Sony XBA-H1 and XBA-H3 Hybrid Dynamic and BA IEM

[zaim]

  Received my H3's from Amazon today.  Luckily I managed to snag them at the £220 price they had a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway, my current IEM's are Sony XB90EX and these are a massive step up in every way.  Better soundstage and better clarity.  Bass is very similar in terms of quantity but slightly less boomy, and yes I do like lots of bass. In fact going back to the 90's I'd say they sound positively harsh in comparison.  This is all without any burn in and just 20 minutes of listening. 

Excellent, would you say the H3 bass goes as low as the 90's ? 

 

[amf123]

It goes easily as low.  Bear in mind I haven't had long with them, only about 45 minutes so can only give first impressions.  The bass is easily as low and as strong in presentation but there is more control to it.  At first it sounded like there was slightly less but after a few minutes I realised it was just better presented.  At a push I'd say there is possibly a little less mid-bass but not really enough to notice unless you listen close for it.

 

[saurabh]

Does it have to be a Sony? Have you checked the DUNU DN-1000? Might just be the one you're looking for...
http://www.head-fi.org/t/681435/dunu-dn-1000-dunus-hybrid-iem-appreciation-thread

good option but i just dont have $200 to throw on iems

 

  Received my H3's from Amazon today.  Luckily I managed to snag them at the £220 price they had a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway, my current IEM's are Sony XB90EX and these are a massive step up in every way.  Better soundstage and better clarity.  Bass is very similar in terms of quantity but slightly less boomy, and yes I do like lots of bass. In fact going back to the 90's I'd say they sound positively harsh in comparison.  This is all without any burn in and just 20 minutes of listening. 

  Thanks for that. It answered a burning question!

Definitely.. H3 has to be superior to xb90s in all aspects as more BAs its got along with 90s dynamic. But for h3's price i can get around 7-8 xb90s 

 

  that sounds great, the xb90 are not so refined but have unbeatable bass. how does the h1 fit in the scheme?

That's exactly what i am looking for. how does h1 scores against xb90s.

 

[saurabh]

Depends on which you consider more comfortable/ portable. I would purchase the earphones, because I don't like headphones. 

I have listened to xb900s & found them a lot comfortable. Not concerned about the form factor here but the soundstage. Will it be more bigger in 900s or H1 as they cost almost same?

 

[james444]

  One thing I'm curious about is how the H1 and H3 will sound like through Sony's HD Audio DAC/AMPs, as seen in the pics from CANJAm2013
 

 
Maybe this combo is the magic ticket.
Would any of the H3 owners get to chance a listen? @kms108 @james444 

 
Don't think I'll get to hear this combo anytime soon, I'm afraid. But assuming that Sony's HD Audio DAC/AMPs will be reasonably transparent, my main issue with the H3's would certainly persist.
 
Speaking of which, I've recently got my hands on a second pair of H3's and comparing it side by side with the first pair right now, the new H3's bass strikes me as slightly tighter and better controlled. The difference is actually very small, the new H3s sounding just a smidgen less boomy and their bass seems to peak a few Hz deeper than the first pair's. So, is this difference a result of production variation or of roughly 50 hours of "burn-in" on my first pair? If it's the latter, than "burn-in" might actually have a slight adverse effect on sound quality in case of the H3.
 
Anyway, by and large nothing sounds significantly different on my second pair of H3s and the similarities far outweigh the differences. So I've finally got to accept what I refused to believe so far, that Sony (not unlike Sennheiser with the IE800) set out to stuff some extremely promising tech into their new IEMs, only to mar the result with an overabundance of bass that sadly throws their overall tonality off balance.

 

[howihearit]

Anyone by chance tryed the H3s on the fiio e12 or the jds labs c5 ?

 

[Mizwa]

Which FiiO amp would be better to use with the XBA-H1?

