[lucozade]

When i first tryed my beloved custom 3s with my heron p3+ i was dissapointed to find there solid punchy thundering bass was very thinned out and there was a lot of sibilence in the treble ,this is something id never experienced with the customs before. SO i began rolling the opamps,i spent a intire morning trying different combinations of buffers and opamps,before i struck gold.

These are by far the hardest iems to match up with my heron p3+ that ive tryed so far,but when you find the right combination you are rewarded with heavenly audio bliss.

I think the bass resonse is the frequency that benifits most from amping,The bass and timbre of the drums seem to be even more tight and more detailed than before(they were pretty good unamped), but there is a marked improvement amped.

Mids are perfect,vocals are where they should be, at the front of the stage slightly in front of the guitars,piano,brass & wind instrements,with no trace of sibilance.

Treble is just sweet soft and sparkley, very detailed and accrurate,not at all harsh .

I started my sound test on these today by listening to the elvis presley 1960s masters, i thought id died and gone to heaven, they vocals and instrements sounded just so sweet and crisp ,and quite lush sounding, while the double bass ,packed a really solid slap ,bass guitar packed a solid punch, and drums sounded so tight ,i could hear each impact of the drum sticks as they landed on the drum skins if i focused on the drumming.

Than i went on to listen to some electric light orchestra, fiddles , chello,penny wistle,flute, bass quitar,keyboards ,drums ,all easy to pick out from the mailstream of sound that the lads create on there records.

I could never go back to listening to my ipods without an amp, it really does bring out the full sound quility of iems and the ipod ,it really does put the ipods built in amp to shame,Come to think of it when you go out and buy a home system you spend a lot of time choosing the right speakers and a good amp, these are the most important part of eny home set up,so why should it be eny different with portable hi fi.

So far im really loving the sound of the following amped, dont know if i could say which one i like the best now ,they all sound fantastic.

custom 3
ie8
triple fi 10

Im yet to try my se530s amped ,but im hope they will also benifit from amping and find themselfs competing for my affection with the 3 iems listed above.

 

[ZARIM]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucozade /img/forum/go_quote.gif When i first tryed my beloved custom 3s with my heron p3+ i was dissapointed to find there solid punchy thundering bass was very thinned out and there was a lot of sibilence in the treble ,this is something id never experienced with the customs before. SO i began rolling the opamps,i spent a intire morning trying different combinations of buffers and opamps,before i struck gold. These are by far the hardest iems to match up with my heron p3+ that ive tryed so far,but when you find the right combination you are rewarded with heavenly audio bliss. I think the bass resonse is the frequency that benifits most from amping,The bass and timbre of the drums seem to be even more tight and more detailed than before(they were pretty good unamped), but there is a marked improvement amped. Mids are perfect,vocals are where they should be, at the front of the stage slightly in front of the guitars,piano,brass & wind instrements,with no trace of sibilance. Treble is just sweet soft and sparkley, very detailed and accrurate,not at all harsh . I started my sound test on these today by listening to the elvis presley 1960s masters, i thought id died and gone to heaven, they vocals and instrements sounded just so sweet and crisp ,and quite lush sounding, while the double bass ,packed a really solid slap ,bass guitar packed a solid punch, and drums sounded so tight ,i could hear each impact of the drum sticks as they landed on the drum skins if i focused on the drumming. Than i went on to listen to some electric light orchestra, fiddles , chello,penny wistle,flute, bass quitar,keyboards ,drums ,all easy to pick out from the mailstream of sound that the lads create on there records. I could never go back to listening to my ipods without an amp, it really does bring out the full sound quility of iems and the ipod ,it really does put the ipods built in amp to shame,Come to think of it when you go out and buy a home system you spend a lot of time choosing the right speakers and a good amp, these are the most important part of eny home set up,so why should it be eny different with portable hi fi. So far im really loving the sound of the following amped, dont know if i could say which one i like the best now ,they all sound fantastic. custom 3 ie8 triple fi 10 Im yet to try my se530s amped ,but im hope they will also benifit from amping and find themselfs competing for my affection with the 3 iems listed above.

WOW Klipsch Custom 3 are amazing and i experience the same, they improved lot when i amped them(ipod classic, 5.5G iMod ipod + Tomahawk + ALO 22AWG Cryo dock). May i ask which dock cable you are using with your ipod?.

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZARIM /img/forum/go_quote.gif WOW Klipsch Custom 3 are amazing and i experience the same, they improved lot when i amped them(ipod classic, 5.5G iMod ipod + Tomahawk + ALO 22AWG Cryo dock). May i ask which dock cable you are using with your ipod?.

HI zarim, yep custom 3 really are something speacial ,ive always loved there sound,they compete very well against the 3 driver phones,or sennhiesers ie8 , and they are now even better sounding when amped,im now using ibasso's dock cable which costs an additional £27 here in the uk, unfortunately this does not come supplyed with the ibasso heron p3+, but is well worth getting.

 

[ZARIM]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucozade /img/forum/go_quote.gif HI zarim, yep custom 3 really are something speacial ,ive always loved there sound,they compete very well against the 3 driver phones,or sennhiesers ie8 , and they are now even better sounding when amped,im now using ibasso's dock cable which costs an additional £27 here in the uk, unfortunately this does not come supplyed with the ibasso heron p3+, but is well worth getting.

Great, iam looking forward to try ALO 18AWG CXS dock cable with Predator or Mustang and i find cables helps to improve the overall sound quality of IEMs.

