[shane55]

Quote:

Without wishing to seem like I just parrot what the fizzy energy drink man says, you really haven't heard the SM3 until you've heard it with a large hole tip - the Sensorcom dual flange are my choice du jour, but the JAYS singles also work well too (albeit by sacrificing some impact and weight for increased soundstage and airtiness). 
 
For some bizarre reason, Earsonics ship the SM3s with two inappropriate choices of tips - the utterly awful and downright evil Comply and a small hole double flange that does the sound no favours whatsoever.  Its a real shame.
  

Well then, stop fooling around and send me a pair!!  

 

Being that the SM3's will be with me for the next month at least, I'd love to try these Sensorcom's you've been hawking. Hehehehe... also that way you and Luco will hopefully get off my back about this. LOL.
 
I'll PM you for details. You are doing a second batch... yes?

 
shane
 

 

[Bennyboy71]

Indeed. Pm received and repy sent. You will soon be in aural ecstasy Mr Shane.
Quote:

Well then, stop fooling around and send me a pair!!  

 

Being that the SM3's will be with me for the next month at least, I'd love to try these Sensorcom's you've been hawking. Hehehehe... also that way you and Luco will hopefully get off my back about this. LOL.
 
I'll PM you for details. You are doing a second batch... yes?

 
shane
 

 

[rawrster]

Those tips are quite nice indeed but they are pretty expensive. I was sent a pair for my DBA-02 but I have yet to test out their isolation which I'll do today.

 

[ericp10]

MMMM @ luco my friend,  I don't thinkk the olives have a narrow opening. Really, the olives work the best for me with the SM3, then the stock double silicons. I'm looking forward, however, to trying the ones Bennyboy sent out.
Quote:

@ shane , the thing with shure olives is that they have the narrow opening , the sm3 really needs tips with the larger opening to shine in my experience 

 

[slaters70]

I didn't have any luck with the sensocor bi-flanges on my SM3s (Average_Joe sent me a pair to try, but returned them), but hopefully you will Shane. Didn't really change the treble for me, but I expected it to. The best SM3 tips I used were the modded Monster triple-flanges, using the comply core. Still needed some EQ, but the best I heard.

 

[shane55]

 
Quote:

MMMM @ luco my friend,  I don't thinkk the olives have a narrow opening. Really, the olives work the best for me with the SM3, then the stock double silicons. I'm looking forward, however, to trying the ones Bennyboy sent out.

 

Yeah ericp10. The Shure's opening is much wider than the Comply's. It's actually very large, but I just ordered 2-pair of the Sensorcoms from Ben anyway. Even though bi and tri-flange's don't usually work for me. I suffer from Einstein's definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and again, expecting different results.

 
No real harm. Not a great expense as far as I'm concerned. If it improves the sound for the SM3, it might even do so for the SE535, DBA-02, etc.
 
shane
 

 

[lucozade]

Do they not @ericp buddy  ,you maybe right ,i can not remember off hand and i do not have any left to have a look at , i decored all the ones i had from my SE420/SE530 as i wanted the cores and throw the foam bits away as i never liked them anyway,just thought they would be the same as the other shure tips .

 
Quote:

MMMM @ luco my friend,  I don't thinkk the olives have a narrow opening. Really, the olives work the best for me with the SM3, then the stock double silicons. I'm looking forward, however, to trying the ones Bennyboy sent out.

 

 

[cn11]

I may have to try possibly sacrificing a pair of large Monster triple flanges by trimming off the top section, and also trimming down the stalk. I wonder if that would work........ hmmmmm... sounds like a project for me for later tonight. 

 

[ericp10]

I've thought about doing that too @ cn11. Let me know how that works out for you
Quote:

I may have to try possibly sacrificing a pair of large Monster triple flanges by trimming off the top section, and also trimming down the stalk. I wonder if that would work........ hmmmmm... sounds like a project for me for later tonight. 

 

[lucozade]

 
Quote:

I may have to try possibly sacrificing a pair of large Monster triple flanges by trimming off the top section, and also trimming down the stalk. I wonder if that would work........ hmmmmm... sounds like a project for me for later tonight. 