 

[Aelavin]

Ok, I've spend some hours with XBA-H3. So far I used them with my NWZ-X1050 and a bit with Xperia Z. I also compared them with my XBA-3.
 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
NWZ-X1050 (EQ set to flat, except ClearBass which was set on 3 (around +10dB peak in 60Hz falling to +3dB at 20Hz and to +0dB at around 200Hz according to RMAA), without additional effects):
 
If I would like to compared them with XBA-3, this is what I noticed.
 - Unlike XBA-3, H3's bass is easily audiable even with ClearBass set on 1 (+3dB), 
 - Bass is more extended in time than this on XBA-3, which is a little bit better controled and tight. On XBA-3's bass is more about "hear", but less than "feel" it, and it's like "BOOM", but H3 give you also "feel" of bass (not so strong to overkill sound) and it's more like "BOOoom",
 - Bass can go really deep (as deep as XBA-3), but with more "feel" it,
 - Sound is quite clean. You could get clean and balanced sound (almost on par with XBA-3) but only if you can roll off bass a little,
 - Looks like those annoying and close cymbals (or just too loud highs) from XBA-3 are a bit further now (more on level of vocal). I think that's a good point,
 - They're as detailed as XBA-3, but with more bass these details could be a bit more overwhelmed,
 - Soundstage is a bit narrowed compared to XBA-3 but still really wide.
 
In general sound which comes from H3 has more... body, more fully, it's more melodic. I think it's all because of bass. XBA-3 sounds clean, but a little bit without emotions, too sterile. Everything is well controlled and balanced. Sometimes too much.
But overall difference between XBA-3 and XBA-H3 is not that big from my point of view. They both sound great, clean, without much distortion. The biggest difference is bass.
 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Xperia Z (EQ set to flat, except ClearBass which was set on +10, without additional effects):
 
Well, what I could write here... In my opinion Xperia don't sound as good as NWZ-X1050. I checked this with every possible headphone/earphone I have. The presence is more forward in every case and less clean than on my X1050 and the rest of sound is quite... plain.
 
With Xperia my XBA-3 were just lacking bass. It didn't matter if I set ClearBass on 0 or on +10. I think it's all because of impedance. And here comes H3. With higher impedance they won this fight. Bass is finally here The rest of description is like in X1050 (above).
 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Some more words:
 
I didn't play much with EQ, because I don't think they need adjust to my taste (and Walkman don't give much here because of 5 band EQ), but it looks like they could easily adjust to what do you want. No sign of stange shackles or sounds coming a bit odd and off what do you except from currently changed band.
 
 
Tested bands:
SOiL, Epica, Papa Roach, Within Temptation, Halestorm, Disturbed, Blood Stained Child, Drowning Pool and more in same category.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

The XBA-H1 turned into a totally different animal when powered by the PHA-2.  Bass was more controlled and opened up like a veil was lifted.  It scaled much better than the H3 did on the PHA-2.  The issue is most people who buys the H1 won't be using a $599 USD PHA-2 with it.

 

[coyoteboy]

I've had a couple of hours with the H3 too now, and while I'll hold off on getting too detailed until I've had more time with them...
 
The fit is very comfy - I was expecting something of a nightmare. In reality I oddly feel like I can't even feel them - I think it's due to the over-ear wires taking some of the load. Where the XBA-3's used to fall out fairly easily with a nudge or after some time, these seem to be happy "home" in my ears. I have quite roomy ears though. They don't look too mental on my big head.
 
Fresh out of the box - looks lovely. Flat cable is about as tangly as the old XBAs, no gain there but not bad. I used to have a pair of Sony's with a fabric covered cable - they never tangled and had zero noise from clothing rub.
 
No idea about wind noise, I'm in an office. Isolation is good but not as much as the XBA-30, but I'm not using the isolating tips as I was on the 30s. This may improve. Either way I can barely hear the guy next to me talking loudly with the tracks muted.
 
Sound:
With tracks that are mastered poorly the sound is very harsh - the loudness wars have taken their toll on several of my normally enjoyed tracks and I skip them - the high end gets picked up and bites a bit much as it's so accurately represented. Poorly encoded high frequency stuff sounds like it has sibilance but when re-encoded properly there's none of it.
 
Vocal ranges and mids are clear and accurately represented. Separation of instruments and soundstage seems large. Not QUITE as large as the 30's but not far off - depends on the tunes to be honest.
 
Bass - Finally. The XBA-30 was too clinical. Lacked some sort of overriding warmth. The H3 captures pretty much everything I like in my tunes, and delivers it with punchy, quick, but controlled bass. I've no problems with muddy sound here and the response seems to go very low, in fact I'm hearing things I've only previously noticed with a decent sub nearby.
 
Tested on a few tunes, from Bob Dylan, The Smiths and latterly a bunch of random chillstep on the tube of you (not a great audio source but I don't have much of that sort of music in my normal collection!).
 
All this is driven by a Samsung Galaxy S2 with no EQ settings changed and up to about half volume.

