[Xymordos]

I think it was proven that you cant use headphones/earphones to hear the stuff coming from the back.
But IEM definitely there is sound stage. Monster ones seem to have smaller soundstage than others

 

[Mkubota1]

Quote:

I am probably in the minority in believing soundstage in an IEM is pretty difficult to quantify. It almost seems that the quality of the treble influences the perception of a soundstage more than anything else. Just my opinion though.

Quite often when we describe things like 'space', 'height', or 'warmth', we are really describing mostly tonal differences.  For example, 4khz is responsible for the perception of height.  Play with your graphic EQ and give this a try.  We used to use it in car audio installations a lot to compensate for low placement of speakers.
 
IME soundstage is more of an effect in IEMs and headphones (stole that phrase from fellow HFer milosz).  It's definitely not the same as it is with speakers or a live performance.  Some IEMs are better than others just as it is with speakers.  But to get real (more cognitive than imaginary) soundstage I think you need crosstalk with delay.  Speakers give you this and so does binaural to some extent.  Otherwise I think what we perceive as soundstage from IEMs is part "real" and part pieced together by our mind- in much the same way we can sense depth if we cover one eye because we've learned how certain things look and relate to each other with two eyes all of our lives.

 

[TrantaLocked]

 

Quote:

I think it was proven that you cant use headphones/earphones to hear the stuff coming from the back.
But IEM definitely there is sound stage. Monster ones seem to have smaller soundstage than others

No that can happen I just think the effect better headphones make can't make things go to the back that weren't produced to go to the back.


 

 

[Uruha]

AHHH Yes you can! They have surround sound headphones now! Crazy huh?! And there are sound processors that create a pseudo-surround sound for headsets usually used for games, ie: Turtle Beach Earforce DSS, Astro Mixamp. Without them, I cannot tell sound stage too unless I tried. And even when I try, it usually only works for orchestral stuff or drums.

 

[FearSC549]

I still get confused when people talk about soundstage. I don't know if soundstage means hyou can sense how far the instruments are at, or how easily you can perceive if the sound is coming from your right or your left.  

 

[swbf2cheater]

Some people use terminology that shouldnt be used when describing the set they are talking about.  The Miles Davis iem is very nice, the sound quality is excellent, the soundstage is only slightly larger than average.  It does have an airy sense to it, but that sense is nothing compared to some small portables.  The IE7 and IE8 however are extremely airy and best the Miles Davis in soundstaging 3:1  
 
I hate iems, I hate anything that sticks inside your ear or needs to be wrapped over the top of your ear, its lazy and poor designing in my opinion. I am an earbud man though.  If you want an airy sense of feel to your bud, get apple style earbuds.  The ones that do not go in your ear.  IEMS give you an unnatural sense of sound, and gives me a huge sense of euphoria and and even bigger sense of claustrophobia.  But, the best sense of airiness I've ever found in a set of inner earbuds were the IE7 and IE8.  I've used $800 customs that don't sound that good.  In fact, just because you are paying up the nose for your custom does not mean it will have a great soundstage.   

 

[aurnob88]

Some people use terminology that shouldnt be used when describing the set they are talking about.  The Miles Davis iem is very nice, the sound quality is excellent, the soundstage is only slightly larger than average.  It does have an airy sense to it, but that sense is nothing compared to some small portables.  The IE7 and IE8 however are extremely airy and best the Miles Davis in soundstaging 3:1  
 
I hate iems, I hate anything that sticks inside your ear or needs to be wrapped over the top of your ear, its lazy and poor designing in my opinion. I am an earbud man though.  If you want an airy sense of feel to your bud, get apple style earbuds.  The ones that do not go in your ear.  IEMS give you an unnatural sense of sound, and gives me a huge sense of euphoria and and even bigger sense of claustrophobia.  But, the best sense of airiness I've ever found in a set of inner earbuds were the IE7 and IE8.  I've used $800 customs that don't sound that good.  In fact, just because you are paying up the nose for your custom does not mean it will have a great soundstage.   

