[Metalboy]

Updated with Rhapsodio 10BA and added SE5 scores. 
 
Rhapsodio 10 Driver
10 balanced armatures/5-Way
 
Build Quality 85/100
 
Some imperfections like bubbles but overall great build quality. 
 
Bass 97/100
 
Very fast, highly detailed. Can keep up with anything. Its boosted a little bit above neutral but overall this is a very neutral ciem. The bass is very similar to NT6 pros bass but a little less impact-full subbass and a tiny bit more midbass.
 
Mids 100/100
 
Best mids I have ever heard. Very neutral, extreme clarity. No other ciem/headphones can compete with these in my opinion that I have heard. The imaging and instrument separation is amazing. 
 
Treble 99/100
 
The highs on the 10Ba are very extended and has amazing clarity with a bit of a smooth sound. Cymbals sound very natural. Only one Ciem that I have heard beats these in this department. 
 
Soundstage 9,5/10
With 8,5/10
Depth 10/10
 
They have a very deep soundstage with lots layers and with the best instrument separation I have ever heard.
 
Summary
Highly recommended if you look for a ciem with a neutral sound. The best ciem/iem I have ever heard. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Kumitate Lab Hybrid 
3 balanced armatures, 2 dynamic drivers with 4 bores. 
Cost: 540-550$
 
 
Build Quality 100/100
 
The best I have ever seen. Thick large shell with no bubbles or imperfections. 
 
Bass 86/100
 
Very powerful bass with very good texture. You can clearly hear bass guitar bass lines. Not the fastest bass but it can keep up with almost anything. 
 
Mids 84/100
 
The mids are a little more behind the bass and treble but not recessed. Very neutral mids with great imaging and detail. 
 
Treble 80/100
 
Very clear treble. High levels of detail but can sometimes sound a bit harsh with the wrong source. Cymbal crashes sounds very clear and realistic. 
 
Soundstage 8/10
With 8,5/10
Depth 8/10
 
They have a soundstage thats both deep and wide. And they have a very enveloping presentation where every instrument placement sound correct. 
 
Summary
 
Amazing ciem for their price. They have a bit of a V-shaped sound with boosted highs and lows but not to much. 
 
 
Earsonics EM32
3 balanced armatures in a 3 way configuration. 2 bores. 
 
 
Build Quality: 75/100
 
Some imperfections as bubbles and the left earpiece missing some colour. 
 
Bass 90/100
 
Very powerful bass thats boosted quite alot. But its still very detailed and very capable. These have the highest amount of bass of all my iems/ciems. The bass can be a tiny bit slow/bloated sometimes with fast bass heavy tracks with a weak source like the clip zip and Sony ZX1 but its not really a problem to me. 
 
Mids 96/100
 
The mids on the Em32 sounds very clear and warm. Very detailed and neutral (not laidback or forward)
 
Treble 98/10
 
Highs on the Em32 are extremely clear, a bit bright and smooth. The highs on the Em32 are as clear and capable as the NT6 Pro to me but smoother. The NT6 pro has maybe a tiny bit more micro details than Em32 but the Em32 is smoother sounding and easier on the ears.
 
Soundstage 9,5/10
With 8,5
Depth 10/10 
 
They have a very enveloping soundstage that has the best depth I have ever heard with excellent imaging and instrument seperation. 
 
Summary
They are one of the best ciems I have ever heard. They have a amazing detailed sound thats warm and smooth with a bit of a bright treble. Bass is boosted but very capable and detailed. 
 
 
This is what my other ciems/iems would score
 
JH Audio Roxanne (reshelled by Perfect Seal labs)
 
Build Quality 85/100
Bass 96/100
Mids 97/100
Treble 87/100
Soundstage 9,5
With 9,5
Depth 9/10
 
 
 
NT6 Pro (don´t have these anymore)
 
 
Build Quality 90/100
Bass 97/100
Mids 95/100
Treble 98/100
Soundstage 9/10
With 9/10
Depth 8,5/10
 
Wan Xuan I9Pro
 
 
Build Quality 78/100
Bass 65/100
Mids 62/100
Treble 42/100
 
Soundstage 8/10
With 8/10
Depth 8/10
 
Rhapsodio R^2 (no longer in production) Insane value for the price they had 550$
 
Build Quality 50/100
Bass 90/100
Mids 88/100
Treble 82/100
 
Soundstage 9/10
With 9/10
Depth 8,5
 
Rhapsodio RTI1
 
Build Quality 60/100
Bass 79/100
Mids 98/100
Treble 95/100
Soundstage 9,5/10
 
With 10/10
Depth 8,5/10
 
 
1964ears V6 (from memory)
 
