[gLer]

I’m not sure why Vision Ears do it. The Phonix was incredibly sensitive too and that was also a reason I parted with mine a few years ago.

At this point I just don’t like dealing with IEMs that are too easy or too hard to drive.

I agree. For a company with so much experience and pedigree, they've really misread the room as to what sources buyers of expensive IEMs tend to use nowadays. With few exceptions, I imagine most of us have moved on from phones and dongles - although by the sounds of it this IEM is even too sensitive for dongles. Back to the drawing board...

Edit: what's a single ended cable?

 

[phiemon]

I agree. For a company with so much experience and pedigree, they've really misread the room as to what sources buyers of expensive IEMs tend to use nowadays. With few exceptions, I imagine most of us have moved on from phones and dongles - although by the sounds of it this IEM is even too sensitive for dongles. Back to the drawing board...

On another subject, would you tell me what your favorite iems are? I'm afraid I've converted too and I've adopted the DD creed. I know you're a big fan of the Z1R. Do you personally think it still holds its own in general?

 

[aaf evo]

So what do you have right now? Seeing that you are (surprisingly) selling your GM also

DX260, D16 & PB5
Fei Wan with NightJar Blue Hour 4W, Grand Maestro until it sells/if I change my mind & Craft Ears Omnium as my gym set.

 

[PixelSquish]

yeah when I demoed the VEX it was quite obvious how sensitive it was. I felt like there was no need for that so not sure why they built it that way.

 

[gLer]

On another subject, would you tell me what your favorite iems are? I'm afraid I've converted too and I've adopted the DD creed. I know you're a big fan of the Z1R. Do you personally think it still holds its own in general?

Welcome to the cult of DD

Z1R is still my #1 IEM for too many reasons to bore you with here (TL;DR it sounds better to me than anything else).

But in no particular order I'm also a big fan of; IE900, Xe6, Rn6, Legend X, N8 and Trifecta (love/hate relationship). Those would probably be my pick as the best all-round bass-centric DD IEMs for my personal preferences.

 

[CodenameBK201]

DX260, D16 & PB5
Fei Wan with NightJar Blue Hour 4W, Grand Maestro until it sells/if I change my mind & Craft Ears Omnium as my gym set.

Genuinely curious about the workout habits of members who wear expensive (above $200 msrp) or custom IEMs to exercise in. Not trying to throw shade with this bit. Somewhere I still have my original v-moda m100s that I took on jogs in Tokyo. After a winter out there and a subsequent summer in NYC I managed to sweat so much that I actually rusted out the right earcup speaker grill, enough so that it crumbled to dust and left a Cheetos colored stain on the fabric mesh. They replaced the grill through their immortal life program but not the fabric, so it's still stained These days I tend to burn through a Sony swim walkman every couple years or so, either from the rubber housing tearing, button failures, or the battery dying out. I powerlift, mind you, and these are headphones intended for use under water that I sweat through to failure, so I'm wondering if other people's gym sessions are more mobility than maximum effort or if I'm just an excessively sweaty manimal.

 

[phiemon]

Welcome to the cult of DD

Z1R is still my #1 IEM for too many reasons to bore you with here (TL;DR it sounds better to me than anything else).

But in no particular order I'm also a big fan of; IE900, Xe6, Rn6, Legend X, N8 and Trifecta (love/hate relationship). Those would probably be my pick as the best all-round bass-centric DD IEMs for my personal preferences.

Great, thank you for the answer!

Yep, I love the Xe6 and Rn6.

If anyone has a Z1R for sale, please feel free to contact me. I'll probably do the WTB listing in Classified tomorrow.

