Are you kidding me? Thank you mr Anonymous this was a very nice little write up.
I was worried it might be too bassy but this sounds well balanced. Good control in bass is so important!
Overall seems pretty good!
For sure goes in my list.
Only thing I am worried is how is the detail/ clarity of the sound in this price range of IEMs?? Does anyone have any headphone experience to compare to?
I have extensive experience with headphones of all price ranges as well. If you check my profile I have a current gear list, but I have also tried and owned many, many more because Iām kind of a gearhound. If you can name some specific headphones or specific questions Iāll do my best to answer.
And youāre welcome for the help. I like helping when and where I can.
So I have only experienced the Sundara and the beyerdynamic DT 770. Sundaras are the benchmark of clarity for my ears currently.
The Beyers I would say are decent for the price but jumping to Sundara there is a big difference in clarity. So with decent IEMs in the 150$ mark what kind of tier can I expect in clarity.
For example: do they punch above something like the 120$ Beyers ?
I find the Provence to have good clarity. I have owned both the Sundaras and the Dt770s in the past. For the Provence in specific, I think it has clarity beyond the Dt770s which, to my ear, arenāt a particularly clear headphone especially through their recessed mid range. The Sundaras are a more expensive, class leading type of over ear clarity that I donāt think the Provence can quite compete with. I think youāre going to have trouble finding Sundara level clarity with a dark or conservative treble tuning.
Much of percieved clarity and detail in any transducer comes from upper mids and treble so when treble rolls off it often seems less clear than an emphasized and extended treble section. That said, an IEM with a well executed roll off, as the Provence seems to be thus far, will still have the requisite detail and note definition, itās just not as up front and in your face. I hope that makes sense.
For IEMs in general, you can get really spectacular performance in the lower cost price range(s) these days. Spending ā¬150 on an IEM should give you access to plenty of options that are good technical performers that are also tuned well. Finding one thatās a combo of your preferred tuning and the clarity and technical ability you want is going to be harder. Most of the IEMs I love in this range have treble that I believe you would find to bright, my favorite being the Letshuoer S12 which has treble that can be borderline for me and Iām not treble sensitive.
I just happen to have acquired the Provence a little over a week ago and it seemed to match your description of what youāre looking for so I brought it up. When I bought the Provence I was looking for a lower cost all-arounder that I could listen to for hours that has really good fundamentals eg non-fatiguing tuning that translates well to many genres and solid separation, imaging, detail retrieval, etc. So far the Provence has acquitted itself quite well.
Edit: P.S. I told you Iām a gearhound lol!
Edit 2: @nymz rec for the Olina SE might work, but I think itās treble might be borderline for you as well. It certainly isnāt the darkish treble we have been discussing. If you can get the Hook-X for ā¬150 it would be good too I think, but I know I paid significantly more for mine and I didnāt know it got down to ā¬150 even on sale. I havenāt heard the Wu.
Thanks for the cookie I will be sure to read your review! I am very interested in what a tiny planar sounds like actually.
Lol sorry for the confusion. Basically I was looking for a darkish sound. When I said about Harman itās just another sound I might be interested if there are good options. Ideally speaking dark when compared to Harman which sounds slightly bright to my ears.
Gotcha this does make a lot of sense actually. I do believe I have a good idea now in terms of what to expect on clarity .
This is basically me right now! + I actually want to see what all the hype is with IEMs (again this is the first time I try IEMs).
Also I havenāt really tried a wamer/darker sound signature and I feel itās something that I would really like.
On the other hand and completely off-topic I also do love a nice bright sound. I just feel like it is not ideal for every listening scenario plus it kind of tires me after a while. Also some sounds just sound very harsh to me on a bright headphone. But on msuic where they donāt sound harsh I love how engaging the sound is full of little details coming from everywhere.
I am slowly but surely turning into an audio junkie and I want to build a collection of all sorts of differently tuned devices