[metabaron]

Anybody knows the exact date of release? I'm hoping for Amazon to have a stock soon.

 

[Tom22]

  got these babies in today... wasn't sure what to expect until i opened the package.
 
first impressions after 10 minutes of listening (ridiculously short for a first impression)  : surprising light in the bass (at least in comparison to say the s5,s0,blu100) 
 
its more in line with the r3, and the jives and even the m1s. its a still slightly warm, but may not satisfy those seeking a ton of bass in their recordings
 
the new eartips they're using on the s0s and the s3 is really nice, i like em lot (wide bore, hybrid design, with nice length to the stem) seals really well! 
 
i find the mids to be a bit peaky, somewhere in the upper mids? with the included narrow bore(sony hybrids) this issue seems to be reduced this
 
hm.... i wonder why it was considered an S-series earphone. (from the past experience and readings, the s series seems to be rather warm and bassy) 
 
food for thought....
 
anyways here is my unboxing.. will update with my first impression video after a few more days of listening 
 

 

Gave these a listen with Iron Maiden's new album The Book of Souls. Also had some quick back & forth vs. S5. I've got S0, S1, and S5, and the S3 definitely deviate from the typical S-series sound sig to the point where (like @Tom22), I was surprised that Brainwavz used this tuning in an S-series IEM.

On the pink noise machine these go...

thanks! @nmatheis glad we got our answer! its not the S-series based not based on the tuning, but the physical attributes thanks! @razzer001 
 
after some closer listening with the jives, 
 
i can definitely say the jives are bassier despite the "Balanced Armature tuning" 
 
the jives seem to have more of a midbass hump (not exaggerated to any extent), seems punchier in comparison > the seemingly flatter bass on the s3 (i'm hearing a  slight roll off in the subbass)
 
midrange wise the jives are also warmer too, the s3s seem to have a thinner midrange, which i find makes them a bit more detailed in terms to voices, or at least its more apparent. but it seems to be a bit smoother in the midrange (a more gradual transition towards the treble > the jives (which seems to take a bit more of spike in the upper mids)
 
i think its due to these reasons the s3s sounds wider > the jives. (giving it a more open sound)
 
gotta give em more listening before i put any of words in stone, per say
 
its only been 1-2 days 
 
the s3s are quite nice for piano and more celtic genre music
 
mind you i'm using my jives with the vsonic dual flanges and the s3s with the narrow included sony hybrids (which again i feel helps seems take a bit of the edge off)

 

[suman134]

Anybody knows the exact date of release? I'm hoping for Amazon to have a stock soon.

After this month. First week of Oct.

 

[jasonb]

   
thanks! @nmatheis glad we got our answer! its not the S-series based not based on the tuning, but the physical attributes thanks! @razzer001 
 
after some closer listening with the jives, 
 
i can definitely say the jives are bassier despite the "Balanced Armature tuning" 
 
the jives seem to have more of a midbass hump (not exaggerated to any extent), seems punchier in comparison > the seemingly flatter bass on the s3 (i'm hearing a  slight roll off in the subbass)
 
midrange wise the jives are also warmer too, the s3s seem to have a thinner midrange, which i find makes them a bit more detailed in terms to voices, or at least its more apparent. but it seems to be a bit smoother in the midrange (a more gradual transition towards the treble > the jives (which seems to take a bit more of spike in the upper mids)
 
i think its due to these reasons the s3s sounds wider > the jives. (giving it a more open sound)
 
gotta give em more listening before i put any of words in stone, per say
 
its only been 1-2 days 
 
the s3s are quite nice for piano and more celtic genre music
 
mind you i'm using my jives with the vsonic dual flanges and the s3s with the narrow included sony hybrids (which again i feel helps seems take a bit of the edge off)

 
I feel the exact opposite. I thought the jive had a neutral bass and actually lacked warmth. I feel the S3 has too much bass and sounds too warm. Very interesting 

 

[nmatheis]

jasonb: I forget. Do you have the S0, S1, and S5? If so, do you find them overwhelmingly warm vs. S3?

