[bakhtiar]

I must say this IEMs is very comfortable and I can fall asleep just by admiring and enjoying the beautiful SQ. Very recommended. But, remember that everyone has their own taste, and PFE is Perfect For my Ears

Thank you for introducing this marvelous IEMs.

BTW, Nuforce NE-7M also a very good IEMs and it do complement my music/sound taste.

 

[doubts even here]

First of all: This is a great forum, following this topic made me decide for the Phonaks and I didn't regret it.
I own them now since about a month and love them more every day.
Grey filters and invers mounted small olives seem to work best for me.
Before I owned Westone's UM1 and I propably don't have to say how big the step in SQ was

.

Edit: Just joined Team Phonak

 

[GreatDane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doubts even here /img/forum/go_quote.gif First of all: This is a great forum, following this topic made me decide for the Phonaks and I didn't regret it. I own them now since about a month and love them more every day. Grey filters and invers mounted small olives seem to work best for me. Before I owned Westone's UM1 and I propably don't have to say how big the step in SQ was . Edit: Just joined Team Phonak

Sweet! Welcome to Head-Fi and Team Phonak.

Team Phonak @46

 

[warehouse]

I haven't tried inverting my olive tips. Do you notice a sound difference or does it just help with your fit?

 

[doubts even here]

I mainly use them for better fit, since with any other tips I tried (even the Complys!) the phonaks felt a bit uncomfortable to me.
Maybe I have some "special" ears, since most users don't have any problem here

.
I'd say with the complys, sound was even a tiny bit clearer, however the better isolation of the olives makes that up for me.

 

[Merlin-PT]

I'm wating for the phonak and wonder what player should I get for them.
I've heard sony s639f and sansa fuze, personaly I prefer the sony sound type, but can understand the sansa SQ advantages.
Any recomendations, or the phonak are good with both players and it's just a mater of personal taste ?

 

[dfkt]

Just personal taste... they're both good. But the Sony certainly has the better EQ and enhancements (if you care about that).

 

[faranka]

Just tried the black filters again and all I can say is they don't sound nearly as good as the grey.
My thinking on the black filters is that they don't deliver more bass then the grey. The difference I hear is that the black filters lower the clarity and mids so the bass (and probably the highs) stand out more but they do not give extra bass!

I've got a question to the Cowon D2 owners wich use the PFE's: What EQ do you use (if any) and at what volume? I use de D2's EQ at 80Hz +2 with the others on 0. The Mach3Bass is on level 4.
I ask this question because I sometimes worry about listening to loud (my D2 is on around 10/50). Can you take away my worries?

Cheers!

 

[centerfold]

Okay, so, For anyone that has ordered from the Phonak website (or plan to!)

The $15 tax that you had to pay as tax to bypass being forced to pay a brokerage or duty tax (which didn't work as it seem some of my fellow Canadians had to pay it anyways) is no longer included in your transaction.
This means that you will still have to pay the mailman when he comes to your door, however, you will not be charged $15 on the website, and for those of you who did, I believe Phonak will be refunding you the $15 (Phonak put that back into my bank account.)

 

[radagast85]

Hello everyone, I'm a new member and a fresh Audéo owner as well!

First of all thanks to all of those who posted their impressions on the Phonaks, it's your fault if my wallet has shrunk a little lately...

A special thank you goes to dfkt for his excellent review!

Anyway, I got them from the German store about 2 weeks ago, the first time I plugged them in I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be after reading all the enthusiastic posts, but I soon realized how damn detailed these phones really are... Compared to my previous IEMs (won't tell you what they were to avoid getting flogged

) they're light years ahead. The song which really sold me on these is Flaming Telepaths by Blue Oyster Cult, don't know if any of you know about it, but that single piano note on the intro sounds incredible through the Phonaks!
The first day I got them I compared the grey and black filters right away, and prefered the former by a long way (the mids on the blacks sounded too muffled for my taste); however yesterday I popped the blacks in and kinda liked them, so I'm still not sure... But I'm definitely leaning towards the grey ones, those mids just blow me away.

The only slight drawback is that I don't get such a comfortable fit in the left ear, but it must have something to do with the shape of the ear canal, it's certainly not the phones' fault because the right one is fine.

So in the end I really love them, and the best thing I can say about them is that they've made want to listen music all day long, something I hadn't experienced in a long time...

 

[FlyPenFly]

Got the replacement pair from Audeo in this morning. My defective pair definitely had some sibiliance that doesn't seem to be as present in the replacement.

However, my impressions are still mostly the same.

Great upper, very nice tight bass, kinda fragile looking and feeling, build & finish don't seem quite as nice as most Shure phones and mids aren't quite as meaty as E4C/SCL4.

Its a value call but I'm not sure if it's worth three times the price of a Nuforce NE7M. I guess for me it is, but I'd have a hard time recommending these to a person over the Nuforce for people who just want a replacement for their stock headphones and don't care as much as I do.

