[kameenadesi]

I'd say don't bother looking for an IEM which is < $100 if its for trance..IMO you won't get the all-round satisfaction you could get with let's say Audio Technica CK10(got mine for $240)... to save time and money, try to invest atleast another $100 to get the required soundstage/imaging/separation for trance... Oh and if you want bass/deepness, clarity, and immersion... Shigzeo geared me towards the iBasso T3 portable amp, which works great with the CK10/RE0 and Trance.

 

[tacomn]

well the dba- 2 are 145 and alot of respected headfliers think of them as defiantly up there with the top dogs. Read alot of accounts of the dba beating all types of natural and analytical iem such as the ck10.

 

[kameenadesi]

This might be a little dated, but since this was a decision regarding an IEM for trance, i would like to comment.  Trance is all i listen to, and i've had the CK10 for 6 months...unamped they sound great, just a little lacking in the low end (totally lacking compared to an IE8) ...but then i bought a great little amp--the iBasso T3 which transformed the CK10 into a truly immersive trance IEM with non-overpowering but plentiful and immersive bass.   But then i ordered the Sennheiser IE8 and received a week ago, they have probably 20 hours on them and i am totally blown away by the immersion, wide soundstage(not much height) but still incredible for trance, and the highs are a little less crisp than the sparkly CK10, but the details are all there, and the mids are great (not forward or recessed)....i know the Sennheiser IE8 needs atleast another 280 hours or so to reach it's full potential but at this point i am in complete awe while experiencing Trance and the IE8 soundstage--with the iBasso T3 that is.  I am leaning towards the Earsonics SM3 because it supposedly has the largest/widest soundstage and overall better sound quality compared to all other universal IEMs.  So just to conclude everything, I would highly recommend the IE8 for an awesome trance experience with the reverberant/visceral bass and cool soundstage and everything, but if you're kind of a detail freak, the CK10 is phenomenal with trance.  Its been a week since i've had the Sennheiser IE8...and i've probably listened to my CK10 for about 4 hours throughout the week, I just love the immersion that the IE8 brings with Trance. It's like im in a small car with amazingly clear speakers when i hear the CK10, but the IE8 makes me feel like im drowning in a pool of music with clarity, immersion, deep bass and transparency.

 

[kameenadesi]

^^ huge amounts of kudos to Shigzeo for recommending the CK10 and especially the iBasso T3...

and by the way guys...if you think the RE0 are the best bargain IEM under $100...to me not anymore..

I bought my Sennhieser IE8 from this website called Headphone-outlet.com(it was a google ad on the right hand side of the headfi homepage)....for $69.99!!!
Yes that right, and i dont think they're fake at all...my IE8s have about 100 hours on em and they have the same sound characteristics as usually described on head-fi...

They sound phenomenal...nothing more to say. (just one issue though, if the wires shake while in your ear, the sound goes intermittent until you fiddle with it in your ear...takes 2 secs...but for $69.99 i dont care.)

It came in a small aluminum kinda package with the Sennheiser sticker made in TAIWAN.

 

[mvw2]

You should try the Triple.Fi 10.  I keep suggesting it for techno type music because it has great bass, great highs, and a very strong side to side directional sense.  It also has a immersive, surrounding kind of presence.  The sound stage isn't as big as the IE8, but the presence is thicker and more enveloping.  With music like this I find it's kind of preferred to have a high energy presentation with good authority on both the top and bottom ends.  Because there are many times a lot of left-right panning or alternating within the music.  Having an earphone with a very strong left and right sense as well as just plain good locational cues can really get your eyes bouncing back and forth in your skull.  Really the IE8 and CK10 are great earphones.  I see the IE8 is a very competent earphone and the CK10 as one of the best earphones out there.  I just see the Triple.Fi 10 as both a very good device as well as a more fitting device for the presentation and experience one typically looks for playing the techno genre.
 
