[fallrsk]

Just ordered a pair of LE630.. Pretty excited. Everyone seems so happy with their pairs! For comparison sake, how are they these vs Xiaomi pistons?

 

[Francisk]

Just ordered a pair of LE630.. Pretty excited. Everyone seems so happy with their pairs! For comparison sake, how are they these vs Xiaomi pistons?

I've owned a pair of Xiami Piston 3 and gave it away after listening to them for the first time....lol. So much for the Xiaomi Pistons....too much hype for nothing.

 

[fallrsk]

  I've owned a pair of Xiami Piston 3 and gave it away after listening to them for the first time....lol. So much for the Xiaomi Pistons....too much hype for nothing.

 
I'm hyped. The P3 were and are a great set for the deal, but now that I learned that Koreans give a crap about SQ like head-fi does, I'm totally sold on Korean developed 'phones lol!

 

[markanini]

Loving the sound with comply T-500 tips. On my vent-blocked QB3 the souns is now euqally smooth warn and clear.

 

[fallrsk]

So a month later, I finally got my pair and... The right side bud has a defect and just sounds like crap at some high freq... Aside from that, these are SO impressive. The bass on mine definitely don't sound like what other people were complaining about so I'm a bit confused. Sooo much space with these little buds.

 

[markanini]

It depends on what you have to compare with. Blocking the vents fixes the overemphasised bass for me yet a friend with a discerning ear preferred the vents open. Others may consider the AKG version superior, to me the bass just sounds deficient.

is easy to test out the vents blocked with strips of tape. It would be interesting to hear from more people that tried it about what they ended up preferring.

 

[fallrsk]

It depends on what you have to compare with. Blocking the vents fixes the overemphasised bass for me yet a friend with a discerning ear preferred the vents open. Others may consider the AKG version superior, to me the bass just sounds deficient.


is easy to test out the vents blocked with strips of tape. It would be interesting to hear from more people that tried it about what they ended up preferring.

Well this is in comparison to my HD598, which isn't bass heavy in the slightest. I prefer the vents open, also. It just sounds like something's missing with the vents blocked.

 

[fallrsk]

So, an update.. I had ordered two pairs in case one was fake and the second pair just arrived recently. Both are from Bujeon but one is a bit of a bass cannon but also much clearer while the other has driver flex, less bass and doesn't sound as clear. It's weird though, both seem to be legitimate except one is about 1 cm longer in wire length than the other.

 

[DunninLA]

Based on this thread I ordered the LE631 from a vendor on AliExpress at $18.   Took a full month to arrive.
 
I have had a pair of Sennheiser HD600s for years, so that is what I am used too, though I find them slightly lacking in bass, and somewhat lacking on the upper end as well.   But the midrange is what is most important to most music, so they work for me despite their flaws.  
 
Here are the comparison earbuds I've experienced over the past 3 years as a means of comparison.
 
- Sony EX85: ($25 in 2013 Amazon manufacturer refurb)  bassy, so I bumped up the EQ at 2.5k on the iPhone.  Sound great eq corrected, but lost them
.
- VSonic VSD3 (not s): ($20 pink one on Amazon) More bass than the sony, but somewhat flabby as well.  Also somewhat irritating treble region.  Gave these to my college daughter who loves them.
 
- HiFiMan Re-400 ($49 direct super tuesday):  Loves these, except they're no fun.  They're great for getting clear vocals out of songs or watching streaming video on the MacBook Pro I use, but there simply isn't any toe tapping energy.  I therefore bump up both 150Hz and 60 Hz on the iPhone.
 
- Sony XBA-H1 ($49 open box from a huge NY online retailer).  Same issue as the Sony EX85 above, except I liked the EX85 better in the midrange.  These Sony just seem to lack midrange clarity, but their bass is very entertaining.
 
So, now that you know my ear, let me say I like these Quadbeat 3 Tuned by AKG the most of any of the above.   The bass is not fast or tight, but it is pleasing, and plentiful.  In fact you could almost say, as a poster above noted, there is something not exactly right about the bass that is there.   It seems to lack a definition of note... a little thunky like the bass you get from hitting a wooden box.   The midrange is fine.   The treble is too tizzy for me, too much emphasis on the snare part of snare drums, the upper end of guitars, cymbals, etc. are all way too prominent. But, when I use the EQ in my iPhone, I can get them to sound great.  I eq it as follows, starting with hitting FLAT as my starting choice in the eq choices:
 
60Hz - flat
150Hz- flat
400Hz - up one tick
1kHz - up one tick
2.5kHz - down two ticks
15kHz - flat
 
Now, the iPhone 6 doesn't actually have tick marks in the equalizer, but I used that word to mean a small amount.
 
What is hard to describe beyond frequency response is the fun that a headphone is.    When I EQ the re400 with bass at 150 and 60 Hz, I end up with reasonably flat earbuds also... but somehow these AKG tuned Quadbeat 3 are a little more fun sounding.
 
Without the ability to use EQ, I would use the HiFiMan Re400, because its lack of bass is less irritating than the Quadbeat 3 tizziness in the lower treble region.  I would rather have something a little missing than something way too much that irritates.   But with EQ, I like them so much I've ordered 3 more pair from China to arrive in a month.

 

[Ira Delphic]

So, an update.. I had ordered two pairs in case one was fake and the second pair just arrived recently. Both are from Bujeon but one is a bit of a bass cannon but also much clearer while the other has driver flex, less bass and doesn't sound as clear. It's weird though, both seem to be legitimate except one is about 1 cm longer in wire length than the other.

 
How did you determine that one pair was fake?

 

[fallrsk]

How did you determine that one pair was fake?

Here's the problem: I have no idea if either or both are fake but one definitely seems to have QA issues compared to the other.

 

[DunninLA]

  But, when I use the EQ in my iPhone, I can get them to sound great.  I eq it as follows, starting with hitting FLAT as my starting choice in the eq choices:
 
60Hz - flat  *edit*  down one tick
150Hz- flat
400Hz - up one tick
1kHz - up one tick
2.4kHz - down two ticks
15kHz - flat  *edit*  down one tick

Update:  I've had a little more time to fine tune how these sound out of my iphone6... The unnaturalness of the bass went away when I reduced the 60Hz band by one tick.  On some songs I still heard some unpleasant energy up top, and I've fixed that by also lowering the 15kHz band by one tick

 

[Francisk]

The "tuned by AKG" version has a more balanced sound signature with a tad less low end accentuation.

 

[MelloWatic]

Anyone knows of an iem with similar sound signature to the original quadbeat 3, but more refined?

 

[Ira Delphic]

The "tuned by AKG" version has a more balanced sound signature with a tad less low end accentuation.

 
Agreed. After many months of use I prefer the "red" - non AKG version. I only use them outdoors while walking, so the V shaped sound offers a slight extra "punch" to compete with ambient noise.
Also, I must be shallow but I like the red much more than the white. For critical listening indoors I use over ear, closed headphones or earbuds (not IEM's).