[ REVIEW / COMPARISON ] Two Flagships Pass in the Night: Sony XBA-4 Review VS the MDR-EX1000 [Updated with 7550 and XBA-40!]
Mar 20, 2013 at 11:21 AM Post #211 of 296
I'm a little behind, but fantastic review!  I've always had trouble find good sounding IEMs I can just tote with me anywhere and know they'll sound good.  I have a couple of JLab IEMs which are okay I guess, but still searching!  
 
Mar 20, 2013 at 7:47 PM Post #212 of 296
Quote:
Hi everybody!
 
Got my XBA-40 three days ago. Thanks to a_recording for the comparison with XBA-4 and choosing the 40`s)

 
Glad to hear you are enjoying them. Consider getting one of those channel reversing adapters if you are going to swap them around like that!
 
Quote:
 
+2 for comparison between XBA-40 and EX1000
etysmile.gif

 
Okie. I'm super busy at the moment but I'll try to get an comparison up there in the next couple o weeks :3
 
Mar 23, 2013 at 9:06 AM Post #213 of 296
Thank you in advance! =)
 
I used to own a pair of ancient EX71's from Sony, too bad they broke lol.
 
 
Apr 4, 2013 at 6:13 PM Post #214 of 296
Updated post #3 with XBA-40 and 7550 impressions! (And video) :D
 
Apr 5, 2013 at 1:13 AM Post #216 of 296
It's not that funny, the SM3 is great haha.
 
It's always that tiresome debate about neutrality. -__-
 
Apr 5, 2013 at 1:45 AM Post #217 of 296
I meant funny in a good way.
wink.gif

 
Honestly, I don't hold any grudge against the SM3, apart from the fact that they were probably hyped too much for their own good.
 
As for neutrality, like MF said, it's a moving target. You preferring the 7550, SM3 (and most likely 334) just shows that your ears are still in better shape than mine, nothing more, nothing less.
 
Apr 5, 2013 at 8:35 PM Post #218 of 296
You know, I got the xba 40 paired with the e11.  I do agree that the xba 40 is a bit dark, but after some experiments I find that it's a bright iem if you so choose it to be.  In fact, I felt the treble was a bit off, kind of veiled.  All I did was replace the silicone tips that came with the xba 40 with normal black sony silicone tips and suddenly the treble became uncapped, it went up a pitch or 2 and felt more natural sounding, and airy.   The bass was only affected by actually becoming more detailed 0_o, still as deep and rumbly as ever.  I liked it before but now I really love it with the tip mod.  I feel it didn't actually shift the entire sound spectrum upwards, but actually expanded it. 
 
The story is that I once got the sony mdrex58v for $20, and I loved the crispness and clarity, but it broke.  After getting the xba 40, i bought the 58v again to compare, and it was more detailed than the xba 40 to my slight disappointment.  I then proceeded for sheeps and giggles to switch tips and the result is what you see in the 1st paragraph.  I don't know if the tips from the mdrex58v is exactly what is being sold by sony on amazon though. 
 
Apr 6, 2013 at 3:03 AM Post #221 of 296
Quote:
@james444: what is your favourite source/amp for EX1000?

 
I like the EX1000 with all my sources and don't feel their sound varies much. But my favorite with them would probably be the Graham Slee Voyager amp.
 
(Edit: just a word of caution, the GS Voyager isn't recommendable for BAs due to its high output impedance of 31 ohms.)
 
Apr 7, 2013 at 7:28 AM Post #222 of 296
Spent the weekend with my slightly modded HFI 780 and my portable setup, I really liked and it produced quiet an enjoyable sound and for a moment I wondered why I bought the other headphone so I plugged in the EX1000 and have a listen and after the first track I remembered why I kept the EX1000. Time to spend the week with them once more.
 
Apr 11, 2013 at 9:15 AM Post #224 of 296
Today I had a chance to listen to the XBA-40 compared to the Westone 4R. They were actually quite comparable; both somewhat dark sounding earphones.
 
The XBA-40 was still a little bassier with the highs more rolled off compared to the 4R. The 4R sounded a bit more lively and balanced to my ears. In terms of actual soundstaging and detail retrieval though they were on par. This is great because it's a comparison I've been wanting to make for some time...
 
Apr 11, 2013 at 4:47 PM Post #225 of 296
Interesting - I can safely write off the Westone 4R from my "check out" list then :) I´d  really love to hear the UE900 and Earsonics SM64 some day though. I´ve decided to sell my XBA-40 after I received the EX-1000 this week. It´s a question of taste, but personally I don´t think they belong even remotely in the same league and at least discontinuing the EX1000 in many markets is a strange move as the XBA tuning is as far from the EX-series flagship as possible. Posted some brief impressions in the other long EX-1000 thread.
 
By the way I also received my O2/ODAC this week and they pair very nicely with the EX-1000. The EX-1000 seems to improve a lot by using a quality source/amp. The Sennheiser IE800 for example seems less amp-dependent so far.
 

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