[patate]

I have done a brief listening session with my RE0s / RE-Zeros / X-Capes after not having listened to them for a while. Boy what a difference! The three of them sound the same, with a thin "scooped out" sound, in comparison to the HJE900s. I can say one does certain things better than the other two, but these are minute differences. My EQed pannies just sound fuller, richer, more detailed, with better resolution from top to bottom.
 
At first, and despite obvious sonic qualities, they hurt my ears because of their unbalanced FR with piercing treble in particular. Now they actually are still 'hurting' my ears just because I can't help but listen to them as soon as I can, as they sound REAL good.
 
I think I'm done with universal. Next step would be custom.

 

[Confispect]

Quote:

I have done a brief listening session with my RE0s / RE-Zeros / X-Capes after not having listened to them for a while. Boy what a difference! The three of them sound the same, with a thin "scooped out" sound, in comparison to the HJE900s. I can say one does certain things better than the other two, but these are minute differences. My EQed pannies just sound fuller, richer, more detailed, with better resolution from top to bottom.
 
At first, and despite obvious sonic qualities, they hurt my ears because of their unbalanced FR with piercing treble in particular. Now they actually are still 'hurting' my ears just because I can't help but listen to them as soon as I can, as they sound REAL good.
 
I think I'm done with universal. Next step would be custom.

I agree, but I still wanna try the SM3 I don't think anything can top the Pana's but these. Also to add sound points purchase the Sleek audio cord it allows for deeper insertion then you really get to see what the Pana's are made off (Brings the mids out these scream they never had recessed mids). I also love the aggressiveness of these phones, a strong over-the-ear quality from big headphones I think this one has

 Anyhow try wearing the Pana's ear down, a completely different sound more clarity comes thru. At the cost of the 3dness if that a way to put it, but this might be why some people are complaining about muddiness. Cuss I know a/bing that the Pana's are some of the clearest phone next to Reo/Phonak. Tip experiment too.

 

[Redmetal1897]

Got my tips 

 I'll post just my initial impressions  and more after I've ABed them properly
 
M11 Extra Longs - Increases the soundstage noticeably over the stocks, but at the same time every thing retains its clarity and detail, the better fit you can get the better the experience. Sibilance is much reduced, isolation is better. The decay of the notes and general space and imaging is improved
 
M11 Regular Silicon - These tips balanced out the sound completely, the bass takes a couple of steps back while the mids come forward and the treble harshness goes down. The most neutral of all the tips
 
M11 Standard Double Flange - It's like everything just becomes louder louder at the same volume level as the other tips, but the sibilance is taken away. The bass almost seems to become smoother and less pounding. I remember with some of my techno songs I used to get a headache with the stocks but with these the base is much smoother. Isolation is probably best with these.
 
M11 Short double flange - A more comfortable fit than the double flange with a similar sort of sound, but the bass gets its kick back. A little less clarity too maybe, not a 100% sure will be able to tell with further testing
 
M9 Balanced - Similar to the M11 double flange, but seems to be more airy, i.e the soundstage seems slightly wider. Sibilance is much reduced, I seem to be able to pick out details better. 
 
Bear in mind this is only preliminary impressions and while jumping between different songs lol. But all are better than the stock tips! For sure

 

[Redmetal1897]

And I should mention that this is on normal on my J3, once I start eqing some of the metal songs... boy oh boy 

Quote:

Got my tips 

 I'll post just my initial impressions  and more after I've ABed them properly
 
M11 Extra Longs - Increases the soundstage noticeably over the stocks, but at the same time every thing retains its clarity and detail, the better fit you can get the better the experience. Sibilance is much reduced, isolation is better. The decay of the notes and general space and imaging is improved
 
M11 Regular Silicon - These tips balanced out the sound completely, the bass takes a couple of steps back while the mids come forward and the treble harshness goes down. The most neutral of all the tips
 
M11 Standard Double Flange - It's like everything just becomes louder louder at the same volume level as the other tips, but the sibilance is taken away. The bass almost seems to become smoother and less pounding. I remember with some of my techno songs I used to get a headache with the stocks but with these the base is much smoother. Isolation is probably best with these.
 
M11 Short double flange - A more comfortable fit than the double flange with a similar sort of sound, but the bass gets its kick back. A little less clarity too maybe, not a 100% sure will be able to tell with further testing
 
M9 Balanced - Similar to the M11 double flange, but seems to be more airy, i.e the soundstage seems slightly wider. Sibilance is much reduced, I seem to be able to pick out details better. 
 
