[MatchFire]

Has anyone else run into this? Using the S4's i get these 'spikes' at certain high pitches (testing with sinegen shows ~7000hz) that are absolutely unbearable. Like an ice pick right into my ear drum. I'm listening to FLAC/vbr mp3 and both have the same problem... a good example of what I'm talking about would be on Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by the Animals. Almost always acompanies S's in lyrics. To be honost I like the headphones otherwise (although I think they're a bit over-hyped here), and was just curious if anyone else was experiancing similar issues.

Maybe my ears are just forked up...

Oh ya and this isn't an issue on any of my other phones

 

[ClieOS]

It is called 'sibilance', nothing much you can do about it beside EQing.

 

[tstarn06]

Had plenty of harsh sounds from mine until I let them burn in for a long time, which is pretty obvious if you read the S4 threads. Could be the track itself. Now, after extended use, never hear a harsh note unless it's on the recording itself. How many hours on the phones? EQing may help, but that is not the way to shake the sibilance. Burn-in is. Please, no one post about the reality of burn-in. However it happens, it happens.

 

[MatchFire]

Hmmmm

Alright I'll cook em a bit longer, I had em goin for just over 60 hours tho, thought that might be enough. Still got quite a bit of time left on the return however, so I suppose I can wait a bit longer and see what happens.

 

[tstarn06]

If it works, great. If not, no loss, since you can still return them. I had the same issue, but it just stopped, and I don't think it was "brain burn-in" but I don't really care as long as the harshness left the building.

 

[abellaw]

I have had my cans burning in for like 60ish hrs so far i think lol. I can't lie i have been horrible about burning these in cos i dont usually burn in my portable cans. So it is taking forever. The harshness has gone from unbearable to noticeable i just hope it vanishes. Because i really like the presentation of the cans. They are in the same vein as my grados. Involving, fun, musical but still detailed

 

[MatchFire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by abellaw /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have had my cans burning in for like 60ish hrs so far i think lol. I can't lie i have been horrible about burning these in cos i dont usually burn in my portable cans. So it is taking forever. The harshness has gone from unbearable to noticeable i just hope it vanishes. Because i really like the presentation of the cans. They are in the same vein as my grados. Involving, fun, musical but still detailed

Agreed. They kind of remind me of my sr60's with a bit smaller soundstage, slightly less 'epic' guitar acoustics, much more (better?) bass, and of course the 'death spike' @ 7k hz...

 

[Judge Buff]

^ Some white noise at a substantial volume overnight, might help...

 

[ChroniCali]

Try and burn them in longer. I had mine at 60-80 hours and the harshness is starting to go away even though I still do hear it. Besides the harshness, there still seems to be a veil on the treble that I am hearing, don't think that will go away though. Still trying to decide if I will keep them, I like them a lot besides that.

 

[RBYRER]

There is a slight veil in the upper midrange , that is why the midrange sounds so warm , I eq 'd mine with my cowon and it brought up the all the details that was missing . Another thing I like about this phone is that at the freq extremes they are pretty good , it's just inbetween that it needs to be tweaked ,( which is easier to fix than if an iem was defeciant at the freq extremes IMO ) . Also I think that the reason some people don't notice the sibilence is because it only shows up on certain recordings but the good thing about this is that burn-in will sure cure this.

 

[MatchFire]

Damn. Alright I've been burning em for a bit longer (my flac library @5db or so above listening volume) and just now started listening to some zeppelin and muse on em. Thought to myself 'hmmm these are starting to sound pretty good; the sibilance has really diminished.' Then I put my sr60s back on and was shocked. In comparison I can't believe how good the s4's sound. I really noticed with a bit more A/Bing that the soundstage was comparable between the two and the bass on the s4's is just beautiful now. If I ever had doubts about burn-in, these changed em. (Even going in with negative expectations after not listening to em for 24 hours, I noticed a serious improvement.)

 

[MatchFire]

Well I burned em for well over 100 hours and they did really start to sound great. However, the awful sibilance @ 7k was still present and in all reality not too much improved. I think its just some one in a million combination with my ears and this phone. Painful and very distracting, so as much as I enjoyed every other aspect of the headphones I had to return em, and did so earlier today.

 

[tstarn06]

Interesting turnabout since yesterday. Oh well. Must be something you are especially sensitive too. For me, the harshness has dissipated to almost nil, and I also heard it.

 

[ru9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatchFire /img/forum/go_quote.gif Has anyone else run into this? Using the S4's i get these 'spikes' at certain high pitches (testing with sinegen shows ~7000hz) that are absolutely unbearable. Like an ice pick right into my ear drum.

I agree and confirm your observations regarding the S4.

I just cannot believe what I have read about this S4 with all the positive reviews. Had about 80 hours on them. And what a disappointment. AGGRESSIVE, EAR-PIERCING and a VERY SIBILANT IEM.

Took a lot of trouble to get this. Ordered this from Amazon through a friend and had the item shipped to the Philippines.

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ru9 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree and confirm your observations regarding the S4. I just cannot believe what I have read about this S4 with all the positive reviews. Had about 80 hours on them. And what a disappointment. AGGRESSIVE, EAR-PIERCING and a VERY SIBILANT IEM.

Yep, I guess some people are more sensitive to this sort of thing than others. I've got over 220 hours on my S4i and they're still somewhat harsh and sibilant.