Build Quality 8,5/100
Bass 71/100
Mids 81/100
Treble 85/100
Soundstage 8/10
 
With 8/10
Depth 8/10
 
Custom Art Pro 330 (from memory)
 
Build Quality 7/10
Bass 80/10
Mids 82/10
Treble 78/10
Soundstage 7,5/10
 
With 7,5
Depth 8/10
 
Spiral Ear SE5 (reshelled by Custom art)
 
Build Quality 90/100
Bass 96/100
Mids 98/100
Treble 100/100
Soundstage 9,5/10
With (varies a bit from song to song) 8~9
Depth 10/10

 

[SilverEars]

  Updated with Rhapsodio 10BA and added SE5 scores. 

Thanks for the reviews.
 
What are the sources(DAPs, DACs, Amps) used for your reviews? Any favorite?  Also what music was used for the tests?  

 

[Metalboy]

Thanks for the reviews.

What are the sources(DAPs, DACs, Amps) used for your reviews? Any favorite?  Also what music was used for the tests?  

Ibasso dx90, sony zx1, apex glacier and fiio x3. I plan on getting a new higher end dap very soon. For sound I prefer the Dx90/apex glacier. The sony zx1 only sounds good to me with the SE5 and Em32. Mostly heavy metal/hard rock. Some trance synth music.

 

[Mython]

The sony zx1 only sounds good to me with the SE5 and Em32.

 
Impedance...

 

[Metalboy]

Impedance... :rolleyes:

Yeah I know . Roxannes (15 ohm) sounds very weird with zx1. Pretty much unlistenable for me.

 

[AmberOzL]

   
Impedance...

I wonder whether they will do the same mistake in much more expensive ZX2.

 

[SilverEars]

   
Impedance...

Actually, impedance could be good or bad from my experience.  I find the AK DAPs with 3.24ohms drops the brightness on my NT-6 slightly, and yet still detailed and enjoyable listen. It's the nano-detailing treble is what I like on DAPs.  I find that with quick response(very short decay) CIEMs which some may find to be not as rich as they prefer. I thought Z1 was only 1.9ohms according to some Russian site?  So, no telling which would be more affected over others.  Also, the TF10's stock cable was 5ohms for tuning I believe.  

Yeah I know

. Roxannes (15 ohm) sounds very weird with zx1. Pretty much unlistenable for me.

The low ohmage of Roxannes is more likely to be affected than others.  SE846 at 1KHz is 9ohms, and will dip to 4ohms in the treble!  

 
Somebody posted this output power response to the SE846 from AK240 awhile back.  It looks like it's impedance response. 

  Probably drop some sibilance if there is any sibilance issue with it.
 

 

[Mython]

 
I wonder whether they will do the same mistake in much more expensive ZX2.

 
Add a 'super capacitor', some copper and gold-plating, and a bigger battery, and several hundred dollars to the pricetag, but leave the underlying silicon hardware pretty-much the same as in the ZX1, and what do you get?

 
I can't help feeling Sony are just 'smearing lipstick on a pig', as the expression goes.
 

 
 
I'm not impressed at Sony charging $1200 for 15mw pc, and potentially-artificial sound from their proprietary DAC-Amp implementation.
 
I guess we'll find out soon enough if it drives low-impedance CIEMs any better than the ZX1, but if the silicon is the same (yet to be confirmed, but probable), then I suppose it's unlikely to handle low-impedance CIEMs much differently. As you know, there was some discussion, in the ZX2 thread, about the super-capacitor perhaps improving current delivery, so that will be an interesting factor.
 
In spite of my cynicism towards it, I will be happy to see the ZX2 prove me wrong. At the end of the day, we all want decent DAP-buying options available to us - even those of use with very low-impedance CIEMs

 

[SilverEars]

I don't recall a Sony DAP that was worth keeping around. There was alot of hype around one I bought, later find that it wasn't as great of a performer as it was hyped up to be.  Not into Sony so much anymore.  