Yeah, these are the exact thoughts I had when I posted a thread asking about IEM vs Earbuds. Problem being earbuds cant really be used where leakage is a problem, this being in many outgoing situation. Also, earbuds tend to have very varying fits, the one's which came with my Sansa don't even go in my ear properly, feel like the whole bud is just barely hanging on to my ear.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Well, if you really think about it, IEMS are not really worth it just for their lack of sound leakage or any other single quality I am going to rage on IEMs right now, so please forgive me.  lol
 
IEMs do not leak sound when they are in your ear canal.  Your ears are not designed to be plugged completely and be isolated in such a way, your ear workings are especially not designed to pick up audio piped directly into your ear canal.  IEMS over time will damage your ears much faster than any other type of headphone.   They are never comfortable and people who say they are, are just speaking nonsense.  There is something jammed into your ear, how is that comfortable?  Almost all customs some most high quality sets wrap over the top of your ear?  It's extremely annoying and often the cord will flip up and not conform to your ear.  You need to keep your source in a place below you to literally keep tension on the wire and cable to conform to the back side of your ear so it stays in place.  This is just the dumbest thing to me and I really do not understand it.  Here is a freebie to the audio companies who make customs.  
 
Put some type of conforming material over the ends of the iem cable closest to the drivers that can be molded and shaped repeatedly.  I've seen dirt cheap material that does this, very pipe cleaner-ish. When you bend it, it will stay that way.  Only the first few inches closest to the drivers need to have this type of material over it, this would allow for excellent comfort and removes the constant motion of the iem cable over the backside of your ear, it often flops up and moves around and bunches up.  This is pure nonsense, fix it lol.  
 
Having said that, normal hanging style earbuds are much safer to listen to and new sets like the 9wave installed a great standing wave avoidance feature.  Like ultrasones s logic sort of, its much safer to listen to than any earbud in existence that I am aware of.  With that, the soundstage is much larger, spacious and more natural sounding.  Not only that, they are more comfortable.  All of that to me is worth more than worrying about sound leakage.  If people dont like your music, tell them to take a hike and go buy some earplugs heh.  Why damage your ears just so someone nearby doesnt get annoyed by your music that is only barely audible to being with

 

[aurnob88]

Well, if you really think about it, IEMS are not really worth it just for their lack of sound leakage or any other single quality I am going to rage on IEMs right now, so please forgive me.  lol
 
IEMs do not leak sound when they are in your ear canal.  Your ears are not designed to be plugged completely and be isolated in such a way, your ear workings are especially not designed to pick up audio piped directly into your ear canal.  IEMS over time will damage your ears much faster than any other type of headphone.   They are never comfortable and people who say they are, are just speaking nonsense.  There is something jammed into your ear, how is that comfortable?  Almost all customs some most high quality sets wrap over the top of your ear?  It's extremely annoying and often the cord will flip up and not conform to your ear.  You need to keep your source in a place below you to literally keep tension on the wire and cable to conform to the back side of your ear so it stays in place.  This is just the dumbest thing to me and I really do not understand it.  Here is a freebie to the audio companies who make customs.  
 
Put some type of conforming material over the ends of the iem cable closest to the drivers that can be molded and shaped repeatedly.  I've seen dirt cheap material that does this, very pipe cleaner-ish. When you bend it, it will stay that way.  Only the first few inches closest to the drivers need to have this type of material over it, this would allow for excellent comfort and removes the constant motion of the iem cable over the backside of your ear, it often flops up and moves around and bunches up.  This is pure nonsense, fix it lol.  
 
Having said that, normal hanging style earbuds are much safer to listen to and new sets like the 9wave installed a great standing wave avoidance feature.  Like ultrasones s logic sort of, its much safer to listen to than any earbud in existence that I am aware of.  With that, the soundstage is much larger, spacious and more natural sounding.  Not only that, they are more comfortable.  All of that to me is worth more than worrying about sound leakage.  If people dont like your music, tell them to take a hike and go buy some earplugs heh.  Why damage your ears just so someone nearby doesnt get annoyed by your music that is only barely audible to being with

Haha nice rant. Sound leakage can get pretty severe with earbuds when you actually play music loud, as I can attest to hearing many a times on public transport.

 

[aurnob88]

Well, if you really think about it, IEMS are not really worth it just for their lack of sound leakage or any other single quality I am going to rage on IEMs right now, so please forgive me.  lol
 
IEMs do not leak sound when they are in your ear canal.  Your ears are not designed to be plugged completely and be isolated in such a way, your ear workings are especially not designed to pick up audio piped directly into your ear canal.  IEMS over time will damage your ears much faster than any other type of headphone.   They are never comfortable and people who say they are, are just speaking nonsense.  There is something jammed into your ear, how is that comfortable?  Almost all customs some most high quality sets wrap over the top of your ear?  It's extremely annoying and often the cord will flip up and not conform to your ear.  You need to keep your source in a place below you to literally keep tension on the wire and cable to conform to the back side of your ear so it stays in place.  This is just the dumbest thing to me and I really do not understand it.  Here is a freebie to the audio companies who make customs.  
 
