[thornygravy]

I bought of pair of Super.fi 5 EBs a year back and sold them after a week of listening. I loved that they had detachable cables, but I didn't like the overpowering bass and the sharp highs that make sibilance unbearable in most of my music.
 
Ever since, I've been using my Koss PortaPros, which don't bother me when it comes to vocal sibilance at all, and as much as I love them, they aren't ideal phones for commuting in public transportation and such.
 
I mainly listen to music in the rock to metal genre, anywhere from The Beatles to Cannibal Corpse. For a source, I will be using a iBasso T4 to power them, and 4Gen iPod Nano as my source.
 
I'm looking at purchasing either the Super.Fi 5 Pros, or the Triple.Fi 10s
 
Perhaps someone here has heard all three of these phones, and can tell me if there's a huge difference in the highs on the EBs vs the super.fi 5 pros and the tripleFi 10s. I found the vocal sibilance in the EBs to be pushed extremely forward in the mix. I'm not sure if it's because those phones are more designed for hiphop music, where the vocals are supposed to be forward or what, but it was terrible.
 
If there are no opinions on this, I guess I'll just look for which ones I can find cheaper.

 

[DukeSilver]

I kind of know how you feel my man.
 
I was on the search for some cheap good sounding portables so i ended up with Meelec m6s and Koss ksc 75.
 
The ksc 75 are amazing, and the m6s are a bit dissapointing in that i hear sibilance in almost every song i tried on them when out of the box. I chalked that up to not being burned in, but i burned them in for about a week to pink noise, white noise, etc and although the sibilance toned down on some tracks i tried, it is still there and still very very annoying. I also put low density foam in the m6s to tone down the sibilance which helped a lot too, but it is still present.
 
I really wish i was in the group that doesn't notice it as much, and since listening to the sibilant m6s i feel more alert to sibilance so much so that i can hear it on my rx700s which i didn't really notice much before ughh.

 

[thornygravy]

Quote:

I kind of know how you feel my man.
 
I was on the search for some cheap good sounding portables so i ended up with Meelec m6s and Koss ksc 75.
 
The ksc 75 are amazing, and the m6s are a bit dissapointing in that i hear sibilance in almost every song i tried on them when out of the box. I chalked that up to not being burned in, but i burned them in for about a week to pink noise, white noise, etc and although the sibilance toned down on some tracks i tried, it is still there and still very very annoying. I also put low density foam in the m6s to tone down the sibilance which helped a lot too, but it is still present.
 
I really wish i was in the group that doesn't notice it as much, and since listening to the sibilant m6s i feel more alert to sibilance so much so that i can hear it on my rx700s which i didn't really notice much before ughh.

Yea, this is exactly how I feel. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[thornygravy]

No one has any experience with these phones?

 

[kayser]

As for me, triple.fi's have some of the softest and airiest highs I've ever heard, and recessed mids. So I haven't encountered any sibilance problems. But a lot of people say the highs are too present and somewhat shrill, reporting sibilance as well. Super.fi's sound a little bit harsh and aggressive to me.

 

[mootookang]

Never heard the 5 EB, but I do own SF 5 pro and TF 10.

From your description, SF 5 pro should should pretty similar to the EB, it has forward mids and the vocals can sometimes sound a bit sibilant.

I do feel that TF10 is really on another level when compared to 5 pro, but the sound signature is completely different.

 

[Leonard]

.

 

[mvw2]

Sibilance or at least annoyance of some sort in the high end can be caused by a number of things.  First, the frequency response can be uneven where there are dips and peaks in the response that make certain frequencies really stand out.  Some high end frequencies are really grating against the listener if overemphasized.  Second, the audio quality can be lacking and there can be some distortion that is readily noticeable and becomes annoying.  This can be from the earphone or the audio source music or playback device.  As someone steps to better and better audio reproducing devices, they must also upgrade their audio files and source player as needed to perform well.  Some of these high end earphone tend to show straight through the shortcomings of the audio file or playback device.  The earphone itself can also simply not be great on the high end and simply have an audible amount of distortion and relative inability to reproduce those frequencies.
 
The Triple.Fi 10 will have stronger highs than the Super.Fi 5 EB and a similar bass response.  I've seen a frequency response plot of the EB a while ago, and it is pretty flat in response.  Distortion is low too.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_1/ear-phones-3-2007-part-5.html
I'm not sure how the Triple.Fi 10 stacks up directly to the Super.Fi 5 EB.  I simply have not used the Super.Fi 5 EB myself.  If I were to guess I would say the bass will be similar and the Triple.Fi 10 will have more emphasized highs.  More isn't bad as long as it's done very good.  The Triple.Fi 10 is very good.  I just can't say if that's what you want though.
 
