[kramer5150]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gshan Hm. I wonder if the shrieking a lot of people experience with these semi-canalphones (ex5/7, md33, hje50) can be neutralized to some degree with some experimentation with EQ? Gigabomber, my friend loves his Sharps too but also felt too much in the high end on his MD player and computer. Some messing around with the EQ on player/winamp seemed to hit the spot for him. It'll involve some comprimise though, as he had to adjust most of the other frequency bars to get balance. I'm not really a big fan of EQing though. I heard from a member that the overall dropoffs in the frequencies take away too much from quality. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

I have EX51 and EQing does help. I have to boost 3500Hz and recess 16khz. The problem with doing that is it makes upper mids very conjested and muddy.

IMHO the piercing exagerated treble is not that bad, since you can cut that with an EQ. Its the recessed and muddy mids that are the biggest flaw.

Garrett

 

[JohnRich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zvio Is there any option for alternative sleeves? There are a bajillion for Ety and Shure IEMs, why not for our phones too? If anyone has any other plugs, maybe try them on and see how the fit/sound? Fanks.

The ER6 foamies fit the HJE and Ex71 although it's a tight squeeze; much better isolation and seal than with the stock sleeves.

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRich The ER6 foamies fit the HJE and Ex71 although it's a tight squeeze; much better isolation and seal than with the stock sleeves.

Hm, there's something I never thought of. I wonder if ER6 foamies would affect the sound coming out of these semi-canalphones. I think I'm willing to experiment and give it a shot. Could always use more isolation from outrageously loud cellphone callers.

Head-fi's new sponsor has them (http://store.yahoo.com/earplugstore/er6isearbyet.html), but black color only comes in average size.

 

[RonTheMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRich The ER6 foamies fit the HJE and Ex71 although it's a tight squeeze; much better isolation and seal than with the stock sleeves.

Perhaps you could enlighten us with the difference in sound?

 

[XxATOLxX]

Great review! Glad I made the right choice with the HJE50's. By the way, the around the neck thing isnt too bad, in fact, I think its actually pretty good because you can hang it around it your neck when you arent using it. This is particularly useful at school when you are talking to your friends.

 

[450]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRich The ER6 foamies fit the HJE and Ex71 although it's a tight squeeze; much better isolation and seal than with the stock sleeves.

Flanges work?

 

[DiamondView]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zvio I have the HJE50s. You've prob. seen me post this elsewhere but they def. need to be modded to sound right. I would recommend stuffing some not-so-dense foam in the tube to cut those shrieking highs down. The bass doesn't really suffer as long as you eq the lower 20hz freqs up a little on your portable source. These are blatently not audiophile phones but they cost next to nothing so making them sound fun is half the challenge. My gripe is they don't seem to seal properly. I started with the little caps [size small] and progressed to the more accomidating mediums. They still did not suffice so I put on king-sized, magnum caps but those hurt my canals..[there's some kind of vague analogy here I don't seem to want to build on ]. Does anyone else notice that they deliver deeper bass and clearer mids when you push them a bit but don't move your fingers away? If you apply moderate pressure upon the chrome bits, you will hear them much better..they seem to pull out themselves and really cut the isolation down. I tried wetting the capsules by spit, small quantities of chapstick/blistex, hand lotion, antiseptic evaporating stuff, etc. Obviously, I applied it on the outside so none of this gunks up the channel but it seems to be there's no perfect seal to be had with these. Either they plug too deeply and you can't hear much or they're too far out to really cut peoples voices out. What's the deal? Does anyone have any fitting responces to this[harrr harr!!! pirate.]?

Yeah I agree with all that. These are my first canal-type phones and for me the small plugs were the most comfortable - however they do seem to want to push themselves out (even when sitting still). If you push them too far you seem to lose any sort of decent sound so I suspect the rubber is starting to block the driver. The upper mids and high's do seem really fatiguing with some tracks although not all - maybe there's some sort of resonance being struck with certain tracks... still for the price.
Also curious to know how the ER6 foamies perform.

 

[Slackboy72]

Bought some HJE50s in Singapore while on holiday recently and was very surprised by the sound. I am now a fan of the intra-canal type phones as I find the Senn Mx550s to be too uncomfortable and not bassy enough for my liking. The Panasonics were comfortable straight out of the box and the bass was superb.

Is there much point in upgrading to the Shure E2cs or the Etymotics?

