IEMs, have you tried them, and what do you think?

[NBPK402]

I just purchased some inexpensive EIMs and I am shocked as to how good EIMs sound. I was looking for some inexpensive earphones to replace my cumbersom Sennheiser wireless headphones,and came across the EIMs. I decided to grab a pair off of Amazon after seeing Pro Drummers rave about them. One of the reasons I got them is because reportedly stay in yours ears...which is def reguired jf you sleep with them on. I also wanted some sturdy cables for reliability. The ones I picked were the KZ ZS10 Pro, Linsoul 4BA+1DD 5 Driver in-Ear HiFi Metal Earphones with Stainless Steel Faceplate, 2 Pin Detachable Cable (Without Mic), Black. These came as a combo package with the Linsoul Tripowin Zonie 16 Core Silver Plated Cable SPC Earphone Cable for KZ ZSX, ZSN Pro, ZS10 Pro NF2u, QDC IEMs (QDC-3.5mm, Grey) cables for a little over $70.

The one thing I was worried about was can I turn them down low enough. When I received them, I hooked up the new cables and then hooked them up to my IFI Blue Zen with Schit Magnus Heresy amp, and linked it to my Samsung Tablet and phone. I then proceeded to pick a playlist off of Roon to demo them with... I hit play and about blew my ears out! I turned them all the way down and then proceeded to raise the volume to a comfortable level. I listened for a while and found that some tracks sounded great while some like Led Zeppelin sounded thin in the vocals. I tnen tried them at various levele and found that they will do what I want. As far as comfort they are pretty comfkrtable with the medium tips, but I might try thesmaller tips to see if they get better. One thing I found interesting is on some songs I can hear what appears to be an echo which I have never heard on my Senneisers or my horns. I do not know why. I know that they
Def sou dclearer than my Sennheisers...so I am thinking maybe hese are mode revealing at some frequencies.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

What is EIM?

Regards,
Wayne

 

[NBPK402]

What is EIM?

Regards,
Wayne

They look like a hearing aide. Some have a dynamic driver but mine have 4 balanced modules and a dynamic driver. The dynamic driver would be like a woofer and the balanced would be mids and highs. Here is the one I got.
If you scroll way down on the page they give you more info.

Amazon.com: KZ ZS10 Pro, Linsoul 4BA+1DD 5 Driver in-Ear HiFi Metal Earphones with Stainless Steel Faceplate, 2 Pin Detachable Cable (Without Mic, Black): Electronics

Buy KZ ZS10 Pro, Linsoul 4BA+1DD 5 Driver in-Ear HiFi Metal Earphones with Stainless Steel Faceplate, 2 Pin Detachable Cable (Without Mic, Black): Earbud Headphones - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I suppose EIM stands for something?

Regards,
Wayne

 

[NBPK402]

I suppose EIM stands for something?

Regards,
Wayne

In-ear monitor. I had a choice with mic or without, and I chose without.

In-ear monitor - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Right. So IEM, not EIM.

Regards,
Wayne

 

[NBPK402]

Right. So IEM, not EIM.

Regards,
Wayne

I guess I am dislexic... I corrected my posts.

 

[Mike-48]

I've had a couple of pair of IEMs, one by Shure and one by Westone. Each provided nice sound and some isolation. After an hour, they made my ears itch. After two hours, I couldn't wait to get them out. In fairness, mine weren't custom fitted, but used standard tips, of which I tried many.

 

[NBPK402]

I've had a couple of pair of IEMs, one by Shure and one by Westone. Each provided nice sound and some isolation. After an hour, they made my ears itch. After two hours, I couldn't wait to get them out. In fairness, mine weren't custom fitted, but used standard tips, of which I tried many.

The only thing I do not ,ike on mine is they put pressure on my ear if I turn on my side. If I am just enjoying the music I do not even notice them anymore. I am using the stock medium tips.

 

[tesseract]

You definitely want to get a good seal for best sound quality. I prefer the sound with silicone tips, but memory foam is more secure when moving about.

 

[UKSPAWN]

i have the FiiO FH5s and they are stunning. use the foam tips and bass is perfect!

also tried Mee Audio MX4 pro and they were a little bright for me and lacked bass.

 

[Todd Anderson]

i have the FiiO FH5s and they are stunning. use the foam tips and bass is perfect!

also tried Mee Audio MX4 pro and they were a little bright for me and lacked bass.

Wow... they managed to fit four drivers into each side on those FiiO FH5s. That's crazy... it's like a ship in a bottle!

 

[UKSPAWN]

Wow... they managed to fit four drivers into each side on those FiiO FH5s. That's crazy... it's like a ship in a bottle!

Yes they are impressive pieces of engineering. they also have DSP and you can choose with switches to change the sound profile!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Physical switches on the IEMs?

 

[UKSPAWN]

 

[Todd Anderson]

Are those switches easy to actuate?

 

[UKSPAWN]

with the supplied tool yea, with ya fat finger ends nope

 

[Todd Anderson]

Ah... so changes on the go are a no-go! Still neat to have them there. Can you hear a noticeable difference between the various settings?

 

[UKSPAWN]

Id say its about 3db changes so its not drastic but noticable. i just have the bass switch on and the others off, seems to give the sig i like.

 

[Todd Anderson]

That makes sense. You listening tastes are prob a lot like mine!

 

[UKSPAWN]

what was confusing at first was the mids swith ON actually reduces the mids. but the bass and trebble switches increase said area.
anyway i feel im hijacking this thread now to go on about my IEMs.

But my final thought is IEMs are *probably* the best way to listen without room or even ear differences coming into effect, so what you hear on them probably most people will hear on them (hearing problems aside) (good for mixing and confirming measurments etc)

i prefer them to over-ear personally.

 

[DanDan]

I recommend this with any headphones. https://goodhertz.co/canopener-studio/

 

[UKSPAWN]

I recommend this with any headphones. https://goodhertz.co/canopener-studio/

Interesting but i like removing the room and speaker interaction (and even head and ears) from the equation thats why i like IEMs. but looks like a cool program.

 

[DanDan]

IMO removing everything is an interesting proposition. It would work if Mixes and Masters were done in that way. We would all need to be IN flat cans. Audiometric Lab perfect Flat. Real Cans are not like that. They try to be tonally similar to the 'average' Check out the Harman research or the ancient B&K. I tried curves for two years here in a Studio/Domestic facility. Instant Translation by walking to another room, with normal Hi Fi or small boxes. Our Mixes and Masters are generally created with an ambition to sound good everywhere. Car, Buds, Ghettoblasters, Smart Speakers. Research has shown that the real world listening environment, averaged carefully has a Curve. So again IMO, it makes sense to listen/create IN that same Curve. I came up with these Stereo IR binaural notions years ago. No interest. I have tried some of the current offerings, Waves, Acoustics..... Not impressed. Maybe no interest were right. The GoodHertz Canopener sounds good to me. Credible. Pure, nothing fancy, just creates a comforting shift of the image to the front. Try it!

 

[UKSPAWN]

I see what you mean, thanks for explaining.

i may give it a go at some point, no promises