[jewman]

Well, I received my Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3 IEMs today, and I must say, the sound straight out of my iRiver h320 was pretty good, with the exception of one thing...

THE BASS!!!

The bass was overpowering the rest of the sound spectrum, and was not really that tight. However, when I plugged in the included sound level attenuator, the bass blended into the sound spectrum much better. I also noticed that the ever-present background hiss was gone, COMPLETELY. The only downside I could find was that I had to crank the volume up quite a bit the experience the same volume as without the attenuator, which can be expected due to its main purpose. However, I was wondering how the sound attenuator was changing the sound, as well as getting rid of the background hiss. Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[spectaculartimes]

I believe the attenuator basically adds impedance. So at least as far a noise goes, it makes your low-impedance (loud/easy to drive/conducts a lot of noise from the system) earbuds appear more like high-impedance (low noise, difficult to drive) headphones. Hence you have to crank it up but you lose the background hiss.

Note on burn-in: The boominess of the bass will gradually reduce and become more defined after a lot of play time. Whenever I get new 'phones, I plug them into my computer, hit shuffle, and let them run just about non-stop for a few days. You don't have to do that, but I'm just saying remind yourself to pay attention to that in a couple weeks and you'd notice the difference.

Note on Ultimate Ears: their line has a pretty neutral spectrum. It's just that so many other companies place extra emphasis on the high-end, because to novices makes them appear to have more definition, though that isn't the case.

 

[spectaculartimes]

The short answer is no, it's not improving the sound quality, it's just changing it. Losing the hiss is an advantage, but you are losing a bit of detail in the process.

 

[Davy]

You are not lossing just a bit of detail in the process....It sucks when using with E4....haha

 

[nsx_23]

I find my SF5pros work pretty well with the level attenuator, especially with an amplifier.

 

[wilch]

I don't notice any detail loss with the attenuator on a cmoy driving superfi3's. I hear an increase in detail. Bass guitar is tighter, more defined, and there's more separation.

Although to reach normal listening volumes I need to turn the cmoy's volume up to 90%.

Normally sits on 10-20% without the attenuator driving the same headphones.

I too was wondering why this is. Why is it better?

 

[pdupiano]

I actually have a problem with my shure530 (excessive hiss), and I tried the attenuator. Works ok, but sound quality drops(quite noticeable with big orchestral stuff and even good bar blues. Even through a Boa D2 they sound worse with the attenuator, so at the moment I'm not a big fan of the attenuator option. Its a pretty bad trade-off if you ask me esp once you've gone to the iem range of the 530 and the triple.fi's. But spectaculartimes is right about burning in the triple.fi's. I tried my friend's pair after a few weeks and they sounded good, very unnatural for me but good none the less (the bass wasn't as precise as the shures).

 

[a1joe507]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spectaculartimes /img/forum/go_quote.gif The short answer is no, it's not improving the sound quality, it's just changing it. Losing the hiss is an advantage, but you are losing a bit of detail in the process.

I remember way back when before I had any amp(s), I used to use the Shure E4c's out of an old "shuffle", the kind that was long, looked like a USB thumb drive (because it was). I remember that the only way the sound was tollerable was to use the attenuator included with the E4c's so that I could crank the shuffle almost to as hot as it got. This certainly had its trade-offs, but had many advantages at the time as well e.g., more balanced across the frequencies and faster sound as well. Just wanted to throw it out there to further the idea that the addition of an attenuator will/can result in a host of qualitative changes to the sound that are not necessarily bad, but there will be changes.

 

[wilch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1joe507 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I remember way back when before I had any amp(s), I used to use the Shure E4c's out of an old "shuffle", the kind that was long, looked like a USB thumb drive (because it was). I remember that the only way the sound was tollerable was to use the attenuator included with the E4c's so that I could crank the shuffle almost to as hot as it got. This certainly had its trade-offs, but had many advantages at the time as well e.g., more balanced across the frequencies and faster sound as well. Just wanted to throw it out there to further the idea that the addition of an attenuator will/can result in a host of qualitative changes to the sound that are not necessarily bad, but there will be changes.

This makes sense.

I know that adding an attenuator to a guitar tube amplifier can tighten the sound, and bring in the high end while retaining the bottom end, all while bringing the volume down to a level that's bearable.

I use to run an attenuator on my 100w marshall tube head, and then mic the cabinet and amplify it again through the PA. Sound was 100x better than if I didn't run the attenuator.

But why does the same apply to an opamp (as opposed to a tube)? How can it...

I know what I can hear, and to me it's an improvement sonically. But I don't see how driving an opamp harder can improve the sound.

I'd like to understand what's happening, can anyone point me in the right direction? I dabbled in a few electronics and signals courses in uni, but not to the point of figuring out why things would sound better, also never dealt with opamps... (note: *dabbled*...I did the courses to make up the credits lol...)