[L0SLobos]

Hi

I've bought a pair of xba-h1's and listened to them last night with great expections. Unfortunately they didn't meet them! I listened to them on both my MZ-NH1 and MZ-RH1 players with uncompressed material. Maybe I have been spoilt with my MDR-1R's, but the H1's left me thinking that they had over enhanced and loose bass, although they do extend way below what you'd expect for an IEM... and also the clarifty wasn't there with a lacking high end.

Do these get better with burn-in? My MDR-1R certainly did. I've left them running all day today to see if there'll be any difference tonight.

My intention is get the NW-ZX1 as a source for both my headphones. Even my MDR-E838's seem to give more clarify. Maybe I need to give it more time, but at the moment I'm considering sending them back for a refund.

Matt

Hi Matt
Can you give a general impression of what the H1's sound like across all frequencies and how well they play various genres of music? I was planning on getting these but after reading your thoughts I'm not so sure now...

 

[Liono]

Hi Matt
Can you give a general impression of what the H1's sound like across all frequencies and how well they play various genres of music? I was planning on getting these but after reading your thoughts I'm not so sure now...

 


Hi

I'd say they have got better with burn-in, but they are still not balanced. I'm not sure it's fair me comparing these with full size headphones
three times the RRP. When switching back and forth between the MDR-1Rs and the XBA-H1's you notice that the 1Rs have a much flatter frequency response across the board.

The soundstaging has greater separation and 3 dimensionism to it with the 1R's. The H1's have great bass, but it is a bit over emphasised without any EQ settings. It's like the LOUDNESS button has been pressed. i like bass so it's not a bad thing and EQ settings can ajust for this. To my ears the H1's are like a Cinema setup: Very upfront, brash and bass heavy. But this is IMHO and I have been told by my wife that I am sensitive to treble noises.

The high frequencies in Re-wind artful doger make the hairs on your head standup on 1R's, but the upper range is lost on the H1's. The Bass on the same song is great on H1's and extend beyond what i've heard on any IEM that I have listened to. Dubstep bass is great with the H1's, SubFocus' Album Torus sounds great in the bass department. Treble is a bit brash and harsh.. Classical music and Dire straits is clear.

Again maybe I'm spoilt with the 1R's. I do wonder if the XBA-H3's would solve my perceptions but they are more than double the price though, and I wonder if I am really that bothered about ultimate quality when out and about, whereas I can enjoy the 1R's at home or in a closed environment.

When I auditioned th MDR-1Rs at my local shop they sounded great, miles better than the others on show. When I received mine they sounded not as good, but after a few tens of hours of running they relaxed, were more balanced and less harsh. Mayebe the H1's need more time to do this, although they have been on for ~48 hours now. I'll listen some more tonight

I've never listend to Shure SE535's or any other upmarket IEM so not sure I'm that qualified, but I'm just telling you what I hear.

Matt

p.s. this is an interesting link. They seem to recommend the H1 over the H3's on value for money

http://ohm-image.net/opinion/audiophile/earphone-geeks-xba-h3h2h1-hands-on

 

[L0SLobos]

 

  Hi Matt
Can you give a general impression of what the H1's sound like across all frequencies and how well they play various genres of music? I was planning on getting these but after reading your thoughts I'm not so sure now...

 


Hi

I'd say they have got better with burn-in, but they are still not balanced. I'm not sure it's fair me comparing these with full size headphones
three times the RRP. When switching back and forth between the MDR-1Rs and the XBA-H1's you notice that the 1Rs have a much flatter frequency response across the board.

The soundstaging has greater separation and 3 dimensionism to it with the 1R's. The H1's have great bass, but it is a bit over emphasised without any EQ settings. It's like the LOUDNESS button has been pressed. i like bass so it's not a bad thing and EQ settings can ajust for this. To my ears the H1's are like a Cinema setup: Very upfront, brash and bass heavy. But this is IMHO and I have been told by my wife that I am sensitive to treble noises.

The high frequencies in Re-wind artful doger make the hairs on your head standup on 1R's, but the upper range is lost on the H1's. The Bass on the same song is great on H1's and extend beyond what i've heard on any IEM that I have listened to. Dubstep bass is great with the H1's, SubFocus' Album Torus sounds great in the bass department. Treble is a bit brash and harsh.. Classical music and Dire straits is clear.

