[thatonenoob]

  Reading back through, I realized that I forgot to specifically note that I ended up going with the foam tips on mine.  They seem to provide the best seal in my ear as well as holding them firmly in place.  I'll probably buy a sample pack of the various foam tips available to see if the other foam shapes work better, but for now, it's just the basic, included foam tips for me.  They just seem the most forgiving for in-ear placement.
 
Additionally, I left out my subjective views of the IM02's sound quality.   Technical measurements are only one part of how you can expect something to sound.  My subjective views are as follows....
 
Because of placement in my ears, the silicone tips sound awful.  When I can get a seal, the music still sounds anemic and the highs are almost piercing.  A dagger through the eardrum and directly into my brain would be less painful.
 
The foam tips allow the earphones to sit in a better position, leading to better sound.  Bass sounds much better and the highs are almost a tad muffled.  Again, placement is everything.  Adding a little bit of pressure to get them a bit farther down my ear canal makes the sound fill out.  Bass is rich and full and highs are much more natural.  I can't say it enough, placement is everything.
 
Mids are the one high point of these.  Excepting the peak at 2-2.5kHz, the mids sound as close to perfect as I could expect.  The quality of the midrange is rich and powerful.  Midrange instruments sound exceptional and most vocals sound great.  Bass sounds present but a tad thin (again, because of placement), but it is certainly acceptable.  I've definitely heard much worse.  With a touch of HF EQ added, the highs fill out well and sound really good.  Everything becomes bright and clear.
 
Honestly, I expected better from these nearly $200 earphones.  These don't have the ruler flat reference quality sound that I expected based on other reviews, but they are still pretty good.  They are certainly better than your typical white earphones that come included with your late-model, overpriced fruit phone; but I'm not quite sure that they're worth the premium price.  Maybe I'm just too picky.  These certainly won't replace my studio monitors on my desk, or my large over the ear headphones, but they should work just fine for small, coffee shop earphones or for traveling.

 
Sorry to hear that your experience with the IM02 wasn't great. 

 
I've just popped these open again, and I have to say the seal is probably what's getting you.  To expand on your prior statements (if I may), the IM02 has a shallow fit seal, and from what I understand, this hasn't always worked out particularly brilliantly for all ears.  For me, they work great, but I'm only one of many users.
 
One of the things that really worked for me was curving the memory portion so that the bumpy portion "hooks" onto the bottom of my earlobe. 
 
I'm not ready to say the highs are piercing, but definitely, they do have a certain harshness at times. 
 
For me, it was certainly better than many other things in its price range (i.e. Shure SE215, 315, etc., UM Pro 10), but ymmv.  
 
Good luck and (hopefully) happy listening! 

 

[van nguyen]

Best purchase i've ever made! I found it for 95 pounds in the UK (shipping included, all the way from japan). Sound is just awesome, blows the ue900 and gr07 classic out of the water. However, i'd like to have more soundstage and a bit more laid back mids. But u know, it's too much to expect from the price already.

 

[chailee80]

Really been liking my new im02s, that is when i can get a good seal. The insertion depth is shorter than my im70s and as a result getting an ideal seal has proved difficult at times. More often than not i seem to get a better seal on one side than the other which seem to skew the vocals more to one side which irritates me somewhat. When i do get the correct seal i find them quite well balanced overall, the low end and mids seem fairly neutral with nothing really sticking out and the top end has a nice roll off that retains a nice sparkle and yet doesnt make them too sibilant for my ears. Great detail, seperation and a decent soundstage finishes things off very nicely. Considering that they sell locally for around $300 i was pleased to be able to pick them up online for $160 and at that pricepoint they're the best i have heard so far.
 
I have found these iems behave a bit strangely when plugged into my denon piccolo micro system, the upper mids and highs get much more emphasized and they lose almost all there low end, i'm guessing its something to do with the impedance as my shure se846s have no issue when plugged into the same system.