Put some type of conforming material over the ends of the iem cable closest to the drivers that can be molded and shaped repeatedly.  I've seen dirt cheap material that does this, very pipe cleaner-ish. When you bend it, it will stay that way.  Only the first few inches closest to the drivers need to have this type of material over it, this would allow for excellent comfort and removes the constant motion of the iem cable over the backside of your ear, it often flops up and moves around and bunches up.  This is pure nonsense, fix it lol.  
 
Having said that, normal hanging style earbuds are much safer to listen to and new sets like the 9wave installed a great standing wave avoidance feature.  Like ultrasones s logic sort of, its much safer to listen to than any earbud in existence that I am aware of.  With that, the soundstage is much larger, spacious and more natural sounding.  Not only that, they are more comfortable.  All of that to me is worth more than worrying about sound leakage.  If people dont like your music, tell them to take a hike and go buy some earplugs heh.  Why damage your ears just so someone nearby doesnt get annoyed by your music that is only barely audible to being with

wats some good reccomended earbuds for me if i want to try one out and be wowed under $50

 

[darknessproz]

Quote:

Well, if you really think about it, IEMS are not really worth it just for their lack of sound leakage or any other single quality I am going to rage on IEMs right now, so please forgive me.  lol
 
IEMs do not leak sound when they are in your ear canal.  Your ears are not designed to be plugged completely and be isolated in such a way, your ear workings are especially not designed to pick up audio piped directly into your ear canal.  IEMS over time will damage your ears much faster than any other type of headphone.   They are never comfortable and people who say they are, are just speaking nonsense.  There is something jammed into your ear, how is that comfortable?  Almost all customs some most high quality sets wrap over the top of your ear?  It's extremely annoying and often the cord will flip up and not conform to your ear.  You need to keep your source in a place below you to literally keep tension on the wire and cable to conform to the back side of your ear so it stays in place.  This is just the dumbest thing to me and I really do not understand it.  Here is a freebie to the audio companies who make customs.  
 
Put some type of conforming material over the ends of the iem cable closest to the drivers that can be molded and shaped repeatedly.  I've seen dirt cheap material that does this, very pipe cleaner-ish. When you bend it, it will stay that way.  Only the first few inches closest to the drivers need to have this type of material over it, this would allow for excellent comfort and removes the constant motion of the iem cable over the backside of your ear, it often flops up and moves around and bunches up.  This is pure nonsense, fix it lol.  
 
Having said that, normal hanging style earbuds are much safer to listen to and new sets like the 9wave installed a great standing wave avoidance feature.  Like ultrasones s logic sort of, its much safer to listen to than any earbud in existence that I am aware of.  With that, the soundstage is much larger, spacious and more natural sounding.  Not only that, they are more comfortable.  All of that to me is worth more than worrying about sound leakage.  If people dont like your music, tell them to take a hike and go buy some earplugs heh.  Why damage your ears just so someone nearby doesnt get annoyed by your music that is only barely audible to being with

Any scientific proof on that statement? Or is it pure speculation on your part?

 

[Confispect]

 

[Marcus_C]

Quote:

They are never comfortable and people who say they are, are just speaking nonsense. 

Compared to what? Compared to earbuds most are comfortable, not to mention having sweaty foam and plastic pads pressed against your ear. The tips of iem's are generally flexible, something which can't be said for most earbuds. Also, call me a heffalump if you will but ears are very effective heatsinks, covering mine up has only one effect, painful ears. I have never seen anyone write that iem's are comfortable compared to having nothing in your ears, the highest praise of an iem's comfort possible is to forget that you're wearing them, something i've never been able to do with earbuds or cans.
 
Although a real sense of a soundstage is not a strength of iem's, my speakers are better at that, (as well as comfort!)

 

[dilpal]

Earbuds are more harmful for ear than iem,,
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/safety/349/keep-your-ears-safer-when-using-earbuds/
 you can google it and find your self

 

[dilpal]

yes, i find it quite hard to get feeling of forward projection of music on my head direct RE262. IE8 is said to have huge soundstage and also sm3.