[nc8000]

Happy holidays fellow head-fiers!

I've tried a bunch of tips including Spinfit CP145 (M but they seem to fit loose), some random Radioshack ones, and landed on the Spiral Dot (M).

So my question now, do I stick with the Spiral Dots or go further down the rabbit hole?!

From reading the thread, I now have in my Amazon cart:

SpinFit CP360 (L/M) — are they any different from the CP145?
AZLA SednaEarfit Crystal (S/MS/M) — are these the tacky rubber like the XELASTEC? Not sure how I feel about them.
Final Audio Type E (M)

Will it be diminishing returns, should I even bother?

The Crystal is not sticky like the Xelastec.

My preferred tips are the Crystal and the Final E.

 

[zeinharis]

I’ve tried various headphone frequency tests and on all I hear from 20hz to about 15-16khz on the XM4 which according to my audiologist is about my hearing range at 60 years old

Wow, you still have a great hearing!

Thanks for that. Just got the Sony and I am jumping from the Sony and Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2. I have had thr SMTW2 for a few weeks and love them and the Sonys sounded awful until I put your settings In. Seems to make the vocals shine and keeps everything tight but with base depth. I did enable Dsse extreme auto as well.

The more I listen and play with the Sonys the more the SMTW2 sound lost still good at crisp vocals but these stings have made a big difference.

The only thing I am not to sure on the foam tips as I have used comply for years on my westones and got abit sick of buying them all the time. I have been told to try and get some Spin fit ( cp145) by a very good person on here. He has helped me a lot his settings for these where

2,5k+1 up 6,3k +3 and 16k +6 ( to get rid of the muffled stock sound )
clear bass 5 DSEE on (extreme)

But yours seems to clean it up more.

What u using for your tips and settings. Cheers

My pleasure!. You should try LDAC at it's highest settings with that EQ if you have an Android device, it would make the Sony sounded even better.

 

[vurtomatic]

The Crystal is not sticky like the Xelastec.

My preferred tips are the Crystal and the Final E.

Thank you! Looking like I should give them a try ...

Has anyone compared CP360 vs CP145? I have the CP145 and wondering if the 360 has a big enough difference to try.

 

[assassin10000]

Hey guys whats the difference between the "manual" and "custom" on the EQ

None that I can tell. Basically 3 customizable EQ presets.

 

[ringwood]

Just had an opportunity to try these on an airplane and I'm really impressed. Yesterday's flight, in particular, had a toddler meltdown near me that went magically away. As others have noted, the XM4's don't produce a total cone of silence, but it's plenty good enough for the loud and annoying environment of a plane, and the ambient sound mode was great for the time waiting at the gate. I only had my music at about 1/3 volume and could hear everything perfectly, including little unintentional sounds from the orchestra on a symphonic recording. The airplane really highlighted the difference between "off" (just relying on the tips' seal) and ANC -- it was much bigger than in other environments.

I see more and more what Sony was going for with the sound, and why it might not be to everyone's taste -- nice and mellow for long listening, too polite and warm for some. But I appreciate being able to escape for hours at a time and not get ear fatigue.

 

[Daveshast]

I got these as a gift and I am in love with the improvements in the tech. The sound is pretty descent but my status as a wired listener is still intact. My focus for these is using them at work. The noise suppression, great call/mic tech, speak to chat, detailed ambient mode, LDAC, wind noise blocker and everything else make these a fantastic choice for work, travel and everyday life on the go.

 

[SparkOnShore]

Hmm…I mean hey maybe it’s my library or tastes and what I’m used to.

I still hear elevated bass relative to what I personally expect from my tracks.

The AirPods Max that we both like has a much more elevated bass than the Sony XM4. I am on iPhone as well, with AAC of course, and I hear no elevated bass on the Sony using the original Sony silicon hybrid tips. I concluded that silicon tips give a more balanced sound on these. I will also try the Azla Crystal in a few days.

 

[tkddans]

The AirPods Max that we both like has a much more elevated bass than the Sony XM4. I am on iPhone as well, with AAC of course, and I hear no elevated bass on the Sony using the original Sony silicon hybrid tips. I concluded that silicon tips give a more balanced sound on these. I will also try the Azla Crystal in a few days.

Yea. It seems one part of the low end is bigger on the APM. This is where graphs can help us share thoughts. I haven't looked at these or don't remember if I have. Just checking it out together to see how we're hearing things one way or another...

So the APM do have more bass, in the sub bass region.
The XM4 have more mid bass.

I'm guessing what I would've heard as 'more bass' would have been the larger mid bass of the XM4.
But I can hear the sub bass being bigger in the APM.

 

[mt877]

Hey guys whats the difference between the "manual" and "custom" on the EQ

None that I can tell. Basically 3 customizable EQ presets.

If you selected one of the preset EQs like Treble Boost and then 'manually' change a parameter like increase Clear Bass setting to set some bass boost then the preset name will change / saved to 'Manual'. Basically it's a quick way to make your own EQ by utilizing a preset you like as a starting point and modifying it to suit your taste. There are 2 'Custom' EQ slots which are bare bone flat EQ which you can set your own parameters.

 

[tinyman392]

Yea. It seems one part of the low end is bigger on the APM. This is where graphs can help us share thoughts. I haven't looked at these or don't remember if I have. Just checking it out together to see how we're hearing things one way or another...




So the APM do have more bass, in the sub bass region.
The XM4 have more mid bass.

I'm guessing what I would've heard as 'more bass' would have been the larger mid bass of the XM4.
But I can hear the sub bass being bigger in the APM.

That slightly recessed midrange (by comparison) also might make the bass sound bigger on the XM4 as well. Though the treble of the XM4 could offset that a bit. One thing that isn’t shown is time domain characteristics as well. Slower decay can do a whole lot of stuff too.

