david1978jp
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2005
- Posts
- 946
- Likes
- 19
A member Libertad wrote a detailed review, which I largely agree. The intent of this write-up is to put Stax on the title for search purpose. Please read his review before go on with my sentiments.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/h...y-away-377961/
How do I usually handle my earphones?
Daily 10 hours of burn-in with random music, listening one hour or two, let it rest; start all over again next day. By far, I have more than 400 hours on it. (I got it last September.)
Mystery of burn-in, maybe I was tired for a few days?
The first 50 hours, it sounded harsh; it got mellower and opened-up around 100 hours; it turned into muddy/muffle around 180-200 hours; it cleared it self up around 220-230 hours and gradually turned back to the original characters with refinement /without harshness, and sounded tighter.
How does a manmade diamond sound like?
The housing is made of Cubic Zirconia/ stone, the sound characters reflect that. Have you played with pebbles? Two collided pebbles create hard/crisp/fast decay hitting sound with a hint of sparkle on the top.
Almost balanced, slightly recessed mid, extended extended top and bottom.
At first listen, it was balanced, but I found myself often turned up volume to hear more vocal. The top was another story, it extends high, higher than ER4P; as usual, when a top notes was well-presented, it grabbed one’s attention, even it was not excess, sibilant or harsh -- I sometimes found it’s too much for my liking. I believe it will be too bright for many.
The bass was decent amount, faded fast/speedy. As to quality, high and mid bass were well controlled, not quite well defined/layered, chunky might be the word. Deep, deep bass was very intriguing – Denon D5000 has been my favorite full size headphones for years; when I listened to Terminator 4 and Batman The Dark Knight, I was surprised by this little earphones, I experienced similar deep impacts (but considerable lesser amount).
It tolerated compressed files, but not so forgiving to bright sounding players.
Files ranged from 128K to FLAC were purposely listened. The brightness of treble made the edginess / harshness of compressed sounds less noticeable.
Do choose your players wisely, bright sounding players can make treble sharper, and bring it front and center; they literally made me cry “Ouch”.
Tips and Cables
Tips were made of harder/smoother silicone; they were very comfortable and stayed in ears. Sony’s old EX tips will fit; Sony’s new hybrid tips can fit when I tried; Klipsch’s oval tips can fit when I tried harder; and, decored Shure olive tips also fit.
Panasonic has silver plated replacement cable; it can be bought in Japan.
It can also use replacement cable for Sleek Audio SA6; sound became thinner and warmer, not in a bad way, it’s just different.
A distant cousin of Stax， ER4P?
Have you experienced Stax headphones? It is balanced, fast, clean, effortless treble and speedy deep bass. It’s that kind of sound; one either loves it, or doesn’t care it at all. (Allow me to caution you, many complain Stax is too bright, not enough bass – please, let’s not debate on this one, people hear what they hear; if its treble bugs someone, it’s too bright that person; if one needs to concentrate and look for the bass, it’s not enough bass for that person.)
Panasonic RP-HJE900 reminds me Stax, it has most of Stax characters, although not as good; it does have more noticeable bass than Stax. Even it has only 50 percents of Stax sound; nonetheless, it is still a good way to have Stax sound without the bulk package. If you don’t mind carrying extra stuff, please do choose baby Stax.
How does ER4P compare? ER4P is more detailed, lesser bass, and too “clinic” sounding; RP-HJE900 is more exciting, more fun, but its treble is sometimes troublesome. (To me, ER4P’s treble is always there; RP-HJE900’s treble takes backseat from time to time, when it jumps out, it surprises me.)
Is it for you? Value?
It was priced $220 - $250 half year ago. Today, you can find it at $110 - $190.
I know this write-up has more negative tone, because this is an “odd” earphone; I really want to caution you, its pro can also be its con – I cannot simply recommend or reject. Even it is one of my favorite.
But, if you are new in the earphone adventure, I strongly suggest you spend your money on other well-loved earphones. You have smaller chance of disliking others than this one.
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f103/h...y-away-377961/
How do I usually handle my earphones?
Daily 10 hours of burn-in with random music, listening one hour or two, let it rest; start all over again next day. By far, I have more than 400 hours on it. (I got it last September.)
Mystery of burn-in, maybe I was tired for a few days?
The first 50 hours, it sounded harsh; it got mellower and opened-up around 100 hours; it turned into muddy/muffle around 180-200 hours; it cleared it self up around 220-230 hours and gradually turned back to the original characters with refinement /without harshness, and sounded tighter.
How does a manmade diamond sound like?
The housing is made of Cubic Zirconia/ stone, the sound characters reflect that. Have you played with pebbles? Two collided pebbles create hard/crisp/fast decay hitting sound with a hint of sparkle on the top.
Almost balanced, slightly recessed mid, extended extended top and bottom.
At first listen, it was balanced, but I found myself often turned up volume to hear more vocal. The top was another story, it extends high, higher than ER4P; as usual, when a top notes was well-presented, it grabbed one’s attention, even it was not excess, sibilant or harsh -- I sometimes found it’s too much for my liking. I believe it will be too bright for many.
The bass was decent amount, faded fast/speedy. As to quality, high and mid bass were well controlled, not quite well defined/layered, chunky might be the word. Deep, deep bass was very intriguing – Denon D5000 has been my favorite full size headphones for years; when I listened to Terminator 4 and Batman The Dark Knight, I was surprised by this little earphones, I experienced similar deep impacts (but considerable lesser amount).
It tolerated compressed files, but not so forgiving to bright sounding players.
Files ranged from 128K to FLAC were purposely listened. The brightness of treble made the edginess / harshness of compressed sounds less noticeable.
Do choose your players wisely, bright sounding players can make treble sharper, and bring it front and center; they literally made me cry “Ouch”.
Tips and Cables
Tips were made of harder/smoother silicone; they were very comfortable and stayed in ears. Sony’s old EX tips will fit; Sony’s new hybrid tips can fit when I tried; Klipsch’s oval tips can fit when I tried harder; and, decored Shure olive tips also fit.
Panasonic has silver plated replacement cable; it can be bought in Japan.
It can also use replacement cable for Sleek Audio SA6; sound became thinner and warmer, not in a bad way, it’s just different.
A distant cousin of Stax， ER4P?
Have you experienced Stax headphones? It is balanced, fast, clean, effortless treble and speedy deep bass. It’s that kind of sound; one either loves it, or doesn’t care it at all. (Allow me to caution you, many complain Stax is too bright, not enough bass – please, let’s not debate on this one, people hear what they hear; if its treble bugs someone, it’s too bright that person; if one needs to concentrate and look for the bass, it’s not enough bass for that person.)
Panasonic RP-HJE900 reminds me Stax, it has most of Stax characters, although not as good; it does have more noticeable bass than Stax. Even it has only 50 percents of Stax sound; nonetheless, it is still a good way to have Stax sound without the bulk package. If you don’t mind carrying extra stuff, please do choose baby Stax.
How does ER4P compare? ER4P is more detailed, lesser bass, and too “clinic” sounding; RP-HJE900 is more exciting, more fun, but its treble is sometimes troublesome. (To me, ER4P’s treble is always there; RP-HJE900’s treble takes backseat from time to time, when it jumps out, it surprises me.)
Is it for you? Value?
It was priced $220 - $250 half year ago. Today, you can find it at $110 - $190.
I know this write-up has more negative tone, because this is an “odd” earphone; I really want to caution you, its pro can also be its con – I cannot simply recommend or reject. Even it is one of my favorite.
But, if you are new in the earphone adventure, I strongly suggest you spend your money on other well-loved earphones. You have smaller chance of disliking others than this one.
