I’m looking forward to getting one of their 4 core graphene cable!
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Soundstage. (Or is it sound stage? I’ll call it SS for the rest of this post.)
As a relative newcomer to IEMs, having spent my life listening to nothing else but speakers and headphones, I have a technical question about the perceived characteristic of SS in a set of IEMs. I say “perceived” because I know that something special is happening when an IEM (essentially a set of small speakers stuck literally inside your ear canals) somehow creates the auditory illusion that the music is happening at some distance away from you.
I’m listening to a string quartet on open-back headphones as I type this. If I close my eyes, I can picture the four players on a stage in front of me, the two violins seated to the left, the viola and cello to the right.
If I replace these headphones with my FDX1s, I’m ON the stage. The instruments are arranged in an arc all around me. (And that’s okay. It’s called “chamber music” because it’s supposed to be played right in front of you, in the same intimate room. In fact, I’ve come to prefer listening this way!)
If I switch to any of the half-dozen sub-$100 IEMs I have… Either the music sounds like it’s playing INSIDE my head, or at the very least the instruments are crowding around me like rock singers leaning into the same microphone, the two violins inches from my left ear, the viola and cello inches from my right.
So my question (finally!) is: How does one IEM achieve this illusion when others cannot? What is actually going on inside the unit, in specific technical terms, to create this effect? It’s not something you can see on a tuning graph, I know that much. It’s one of those mystical “technicalities” that I’m still trying to understand.
They’re all DDs (timbre for those strings!), but obviously the FDX1s cost more than twice as much as any of the others. So I understand that I’m paying for the improved SS. (There’s honestly no other advantage that my ears can hear. The FDX1 has that 4K peak that needs to be tamed a little bit, and it doesn’t even have the best timbre.) But what’s the actual audio engineering “magic” inside the FDX1 that provides the bigger SS?
And finally, if you’re still with me, are there other IEMs in the mid-price range that really excel in this area? (Or does greatly improved SS mean going up to higher prices, period?)
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It’s supposed to be a conjunction of things like the chamber of the IEM and the anatomy of our ears. But it’s a bit of witchcraft that no one knows with 100% certainty.
As far as FDX1 upgrade, well, it’s already very technical. The main grip with it is the metallic timbre due to it’s fast decay, giving that perception. I think that if you want that tuning on a single DD, just sit tight. Save the money. The upgrade will cost you a lot.
If you want better timbre at the cost of more bass, there’s options like Olina/Oxygen/Kato etc.
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Xinhs or this
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As @nymz said, the stage is a result of multiple factors.
I say the drivers, shell (chamber, airflow and all that), Personal HRTF and lastly the tonality are the factors affecting the stage.
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Yeah, what I figured!
Seriously, thank you for this.
(I watch all of your posts on these forums and you are a straight-up hero.)
(And I do have the Olina, by the way, and I agree on the better timbre. )
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Since it sounds like you listen to classical music and want a big stage. I suggest you look into earbuds. They might shock you. (Consider @tgx DIY buds, as he is a fellow classic-head.)
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Wow, thank you!
(I don’t doubt that they’ll shock me – especially after spending my whole life saying “no way” to putting anything in my ears. All it took was that first pair of Tin T2s to turn me around!)
(And to begin a potentially very expensive hobby.)
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Consider trying out the Vido buds.
Dirt cheap, high value and you know if MX500 bud shells work for you in terms of fit.
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Earbuds for classical, did you say? Hmm man maybe I need to look into some of tgx earbuds. I only tried VE monk and they were very uncomfortable
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Definitely!
I wouldnt even bother with iems if that was all I was listening to…
VE Monk was my first and almost last bud…they are garbage…
If its the Monk Plus you have, then thats an MX500 shell so if that didnt work, you should consider some other shells. Like the Nicehck EB2S uses another type of shell.
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Olina and fdx1 is all you need. Dont look further.
I will 100000x agree with @Rikudou_Goku. Earbuds man. My classical library loves them.
Also waiting on @tgx serratus but he just left for holidays, so that might take a while. If you can swing 40 bucks without sweating, LBBS is the best entering point, imo.
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I say its better for him to try Vido first, to see if MX500 shell works. Then if it does, he can consider getting tgx78´s buds or my own.
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Ah crikey, 200 USD?? I mean, I read his post, he’s clearly not doing it for the money, but I need to save up a bit for that haha. but he uses MX500 shell shape?
The scratchy foam part of the Monk also bothered me lol. I mean, it was a freebie, but I haven’t used it more than 2 hrs before chucking it in a drawer
Didn’t know you had something torwards neutral/bright, sorry 
You know what we need? A separate earbud thread! Unless there is one already 
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Yeah, he also uses MX500 shaped buds.
My 7 lineups will have room for (almost) everything and I do have a few candidates for a more classical fitting bud.
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Yup, it exists lol.
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Damn, nobody ever told me this before!
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