[dfrost]

Spent an hour+ comparing tips on my DBA's last night and kept coming back to either the OEMs (Thanks, slater70) or Shure grey soft flex as my preference. Both give me all of the things I love when listening to/through DBA's. I couldn't detect any noticeable difference between them in SQ, but probably need to compare them for imaging and soundstage, where I'm less sensitive. I'll do that on another occasion when I've selected a few good tracks for comparison in those dimensions.
 
I was finally able to get a decent seal with Ety bi-flanges (tri-flanges with the smallest flange cut off). Unfortunately, they were barely engaged with the nozzle for that to happen and still felt somewhat bass-light/less full than the single flanges. The Shure "large" bi-flanges, which seem to be identical in flange size to the Ety's, fit the nozzle fine (tube trimmed even with the bottom flange), but still gave me the slightly harsh treble/less bass SQ that I'd experienced before in an extended listen. Neither of these bi-flanges was a comfortable as the singles, although I like large Head-Direct bi's on my dynamic drivers OEMs (see sig).
 
As I've said before, slater70 and I agree to disagree about DBA tips and how they work in our ears.
 
After all the silicone tips, I pushed on the Shure olives (Those buggers are a tight fit!) and will give those a listen for several days. So far, they seem quite similar in SQ to the silicone single flanges mentioned above, but maybe a little less "effortless". They are quite comfortable and easy to insert, seal easily, and are less susceptible to loosing seal if the housings move around, like when lying on my pillow.
 
I was intrigued to read about the nozzle mod that jant71 added to the DBA's - looks like the trimmed tube excess from Shure bi/tri's. He than used both of my favorite tips for 5.5mm nozzle IEMs: Shure E2c single flange and Large Head-Direct bi's. I will try those next, when I'm done with the olive test-listen and willing to spend the careful effort to remove them.

 

[slaters70]

Yep, as long as you find the one that works is all that matters. To me, the DBAs are amazing, both for the price and no matter what the price (within reason, of course).

 

[tacomn]

so if you dont listen to mp3 what do you guys listen to... Also is there any options for my kinda crappy bitrate mp3?

 

[bisayaboi]

I'm hoping 320 MP3/AAC will do fine.

 

[slaters70]

I listen to 192MP3/AAC/WMA all the time, and they sound fine. To me, it's more the mastering/production than the bitrate.

 

[okur]

Quote:

i was the same way as you i listen to only trance and was impatient and couldnt wait so i bought the dbas off a user here and i was disappointed but, my dbas might be defective i sent them in yesterday 

For me, vice versa. 'cuz it's been a long time that I've been waiting for Dba's, I couldn't stop myself anymore and ordered Ck10. But I hope I will have a chance to give a try on Dba's, hence i can have better opinions between two of 'em.

 

[ethan961]

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[mythless]

lol, guess that's pretty nice of you, Ethan

 

[tacomn]

hey ethan but all pre sales will be able to receive there dbas right

 

[rawrster]

Quote:

hey ethan but all pre sales will be able to receive there dbas right

I thought it was pretty obvious from ethan's post but half of his stock is from back orders which means half of his stock is reserved for those who did a pre order.

 
Quote:

Lucky for you all I'm not going to be able to get to a computer and change the price until tomorrow evening as I'm on a somewhat vacation right now, so you all have an extra day to get on that DBA-02 sale! Half my incoming stock has been taken care of by backorders, so there might be another period of time where I'm out of stock, but not for near as long as there is another batch set to be ready in a month or so.

At one point FA had decided to discontinue the DBA-02, but they have since changed their mind (more than likely with the help of user impressions here) and there will be more produced for a while to come. It's simply a product that is much higher than their other products in cost. To produce too many would be a large hit on their bank accounts. They are a more mainstream audio compan in Russia, not so much known for their niche (more expensive) products as their solid low budget offerings.

Well I'm glad they decided not to discontinue it. It really would have been a shame if they did so since they are too good imo to have such a limited number of those out in the market. Although the additional costs are a risk but I think with the popularity here it will be worth it for them.
 
On another note do you happen to know what driver they use? I saw a picture of an opened up DBA-02 on some Russian site and it looked like a TWFK for me which wouldn't exactly surprise me given the size of the housings on these.

 

[ethan961]

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[ljokerl]

Quote:

Forgive my vague knowledge, but I would think that we would have a DBA-02 level product already if it was a simple TWFK. If I'm not mistaken (|Joker| will know) the Q-Jays use the TWFK.

 
AFAIK all of the highly miniaturized IEMs use TWFK - that goes for the q-JAYS, UE700s, and CK10s. I would say that the CK10 is a DBA-02-level product so I wouldn't discount the capabilities of this driver. 

 

[ClieOS]

Most IEM use Knowles these day, but not all. Klipsch uses many of Sonion's BA which are also quite small and custom made to spec. The reality about BA is that you can buy them in bulk with relatively cheap price (which still cost a lot, since 'bulk' is like 1k pieces), and if you order enough, you can ask the manufacturer for custom order. UE and JH are such clients of Knowles. This is mainly done so that the competitors will not be able to get your BA easily. There are a few very small BA makers as well, such as the Japanese company that makes the Moving Armature drive, but their main market is usually limited to hearing aid market.

 

[Noir7]

interesting fact about the driver, i wouldn't know about the manufacture process that they buy driver from other instead making it them self.
i guess its cheaper that way to cut R&D cost.
so even its the same driver with different IEM what make it sound different? the housing? pcb?

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

interesting fact about the driver, i wouldn't know about the manufacture process that they buy driver from other instead making it them self.
i guess its cheaper that way to cut R&D cost.
so even its the same driver with different IEM what make it sound different? the housing? pcb?

Well as ClieOS said the manufacturer has the option of having the drivers tuned according to their preference when placing a large enough order with the OEM. And yes, the housings and crossover circuitry would have a lot to do with the differences in sonic qualities between IEMs utilizing closely related transducers.