Precog's IEM Reviews & Impressions

[Precogvision]

@Precogvision : thanks for IE900 review. The way you describe it kinda reminds me of Hyla (CE5/TE-5B).

Since the midrange is not that good, how does it impact to timbre?

Not going to lie, I was mostly just soaking in the juicy bass while listening to a lot of EDM/K-Pop. Banbeu and Tork say it lacks bite with stuff like electric guitars, though. Pattern of decay is expectedly good as it’s a single DD, so it doesn't sound lacking in “weight” or anything like that intangibly.

 

[Precogvision]

nice lol

 

[surfgeorge]

@Precogvision When are you going to review the Unique Melody 3DT? This IEM is loved by its owners and it really isn't getting that much attention by the reviewer community. I like it better than the Blessing 2 Dusks. It's a 3 dynamic driver design and therefore has very nice timbral accuracy which is important to some segment of the audiophile community.

Actually, I am going to be in the Bay area next week. If you want to listen to mine, I am up for meeting up. I would like you to listen to it also with the Fiio UTWS3 to get your impressions of that TWS solution. I'll provide both.

I'd also be very interested in your take of the UM 3DT!

Like HifiHawaii808 I like it significantly better than the B2 and like it almost as much as the IER-M9.
In some way it's the perfect complement to the M9, where the M9 is precise, detailed and coherent but a little dull the 3DT is grande, lively, dynamic and super engaging.
In terms of value the 3DT is simply phenomenal IMO, it just needed a bit of work to get a good fit and find the right cable.

 

[tgx78]

@Precogvision if you are interested, I can send over my 3DT to you.

 

[Tiax]

nice lol

according to your "friend", you didn't even had a homework lol

 

[Strifeff7]

nice lol

I see a meme
I send a like

 

[efftee]

The thing about the Bird is that its treble doesn't seem to be tokened by the ESTs very heavily. If you listen carefully to the initial impact of percussive hits and the texture, it sounds more like it's just coming from a standard BA. And that's probably because it is. Someone did a teardown of one (for conversion to a CIEM) and found that it has two other drivers, Sonion E50DT0005/Ts, dedicated to the treble. So the ESTs are only responsible for the last leg of treble. Two takeaways from that: 1) it would explain why the Bird's extension and air isn't exceptional, and 2) why it sounds so coherent for a hybrid. But this is all just supposition, so don't take this for fact, please.

Took 64 pages here and about 200 pages from another thread for the light to come on. Damn. I can finally go to sleep now...

 

[Precogvision]

@Precogvision if you are interested, I can send over my 3DT to you.

Haha I guess I have to give in to the amount of requests I’ve had for that one.

Let’s wait until your GS Audio IEM shows up though, so we don’t have to pay double shipping

according to your "friend", you didn't even had a homework lol

I've dealt with the matter via PM now, so I'll just paraphrase what I said there.

There are a number of red flags that stood out to me from the excerpt, which made me certain that it's not coincidence:

• The chances of stumbling upon that combination of words, in that same order for two consecutive sentences, and within that specific context, are next to zero.
• The reviewer's previous reviews make zero mention of terms like "transients", "attack", or "decay" (which still aren't being used correctly most of the time).
• I've written dozens of reviews, and I read dozens more for fun too. I know my writing style when I see it, and I'm familiar with the writing style of many other reviewers. It's very easy to tell when someone has plagiarized my work, especially when it's this blatant.

It’s totally cool if someone shares similar opinions as me. But if someone's going to write a formal review, I'd appreciate it if they could expand on it some more or, even easier, just quote me instead of copying an excerpt from my review almost word-for-word. Readers rely on these reviews to make purchase decisions with their hard-earned money, so it's very disheartening when I see stuff like this. Still, to me it speaks to a more fundamental problem with reviews in this industry. Please don't attack this reviewer any further (I'd prefer if they stayed anonymous hence the black bars I added over), as the issue has been cleared up and they are in the process of removing the plagiarized sentences.

 

[KuroKitsu]

The midrange of the IE900 is where things go south. I don't know if it's intentional, but none of Sennheiser's IEMs have proper pinna compensation. Surprisingly, I do not find the IE900's midrange particularly recessed despite the strong upper-midrange recession; indeed, it's more along the lines of slightly edgy. I would surmise this is due to the strong contrast to the more elevated treble response. But here, it's really on the front of imaging with which the IE900 suffers. The center image sounds almost inverted, and I find myself staring (somewhere) into the innards of my brain to pinpoint it. It's unnerving, and it's a shame that neither the IER-Z1R nor the IE900 seems to be able to nail a proper midrange. The IER-Z1R's midrange has a very noticeable dip to ~2.5kHz and more grit to its decay by comparison. Don't buy either of these IEMs for their midrange.