 

[gLer]

Genuinely curious about the workout habits of members who wear expensive (above $200 msrp) or custom IEMs to exercise in. Not trying to throw shade with this bit. Somewhere I still have my original v-moda m100s that I took on jogs in Tokyo. After a winter out there and a subsequent summer in NYC I managed to sweat so much that I actually rusted out the right earcup speaker grill, enough so that it crumbled to dust and left a Cheetos colored stain on the fabric mesh. They replaced the grill through their immortal life program but not the fabric, so it's still stained These days I tend to burn through a Sony swim walkman every couple years or so, either from the rubber housing tearing, button failures, or the battery dying out. I powerlift, mind you, and these are headphones intended for use under water that I sweat through to failure, so I'm wondering if other people's gym sessions are more mobility than maximum effort or if I'm just an excessively sweaty manimal.

Well.if you think about it, customs are designed for stage performers, and I bet they sweat far more than you do at the gym. Of course many stage performers have multiple replacement sets and a staff that maintains their customs with IEM dryers, so there's that. I'd personally not risk anything more than a $300 pair of TWS at the gym, but I also wouldn't take any if my exoenisve IEMs out the house. I don't think my insurance company would believe me it I had to make a claim on how much they cost

 

[gLer]

Great, thank you for the answer!

Yep, I love the Xe6 and Rn6.

If anyone has a Z1R for sale, please feel free to contact me. I'll probably do the WTB listing in Classified tomorrow.

@SBranson

 

[drftr]

Audio-Technica ATH-R70x. I believe there are other models with that style of headband as well as the Philphone. paging @dleblanc343

Found it back and you were 100% spot on. It looked different to me because of the angle. Have you tried this one? If so, how big of an opening do you think they have on the top of your head? I would really need at least 15 cms but from eye-balling the picture that may not be possible. Tnx...

drftr

 

[aaf evo]

yeah when I demoed the VEX it was quite obvious how sensitive it was. I felt like there was no need for that so not sure why they built it that way.

It’s a double edged sword I guess. I’d rather have an IEM be easy to drive than hard but this is “too easy” to where it is an issue.

IEMs like 64 Audio, FiR audio, and the Fei Wan just to name a few are good for being easy to drive but not overly sensitive to where volume control and hiss is a problem. They sound fantastic from a technical perspective from just about anything but you can also feed them a lot of power if you need to and not have to worry about waterfall hissing.

Genuinely curious about the workout habits of members who wear expensive (above $200 msrp) or custom IEMs to exercise in. Not trying to throw shade with this bit. Somewhere I still have my original v-moda m100s that I took on jogs in Tokyo. After a winter out there and a subsequent summer in NYC I managed to sweat so much that I actually rusted out the right earcup speaker grill, enough so that it crumbled to dust and left a Cheetos colored stain on the fabric mesh. They replaced the grill through their immortal life program but not the fabric, so it's still stained These days I tend to burn through a Sony swim walkman every couple years or so, either from the rubber housing tearing, button failures, or the battery dying out. I powerlift, mind you, and these are headphones intended for use under water that I sweat through to failure, so I'm wondering if other people's gym sessions are more mobility than maximum effort or if I'm just an excessively sweaty manimal.

I spend anywhere between 9-16 hours a week in the gym depending on what I’m doing and that’s a lot of music time for me. They stay in my ears better than TWS will and the wire stays tucked under my shirt. I’ve tried to use TWS and they just sound so.. bleh and low-fi for my ears at this point that I can’t enjoy them. I use CIEMs from companies that I know have good customer service so I’m not worried about service should something go wrong with them. Thankfully I haven’t had any issues yet either. CIEMs are used onstage and get sweat on all the time, they can take a beating and I take care of them very well as far as maintenance and overall care goes.

 

[CodenameBK201]

It’s a double edged sword I guess. I’d rather have an IEM be easy to drive than hard but this is “too easy” to where it is an issue.

IEMs like 64 Audio, FiR audio, and the Fei Wan just to name a few are good for being easy to drive but not overly sensitive to where volume control and hiss is a problem. They sound fantastic from a technical perspective from just about anything but you can also feed them a lot of power if you need to and not have to worry about waterfall hissing.



