randomshape
New Head-Fier
How many actual hours have they had. Having owned over 20 IMR sets I can attest as can many here you NEED at least 550-600 hours before they settle into their final configuration / sound, and even then...My Semper had 600 hours and were sounding incredible & then one day they sounded very 'off' to the point I sent them back for checking. After Bob said they were fine I gave them another 200 hours burn and now they sound sublime - Night and day difference. How or why that happened is inexplainable but it happened
My Elan+ initially had about as much treble energy as I could bear for the first few hundred hours - to the point where I swopped to an older more damped filter and more recently a warmer copper cable
Currently - my Elan+ are very warm, with deep rich bass and yet very well balanced over all the frequencies...this is the polar opposite of what they were.
This current warm rich sound signature is new and has been happening just for this last week !! o_0
I had not noticed anything wrong at all but listening to the cymbals over various tracks I would say that [at their current journey of burning in] there is ZERO splash but a very very good rendition of the brass crash of cymbals. There is no excess energy at all - which is what I think you are hearing. BUT I think the tonality of the cymbals is spot on
In terms of checking - if you check with a qualified recorded mixed and mastered track such as 'Innervisions' by Stevie Wonder - Im hearing great tonality and over all balance but its true to say there is not an excess splashy energy on the cymbals by any means BUT the balance of everything I find very impressive
This is of course with my own set up [damped filter/warm copper cable/foam tips/warm source]
In terms of getting the best out of filters for cymbals - Its difficult to say as source, hearing etc etc is unique to everyone but maybe Grey lower and Blue upper?
What you are describing though does sound like you need another 1-200 hours of burn in. A lot of people here have been surprised at what a difference this can make
Ive just changed back to stock SCC copper cable and Im hearing a lot more brass cymbal crash's with full transients.
We listent to different music though. I only really listen to high quality Audiophile type of recorded music as Im more into 'Audio' than 'Music' !
Listening to Innervisions above though, Im not sure how you could improve upon what Im hearing in terms of balance, tonality and timbre.
End of the day - Either the sound signature is not for you so sell it or give it another dose of burn in (to get way above 600 hours) so you KNOW it is finally as originally tuned
Maybe not that helpful for testing but maybe an interesting reference?
Thank you very much for such an informative reply! Sure will try to give them more hours and will tell later my results. Also I want to change my softly sounding M11s to something more sharp and powerful. For now the best results in a search of lost in intimacy cymbals I am getting with deeper insertion (as much as possible, with medium white tips from Timeless AE) and blue top. Gray bottom is my usual setup also.