[LinkPro]

With my touch 5G anywhere above 50% volume is deafening with the UE 900. I'm surprised at how efficient they are, while with the D600 it has to be 70-80% volume.

 

[Sammyboy]

Tested again and yes it still does it at less than 50% volume. And this isn't the loudest track. And it's only the right side. If I swap the connectors ( left on the right, right on the left) its still the right side. Does it on any other track too.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

With my touch 5G anywhere above 50% volume is deafening with the UE 900. I'm surprised at how efficient they are, while with the D600 it has to be 70-80% volume.

 
+1 a thousand times...  The 900s are a little too efficient if you want to blast them.
 
Quote:

Tested again and yes it still does it at less than 50% volume. And this isn't the loudest track. And it's only the right side. If I swap the connectors ( left on the right, right on the left) its still the right side. Does it on any other track too.

 
I don't know what to tell you.  I've not no problems at my listening levels (and I'm using lower quality YouTube recordings going at the same SPL).  I'm not as concerned about the headphones as I am your hearing...  50% levels are still very loud with an iPhone with the UE 900. 

 

[Sammyboy]

My hearing is fine, I've got a pair of SE 215s that are plenty loud and never distort. Granted those are dynamic drivers but a quad driver earphone should be able to keep up. And 50% is not that loud out of an iphone. I work for a company that makes audio gear, I know what speakers are supposed to sound like and these are distorting way before they should be. I'm just going to take them back and get some tried and true westones.

I'm bummed because other than the distortion they sound great. Handles low end beautifully. Just the one HF driver deciding to suck.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

My hearing is fine, I've got a pair of SE 215s that are plenty loud and never distort. Granted those are dynamic drivers but a quad driver earphone should be able to keep up. And 50% is not that loud out of an iphone. I work for a company that makes audio gear, I know what speakers are supposed to sound like and these are distorting way before they should be. I'm just going to take them back and get some tried and true westones.
I'm bummed because other than the distortion they sound great. Handles low end beautifully. Just the one HF driver deciding to suck.

 
You're hearing is fine now...  No clue what the future holds though...  Westones are great, so you should be able to enjoy those.  50% out of an iPhone > 50% out of an iPod...  50% out of an iPod is a bit loud (as others said, defening) and more likely than not can damage hearing over time... 
 
Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the problem on my UE 900s... 

 

[Sammyboy]

Well it sounds like you got a pair that isn't defective. I'm having bad luck. I'm going to take them back, not sure if I want to go for round 3 or just get my money back. I'm going to end up clearing our the inventory of these things.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

Well it sounds like you got a pair that isn't defective. I'm having bad luck. I'm going to take them back, not sure if I want to go for round 3 or just get my money back. I'm going to end up clearing our the inventory of these things.

 
That's up to you.  Westones are great IEMs as well, so you really can't go wrong either way. 

 

[DrSheep]

Speaking of volume, I used to be around 30% too, but for whatever reason it now stands just a click under 50%...  Most of my sources are from iTunes Store so I have no control over encoding volume level, and the music I got from Bower & Wilkins Society of Sound are all encoded at a VERY low volume.  I just wish there is a way to normalize volume in iPod / iPhone with out the use of apps.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

Speaking of volume, I used to be around 30% too, but for whatever reason it now stands just a click under 50%...  Most of my sources are from iTunes Store so I have no control over encoding volume level, and the music I got from Bower & Wilkins Society of Sound are all encoded at a VERY low volume.  I just wish there is a way to normalize volume in iPod / iPhone with out the use of apps.

 
Settings > Music > Sound Check
 
That should help out a bit   It softens most songs down though   I don't personally use this feature, but do know about it

 

[DrSheep]

It sort of work, but it drag down the volume of my songs to the lowest possible?  I need to test this out more.

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

It sort of work, but it drag down the volume of my songs to the lowest possible?  I need to test this out more.

 
Yeah, it minimizes volume of your louder songs to match that of the softer ones   I don't want to go into the details of it, but it's more accurate to minimize volume than it is to maximize (I actually went into details about it in a different thread).

 

[Spyro]

Quote:

 
I'm normally all for helping and testing different things people hear...  However, 70% iPhone volume is at least 100+ dB.  I'm not going to doubt the drivers distort at that level, they are sensitive and easy to drive.  With that said, if I listen at that volume, it hurts my ears I'm getting no distortion so far listening to Babylon Sisters at my normal listening volume (~70 dB; equivelent of 25% on my iPod Touch 5G).

Huh?  70% is 100dB?  You can't say that generically.  With W4 unamped out of my Ipod Classic 100% maxed out volume is about 100-105dB.  Can't use it effectively without an amp.  But with W2,W3,UM2, UM3X... 65% is 100-105dB.  W4 is by far the least efficient Westone IEM and I would NEVER recommend them to anyone unless they were to use amp with them which helps dramatically.

 

[Spyro]

Specs say UE900 is a mere 101dB sensitivity which is quite low.
 
110-120 would be considered high efficiency IMHO.
 
101dB out of a player would be weak.  Amp definitely required.

 

[DrSheep]

Quote:

Specs say UE900 is a mere 101dB sensitivity which is quite low.
 
110-120 would be considered high efficiency IMHO.
 
101dB out of a player would be weak.  Amp definitely required.

I don't get it, how can you say the UE900 is weak unamped?  If I go anywhere above half way on the volume from my iPod / iPhone, amped or unamped, I would be deaf already.

 

[DrSheep]

Quote:

 
Yeah, it minimizes volume of your louder songs to match that of the softer ones   I don't want to go into the details of it, but it's more accurate to minimize volume than it is to maximize (I actually went into details about it in a different thread).

That's very true.  Then of course problem will be how do you bump the volume back up after normalize and NOT to have distortion, which will be tricky.