 

[jant71]

  Really been liking my new im02s, that is when i can get a good seal. The insertion depth is shorter than my im70s and as a result getting an ideal seal has proved difficult at times. More often than not i seem to get a better seal on one side than the other which seem to skew the vocals more to one side which irritates me somewhat. When i do get the correct seal i find them quite well balanced overall, the low end and mids seem fairly neutral with nothing really sticking out and the top end has a nice roll off that retains a nice sparkle and yet doesnt make them too sibilant for my ears. Great detail, seperation and a decent soundstage finishes things off very nicely. Considering that they sell locally for around $300 i was pleased to be able to pick them up online for $160 and at that pricepoint they're the best i have heard so far.
 
I have found these iems behave a bit strangely when plugged into my denon piccolo micro system, the upper mids and highs get much more emphasized and they lose almost all there low end, i'm guessing its something to do with the impedance as my shure se846s have no issue when plugged into the same system.

 
You can try the old UE flip mod on these. May make the insertion depth better. That is if you have gone up a tip size already which would be the easier fix. I actually do both at the moment. I had an ear thing and thought maybe I had an armature issue on the left earpiece but I swapped to check that they were okay. Then I decided to try the flip mod while I was at it. I do think a better seal at the slightly farther distance helps the stage a bit and the seal might be a bit easier to achieve. Still testing as this was yesterday and I need to live with it a few days. Needing to re-bend the memory wire is the only downside so far

 

[chailee80]

   
You can try the old UE flip mod on these. May make the insertion depth better. That is if you have gone up a tip size already which would be the easier fix. I actually do both at the moment. I had an ear thing and thought maybe I had an armature issue on the left earpiece but I swapped to check that they were okay. Then I decided to try the flip mod while I was at it. I do think a better seal at the slightly farther distance helps the stage a bit and the seal might be a bit easier to achieve. Still testing as this was yesterday and I need to live with it a few days. Needing to re-bend the memory wire is the only downside so far

Just tried it and it just seems to skew the vocals to the opposite side, i'm starting to think i may have an armature issue. Its strange because certain songs sound normal and then on some the vocals will sound way off to the side and then other songs it may only be slightly off so i'm not quite sure what to make of it. When i play the same songs with my im70s the vocals sound perfectly centered.

 

[jant71]

Hmmm, I was just doing the swap before to gauge the difference as I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.  Maybe a slightly bigger stage and a better seal makes them a bit thicker/warmer not as bright. More forward and intimate the stock way since I can hear things a bit closer and that makes sense since the housings are a few mm deeper than when flipped. I don't hear any major change in positioning. Vocals a bit further back than before though still forward but no opposite side thing.
 
You plugging  the R into L wire and L into R wire?  You will get things changing positions and opposite sounds if you are swapping the channels and not just the drivers.
 
Hopefully, like me there was no armature problem. I got worried cause I was listening in bed and was messing with them and seem to lose some bass in one side but it was laying on my side and a little fluid in the ear thankfully was the cause and things were OK.

 

[chailee80]

  Hmmm, I was just doing the swap before to gauge the difference as I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.  Maybe a slightly bigger stage and a better seal makes them a bit thicker/warmer not as bright. More forward and intimate the stock way since I can hear things a bit closer and that makes sense since the housings are a few mm deeper than when flipped. I don't hear any major change in positioning. Vocals a bit further back than before though still forward but no opposite side thing.
 
You plugging  the R into L wire and L into R wire?  You will get things changing positions and opposite sounds if you are swapping the channels and not just the drivers.
 
Hopefully, like me there was no armature problem. I got worried cause I was listening in bed and was messing with them and seem to lose some bass in one side but it was laying on my side and a little fluid in the ear thankfully was the cause and things were OK.

Yep, switched the cables to the opposite drivers and then bent the memory wire the other way so they would fit my ears. Now instead of normally being skewed to the left the vocals are skewed to the right which makes me think its not a seal issue but a driver issue.

 

[jant71]

Yeah that way out to the side vocals thing is odd if it doesn't happen with the IM70.
 
Just grasping at straws but did it happen or you notice it during or after plugging into the Denon micro system? That bass disappearing thing is odd but for something that should have enough juice like the HO jack of a micro system. Maybe the Denon damaged the crossover or the armatures. IM70 maximum input is 200mW and the IM-02 says 3mW on the box.

