Burn-In, Cables, DAC/AMP, Technical Performance & More

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[Gizaudio]

Leave your own thoughts and opinions here as well. Would love to hear your thoughts!

[pythagoras]

Great video. I really appreciate that you rank the IEMs in technically aspects and try to keep objective. As someone who has a different taste your ranking list is still very helpful. It's great that you're so honest. You deserve a lot more subscriber. Keep it up!

[napalmhardcore]

A topic has been raised here that I've never given much thought to but it's opened up a rabbit hole of thought. The question: Are vertical locations of instruments in a recording discernible from each other (vertical imaging)?

As for accurate determination of height of performers in a physical space in relation to each other, I'll admit I've never really tested with a suitable recording. Most recordings use a mic/mics placed close to the individual performers and are panned throughout the stereo field, so they aren't representing the performer's physical position on a stage/in a physical space. As for the perception of different instruments/sounds being at different heights somewhat arbitrarily, I absolutely experience this. In fact it's more common for me to perceive vertical differences than it is for me to perceive forward depth with headphones/IEMs. For example, quite often panning effects will sound as if they pass over the top of my head rather than in front of me.

In the real world sound cues such as delays, reflections and occlusion help us determine position. My best guess is that due to different people having subtly different ear anatomy and sensitivity to different frequencies and because listening through headphones/IEMs to sounds recorded from multiple positions is a very unnatural way for us to perceive sound, it's likely that our brains are interpreting this unnatural soundscape differently in the absence of the cues we would normally use to determine position.

[TheLeftistOwl]

Burn in is one of the things that baffles me the most because you get very smart people saying their headphones changed after burn in, when in reality, their perspective on the FR changed as they listened to them. If audio stuff changed significantly enough to change the sound with only a fraction of its lifetime spent, then you've got a problem with the construction of a product.

[srnk]

Exact same reason I prefer ief comparison, it shows clearly how the bass shelf is rising and from where

[artisan]

Excellent and informative video, thanks for the sincerity and honesty! You sorted out the facts, maybe some of the reviewers are victims of marketing or vile people who want to make money on cables, DAC&Amplifiers, etc. Unfortunately, we can often find such people on the Internet.

[Foobymaster]

I like seeing the flat bass target especially if the person uses compensates curves as its easier to see the real bass level.

[jasonschabler]

The only IEM for me that perceived stage outside my head is the GS Audio SE12. Not only wide but 6' forward from that spot so not only incredible width but depth and a extraordinarysense of height. In a song from Hania Rani you can hear the mic on the piano keys at waist level but also tell the 🎻 player is to her left standing up and the person on right is sitting down.

As for burn in you need to go to a car audio shop ask the staff about it or any professional audio engineer. The mechanical aspect of a dynamic driver lossens up and does indeed change the sound signature. Over time the benefits then become detrimental as the suspension and former get too loose and sound quality is affected and driver then needs to be replaced.

[Idea]

great video man! me also think of that, as long as my cable isn't shit enough in build quality and microphonic, im ok with that

[Reefgc]

The advantage of a cardioid speaker is that there is less bass / sound going towards the sides and back of the speaker, reducing the amount of reflections you would get from the walls resulting in a cleaner sound in the room . In pro audio they often carioid subwoofer arrays to not swamp the stage artists in bass as part of the rear wave is cancelled out.

fwiw I can also tell you that loudsspeaker drivers can need some minutes of burn in so the soft parts in the speaker motors can loosen up and end up at their designed specs. They only need this once when they are new, I could imagine a iem driver could also take a short while to loosen up a bit.

[AdrianSantosoGan]

2:33 which makes perfect sense because stereo mixes only have horizontal panning options. Any mix engineer, even beginner ones, know this. There is only hard left, hard right, and everything in between (horizontally). Any sense of vertical placement is due to psychoacoustics. Of course, now there is spatial audio, which makes vertical positioning an available option.

[starrims]

Your ranking is the best amongst I have seen, better than Chronicle's.

[kyron]

Minimum phase means the phase can be determined from the frequency response.

[VitorMach]

I kinda disagree with 2.
Sound "outside your head" is a result of interactions of the sound with your body, ear and ear cannals, which alters the resulting frequency response, also possibly adding reverb and other effects (group delay?). Subtle sound differences and delay between each ear also play an important role (which is what crossfeed filters emulate).
If the sound output can somehow mimic all of these effects, the IEM will sound like it's outside your head. Which is how stuff like Dolby Atmos and similar works, albeit imperfectly.
TL;DR: it's not impossible, but it requires more than just tuning the IEM and is really hard to do perfectly.

[josephchamberlain]

As far as details go I feel like very high frequencies handle the air, but that very low frequencies handle ambient resonances. For realism with your detail and natural timbre I really feel like you have to have the extremes of both (<30 and >15k) being done well.

[lackoflove]

cable change the sound a lot even the technicalities of the iem. eartips slightly change the sound.

[realaudioreviews]

U12t check out never give up on your dreams, and victory by two steps form hell. Very spacious sounding. I think it’s because of the high mid scoop. Instruments sound taller taller than all iems I tried. Ier-Z1r is wider but lacks height. Haven’t heard the anole vx though

[KevvWr]

Burn-in does matter in some cases for iems/headphones/speakers. Some of my iems and speakers have smoother treble and more textured bass. Sound quality does improve if the little changes are to your liking.

[Barnsey]

Cable Comfort does make a difference bc you don't have pain while listening. I got fatfreq studio ref pros the cable ripped my ear to bits after getting a soft pro cable it made a difference to comfort but no difference to sound quality.

[Roydashme]

How do drivers change or not change the sound (barring exact same tuning)?