[waynes world]

james444, thanks for the pics and the further impressions.
 
But Houston, we've got a problem. 

 

 

[vwinter]

Oh come on. You guys are gonna let James, with his limited experience, feeble IEM collection and general evil doing, influence your IEM buying habits?

This is the new Sony creme de la creme. You saw the diagrams. You read the interviews. These are the ticket. Now man up and slam that cash on the virtual table.

You're welcome.

 

[starcraft2]

Anyone has compared de ba h1 to the yamaha eph 1?

 

[vvs_75]

kind of hard to believe that the Japanese let XBA-H3 go to production knowing that its downgrade. Could be that the first batch production have some tuning issues and sound completely off compare to test model?

 

[james444]

Wow.. Seems like those early Japanese impressions were WAY off the mark. Kinda worried about the new 887 Walkman now :l

 
Well, there's always the possibility that my old ears are WAY off the mark. I haven't seen these impressions btw, do you have a link?
 

Oh come on. You guys are gonna let James, with his limited experience, feeble IEM collection and general evil doing, influence your IEM buying habits?

This is the new Sony creme de la creme. You saw the diagrams. You read the interviews. These are the ticket. Now man up and slam that cash on the virtual table.

You're welcome.

 
Exactly.

 

 

[BlinkST]

  More XBA-H3 sound impressions and a short comparison to the XBA-3 after 20 hours of "burn-in":
 
I don't think these have been changing much since yesterday, bass is still boomy and dominant no matter which test track I choose. Trying to get a better idea of their tonality, I bring the XBA-3 into the mix... and sure enough, these are even closer to the H3 than the XBA-4. There's nothing of the XBA-4's strangely skewed upper frequencies in the H3 and in fact I'd say the latter's mids and highs sound pretty darn close to the XBA-3's. Their bass, however, is good deal more bloated and obnoxious, so I try to equalize it down to XBA-3 levels.
 
EQed down by -4db @ 80Hz , the H3's bass quantity starts sounding about on par with the XBA-3's and I can finally try to compare their quality, which, to my ears, is somewhat of a mixed bag. On the one hand the H3's dynamic driver adds slightly more natural timbre and effortlessness to the bass range, but strangely enough, even at comparable amplitudes, the H3's bass sounds a tad worse defined and slightly more blurred than the XBA-3's. There's seems to be something odd going on down there, maybe some kind of interference between DD and BAs, idk, but the H3's low end doesn't sound entirely clean and well controlled to these ears.
 
Once again bringing the EX1000 into the comparison, it's so immediately apparent how different these are to me, much more linear and controlled in bass and overall just leaner, cleaner and more sophisticated.
 
That said, for those who love the XBA-3 sound, but would like significantly more bass, the XBA-H3 may be the ticket. As someone who thinks the XBA-3 have more than enough bass punch and would rather trade some mid-bass for a little more deep bass extension, I'd say the XBA-H3 are barking up the wrong tree, as they just add an evenly distributed heap of bass on top of what's already there in the XBA-3.

Sounds disappointing. I was picturing something more along the lines of the 1Plus2, ASG-2, or whatever else has a hybrid design. It's fairly delusional, but you get the idea. The review by other members gives a different impression, though:
Quote:

The soundstage was very surprising in that it was so wide that it was easy to forget that you had iems on. Maybe it was a function of the high drivers, but it was easy to forget where the sound was coming from.
Compared to the night before, the highs had also seemed to mellow a bit and it was a little more non-fatiguing.

Right now I am listening to them straight from the iPhone with a 10band equalizer program on the iPhone (eq10). Using it to make a bit of a v-shape, I realized the worth of these iems. They are seemingly neutral (to me) but with the 16mm dynamic driver and super high BA tweeter, have the ability to become whatever you want them to become through a little bit of eq.
The settings I have now have the same unadulterated crystal clear highs, but the lows completely undistorted while being lower than any other phone I've ever listened to. "Omen [R3 mix]" is a particularly nice test (google).

 
 

UPDATE 13/10/2013

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy weekend, no hype tactics in play.