Quote:

I've thought about doing that too @ cn11. Let me know how that works out for you

 

 D I Y surgery on those lovely monster triple flange tips ,

  it breaks my heart .LOL 

 

 

[cn11]

Quote:

I've thought about doing that too @ cn11. Let me know how that works out for you

 

Eh, well I realized I had all my Monster tips with me at work, so out came the X-acto knife, and off went the top section (didn't do the stalk, since it looked to be close up to the base of the bottom flange already). Bad news, didn't fit. Too small. No seal. One set of triple flanges wrecked...oh well. The second to largest single flange on the Shure Olive core still works a treat for these ears......

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

[size=medium]large hole tip...[/size] [size=medium]one thing i noticed toying around with tips.. is that[/size]
[size=medium]if the tip opening is small, it will add warmth, and muffle the mids and high mids.. treble arent really affected.[/size]
[size=medium]larger tips will push out more mids, more natural flowing sound.. but also reduce warmth and bass..[/size]
[size=medium]treble is more affected by isolation.. less isolation = more treble, sibilance, but also more air / soundstage space.[/size]
[size=medium]distance will affect bass punch and micro detail, closer = more...[/size]
 
[size=medium]i do notice that sound quality / smoothness is not affected by tip mods, if it is harsh, it will sound harsh.. it's just whether the harshness is masked by warmth, or muffled by the tip design. but that also takes away micro details.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i did try quite a number of experiments with tips, cutting here and there.. dba-02 never worked, and always sounded harsh and aggressive on the treble.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i would agree with shane55 that tips will give similar effect on all iems, and having larger openings would fix some of the dips in the mids/upper mids that is simply unacceptable in my opinion. female vocals and pianos are 2 things i look for in phones. I cant comment on the shure, it might be too mid forward and lacking bass on it, or it might not change much.. it is still fit [/size]
[size=medium]dependant.[/size]
 
neways i might be rambling too much here.. lol.
​

 

[shane55]

Quote:

[size=medium]large hole tip...[/size] [size=medium]one thing i noticed toying around with tips.. is that[/size]
[size=medium]if the tip opening is small, it will add warmth, and muffle the mids and high mids.. treble arent really affected.[/size]
[size=medium]larger tips will push out more mids, more natural flowing sound.. but also reduce warmth and bass..[/size]
[size=medium]treble is more affected by isolation.. less isolation = more treble, sibilance, but also more air / soundstage space.[/size]
[size=medium]distance will affect bass punch and micro detail, closer = more...[/size]
 
[size=medium]i do notice that sound quality / smoothness is not affected by tip mods, if it is harsh, it will sound harsh.. it's just whether the harshness is masked by warmth, or muffled by the tip design. but that also takes away micro details.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i did try quite a number of experiments with tips, cutting here and there.. dba-02 never worked, and always sounded harsh and aggressive on the treble.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i would agree with shane55 that tips will give similar effect on all iems, and having larger openings would fix some of the dips in the mids/upper mids that is simply unacceptable in my opinion. female vocals and pianos are 2 things i look for in phones. I cant comment on the shure, it might be too mid forward and lacking bass on it, or it might not change much.. it is still fit [/size]
[size=medium]dependant.[/size]
 
neways i might be rambling too much here.. lol.
​

Hmmmm... very interesting theories / observations. Thanks for going through all this effort and posting the results.
Dontcha ever wish it was easier to achieve sonic excellence? Well, there goes half the fun...

 
shane 

 

[DaEMoNteNTAcLe]

 
Quote:

Hmmmm... very interesting theories / observations. Thanks for going through all this effort and posting the results.
Dontcha ever wish it was easier to achieve sonic excellence? Well, there goes half the fun...

