[DavidMorton]

Thought I'd chime in here as well.

I too nearly returned the S4s I purchased. I had to be really patient with them to get the reward from them. I'd estimate the SQ was still changing slightly even after 150 hours. Sibilance was slowly dissipating. Some tracks still have it (many of the tracks off of my Kings of Convenience album still have sibilance), but at this point, I'm convinced it's the track, and not the phone.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase of IEM. Give it some time, it definitely takes some time to burn in.... longer than most, I'd say.

 

[tstarn06]

Thanks David. I guess I just believed that the description on the previous page was unfair. Not liking them is one thing, but branding them as ear-torturing IEMs was really not true in my view and in my experience, and others obviously feel the same.

 

[VirtualMan]

I have to chime in here. I purchased the S4's after having the SuperFi 5's, the Nuforce NE7-M and the Audeo PFE. I stuck them in my ears in the parking lot of Best Buy and said to my son that these were going back. They sounded pretty shrill and the bass was boomy. I got home though and messed with the tips and found that I needed to put them in so the wires went over the ear. They sounded better but I still had the Sibilance pretty bad.

Burned them in for 100+ hours and they now sound real nice. The bass started tightening up about 25 hours and the shrillness is gone. I still do hear the ssss's on some voices but it depends on the recording. I have to say that this is now my favorite IEM. I love the fullness of sound and the fact that the bass doesn't muddy up the mids. Sounds like full range speakers instead of small stand mounted speakers like the PFE. I am keeping the S4's and the PFE. The PFE is more balanced for critical listening and I like that as well, but for pure entertainment value the S4's rule and the price is right.

 

[tstarn06]

Good to know. Welcome to HF. I am in agreement, I reach for them almost more than my UM3Xs these days. To my ears, they sound full and fun, plus very good detail. Again, they may not be for everyone, nothing is, but they do change in time for many owners.

 

[cn11]

Regarding all those who are having sibilance issues even after burn in... It's a valid point, because of how earphones interact with peoples' ear canal shapes differently. I had huge sibilance problems with the Westone 3's, in spite of everything I tried. It was like I was listening to a different phone than many of the descriptions.

With the S4's, thankfully I get very little sibilance or harshness. But it is there sometimes on spoken S's, ... and it can be rather annoying from time to time. My pair is now owned by soozieq in the UK (I've reordered, because I like them so much), who by stark contrast seems to get quite a bit more sibilance than I do. She hears noticeably less sibilance and harshness with her Denon C710's, and I hear the same phones the exact opposite.

I guess my point is that some people are more prone/sensitive to sibilance or harshness with particular phones than others. It's impossible to clarify in absolutes.

 

[brendon]

A little off topic. But its surprising that people still disbelieve in the theory of burn-in when so many people here have commented that their sibilance issue has gone after burn-in. How can you hear sibilance initially and then suddenly not hear sibilance after burn-in ?

Its the same case with my Hippo VBs. The sibilance has vanished after 70 hours or so burn-in and dont tell me my ears have adjusted to sibilance as I can very well hear sibilance with my Crossroads Woodie 2 when doing an A/B test.

 

[Sebdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brendon /img/forum/go_quote.gif A little off topic. But its surprising that people still disbelieve in the theory of burn-in when so many people here have commented that their sibilance issue has gone after burn-in. How can you hear sibilance initially and then suddenly not hear sibilance after burn-in ? Its the same case with my Hippo VBs. The sibilance has vanished after 70 hours or so burn-in and dont tell me my ears have adjusted to sibilance as I can very well hear sibilance with my Crossroads Woodie 2 when doing an A/B test.

Brendon good point, but isn't this because the S4is are dynamic drivers, so they do actually benefit from burn in, don't know about balanced armatures, even though I'm currently burning in my recently replaced ADDIEMs. I think, somewhere on the forum I red that some one did a test with 2 Klipsch S4(i)s and found there was definitely a difference. just my 2 cents...

Hopefully receiving my S4is today.... UPS is on the way..

 

[Helmore]

There have also been some reports of BA based IEMs improving with burn in. That might still someone's imagination though, but you have to remember that not all BAs are made equal and there might me some that do change after some use.

I don't have much experience with headphones yet, so I'm not really familiar with burn in, but it does seem plausible. Just think of a thick pair of winter jeans that just got out of the washing machine and was dried by hanging them outside. When you pull those on, they are quite stiff at first, but by the end of the day they are much more supple and comfortable. That not just because they are warm, because they still are supple and more comfortable when you pull them on the next morning when they have cooled down. I think the same applies to dynamic earphones, in that they membrane has never moved and are a bit stiffer and harder to move around. After a quite a bit of use the membrane will have loosened up and the sound changes because the membrane is more supple now. If my theory is more or less correct, even though a bit simplified, then that might also mean that the earphones become slightly harder to drive after burn in, even though that might seem counter intuitive. I'm not yet completely sure about that last part and the difference might not be of any significance.

 

[SactoMan101]

I just got the Image S4i from my cousin (still in unopened box when it got here) and just tried it on my 4G iPod nano.

Yep, the sibilance on initial evaluation can be a bit annoying, especially on music with a lot of treble energy like Tiësto's Just Be album. I may have to burn it in with 10 to 15 hours of pink noise and see if that reduces the problem. However, the bass to midrange are excellent, with excellent clarity without the boominess in the bass.

And I may get a medium-size set of Comply Tx-100 ear tips for this IEM, too.

 

[Sebdude]

Got my Klipsch Image S4i in today, my first reaction.... WOW!!! I like.. Nice full, headphone like sound.. Makes my ADDIEMs with Comply Foams sound constipated, or better said, the sound stage is very narrow compared to them. Or maybe I insert them way too far in my ear. I dunno. I've heard some sibilance, buts nowhere near Ear pearcing causing your ears to bleed style..

Yes, the bass is very nice.. and so are the mids. The thing was, I was so prepared that sound would be disappointing, that I was amazed it was so good.. It easily blows my cx300 out of the water... and it so far I like better than my ADDIEMs 2... D-jays coming tomorrow...

One small thing, the tips included with these phones are tiny... They even have midget tips.. great if you got small ears, but I'm using the large tips already.

 

[jazyjason]

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[Trager]

Another couple hundredths of a dollar here...

My S4i phones had been burning in almost constantly since I received them last Thursday night until yesterday morning. Figure that's a bit over 100 hours, with a burn-in cycle that uses pseudo-random tones, pink noise, and a 20-20k frequency sweep. As much as I really want to like their sound, there are whole sections of my audio collection that I can't listen to at the moment. Mostly because of sibilance, in some cases because of harsh upper registers, and on some tracks it's just a ridiculously distracting emphasis on the high hat. Most of that listening was using Ety bi-flanges or modded triflanges. I've since switched to Ety foamies, which tames the highs a little and makes them more listenable. My plan is to try to use them for the next week and see if they settle down (or if my ears adjust). At this point, though, I have to agree with those who find the S4 a bit sibilant and harsh in the uppers, and much to my surprise, I also find them relatively congested.

I'm so surprised by my reaction to the pair that I have that I considered sending them back to Amazon for another pair. I still might do that if they don't settle down by the end of this week -- I really like the price and form factor a lot.

 

[jazyjason]

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[Trager]

Thanks for the tip, @Jazyjason, but to be honest, my experience with the original Vibes was so awful that I can't imagine any of their products being worthwhile to my ears. Those things were flat-out awful.

 

[jazyjason]

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