Again maybe I'm spoilt with the 1R's. I do wonder if the XBA-H3's would solve my perceptions but they are more than double the price though, and I wonder if I am really that bothered about ultimate quality when out and about, whereas I can enjoy the 1R's at home or in a closed environment.

When I auditioned th MDR-1Rs at my local shop they sounded great, miles better than the others on show. When I received mine they sounded not as good, but after a few tens of hours of running they relaxed, were more balanced and less harsh. Mayebe the H1's need more time to do this, although they have been on for ~48 hours now. I'll listen some more tonight

I've never listend to Shure SE535's or any other upmarket IEM so not sure I'm that qualified, but I'm just telling you what I hear.

Matt

p.s. this is an interesting link. They seem to recommend the H1 over the H3's on value for money

http://ohm-image.net/opinion/audiophile/earphone-geeks-xba-h3h2h1-hands-on

Hmm. Thanks for sharing. Based on this information its clear that the xba h-series offer a clear improvement over the previous gen xba series (I have xba-1, had xba-3), but there are still some kinks to work out. I think I'll wait until the next gen xba iems. Hopefully by then they'll have worked out the issues with high frequency. 

 

[Artmuzz]

I recently bought the Sony XBA-H1 IEMs and they are fantastic. The bass is tight detailed and punchy and the mids and highs are good too. The soundstage and instrument seperation is very good too. They actually sound much better that the XBA-1 IEMs I bought last year which I thought were cold and tinny sounding. The XBA-H1 sounds just as good as the B&W C5 IEMs I bought last week. I am very impressed.

 

[radiohead14]

One question, can someone compare this h1 with xb90ex? I'm searching items with punch, I see xb90, but h1 can have it with detail of balanced armature driver

 
 

 
+1

 
+2... i lost my xb90ex at a bar this past weekend, so now i'm looking at the xba-h1. i love the sound signature and sub-bass of the xb90ex.. i'm really curious as to how the bass compares between the two. i assume the xb90ex would be deeper in that, but i hope the h1 isn't that far off. looking to buy a replacement asap, so thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[daveyostrow]

   
 
 
+2... i lost my xb90ex at a bar this past weekend, so now i'm looking at the xba-h1. i love the sound signature and sub-bass of the xb90ex.. i'm really curious as to how the bass compares between the two. i assume the xb90ex would be deeper in that, but i hope the h1 isn't that far off. looking to buy a replacement asap, so thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 
The h1 is an upgrade in refinement but doesnt go as low in the bass. H1 is a cleaner sound better suited for more genres like rock and such.

 

[zsolti256]

I just purchased the XBA H1 too, it sounds really clear but without EQ There is little to no bass for me, And I also like the my mdr v55 -s they are cheap and have more bass(not as detailed highs and middle, but still its a real bang for the buck!!), I am a bass head I like if the music is shifted a little to the deeper end !  I just ordered the Xb90ex from japan they are said to have big bass and okay mids-highs, I will try to make a shootout here soon.


H1 arent so comfy for me(after 30-45mins), it is a bit bulky, but they dont fall out of my ears.Before the H1 I had V-moda Bass Freq Wow I neary forgot there is such thing as high and middle sounds  


But Dont get me wrong , the H1 Has some realy fine sounding bass when eq-d , it is not as distorted as the bass heavy earphones.


 


Also  just ordered a V-Moda M100 of ebay, hope its genuine . .(Cause all I heard was reviews raving on about the fact that it is the best pair of headphones money can buy), yes I am going to be a bit spoiled


But I will end up trying to sell what didnt suit me.

 

[mgunin]

Do you think H1 will work for jazz better than the above-discussed DUNU-1k?
My source is iBasso DX50.

 

[Supercritical]

  I just purchased the XBA H1 too, it sounds really clear but without EQ There is little to no bass for me, And I also like the my mdr v55 -s they are cheap and have more bass(not as detailed highs and middle, but still its a real bang for the buck!!), I am a bass head I like if the music is shifted a little to the deeper end !  I just ordered the Xb90ex from japan they are said to have big bass and okay mids-highs, I will try to make a shootout here soon.
  H1 arent so comfy for me(after 30-45mins), it is a bit bulky, but they dont fall out of my ears.Before the H1 I had V-moda Bass Freq Wow I neary forgot there is such thing as high and middle sounds  
  But Dont get me wrong , the H1 Has some realy fine sounding bass when eq-d , it is not as distorted as the bass heavy earphones.
   
