phones are very responsive to quality of front end, cables, and amps. Warm can be forgiving with equipement. So unless you will upgrade your components, the ER6 is better for you. The sibilance and edginess you hear are characteristics of your cable and amps. They may be distortion. I have none of those in my rig.

Remember, I said I'd be using these for portable purposes. Therefore the Karma / Pimeta combination.

No offense, but from your photo's you're going to have a hard time getting your very nice rig into your pocket.

If I'm using your rig I'm going to be plugging in my HD600's not my IEMs.

Thanks

 

[FaBoLoUsRmX]

Great Review, I like your writing style (not that it matters much on head-fi) Thanks!

 

[lostbobby]

Dobs:

excellent review. A couple clarifications. Are you saying the 3-flanges are different material from Ety/Shure? And Can you comment on build quality /cable tangleability. The pictures on Amazon don't make them look so durable, tho i'm always really careful with ipod, IEMs, remote etc.

Also, as a baseline, areyou of the "Ety 6/6i have adequate bass" or inadequate bass even when amped/equalized school?

 

[jSatch]

Very nice review Dobs.

A recent review stated that the iM716 lacked the upper end detail and extension of the more expensive parental unit, the ER4, at least when directly compared using an iPod as a source (ughhhh...). It seems that the Freq Response of this single driver phone was slightly shifted towards the bass, ie. increased bass at the expense of treble. The reviewer preferred the ER4s sound sig. You prefer the less extended ER6s. What is interesting is that the iM716 seems to fall somewhere between these two.

Another thought, as brought up by richard, is that burn-in is critical to these phones. They can sound a little etched out of the box, but smooth out throughout their freq range after about a week or two of straight burn-in.

Cheers-

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lostbobby Dobs: excellent review. A couple clarifications. Are you saying the 3-flanges are different material from Ety/Shure? And Can you comment on build quality /cable tangleability. The pictures on Amazon don't make them look so durable, tho i'm always really careful with ipod, IEMs, remote etc. Also, as a baseline, areyou of the "Ety 6/6i have adequate bass" or inadequate bass even when amped/equalized school?

Thanks for the comments

Yes, the Tri-flange tips are a different material than the dual flange tip of the ER6. The ER6 tip is an almost clear silicone type tip. The iM716 tip is opaque and has that tacky rubber feel as opposed to the slicker feel of the silicone. Maybe over time they will lose some of that feel.

I've seen no issue at all with build quality so far. The cables are a little heavier than those on the ER6, which will be a plus for some people. Housings seem to be pretty stout. The clip on the volume/bass switch housing is chincy but that is my only complaint.

As for the Bass on the ER6, to my ears the Bass on them is very fast and accurately reproduced but is not as extended or deep as the iM716. I have rarely had any issue with the bass when I have a good seal which is easy to obtain with the dual tipped Ety's. Working in some EQ from the Karma makes them more than acceptable for my ears.

Both the ER6 and the iM716 benefit from some amplification IMO. The iM716 seems to respond the best. Really seems to open things up. There might be a slight taming or softening of the highs also.

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jSatch Very nice review Dobs. A recent review stated that the iM716 lacked the upper end detail and extension of the more expensive parental unit, the ER4, at least when directly compared using an iPod as a source (ughhhh...). It seems that the Freq Response of this single driver phone was slightly shifted towards the bass, ie. increased bass at the expense of treble. The reviewer preferred the ER4s sound sig. You prefer the less extended ER6s. What is interesting is that the iM716 seems to fall somewhere between these two. Another thought, as brought up by richard, is that burn-in is critical to these phones. They can sound a little etched out of the box, but smooth out throughout their freq range after about a week or two of straight burn-in. Cheers-

Your probably right about the in between thing. The perfect IEM would be the ER6's presentation with the bass extension of the iM716.

Maybe that’s what an ER4 sounds like?????

As for Burn in

I fall into a smaller camp here that is very skeptical about burn in. I don't doubt that the iM716 will sound somewhat different to me if I use them every day for a couple weeks. But I think most of that change is between my ears not in physical change of the headphone. But then that’s a topic for another thread

Thanks!

 

[Okigire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DobsOnly ...snip... IEM – Altec Lansing iM716 Price paid - $69 Amazon.com ...snip...

Don't you mean $79 at Amazon?
Oh wait, $69?!

...OH NO...

I HATE THIS THREAD!!!

 

[jSatch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DobsOnly Your probably right about the in between thing. The perfect IEM would be the ER6's presentation with the bass extension of the iM716. Maybe that’s what an ER4 sounds like????? As for Burn in I fall into a smaller camp here that is very skeptical about burn in. I don't doubt that the iM716 will sound somewhat different to me if I use them every day for a couple weeks. But I think most of that change is between my ears not in physical change of the headphone. But then that’s a topic for another thread Thanks!

You actually fall into the larger camp. From reading other posts on the site I was of the opinion that burn-in does not occur in balanced armature transducers. But my phones noticeably fleshed out over weeks. Others have also noticed this effect with these phones. They don’t really lose the high freq extension or transient attack, but they become more refined and balanced throughout. At least that was my experience.

I don’t believe psychoacoustic adaptation would account for these effects. Like you said, a topic for another thread.

Anyway, you could try sticking the phones in your sock drawer with the DAP on for a few nights. Nothing to lose.

Who knows, you may get your wish afterall.

Later-

 

[richard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DobsOnly As for Burn in I fall into a smaller camp here that is very skeptical about burn in. I don't doubt that the iM716 will sound somewhat different to me if I use them every day for a couple weeks. But I think most of that change is between my ears not in physical change of the headphone. But then that’s a topic for another thread

I feel into the skeptical camp before the im716. When I first got them, they were sounding siblant on some albums. I tried playing them round the clock for a few days. The siblance went away. This was playing through my laptop, so there may have been some strange hardware/software issue, although it's never happened before. ymmv.