[Zoide]

Quote:

So far my impression of the DBA soundsig has been as such (after two months of usage): highs are thin and slightly harsh but extremely detailed, mids are present and equally as detailed but lacking in body, bass impact is impeccable but quantity could be increased a tad. Excellent separation, better than decent soundstage. No hissing out of my iPod but only when paired with an amp, which is to be expected of low-resistance phones. Fixed some of the detriments with an amp, so I'm extremely happy with the current soundsig. I highly recommend ety triples (I modded mine to bis), and idk if it's just me but complys don't seem to improve the sound much.

  I really hope mine don't sound like that at all...

 

[mvw2]

For those with sibilance issues, I have a question.  Is this the first treble strong IEM you've used?  I ask because a LOT of earphones out there have pretty rolled off highs.  There are a lot of cheap earphones that can barely make it to 10kHz.  Some of these earphones with more dominant and extended highs can be immediately off-putting.  In the end one has to evaluate if the highs are of good quality or not.  Typically if the quality is good, moderate highs are not very offensive.  Still, very peaky highs can end up quite strong.
 
I do want to bring up one point that Eytmotic brought up with their ER4 line.  Many modern recordings have a treble bump around 10kHz that makes a lot of songs sound bright on a well balanced earphone.  One thing Eytomotic did with their ER4S and P earphones is add a mild cut on the top end to lessen the brightness.  Their ER4B is the version without that cut.  I know with a lot of these higher end earphones I do tend to find that they have some treble boost, most likely to brighten up the top end a little and make it somewhat sparkly and this is added to any gains from what was added to the recording.  I should get my DBA-02 tomorrow, maybe(3 days shipping), and I'll see what it's doing that makes it sibilant.  I would assume it is simply a frequency response peak that's maybe in the 6kHz to 10kHz range.  If the bump isn't high enough up in the response range, it can actually be quite annoying.  A 6dB peak at 8kHz is far more offensive than a 6dB peak at 12kHz.  EQing can of course tame this.  A comparative example is the CK10.  It's a great earphone but has a solid 9dB peak just north of 10kHz.  It's saving grace is that it's narrow, so it doesn't bleed into the lower treble and midrange.  It just sounds hot and spitty instead.  EQing fixes it.  An open cell foam tip helps considerably.  Any type of low pass filter material (cotton, wool, fiberglass, foam, etc.) can continue to help cut out that top end bump at the expense of some extension above the peak and probably a little loss of details up top.  It's something I've tried with my bright OK1 earbuds.  In the end, the trade-offs weren't beneficial for the response balance.  EQing works much better in the end to keep from getting muffled or cutting detail.

 

[tacomn]

here is a new review on the dba on treo. It talks alot about how much of a change happened with burn in.

 

[danzel]

surrealsky
 
hi how is the dba-02 compared with westone 1 in terms of sound and comfort?

 

[Averruncus]

I decided to snip off the top flange of the tri-flange stock to get a bi-flange.
 
So far I'm liking it much better then to original, more convenient then the complys too. Maybe that's why FA give a tri.. so if you don't like it you can just shorten it to bi.
 
Edit: Anyone know where to get bi-flanges for DBA in Singapore? Does Stereo have?

 

[LFF]

Quote:

I think sibilance is really more track and source dependant than phone dependant.  If you have really well mastered content the odds or having sibilance issues decreases dramatically I think.    

 

 

[martythestickman]

does anybody know if replacement filters of ANY sort which may fit are available for the DBA02?
 
cheers, marty
 

 

[JosephKim]

yeah ive read that the dba-02 are really source dependent, more so than many other iems. maybe that is where the sibilance issue is coming from.

 

[Nightslayer]

Quote:

here is a new review on the dba on treo. It talks alot about how much of a change happened with burn in.

I think honestly the review buys into a lot of the hype, glosses over the DBA's weaknesses and exaggerates. Esp concerning soundstage and vocals. But that's just my personal opinion, and I'd like to state that I love the DBAs as much as anyone else in this thread
Concerning burn in, much like rawrster, I didn't seem to hear very much change in the soundsig of my DBAs from when I bought them till now.. possible difference between the earlier and later batch? O.o

 

[Surrealsky]

Have contacted the guys at treoo for rma but they told me to let it burn for min 40 hours. By tomorrow night will be past that mark and if the problem persist, i have no choice but to return them. I have tried various sources and including buying the ety tri and bi flanges, also the comys but still the same. Bass is bloated especially at higher volume and sibilance is there.

 

[rawrster]

The only real issue I have with that review is that it was done 20 hours in. I typically take at least a week or two to be able to judge an earphone. However don't take that as burn in because I am not.
 
Sibilance wasn't really an issue but with short tips they did become more sibilant but that could be due to a bunch of factors. I never had a problem with triple flanges and sibilance or I would have sold them faster than i got them.

 

[Noir7]

Quote:

Have contacted the guys at treoo for rma but they told me to let it burn for min 40 hours. By tomorrow night will be past that mark and if the problem persist, i have no choice but to return them. I have tried various sources and including buying the ety tri and bi flanges, also the comys but still the same. Bass is bloated especially at higher volume and sibilance is there.

strange i don't find the bass that bloated its a real good quality bass and after awhile the treble and sibilant quite tame a bit to my hearing, still the triple flange do a good job eliminating this issues.
maybe it just not to you liking?
well for me i'm done with this universal thing since i've already got what i wanted, now just trying to find a good portable amp

 

[josesol07]

I´m very sensitive to sibilance, maybe it has to do with a frequency resonance due to my ear cannals and IEM interaction that appears with very IEM I have owned.
In the case ot the DBA-02, there is a frequency peak of about +5 db at 6,400 Hz. recently I checked this behaviour with IE8 and the resonance showed at 7,000 Hz.
By setting in my Rockboxed Ipod  a bandpass filter of -5 db at 6,400 Hz, the sibilance is greatly reduced, and the overall SQ is just beautiful and smooth.
But in some badly produced/mixed recording s or low bitrate mp3, sibilance is still present, though bearable, at list for me. 
Hope this might help. regards
Jose

 

[JosephKim]

all this talk of sibilance is already making me want to put a FS ad on the forums lol

 

[Anaxilus]

I'm have zero tolerance for sibilance.  I'll definitely let you guys know what I hear.  My Ety ER4S shows no issues so.....