  Also  just ordered a V-Moda M100 of ebay, hope its genuine . .(Cause all I heard was reviews raving on about the fact that it is the best pair of headphones money can buy), yes I am going to be a bit spoiled

But I will end up trying to sell what didnt suit me.

 
I thought I was a big time basshead with all the electronic music I listen to, but wow, H1 is light on bass? The first thing that overwhelmed my eardrums from the H1 is the booming bass...
I can't imagine you trying on a single balanced armature earphones lol...

 

[TripBitShooter]

Does anyone know which has greater clarity, detail and neutrality, comparing the XBA-10, XBA-20 and XBA-H1? I dont mind a little more bass though. I am getting a cheaper IEM as i am scared of bringing out my ATH-M50x LE, PSB M4U1 or NAD Viso HP50 together with my FiiO X3.

 

[TripBitShooter]

Bump

 

[curtisngl]

I sort of impulse- bought these since I got them for only about $90. At first I didn't care for them, and even after near 100 hours of burn in, treble seemed to not just roll off, but drop off, just no extension. Also, I am sourcing them solely off of my iphone 5, so it isn't quite fair for a set near 40 ohms impedance. With that said, I removed the little wax guard filter in the nozzle ( because I have good hygiene, and I never get wax in my buds.) man, those things were filtering out some of the treble! Now, at high volumes, these things can even sound bright! Note that I am using the silicone tips. The foam filled ones didn't work for me, and comply tips didn't help sound quality in this instance. So yeah, I'd like to contribute that thought to you other owners. Cymbals have a very pristine yet contained shimmer, especially in the intro to Metallica's "hell and back". Snare drums are also very sharp, vocals sound more natural, and less like the singer is covered in a blanket. Guitars sound kick ass now, especially the throaghty guitars used in metal music. Damn, do they sing. You can also hear these In Linkin Park's hunting party album, as they use guitars used for metal music. These sound so good with that album, especially because the recording has outstanding quality.

 

[Liono]

I sort of impulse- bought these since I got them for only about $90. At first I didn't care for them, and even after near 100 hours of burn in, treble seemed to not just roll off, but drop off, just no extension. Also, I am sourcing them solely off of my iphone 5, so it isn't quite fair for a set near 40 ohms impedance. With that said, I removed the little wax guard filter in the nozzle ( because I have good hygiene, and I never get wax in my buds.) man, those things were filtering out some of the treble! Now, at high volumes, these things can even sound bright! Note that I am using the silicone tips. The foam filled ones didn't work for me, and comply tips didn't help sound quality in this instance. So yeah, I'd like to contribute that thought to you other owners. Cymbals have a very pristine yet contained shimmer, especially in the intro to Metallica's "hell and back". Snare drums are also very sharp, vocals sound more natural, and less like the singer is covered in a blanket. Guitars sound kick ass now, especially the throaghty guitars used in metal music. Damn, do they sing. You can also hear these In Linkin Park's hunting party album, as they use guitars used for metal music. These sound so good with that album, especially because the recording has outstanding quality.

 


mm this is interesting! I wish I'd tried that before returning my pair. Like you was unimpressed with treble and clarity. Others seem to rave about the H3's and I can't seem to get my head around that because the H3's use the same full range BA albeit with an additional hi res BA. So maybe they don't have this "filtering" issue that you suggest the H1 has.

 

[daveyostrow]

[mm this is interesting! I wish I'd tried that before returning my pair. Like you was unimpressed with treble and clarity. Others seem to rave about the H3's and I can't seem to get my head around that because the H3's use the same full range BA albeit with an additional hi res BA. So maybe they don't have this "filtering" issue that you suggest the H1 has.[/quote]

The H3 most likely have diff tuning. The H1 are bassy, but not like the xba30, xb90, or H3. Depending on the price, the H3 is a worthy upgrade considering sound alone. Well worthy.
Maybe removing the filter brings clarity, but I doubt it will have the refinement and technical ability of the H3.
Sony needs to work on the ergonomics of their bigger phones, move away from the 7550/1000 form fit.

 

[curtisngl]

To really hear a difference/ for them to sound good, the volume on my phone needs to be about halfway though, which I don't advise to stay at for hours on end. If you have an amp though, they should sound better at lower volume. And you could eq up the treble a little too. Also, this doesn't make them worth $160. If you get them for $90 or less, they are a pretty good deal.