 

[DigDub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slackboy72 Bought some HJE50s in Singapore while on holiday recently and was very surprised by the sound. I am now a fan of the intra-canal type phones as I find the Senn Mx550s to be too uncomfortable and not bassy enough for my liking. The Panasonics were comfortable straight out of the box and the bass was superb. Is there much point in upgrading to the Shure E2cs or the Etymotics?

if you like more isolation, the e2c and ety offer higher level of isolation. sound quality wise, its up to indivduals. i prefer the sound of the sony51/81 and the sharp md33 over the e2c.

oh, and hope you had a nice time in singapore.

 

[Rodent]

Okay, I've used my hje50s for a couple of days now to see if there was any noise.
I did notice some noise for a couple of seconds with my ipod when I chose a playlist but didn't actually start playing it. I think the noise only lasted a couple of seconds.
However I never heard any noise when I was playing a track that was silent.
I don't think noise will be an issue with these.

 

[Slackboy72]

Some more from me on the Panasonics...

I like them for the reasons given above but I think where they fall down is on the transients. They almost sound like the attack has been rolled off with a compressor or similar acoustic processor (such as the Transient Designer from SPL Labs

).

If you listen to Fragma's Toca Me at about the 2 minute mark you will hear a little staccato guitar type riff. On my Boston Acoustics in my car these notes jump out and grab my attention. On my old Paradigms they leap out as well. On my really really old Sennheiser HD450 IIs (yeah I know, they're crap) there is a notably more dynamic response.

This is the key gripe I have with these earplugs although if you're listening to them all night on the train from Ha Noi to Hoi An (where Vietnam railways bombard you with the most godawful traditional Vietnamese music imaginable) you will be thankful that they are'nt as demanding on the ears.

I also find that they respond well to tweeking up in the highs which is good because once you have the bass down pat you'll need to correct the mids and highs. Here the mids suffer so I do the 800-1kHz -6db notch trick to give it all some air. As most of what I listen to is techno it doesn't hurt too much but it isn't a good compromise for my classical stuff.

Overall I'm very pleased with the HJE 50s and think they perform well above their price and design limitations. For serious listening I would prefer something more dynamic but for travelling they are excellent (tangled cables comparable with Gourdian knots not withstanding).

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRich The ER6 foamies fit the HJE and Ex71 although it's a tight squeeze; much better isolation and seal than with the stock sleeves.

bumpity bump.

John, or anyone else have any experience with the sound coming out of EX/HJE/even MD33 when modded with Ety Foamies?

much appreciated,

-shan

 

[JETninja]

I don't claim to be an expert, and I think the awesome sig ratio of my Zen Touch helps, the depth of silence it has (I listen in a mostly very quiet office) is incredible. The Panny's give me what I call "WOW" moments all the time. I could use a tad more bass (understand, in my home theater I have one of these: www.svsubwoofers.com so I know and love real BASS down to foundation moving 10hz) but from LOTR soundtracks (got all three loaded) to my favorite Pink Floyd (the DSOTM SACD burned to WMA Lossless) and Led Zeppelin (got dozens of Boots all the way back to '68) just sound incredible. No static issues. Clarity and transitional reponse is VERY good. The highs are nice to my ears, and the tonal qualities I hear from Plant's voice, or Page's Bow in D&C are breathtaking IMO. Best $20 I ever spent. (and the SVS Sub the best $700

) Got mine at Buy.com

Nice review btw!

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JETninja I don't claim to be an expert, and I think the awesome sig ratio of my Zen Touch helps, the depth of silence it has (I listen in a mostly very quiet office) is incredible. The Panny's give me what I call "WOW" moments all the time. I could use a tad more bass (understand, in my home theater I have one of these: www.svsubwoofers.com so I know and love real BASS down to foundation moving 10hz) but from LOTR soundtracks (got all three loaded) to my favorite Pink Floyd (the DSOTM SACD burned to WMA Lossless) and Led Zeppelin (got dozens of Boots all the way back to '68) just sound incredible. No static issues. Clarity and transitional reponse is VERY good. The highs are nice to my ears, and the tonal qualities I hear from Plant's voice, or Page's Bow in D&C are breathtaking IMO. Best $20 I ever spent. (and the SVS Sub the best $700 ) Got mine at Buy.com Nice review btw!

Thanks JET. I better try my Panasonics with a different source to make sure I won't have to make a return/exchange with amazon.

 

[Zvio]

I just keep getting surprised by these each day!!

I have a sine generator and these guys have no trouble hitting all the low bass freqs down from 40 and down[it only allows me to go as low as 10hz]. I'm going to give them some more time to burn in but they sound great and I prefer the little caps, not the medium ones. They seem to envelope my ears more thoroughly.

Keep on