[soham99]

       To all audiophiles,
 

1. I currently use Sennheiser CX 180 Street II
2. I am on a tight budget - around 50$ (eq. INR)
3. I am from India, so, limited availability (all products are not available).
4. I listen to music in iPod Touch 4G.
5. I listen to all kind of musics (Calm folks to Skrillex). Flat response is preferred.
6. I wont be using any amp.

 
      - Based on these facts I have shortlisted a few IEM s. Help me choose the best among these -

• SoundMAGIC E30
• Brainwavz M1
• Brainwavz M2
• Klipsch S4i

 
       Thanks in advance
       Soham

 

[TheJesusGuy]

Soundmagic E30

 

[soham99]

Quote:

Soundmagic E30

My cx 180 is still okay. Will it make much difference? Does it worth the upgrade?
Here the Brainwavz M4 costs twice the price of E30 and M3 costs 2.5x of E30. Should I save money for M4 or M3 or go with E30?

 

[saurabh]

Your best bet would be between E30 and M1 as the others are out of your budget and M1 to M2 is a minor upgrade. So no point in shelling out 1000bucks($20) more as you said you are tight on budget.
 
E30 & M1 are excellent sound quality wise for the price and you cant go wrong with either of them. In fact i would say they are the best in their price range.
the only difference i could make out between the two from my listening was in the treble part. e30s really shine here with nice sparkle in high frequency range. m1 is equally good but with a bit of less sparkle.
in mids department the difference was not much noticeable to my ears. i guess vocals are more clear on e30s.
e30 has neutral sound whereas m1 is a bit on the bass side without compromising on the mids & highs. you can say a bit softer in tone reproduction relative to e30 or more fun sounding.
 
e30 over m1-
>slightly better in detail
>sounds more airy & open with great imaging and instrument separation is slightly better too.
>extremely comfortable once you get a good seal to your ears(would rather say comfort king like the old PL30s).
>strain reliefs are colour coded(red for right,blue for left) so one doesnt need to search everytime which ones right/left. just put them on seeing the colour.
 
 
m1 over e30-
>bass is more in quantity.
> better build quality--m1 has rugged cable where e30 has rubberish.
> u get a hard case to put them safely instead of the leather pouch with e30.
> isolation is somewhat better (e30 has mediocre isolation)
 
so if you want more detailed sound with excellent comfort and can compromise a bit on build quality and isolation--go for e30.
if you want better build(cables),a hard case to put them safely with better isolation and slightly less detail--go for m1.
its a matter of preference.
But recently my brother had to get it replaced twice as the 3.5mm jack on M1 easily gets damaged and some issues have been reported in the recent past by people.
 
personally i go with e30 as i cant compromise on sound have been using them for around 8 months. i like to explore detail in music. i am fine with its build. only gripe is soundmagic should have included a hard case for it.

 

[saurabh]

You can even have a look at these
http://www.proaudiohome.com/Signature-Acoustics-C-12-Elements-Wooden-Earphone
 
Overall better than M1 in sound i guess and looks great in wooden housing. will be coming up with a simple review soon. As you are coming from cx180 which are considered to be on the bassy side, i think these would be a good buy too.

 

[soham99]

Thanks a lot! I have decided to go with Soundmagic E30.
I have ordered from naaptol.
And does it need burn-in?

 

[saurabh]

not much..i just let mine burn naturally with what i listen to. they sound excellent out of the box. you will like its open & airy sound with great detail. these are my personal favourite

do tell us how you feel about them once you get them

 

[PocketSmiley]

Quote:

       To all audiophiles,
 

1. I currently use Sennheiser CX 180 Street II
2. I am on a tight budget - around 50$ (eq. INR)
3. I am from India, so, limited availability (all products are not available).
4. I listen to music in iPod Touch 4G.
5. I listen to all kind of musics (Calm folks to Skrillex). Flat response is preferred.
6. I wont be using any amp.

 
      - Based on these facts I have shortlisted a few IEM s. Help me choose the best among these -

• SoundMAGIC E30
• Brainwavz M1
• Brainwavz M2
• Klipsch S4i

 
       Thanks in advance
       Soham

 
The Sennheiser CX series definitely don't have a flat frequency response, so you want something that sounds different than your CX180?
 
I have the Soundmagic E10, and according to this review the E10 has a slightly better (bigger, louder, deeper) bass which disappointed him about the E30.
 
According to my review, the E10 can drive bass loud while maintaining the clarity of the rest of the details. The problem however is that the bass sounds like "PFDT" instead of the "TUUD" characteristic of the Sennheiser CX series.
 
I don't know about the M1 and M2, but the Klipsch S4 is the first on my to buy list. In my review, the CX400 satisfied my "mainstream car audio" basshead preference and is the absolute best for me. In the frequency response graphs however the Klipsch S4 seems to have a deeper and louder thumping bass than the CX400 which I have to try.

 

[soham99]

After receiving I listened to it for 2 days. Here goes my short review -
I clearly underestimated its bass before I listened to them. The bass is pretty good and is better than senny cx180. Had it more bass and its neutral thing would be gone.
Luckily the bi-flanger fits my ears perfectly. Sound isolation is ok.
As I write I am currently listening with it. Every instrument amazes me every second.
But...at the most background sound of the music (which I never knew existed before using E30) is getting a bit distorted. I believe it will be gone after listening about several hours (natural burn-in). As a matter of fact the sound quality has improved much since I first plugged them into ears.
At 2k it is a steal. Before buying this I hated 'made in china's - but not anymore.
Overall I rate this 9 out of 10.
Thank you again for suggesting me such a great product.
 
Soham