You should try JH sometime Precog, now that's a real upper mids recession. From my short time with the IE900, the psuedo pinna gain thingy they do, does work well. It could have been the linear upper mids treble the Phantom does and I'm glad it isn't.

Excellent review, thanks for these impressions. I almost predicted how you'd hear the mids, given your preference for more forward upper mids. For me the more recessed upper mids are just right - I don't hear vocals as recessed, but they're not forward either. Thankfully the clarity and detail the drivers manage to squeeze out of them while keeping instruments (and bass) almost cocooned away from the vocals makes them super clear even at lower volumes.

As long as it's not an abyss or linear like a continental plate. Senny has done a great job tuning this. Now the price tag.....

 

[Precogvision]

Excellent review, thanks for these impressions. I almost predicted how you'd hear the mids, given your preference for more forward upper mids. For me the more recessed upper mids are just right - I don't hear vocals as recessed, but they're not forward either. Thankfully the clarity and detail the drivers manage to squeeze out of them while keeping instruments (and bass) almost cocooned away from the vocals makes them super clear even at lower volumes. But then I also don't listen to ultra energetic music with tons of instruments competing with the vocals, so music choice plays a big part here. Also, once I heard the bass on these I was sold. That's always been my metric for a great IEM, and short of the LX I haven't heard an IEM at any price with better bass than these. Put this bass in a Trailli and I'm outta the hobby.

Same, had to upsize my tips for a better seal. Otherwise they go too deep, and deep insert IEMs just aren't my thing.

Given that you find the Fourte's vocals normal, I think it makes sense that the IE900 would mostly sound correct to you too. I'm actually interested in picking up a pair for myself right now! But it's mainly for that bass which I can't seem to get out of my head haha.

You should try JH sometime Precog, now that's a real upper mids recession. From my short time with the IE900, the psuedo pinna gain thingy they do, does work well. It could have been the linear upper mids treble the Phantom does and I'm glad it isn't.


As long as it's not an abyss or linear like a continental plate. Senny has done a great job tuning this. Now the price tag.....

Not sure how I feel about the way JH has tuned most of their IEMs. But I'll keep an open mind

---

For everyone else, I should have the Oriolus Isabellae showing up today thanks to a generous reader. I'm interested to hear what the hype is about.

 

[gLer]

As long as it's not an abyss or linear like a continental plate. Senny has done a great job tuning this. Now the price tag....

FWIW I think it's a bargain, considering I prefer the IE900 to most $2K+ IEMs I've heard.

Given that you find the Fourte's vocals normal, I think it makes sense that the IE900 would mostly sound correct to you too. I'm actually interested in picking up a pair for myself right now! But it's mainly for that bass which I can't seem to get out of my head haha.

Haha true. It was actually the IE900's superior mids that made me reconsider my position on Fourte, and the bass...well, seems you've been just as smitten. I sometimes prefer it to the LX bass, which is something I'd never thought I'd see myself write.

For everyone else, I should have the Oriolus Isabellae showing up today thanks to a generous reader. I'm interested to hear what the hype is about.

Now that's going to be another goodie for sure, looking forward.

 

[aaf evo]

I’d go as far as saying the IE900 has the best bass I’ve heard. It really hit a sweet spot for me in quality and quantity.

 

[gLer]

I’d go as far as saying the IE900 has the best bass I’ve heard. It really hit a sweet spot for me in quality and quantity.

Give me a few more listens and I might just join you in that assessment. I also find the AET07 tips I'm using really bring out both rumble and punch in the bass while opening up the mids even more, perfect synergy.

Edit: and to think one little 7mm driver has gone out and beat all the big boys. Brilliant engineering.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

I’d go as far as saying the IE900 has the best bass I’ve heard. It really hit a sweet spot for me in quality and quantity.

I need to add this to my short list. It's getting enough of a cross section of people so as to be interesting.

 

[aaf evo]

I need to add this to my short list. It's getting enough of a cross section of people so as to be interesting.

Definitely worth hearing. Only problems I had with it mainly were the isolation was average and the IEM is just so damn small. I also found the treble to sit right on the edge of where my brightness tolerance is mainly because its more emphasized over the upper mid range. I probably (maybe?) would have kept it if I didn’t go in on the Elysian X.