LizardKing1
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2010
- Posts
- 1,820
- Likes
- 161
Before I post another thread asking for help, I usually read previous threads, so I don't come here completely blanked. I'm a regular member of Head-Fi and I kind of know what I'm looking for, I just need your opinion on what would be best. So Christmas is coming, and I want to get my girlfriend a pair of IEMs. She's put up with my Head-Fi mania/addiction for over a year now, and she even (!) listens to me ramble about electrostatics, balanced armatures, measurements, cables, and does a great job at pretending she's interested
she's awesome. So the least I could do was get her a decent portable rig.
She takes everyday a bus, a ferry and the subway, so she's in very noisy locations. I checked her musical preferences and it's mainly bass-based electronica (dubstep, drum n' bass), trance and then some pop and Indie Rock. She never had a problem with IEM tips getting a good seal. With all that added, what I would need would be an IEM with decent isolation (not to be a decisive factor) with a strong low-end. The thing is I wanted to avoid giving her an earth-shaking-bass-IEM because if she ever developed a love for Jazz, or focused more on rock than on electronica, she might hate that excessive bass. I consider the Senn CX-300 ii to be excessively bassy and even dark, to give you a reference, so I was looking for something below that in bass quantity. I wanted something with deep 50Hz bass and with some mid-bass impact. If she feels she needs more bass I'll show her how to properly equalize a player. In my opinion mids are really important and in revealing things like vocals it can be a deal breaker if it doesn't perform well. As for treble a good extension and crispness would be great. She once tried my SRH750 and loved them. I know she has a good ear, I once had her take the "128MP3-vs-320MP3" test and the treble extension test and she got it right immediately and had a huge extension (about 17kHz), so she can appreciate good quality. So:
- Bass-oriented IEM with sub-bass and impact
- Good mids, not sounding thing
- Good treble extension and detail
- Below 100$ on Amazon please
So far I was considering the Klipsch S4, but the reviews are a bit mixed. I understand these are very bassy, would you say they are on level with the CX-300 ii? I also read the treble rolled off. Basically they were decent, but for their price they seem good.
Another idea was the Shure SE215. Some say they are bassless, others said they are neutral. I understand there's always a trade-off (good overall quality without much bass quantity), and that these aren't oriented towards bass, but should I even consider them? I mean, EQ can only take you so far. If anyone has tried those and the RE-Zero would you say the bass ammount on the Shures is close to that one?
Thank you in advance!
She takes everyday a bus, a ferry and the subway, so she's in very noisy locations. I checked her musical preferences and it's mainly bass-based electronica (dubstep, drum n' bass), trance and then some pop and Indie Rock. She never had a problem with IEM tips getting a good seal. With all that added, what I would need would be an IEM with decent isolation (not to be a decisive factor) with a strong low-end. The thing is I wanted to avoid giving her an earth-shaking-bass-IEM because if she ever developed a love for Jazz, or focused more on rock than on electronica, she might hate that excessive bass. I consider the Senn CX-300 ii to be excessively bassy and even dark, to give you a reference, so I was looking for something below that in bass quantity. I wanted something with deep 50Hz bass and with some mid-bass impact. If she feels she needs more bass I'll show her how to properly equalize a player. In my opinion mids are really important and in revealing things like vocals it can be a deal breaker if it doesn't perform well. As for treble a good extension and crispness would be great. She once tried my SRH750 and loved them. I know she has a good ear, I once had her take the "128MP3-vs-320MP3" test and the treble extension test and she got it right immediately and had a huge extension (about 17kHz), so she can appreciate good quality. So:
- Bass-oriented IEM with sub-bass and impact
- Good mids, not sounding thing
- Good treble extension and detail
- Below 100$ on Amazon please
So far I was considering the Klipsch S4, but the reviews are a bit mixed. I understand these are very bassy, would you say they are on level with the CX-300 ii? I also read the treble rolled off. Basically they were decent, but for their price they seem good.
Another idea was the Shure SE215. Some say they are bassless, others said they are neutral. I understand there's always a trade-off (good overall quality without much bass quantity), and that these aren't oriented towards bass, but should I even consider them? I mean, EQ can only take you so far. If anyone has tried those and the RE-Zero would you say the bass ammount on the Shures is close to that one?
Thank you in advance!
