I'm flabbergasted!
Just wanted to share this bizarre tidbit with you guys. I just opened my replacement pair of h3's, and I noticed something VERY peculiar. This new set sounds much better than the original set. Better bass, and WAY larger soundstage. All out of the box with no burn in. Funny thing. My first pair was an open box.. My replacement was factory sealed.
I was so shocked at the difference, I pulled the pair that is going back, out of the return box for a little a/b comparison... No double blind test needed. The difference is night and day. I don't know what the heck is going on here, but I can pick them apart from each other very easily. Almost like hearing the same song at 128 vs 320. The new ones sound like my Maggie's, and the original pair sound like a great pair of box speakers. The new ones blow them away. My house is quiet right now and I'm listening to them at low volume, and some parts of the music are scaring me with early realism. Startled a couple of times already.WTH!
I'm thinking there May be dud copies of these headphones...... I can see why if the original purchaser of my open box pair may have been disappointed with that copy, and may have heard another set of h3's, thus returning them. I certainly would have done the same. I can only speculate. I'm just happy that the "loose" connection was bothering me enough to ask for an exchange. (I now resign to the fact that the cable connection will always have play in it- nature of the beast)
I finally feel like I have a pair of reference quality earphones. These replacements are phenomenal. Fuller, more engaging sound and much more coherent. I had no idea what I was missing. The first ones were "great", because I had no other copy to compare it to, I realize that my first copy had some sort of defect, or something bizarrely wrong with them, but if you had never heard another copy, you would have been satisfied to.
As an aside, this new pair seems to have some extra glue or something strange running along the seam of the casing, from the manufacturing process. The first pair does not. Tiny "issue" I'm just being super anal, because I was obviously examining the replacement pair like a hawk. Second pair, I hope to keep for a very long time! They sound absolutely divine-even off my lowly iphone 5!
Btw I just realized I was using the foam/silicone tips, ( put them on from the start- on both pairs) thinking that they were in fact the "hybrids", but realized I had made mistake. Pulled them off and put the original tips that they shipped with ( the green ones) without the foam..let's just say- huge improvement. The foam/silicone one suck all the life out of the music. The ones with out the foam have Deeper bass, better staging. (Yes- I tested both the old and new pair with the green hybrid tips)
The more I'm thinking about the possible causes- maybe a bad BA driver? Maybe the original owner of my first pair fried something in them? Oh well- back in the game with a sick pair of IEM's
Just had to share with you guys.
