[HungryPanda]

My Biggies and Monk+ Espresso (my wife snaffled the smalls)

 

[HUGO SILVA]

what are your first impressions of the biggie?

 

[HungryPanda]

with the double tip I get a get a really good sound. bass is powerful but not overblown, mids are a little forward and highs roll off maybe a little early. Give them enough power and they are pretty impressive

 

[andrewwardell]

Given all the praise (what some would call ‘hype’ ) around the regular Monks, I really want to try making those work for me, but the earbud design has never been that great for getting a comfortable stable fit in my ears. Do any Monk users have some suggestions I could try to maybe achieve that end? Thanks in advance.

HungryPanda, I didn’t get double-flange tips in my package, but I’ve got a few around so it’s no big deal. I’ll give that a shot

...oh, just got back from that bike ride and I do rather like the Smalls!

 

[HungryPanda]

Given all the praise (what some would call ‘hype’ ) around the regular Monks, I really want to try making those work for me, but the earbud design has never been that great for getting a comfortable stable fit in my ears. Do any Monk users have some suggestions I could try to maybe achieve that end? Thanks in advance.

HungryPanda, I didn’t get double-flange tips in my package, but I’ve got a few around so it’s no big deal. I’ll give that a shot

...oh, just got back from that bike ride and I do rather like the Smalls!

There were no double flanged tips in the pack, these were one I already had

 

[andrewwardell]

with the double tip I get a get a really good sound. bass is powerful but not overblown, mids are a little forward and highs roll off maybe a little early. Give them enough power and they are pretty impressive

Took your advice by rolling the double-flanges that came with my Brainwavz R3 and I concur. I wanna say the boost is in the lower mids more than the uppers, and that it’s a thing with the Smalls too but it’s more exaggerated here. I’ve got a Ron Goodwin piece from my IEM test playlist on right now and the Biggies remind me of listening to it on cassette through my parents stereo when I was really young, like ~5. This is with just over 24 hours of burn-in though, I’m sure things will change a little in time.

 

[andrewwardell]

I have to wear them like this
Right side in left ear, left side in right ear. They fit flush to my ear canal this way. Will not work the right way. Too bad for me.

Gave this a go for a laugh and it actually brightened up the Biggie for me. Not much, but enough to remind me I still have working stereocilla up there.

 

[andrewwardell]

Right, so it’s been a couple weeks of using and not using these. I gave the Biggies ~100hours of burn-in and thrown a bunch of music at them since then using a mixture of single-ended sources (my V20, my weaksauce S5, my iPad and the Behringer USB mixer I keep by my desk at work (go on, judge all you want)). Throughout my week of using the Biggie I couldn’t help but want to use tips that gave me a good seal but whenever I did so any air they did have was flat-out gone and everything from the lower mids to the lower treble would get pushed so far forward that it bordered on painful at which point I decided “screw it, I’m going back to the Icarus III, my ears don’t have enough tolerance for this.” So that’s what I did for the following week.

I’ve just put them back on again this evening and deliberately gone for the small clear silicone tips so that the seal sucks a<censored>s. Result? Different.

They still have a dark frequency response compared to a lot of the IEMs I’ve heard, but there’s enough HF detail there now to pick out poor lossy encoding, and I can pick layers out of vocals in tracks like the Bee Gees’ ‘Massachusetts’ that I just remember hearing as a harmony before. This may be due in part to the width of the soundstage, which has stretched outside my head at the extremes. wAgAwAgA’s ‘Jammu’ was a great exercise in wide soundstage, and proved that despite the lack of seal the bass was still very very present!. Listening to Perfume Genius’ ‘Queen’ as I type this and the vocal frequency band is definitely still sitting a bit proud of everything else... and now that there’s some DnB playing that translates to the snare drums being much more forward in the mix than I’ve ever recalled. The presentation overall is definitely quite full-on,

I don’t think these are better than the Icarus, I think that’s comparing oranges to mandarins. I like the Biggie for the quirks it has, but it does still make me glad that I have some other pairs where the treble is not as rolled-off. If you’re struggling to make these work for you though, I highly recommend setting them up with a poor seal. It sounds highly illogical but I feel you definitely end up a lot closer to the vision that these IEMs were designed for doing it this way. I think I might be taking these back to work next week.