 

[coyoteboy]

I can physically hear and feel down to 20hz on the mobile phone output at 1/3 volume. Xba30 stopped around 35hz at 50% vol. Not sure what the limits of the output is.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[zaim]

I can physically hear and feel down to 20hz on the mobile phone output at 1/3 volume. Xba30 stopped around 35hz at 50% vol. Not sure what the limits of the output is.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 
That's just what I wanted to hear, I love the way the bass is on my XB90's, if the H3 can do the same/similar and sound better then I'll definitely get the H3's, hopefully in the next few months.

 

[getclikinagas]

The XBA-H1 turned into a totally different animal when powered by the PHA-2.  Bass was more controlled and opened up like a veil was lifted.  It scaled much better than the H3 did on the PHA-2.  The issue is most people who buys the H1 won't be using a $599 USD PHA-2 with it.

Ah. Just like I suspected.
I'm sure Sony and "hurts" must've done most of their development on their own dac/amps. (didn't the old XBA series have better synergy with the Sony Walkman range?)

But testing a mid fi 100$ iem on cheaper players(clip), smartphones, unamped, is quite obvious, isn't it?

Or... Or maybe that was sony's plan for the H1. People who use their smartphones /cheaper players would like the warmer bassier sig(which is what most people qualify as "sounds great") . And the guys running it off amps/dacs would be treated to some added clarity with controlled bass.
Sigh... I don't know...


Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk 2

 

[sibilantz]

  Ok, I've spend some hours with XBA-H3. So far I used them with my NWZ-X1050 and a bit with Xperia Z. I also compared them with my XBA-3.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
NWZ-X1050 (EQ set to flat, except ClearBass which was set on 3 (around +10dB peak in 60Hz falling to +3dB at 20Hz and to +0dB at around 200Hz according to RMAA), without additional effects):
 
If I would like to compared them with XBA-3, this is what I noticed.
 - Unlike XBA-3, H3's bass is easily audiable even with ClearBass set on 1 (+3dB), 
 - Bass is more extended in time than this on XBA-3, which is a little bit better controled and tight. On XBA-3's bass is more about "hear", but less than "feel" it, and it's like "BOOM", but H3 give you also "feel" of bass (not so strong to overkill sound) and it's more like "BOOoom",
 - Bass can go really deep (as deep as XBA-3), but with more "feel" it,
 - Sound is quite clean. You could get clean and balanced sound (almost on par with XBA-3) but only if you can roll off bass a little,
 - Looks like those annoying and close cymbals (or just too loud highs) from XBA-3 are a bit further now (more on level of vocal). I think that's a good point,
 - They're as detailed as XBA-3, but with more bass these details could be a bit more overwhelmed,
 - Soundstage is a bit narrowed compared to XBA-3 but still really wide.
 
In general sound which comes from H3 has more... body, more fully, it's more melodic. I think it's all because of bass. XBA-3 sounds clean, but a little bit without emotions, too sterile. Everything is well controlled and balanced. Sometimes too much.
But overall difference between XBA-3 and XBA-H3 is not that big from my point of view. They both sound great, clean, without much distortion. The biggest difference is bass.
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Xperia Z (EQ set to flat, except ClearBass which was set on +10, without additional effects):
 
Well, what I could write here... In my opinion Xperia don't sound as good as NWZ-X1050. I checked this with every possible headphone/earphone I have. The presence is more forward in every case and less clean than on my X1050 and the rest of sound is quite... plain.
 
With Xperia my XBA-3 were just lacking bass. It didn't matter if I set ClearBass on 0 or on +10. I think it's all because of impedance. And here comes H3. With higher impedance they won this fight. Bass is finally here The rest of description is like in X1050 (above).

Thanks so much for this, much appreciated buddy!
 
I think this will be by next upgrade then, if I guess 'treble' is up there with the XBA3s - hopefully prices drop a bit though!
 
Recently got the ue900 and I think it is too 'reference' for me, seems to lack the colour and brightness that I am use to with the 3s. I never actually felt the 3s to lack bass, though depends on source and tracks. Modern music with poweramp EQ brings out all the bass magic for my 3s but if H3 can do that without much EQ then I think it will sound more natural!
 
Btw - when you mention that the bass could make the sound overwhelmed, I hope this doesn't mean it becomes a bit more muddy and flat?

 

[sect44]

Thanks, James444. Our ears seem to enjoy the same, so after reading your reviews and having tested some Iems (IE800 - EX1000) I'll pass these new Sonys. I trust you..

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk