[sibilantz]

I'm looking at the frequency graphs on XBA H3 done by GoldenEars, Sonove and Personalaudio.ru .

http://en.goldenears.net/26285
http://sonove.angry.jp/SONY_XBA_H3.html
http://personalaudio.ru/raa/otchety/naushniki/sony-xba-h3/

GoldenEars is the outlier while Sonove & personalaudio.ru seem to agree. But I'm still not sure which of the 3 sites mentioned above best represents H3's.

Hmm that bar graph, 0 in clear?! I had a look at the xba3 which I've been using and that's got 3
I wonder if that's because of the bass that they've rated the clear-ness 0

 

[manutd6389]

  I just got my pair of XBA-H3's!
 
I can tell I immediately like this earphone. I've spoken many times of thinking of hybrid earphones as over engineered, but I can see their appeal in the H3. A warm sound with a crunchy, crispy textured lower treble (just on the edge of what I would consider a danger zone for me) with a lovely sense of extension and space. It has that glossy presentation the H1 has without gumming up the treble (you wily super tweeter you). An overall mid band emphasis, but the bass is confusing me a little. At times it seems restrained, at times it seems quote pronounced. It sounds tight but a bit blunt to me, but since I like bass I can't complain. I may try the tape mod but there is nothing immediately making me want to do that.
 
The fit seems to be the biggest bugbear. They are light but huge and I found a little tricky to find a seal. I'm also finding that they are causing a bit of pain in my left ear. Isolation is average as well.
 
When I gather my thoughts I'm going to try and do a bit of a pictoral review / history of the whole EX1000 / 7550 / XBA-1 / XBA-40 / /H1 / H3 series...

Just wondering where you got yours from?

 

[Marco Angel]

try a proper amp to your ex1000, for me they sound quite full sounding, punchy and thick when the songs have the beats

 

[joey99]

I've read through the whole thread and every review of the H3 I can find but I see very mixed opinions on the mids or vocals. Some say they're like the ATH-IM70 which I absolutely love and I want something towards that kind of sound. Something that is amazing at female vocals. 
In quite a few reviews they also say the mids are really recessed. Since I can't test them out where I live, I told a friend to get them for me in hongkong but now I'm having doubts about my decision. Are these great for female vocals at all ? 
 
At the moment I have the UE900 which are very enjoyable and the ATH-IM70 which are just amazing too esp for vocals. So having a quad BA, a dual dynamic I would really like to try a hybrid and see if it can be best of both worlds. I mainly listen to music like Avril Lavingn, Taylor Swift, Christina Perry, etc.
 
thanks in advance.

 

[hockey_magnet]

If anything I think female vocals are a real strength of the H3's the lower treble range packs a lot of punch. Lower range male vocals are perhaps a bit weaker but they are outstanding.

 

[joey99]

that makes me feel much better with the purchase .. thanks

 

[a_recording]

This is why people should stop using 'mids' as a blanket term (I'm guilty of this myself haha). Grouping things into male and female vocals is much more relatable to people. Though you do get some edge cases of voices with unusual harmonics, like:
 

 

[frekedech]

  This is why people should stop using 'mids' as a blanket term (I'm guilty of this myself haha). Grouping things into male and female vocals is much more relatable to people. Though you do get some edge cases of voices with unusual harmonics, like:

 
Hey lachlan, from your youtube video you mentioned you are using the iphone to listen to music on-the-go. A little curious, do you use equalization manually? Like Onkyo player, Equ etc

 

[a_recording]

 
Hey lachlan, from your youtube video you mentioned you are using the iphone to listen to music on-the-go. A little curious, do you use equalization manually? Like Onkyo player, Equ etc

 
Nope!

 

[cricketbaby]

I've just took the plunge on these for £179 from French Amazon - it's less than I paid for my XBA-40...!
 
Looking forward to hearing a soundstage which is larger than the IE8(0). I definitely miss it for electronic music, where 'real' imaging isn't so important. Impressions to follow next week.
 
So glad they've got a removable cable; my only concern is the fit...

 

[BlinkST]

I decided to ditch my C5 and use these straight out my iPhone 5 today. The sound was.. Pretty much the same. I remember reading a long time ago about the iPhone 5's sound, but I never thought much about how great it is by itself. When using these headphones with my phone, I couldn't run them at full vol. Then again, I couldn't do that with the C5, either, so I rethought the purpose in even using the amp. 
 
Not that the amp was a waste of money, but it turned out to be a mostly 'placebo' thing in my case I guess.

 

[frekedech]

I decided to ditch my C5 and use these straight out my iPhone 5 today. The sound was.. Pretty much the same. I remember reading a long time ago about the iPhone 5's sound, but I never thought much about how great it is by itself. When using these headphones with my phone, I couldn't run them at full vol. Then again, I couldn't do that with the C5, either, so I rethought the purpose in even using the amp. 

Not that the amp was a waste of money, but it turned out to be a mostly 'placebo' thing in my case I guess.

We have the same setup! Except i'm using rockbox ipod more often. The idea of an amp in my opinion is to amplify the music volume without adding coloration or any unnecessary boost to the music. Nowadays my C5 is exclusively used with HD600. The H3 sounds great from iphone and 5g ipod alone.

 

[frekedech]

Nope!

Okie noted

 

[frekedech]

try a proper amp to your ex1000, for me they sound quite full sounding, punchy and thick when the songs have the beats

Using an amp with IEM does contradict the idea of getting an IEM in the first place = portability. Dont get me wrong, I have a couple solid state and tube amps but their main purpose is to drive my high impedance headphone.

Even comparing EX1000 and H3 side by side using the same amp and setup, EX1000 still sounds thinner, people who love reference-like sound will prefer this I think. These days I still keep the EX1000 and it will be perfect for me when my ears are matured enough and becomes less sensitive to treble, that 5KHz peak is OH SO PIERCING! :basshead:

 

[Marco Angel]

I guess you are right, at least the iems were intented for on-stage (due the isolation), but i use them in my home (the full stereo equipment is on my fathers home).
My fully mobile setum involves my nokia 720 and shure se425 (nice isolation)
this one would be for my spare time in my home or vacations, thats why the amp for full enjoyment