 

[castleofargh]

I do love sony but I always thought of those DAP as a substitute for apple to get a line out or even a digital out. never as some ultimate standalone hifi product. for most IEMs in this topic it's risky business to go for anything past 1ohm as source. even if added impedance actually is nice on a few CIEM, it's rare.
and unless I have specs I wouldn't go for anything without checking the hiss level.
now whatever the brand, we can all understand how unrealistic it is to ask for power, big screen and long battery life. strong amps alone have a short battery life, and not everybody wants to carry a 1kilo battery just for some 2% better sound. sony made the choice(not a clever one IMO, but it's a choice) to go with weak amp section and concentrate and the rest. in times when it's so easy to make a good source with good specs using any crap into a few op amps, they certainly didn't pick the easy option.
 
anyway, I don't know who I need to blame, but high end IEMs have lower and lower impedances, while most DAP manufacturers keep making DAPs in the 2 to 5ohm ballpark. at least one side is doing it wrong!

 

[tomscy2000]

Just so you guys know, very low coil impedance is currently the best available way to get good treble extension out of BA tweeters, so don't be surprised if IEMs in the future all have 5-10 ohms of impedance at around 10 kHz and only 20-30 ohms at 16-20 kHz. You'll see this happen with tweeters from all manufacturers. If people are worried about FR changes due to damping factor differences across frequencies, they should be looking at electrical (not acoustic) phase and whether it's capacitive or inductive phase shifting at the different frequencies. In general, however, I find that OI between 0.5 and 2 ohms is acceptable. Ultra low OI sound sources don't always sound great IMHO --- they might be more true to the FR, but that often means harshness and overdamped bass response because of the nature of BA transducers, as well as ear canal resonances. Don't forget also that OI in devices often changes with frequency as well. It's not the constant that they'd like people to believe; the number just happens to be the one prevalent through most of the audible band. Sony's OI is really not a big deal; it should be low because S-Master is basically a direct DC source with a low-pass filter that is pulse modulated. The decay time due to the LPF to fill in the blanks between each 1 and 0 is what recreates the waveform. How robust the power supply is will determine how well it drives earphones.

 

[SilverEars]

  Just so you guys know, very low coil impedance is currently the best available way to get good treble extension out of BA tweeters, so don't be surprised if IEMs in the future all have 5-10 ohms of impedance at around 10 kHz and only 20-30 ohms at 16-20 kHz. You'll see this happen with tweeters from all manufacturers. If people are worried about FR changes due to damping factor differences across frequencies, they should be looking at electrical (not acoustic) phase and whether it's capacitive or inductive phase shifting at the different frequencies. In general, however, I find that OI between 0.5 and 2 ohms is acceptable. Ultra low OI sound sources don't always sound great IMHO --- they might be more true to the FR, but that often means harshness and overdamped bass response because of the nature of BA transducers, as well as ear canal resonances. Don't forget also that OI in devices often changes with frequency as well. It's not the constant that they'd like people to believe; the number just happens to be the one prevalent through most of the audible band. Sony's OI is really not a big deal; it should be low because S-Master is basically a direct DC source with a low-pass filter that is pulse modulated. The decay time due to the LPF to fill in the blanks between each 1 and 0 is what recreates the waveform. How robust the power supply is will determine how well it drives earphones.

Are you talking about reactive output?  Any link to info about this?

 

[castleofargh]

  Just so you guys know, very low coil impedance is currently the best available way to get good treble extension out of BA tweeters, so don't be surprised if IEMs in the future all have 5-10 ohms of impedance at around 10 kHz and only 20-30 ohms at 16-20 kHz. You'll see this happen with tweeters from all manufacturers. If people are worried about FR changes due to damping factor differences across frequencies, they should be looking at electrical (not acoustic) phase and whether it's capacitive or inductive phase shifting at the different frequencies. In general, however, I find that OI between 0.5 and 2 ohms is acceptable. Ultra low OI sound sources don't always sound great IMHO --- they might be more true to the FR, but that often means harshness and overdamped bass response because of the nature of BA transducers, as well as ear canal resonances. Don't forget also that OI in devices often changes with frequency as well. It's not the constant that they'd like people to believe; the number just happens to be the one prevalent through most of the audible band. Sony's OI is really not a big deal; it should be low because S-Master is basically a direct DC source with a low-pass filter that is pulse modulated. The decay time due to the LPF to fill in the blanks between each 1 and 0 is what recreates the waveform. How robust the power supply is will determine how well it drives earphones.

hey thanks for the interesting answer. I understand that each side is doing what's best for them. but they should also care for what will go on the other side. if everybody is doing his job thinking about that, then the sources should have lower impedance. and for IEMs that could benefit from higher impedance, be it to tune the FR, or for some damping reason(is that really important in BA driver outside of FR?), they should just add a few ohm in the cable or in the IEM itself(er4style). counting on the consumer to get the right source with the right impedance when only 2ohm variations can induce a few DB changes, is certainly not nice for us.
 
