Hi all!
My first post actually, i've been lurking for a while on this great site and I would like to contribute
my review of the Sunrise SW-Xcape v2.
For starters.. I'm not an extreme audiophile, but do know the difference between good and bad sounding headphones/IEM's and my ears are pretty decent at listening. My favourite headphone is the Sennheiser HD25 by the way, which I think has the perfect sound for me (tight, accurate, full sounding and clear/detailed), totally love those.
I decided to buy these IEM's because I needed a replacement for my broken Logitech Ultimate Ears 700 and I didnt want to pay as much as I did last time I bought an IEM.
I've read quite some reviews here and got curious about the Sunrise SW-Xcape v2 because of the nice reviews the first Sunrise SW-Xcape got. So.. I decided to jump the boat and got them from Ebay (UkHeadphones) for a decent price.
I received the Sunrise SW-Xcape well packaged and it came in a nice box. Since then i've opened them and used them for 4 weeks. I did a burn-in for about 40 hours with winamp playing totally random stuff from jazz to deathmetal and after that I then went listening to them daily on up to now. So the actual hours of burn-in / use is about 200+.
Packaging, Build Quality and Accessories
The actual earplugs are packed within a round shaped hard plastic little box which can be opened by the zipper, it feels sturdy and works well for me. Its rugged with some other plastic lining and on top of that a silver Sunrise emblem. The inside of the box is soft and contain the IEM's and some extra tips and a clip to pin the cord.
The Sunrise SW-Xcape has a soft and sturdy feeling cable. Its almost a bit rubbery, and really flexible, even more compared to the plastic like cable on the UE700's. The Y-split has been reinforced with a plastic and a metal label with x-cape on it. It looks sturdy, but I'm missing a small plastic piece that holds/adjusts the both cords to the earplugs. The jackplug is also covered with plastic and metal stating 'sunrise' and the company logo. The plastic at the jackplug should provide some stress relieve to the cable, but still I have the feeling is a bit fragile and not adequate for real stress relieve. I would prefer some extra rubber around the jack and not only the plastic. All in all the cable feels quite light and if the earplugs are worn over ears, you won't notice much microphoning (tested in the gym while exercising
).
The outer casing of the earplugs are made of metal and feel strong. The eartips that are provided are feeling smooth and soft, and they fit my ears pretty well so I won't be using the extra ones provided. Overall I think the build quality is good enough and about what I would expect for this price, but i'm going to be extra careful with the jackplug, just to be sure.
Sound Quality
Out of the box they sounded quite nice and warm but it sounded a bit closed/muffled/bit muddy..lots of bass and the high's werent exactly crispy clear. After 200 hours of use, they've opened up a bit, lost the muddiness, taking back a little of the bass and the high's are a bit more present, which is good in my opinion.
The Lows are deep and rich and also fairly present but not too much. It has the right balance right now and the only thing lacking is some punch in the bass. I would've liked the bass to be a bit more tight and punchy but i'm satisfied.
The Mids are full and especially vocals come out really clean in the mix, no complaint to be found.
The Highs are good but the treble is still lacking a bit of crisp and some sparkle, I would've liked a bit more 'open' sounding highs just like the UE700's. In my opinion, good clear high's give the overall sound of an IEM some extra clarity and express the details better, on the other hand, some people have their ears easily strained by a bit more treble.
The soundstage is pretty direct and not extremely spacey, though you can define well where a sound is coming from and there is some depth in the sound.
The overall sound is warm, deep/low bass, (but surely not enough for hardcore bass-heads), good mids, soft highs and pretty well detailed.
Conclusion
I've read that others on this forum have been dissapointed by the Sunrise SW-Xcape or havent had their expectations of this IEM met.. I don't agree totally. For it's money you get great value and a very decent IEM! There are improvements possible in the clarity of the highs, just to give it a little bit of brilliance/sparkle and the bass should be adjusted to be a bit more tight/punchy in my opinion, still.. they do sound great and pretty detailed with most of the music i've listened to(Metal/Chill-Out/Techno/Psytrance/Jazz). I've tried some of my favourite albums including Underworld - A Hundred Days Off which fits these Xcapes just perfect! If you want you can EQ the sound a bit and give it some more high in the 12-16 khz zone to balance out the warm sound/bass a bit and get some added clarity/treble. I would recommend them if a friend asks me to name a good IEM under 70 euro's. They are sturdy enough, fit my ears well and are not really big (which is a plus to me!) I just hope the cable won't break on me anytime soon...
(Photo's will be but in later on for more detail).
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