Quick Comparison of 63 IEMs (Spreadsheet)

[Almoxil]

Great to know that, Orange! I expect to order a pair near Christmas season, since I've bought a lot of stuff lately (a Cowon D2, an 8 GB Adata SDHC card, a PA2V2 portable amp and a pair of Koss PortaPros), and my girlfriend wants to kill me!

[CrowdAds]

[Orange]

np. Id recommend getting some new earpieces with them as well. The ones that come with the are nice, but the Shure black foams and the westone "comply" line are more comfortable. <--- personal opinion =)

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Almoxil

You can buy the MylarOne X3..........

Almoxil, do you have a pair?

[Almoxil]

No, Ray, I don't. I chose to buy the PA2V2 instead, and will use it with my CK7s and PortaPros.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Almoxil

No, Ray, I don't. I chose to buy the PA2V2 instead, and will use it with my CK7s and PortaPros.

Nice, how do you like the portable amp? I've been thinking of buying one.

I've had the CrossRoads for a few weeks now and love them

[Almoxil]

Originally Posted by Ray

Nice, how do you like the portable amp? I've been thinking of buying one.

I've had the CrossRoads for a few weeks now and love them

It hasn't arrived yet, but people over Head-Fi like it a lot. The guy that makes the amps, Gary, is very kind and helpful. I throwed him an email with some questions and he promptly answered. I'm eager to try them with my CK7s and my PortaPros.

I'll let you know how I like them as soon as they arrive. I will post some pics.

About the X3s, dfkt told me that someone who liked the CK7s would for sure love the Crossroads, so I guess they should sound great, indeed.

[WalkGood]

Almoxil,
Looking forward to seeing your pics and hearing your feed back

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Orange

np. Id recommend getting some new earpieces with them as well. The ones that come with the are nice, but the Shure black foams and the westone "comply" line are more comfortable. <--- personal opinion =)

Indeed, I find the Shure "Olives" to give me the best fit and isolation, too.

They can be bought from http://www.discountheadphones.com/ for $14 - worldwide free shipping.

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by Almoxil

I chose to buy the PA2V2 instead, and will use it with my CK7s and PortaPros.

If you intend to use the PA2V2 with the D2, you'd be in for an unpleasant surprise.

I've been testing all the inefficient high-impedance headphones in the stores, equipped with my D2 and PA2V2. Sennheiser HD600/650 (300 Ohm), Beyerdynamic DT880/990 (250 Ohm), etc... they all sounded better straight out of the D2's 74mW amp than over the PA2V2's 200mW amp.

Of course the PA2V2 could drive them to somewhat higher volume levels - but the sound quality suffered quite noticeably. All of these phones sound muddier, more congested, with less soundstage over the PA2V2.

A low-budget portable amp like the PA2V2 might be useful to spice up low-quality players or computer sound cards, but for a high-quality player like the D2 it provides no improvement at all, not for 300 Ohm phones - and especially not for low impedance cans like the CK7 or PortaPro.

[Hodgie]

Does anyone have the CrossRoads MylarOne XB Earphones??

Are they better than the CrossRoads MylarOne X3 Earphones??

[dfkt]

The XB's have more bass, but less clarity/precision.

[Almoxil]

Originally Posted by dfkt

...
A low-budget portable amp like the PA2V2 might be useful to spice up low-quality players or computer sound cards, but for a high-quality player like the D2 it provides no improvement at all, not for 300 Ohm phones - and especially not for low impedance cans like the CK7 or PortaPro.

Thanks for the useful info, dfkt. No problem at all. I have plenty of low-quality sound sources lying around me most of time (poor sound card in my computer at home and on-board sound card in my computer at the job, for example). I will try the amp with my Creative players to see if it can improve the sound coming from them.

[ihaveworms]

Would those CrossRoads MylarOne X3 produce pretty good sound in a samsung k3. I know they don't draw a lot of power, I just want to make sure I am not bottlenecking good sound quality with that MP3 Player. I ordered the player and have heard nothing but good things about the CrossRoads MylarOne X3 on these forums and might get them.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?p=3152437
Here i saw Max. Input Power : 10mW
On the samsung k3 manual, it says Earphone Output:20mW(16Ω)

Is that ok that it is 10 over?

Edit: I got my answer off of head-fi, I ordered them. How long did it normally take for it to get to you? I am in the USA.

[dfkt]

Updated the graph on the first page, since I now got the MylarOne XBs... and boy, are they nice for the price. They're no Atrios, but they surpass the Vibes in many aspects, IMO.

The X3's dropped down in the ranking, since mine seemed to lose all the bass they had. Weird as it sounds, but it seems they "burned out" instead of "burned in". They're certainly still nice phones for some people, but I can't live without a proper amount of bass in my tunes... for people who like the Etymotic ER-6 sound, those are the best alternative, for a much more reasonable price - and the X3's are less cold and sterile sounding, too.

[darogl]

Hey dfkt, when you gonna check out the new q-Jays? Early reviews at head-fi sound pretty good.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by dfkt

Updated the graph on the first page, since I now got the MylarOne XBs... and boy, are they nice for the price. They're no Atrios, but they surpass the Vibes in many aspects, IMO...

I’ve been using my X3’s now non-stop for a little over a month and I have to second dfkt’s opinion. The X3’s are a nice transitional iem as I have my sights set on the Atrios.

The X3’s have a nice bright Definition and clarity, but IMO the highs have become almost unnatural and the little bass they had is getting weaker by the day. That said, the detail sounds very good with my old vinyl analog music that has been converted to digital and they are a great deal for the price, but if you care about a warmer sound & bass I’d look toward the XB’s

Originally Posted by ihaveworms

…How long did it normally take for it to get to you? I am in the USA.

Only took 6 days for me to get them, btw I live in Florida

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by darogl

Hey dfkt, when you gonna check out the new q-Jays? Early reviews at head-fi sound pretty good.

I'm intrigued by their nice design (contrary to the Atrios and CrossRoads, which suck, style-wise), the smaller, the better. For now, the V-Moda Vibes are my favorite comfy IEMs for sleeping - but it looks like the q-Jays would disappear in the ears even more.

But I'm not sure a dual balanced armature driver with crossover could come close to the sound of the best single dynamic driver IEMs... the lack of soundstage and real bass (dunno about the q-Jay's "Airbooster"?) in multi-armature models kept me re-thinking the whole "more drivers = better" sales pitch... The initial reviews say they're bright sounding - that's something I don't like much. And Kramer's comparisons to the Ety ER-4 put me off some more. But I'd have to hear them to judge them... Let's wait till the initial FOTM hysteria on Head-Fi quiets down a bit.

[Adeptus_Minor]

From the reviews here, I'm thinking the MylarOne XB's will be my best bet.
Too much "bright" sound makes my ears hurt.
Sufficient bass response is, however, a must with the kinds of music I like.

[dfkt]

Well, the Atrio is quite a bit better, for both bass and sibilance - but for the relatively reasonable price the XB will be hard to beat. I never heard anything for less than $100 that sounds as pleasing as this one.

[Adeptus_Minor]

I like the concept of, and the reviews the Atrios are getting, but they aren't really in my budget.
I went ahead and ordered my MylarOne XB's just now. Now I just have to get my new DAP on order.