Bear in mind this is only preliminary impressions and while jumping between different songs lol. But all are better than the stock tips! For sure

 

[rawrster]

I think it's hard to compare the RE-Zero and Xcape to the HJE900. The first two signatures are so vastly different than the HJE900 that going one from another will be a shock in some way or another.

 

[Libertad]

Out of randomness while at my sub schools liberty center I sat across from a shipmate that I swore had some UM3X in his ear so I asked and to my surprize they were! We had an interesting conversation on audio and found out that he lurks her alot , anyway he let me listen to his iems while he listened to my 900s. We both were a bit alienated as to how different they sounded in our little 7min quick listen. Now I've never heard any audiogear at a caliber higher than my 900s and to say the least they were different in both pleasant and unpleasant ways.(this is just my honest personal opinion based on nothing more the a quick listen so take it as you may)

The westones sounded like the 900s with less sparkle and more lush and fuller mids. They were very smooth sounding and had to my ears more detail at the bottom end. They didn't have the same sparkle or impact as the 900s but it was still enjoyable despite how different they sounded. The guy found my 900s to have a lot of impact and bassy to his ear but enjoyed them aswell. Now of course personal preferance plays into perception not to mention the um3x's cost 5Xs as much and desighned for a different role but I Didn't find them to be miles apart in sound quality indeed the westones did several things better but lacked some qualities I personally enjoy in the 900s....doesn't mean that I won't buy them down the road

 

[Confispect]

Quote:

Got my tips 

 I'll post just my initial impressions  and more after I've ABed them properly
 
M11 Extra Longs - Increases the soundstage noticeably over the stocks, but at the same time every thing retains its clarity and detail, the better fit you can get the better the experience. Sibilance is much reduced, isolation is better. The decay of the notes and general space and imaging is improved
 
M11 Regular Silicon - These tips balanced out the sound completely, the bass takes a couple of steps back while the mids come forward and the treble harshness goes down. The most neutral of all the tips
 
M11 Standard Double Flange - It's like everything just becomes louder louder at the same volume level as the other tips, but the sibilance is taken away. The bass almost seems to become smoother and less pounding. I remember with some of my techno songs I used to get a headache with the stocks but with these the base is much smoother. Isolation is probably best with these.
 
M11 Short double flange - A more comfortable fit than the double flange with a similar sort of sound, but the bass gets its kick back. A little less clarity too maybe, not a 100% sure will be able to tell with further testing
 
M9 Balanced - Similar to the M11 double flange, but seems to be more airy, i.e the soundstage seems slightly wider. Sibilance is much reduced, I seem to be able to pick out details better. 
 
Bear in mind this is only preliminary impressions and while jumping between different songs lol. But all are better than the stock tips! For sure

Nice impressions!


Quote:

Out of randomness while at my sub schools liberty center I sat across from a shipmate that I swore had some UM3X in his ear so I asked and to my surprize they were! We had an interesting conversation on audio and found out that he lurks her alot , anyway he let me listen to his iems while he listened to my 900s. We both were a bit alienated as to how different they sounded in our little 7min quick listen. Now I've never heard any audiogear at a caliber higher than my 900s and to say the least they were different in both pleasant and unpleasant ways.(this is just my honest personal opinion based on nothing more the a quick listen so take it as you may)

The westones sounded like the 900s with less sparkle and more lush and fuller mids. They were very smooth sounding and had to my ears more detail at the bottom end. They didn't have the same sparkle or impact as the 900s but it was still enjoyable despite how different they sounded. The guy found my 900s to have a lot of impact and bassy to his ear but enjoyed them aswell. Now of course personal preferance plays into perception not to mention the um3x's cost 5Xs as much and desighned for a different role but I Didn't find them to be miles apart in sound quality indeed the westones did several things better but lacked some qualities I personally enjoy in the 900s....doesn't mean that I won't buy them down the road

Interesting, Ive yet to find anyone walking around with expensive IEMS in, except when I went to the apple store. He had a ipod in one hand and a custom IEM in the other. I asked him what they were, he replied the UE11 the best earphone ever made. 

 

[BoyNamedSue]

Finally got around to doing the foam mod and the sibilance is way down while maintaining the sparkle! Mids are slightly more forward as well. There is still a small touch of sibilance though, and I was wondering if it is worth it to add more foam - I used about one quarter of the foam (1/8 each side) from earbud that came with my sansa clip. Also, did you all stick back the filter mesh after doing the mod? I stuck it back on but I'm feeling a bit paranoid that it may fall off and go into my ears. 
 
