[Steve B.]

I just got these and am comparing them to other IEM's that I have. I also got a 4.4mm Fiio cable for them. Using them primarily with the iBasso DX220 with AMP8. They seem mid forward with good bass (not overpowering), and the highs seem clear enough without being too bright. However, upper mids (particularly female vocals) seem to get piercing at times - trying to burn them in more to see if this subsides.

Anyone have these? What do you think of them?

I have much less expensive moondrop KXXS, and I am having a hard time justifying the extra $300+ for the OH500....

 

[AlexFL]

I just got these and am comparing them to other IEM's that I have. I also got a 4.4mm Fiio cable for them. Using them primarily with the iBasso DX220 with AMP8. They seem mid forward with good bass (not overpowering), and the highs seem clear enough without being too bright. However, upper mids (particularly female vocals) seem to get piercing at times - trying to burn them in more to see if this subsides.

Anyone have these? What do you think of them?

I have much less expensive moondrop KXXS, and I am having a hard time justifying the extra $300+ for the OH500....

I got them and found no piercing at all with female vocals. Which track seems piercing for you? Initially I was impressed with tuning as I love the (correct) mids presentation with good bass and not sibilant highs but the amount of details wasn’t very impressive comparing to my S8Freedom. I have them burned in by repeating a busy track on a normal listening volume for 100 hours and they started revealing phenomenal details. I AB them with S8F; mids tamed quite a bit and now they sound the best I ever heard. When I got them I sold SE846, IE800s, FAD E5000 and still keep TFZ No3, S8F and HD 660s but never reached them since bought OH500. You also need to change the cable, I’m running balanced from R6Pro and using Brainvawz 2.5mm cable from Amazon, I found the cable was the best with SE846 and it opens up treble and amount of details with OH500.

 

[AlexFL]

BTW I tried Fiio LC2.5b cables back with SE846 and returned it immediately. The sound quality was immediately worse comparing to 16$ Brainwavz cable, but they don’t have it in 4.4

 

[Steve B.]

The specific tracks I found piercing are pretty obscure heavy metal, but if you have Tidal you can find them. From the Astralium album "Land of Eternal Dreams", the chorus of the second song titled "The Journey" was tough. It sounded like the female singer was shouting in my ear. Also, the song "in My Arms" by Ancient Bards (also on Tidal from the album "A New Dawn Ending"), between the 3 minute and 3:30 mark, it is tough. When the guitar solo starts (around 3:25) I almost have to take the phones out.

I only burned them in for a couple of hours. I just got them Saturday and pretty much immediately started listening to them. After 100 hours, did you notice a difference compared to out of the box new? Maybe that is my problem? I am using them with the fiio LC-4.4C that was like $60.

By the way, how do you like the TFZ No. 3? I like a bass heavy headphone on occasion but I fear these are "beats" bad, all bass and nothing else. If they have any mids and highs, for like 100 bucks I would pick them up.

 

[AlexFL]

I see what you are saying.. these tracks are recorded mid forward.. for them I think you’ll like TFZ no3 better, they have lower amount of mids but still “adequately” present, higher and more impactful sub bass, however midbass to sub bass balance is not on the spot for me (similar to M50x), and elevated treble comparing to OH500. For me personally no3 treble is no go as I have zero tolerance to sibilance, but they are not as bad as IE800. They really impress with POP\EDM and might be really good with metal you listen.
With OH500 I love listening to something like “Moon River (instrumental) by Tommy Emmanuel - simply outstanding, or try “I see fire (live) by Mozart Heroes - cellos are done like no other IEM can play. The point with Brainwvawz cable is treble extension and more details. Fiio cable was more mid forward, made bass a bit muddy and reduced treble and resolution on SE846. Brainwavz did the same magic with OH comparing to stock cable and Im using it with Cayin 4.4 to 2.5 adapter, it is so good that I sacrifice the convenience. I tried many 4.4 but all were no go. I also forgot to mention that tips make significant difference with OH500. I use stock black silicone tips with shallow insertion, ones which are not going deep in ear canal, these produce the best highs and bass in my case. The stock white silicone and many other tips I tried including Symbios made them more mid forward and reduced highs. Try the stock wide bore black tips. With No.3 the wide bore tips do the same thing BTW. It seems that dynamic driver bass the best reproduced with shallow insertion wide bores.

 

[AlexFL]

The difference with burn in will be much more details in mids and highs. They start showing technicalities. I haven’t noticed the bass to change significantly but I was not focusing on it a lot.

 

[AlexFL]

BTW your tracks were tolerable on a moderate listening volume.

 

[Alino]

I got them and found no piercing at all with female vocals. Which track seems piercing for you? Initially I was impressed with tuning as I love the (correct) mids presentation with good bass and not sibilant highs but the amount of details wasn’t very impressive comparing to my S8Freedom. I have them burned in by repeating a busy track on a normal listening volume for 100 hours and they started revealing phenomenal details. I AB them with S8F; mids tamed quite a bit and now they sound the best I ever heard. When I got them I sold SE846, IE800s, FAD E5000 and still keep TFZ No3, S8F and HD 660s but never reached them since bought OH500. You also need to change the cable, I’m running balanced from R6Pro and using Brainvawz 2.5mm cable from Amazon, I found the cable was the best with SE846 and it opens up treble and amount of details with OH500.

Agree. OH500 is a great overlooked hybrid. I found it needs some power and shows ts best with a mix silver copper cable like this