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I do, two guys from the 90s right? Glad you are enjoying your new PFE.
:-/ Well, unfortunately things have taken a turn for the worse...
I'm gonna save time and copy and paste from another post I made
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I was listening to the pfe232 last night and I was in love. Then today, switching genres and trying all sorts of songs I was completely disappointed about as many times as I was in awe. It's like the treble on these is a double edge sword. The iPod makes it twice as bad, but even on the duet amp it varies so much based on song.
Through research I believe the impedance difference of the devices is why the treble is more laid back on the duet. However, ClieOS and a few others I've discussed it with seem to agree an amp may not fix that, as they strive to be lower output impedance not higher. Plus, an amp that retains the duet quality would easily be over $100 and that puts me higher than I'd like to spend really. I'm already above what I set out to spend, but I just cannot live with the flaws of all of these headphones. It's either unlistenable sibilance, lack of all bass, lack of all treble. I'm truly in shock that more balanced decent quality headphones aren't out there. And if they are it's even more frustrating that it is so hard to know what they will sound like before you buy them.
Everything is online now, no stores let you try IEMs, at least in NH, let alone sell IEMs. How many times do I want to buy and return a headphone? I've already done so more than I really wanted to. I'm going to write a review on the PFE232 so you'll know what I'm talking about, but basically the treble is unnaturally bright on a lot of songs. Sometimes this makes cymbals sound far too in your face and almost sibilant in a way that I literally can't listen to the song. Other times the treble opens up a song so well it shows more depth than I've ever heard. And not just in a "ooh that's bright" way, but actual detail resolution. But the point I'm at now is that I have probably found 50% of the music almost unlistenable and 50% very enjoyable. That is not acceptable for me. I realize no headphone is perfect, but even my ex85lp sounded "good" on everything I ever threw at it. All I wanted in the first place was something flatter than the ex85lp. Less bass and better treble extension. Not even better treble really, just extension further up, say past 13k or so.
I'm not sure if I should just quit or start the whole process over with "over the ear" headphones. Or keep trying IEMs in the 300-500 range. But then that becomes a challenge, because a lot of places don't allow returns that sell those quality IEMs, and I have no way of trying them. I can't afford to go through 5 pairs and lose 30% on each sale. Ugh. I have no idea where to go from here.
I even let my wife try the pfe232 vs my ex85lp. She isn't an audiophile and I didn't tell her anything about the songs and she literally took them out of her ears on one song and made a disgusted face because of the cymbal sibilance issue. She said she couldn't listen to that. But in the same way she heard another song and said it sounded better. The point being, I don't think I'm being too "picky", but that it really is unlistenable in a lot of cases. Perhaps people with different amps have different results, but I just can't live with a headphone that only allows me to listen to a portion of my music. Sooo....... what to do....?
Yes, I'm loving these so much. There isn't a large difference, but they just sound phenomenal on my apogee duet amp. I may have to buy an amp for my ipod. haha. The difference is small, but things just sound more flat and reference quality on the duet. Nonetheless, they are the best i've ever head any ipod sound.
