[nudd]

Hi guys, new owner of the XBA-H3'S, and have a question. Is the bass heavier with or without the filters? Thanks for the response.

Gerelmx is the only person i know who intentionally did this. If you want to control the bass it is strongly recommended that you try both of james' very easy and totally reversible mods first before doing anything drastic!!!!!!!

 

[Change is Good]

Or just get some JVC spiral dot tips

 

[Paradigm]

  Amps have a flat FR, how can they be bright?
My H3's sound great on my smartphone or iPod Touch 5G without any amping. I usually listen at home with a Senn HD600 or Hifiman HE-500 planar magnetic can using an external DAC and amp. I'm not overly fond of IEMs but the H3's remind of of a good set of cans. They re 40 Ohms and reasonable sensitive such as not to require any special amping.

Amps have characteristics to them. The one I mentioned is renowned for having a neutral yet slightly bright characteristic. The H3's don't sound bad on portable devices however it's awfully apparent to me that they exhibit  better control,speed and punch on my standalone amp. 

 

[Paradigm]

Some people think that amps notwithstanding being pretty linear do have a warmer or brighter natural sound signature.

The output impedance also affects this. Eg any amp with output impedence of more than around 4 or 5 ohms is going to make the H3 sound even more bassy assuming the H3 input impedance is the claimed 40 ohms.

If you are of the purely objectivist camp then you should be ok with any amp that measures flat, has a low output impedance and has sufficient power to drive the H3.

Unfortunately some mobile fone headphone output have relatively high output impedance. Eg my Samsung S3 was around 10ohms if I recall.

the initial version of the meridian explorer has output impedence of more than 40 ohms. The dragonfly 2 has i think greater than 10 ohms ouput imp so i would not think is the best choice all things being equal.

 
Yeah I already scraped the dragonfly of my list, but I appreciate the advice and info.

 

[StanD]

Some people think that amps notwithstanding being pretty linear do have a warmer or brighter natural sound signature.

The output impedance also affects this. Eg any amp with output impedence of more than around 4 or 5 ohms is going to make the H3 sound even more bassy assuming the H3 input impedance is the claimed 40 ohms.

If you are of the purely objectivist camp then you should be ok with any amp that measures flat, has a low output impedance and has sufficient power to drive the H3.

Unfortunately some mobile fone headphone output have relatively high output impedance. Eg my Samsung S3 was around 10ohms if I recall.

the initial version of the meridian explorer has output impedence of more than 40 ohms. The dragonfly 2 has i think greater than 10 ohms ouput imp so i would not think is the best choice all things being equal.

Going by the 8:1 ratio 5 Ohms would be fine for a 40 Ohms IEM/Can. As you can see from the below impedance curve that the impedance is pretty flat at bass frequencies. The impedance curve being flat means that the impedance ratio is not so important for FR purposes.
 

 

[ZMan2k2]

Gerelmx is the only person i know who intentionally did this. If you want to control the bass it is strongly recommended that you try both of james' very easy and totally reversible mods first before doing anything drastic!!!!!!!

Th XBA-H3'S that I bought used, came with the filters removed already. I'm looking for BASS anyways, and I use Comply tips for comfort. I tried putting the filters back in, and the only difference I noted, was the mids and highs were muted a bit. I'm going to leave them in for now, but might take them back out later. What mods are you talking about? It's a big thread, and I don't recall seeing anything about mods for enhancing the bass?

 

[xaddictionx]

Th XBA-H3'S that I bought used, came with the filters removed already. I'm looking for BASS anyways, and I use Comply tips for comfort. I tried putting the filters back in, and the only difference I noted, was the mids and highs were muted a bit. I'm going to leave them in for now, but might take them back out later. What mods are you talking about? It's a big thread, and I don't recall seeing anything about mods for enhancing the bass?

Cover the small hole on the sides of the H3 with a piece of tape and use a needle to create a pin sized hole. This enhances the quality of the bass by being less boomy and more controlled. IMO, gave rise to better clarity and bass texture.

