Thanks
Sandy. Very nice of you
Guess what I'm listening to right now
Very first impressions were 'Jesus Christ...these are poor outta the box' followed a track or two later by 'Wow!' Since then, I have been listening to two different IEMs it seems - I'll explain...
I seem (bear in mind this is at +3hours burn-in, no more) to get a much better SQ if I just place the tips in my ears w/ only a gentle pressure (little to no isolation) - attempting more isolation just brings up the bass and little else, making them too warm (I've preferred prefer slightly cooler climes generally). The direction of the drivers face in my ears seems critical too - move em and the sweet spot goes some. however, this may be just acclimatising to fit (still practising). If I let them act as earbuds, they do sound pretty damn superb, & even when they don't I can hear their potential down the line (I hope!). But really push for isolation & they sound pretty poor... Different tracks sound better/worse too, even at FLAC coding. At the moment I'm using the default fitted silicon tips. Tried a few in the first 20 minutes, but didn't find any that worked better -altho I will revisit the Senn version of olives. I didn't get on with the weird double flange thing (looks like a shelf fitting) at all, but who knows? It's still very early hours in my affair with IE8s.
So far, used a Shuffle (only thing I had to hand at the box-opening ceremony), & later iRiver H160, Xin SuperMicro IV and brand-newly arrived (same day as IE8 -somebody up there likes me) P51-Mustang.
Good stuff:
wonderful SS, great separation and placing of instruments, very nice solid but still airy sound. I'm hoping this all will remain when I get isolation too. In common with soozieq, I find some treble a bit 'ouch' on certain tunes ( never had that with Trips) and even on some upper mids (Flora Purim's voice f'rinstance - a wee bit glaring sometimes -could be the recording...)
I absolutely concur and agree with Duncan's description way back on page 1 about the almost holographic imaging IE8s can present. And when they sound good, blimey they sound
great. I was taken aback at their presentation at times - some wonderful detail and metallic glints on Kaki king's guitarwork, great echoing reverb and background jinx with Ozric Tentacles & leavening out a wonderful bassline from The Pharoahs etc. I'm looking to be floored by IE8 meeting Battles (fingers x'd) and what Sibelius will be like.
I
did do a very quick IE8 vs Triple Fi, but I'm not taking much notice of it given burn-in etc. The Triples surprised me by being much bassier (better isolation) and their top end is still
magical, to my ears. If anything, it was actually the Trips that were
too bassy, but IE8 wasn't isolating to any where near Triple Fi cessation of the outside world.... So long as the IE8 keeps improving (& pretty much everyone says they do, so I'm on a promise) - I am looking forward to having 3 IEMs I
adore and all different to a greater or larger degree. I just
love Head Fi - all these toys!
