as you see some iems go with a lean and depressed rise from lower mids to pinna gain
and some( especially elysian) models go for a boost on these frequencies
when i auto eq my iems to the gaea and annihilator or generally rise that area, it makes the upper mids sound digitally and shouty, on the other hand when i lower this area(1k to 3k) the instrument separation becomes better and music sounds more natural to my ears.
is there a reason why some iems boost this area and some depress it?
The driver and crossover configurations matter. Matching FRs doesn’t mean an IEM can do the FR well compared to a set physically tuned to produce a FR.
Many 1DDs that I’ve EQ’d to the Penon Serial FR sound like ass, compared to the actual Serial
Well the simple answer is because they felt like it.
More generally speaking things like the Blessing 3 hits the neutrality pretty spot on in the upper mid region. So if you take that as reference any iem with less in that range is just tuned more mellow. The reason for that is as you described yourself often a wider seeming presentation and a generally bit more laid back replay.
Hitting the neutral spot gives more clarity with the center image in my experience so focusing the sound more which can reduce the sense of width. Adding in that region may want to push more focus on vocals but I’ve rarely found that to be beneficial.
Lastly this is purely speculative but it might be an attempt to fit to the equal loudness curves which have a bump at 1k approximately
one of my iems that responds well to eq has a laidback warm sound with recessed pinna area, and peaky ones never eq well. they never reach clarity and always clip/distort.
well those 2 iems are considered totl and i read reviewer praise their tuning so i thought it might negatively effect instrument timbre but it might do other positive things to imaging, vocals, clarity etc… .or maybe thats just not my taste.
I read that as well and bought both.
The “Anni” was deemed to be more “Audiophile” and “X” was better suited for EDM
Actually the total opposite turned out to be the case (as graphs reflect) the anni is more V shaped with more mid bass slam
Library matters and even then, some takes make no sense.
I sold Annihilator 2 weeks after buying for about what I paid.
Gaea should be demoed before buying as it really is a screamer. (My ears, my library, my prefs)
It is quite a departure from both the X and Anni.
very interesting comparison !
it seems like the x would sound better for genres with drum kits or strings like rock or metal and annihilator/gaea is better for pop or mainstream tunes, am i right?
Yes, correct.
I listen to mostly rock and then Hip hop.
“X” was great with Drums and bass and good enough for Hip Hop but anni was audibly a harder hitter that hazed the mids. That is tolerable for EDM/Trance trip hop and hip hop but a no no for 4 and 5 string bass guitars smearing into vocals. (Rock)
If you listen to a lot of pop and drops I’d go with Anni. Vocals and a rythm section…X
ok then, my library is mostly metal and a few acoustic female vocals, so drums and strings are my first priorities. my temptation to save for that 3k set is lower than before! thanks for the comparison btw.
how sounds fiio FX15 with deppress 1-2khz region? Squiglink - IEM frequency response database by Super* Review