What's your personal reference IEM for neutrality?

I'm trying hard to understand how S3 can sound too bassy or too warm, but I'm just not feeling it with these...

 

[jasonb]

@jasonb: I forget. Do you have the S0, S1, and S5? If so, do you find them overwhelmingly warm vs. S3?

What's your personal reference IEM for neutrality?

I'm trying hard to understand how S3 can sound too bassy or too warm, but I'm just not feeling it with these...

I have the S0 and the S5 as well as the S3. My reference are all the iems and headphones in my forum signature. I like a very specific sound. 
 
I was just listening to the S3 with the stock wide bore tips and played with the EQ a bit. I guess it's not so much the bass, but more of a bump in the upper mid bass maybe lower mid range area. The following EQ isn't much, but it makes them sound a ton better to me. 
 

 

[nmatheis]

jasonb:

FYI: Those of us who use the mobile version for browsing don't see signatures, and you have no IEM in your user profile.

Back to my original question, though. Do you find S0 & S5 overwhelmingly warm and bassy?

 

[jasonb]

@jasonb:

FYI: Those of us who use the mobile version for browsing don't see signatures, and you have no IEM in your user profile.

Back to my original question, though. Do you find S0 & S5 overwhelmingly warm and bassy?

I do find the S0 and S5 to be overly bass as well. The jive I thought was pretty close to neutral and my biggest complaint about it was that it lacked a bit of warmth to me. 
 
My 4 daily headphones are the AKG Q701, brainwavz HM5, Vsonic GR01, and the Hifiman RE-Zero. These all sound very close and I don't get any shock going from one to another. They don't take me any time to adjust to when I switch between them and I don't use any EQ on any of them. 

 

[nmatheis]

jasonb: Cool. You certainly know what you're after. I appreciate diversity and rotate through various IEM with different sound signatures.

 

[jasonb]

@jasonb: Cool. You certainly know what you're after. I appreciate diversity and rotate through various IEM with different sound signatures.

Not that I'm that old, I'm only 30, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate a certain sound. 
 
It may seem silly that I have 4 different headphones that all sound pretty much the same, they all serve their own purpose and get used at different times for different reasons.
 
I'd use the Q701 all the time, but they are open back so they leak sound both in and out. They are my all time favorite but they don't work for every occasion. The HM5's sound close enough to the overall sound signature of the Q701, but are sealed so they block a lot more noise in and out. When I want ultimate isolation and portability I reach for either the GR01 or the RE-Zero. These two IEM'S sound pretty similar, but one is a dual armature and the other is a dynamic. I like the subtle difference between the two in terms of speed and detail. 
 
My near field speaker rig is also tuned to be very neutral. It isnt made up of the highest end components but it is setup properly and is using an EQ with an unlimited number of EQ bands. It is pretty much +/-3db from 200hz up to about 15,000hz then the treble rolls of gently from there, and the bass is boosted slightly below 200hz at a gentle rise, then it gently rolls back off starting at about 30hz.
 
Being accustomed to only one sound signature probably doesn't make me the best headphone reviewer. I'm very set in my ways and don't like change when it comes to sound. I'll listen to these more with my slight EQ work and write something up about them in the coming week or so. 
 
One more side note, these also aren't as comfortable as the very tiny GR01 that I use most commonly. My ears are on the smaller side though. 

 

[jasonb]

With this little bit of EQ these actually aren't that bad at all. Still not as smooth sounding as what I'm used to, but not bad.




I'm noticing they are also more comfortable when worn with the wire over the ears.

 

[Tom22]

   
I feel the exact opposite. I thought the jive had a neutral bass and actually lacked warmth. I feel the S3 has too much bass and sounds too warm. Very interesting 

 

@jasonb: I forget. Do you have the S0, S1, and S5? If so, do you find them overwhelmingly warm vs. S3?

What's your personal reference IEM for neutrality?