 

[ridhuankim]

Right, so it’s been a couple weeks of using and not using these. I gave the Biggies ~100hours of burn-in and thrown a bunch of music at them since then using a mixture of single-ended sources (my V20, my weaksauce S5, my iPad and the Behringer USB mixer I keep by my desk at work (go on, judge all you want)). Throughout my week of using the Biggie I couldn’t help but want to use tips that gave me a good seal but whenever I did so any air they did have was flat-out gone and everything from the lower mids to the lower treble would get pushed so far forward that it bordered on painful at which point I decided “screw it, I’m going back to the Icarus III, my ears don’t have enough tolerance for this.” So that’s what I did for the following week.

I’ve just put them back on again this evening and deliberately gone for the small clear silicone tips so that the seal sucks a<censored>s. Result? Different.

They still have a dark frequency response compared to a lot of the IEMs I’ve heard, but there’s enough HF detail there now to pick out poor lossy encoding, and I can pick layers out of vocals in tracks like the Bee Gees’ ‘Massachusetts’ that I just remember hearing as a harmony before. This may be due in part to the width of the soundstage, which has stretched outside my head at the extremes. wAgAwAgA’s ‘Jammu’ was a great exercise in wide soundstage, and proved that despite the lack of seal the bass was still very very present!. Listening to Perfume Genius’ ‘Queen’ as I type this and the vocal frequency band is definitely still sitting a bit proud of everything else... and now that there’s some DnB playing that translates to the snare drums being much more forward in the mix than I’ve ever recalled. The presentation overall is definitely quite full-on,

I don’t think these are better than the Icarus, I think that’s comparing oranges to mandarins. I like the Biggie for the quirks it has, but it does still make me glad that I have some other pairs where the treble is not as rolled-off. If you’re struggling to make these work for you though, I highly recommend setting them up with a poor seal. It sounds highly illogical but I feel you definitely end up a lot closer to the vision that these IEMs were designed for doing it this way. I think I might be taking these back to work next week.

Hey, thanks for sharing your experience.
Mine is put back in the case and will be a collection among other iems that I don't listen to anymore.
Those of which I will only occassionally take out to listen when bored.
I think this biggies and smalls are for marketing and collection purpose.
I could not recommend this to anyone.
I would rather recommend xiaomi pistons which can be obtained for few bucks.
Xiaomy hybrids(old and new) are good too.
KZ ZS5 or 6 xan be had for lot cheaper also.
Xiaomi bluetooth iem sound much better to my ears.
60 USD... Cant recommend.

 

[andrewwardell]

Hey, thanks for sharing your experience.
Mine is put back in the case and will be a collection among other iems that I don't listen to anymore.
Those of which I will only occassionally take out to listen when bored.
I think this biggies and smalls are for marketing and collection purpose.
I could not recommend this to anyone.
I would rather recommend xiaomi pistons which can be obtained for few bucks.
Xiaomy hybrids(old and new) are good too.
KZ ZS5 or 6 xan be had for lot cheaper also.
Xiaomi bluetooth iem sound much better to my ears.
60 USD... Cant recommend.

I’m definitely willing to agree that they’re more of a niche product, which is fine for me as I’m often intrigued by IEMs which other people dislike (hell, I’ve got an RHA ceramic in my collection), but they aren’t what I’d recommend to other people as a daily driver. Most of the people I know IRL just want a v-shaped FR that they can insert and go. These are not that, but figuring out how to get the best sound out of a difficult IEM is an interesting hobby for me. Some people do jigsaw puzzles...

 

[haiku]

The biggie and smalls are much more listenable when paired with the Oyaide cable.

 

[silverfishla]

No and no for me.

 

[ridhuankim]

The biggie and smalls are much more listenable when paired with the Oyaide cable.

Wouldn't that make the belly bigger than the tummy?
The cable might cost more than the biggies and smalls?

 

[haiku]

Wouldn't that make the belly bigger than the tummy?
The cable might cost more than the biggies and smalls?

True, but it may be an option for some.....

 

[mbwilson111]

No and no for me.

So, you don't like the biggie or the small? I only have the small and I like it. My husband kept the biggie and gave me the small. He also kept the free Monk as I already have some Monks and he didn'thave any.