Both are miles better than anything you'd find within $100 of their prices at a store shelf for sure. I think I'll be keeping them regardless.

edit: Three times, not twice.

 

[Surrealsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyPenFly /img/forum/go_quote.gif Got the replacement pair from Audeo in this morning. My defective pair definitely had some sibiliance that doesn't seem to be as present in the replacement. However, my impressions are still mostly the same. Great upper, very nice tight bass, kinda fragile looking and feeling, build & finish don't seem quite as nice as most Shure phones and mids aren't quite as meaty as E4C/SCL4. Its a value call but I'm not sure if it's worth twice the price of a Nuforce NE7M. I guess for me it is, but I'd have a hard time recommending these to a person over the Nuforce for people who just want a replacement for their stock headphones and don't care as much as I do. Both are miles better than anything you'd find within $100 of their prices at a store shelf for sure. I think I'll be keeping them regardless.

Blasphemy! Kidding, diff strokes for diff folks i guess but it sure is tickling many PFE users here

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyPenFly /img/forum/go_quote.gif Got the replacement pair from Audeo in this morning. My defective pair definitely had some sibiliance that doesn't seem to be as present in the replacement. However, my impressions are still mostly the same. Great upper, very nice tight bass, kinda fragile looking and feeling, build & finish don't seem quite as nice as most Shure phones and mids aren't quite as meaty as E4C/SCL4. Its a value call but I'm not sure if it's worth three times the price of a Nuforce NE7M. I guess for me it is, but I'd have a hard time recommending these to a person over the Nuforce for people who just want a replacement for their stock headphones and don't care as much as I do. Both are miles better than anything you'd find within $100 of their prices at a store shelf for sure. I think I'll be keeping them regardless. edit: Three times, not twice.

I'm at the point where there are only three universal IEM that I think are worth recommending, falling into three price categories, and all offer great performance for the price - Nuforce NE-7M $49, Phonak Audeo PFE $159 w/mic, and Westone 3. The Image X10 would be on the short list if the Phonak didn't exist.

Last night the Phonak (grey filters) were very helpful in listening to the differences in micro-details between some DAC/amps that I am reviewing, and the Westone 3 were letting me judge the overall performance of the amps and the immersion in the experience of the musical performance. But, later I popped in the NE-7M and there was no sudden shock of a downgrade in sound, and they continued to be enjoyable even at their budget price point. Sure, they don't have the detail of the Phonak or the immersion and engagement or "big" presentation of the Westone 3, but they do a very respectable job with the right tips and good burn-in.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Yeah, I've been flirting with the idea of picking up a USB DAC for my Unibody Macbook Pro as I've found the stock headphone out to be dissapointing.

Just not sure if it's worth it to get a USB DAC first for 200-300 or my first pair of cans since I lost my Grado SRXX and Senns a decade ago.

I like the Phonaks a lot and their customer service is A++, again, just not sure if it's worth a 300% premium over the NE-7M. I do definitely hear some details on the PFE that I do not hear on the NE7M but I'd say you get about 75-85% (depending on the freq section) of the sonic performance for three times less in the nuforce. I'm saying this using only the stock medium tips on the NE7M, I need to pick up the Shure tips at some point.

 

[tstarn06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyPenFly /img/forum/go_quote.gif Got the replacement pair from Audeo in this morning. My defective pair definitely had some sibiliance that doesn't seem to be as present in the replacement. However, my impressions are still mostly the same. Great upper, very nice tight bass, kinda fragile looking and feeling, build & finish don't seem quite as nice as most Shure phones and mids aren't quite as meaty as E4C/SCL4. Its a value call but I'm not sure if it's worth three times the price of a Nuforce NE7M. I guess for me it is, but I'd have a hard time recommending these to a person over the Nuforce for people who just want a replacement for their stock headphones and don't care as much as I do. Both are miles better than anything you'd find within $100 of their prices at a store shelf for sure. I think I'll be keeping them regardless. edit: Three times, not twice.

What do you not like about the build quality? Just curious? I don't find them to be fragile or cheap, just very light and compact, which allows them to be very unobtrusive and comfortable.

Also, I owned the NE7Ms, and sold them mainly because I felt they were way too bass heavy (even after burn-in), and overall, not anywhere near as comfortable as the PFEs. The price difference, to me at least, is about more than just sonic differences (though I think the PFEs definitely are worth 3x the price of the 7s). Comfort is also important. I guess if you consider the 7s and the PFEs equal on that front, not a problem. But to me, wearing the PFEs for hours on end is easy and I have done it, I could not say the same for the 7s (and I used the T400 foamies with them). Eventually, they were just too stuffy in my ears and I had to take them out.

But, of course, if the 7s pass the long-term wear test for you, then I can see where you are coming from relative to the sonic/SQ difference being worth the price.