[Frankyspanky]

Hi,
 
I've been reading a lot of reviews (including the big comparing thread by joker) and now I am excited about buying a better (or atleast different) IEM.
I could be described as a Basshead, but I dont really know what it means. What I can is that almost all the music I listen to is bass-heavy (sometimes bass only haha) and I really love bass, but I dont want to have my mids and highs reduced by it. My turbines do pretty well at this I think, they provide good bass (atleast quantity, for quality I can't really speak I guess, because this are my first ''expensive'' IEM's). But by reading about the Senheisser IE8(0) for example I became curious about how they would sound, how different it would be. Since they are real bass-monsters as I've heard, they will blow out my Turbines at many (if not all) points. But I have a hard time imagining how more bass could not affect the mids and highs.. is it because of the big soundstage? 
 
What I really want to know is: will ( for example) the MTPG, IE8/IE80 and Westone 3 really be an upgrade for the normal Turbines I own now? 
(I listed some bass-heavy IEM's because thats definitely the style that will satisfy me the most).
And if they improve bass, will it be more quality or quantity (or both), and (how) will the mids and highs improve? 
 
In Joker's big thread he pays a lot of attention to isolation, and I think this a very important point for IEM's, but since 75% of the time I use my IEM's I am in quiet area's (like in bed at night) this isn't be a very big point to me.
 
If you are used to normal earbuds (like apple's) I can imagine that hearing my Turbines could be jawdropper.
If I switch from turbines to IEM's in the price range of the MTPG, IE80 or FX700 for example, will I experience music at a total new level too? Or is it about improving details?
 
I am very thankful in advance if someone would take the time to answer my questions!
 
p.s. English is not my foreign language so I'm sorry for the mistakes. I hope my questions are clear to you, if they aren't, feel free to ask for more details!
 
Thanks, Frank

 

[zerocoolhifi]

I have the MTPG and I find that the although the Bass is very nice, it does seem to be a bit fabby or loose at times. I also find the mids and highs a little veiled and not a crisp as I would like. I have heard the Sony XB90EX, Yamaha EPH-100 or JVC FXD80 would be a great choice for the price range and bass impact you are looking for. Possibly the VSonic GR07 Bass edition. I currently have the Vsonic GR02 Bass Edition and absolutely love them (even more so than my MTPG) and they are only $36. I like accurate tight bass with some sub bass presence so maybe not quite as much as you, my next set will probably be one of the above or even the TDK BA200 which will probably not have enough bass for what you are looking for.
 

 

[ZARIM]

If you want more quality bass and quantity then JVC FX700 offers bass which goes deeper and reverb with good punch and mids, highs are more crisp clear ( more detailed than Turbine). But if you want albolutely punchy bass with wider soundstage, great mids, highs then Denon C300 are amazing for the price(mids, highs are very detailed) and Sennheiser IE8 an other upgrade.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Owning Turbines (which are great) I can tell you there's plenty to upgrade for.

Bass in more expensive IEM's has better control, tightness, less bleed, sits lower in the stage, separates, becomes less boomy, less artificial.. but quantity often remains, most of all you'll notice increases in the bass quality , texture, clarity, tone, that's where the main increases are. People often become confused that spending more on an IEM will give you MORE bass. that's not necessarily the case, because often it's the cheaper or lower tier IEM's that are tuned for big bass (such as turbines) because that's what sells well in that price range.

Often it's hard to imagine something sounding better until you actually hear it for yourself, but believe me the changes are there for you to find. You're at a good stage to upgrade because the differences between $80 IEM and $200 are rather large, there's plenty there to upgrade for. After you hit the $200 mark in this hobby the increases (between $200 - $350) are more subtle until you start hitting $400 IEM.

You're at a good time in this hobby, one were improvements will be highly noticeable.

 

[StyleElements]

I have both the Monster Turbine Pro Copper and the Sennheiser IE80, and yes, both of them will be excellent upgrades to the vanilla Turbine. 
 
zerocool mentioned that the MTPG has slightly flabby bass, and although I haven't heard the Golds, I'll say I think the Coppers don't. You won't get more bass than the Turbines, but you will get a tight, punchy and satisfying (even for bassheads) low-end.
 
The IE80 would be able to provide more bass than the Turbines - bass is heavy, but it doesn't bleed unacceptably into the midrange to my ears. The soundstage is something else entirely, especially among IEMs. I like its non-fatiguing, warm sound, with the bass dial on 2/5. While isolation is not as good as the Coppers, but I recently bought some foam tips and now they're about equal.
 
Finally, I think that going from a Turbine to the IE80, there's still a very noticeable difference in things such as detail retrieval (which isn't even an IE80's strong point, just that it's quite a bit better), just not as jaw-dropping as from iBuds to Turbines. Naturally, I'd say it's worth it!
 
If I had to choose one, I'd go with the IE80, although many of the other contenders discussed would be awesome (I tried the GR07 at Jaben Singapore yesterday, and it's very impressive). Good luck!