Quick Comparison of 63 IEMs (Spreadsheet)

[jynjyn]

Can the list be updated with the Sennhieser's IE7 and IE8. I am intrigued to see where the Phonak PFE stands against these phones.

[CrowdAds]

[MorrisMinah]

Hi dfkt.

That's a very useful spreadsheet. Have you bought enough new IEMs to consider an update?

[turkeylord]

I would be very interested to see where the Sleek SA6's would fall on your spreadsheet.. From what it sounds like, you and I have pretty similar tastes.

I'm looking to replace my 2 year old E2c's - on which the cables have completely gone to crap on me. The idea of the Sleek's replaceable cables intrigues me. I come from the SQ car audio world, so sound staging is very important to me. I found the Shure's very lacking in staging & clarity..

Anyway, I think I read that you had a chance to listen to the SA6's - I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts!

[sassafras]

If it's any help, the e2c's would fall somewhere on the lower third of the list. Probably right above or below the CrossRoads series (depending on personal taste).

[Finlandia]

I'd be interested in knowing where the Klipsch Custom 2 would be on that list.

[turkeylord]

Originally Posted by sassafras

If it's any help, the e2c's would fall somewhere on the lower third of the list. Probably right above or below the CrossRoads series (depending on personal taste).

Thanks.. I found SA6's for $130 so I went ahead and ordered a set.. Now I just hope I don't have any of the infamous issues...

[Doggonit]

Excellent! I love this spreadsheet. Needless to say, I could only get my hands on a pair of UE super.fi 5's locally, so that's what I have now, but in the future, I would love to compare them to a pair of those Phonaks. They sound rather exciting as well.

[daniel1703]

Doggonit, what exactly happened to your sony?

The security guards might be apple fanboys.

[daniel1703]

Hi guys, I made this spreadsheet using the data provided by dfkt, substituting all the greens for 5, all the yellow for 3 and all the reds for 1.

Also included a weightage system to allocate priorities among the 12 characteristics listed.

The 'program' will decide for you which of the 19 IEMs would PROBABLY suit you.

Do comment. =)

Link

[sassafras]

haha, I love it. Love live excel calculations...

The only problem is that because dfkt tends to rank the higher ones almost all green, and the lower ones almost all yellow or red, your spreadsheet tends to only recommend the top four, even with some extreme preferences. It needs to weight extra (say 7) for the bold best in class entries, and rate negatively (-1) for the worst in class entries. Even still, for it to be a real recommendation, it really needs to need some greater point separation and maybe some input from dfkt.

[WalkGood]

daniel1703 very nice and a good perspective!

I thought of trying this once as I too enjoy making excel calculations. But there is a subjective side of the equation that is impossible to incorporate, which is how you interpret the sound quality of a specific headphone, for example you may really like the sq of a specific phone which I don’t like at all. For another view, dfkt doesn’t like the MylarOne XB because his lost all the original bass that they delivered. On the other hand, my XB lost some after the 100+ hour of usage, but imo not all and I still use and like mine very much. The latter might be a poor example, as with the MylarOne’s build quality of performance may even be different from one batch to another, hard to tell.

[daniel1703]

@sassafras: yeah i guess you're right about that.

I did actually think about giving some extra points for the 'bold' ones. But then again, i think between good and best, the difference would not be that drastic and allocating two extra points, making it 7 would be a bit too much. Maybe I'll go on a scale of 10, having 0 as worst, 1 as red, 5 as yellow, 9 as green, 10 as best. I'll see what I can do when I have the time.


@WalkGood: Yeap. I think one way to eliminate the subjectivity to each individual's taste is to take a reference model and judge the rest based on how well it performs compared to it in terms of the 12 characteristics. This is just a raw model with a lot of improvements to be done.

But honestly, my final exams are nearing and I'm kinda short on time. LOL.

Modelling is fun, no?

[jjrosaria]

how does cx300 compare to the cx400??

[RubberDucky451]

I totally agree with your review of the vibes. I must say that the new gen of vibes has a better stress resistant plug. Considering i cannot afford or find the other top IEMs, i may just buy the vibes again.

[Tommifier]

Hey dfkt! Thanks for that awesome comparison.

I'm looking for a new pair of headphones and I want them to be durable as well as having good sound. I've heard the Ultimate Ears Super-Fi.5 Pro have removable cables, can you tell me if they do? Also, can you get replacements easily if so?

All in all, the Ultimate Ears seem like the best deal for me. I've managed to somehow break my Shure SE110's....If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[daniel1703]

Originally Posted by Tommifier

Hey dfkt! Thanks for that awesome comparison.

I'm looking for a new pair of headphones and I want them to be durable as well as having good sound. I've heard the Ultimate Ears Super-Fi.5 Pro have removable cables, can you tell me if they do? Also, can you get replacements easily if so?

All in all, the Ultimate Ears seem like the best deal for me. I've managed to somehow break my Shure SE110's....If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I can tell you that dfkt dislikes the sf5 pro and the sf5 eb.

[Tommifier]

Well, yes, I could see that, but the fact that it had a removable cable was a BIG plus for me and I've heard Ultimate Ears makes good-sounding products.

[dfkt]

Added the Head-Direct RE0 to the list in the first post.

[a_tumiwa]

wahhhh, finally u update your list!! thank you very much
Good Job bro!
i hope the next one will be IE8

[daniel1703]

Exciting, what's next on the list? I read almost every word on all your IEM reviews.