I spend anywhere between 9-16 hours a week in the gym depending on what I’m doing and that’s a lot of music time for me. They stay in my ears better than TWS will and the wire stays tucked under my shirt. I’ve tried to use TWS and they just sound so.. bleh and low-fi for my ears at this point that I can’t enjoy them. I use CIEMs from companies that I know have good customer service so I’m not worried about service should something go wrong with them. Thankfully I haven’t had any issues yet either. CIEMs are used onstage and get sweat on all the time, they can take a beating and I take care of them very well as far as maintenance and overall care goes.

Your take: would a custom set be decent with an adapter like the fiio Bluetooth adapters? I'd be terrified of snagging a wire with compound movements, and I do like having a system separate from my phone with it's own dedicated playlist and battery, but the appeal of a proper perpetual seal is there. Anything you'd recommend in the budget range for customs? I'm in no rush but wondering if I should consider shopping around. The gym is one of my sole dedicated music time activities these days...

 

[trbo996]

Genuinely curious about the workout habits of members who wear expensive (above $200 msrp) or custom IEMs to exercise in. Not trying to throw shade with this bit. Somewhere I still have my original v-moda m100s that I took on jogs in Tokyo. After a winter out there and a subsequent summer in NYC I managed to sweat so much that I actually rusted out the right earcup speaker grill, enough so that it crumbled to dust and left a Cheetos colored stain on the fabric mesh. They replaced the grill through their immortal life program but not the fabric, so it's still stained These days I tend to burn through a Sony swim walkman every couple years or so, either from the rubber housing tearing, button failures, or the battery dying out. I powerlift, mind you, and these are headphones intended for use under water that I sweat through to failure, so I'm wondering if other people's gym sessions are more mobility than maximum effort or if I'm just an excessively sweaty manimal.

5+ years of lifting at advanced levels and another 5+ years as an old man with no harm to my CIEMs. That is ignoring snagged cables, including one bad enough to cauliflower an ear. Rarely have IEMs in for cardio though. I’ve seldomly felt sweat in my ear canal and never had more than a drop or two make it in.

 

[aaf evo]

Your take: would a custom set be decent with an adapter like the fiio Bluetooth adapters? I'd be terrified of snagging a wire with compound movements, and I do like having a system separate from my phone with it's own dedicated playlist and battery, but the appeal of a proper perpetual seal is there. Anything you'd recommend in the budget range for customs? I'm in no rush but wondering if I should consider shopping around. The gym is one of my sole dedicated music time activities these days...

If I was doing power lifting I’d probably ditch the wire as well, but I’ve never tried any of these Bluetooth adapters so I have no clue how well they work. I also use CIEMs/a wire because it’s one thing I don’t have to charge. The amount of times I had my AirPods die on me…

I’m not sure as far as budget sets go. I’ve always used sets that are multi kilobuck priced since a large amount of my weekly listening is at the gym and I really value that time so for me it’s easily worth it. So unfortunately I can’t help there.

I try to keep the gym sets to ones that cross a certain threshold of performance to where I don’t feel like I’m missing out overall, but also help me appreciate the higher performing/summit-fi sets that I keep at home.

 

[endless402]

In December, I shipped off my Sony 1Z for a final mod. This mod is the last step in bringing my gold brick to its fullest potential, courtesy of Steve at NP Audio. Yesterday, he sent over some pics of the completed mod which includes a 18k yellow gold replating w/ polish, Rubycon PMLCAP Film Capacitors, Kemet Tantalum Polymer at the battery terminals, custom Gold Mr Walkman UI and custom leather backplate. Suffice to say, this device is designed to last me beyond my active participation in the hobby and for many many years to come. This completes my portable DAP solution. This custom 1Z and the N30AP serves all my needs.

love this! improving on existing hw!
any initial thoughts? i would expect a different sound signature due to new caps!