[a_recording]

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^^ Status: Just got-ed.
 
 

Oh man, I really would love a chance to listen to those. It intrigues me to no end that Sony is making their own BA's.


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Congrats on the V80's. I was one of the people picked for the V-MODA review group and I'm loving my M-80s. Right now I'm really wondering what Val has in store for us with the new M100's.
 

I'm very much wanting a pair of M-80s or looking forward to the M100s as well. Its actually really positive to see a company like V-Moda starting from relatively humble roots and really engage with the community despite getting so big.
 
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Originally Posted by DigitalFreak /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
B&W has always interested me because I've always loved their speakers. When the P5 first came out I was one of the fan boys who ran to the store bought one and paraded all over the mall with the box for all to see, I'm that much of a fan. Unfortunately the P5 was an utter failure to my ears and I wound up selling it a year later. I was hoping that maybe they accomplished something more deserving of the B&W name with this C5 IEM. My pipe dream is to one day own a pair of B&W Nautilus speakers mated to a Bryston or Mcintosh hifi system. I'll never be able to ever afford a system like that though but it's always nice to dream.

I can share your thoughts. I love B&W speakers too; both in terms of design and sound. The P5s are a big disappointment for me too. I really want to sell my pair but thought I would do a review first at some point.
 
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Today's planned activities:
 
1. Use a sacrificial pair of IEMs as matrixes, and try making some ear tips with Radians earplug mould and the DIY instructions on Make:

 

I did this a long time ago with a pair of RE252's!
 

 
Going to give you a bit of a warning: the Radians material is acoustically such that it will absorb quite a lot of sound in the channel between the original nozzle of the IEM, and the opening of the material. If you can fashion some sort of inner-tube it will probably help a lot. On my pair, I got a HUGE loss in sensitivity by trying the mould. Right now I stuffed a pair of the little red rubber tubes that come with Monster Turbine supertips into the nozzle, but I think the ideal solution would have been to affix something like the inner stem of an actual IEM tip to the nozzle before covering them with the radians goop. Otherwise, they are pretty awesome and comfortable. I cannot actually say if it improved the sound.
 
 

 

[a_recording]

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The B&W Zeppelin and similar desktop offerings are intended more to compete with Bang & Olufson in the high-style audio market, and the P5 struck me as their counterpart in the headphones world. It's an intentional cash-in on B&W's reputation for engineering but, while they're all reasonably sturdy and sound better than their direct competitors (iPod docks with speakers on the one hand, the Beats on the other), they don't have a lot to do with their studio and high-end products otherwise, and aren't intended to.
 
Lest this sound like a put-down, they do in fact sound better than their direct competitors. However their intended market is not necessarily us, and we will find faults where more casual listeners will not. I'm okay with B&W for that, as long as aiming towards the popular market does not dilute their offerings for the specialty market.

I'll say this about the P5s. It states in the marketing material that comes with the headphones that they wanted to design a warm sound that would be completely non-fatiguing, either from an excess of treble or sub-basss. Presumably that would be important for their 'executive' customer base that would be using them for, say, long haul flights. They are also very comfortable for supra-aural earphones and super isolating, and look a heck of a lot more mature than other options out there. 
 
They absolutely achieved all their design goals. Its just that the end result is an earphone that takes the idea of euphony to an extreme, to the point where you think they sound muddy and congested until you listen a bit further. They are like SM3's but even more polarising in that respect. 
 
However, I've never put my pair of P5s on any of my non-audiophile friends' ears and been told that they didn't sound good to them. It sometimes sounds like they went for a really refined version of mid-bass bloat heh.
 

 

[MuppetFace]

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Oh man, I really would love a chance to listen to those. It intrigues me to no end that Sony is making their own BA's.
 
 

 
 
Me too. That, and their using two dedicated super lows in the driver array. My curiosity was piqued when I heard about that.

 

[a_recording]

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Me too. That, and their using two dedicated super lows in the driver array. My curiosity was piqued when I heard about that.

