Kosmic
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2007
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Quote:
Thanks for the review HA. I've been waiting for an audiophile who also has Livewires T1, to give a balanced review of the FreQ's.
It's put my mind at rest on a couple of things, thanks!
p.s. Hope they can sort out the roaring and ringing for you.
| Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif I received a pair of Freq Shows this Thursday, 3 days ago. I have spent several hours a day listening to them, and trying to adjust to them since I got them. I ordered them after the money I had saved for my UE11 went to replace a cracked screen on one of our MacBooks. I was curious about the Freq Show and wanted to see if I was missing anything. SOURCE: I have tried them with my iMod and my Macbook. AMPS: I have used the RSA Predator, Headamp Pico, Meier Headsix, and Headstage Lyrix and PenguinAmp Caffeine. EARPHONES: I compared them to my Livewires T1, and my second pair of Livewires T1 that I had my SE530 drivers installed into, which I will call model T530 (this is not a Livewires Product), and my Q-Jays. 
SOUND: Unfortunately it looks like I will have to send my new Freq Show back, or at least have them modded/adjusted. The Freq Shows are practically unlistenable to me because the midrange boost makes my ears roar and ring. Pianos are especially offending and unbearable, even with music that I have used as my reference pieces for all my other reviews and have come to know and love. This occurs even when listening at low volume levels, and worsens at normal listening levels. EQ'ing down the mids between 250Hz - 1000Hz by 3-5db, in order to decrease the roaring and ringing in my ears, also reduces the fullness of the sound (but stops me from running out of the room screaming, clutching at my ears). The EQ below is how I have to listen to them with my Macbook to tolerate them, but sometimes I have to pull out as much as 7-9db at 250Hz. Unfortunately I cannot do this EQ with my iMod, so I cannot use the Freq Show when portable/mobile. 
The Freq Show's mids somehow exacerbate a mild chronic tinnitus in my right ear, so that it's like I am in a loud crowd of people cheering at a sports event, where the roaring in my ear distorts the sound and resonates within my ear canal. None of my other IEM, universal or custom, do this to me. In other areas, the Freq Show bass and treble is similar to LW and nice, crisp and tight, although the bass is maybe 2-3db stronger in the Livewires. I believe that if it wasn't for the roaring and ringing in my ears R > L that the Freq Show would be fairly transparent. By this Friday (the day after I got them) I had to call Freq about the problem - I couldn't even live with them for 24 hours. Maybe when Todd calls me back on Tuesday he will agree to have the cross-over changed and have them re-dipped for the easily broken seal, rather than issuing a refund. If that happens I will report back. Otherwise I may be getting a refund and saving for some UE11pro, or staying with just the Livewires which already work quite well for me. Most importantly, neither my Livewires nor the SE530 customs make my ears ring or roar like the Freq (nor do my Q-jays, or Super.fi 5 Pro). 
BUILD QUALITY: Livewires and Freq Show both seem to be equally well built - solid with smooth edges and well polished in the right places. The cables do not want to wiggle loose from the ear-pieces, nor have connectors that want to come off the cables. With the cable running over the ears, microphonics are not a problem. FIT AND SEAL: The Freq Show are also comfortable, but produce a seal that isn't as isolating as either of my sets of Livewires. I have also found that if I smile wide, or drink liquids (or even make a face with my eyebrows raised up high) that the seal breaks easily; but the Freq will re-seal when I relax my face again. As they re-seal the bass level returns to normal and isolation kicks in. I can also get a more complete level of isolation if I push them further in and bite down. But that has NO EFFECT on the bass, mids or highs - only on increasing the isolation. And, they revert back to a lesser level of isolation after a minute or two of wearing them, unless I hold them in place. If I break the seal, the roaring sound I hear while the music plays actually gets better, but the bass disappears. The best and most stable seal occurs when I pull the upper part of the right earpiece down and out over my ear concha, instead of it tucking up inside where it belongs. This levers the in-canal part of the custom deeper inside the canal, where it stays better, and even making faces can't break the seal on the right. Still, it doesn't fix the sound issues, and it is uncomfortable. They also shouldn't be loose enough to do that (I did open mouth impressions with a bite block). My first set of Red/Blue Livewires fit me flawlessly, isolate totally, and I cannot make the seal break no matter how hard I try (to be fair, I did do a new set of impressions after my first LW arrived too loose and a re-dip did not help enough). I also have a second pair of Livewires, and have had a set of SE530 triple drivers installed into them, which I received about 9 weeks ago. After several months of hard work the second pair have been tuned to sound almost identical to my Livewires, so there is no muddy bass or rolled off treble left over from the original SE530. The job was difficult, and not likely to ever be replicated by the people who did mine, nor is it cost effective since the LW drivers in many ways actually still sound better. Anyway, back to fit - the fit of my second pair of LW is tighter than my Freq as well, although I can break the seal R > L on the second pair of LW by making faces too, although not as easily as with the Freq. And, the natural seal I get with the SE530 customs is more isolating than the Freq, so I do not have to push them in to get more isolation. I used 6 month old impressions for the second pair of LW, but brand new 1 day old impressions for the Freq Show. 
This is not meant to be an indictment of the Freq Show, as other people may not have sensitive ears to be disturbed. But even without the roaring and ringing I am experiencing, I don't imagine the Freq Show doing anything better than the Livewires, easpecially at an additional $100 in cost. The Freq Show indeed seemed tuned more for the stage musicians who must hear the midrange frequencies in their monitors above all else. However, I chose the music makers and not music lovers because of the reports of muddy overpowering bass in the SuperFreq, which rendered them dark and muffled sounding to many. If I liked that kind of sound I would not have modded my SE530. Yet, with the low midrange boost in these, the Freq Show become congested to my ears, which ruins all transparency and illusion. I think the LiveWires offer the audiophile the best of what my recabled Grado RS-1 and RS-2 have to offer offer, with none of the negatives that some people associate with Grados. The Livewires are crisp and quick and detailed with good bass, but are not in your face, brash or piercing. And, the LW also have a surprisingly deeper and more transparent soundstage to them than the Grados. I still have not heard a more perfect IEM than the Livewires T1, which had lead me to sell my Triple.fi 10 Pro after just a week too (in the Triple.fi's case it was a mid-bass peak that ruined the transparency for me). If there is anyone who owns both the Freq Show and the UE 11 Pro, I would like to hear from you, to know if it is worth pursuing the music lover's cross-over along with a re-dip. |
Thanks for the review HA. I've been waiting for an audiophile who also has Livewires T1, to give a balanced review of the FreQ's.
It's put my mind at rest on a couple of things, thanks!
p.s. Hope they can sort out the roaring and ringing for you.