Sound update 1:

It's taken a while to get over the Atrio MG7, the bass was truly out of this world. The XBA-H1 is cannot really be described as a bassy IEM when compared to the Atrios, far more balanced. The sound of the hybrid drivers is really something special, all the bass rumble that's missing from the usual array of single or dual BA IEMs, and the balanced signature and lack of obvious flaws that usually plague the cheaper dynamic IEMs. The bass here can be described as above average, only a few DBs higher than is strictly "audiophile", quality is quite good, tracks with multiple bass lines are not muddled or lacking. Dubstep sounds excellent, I always thought this kind of music would be better suited to the insanity-crisis level of sub-bass of the Atrios, but now I realise it was too much. Also, the bass doesn't intrude where it shouldn't, jazz piano and strings sound as they are supposed to, really surprised with this, I can't hear any bleed into the mid-range. Metal and hard rock is perfect, I can't stop listening.

It's tough to review the mids and highs, there simply isn't much to complain about. There are no sharp peaks, no recessed mids, no harshness. Instrument separation is very good overall, maybe some room for improvement in the highs. Detail retrieval is excellent, this definitely due to the BA driver, no muddiness or veil here. The dynamic driver is very well integrated, this isn't a BA+subwoofer deal (remember the super.Fi EB?), it's as if there is no crossover at all. Soundstage is pretty good, not overly broad, but intimate. Definitely a "front row" presentation.

I'm really, really impressed with the signature overall, I can't believe how far budget IEMs have come. I tried really hard in the past to love BA's, tried nearly all of them, the XBA-3 came close but still sounded unnatural and strained. The XBA-H1 sounds effortless, and correct. I'm already looking to pre-order the H2 and H3!
 

 
 
 
It would be nice if the H3 does give that "soundstage" and "front row" feel that's been described. That's what I want out of my music right now. 

 

[Inks]

Best hybrid by far is still the K3003 lol

 

[BlinkST]

Some would say the 1plus2 topped it. 

 

[Inks]

Oh yeah 1Plus2 seems to be on par, it's only those 2 at the heap.

 

[vwinter]

Oh yeah 1Plus2 seems to be on par, it's only those 2 at the heap.

But but... the top end extension?

 

[Jackson 6]

I'm all into slabs of non bleedin' bass, as the 90 seems to be the current champ, and I think I've mastered the H art; put yer 90 into the deep freeze, dominate your Walkman with the little weed, the XBA-1, totally for a few days, learn to like it through gritted teeth and brainwash yer bonce with it's, er, signature, and Mr H will sound like Mr JH 13. At max volume my E 475 'man should get a tolerable sound body, and a reviewer elsewhere liked the H1 through an Ipod 5, and my amp is superior.
 
And if it's headphone amp time, fair enough, I've been perusing them for awhile as it is. The F886 is in my sights as well.

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

Well, there's always the possibility that my old ears are WAY off the mark. I haven't seen these impressions btw, do you have a link?


Exactly.  

They're buried somewhere in this thread (i'll try to dig em up). They're pretty dodgy machine translations, but the gist of it was that the H3 delivered an overwhelming sound, very "hi-FI", made it out to feel like a V-Shaped phone I think. I was expecting something sort've akin to the 1P2 I guess from the descriptions. And I highly doubt your impressions are off the mark, I'm just curious whether these things'll benefit from run-in at all, or if they're just a lost cause. At the moment though, I don't think my K3K will go up on the chopping block anytime soon

Edit: impressions here- http://www.head-fi.org/t/680119/sony-xba-h1-and-xba-h3-hybrid-dynamic-and-ba-iem/75#post_9778733

 

[shotgunshane]

Wow. Nothing to see here. Time to move along.

 

[Idsynchrono_24]

Ah to think that at one point the Ex-1000 guy was pinned to the H series. C'est la vie

 

[a_recording]

Oh come on. You guys are gonna let James, with his limited experience, feeble IEM collection and general evil doing, influence your IEM buying habits?

This is the new Sony creme de la creme. You saw the diagrams. You read the interviews. These are the ticket. Now man up and slam that cash on the virtual table.

You're welcome.

 
The Big Earphone lobby strikes again!