hcivic91
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2008
- Posts
- 1
- Likes
- 0
I’m not sure how much this will add to the knowledgebase of the forum but I felt obligated to post. I started looking for a new pair of earphones about 2 weeks ago and to be honest two weeks ago I didn’t even really even know what an IEM was. The two things I did know were; 1) I wanted better than what I could find at Best Buy and 2) there must be a discussion board dedicated to the subject. One quick Google search revealed Head-Fi and I quickly dug-in. Being experienced with message boards I knew the search tool would be my best resource and it was.
First a bit about me; I am a hip-hop loving banker and graduate student living in Washington DC. I am an audiophile with a nice home set-up and have spent some time in studio environments, in other words I know good sound when I hear it. And my knowledge/interest is not limited to hip-hop; I have an extensive collection of music which spans most genres. With such an extensive collection of music I purchased an Ipod last year before moving to The District. Since then I have lived with the stock ear-buds and been happy, mostly because I didn’t know what more could be achieved. Commuting by subway this fall left me wanting more from my musical experience namely better isolation and better bass.
Using those parameters I started searching the forums and found several candidates including: the new Apple IEM, Sennheiser C500, Denon C551, Nuforce 7m-8m & Atrio M5. There were others along the way but these I considered seriously. I knew there must be a sweet-spot somewhere along the continuum which led me to most seriously consider the Denon, NuForce and Apple. At this price point there were pros and cons to all of them and I found myself being indifferent between the three. It seemed the NuForce 8m would be the best all around, the Denon best with Bass and the Apple the most accessible. In the end the Apple was too new the NuForce out of stock so I selected the Denon and I could not be happier. That wasn’t the only reason I purchased them however, the breadth of the posts I found clearly pointed me in their direction.
90 seconds of listening to my new phones confirmed my decision. I would love to post more about what I hear but without a point comparison I’m afraid it would lack meaning. I can speak to a couple of points however. First, the sound is exactly as described by previous posters, tilted slightly to the lower 3 or 4 octaves - I never thought bass like this would be achievable by earphones. About the bass; it is tuneful with decent definition but does have a little overhang or bloom. I do find the bloom slightly colors the lower ½ octave of male vocals however, not overly so but slightly. I wonder what effect break-in will have on this. From the lower mid-bass up to about 5k these headphones shine – detail in spades and female vocals are sensuous. I find the highest 2 octaves a little closed in cymbals don’t have quite the shimmer I expect – again break-in might help here. Overall a very pleasurable listening experience, the two strongest parts of this earphone are bass and female vocals.
One other thing. After reading all of these posts I became a little over-worried about things like microphonics. I find these nuances to be a non-issue, but YMMV.
I’m not sure how much I’ll be hanging around after this post but I thought I owed it to the community to post what I could. I am very grateful to what I found here and hope someone is able to take something from my experience. If not I am grateful none-the-less.
First a bit about me; I am a hip-hop loving banker and graduate student living in Washington DC. I am an audiophile with a nice home set-up and have spent some time in studio environments, in other words I know good sound when I hear it. And my knowledge/interest is not limited to hip-hop; I have an extensive collection of music which spans most genres. With such an extensive collection of music I purchased an Ipod last year before moving to The District. Since then I have lived with the stock ear-buds and been happy, mostly because I didn’t know what more could be achieved. Commuting by subway this fall left me wanting more from my musical experience namely better isolation and better bass.
Using those parameters I started searching the forums and found several candidates including: the new Apple IEM, Sennheiser C500, Denon C551, Nuforce 7m-8m & Atrio M5. There were others along the way but these I considered seriously. I knew there must be a sweet-spot somewhere along the continuum which led me to most seriously consider the Denon, NuForce and Apple. At this price point there were pros and cons to all of them and I found myself being indifferent between the three. It seemed the NuForce 8m would be the best all around, the Denon best with Bass and the Apple the most accessible. In the end the Apple was too new the NuForce out of stock so I selected the Denon and I could not be happier. That wasn’t the only reason I purchased them however, the breadth of the posts I found clearly pointed me in their direction.
90 seconds of listening to my new phones confirmed my decision. I would love to post more about what I hear but without a point comparison I’m afraid it would lack meaning. I can speak to a couple of points however. First, the sound is exactly as described by previous posters, tilted slightly to the lower 3 or 4 octaves - I never thought bass like this would be achievable by earphones. About the bass; it is tuneful with decent definition but does have a little overhang or bloom. I do find the bloom slightly colors the lower ½ octave of male vocals however, not overly so but slightly. I wonder what effect break-in will have on this. From the lower mid-bass up to about 5k these headphones shine – detail in spades and female vocals are sensuous. I find the highest 2 octaves a little closed in cymbals don’t have quite the shimmer I expect – again break-in might help here. Overall a very pleasurable listening experience, the two strongest parts of this earphone are bass and female vocals.
One other thing. After reading all of these posts I became a little over-worried about things like microphonics. I find these nuances to be a non-issue, but YMMV.
I’m not sure how much I’ll be hanging around after this post but I thought I owed it to the community to post what I could. I am very grateful to what I found here and hope someone is able to take something from my experience. If not I am grateful none-the-less.
