Soundmagic vs Hippos - please share you experience

[casper^]

I have a recently bought Sansa clip zip which I rockboxed. I have a Chinese brand (Weile) headphones, which sound nice (never used great quality headphones other than Aiwa so can't compare or say if they sound great). to me, even the bundled IEMs sound nice - I put the bass and treble to their max setting.

I like deep bass, but don't want to shell out as much as the Hippo VB or Boom cost. I read two reviews on Soundmagic PL-21 and PL-30. How are these as far as bass is concerned? And how do they compare with the hippos? Could anyone who has both - Soundmagic and Hippo reply with their experience please?

Kind Regards,
Casper

[CrowdAds]

[paulr]

I have no idea about the Weile or Aiwa headphones you used. If by "bundled IEM's" you mean the earbuds that came with the Clip, they are not IEMs at all, they are just earbuds, not terrible ones but not great either. Earbuds are little speaker-like things that are held in your outer ear, while IEM's have compressible sleeves that you jam way down inside of your ear canal, which means they block out most outside sound. IEM's are capable of very precise sound reproduction and strong bass, but in my experience they are not very comfortable. Any reasonable design should outperform the Clip earbuds by a wide margin though.

[casper^]

Thanks for the clarification, paulr!

I did in fact mean the bundled earbuds. They sound better than the ones which came with my JXD PMP (which still work fine after 2 years of mishandling).

I'm curious to know why you said that IEMs are not comfortable in your experience. I cannot use the Weile headphones more than an hour or so because they press the ears hard. Normal earbuds also can't be used for more than 2 hours or so. But I thought IEMs should be comfortable to use for long hours. Let me know your experiences.

Kind Regards,
Casper

[paulr]

IEM's are uncomfortable because they're a foam cylinder jammed in your ear. If you've worn foam earplugs, it's sort of like that.

I may get banned from here for revealing this embarassing thing, but my favorite earbuds are the DX "noise isolation" cheapies. They don't really isolate against noise very much, they aren't very durable, and they sound like crap, but they are cheap and they're by far the most comfortable earbuds I have ever used, basically the only ones I can stand for any length of time. I usually use them at work where I can't listen very carefully anyway (the music is just to keep me from getting distracted at the computer) so the crappy sound doesn't matter. Other than these, I vastly prefer over-the-ear headphones instead of things stuck in my ears.

Here they are: http://dx.com/for-ipod-noise-isolation-earbuds-33

[skip252]

My experience with IEMs is entirely different. I've found that a decent pair with the right tips essentially "vanish" in my ears. After the sensations of the initial insertion all I notice is the music. I don't feel the headphones at all. I wear mine for hours at a time with no discomfort.

There was a bit of a learning curve to get a good seal but once I learned what that felt and sounded like I stopped jamming them so deep they were uncomfortable. I've also found that I need to learn how to do that with each set but experience has cut down on the amount of time I need to get comfortable with a new set.

IEMs aren't for everyone. I think you increase your chance of having a quality experience with them if you learn how to use them properly and use something better than the cheapest you can find. Investing in a decent set and good tips has paid for itself many times over for me.

[casper^]

Originally Posted by skip252

There was a bit of a learning curve to get a good seal but once I learned what that felt and sounded like I stopped jamming them so deep they were uncomfortable. I've also found that I need to learn how to do that with each set but experience has cut down on the amount of time I need to get comfortable with a new set.

How do you learn? Just by trial and error? Which IEMs do you use most often?

Originally Posted by skip252

IEMs aren't for everyone. I think you increase your chance of having a quality experience with them if you learn how to use them properly and use something better than the cheapest you can find. Investing in a decent set and good tips has paid for itself many times over for me.

I want ones with deep bass but don't want to spend as much as the Hippos. In another thread someone mentioned about Tekfusion Twinwoofers being better on bass than the Soundmagic PL21. Can you suggest ones with heavy bass and still in the range of 20 - 30 USD?

BTW, are the Hippos the best bassy IEMs?

Kind Regards,
Casper

[Hologram]

http://anythingbutipod.com/2011/01/b...vs-klipsch-s4/

this may help some?

[paulr]

Originally Posted by skip252

IEMs aren't for everyone. I think you increase your chance of having a quality experience with them if you learn how to use them properly and use something better than the cheapest you can find. Investing in a decent set and good tips has paid for itself many times over for me.

Well, I've always been irritated by anything in my ears, earbuds of any type, foam earplugs, etc. The only ones I like are those crappy DX ones because their contact with the ear is pretty minimal. The only point to earbuds or IEM's that I can see is portability compared to headphones. In my case most of my listening is at work so I just leave my headphones in my desk at the office.

My IEM's are Shure SE210 which aren't the greatest but aren't the cheapest. I believe (not sure) that their fit and tips are the same as Shure's more expensive IEM's. I like their sound and isolation, but (like almost all earplugs etc. to me) they're annoying enough that I rarely use them except in very noisy environments.

Anyway, all reviews I've seen indicate that comfort is usually an issue with IEM's of any sort. I think I'm a bit more susceptible to it than most, no big deal.

[Machiventa]

In my experience the Hippo VB's are an amazing bass-heavy IEM but aren't the most comfortable and fall out easily (they're kind of heavy). But I have fairly large ear canals so maybe it's a different case for other people with smaller canals.

From what you've stated I wonder if the JVC Riptidz or Senheisser CX-300/400/500's might be appropriate? I have both the Riptidz and the 300's and with an EQ they both sound great to me.

[acbluflame]

FWIW, my VB's easily produce a great amount of bass, almost that to rival my IE8's, but like Machiventa, it fell out quite easily as the housing is metal. Also, the cable on my version wasn't the best quality. IIRC, the Soundmagic's are quite balanced across the spectrum compared to the VB's.

[casper^]

I may go with the tekfusion twinwoofers since they seem to be inexpensive and still have great bass and they won't fall out like the hippos.

Kind Regards,
Casper