 
shane 

 
ur welcome, glad someone appreciates it.
for me part of the fun is getting an iem that is easy to fit, isolate, and enjoy. dba-02 is one of them. but somehow i always end up with the right ear being too airtight, and end up with channel imbalance.. it's not really nice to always have a bassy right side with clear vocals on the left..
so i end up experimenting with tips to get it fit my ears.. out of all i tried, i prefer olives the most for what i think the most natural treble, clear mids (as long as the opening is controlled) and good bass details, but the olive does soak some of the bass rumbling.. for me it works to give better clarity and a sense of faster bass response, but for some songs, it takes away the ambience. however olive can sometime be fiddly to fit. comply, despite being easy to fit, are usually too warm, but works very very well for my ck10. problem is they dry up after a few weeks, becomes rough, and decays / break after about 2 months. Im still toying around with tips (now for ck10).. always preferred soft silicon because of easy fit/removal and long lasting, but do it wrong and u end up with lots of sibilancesss~..
sometimes that extra bit of effort is really worth for a lot more musical enjoyment.. but its always irritating.
unlucky ears i guess. at least my iems are just for portables..

 

[slaters70]

Agree, wrong tip on the DBA, harshness ensues (for me, Ety triple flange completely solves it). But the channel imbalance should not occur if the phones are not defective. You might have tried this, but what about different sizes. I know my ears are different L to R because of the custom sleeves I own (you can see it). I have in the past used one size on one ear and another size on the other. Could be a solution for you in terms of channel imbalance. As for sibilance, unless you can get rid of it via tip, the DBAs may not be for you. If I was stuck with short tips, I would not have kept mine, for example.
 
Anyway, we are off topic here, as this is an SM3 v. 535 thread. Not a DBA vs. SM3 thread. So back to topic. It is interesting, and the 535s would be a consideration except they cost too darn much. I doubt they are $300 of an improvement over the DBAs ( as a $500 custom might be).
Quote:

[size=medium]large hole tip...[/size] [size=medium]one thing i noticed toying around with tips.. is that[/size]
[size=medium]if the tip opening is small, it will add warmth, and muffle the mids and high mids.. treble arent really affected.[/size]
[size=medium]larger tips will push out more mids, more natural flowing sound.. but also reduce warmth and bass..[/size]
[size=medium]treble is more affected by isolation.. less isolation = more treble, sibilance, but also more air / soundstage space.[/size]
[size=medium]distance will affect bass punch and micro detail, closer = more...[/size]
 
[size=medium]i do notice that sound quality / smoothness is not affected by tip mods, if it is harsh, it will sound harsh.. it's just whether the harshness is masked by warmth, or muffled by the tip design. but that also takes away micro details.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i did try quite a number of experiments with tips, cutting here and there.. dba-02 never worked, and always sounded harsh and aggressive on the treble.[/size]
 
[size=medium]i would agree with shane55 that tips will give similar effect on all iems, and having larger openings would fix some of the dips in the mids/upper mids that is simply unacceptable in my opinion. female vocals and pianos are 2 things i look for in phones. I cant comment on the shure, it might be too mid forward and lacking bass on it, or it might not change much.. it is still fit [/size]
[size=medium]dependant.[/size]
 
neways i might be rambling too much here.. lol.
​

Quote:

 
 
ur welcome, glad someone appreciates it.
for me part of the fun is getting an iem that is easy to fit, isolate, and enjoy. dba-02 is one of them. but somehow i always end up with the right ear being too airtight, and end up with channel imbalance.. it's not really nice to always have a bassy right side with clear vocals on the left..
so i end up experimenting with tips to get it fit my ears.. out of all i tried, i prefer olives the most for what i think the most natural treble, clear mids (as long as the opening is controlled) and good bass details, but the olive does soak some of the bass rumbling.. for me it works to give better clarity and a sense of faster bass response, but for some songs, it takes away the ambience. however olive can sometime be fiddly to fit. comply, despite being easy to fit, are usually too warm, but works very very well for my ck10. problem is they dry up after a few weeks, becomes rough, and decays / break after about 2 months. Im still toying around with tips (now for ck10).. always preferred soft silicon because of easy fit/removal and long lasting, but do it wrong and u end up with lots of sibilancesss~..
sometimes that extra bit of effort is really worth for a lot more musical enjoyment.. but its always irritating.
unlucky ears i guess. at least my iems are just for portables..