 

[lucozade]

Out of all my iems that ive now tryed amped the se530s are the least effected by the amp, they become louder but thats the only real benifit ive found from amping them, the treble remains pretty much the same as it was unamped and the mids remain lush and foward,but dont seem to be extended by the amp (even more in your face ,so to speak) like the se420's mids when amped.And the bass remains the same as was unamped.

What i did notice from doing my a/b comparisons with my iems is just how weak the bass is on the se530 when compaired to my ie8s/custom 3/ie7/triple fi 10/westone 3.
I never realised just how weak the bass is on the se530 before,i new the bass was really weak on the se420 and thought the se530s was really good in comparison but i now realise it is really quite lacking in bass compaired to the others and now the se530 sounds really quite unbalanced to my ear

At this moment in time i think my favorate's are as follows

***** = favorate
* = least favorate

***** custome 3
***** sennheiser ie8
**** triple fi 10
*** se530
** westone 3
** sennheiser ie7
* se420

 

[knights]

what chip combo you use with your ie8? i already the pulled trigger on p3+ and ie8....

 

[ok1907]

How do you find the p3+'s ability to drive hard driven headphones such as the ones with 300ohms? Have you ever tried? I hope you have headphones like that because you look like an iem guy

 

[knights]

If you've been reading closely on p3+ thread, it can drive 650 with ease...

 

[ok1907]

I haven't been reading that thread because P3+ is not my number one option but if that drives hd650's adequately then I may consider buying it. Thanks.

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by knights /img/forum/go_quote.gif what chip combo you use with your ie8? i already the pulled trigger on p3+ and ie8....

im currently using LM6172 on a stacked adaptor in the l/r channel with the transistor buffers and AD827 in the g/v channel , this is a pretty good comination for ie8 ,
Also another good combination for ie8 is LMH6655 stacked in l/r channel ,BUFF634P in the buffer channel and LMH6643 stacked in g/v channel ,that might be the other way around , i cant remember off hand ,if you hear hissing when powered by batterry than its the ofter way around.

im contantly amazed at what a versatile amp the p3+ is

 

[lucozade]

Ive now had my westone 3's in my ears for the 2 days conected to my heron p3+ and ipod classic .

Last time i used my westone 3 was when i first got them, i spent about a week with them ,trying all the tips ,various ipods and even my home system amp, these phones was as sibilant as hell

, nothing i tryed made the slightest bit off difference so i pretty much gave up on them ,eny way now i have my heron i thought id give them another go after about 30 mins of trying various combinations of oamps and buffers i found a comination that has virtually eliminated the sibilance from the westone 3 ,so at long last im able to eny these very exspencive iem's which have been at the back of my draw gathering dust for the last 2 months.

The combination of oamps im using with them in the heron are LM6172 on the high adaptor in the l/r channel, BUF634P buffers and AD8066 on the high adaptor in the g/v channel.

So far im finding them quite injoyable, i think the heron has toned down there bloated bass quite abit as well which is a good thing i think !, the bass is still there in spades but seems tighter and more controlled ,however it is still a very dry sounding bass to and not as satifying to my ears as the bass on the ie8's or custom 3.

The treble is also toned down quite abit so it does not sound so strident as it did before,(which is why the sibilance is gone no dought),deffently a good thing

,although this results in them losing some of there unique ness

The mids are quite injoyable and the over all sound from the 3 drivers sound much more evenly balanced through the heron than they did unamped from the h/o of the ipod

Sound stage is again is much more balanced now and on a par with the triple fi 10 id say

More listening time is required befor i can decide if i like these as much as the tf10/ ie8/custom3 ,they are showing alot of promise now ive eliminated the sibilance,i think in the end it will just come down to prefence of which sound sig i prefure. I think i would now put these ahead of my se530 as they now sound more balanced them the se530, bass is deffently more full sounding

sound signiture's, when amed

klipsch custom 3 = balanced ,very musical sounding floor standing speaker sound, strong solid full crisp bass, very detailed treble and mids,wide sound stage

sennheiser ie8 = balanced ,very musical sounding floor standing speaker sound with a full strong solid warm wet bass with a subwoofer feel , very detailed treble and mids, massive sound stage

westone 3 =balanced ,musical sounding floor standing speaker sound, with full strong solid dry bass, very detailed mids ,very detailed treble ,wide sound stage

triple fi 10 = balanced musical sounding shelf speaker sound,with solid bass, detailed mids very slightly recessed and netural sounding, extended detailed mids

,sound stage wide

se530 = unbalanced although suprisingly musical sounding shelf speaker sound, bass strong solid mid bass and upper bass, no lower bass pressent, mids very detailed and lush and forward, treble detailed and extended, slightly sibilant, sound stage ,slightly smaller than that of the tf10

 

[mark2410]

ahhhh that i think is the same op amp i use, well i use the LM6171 which is the single channel version (so i have to use 2 of them) i believe.

 

[lucozade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark2410 /img/forum/go_quote.gif ahhhh that i think is the same op amp i use, well i use the LM6171 which is the single channel version (so i have to use 2 of them) i believe.

hi mark which of your amps has the rollable oamps ?

 

[mark2410]

the XM5

its a very versatile bit of stuff

 

[lucozade]

Now that i have the westies hooked up to my p3+ these iem's really are turning out to be quite musical sounding and very satifying to my ears, it would have been unthinkable that i could feel this way about them 1 month and half ago.

Ive being playing my WAYLON JENNINGS albums on them all afternoon and they really have taken me into audio bliss at the moment, these iem's have got my foot tapping and hips swaying

, i dont know what people must have thought as i walked home today humming or singing along to waylon and the waylons, hips a swaying ,and foot a tapping when i was standing still, but i dont really care ,im injoying myself too much