Warlax
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2011
- Posts
- 36
- Likes
- 22
Hello everyone!
First off my apologies, I know this question is likely asked a hundred times a day at the least. That said, I have spent many weeks lurking and reading opinions and reviews and quite frankly the vast amount of information has left me almost as undecided as I was when I started. Probably the most common thing I read on here is that everyones ear hears differently, which undoubtedly is true. Unfortunately, everyones ears hear so differently I read many contradicting opinions and thus make forming a conclusion difficult haha.
On to my question however, I am looking to buy a high end IEM that I would not need to upgrade anytime soon, also have read that @ the $400+ range it is mostly sidegrades, so I want to find something I will be happy with for a good long while. I am currently a graduate student and will mostly be using these while on campus (or while studying at other places), I have a couple pairs of older headphones that I will use for working out. I tend to listen to a lot of classical music while I study, though for casual listening I listen to almost anything (minus country, very little rap but its there), so a very versatile IEM would be preferred. I do not consider myself a bass head, or consider myself to have really any specific preference, probably because my overall experience in the world of high end audio is non-existent.
My current slate of headphones include the SE115 (my first entry into the IEM world), the Klipsch S4, and I also use a pair of ATH-M50s. It also happens that they are listed in order of preference, which I suppose is to be expected that I enjoy the cans most out of those. I do enjoy the Klipsch sound signature more than the SE115, which sounds almost muffled to me. I do admit to being almost clueless when I read about things like rolled off highs or recessed mids, I don't know entirely what to look for, maybe it's because I don't have anything to compare to. Anyway I digress, I have a handful of IEMS that I have "narrowed" it down to, but is by no means a 100% set list. Those IEMs are;
Westone 3 (Constantly seeing the term "fun" associated with this, however it may be a bit too "coloured" for what I'm looking for?)
Westone UM3X (I've mostly included this due to my interest in the other two westone IEMs)
Westone 4 (at this point I feel like this is the front runner, the impression I have of it so far is that it is all around very good)
Shure SE 535 (read that it is good for classical music, but is midcentric? i take that to mean it is not as well balanced an IEM as others, could be wrong)
Klipsch Image x10 (though the more I read the less appealing it looks compared to the others)
If I left anything out feel free to bring it to my attention if it would help it making a recommendation! I greatly appreciate any advice, thank you in advance!
First off my apologies, I know this question is likely asked a hundred times a day at the least. That said, I have spent many weeks lurking and reading opinions and reviews and quite frankly the vast amount of information has left me almost as undecided as I was when I started. Probably the most common thing I read on here is that everyones ear hears differently, which undoubtedly is true. Unfortunately, everyones ears hear so differently I read many contradicting opinions and thus make forming a conclusion difficult haha.
On to my question however, I am looking to buy a high end IEM that I would not need to upgrade anytime soon, also have read that @ the $400+ range it is mostly sidegrades, so I want to find something I will be happy with for a good long while. I am currently a graduate student and will mostly be using these while on campus (or while studying at other places), I have a couple pairs of older headphones that I will use for working out. I tend to listen to a lot of classical music while I study, though for casual listening I listen to almost anything (minus country, very little rap but its there), so a very versatile IEM would be preferred. I do not consider myself a bass head, or consider myself to have really any specific preference, probably because my overall experience in the world of high end audio is non-existent.
My current slate of headphones include the SE115 (my first entry into the IEM world), the Klipsch S4, and I also use a pair of ATH-M50s. It also happens that they are listed in order of preference, which I suppose is to be expected that I enjoy the cans most out of those. I do enjoy the Klipsch sound signature more than the SE115, which sounds almost muffled to me. I do admit to being almost clueless when I read about things like rolled off highs or recessed mids, I don't know entirely what to look for, maybe it's because I don't have anything to compare to. Anyway I digress, I have a handful of IEMS that I have "narrowed" it down to, but is by no means a 100% set list. Those IEMs are;
Westone 3 (Constantly seeing the term "fun" associated with this, however it may be a bit too "coloured" for what I'm looking for?)
Westone UM3X (I've mostly included this due to my interest in the other two westone IEMs)
Westone 4 (at this point I feel like this is the front runner, the impression I have of it so far is that it is all around very good)
Shure SE 535 (read that it is good for classical music, but is midcentric? i take that to mean it is not as well balanced an IEM as others, could be wrong)
Klipsch Image x10 (though the more I read the less appealing it looks compared to the others)
If I left anything out feel free to bring it to my attention if it would help it making a recommendation! I greatly appreciate any advice, thank you in advance!
). I find myself terribly missing the involving and very much smooth vocals.
