[MadDog]

Thanks james and shigzeo...now CK10 for trance?? I must stay away from head-fi.org as I am spending way too much $$$ after hearing all these recommendation.

Since I am not a woman's vocal man but slanting toward beatbox, I have decided to cancel my order with seyo paying 10% penalty (kinda ridiculous paying this fee when my phone wasn't even shipped).

Only way to stop myself from keep buying these wonder universal IEMs is to buy the ultimate. I am just gonna get the custom JH13 and hideout for a while.

 

[HONEYBOY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadDog /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks james and shigzeo...now CK10 for trance?? I must stay away from head-fi.org as I am spending way too much $$$ after hearing all these recommendation. Since I am not a woman's vocal man but slanting toward beatbox, I have decided to cancel my order with seyo paying 10% penalty (kinda ridiculous paying this fee when my phone wasn't even shipped). Only way to stop myself from keep buying these wonder universal IEMs is to buy the ultimate. I am just gonna get the custom JH13 and hideout for a while.

Wow MadDog you're fast!!! I wanna do the same thing and get those JH13 but they're saying am too young and that I need to be more knowledgeable to fully reap the benefits of such a phone. The former reason I hate but the latter I'd agree with to some extent. Let us know how much opfan improvement it is over the universals you tried when you get them.

 

[shigzeo]

i think that seyo-shop don't supply themselves. if you cancel, they have to retract an order or a purchase themselves from another vendor. they are a distributor for select products overseas, not a seller themselves. the reason i can say this is that my fx500 came with the pricetag from sofmap, a large chain store in japan.

so, the 10% i can understand. too bad, but it makes sense.

 

[MadDog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif so, the 10% i can understand. too bad, but it makes sense.

Yeah, I agree...I was thinking about 20% lost if I am to resell it here.


@honeyboy, I just sent my ear impression over so I should be getting the phone in about 2 1/2 week. If I get it, I will provide my honest opinion if it's really worth it or it was another hype...I was somewhat disappointed when I got the custom sensaphonics 2x-s last time for $750 (paid about 3 years ago). Trust me IE8 is much much better than that $750 custom ear piece.

JH13's 3way / 6 drivers really lured me this time but we shall see...hope it's not a bum deal.

 

[cn11]

MadDog-
Congrats on the purchase of the JH13's. I'm thinking of this route myself at some point. I'll be highly interested in reading your impressions, overall, and in comparison to the bass of the FX500's. I think I read in the JH13 thread that one owner compared them to the IE8's and said they have less bass than the Senns... which I would have a bit of trouble living with, unless of course, it's of the utmost high quality and impact. The rest of the range I'm sure is pure magic. I've just found over time trying out many different IEM's that BA sets don't give you that visceral impact of dynamics. Who knows, maybe the JH13's will be a different story with their double bass drivers.

 

[MadDog]

@cn11, I know I am no where near being an audiophile and lack fancy terminologies but I should be intelligent enough to provide my candid "unfiltered" comparative view of jh13 and fx500 (in bass) as a regular head-fier off the street. Give me three more weeks...you should have my honest opinion..

 

[Anthonym]

I'm wondering if it is possible to get the best isolation from my FX500 just by changing tips. Like the one you can get from SHURE. I don't have SHURE but heard it is one of the best among IEMs in that regard.

 

[james444]

That's not possible because the fx500 is vented/open, whereas the Shures are closed phones.

 

[shigzeo]

still, for open phones, they get decent isolation. not nearly as good as something like the ck10, er4 or um2, but decent considering - much better than many fully closed phones i have tried.

 

[james444]

You're right shigzeo, I should have mentioned that the Shures have exceptionally good isolation even for closed phones.

 

[timmyGCSE]

righty I promised this along time ago but have been so damn busy (women..ex ex, ex and current..bad combination).
So I got my FX500s at the beginning of August. Unfortunatley I had to pay £20 in customs charges, so I was hoping they were worth it. First impression..I didn't get an extension cable..lolwut? oh well the cable is long enough for me. Second impression - these are BEAUTIFUL. They feel so so expensive and well made I just like to hold them and feel their pretty woodiness (oo err). Seriously the RE0's felt like a cheap toy in comparison..full marks to Victor on the design.
Third impression - fit is perfect. Straight outta the box with medium silicone the fit is perfect, they feel comfortable and not out of place in my ears. I've since switched to the medium silicones from my FX66's coz they are softer but nevertheless the ones supplied are suitable.

Then I turned on my mp3 player - was using a 2GB Sandisk clip. I was extremely disappointed

They sounded ok but one thing I was extremely suprised and disappointed with was the lack of bass..literally there was naff all. I was like err wut? people have been touting these as having amazing bass response..I was having none of it. Fit was not an issue, seal was perfect. I EQ'd to give extra bass which helped but I was still very much disappointed. Did I get a faulty pair? well I perservered and it seems not so. There was obviously alot of pent up agression in these phones coz after a couple of days with some heavy techno and they BLATENTLY loosened up and all of a sudden ssssssssssssssshhhhBOOM oh hello Mr.Bass there you are. There was a marked change with burn in no doubt, and this was after about 5hours. I've probably used them now for about 15hours and the sound is improving all the time.
So...I left them EQ'd because I felt the Clip wasn't quite powerful enough for these. I got a Fuze on the weekend and its now much better - the sound is fuller, deeper and louder.

