For those of you who've been Wizard fans for longer than I, and who have had a chance to sample many of his products, I have a question: I am very much a basshead, but also a closet audiophile. I have a pair of HD 650s and have had some experience pulling the trigger on lackluster "cheap" audiophile headphones like the Massdrop x Fostex T-X0, which was a huge letdown as an intro to planar magnetics. My absolute favorite piece of kit right now though is my Noble 3U hooked up to a Sony NW-A45.
The HD 650 came first, and I ended up getting the Noble 3U used from ebay for a good price. I generally use my Sennheisers through a Sound Blaster E5 at my computer for music and gaming, and I find myself setting a pretty aggressive V-shaped EQ to enjoy most of the music I listen to on a daily basis. The NW-A45 has an even more insane EQ curve to deal with my Noble 3U and my general music habits. There isn't anything wrong with that, I guess, because both the Senns and the Nobles are actually capable of delivering on those jacked-up EQs with the right volume level.
So, my music taste runs the gamut from folksy/celtic/world music to rock/J-pop/alt and on up into hip-hop/electronic/drum&bass. While my eclectic taste includes all of those options, I tend to listen to electronic music the most because I like fast, catchy, upbeat music when I'm up and moving. This has set me on a quest to find a good set of IEMs (or, alternatively, over-ears that are mobile enough) that can give me those bass hits that I imagine I can feel in my chest without having to crank the lows past 11, the mids down -5, and the highs +5 with an EQ setting.
So far, I've been looking at the Noble Audio "Dulce Bass", M3, and Massdrop K10U, but I haven't really been able to decide because I can't really find any comparison between the three (or even between two of them very easily).
Because of my EQ levels, the highs and especially the mids end up a bit muddled, so I'm not concerned as much for clarity in the highs as long as it comes out better than my Noble 3U with the EQ crud on top. When I want clarity, the 3U sounds utterly amazing to me wihtout the EQ to mess it up, and I'll be keeping these IEMs along with whatever I end up deciding on. That's not to say I'm giving up on clarity, sountstage, or resolution just to satisfy my basshead tendencies (otherwise I would give up and cry while hating myself for buying something from Beats Audio), but I am willing to give up a little bit to get what I want for those genres of music.
So, would I be fine with the Dulce Bass? Does the M3 have the same or better bass than the Dulce, and if so is it also more clear-sounding? Would the K10U have good enough bass while I get to take advantage of the better clarity/resolution/soundstage I'm lead to believe it should offer over my 3U?
At the moment I've kinda got my finger over the "checkout" trigger for the Dulce Bass as a gift to myself this holiday season, but I can hold myself off to consider some advice if I can get it.
Edit: ALSO! I have been looking at the Audeze LCD-i3 as an option. It's even harder to find comparison reviews for, though...