 

[SparkOnShore]

Yea. It seems one part of the low end is bigger on the APM. This is where graphs can help us share thoughts. I haven't looked at these or don't remember if I have. Just checking it out together to see how we're hearing things one way or another...




So the APM do have more bass, in the sub bass region.
The XM4 have more mid bass.

I'm guessing what I would've heard as 'more bass' would have been the larger mid bass of the XM4.
But I can hear the sub bass being bigger in the APM.

I am referring to the WF-1000XM4, the iems, not the WH (over ears), which I never liked sound wise. To my ears the APM (which you also like as far as I remember), has much more elevated bass than the WF. I own and I like both of them though for different uses.

 

[SparkOnShore]

That slightly recessed midrange (by comparison) also might make the bass sound bigger on the XM4 as well. Though the treble of the XM4 could offset that a bit. One thing that isn’t shown is time domain characteristics as well. Slower decay can do a whole lot of stuff too.

This is a wrong frequency response. I am talking about the iems (WF), not the over ears (WH).

 

[SparkOnShore]

For those of you frustrated by tip rolling, I’ve been testing a whole bunch of different types over the past three weeks trying to find the best fit. Here are my thoughts so far.

I started with stock tips. They were relatively comfortable when I initially put them in but if I wear them for longer than an hour or so they are a bit uncomfortable around the outer rim of my ear canal. They provide very good isolation but does seem to suck a bit of the air out the music.

I tried a LOT of silicone tips next. My first impression is that they sound a lot less “stuffy” than the stock foam tips. Each voice in the music is much better defined in space so I can track the different components much better. I can still hear the same sounds with the stock foam tips but each voice or instrument feels much less discrete. My favorite was actually these random pair of VSonic teal silicone tips I had years ago, followed closely by Spinfit CP360. However, the isolation is noticeably worse, perhaps a bit worse than the AirPods Pros. The most annoying part however was the headache-inducing microphonics with every step I take if I run or walk really fast. It’s possible to elimate those by twisting the earbuds to push against my concha almost to the point of losing a good seal, but then it’ll make my concha behind my canal sore after an hour or so and the sweet spot of keeping seal and not having microphonics is so small that it took like 30 seconds everytime to position the earbuds, and I had to frequently adjust it every like 20 min or so that it was quite annoying.

Then I went back trying a bunch of different foam tips including the Comply TrueGrips. The isolation was great again but the sound again sounded like the air was sucked out of them compared to the silicone tips, comparable to the stock tips. Wider bored ones are a bit better, deeper insertions are a bit worse, but really all around the ballpark of the stock tips, with marginal improvement with comfort/SQ with comparable tradeoffs that don’t really change the experience significantly as a whole. Microphonics was gone. There was also no sore spots but I think because of the rougher texture of the foam of the complys, my ear canal would feel itchy after using them for a while.

I eventually remembered I had some Shure Olive foams around that I used to like a lot. They are a bit too long to use on the WF-1000xm4, but I ended up shaving off about 2mm off at the end with a razor after measuring the nozzle length and they are I think by far the best tips I’ve tried. The smooth texture doesn’t itch my ear. The sound quality is very close to silicone tips and noticeably better than other foam tips, and the ANC is as good if not better than stock tips. For those who have some extra Olives around it might be worth a try!

Curious if anyone else is able to find tips or modifications that allows for sound quality close to silicone tips but still have good isolation and comfort of good foam tips?

Very good idea! Thanks a lot for that!! I love the Shure foams, I think they are the most stable and comfortable foam tips, without altering the sound like others, and being really durable as well! I use them on my Shure AONIC 4 wired iems, so yes they match really well these Sony. All silicon tips, while offering a more open and detailed sound in the highs and mids, they have that occlusion effect on me, while walking I hear a hard knock inside my left ear especially. I think it's because the WF is quite heavy and the earpiece somehow moves while walking or running, also being on ANC, as a result it gives that occlusion effect on some ears. But nothing like that is happening with the trusted Shure olives! They keep the Sony 100% stable at all times. Thanks again, you have been really helpful!

 

[tkddans]

I am referring to the WF-1000XM4, the iems, not the WH (over ears), which I never liked sound wise. To my ears the APM (which you also like as far as I remember), has much more elevated bass than the WF. I own and I like both of them though for different uses.

Ohhhh. Oh so let’s look at the IEMs. There are numerous presets on the XM4, so I'll show below the one that I formed my strongest impressions from (the "Bright" preset). It does appear that previous comments are lined up similarly with the XM4 buds as with the headphones. They both have less sub bass than the APM, but then continue to have higher mid and upper bass - in this case of the buds, it forms an overall higher shelf. However, what is different is how the buds continue to remain high in the mid section. So the set would be expected to sound generally pretty bloomy and boomy compared to the APM, which has a tighter area where it focuses on boosting the bass.

AirPods Max

Sony WF-1000 XM4

 

[SparkOnShore]

Ohhhh. Oh so let’s look at the IEMs. There are numerous presets on the XM4, so I'll show below the one that I formed my strongest impressions from (the "Bright" preset). It does appear that previous comments are lined up similarly with the XM4 buds as with the headphones. They both have less sub bass than the APM, but then continue to have higher mid and upper bass - in this case of the buds, it forms an overall higher shelf. However, what is different is how the buds continue to remain high in the mid section. So the set would be expected to sound generally pretty bloomy and boomy compared to the APM, which has a tighter area where it focuses on boosting the bass.

AirPods Max


Sony WF-1000 XM4

Above FR curves show clearly that the APM has a much higher bass boost, in the entire bass region, than the one of the WF 1000xm4, exactly as my ears have been suggesting. So if someone says that he finds the Sony bass boosted, he should at least believe the same and even more about the APM.