 
Notes on headphone-outlet:
http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.headphone-outlet.com
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews245867.html

 

[kameenadesi]

Thanx mvw2, I will take your word for it to try the TF10 one day...but to me it just feels like "once you go wide, you don't go back" ....(soundstage).... as i find the CK10 to feel small and boring right after switching from IE8. Maybe its the brain burn in that takes longer when switching from a Dynamic to a BA?  i could hear the sparkle of the IE8 slowly fading as time passes, I guess some headfiers are right after all... the IE8 does get A LITTLE "boring" (for some) after 100s of hours.  But my initial excitement was definitely no joke, and I'm still lovin them (the tingles, chills, euphoric rush, goosebumps I get, and emotion of the Dynamic IE8 with trance...my oh my...) Maybe after the sparkle 'burns out'  I'll gladly take advantage of the CK10.    Im still very interested in the CK100(james444) and SM3, but i'll wait till one of my IEMs break before ordering one of them.

And about headphone-outlet.com--    I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones out there who didnt recieve a fake IEM.  A day after ordering from this Hong Kong dealer, i read the exact same reviews which were in your links above ^^ and immediately called AMEX and told them to make a stop payment, and they did. I still recieved the IE8 in the mail about 2 weeks later.  Maybe its just the other IEMs they sell which are fake, i dunno. customers who reviewed the website didnt mention recieving a fake IE8.  I guess it has all the internals of the IE8 but the rest is cheap parts? Either way only time can tell if they will break or stop working... I will definitely update, if the wires or anything else malfunctions.

 

[mvw2]

The Triple.Fi 10 will carry some of the stage size and bass presence of the IE8.
 
From what I read, it seemed more like they were reselling damaged IE8s.  I read a couple responses stating a side didn't work when they received them.  I'm curious if they are simply buying broken, unwarrantable ones and reselling.  In the end, you pretty much know you're not getting the right thing for $70.  It just doesn't happen.  Even if it's not fake, there's something wrong with it.  Just be lucky yours works well enough.
 
The IE8 does do well for techno.  It's been a while since I've owned a pair though so techno on the IE8 isn't something fresh in my mind.  I do know that I've always seen the Triple.Fi 10 as a better option for that genre.
 
I felt similar with the CK10.  From a technical standpoint, they are amazing.  They do basically everything right and improve once you EQ out the treble peak at 10kHz and help out the bass sub 50Hz.  However, I was kind of sitting at the same thought as you.  They simply weren't...immersive.  I owned the RE252 at the time while Joker let me demo his CK10 for a bit.  I ended up just plain preferring the RE252 because it was just more direct and involving.  They're both really high level products, but in the end you still need to feel attached to and immersed in the music.  The RE252 should be an earphone you should own at least once.  In my eyes it's like the ER4S, a reference level product that pretty much shows how things should be done.  The new RE262's coming out soon too, woohoo!
 
Still for techno, rab, any type of club, trance, stuff like this, the Triple.Fi 10 has been my favorite.  It's energetic and immersive, and it's hard not to just get into the music, and for that purpose I haven't used a better option.  It'll be interesting what you think having used the CK10 and IE8.  You get some of the treble quality and detail of the CK10 and some of the strong bass line of the IE8.  It should be fun.

 

[james444]

If you love both the energy and dynamics of the IE8 and the detail and crispness of the CK10 you should really try a "moving armature" based IEM like the Ortofon e-Q7 or (if price is no issue) the FI-BA-SS. IMO these are great examples of a new crossbreed technology that combines the virtues of DD and BA in a single driver. Oh, and of course both are brilliant trance phones.

 

[kameenadesi]

thanks James and mvw2, and sorry for the late reply.. but my wallet cannot handle the stress of searching for anymore universal monitors....for trance. It's like there's too many contenders out there and also up and coming stars (FI-BA-SS)....

my initial excitement for the IE8 has died out about 35% due to the degradation of Treble sparkle and excitement. Ok ok, you win... the IE8 has become boring. But the CK10 isnt really helping either...

all aboard!!! --the Custom Monitor ship.. I just need a few more bucks and I am ordering the JH16pro/JH-3a combo... hearing that the JH16 is like a grown up TF10... im ecstatic!! and i will possibly buy the Pico Slim for portability uses.

I cannot wait to experience JH16 soundstage and relentless treble sparkle...

The only other universal monitor that I am looking forward to reading about is the Jays X-Jays...with trance.

 

[mvw2]

Grab the Triple.Fi 10 first.  Give it a whirl.  After that, then start looking at customs.  Realize customs aren't all that different from universals.  They're more comfortable, isolate better, and simply offer a different mix of drivers that may or may not fit your preferences.  Some people have even gone back to universals from customs.

 

[kameenadesi]

advice taken, currently looking for the best deal on Triple Fi 10...