 

[ZMan2k2]

Cover the small hole on the sides of the H3 with a piece of tape and use a needle to create a pin sized hole. This enhances the quality of the bass by being less boomy and more controlled. IMO, gave rise to better clarity and bass texture.

Thanks. I'll give it a try. I'm always up for something new.

 

[Paradigm]

  Going by the 8:1 ratio 5 Ohms would be fine for a 40 Ohms IEM/Can. As you can see from the below impedance curve that the impedance is pretty flat at bass frequencies. The impedance curve being flat means that the impedance ratio is not so important for FR purposes.
 

Help me out here then. Could it be that the combination of both the DAC(Asus STX) plus the amount of Juice my amp can pump out which in turns is producing a better sound. AT the end of the day I don't care for the H3's driven straight out of my Galaxy S5(which is said to have a nice DAC) I am certain of course I can never be 100% sure that it's the amplifier on my S5 that is the weak link in the chain. I noticed on the S5 if you go above 75& volume distortion begins to take place the amp starts to buckle.

 

[StanD]

  Help me out here then. Could it be that the combination of both the DAC(Asus STX) plus the amount of Juice my amp can pump out which in turns is producing a better sound. AT the end of the day I don't care for the H3's driven straight out of my Galaxy S5(which is said to have a nice DAC) I am certain of course I can never be 100% sure that it's the amplifier on my S5 that is the weak link in the chain. I noticed on the S5 if you go above 75& volume distortion begins to take place the amp starts to buckle.

Don't know about the S5 but my Note 3 works rather well with my H3's. Perhaps the distortion is happening in your player softer by numerical clipping. For example neutron has a preamp slider that can control this, it even has an auto gain feature that can help, which I don't use. Which music payer software are you using?

 

[Paradigm]

PowerAMP. Also All settings are on default so I never messed with the preamp.

 

[nudd]

Try S5 output into into your headphone amp and do an AB test.

Maybe getting a friend to do it as a blind test.

Help me out here then. Could it be that the combination of both the DAC(Asus STX) plus the amount of Juice my amp can pump out which in turns is producing a better sound. AT the end of the day I don't care for the H3's driven straight out of my Galaxy S5(which is said to have a nice DAC) I am certain of course I can never be 100% sure that it's the amplifier on my S5 that is the weak link in the chain. I noticed on the S5 if you go above 75& volume distortion begins to take place the amp starts to buckle.

 

[Paradigm]

After listening to these IEMS I find that even with the tape mode the high emphasis on mid bass is too excessive and tends at times to 

bloat and bleed out while over shadowing the mids. For those that like rap,hiphop, dupstep, electronic etc... these IEMS were made for them. Boy do they pound hard on my roomates hiphop tracks and sound phenomenal. 
 
When playing tracks that are fast paced the decay in the bass lingers making it sound loose and slow. This doesn't help considering that the mids are already toned down by design on theses IEMS and the Bass can sometimes overshadow them thereby

recessing the mids further.
 
Is there anything else that can be done to hep tighten the mid bass problem other then the tape mod which I have already done. I mean I love bass but this sounds like a subwoofer to me.

 

[mrmoto050]

 

After listening to these IEMS I find that even with the tape mode the high emphasis on mid bass is too excessive and tends at times tends to 

bloat and bleed out while over shadowing the mids. For those that like rap,hiphop, dupstep, electronic etc... these IEMS were made for them. Boy do they pound hard on my roomates hiphop tacks and sound phenomenal.
 
When playing tracks that are fast paced the decay in the bass lingers making it sound loose and slow. This doesn't help considering that the mids are already toned down by design on theses IEMS and the Bass can sometimes overshadow them thereby

recessing the mids further.
 
Is there anything else that can be done to hep tighten the mid bass problem other then the tape mod which I have already done. I mean I love bass but this sounds like a subwoofer to me.

@ParadigmTry some wide bore silicon single flange tips, they will tone down the bass and open up the mids and highs.

 

[Paradigm]

  @ParadigmTry some wide bore silicon single flange tips, they will tone down the bass and open up the mids and highs.

 
I will get right on to that and see if this helps.