mvw2
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2007
- Posts
- 1,879
- Likes
- 106
Thumbs up on the IE8 and Eterna. I think you hit many of their key points very well.
A comment on the IE8. The knob is something I personally disliked about the IE8 only because it was only partially helpful. If you ran low, you lost bottom end. If you ran high, it evened out. Either way, it only affected frequencies below 100Hz and the midbass hump centered at 100Hz meaning it could only influence the bottom half and do nothing for midbass and lower midrange emphasis. In my eyes, the only good bass knob setting was full as much as many people new to the amount of bass it offers shies away from that setting. The earphone really requires a wide EQ cut centered at 100Hz to flatten out the response properly. All the knob gets to do is make the bass anemic. This is also mimicked from Headphone's own testing of the IE8 with the bass knob down and up. When I owned the IE8 I sort of came to the conclusion that you simply turn it up and get used to it. If you have an EQ with a band at 100Hz, great, but otherwise you just listen and get used to it. You do get used to it too, and the IE8 is very enjoyable.
I will make a suggestion, if you still have them, to add in the Triple.Fi 10. Frankly since you're comparing many of these high end earphones, you may want to simply compare and put that into the list as well. As much as it's been reviewed already, it should at least exist in your review somewhere. It's an earphone I've always liked.
Now if only you could get someone to loan you their SM3.
A comment on the IE8. The knob is something I personally disliked about the IE8 only because it was only partially helpful. If you ran low, you lost bottom end. If you ran high, it evened out. Either way, it only affected frequencies below 100Hz and the midbass hump centered at 100Hz meaning it could only influence the bottom half and do nothing for midbass and lower midrange emphasis. In my eyes, the only good bass knob setting was full as much as many people new to the amount of bass it offers shies away from that setting. The earphone really requires a wide EQ cut centered at 100Hz to flatten out the response properly. All the knob gets to do is make the bass anemic. This is also mimicked from Headphone's own testing of the IE8 with the bass knob down and up. When I owned the IE8 I sort of came to the conclusion that you simply turn it up and get used to it. If you have an EQ with a band at 100Hz, great, but otherwise you just listen and get used to it. You do get used to it too, and the IE8 is very enjoyable.
I will make a suggestion, if you still have them, to add in the Triple.Fi 10. Frankly since you're comparing many of these high end earphones, you may want to simply compare and put that into the list as well. As much as it's been reviewed already, it should at least exist in your review somewhere. It's an earphone I've always liked.
Now if only you could get someone to loan you their SM3.