I don't really get how you find the Super.Fi 5 EB too bassy but are fine using a bass heavy headphone like the PortaPros.
 
How much isolation are you looking for?
 
What's your budget?
 

 

[thornygravy]

 
Quote:

Sibilance or at least annoyance of some sort in the high end can be caused by a number of things.  First, the frequency response can be uneven where there are dips and peaks in the response that make certain frequencies really stand out.  Some high end frequencies are really grating against the listener if overemphasized.  Second, the audio quality can be lacking and there can be some distortion that is readily noticeable and becomes annoying.  This can be from the earphone or the audio source music or playback device.  As someone steps to better and better audio reproducing devices, they must also upgrade their audio files and source player as needed to perform well.  Some of these high end earphone tend to show straight through the shortcomings of the audio file or playback device.  The earphone itself can also simply not be great on the high end and simply have an audible amount of distortion and relative inability to reproduce those frequencies.
 
The Triple.Fi 10 will have stronger highs than the Super.Fi 5 EB and a similar bass response.  I've seen a frequency response plot of the EB a while ago, and it is pretty flat in response.  Distortion is low too.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_1/ear-phones-3-2007-part-5.html
I'm not sure how the Triple.Fi 10 stacks up directly to the Super.Fi 5 EB.  I simply have not used the Super.Fi 5 EB myself.  If I were to guess I would say the bass will be similar and the Triple.Fi 10 will have more emphasized highs.  More isn't bad as long as it's done very good.  The Triple.Fi 10 is very good.  I just can't say if that's what you want though.
 
I don't really get how you find the Super.Fi 5 EB too bassy but are fine using a bass heavy headphone like the PortaPros.
 
How much isolation are you looking for?
 
What's your budget?
 

Well to get things straight, I have compared lossless to my V0 and the sibilance is still there, so it's not lossy encoding that is causing the problem. I've tried various sources, nothing you would consider 'high end' but I doubt that my source is the problem. I believe it is due to amateur vocal recording practices, but with speakers and my portapros these recordings don't annoy me in the least. Perhaps it is because of the way that IEMs sit in the ear canal, so close to the eardrum? I don't even listen to my music very loud which confuses me.
 
As for the PortaPros vs the EBs comment, I love bassy headphones (the reason for my even purchasing the EBs) but I did notice that the EB's bass was so overpowering that it drowned out the subtle details in the recordings, just way too boomy.
 
Any iems have been sufficient for isolationg, so I'm not worried about that.
 
My price range is around $150, I can go a little higher, but not much.

 

[Br777]

i would give you the same advice i just gave someone else... get the IEM's you like the most and if there are any issues....
 
buy the app called EQu from the itunes store.  it is a parametric eq for the ipod touch/iphone.   i use it as my primary music player instead of the stock ipod/iphone app.  
 
then get a sine wave file..  it should be the kind that slowly goes from 20hz to 20,000hz.  i tried to attach one but i dont have permission ;-(
 
then play the sine wave file through eah of your headphones.  a sine wave simply plays every frequency at the same volume.. but you will never hear it that way due to the imbalances in your headphones.
each headphones will have different "imbalances"  and you will surely hear big volume spikes in the upper mids/lower highs that are creating your sibilance issue..  most headphones.. in fact nearly every pair i have owned, have this issue.
 
carefully remove any spikes with the eq, and viola.. no more sibilance
 
you can save as many presets as necessary for each pair of headphones you want.
 
the app is pretty darn good, but has a few minor bugs which the creator is working on.
 
if you are  patient, and truly flatten all the valleys and spikes out of your headphones, you will be amazed at the improvement in quality of listening regardless of what headphones, or what albums you listen to.
 
good luck.. this process takes patience

 

[thornygravy]

I don't have an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, so your post doesn't really help me, but thanks haha.

 

[calipilot227]

Quote:

As for me, triple.fi's have some of the softest and airiest highs I've ever heard, and recessed mids. So I haven't encountered any sibilance problems. But a lot of people say the highs are too present and somewhat shrill, reporting sibilance as well. Super.fi's sound a little bit harsh and aggressive to me.

This depends on the user, but I have found that with the flip mod (essential for me as they don't fit otherwise, and this allows me to insert them deeper for good isolation), they are very sibilant. However, with the flip mod, the isolation approaches Etymotic-like levels.