I'm trying hard to understand how S3 can sound too bassy or too warm, but I'm just not feeling it with these...

after reading your posts I can see why you would feel the s3s are a bit too bassy given the gear you use. actually its not surprising really.
 
but in the end we each have our opinions @jasonb
 
but at least we all agree that the s0s and the s5s are bassier then the s3s
 
that's undeniable I think.
 
 
the gear your using is quite darn neutral! the "flattest" most neutral signature I have is the follow: Audeo PFE 012 (with gray filters), hifiman re400, branwavz r3, I wouldn't even put the vsonic gr07be in this category yet, its borderline I would say.
 
but I need a bit of bass in my life, sue me =(

 

[jasonb]

   
after reading your posts I can see why you would feel the s3s are a bit too bassy given the gear you use. actually its not surprising really.
 
but in the end we each have our opinions @jasonb
 
but at least we all agree that the s0s and the s5s are bassier then the s3s
 
that's undeniable I think.
 
 
the gear your using is quite darn neutral! the "flattest" most neutral signature I have is the follow: Audeo PFE 012 (with gray filters), hifiman re400, branwavz r3, I wouldn't even put the vsonic gr07be in this category yet, its borderline I would say.
 
but I need a bit of bass in my life, sue me =(

 
After spending about an hour tonight with the S3 I will definitely have to say these are less bassy than the S0 and S5 for sure. After playing with EQ tonight with the S3,  it's not even the bass that bothers me, it's the 250-500hz area. They are too warm and "honky". Leaving the bass alone and just doing a wide cut centered at 350hz makes them sound a ton better and a ton more clear. It relieves some congestion and clears up the mid bass and lower mid range. Other than this, they actually sound pretty good. 
 
I use to like more bass, as I've aged I've moved on from liking bass and prefer neutrality now. 
 
Off topic but this is how my near field speaker rig measured. I've actually taken the bass down about 3db since I took these measurements, so it would look even flatter now if I remeasured it. 
That's how flat and neutral I prefer... 

 

[nmatheis]

jasonb: Dude, you're not old. I'm 43, man, and I (like Tom22) like some boom-boom. I'm just coming off bouncing back n forth between HiFiMan HE400 & HE400S (and SoundMagic HP200) for a review, and S3 are sounding quite bass-shy at the moment. I'm going to give myself at least a couple days to acclimate before passing final judgement.

An example would be listening to Björk's Biophilia. There's some good deep bass lines on that album, and right now it's really hard to pick up on them. And listening to Candlemass's Ancient Dreams, the downtuned guitars sound really lean. Perhaps after a couple days of acclimation I'll feel differently, but right now I'm feeling like these aren't a good fit for my music preferences. However, I can appreciate what Brainwavz was after with these.

I'll try applying your EQ and see what I think, though. Why not? If nothing else, it'll give me an idea what you're after jasonb. However, I'm feeling like I'd actually EQ up the sub to mid-bass on these.

 

[thatBeatsguy]

I don't know about you guys, but I agree with @jasonb's impressions on the S3. I, too, found them quite warm and bassy, much like the S1 and S0. In comparison, I found the Jive to be rather thin around the upper bass. Bass-wise, the opposite is true with the S3 in my opinion.

Now, before any of you optimists in this thread start asking troubleshooting questions to hopefully change my opinion on the S3, I'm going to explain why I don't like them that much in the first place. First off, they're warm to my ears. Very warm. Sonically they draw similarities from the S0 and S1; a kind of cross between the two. I mean, they're actually not that bad, but personally I really don't like them that much. (As a point of reference, I listen mainly on the AKG K240.) Second, I feel the bass is honestly pretty overwhelming, also similar to my impressions of the S0. I'm thinking this is because they don't really have the treble energy to balance out the sheer quantity of the low-end. In comparison, the S5, to me, sounds great.

So far I've switched between various silicone eartips, both stock and non-stock. They all seem to sound similar on the S3 with no major sonic changes to them as far as I can tell. I'll try them out with Comply eartips later, but from experience, I don't think the included T-series will make much of a difference, if any.