So, my thoughts now. Bass - oooh its so beautiful. I can only compare to my previous IEM's and they are all gone and I have a bad memory but the bass on these are 100x better than my previous (see sig). Its deep fo'shure but its also so warm and natural - I'm sorry I'm not oh fay with the technical terms but to me these phones have the best bass of any I've heard. Its almost like it pulls you into the music.

female voices are oh just incredible - Janet Jackson sounds like she's actually whispering in my ear and Keyshia Cole is standing in front of me serenading me. On the track 'She's My' by Bow Wow, the singing in the chorus is just unbelievable.
Currently to me the weakest area is the highs, but they are getting much better with burn-in, outta the box they sounded quite frankly horrible. Now they sound very nice indeedy.

Soundstage is very well done, the Nuforce's had a very good soundstage and I would say these compare easily. I was listening to them the other day walking through liverpool street and was almost amazed that other people weren't hearing the music because of the effect of the phones being so comfortable as to be almost invisible and the soundstage being wide I was almost under the impression that the music was being played throughout the station (or was that just lack of sleep?

)

Isolation is poor. Ok maybe thats harsh but it isn't good tbh - when I crank the tunes up I can't hear the outside world but apparently the outside world can hear me, and with it low sound does leak in. I use these in and about London which as you can imagine is a noisy place. Its not a deal breaker as I do have my music usually quite loud but I'm considering some Custom 3's next month for commuting purposes.

Overall verdict..was the £20 custom charges worth it? errrr...YES!! now these have opened up I love them. Love love love them. I bought some Goldring GX200s today so when they are delivered I will be able to compare but I felt guilty towards my FX500s in buying them..I didn't want to hurt their feelings because without question they are the best IEM to have ever gone into my ear canals and I love them. And compared to the FX66's? no competition. The FX66's are a great budget IEM but they simply cannot compare - the step up is just far to great and well worth the extra price tag.

sorry this review is like...well....crap

P.S. > I bought some Koss PortaPro's today too..ooo stop me please!

 

[shigzeo]

after listening to these after a looooong time, i find the fx500 to definitely be better than i remembered. bass texture is better than any iem - any iem i have tried. i won't speak about customs, but high can be a bit harsh - no denying that. i will not say that mids are recessed, simply not overly liquidy. female vocals are very good, but male vocals suffer in comparison at least on my 久しぶり listen.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif after listening to these after a looooong time, i find the fx500 to definitely be better than i remembered. bass texture is better than any iem - any iem i have tried. i won't speak about customs, but high can be a bit harsh - no denying that.

Mids come out and the highs are less harsh with Koss silicone tips.

That said, try this song out for bass texture, the unlikely song it is but:

Daft Punk - Television Rules the Nation

First half of the song, gees, in a quiet room, you can definitely feel your eardrums shaking. It's the best quality bass out of any song I've heard, synthetic or natural bass.

Daft Punk, particularly the 'Human After All' album, is extremely complex in nature. Tbh, 320 kbps isn't enough in some songs. e.g. the complexity of the songs in this album = if you encode to VBR -v2 or above mp3, it will max out 320kbps most of the time and with other encoders e.g. Ogg Vorbis, I set the nominal bitrate at 246.1 kbps, the average bitrate of some songs in this album = well over 330 kbps (+90 kbps = crazy, most songs are usually below the nominal bitrate). This song, as well as the album, I'm definitely adding to my 'reference list', which has everything. My philosophy = you should test out sound equipment with a variety of genres.

 

[cn11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timmyGCSE /img/forum/go_quote.gif sorry this review is like...well....crap P.S. > I bought some Koss PortaPro's today too..ooo stop me please!

Naw, it wasn't crap at all... in fact it was quite an enjoyable, refreshing read. I liked your description of the evolution in sound, as I heard quite a change early on too. I mainly heard the soundstage open up, because at first I thought...'what soundstage?'. Then after only about 48 hours or so, I began to realize that it had opened up significantly, and upon further comparisons with my IE8's I thought I was hearing about equal width overall. At the same time the greater instrument separation and resolution helped give an impression that the stage was actually a bit wider!

Hope you continue to enjoy them.

 

[Anthonym]

Yesterday, I hooked up fx500 with my x-fi sound card and tried EAX effects on it. My impression of Jazz setting is simply amazing. This effect convinced me well enough that I feel like I'm in the Jazz club. I've never thought of trying this card with fx500 until yesterday. It was simply amazing. Has anyone of you tried that out yet?