Similar dish type dynamic earphones. That is the only thing that is similar. The HJE450 is a complete and utter failure from Panasonic. If you heard one you would understand.. They tried some funky air venting experiment that went completely wrong on them.. Long story short I don't have them any more but I still own and love my CKM500 but the HJE450 got the boot from me..There is a new version of the HJE450. I think because of how much a failure they are but only sold in Japan called the HJE600. Reading a few reviews online about them they look like what Panasonic had in mind when trying out these air vented dynamic.
not sure why u say their venting experiment failed.
cause i been using the panasonic rp-hje270 for more than a year now, there are 3 vent holes at the back of the earphone.
not sure if it's the same "funky air venting experiment" you are referring to but these hje270 have been giving me high clarity sounds, good bass, no sibilance playing music loud/soft, they sound really transparent, timbre of instruments sound 100% perfect to me (i am not an expert) and perhaps the only bad thing about the vents is a little lower isolation. my impression of the vents is that it makes the general sound signature more natural sounding, natural being defined as the same texture in sound of the surrounding environment i hear when i take my earphones off.
i also own a pair of the sunrise xcape impressive edition which has totally no vents/holes on it, not sure if the overall slightly veiled sound is from the warm signature of the earphone or because it has no vents. I must say even the 20 dollar hje270 outperforms the 80 dollar xcape ie to me. whenever i switch back to the panasonic after days of listening on the xcape ie, i almost always feel a sense of fatigue lifted off of me and a generally more natural sounding signature from the panasonic. perhaps i been listening to the congested soundstage of the panasonic for too long and grown used to it, but i am positive the large distance separation of the xcape ie in terms of vocal and instrument is something my brain will not burn in to like over time as it sounds totally exaggerated and the musicality is gone when things are split up so far apart into individual components. not that i think separation is a bad thing but perhaps it's about having just the right amount of separation, something less exaggerated in terms of distance, after all i am about the post processed musciality and not doing referencing of sound in a studio.
comparing the xcape ie and panasonic, the xcape ie made me felt that warm earphones are not my kind of thing as i currently associate veiled sounding properties with a warm signature(not sure if i am right or wrong here, couldn't find much infomation associating these 2 properties). also made me realise the panasonic does sound a little unrefined and less prominent in terms of details and perhaps a little too much harmonic distortion from a cheap pair of earphones. which started me on another quest to finding an upgrade to the panasonic hje270 sort of sound signature and transparency, timbre. the factor that i am most looking forward to is an upgrade to soundstage after hearing the congested panasonic for more than a year now, they are 0 fatigue for 8 hours listening but i prefer a little separation now so the music can sound more realistic while remaining lively and fatigue free.
which also makes me want to sidetrack a little and say that i've noticed how the levels of fatigue from a pair of earphones are usually not assessed by most users even in a niche forum like this.
not too keen on balanced armature right now though, since most reviews have stated the lack of bass in BA phones, or lack of sub bass/natural sounding bass even when the quality of bass in BA phones are adequate, which i have related to the mechanical limitation in balanced armature for driving bassy sounds.
and i must say i have been reading these forums and numerous reviews for weeks now trying to upgrade from my panasonic hje270 and still unable to find a suitable pair of earphone. i also read your other posts since the xba3 hype to the fzx200s and still couldn't conclude on a pair of upgrades. i must say i was really keen on the xba3 but the deal breaker lies in the challenge to power them on-the-go and most importantly the metallic sounding spike in treble at 8k Hz which i am still waiting for reviews of xba-30 to confirm that this has been fixed.
the review by joker on k3003 made me felt really inclined towards them as i felt this might be the combination of sound that i have been yearning to experience but eventually the deal breaker came after i thought about how hybrids do sound incoherent since dynamic speakers and balanced armature do sound different and probably easily noticeable to any ear that listens to music 6 hours a day, otherwise i would have saved up and grabbed myself a pair of k3003.
