[milkyspray]

I own these monitors and was wondering if anyone else noticed that these two monitors sound almost exactly the same? I have both of them burned-in  about 100 hours of white noise. I brought the 500s a few weeks before the 1000s and I was very impressed with the sound quality of the 500s. The sound stage is out of this world, the bass goes deep (sub bass) and the mids and highs are amazingly clear. I was very pleased with my purchase of the 500 being that I only paid about 90$ for them. The only thing i noticed with the 1000s after burn-in is that the sound stage is slightly less, bass less airy but more controlled. The mids and highs are about the same. Has anyone noticed this also? I'm actually a little disappointed I spend nearly 4 times as much for the same sound quality.

 

[munkyballz]

Not sure of the 500, but there's been a few posters that have compared the 600 and the 1000, and said they are fairly close.  Something along the lines of 85% of the same sound quality.  So, roughly 85% of the sound for up to $350 of a savings.
 
Not bad, but then margin of quality versus margin of monetary is subjective and independent around here.  If the even cheaper, older 500's can produce the something along the same efficiency of sound per price, then damn, add another $50-60 to that cookie jar.

 

[Yggdrassilious]

Perhaps your expectations were too high. 
 
Give the EXK a bit more burn in time, like 200 hours. 
 
Try different sources. I'm sure the EXK has a lot more potential than EX500. Maybe on a lower end mobile source they sound similar, but say try it on a HM-801 or Colorfly C4 playing 192Khz/24 bit files and you'll understand what is head-fi, no pun intended.

 

[munkyballz]

Quote:

Not $350 in savings. The EX600s are on ebay for $150, but on Amazon for $172 or thereabouts. The EX1000s are on ebay, or were, for $400. So it is a savings, but not $350, more like $250. Just to be clear. Also, there is a new model replacing the EX500, the EX510, which may be a better IEM, newer tech, wihch are $109 on sonystyle.com.
 


 

True that, that's why I used the term "up to".  But obviously depending on what kind of deal you get or what market/availability you have near you, it can definitely be less; however, it would only be in rare cases which, if ever, the difference would be over $350 between the two products.
 
That said, I don't think the 500 would be exactly the same sound as the 1000 or the 600, could point to this or that, but the drivers themselves are smaller (iirc) than the 1000 and 600, so that alone should account for a little bit of difference.  If the 510 brings the same driver (size, tech et al), then it could be fair game, who knows though.
 

 

[music_4321]

Both EX500 & EX510 have 13.5mm drivers. Both EX600 & EX1000 have 16mm drivers.
 
I have both EX500 & EX1000 (haven't heard the EX600) and, to these ears, the EX1000 is a much more refined IEM. Is the EX1000 worth 4/5 times as much? To the the average person/HF'er, most definitely not. Before I purchased my EX1000, I was fortunate enough to get an EX1000 loaner set and within 24 hours decided to place my order - I paid $500 for them.

 

[Love Music]

I have the EX 500 and think that they are a pretty good IEM for their price. The only problem i have with them is that they will sound harsh on treble, with exaggered ssss... sounds on instrument and vocals making it painful to the ears with treble and drums. But for their price you can't complain especially when some higher end IEM's sound worse than it or just a tiny bit better.