Daanish, thanks for you impressions on the tips. I think I ordered the exact same MEE sets as you. I'll have to try out the other M11 tips - there are so many! 

 

[albau]

 

Quote:

Got my tips 

 I'll post just my initial impressions  and more after I've ABed them properly
 
M11 Extra Longs - Increases the soundstage noticeably over the stocks, but at the same time every thing retains its clarity and detail, the better fit you can get the better the experience. Sibilance is much reduced, isolation is better. The decay of the notes and general space and imaging is improved
 
M11 Regular Silicon - These tips balanced out the sound completely, the bass takes a couple of steps back while the mids come forward and the treble harshness goes down. The most neutral of all the tips
 
M11 Standard Double Flange - It's like everything just becomes louder louder at the same volume level as the other tips, but the sibilance is taken away. The bass almost seems to become smoother and less pounding. I remember with some of my techno songs I used to get a headache with the stocks but with these the base is much smoother. Isolation is probably best with these.
 
M11 Short double flange - A more comfortable fit than the double flange with a similar sort of sound, but the bass gets its kick back. A little less clarity too maybe, not a 100% sure will be able to tell with further testing
 
M9 Balanced - Similar to the M11 double flange, but seems to be more airy, i.e the soundstage seems slightly wider. Sibilance is much reduced, I seem to be able to pick out details better. 
 
Bear in mind this is only preliminary impressions and while jumping between different songs lol. But all are better than the stock tips! For sure
 

Great description but do you think it's really repeatable from one set of ears to the other? There're so many variables - individual ear geometry, depth of insertion, psychological conditioning, burn-in level of the headphone, etc.
 
Surprisingly I'm pretty happy with stock Pana's silicones that were on the phone by default. They fit right away and provided decent isolation which's not usually the case for me, for example I had a bad struggle to find secure tips for Phonaks and wound up with uncomfortable Shure tri-flanges. Just out of curiosity with Panas I tried various UE tips (normal, double and triple flanges and foams) and some Denon ones. Although there were some minor sonic changes between tips of different length and size (stock single flange vs UE double/triple flange) I would attribute it mostly to the depth of insertion and level of isolation.  Similar size single flanges whether stock or UE or Denon had very little effect if any. Only foamies brought radical difference in sound and not for the better.
 
So I'm happily staying with stock tips. To my ears 4 days of burn-in with pink noise brought in much more drastic and very welcome changes to the point where I no longer consider sibilance and bass muddiness a problems with these phones. My only remaining real and annoying problem with Panas is distant vocals on many tracks as a result of recessed mids. 

 

[Inks]

This kit is also a good buy for these iems. You'll get replaceable filters which are needed and the extra long biflange tips included actually had the best sound for me. The problem is the steep price of 15$ and would've preffered the more resistant RE-Zero filters, but maybe Fang can include those upon request. 

 

[JxK]

Quote:

This kit is also a good buy for these iems. You'll get replaceable filters which are needed and the extra long biflange tips included actually had the best sound for me. The problem is the steep price of 15$ and would've preffered the more resistant RE-Zero filters, but maybe Fang can include those upon request. 

The M11+ tip set would work better for these I think, since you get a better tip selection. And doing the foam mod pretty much eliminates the need for a filter. Should the foam ever get dirty, just replace it with a new piece. The nice thing is that there are lots of options - q-tip, cotton ball, ear bud foam, pantyhose, etc. And all are cheap.

 

[Inks]

Yeah those filters are pretty useless, thus my suggestion of requesting the Zero filters which help with the foam mod (tried it myself). With the m11+ you get a better selection but most of the tips don't fare well in my experience. Those long elongated RE tips had really good results with me, beating out the rest granted you get a good fit. It seems to allow the Panas to breathe a lot more throughout without sacrificing that much isolation. The price is horrid though imo, thus I will recommend the M11+ tip kit over it and because it will be more "univeral" and user friendly. The RE tips are either a hit or miss I think. 

 

[Bazirker]

Would one of you who has done the foam mod be willing to snap a photo and stick it on here?  Doesn't look like anyone else has in this thread (or at least not one that I could find!)

 

[rmask]

Can someone recommend me a good online place to buy the pannys? (good price and able to ship to EU of course).
 
The cheapest I can find locally is ~115 EUR (~158 USD) (shipping included).
 
Thanks

 

[patate]

 

 
Quote:

Would one of you who has done the foam mod be willing to snap a photo and stick it on here?  Doesn't look like anyone else has in this thread (or at least not one that I could find!)