 

[kiteki]

Meh, if kamenadeezi was looking for dynamic-driver bass and immensely huge soundstage the CK10 isn't even what he was looking for in the first place, that's just naive, the CK10 is balanced-armature and soundstage is not immense at all, it is quite confined, it is however, the best soundstage I have ever heard, within the x y z parameters of it's depth, width and height.
 
I don't even listen to trance that much, it's not my favorite kind of music, I can personally vouch for the CK10 though, that I think they are THE 'phones for trance, including all full-size headphones I've heard.
Why?  because I think the CK10's are flawed, yes I think they're rubbish, yes, I think they are too smooth, too artificial, too fake treble, too un-acoustic, too flat, too perfect in soundstage, too watery, too relaxing (they're like xanax), too unnatural, too damn smooth, they're like cream
 
Then you turn on some trance, and everything I stated in the above sentence goes straight out the window, every flaw becomes a flower and every vice becomes a virtue, it's not like ho|y sh|t What experience, it's just like some giant tongue just licked you and the goddess of time stopped her clock, all seconds and ticks and tocks nonsense now, I am dancing in a room of a black syrup void, and patting pacman on the head.  If I bought some virtual reality glasses with strobe lights and dancing hot chicks and took some ecstacy, as far as my sensory input was concerned I'd probably think I was really at a club, that's what the CK10's are like.

 

[yianni]

i listen to trance 24/7 and i use the ie8s theyre great

 

[Sil3nce]

Quote:

This might be a little dated, but since this was a decision regarding an IEM for trance, i would like to comment.  Trance is all i listen to, and i've had the CK10 for 6 months...unamped they sound great, just a little lacking in the low end (totally lacking compared to an IE8) ...but then i bought a great little amp--the iBasso T3 which transformed the CK10 into a truly immersive trance IEM with non-overpowering but plentiful and immersive bass.   But then i ordered the Sennheiser IE8 and received a week ago, they have probably 20 hours on them and i am totally blown away by the immersion, wide soundstage(not much height) but still incredible for trance, and the highs are a little less crisp than the sparkly CK10, but the details are all there, and the mids are great (not forward or recessed)....i know the Sennheiser IE8 needs atleast another 280 hours or so to reach it's full potential but at this point i am in complete awe while experiencing Trance and the IE8 soundstage--with the iBasso T3 that is.  I am leaning towards the Earsonics SM3 because it supposedly has the largest/widest soundstage and overall better sound quality compared to all other universal IEMs.  So just to conclude everything, I would highly recommend the IE8 for an awesome trance experience with the reverberant/visceral bass and cool soundstage and everything, but if you're kind of a detail freak, the CK10 is phenomenal with trance.  Its been a week since i've had the Sennheiser IE8...and i've probably listened to my CK10 for about 4 hours throughout the week, I just love the immersion that the IE8 brings with Trance. It's like im in a small car with amazingly clear speakers when i hear the CK10, but the IE8 makes me feel like im drowning in a pool of music with clarity, immersion, deep bass and transparency.

This is exactly what I think and the IE8 continually blow me away on trance.

 

[kameenadesi]

kiteki you're hilarious... we need more people like you on this earth, we should meet some day... and you have quite a distinct taste for music...i haven't even heard of most of the genres you listed...

anyways, at first I didnt know what kind of sound signature i was looking for, Thats why i started this thread, asking headfiers what they think is the best/favorite Trance IEM is according to headfiers' experience... majority of votes went to TF10 CK10 Copper IE8 and i think one more but i can't remember...reviews of the CK10 with trance excited me the most so i took the plunge...and later i randomly ordered IE8...which complements the CK10 ( i guess its the best of both worlds )...

Both the CK10 and IE8 are awesome phones for the Trance genre... For every new track(trance song) that sounds great...i automatically do a comparison of the IE8 and CK10... 65% of the time they sound better on the IE8... some vocals really shine on the CK10...but hey some tracks sound better on the CK10, especially HD Youtube Trance Tracks

Again... different flavors.... So i guess you could say both of those IEMs helped me figure out what sound signature for trance i am truly looking for... something with Sennheiser(dynamic) type bass that gives off emotion, very emotional mids(vocals), and smooth sparkly treble but not too sparkly... If the IE8 and CK10 mated...their offspring would be my choice of a Trance IEM...