Hello, Folks
, I come from Anything but ipod after being a long-time lurker here in head-fi
I recently went to Hamburg, Germany to meet my boyfriend (I’m from Mexico), during the trip to visit Lübeck… my then beloved sony XBA-1, started to show signs of sound coming on and off (my bf told me) so I twisted the cable to get the sound, so next days I went with him to Saturn and media markt to get the Sony XBA-H3, but they didn’t have them in stock (299EUR), Then tried sony Deutschland using my Mexican debit card and they refused it, so then I tried amazon Deutschland and yay I got them for 260 eruos +7 euros express shipping (because I had to leave for mexico in Saturday)
The XBA-1 as always one of the phones stopped working, so I asked my Bf for a hammer, tweezers, HAHA, I destroyed them, to see the technology of the BA’s O_o so small
Now for the XBA-H3, they arrived Thursday, in a factory sealed package (sold from sony direct), the question why I bought them in hamburg? A) XBA-1 passed away after 2.5 years of faithful musical service, b) I lost all hopes on sony de mexico SA, when they removed all the XBA-x line and intead left us with ****ty choices. C) Hi-res Moniker (I have some Hi-Res albums, mostly are normal 16-bit FLAC, no mp3 or AAC) and d) and most important detachable wires (common point of failure)
Build quality: feel rock-solid, typical of sony high-end products, altought all is plastic, stills feels as they will last quite a time, paint job… looks nice, alittle bit like the Sennheiser IE-800 (saw them in saturn, Hamburg), but… hope they paint job doesn’t degrade like some of my past-owned sony prducts… XBA-1 paint job is a prime example… after one year the paint was all chipped-off and looked like they were abused for nearly 20-years, oh my!, also happened with a Walkman E-507
Looks/Comfort: They look pretty shiny shiny, screaming luxury (my bf said so, I also think the same), but boy!, they’re huge
, the biggest earbuds I have owned since those included with my Walkman X1060.. haha when I arrived at Mexico, my dad told me I looked like Frankenstein HAHA
As for Comfort at first they were so uncorfortable to wear, pain on my ear cartilage, until I elarned how to put them to avoid pain and/or dislodgind and destroying the air-seal, so for max confort I twist them so the connector points a little bit north-west and the other also noth-east( the connector is angled away from my cartilage), then I mold the hanger to my ear-contour
Included accessories: those are fairly basic, the ear-tips mad eof hybrid-silicone and those with foam (haven’t used neither of them, as I am using the complys TX-200 I ahd intended to use with my XBA-1), a shirt-clip, cord length-adjuster (I don’t use them), extra cable for smartphones (apple & android), the carrying case, c’mon sony on this one!!!!, could have been better, a plastic tray with the shape of the H3 where you could pu them in and store the cord neatly (like the case of senns IE-8 & IE80)
Now the icing of the cake, my sound quality impression:
First, some notes… Source: FiiO x3 Dac/amp7Music player & Vaio Fit-multiflip 14A laptop hybrid.
Music Genre: classical music from renaissance to late romantic (no modern, comtemporary classical here, just real classical music
),.
Other headphones and/or speakers to compare to: Bose sound dock Series II & Ultrasone HFI-780 and from memory my boyfriend’s stereo system a fisher (didn’t ask him for the model Number, je told me it was at least 20 yrs old)
At first trial, (to detecte a possible faulty unit), sounded too much bass, with the sony hybrid medium sized tips, then I switched to my complys to use them “until they die” (they did upon arriving to mexico, tore apart)
The first runs were too much bass, (I didn’t believe in burn-in, I tought it was a myth), but with use the bass settled more and more, so now they sound fine. Bass is still prominent, strong presence, had to tweak my Fiio EQ to -1 on bass (XBA-1 was anemic on this aspect)
Mids/highs sound nice, not harsh like previous cheapie sony fontopias and later MDR series, thr mids sound a little recessed, highs are nice, well-rounded, my perfect type of presentation.
They sound very musical, very engaging, non-fatiguing, I think they match for classical music, soundstage is perfectly 3D (listening to H.F Biber missa Bruxellensis artist: Jordi Savall & Concert Les Nations, perfect disc with great acoustics) , the instrument separations is so great wow that I can hear the most distant trumpet or the kettle drums, and the singers singing.
Was surprised when the opening Kyrie all the polyphonic shined on those, the drums, brass section, male and female singers panning and revolving around this 3D space (this seldomly works with the Ultrasone so called “S-Logic surround”).
They sound like my Bf Fisher speakers and system, so damn realistic they give the feeling of “being there live” (total immersion in the performance), something I can’t get with my bose soundDock
In summary they are quite good IEMs, although they sound a tad warm, they are non-fatiguing, wide soundstage & instrument separation, detacheaable cabl.
So if you’re looking for some replacement IEMs, give those a try, they will not disappoint.
Note: I tried the so called Scotch-Tape modding, but I ended removing it, as the bass was instantly muffled a lot, and ended sounding like cheap Airline-handed headphones LOL.
Sorry if i double posted this but the system first told me i had no permission to post (i had to login again and all was blank)
