Extremely interesting - I was always wondering why there are not that many measurements of different tips all around when I myself clearly hear differences between different types not only related to the seal, but the material and nozzle type as well (which I cannot say about sources and cables). But interestingly I always considered not the bass better in foams, but the treble “muffled”.
There are 3 theses I have on why you have measured it this way:
you achieve much better seal in the artificial canal with the silicone eartip than you would ever achieve in real life making the low end as good as in foam, where the seal is perfect in both scenarios
there is no bone conduction mechanism (of the ear, not Mest driver, thought it would be interesting to see same kind of experiment with different, more predictable in high end IEM) represented correctly in the coupler measurement. In real life the bone/cartilage conduction is the most effective in <1000 Hz range and I would assume it is more efficient with much larger contact area that foam tip achieves than any silicone tip would.
there is a difference of the depth of the insertion in the final e eartip vs foam. Was the measurements volume normalized?
A reviewer dis the same thing on a discord I’m in, with like 5 or 6 tips. The findings were the same: tips don’t move bass: they operate from 1.5kHz and above. The “added bass” effect is a by-product of how our hearing works
That’s a point I did not think of. Thank you for the insight. I will be measuring other sets with different tips as I get time and the house doesn’t have my kids running around playing.
How to you volume normalize in rew? I’m new to this and just followed precogs guide and it didn’t mention this. I’m probably surely wrong but, Ithought was where squigs came in partially.
I don’t have coupler, so question of normalisation was based on my expectation that it needs to happen somewhere in the process to make the measurements cross comparable (sometimes I hear people measure aligning against coupler peak at 8kHz for example) Could you send me the link to precog’s guide btw for my inrormation?
Also, my previous post was my guessed ideas on why you may have measured it this way and not the other (which is contradictory to my expectations as well) and not an enlightened knowledge of mine, so I may be absolutely wrong about that
Oh god so would I measure normal and then apply this afterwards? Looks like I got some work to do if this changes things up on how they look in the database.
Appreciate all this information and any further. I’ve got some sets that will be coming my way, in the next few months, from some forum members and don’t want to steer them wrong with measurements. Or for that matter anyone who may stumble upon my database.
May I bother you with one more question in this forum before jumping on the discord? Don’t use discord that much. How would I use rew to find the general decibel of an IEM? I’d like to be able to back my claims of how loud I jam with the decibel and then use that to also compare at that volume to other sets
@pylaczynski not sure if you ended up keeping your VE SIE, but @Tonytex_Teixeira just reviewed it! Sharing the review for anyone else interested in an objective take of VE IEMs (I know, not easy to find online).
I ended up keeping the set. Or rather not selling that
I love to see the graph (which shows I was completely wrong about my out of memory comparison to FF Mini in sub-bass :D)
But from the graph it seem like it very well fits my collection.
Also shoutout to @rattlingblanketwoman - Akros said and graphed how close it is to Penon Serial, check 24+ minutes
I’ll have to watch the video, but in the graph it seems like the warmth goes too far into the mids for me and there’s more treble the my ear usually likes. Not to say it’s guaranteed to sound worse than the Serial to my ear in real life, but gives me room for doubts. Still an interesting set
Edit: why is his squig link so unpopulated when he graphs all the time?
Is this an old/wrong link? Wanted to compare to the OG Fan, which also is too V shaped (especially the high side of the V) for me.
Could you send me the link to precog’s guide btw for my inrormation?