How much and where from didya gettem? :3

 

[MuppetFace]

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How much and where from didya gettem? :3

http://store.aikotradingstore.com/sony-xba-4sl-balanced-armature-headphones/
 
The MSRP for the worldwide launch is $350 I believe, but it's not being released outside of Japan until March or so.

 

[a_recording]

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http://store.aikotradingstore.com/sony-xba-4sl-balanced-armature-headphones/
 
The MSRP for the worldwide launch is $350 I believe, but it's not being released outside of Japan until March or so.

Hmm. March is probably around the time I can afford them too XD. I'll be eager to hear your impressions.

 

[MuppetFace]

I'm rather interested in a company called AudioFly. Their AF78 is a hybrid with both balanced armature and dynamic drivers:
 

 
There was an interview with AudioFly at CES by Tyll of InnerFidelity fame. These seem potentially nice, for sure. I also like their construction (flat cable, nice materials) and styling. Not to mention their model....
 

 
...Rawr! <3

 

[ardgedee]

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Originally Posted by a_recording /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
I did this a long time ago with a pair of RE252's!
 
Going to give you a bit of a warning: the Radians material is acoustically such that it will absorb quite a lot of sound in the channel between the original nozzle of the IEM, and the opening of the material. If you can fashion some sort of inner-tube it will probably help a lot. On my pair, I got a HUGE loss in sensitivity by trying the mould. Right now I stuffed a pair of the little red rubber tubes that come with Monster Turbine supertips into the nozzle, but I think the ideal solution would have been to affix something like the inner stem of an actual IEM tip to the nozzle before covering them with the radians goop. Otherwise, they are pretty awesome and comfortable. I cannot actually say if it improved the sound.

Woot and thanks for the clues, you've confirmed some of my suspicions.
 
Plan A was to just make some straight-up tips: pack the goop around earphone, stuff in ear, and cut away everything forward of the IEM's nozzle as shown in the Make post. Plan B was to extend the goop forward of the nozzle, with some kind of straw in place.
 
I'm going to use some UE phones for this experiment, and their nozzles are extraordinarily large, so one of my big concerns was that I might not have enough material lining all sides of the nozzle to pull the IEM out of the Radians-stuff without breaking the Radians-stuff. Another big concern is that the nozzles on the better UE phones have a couple openings, and a straw that doesn't line up perfectly could end up partially or wholly blocking one of them. So I might just pack enough goop around the nozzle to seal things off, and then drill out a hole for a straw afterwards. We'll see.

 

[a_recording]

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...Rawr! <3

Hmm. It's like Scarlett Johansson joined the yakuza in Lost In Translation. And started selling headphones.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

On the old thread, I was wondering which particular xkcd cartoon was about "correcting everyone on the internet who's wrong"...

 

[DarkAudit]

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On the old thread, I was wondering which particular xkcd cartoon was about "correcting everyone on the internet who's wrong"...

http://xkcd.com/386/
 
You're welcome. 

 

[ardgedee]

Plan C just crossed my mind: Cut the flanges off a pair of existing UE tips and use that as a sleeve.

 

[mbamg]

Hi guys I got the message. Looks like I missed a lot in the past few days.

 

[MuppetFace]

Tried out a few universals this weekend.
 
UE Triple.Fi 10: ...Nice sound! Well articulated lows. Good mids. Inoffensive highs. Good detail. Nice body and weight to its sound. Iffy build quality. Not very comfortable.
 
JVC HA-FXT90L2: ...Interesting sound, kind of bottled mids but pleasant. Low-end a bit on the tight side. Highs mostly inoffensive, but occasional glare. A bit constricted. Good quality to construction. So-so comfort. Not sure how I feel about these overall though.
 
Jays Q-Jays: ...Hit or miss, depending on the track. Nice detail level, but lacks body and weight. Very nice mids. Poor lows. Highs okay. Very cute looking, decent construction and comfort.
 
Definitely prefer the Triple.Fi 10s out of the three of them.

 

[KevinWolf]

One more for this tribe!

 
What do you guys think about the new SRH1840? I'm pretty interested on these, but also looking for the K3003, hard time choosing which one.