and yes sources rarely have flat impedance response like you said. for me the DX50 was the best example of that, given with low impedance specs, yet the bass certainly sounded like a several ohms output impedance. I really hated that DAP. but isn't it the more reason to get a better damping factor, so that the variations are less likely to turn into signature changes? or are we to the point where we try to randomly EQ our IEMs with DAP's impedances? if manufacturers gave us complete measurements I could fancy that actually, but we need to wait for some external measurements to know anything about CIEMs.
I know that I slowed down on my CIEM(and multi BA IEMs for that matter) love mainly because the models I lurk upon tend to go in that low impedance/ultra sensitive/wide impedance variation direction, and I know I would only be happy with a portable amp given my actual DAPs. which totally defeats the purpose of CIEMs for me. I pay the price for ultra portability and only that, else I find fullsize headphones to be better overall.
so for me one side has to change something. I really don't care which one, I would even be happy with impedance bridging if that could actually help(don't think so). if the guys could agree on some standard and stick to them, it's all good. I don't have a preference, I just know that what we have now isn't cool for the inexperienced consumer and peeps like myself who dream of a high end CIEM that sticks above 25/30ohm and isn't overly sensitive(+a signature I like obviously). so that I could use it on a almost any small crap DAP outside without fear of hiss, signature change, or amp issues from a 5ohm load. because to me that's real portable freedom. and I would have no problem giving money for those guarantees instead of going for products that play hard to get/hard to drive as if it was some proof of quality.
 
I don't really care for phase, it's not like something with crossovers is ever going to have flat phase, so changing something already wrong a little more doesn't bother me much. ^_^ who knows, maybe with some luck it would actually help.
 
about sony they usually have between 3 and 5ohm output, I would be impressed/surprised if it was different on the ZX2.

 

[AmberOzL]

  Just so you guys know, very low coil impedance is currently the best available way to get good treble extension out of BA tweeters, so don't be surprised if IEMs in the future all have 5-10 ohms of impedance at around 10 kHz and only 20-30 ohms at 16-20 kHz. You'll see this happen with tweeters from all manufacturers. If people are worried about FR changes due to damping factor differences across frequencies, they should be looking at electrical (not acoustic) phase and whether it's capacitive or inductive phase shifting at the different frequencies. In general, however, I find that OI between 0.5 and 2 ohms is acceptable. Ultra low OI sound sources don't always sound great IMHO --- they might be more true to the FR, but that often means harshness and overdamped bass response because of the nature of BA transducers, as well as ear canal resonances. Don't forget also that OI in devices often changes with frequency as well. It's not the constant that they'd like people to believe; the number just happens to be the one prevalent through most of the audible band. Sony's OI is really not a big deal; it should be low because S-Master is basically a direct DC source with a low-pass filter that is pulse modulated. The decay time due to the LPF to fill in the blanks between each 1 and 0 is what recreates the waveform. How robust the power supply is will determine how well it drives earphones.

SE5way has 113 or 133 impedance (can't remember the exact number now but it is high compared to the most of the market) and it extends to 20k.. Probably one of the a few multi BA based c/iems that can do that. I for myself can't hear 20k but it is probably my hearing problem but I remember tupac saying he can hear 19k or something. Also FR graphs of SE5way shows (if the unit functions properly) it reaches to 20k.
 
To me it doesn't matter that much that it reaches to 20k since I can't really hear but generally nice treble extension gives an airy and natural timbre to the treble notes I feel.

 

[shotgunshane]

 
SE5way has 113 or 133 impedance (can't remember the exact number now but it is high compared to the most of the market) and it extends to 20k.. Probably one of the a few multi BA based c/iems that can do that. I for myself can't hear 20k but it is probably my hearing problem but I remember tupac saying he can hear 19k or something. Also FR graphs of SE5way shows (if the unit functions properly) it reaches to 20k.
 
To me it doesn't matter that much that it reaches to 20k since I can't really hear but generally nice treble extension gives an airy and natural timbre to the treble notes I feel.

Typically IEM impedance measurements are quoted at 1k, so the manufacturer rated impedance is rarely very useful in the grand scheme of things.  Actually seeing and impedance graph is much more useful, so you can see where it dips its lowest and where it is at is highest. Only then can you get a clearer picture how it may be impacted by a source's output z.
 
Edit: I've seen an SE5 FR graph but I don't think I've ever seen impedance measurements posted anywhere.