[SoSianSia]

Hi guys im kinda noob when it comes to IEMs and stuff. Thus i have some questions and hope that some kind people will be able to help me out. ( By the way thanks in advance.)

Somethings about me since many forums i've read specify them. I use a Samsung Note II to listen to music via TuneIn Radio if that matters. The genre i generally like is Pop music. I own a Klipsch S4, a Steelseries 7H fnatic edition and a Razer Electra.

Q1) Are AMPs really that important? Like do they directly cause a big impact in the overall sound quality? I've seen many people wearing what i would consider good IEMs such as the se425 listening to music without an AMP. Thus the question.

Q2) Do IEMs really make music different? I mean i know the quality is different but is it this drastic in the following example - I'm using a klipsch s4 now and some stranger on my local forum told me to get a solid IEM and assured me that i will hear intruments i've never heard before in them. BTW by solid he meant at the very least a Westones 4R which in my opinion is quite expensive but if it really matters i dont mind spending the money. But i may settle on a Westones 3

Q3) Type of drivers. I've noticed that many IEMs that i would consider high-end like the w4r and ue900 are made of balanced armature drivers instead of the standard dynamic driver are the BAs really that superior? I have some simple knowledge of the differing technologhy behind them but are they really worlds apart?

Q4) Do more drivers = better quality. All the high end IEMs have more drivers but does that mean they are better? I know it depends on the general driver quality but how does one determine driver quality? Is it the size? Since most Headphone makers specify the driver size E.G steelseries i would expect IEMs to be the same. Am i correct?

Q5) Does the type of file of your music matter? A friend of mine told me that in order to listen to good music u must have something called a flac file. N i dont know if this is true since i generally listen to the radio on my phone via Tunein if that matters.

If you've read till here, THANK YOU SO MUCH ! i hope you can answer these low intelligence questions of mine.

Q6) Does a souncard matter? I have a steelseries USB sound card attached to my gaming rig but i dont really hear anything different except the occassional footsteps that wont normally occur.

Q7) Virtual Surround sound vs Surround sound. What are the differences ? I've never tried any but i'm planning to get one or the other for my headphones used to game. What would the pros here reccommend?

Thanks for reading through and if you do answer these noob questions on mine i would really appreciate it

P.S. pls reccommend me some IEMs around the 200 SGD mark and an AMP if it really matters as well as a Headphone and soundcard. Thanks !!

 

[benthughes]

Here goes some answers to your questions.
 
Amps aren't really important in terms of IEMs. Most are fairly low impedance and can be driven well with a portable audio device. I may get a marginal amount of improvement or coloration depending on the amplification device.
 
Quality IEMs a can be as different as headphones in terms of making or breaking the sound you'd like. They're as variant as headphones minus the feeling that you're listening to speakers ( ie. soundstage) They're more "in your head" and tend to be a bit quicker but there is a great amount of variance there. I have a pair of S4s and find them to be rather vanilla sounding.
 
More drivers doesn't necessarily = more better. Dynamic drivers tend to sound more cohesive and musical while multi BA may be considered faster and more accurate at the cost of sounding a bit artificial. There are excellent examples of both that overlap into the realm of others.  You're also getting into the development of hybrid drivers that combine dynamic and BA drivers... This isn't helpful, more a generalization. BA have a tendency toward accuracy and dynamic have a tendency toward musicality.
 
In terms of FLAC audio vs something like 320KBPS audio. I'm not an expert on this but my subjective opinion is that straight from a laptop or portable device it really doesn't matter. If you're running to a good amp/DAC and to a good pair of headphones it may. It's more about dynamic range than quality. I find a lot of modern recordings to be uber compressed so, depending on the album, the difference may be minimal.

 

[SoSianSia]

Dude, thanks so much. Can u recommend me some IEMs my s4s kinda going to be busted soon...