 

[chailee80]

  Yeah that way out to the side vocals thing is odd if it doesn't happen with the IM70.
 
Just grasping at straws but did it happen or you notice it during or after plugging into the Denon micro system? That bass disappearing thing is odd but for something that should have enough juice like the HO jack of a micro system a bit odd. Maybe the Denon damaged the crossover or the armatures. IM70 maximum input is 200mW and the IM-02 says 3mW on the box.

Nah it had the skewed vocals out of the box which i noticed when first playing music from my ipad and galaxy s5, i then tried it in my denon to see if that also had the issue. What confuses me is how some songs sound ok and some are slightly off and some sound way off, its almost like theres a frequency range missing in the mids.
The issue with my denon also effects my soundmagic pl50 which is also a BA iem but does not effect my shure se846s which is a BA iem as well lol.

 

[jant71]

Yeah, you have enough on hand to know something is probably/possibly wrong. Hopefully you can get them exchanged for another pair.

 

[chailee80]

  Yeah, you have enough on hand to know something is probably/possibly wrong. Hopefully you can get them exchanged for another pair.

Decided to give them one more try this morning and for some reason they sounded absolutely fine with no imbalance in the vocals. So its safe to say i'm completely confused and starting to question my sanity lol. I'll have to keep experimenting with them for a bit longer i guess.

 

[jeff92k7]

Thought I'd post back with an update now that I've had them for well over a month.  I ended up ordering a set of the large size Comply foam tips.  They turn these IM02's into completely different earphones.  The sport tips don't sound very good at all.  I'm not really surprised.  The foam on those tips looks much more porous than the comfort or isolation tips.
 
With the large sized comfort or isolation tips on these, the sound fills out much better in my ear.  I'm not going to bother with measurements again, but it sounds to my ear like the lows and mids have come up to almost ruler flat compared to my earlier measurements.  (Look for my earlier posts to see the frequency response graphs).  The highs still sound rolled off a bit, but this is acceptable and doesn't sound too far out of balance.  With the bass coming up to nearly flat, I can actually feel a little bit of sound pressure from the bass notes now.  This is a very good thing.  Before, I could tell the bass was present, but it wasn't much beyond that.  Though I should probably clarify that when I say I feel it, I mean that it's right where it should be, but it certainly isn't too much.  I don't want a teenager's car stereo in my ears.  I want smooth, flat, full, natural response and that's what I'm getting from the lows and mids on these now.

 

[torchwood14]

Great informative review and you gave some particular insights that are helpful.  My first headphone was the ATH-M50, can you tell me if the sound signature is comparable to that sound or is more like the CKS77, both of which I own?

Having both the im02 and the m50. I would say that the im02 is a fair bit leaner than the m50 but thats to be expected from a ba iem. If you're looking for an iem similar the sound of the m50 i would recommend the im70 or im50.

 

[ianeith]

I recently purchsed the IM02, and had trouble finding the correct fit with the tips provided, therefore missing out on the tight bass. I ended up using sony hybrid tips, the largest ones (light-blue). They work perfectly well, and fit snugly on the IM02 nozzles
 
Just FYI for whoever has the same issue.

 

[ianeith]

  If single BA IEMs can retail around $25, why can't dual ones retail for around $50? It's not
like they have a fancy crossover or something else to boost the price. I guess its just
the novelty of dual BA. Let's see what happens when dual BA ones become mainstream 
and extremely common. Remember when the first dual core PC processors came out?
Now many quad core ones are very inexpensive.

Your xba-1, along with the xba-2, and other products of that line are a special case in terms of pricing for BA products.
 
Sony has reduced their prices across the world, probably selling out older (and slightly-flawed; see impedance issue in reviews) product, especially in lieu of the newer hybrid models, and now the even newer xba-a1/a2/a3/z5 line.
 
About a year ago I purchased an xba-2 for 50 U.S. bucks at a sony-centre store... And an xba-1 for 30 dollars.
 
The performance of these Sony BA models does not really compare to the type that can be found in IEMs such as the IM02, or other BA IEMs priced far above the ATH that provide similar performance for more cash.