[Choy Wei De]

I just like to listen to awesome music. I'm switching to LG G6 soon as my daily phone and also my music player.
I had 1more triple driver, SE215 and KZ ZS5 with upgrade silver cable.
I like the bass from 1more. But the bass is a little too much. I don't really mind it since the bass is very good quality.
I like the SE215 just because it's well balance. Nothing fun, just balance and neutral. But I never like the limited or special blue edition. Too boomy.
I like the ZS5 with silver cable for the soundstage and music separation. But somehow I feel there's a empty space above my head. Like I can hear the separation between left and right speaker. But it seem like the speaker at the top on the ceiling is switch off. Weird.

Here comes the question. If I have $500USD. Should I go with universal with more BA drivers, or go custom with lesser drivers. I want wide soundstage, music and instrument separate, balance sound with a little bit of sub bass or mid bass bump.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thi181]

The ZS5 is maybe not the best example and maybe even controversial

 

[thi181]

Try some iems at a local store, and inform yourself about ciem companies in your'e country

 

[Choy Wei De]

Thank you for your reply. But let's say if you have $500, do you go for custom 2BA drivers or maybe 4BA but universal fit?
I do believe that those people who promoting products and doing sales, always trying to upsell to their customers. And people selling those products don't necessarily know the products that they are selling.
It is just a job for them to work there.

I know this is kind of hard to get an answer. I can't think why anyone would buy a 2BA custom and 4BA universal to compare which one is better.

 

[Choy Wei De]

Of cause I'm talking about the same series within the same ciem company. Not fair to compare universal from this company and custom from another company.

 

[daulagiri]

I don't buy driver count; and I know that seal and comfort play great deal in listening enjoyment.

CIEM all the way for me. My first CIEM is AAW M20; I paid around SGD 400 for it, and they're better pckage than any universals I've tried.

No more tip fitting, fiddling with insertion, signature shift due to changing tip. CIEM simplify things and lets you focus on enjoyment.

Of course you can put all those advantage into disadvantage i.e. universals let you tweak their signature by changing tip; but that argument clearly not for me.

 

[Choy Wei De]

Oh nice, I'm from SG. I rarely have fit issues. And spinfit works well for me too. I don’t really like to tweak sound signature, other than switching out cables. Which I didn’t even know anything about that. Just generic silver is brighter, and copper is warmer and stuff. Nothing more.

 

[daulagiri]

Ooh, nice. Then do yourself a favor and just go to Jaben at Adelphi. Knock yourself out trying those CIEM demos.

The real custom will be better in balance, soundstage, and separation. Universal demos largely to give you some idea on the sound sig.

 

[Choy Wei De]

Yeah. Tried AAW because that is only what I can afford.

 

[smy1]

Headphones with more drivers does not equal better performance. Try out some headphones you like and get it.

 

[seamon]

Headphones with more drivers does not equal better performance. Try out some headphones you like and get it.

While this is true in general, when considering models from the same manufacturer, more drivers usually results in better performance.

 

[ATau]

I'm with daulagiri here. CIEM all the way.

Even without comparing, you already know most modern earphones don't really sound BAD.
Custom monitors will give you a better seal and more comfort, ultimately letting you enjoy your music more.

Since getting my customs 3 years back, i've never ever wanted to use any of my universal iems again.

 

[Earotica]

Like said before. Driver count doesn't always mean better. I would test out different sets that could be made into CIEM, that way you get what you want and not something that'll "have to do."

 

[SilverEars]

It's more complex than simple number drivers.

You can have BA or dynamics or combination of both.

Dynamics dependjng on size, moves more air, and therefore provide great low-end, or sub-bass and slam, but BAs need more drivers to output the woofer like effect that dynamics do well in.

IME, dynamics tend to dip in the mids compared to BA(this maybe due to BA not strong in the lows). So, mids seem to be the strengths of BA. This is more for iems due to high isolation, but buds can push the mids up more due to poor isolation.

Arguments can be made a single knowles BA(ER4) can technically perform a neutral sig, but not completely. The bass drops off a bit. Similarly the UERM(3 BA drivers), although for both I'd consider on the neutral side. I would say, UERM(3 BA) is better performing than the ER4(1 BA), but also at time I've heard iems with rediculius number of BA Drivers and sounded colored and not so coherent. So, it's not about # of drivers, but tuning(they may tune it favorable for audiophiles vs studio listeners) by making sound smoother than reality, etc..

IME, what most consider neutral are on the bright side, and tend to be on the cold side and analytical. We got to ask ourselves what is really neutral, it can be a personal neutral.

CIEMs are about acheiving the best fit. Fit accounts for quality of sound for iems.

 

[SilverEars]

I should also add something regarding fit.

I realized after trying out many universals and various sizes and types of tips, my left and right canal sizing are not symetric.

What this creates is imbalance in volume and frequencies heard on both sides. This creates imaging issues. Similarly fit can creat issues if you cannot get the bore and tips to fit ideally in your canals, and this is usually issues with shallow fitting universals for me. CIEMs can resolve this issue if the process is done without some mishaps. Other than imbalance in symetry, there is likely some imbalance in our ear sensory system as well in regards to frequency sensitivity.

The issues CIEMs is the tuning, is it done to your ideal specs, how close is the custom verson to the universal demos? It's a bigger risk for sure since resellability drops.