[Canofcant]

Quote:

Really I'm only asking about more details on how the sound is transformed (i.e. more bass or less bass; forward mids or recessed, etc.) I still can't seem to get an answer and that's fine too. lol

 
How about: IT SOUNDS MUCH, MUCH CLEARER AND BETTER?
 
Lol.
 
Clearer. Better. Fitter. Faster.
 
Like Gerard Depardieu turning into Usain Bolt.
 
Or Bella Emberg morphing into Elle McPherson.
 
How many kilos of bass or mids do you want for your discredited eurodollarpound?
 
Sometimes you gotta try or die, know what I mean?

 

[gnarlsagan]

So more treble then. 

 

[ericp10]

Quote:

So more treble then. 

No gnarlsagan! You are not getting it. Just clearer, better, fitter and faster (like the bionic earphones). lol

I guess that's all we really need to know. *shrugs*? lol

 

[Canofcant]

You been hanging round this place too long, Eric me old china. You forget that real humans hear music and kinda know whats good and bad and dont need to use all those fancy science words to describe the noise in their ears.
 
Imagine coming home from a hard day at work and the monkey butler has put your favourite meal and beer on the dinner table, but somehow it's simian brain has short-circuited and instead of putting the tablecloth down first, the silly chimp has placed it over the plate and glass.  Now, you know that delicious food and beverage is under there - you can see the bulge, and half smell it, tantalising you, making you drool, and you wanna get stuck right in. But there's that bloody cloth in the way, aint there?
 
Make sense? 

 

[jant71]

With different ears, the XBA-4 low impedance/odd source pairing, and since the foam dampers are not matched like Ety matches drivers you really have to try for yourself to know exactly.
 
But just like Knowles dampers, foam dampers should dampen treble to some extent. This is why they are called dampers. They can't add bass just work on letting higher up freq's through. Bass decay can be different thus explaining the speed Canofcant mentioned. Usually the freq. balance will shift toward the treble with any dampers removed. No treble is dampened so it all gets through. Thus bass may be the same but appear less due to more treble existing and may also have a shorter decay. This is similar to the NRB mod in reverse.
 
So, if your happy with them, probably no need to try it. if you think they are a bit dark or murky or slow or too bass focused maybe you want to try it. If in my case with the EX600, I had this bright treble or sibilance other reported, I don't think I would have done it but I had a bassy EX with little treble sparkle at all. Canofcant seemed to have a dark, bit murky, lacking clarity sound thing that seem to free up by doing this.

 

[gnarlsagan]

You been hanging round this place too long, Eric me old china. You forget that real humans hear music and kinda know whats good and bad and dont need to use all those fancy science words to describe the noise in their ears.

Imagine coming home from a hard day at work and the monkey butler has put your favourite meal and beer on the dinner table, but somehow it's simian brain has short-circuited and instead of putting the tablecloth down first, the silly chimp has placed it over the plate and glass.  Now, you know that delicious food and beverage is under there - you can see the bulge, and half smell it, tantalising you, making you drool, and you wanna get stuck right in. But there's that bloody cloth in the way, aint there?

Make sense? 

So the food is the treble?

 

[Canofcant]

Nope - the food is music. And music is the food of love. I'm not saying which of us is the monkey.

 

[AirQ]

Hey.
 
I just tried this mod and beyond...
 
There wasn't that much foam in my XBA 4 and it didn't make much difference when removed.
 
...so, I took a long pin and made a hole in the white visible "diaphragm" deep at the back of the XBAs.
 
Not too deep, just deep enough to make a hole, but not deep enough to destroy things at the back of it.
 
Reinserted the small piece of foam and...
 
I like it. It is a personal opinion, but... I like it.
 
Less base but not significantly so. More clear highs, less hissing.
 
It actually lost that metallic hiss that it had in some songs. Sound stage opened up even more.

 

[amanp]

I tried removing the foam and it got a bit cleaner (but this could also be the wearing them in for 72 hour burn in "myth") but then I used dual flange tips instead of hybrid tips. Soundstage was a bit wider. detail has always been immense but separation was better to my ears. Give it a crack - you've got nothing to lose. I'd never chose hybrid's with these - dual flange silicone all the way!
 
Edit: I wear them over ear as opposed to straight down to reduce microphonics avec clip. They don't have a slider on the XBA-4iP so I just cut a small cable tie into a 2cm strip and wrapped it round. Ask for a pic but then the cable stops falling off your ear and adds some much needed tension/comfort/security.
 
Out of interest, does anyone know where to get custom ear tips for these?
 
Thanks,
Aman

 

[audiofreakie]

I confuse, many people on my country hate this iem. They say its has a weird sounsig.

I buy mine 2nd hand from my friends at Analog Head Indonesia. I use UE TF10 foam tips, the sound are better now, more open and detail than silicon tips. The bass has more textured, give airy sound and I feel better PRAT... Can't decide which better between UETF10 or XBA4 with foam tips.

Think to do detachable mod and recable with silver cable in future. Still learn better way to open the housing without harm it...

 

[BillsonChang007]

I confuse, many people on my country hate this iem. They say its has a weird sounsig.

I find mine sound great. They said the sound has a weird sound signature maybe because of it's metalic highs. I like it thought. Doing this mod will help make the mids clearer & better treble.

Here, you can find more info: http://technoheadphone.blogspot.com/p/review.html

 

[Rangotherabbit]

i tried the mod, and it does give the treble some more kick. The foam hybrid buds seem to give it more bass, but they are a bit of a pain to get in and in the past foam has always dampened the treble... Ive got the foam back in now, i cant decide wether or not i want to leave it out, but in the meantime im going to try the foam ones to get some more bass.

 

[Rangotherabbit]

Progress has been made. I've taken out the foam again and decided to leave it out while testing buds/positions as the foam appears to only dampen treble.
The medium foam buds with the cable down do seem to make the bass more "visible", but they also seem to veil everything else, like foam seems to normally do.
 
i noticed that moving the earphones around from the outside to reposition the buds and the nozzle on the inside improved sound dramatically, but i have to hold the earphone in position. To achieve the position I then tried them with the cable over ear, with certain easily achievable position of the buds in my ears. I tried this with medium foam buds, but they were too big for that position so i tried small foam, and they wouldn't fit properly in that position either and i id not like how they changed the sound.
 
I then tried the normal medium buds, and after finding the most suitable position (which is fortunately easily attainable unlike the beats tours) the sound, in my opniion was dramatically improved, like another veil, or a large cloth was removed.
 
With those configurations the xba-4's are finally starting to really impress me.
Anyone else tried this? If not give it ago, it ..... makes a difference. Ill listen more though to make sure, and switch back and forth 15 times or so.
 

 

[Javiero]

It works and it also works for the XBA-3 too. Much more detailed, bright (not harsh at all) remove the muddy sound. The soundstage of these to are amazing the BA-4 are fantastic for classical and electronic music. XBA-3 Are sweeter more relaxed and great with the mod.
 

 

[senzen]

My XBA-4 came with two sets of tips, a series of sizes with foam (I guess they're called hybrids) and a set without any foam... I had settled on the biggest set without foam and loved how these sound. I just spent a few days trying the same biggest size with foam and the next smaller size... More bass, but less clarity? Had to go back to the biggest foam-less size... Don't know about the XBA-1/2/3 and XBA-10/20/30/40 but these still sound amazing, it's like being in the middle of the music with every instrument and voice clearly differentiated. Highly recommended if you can get them at around $200 or less... Got mine new for $140, best purchase I've ever done, and I do a lot of research for everything...