This has gone a little quiet, so I’ll bump it with my impressions.
The Tapes are definitely worth having and complement the P1’s where they are weakest.
Tin P1’s are my current favourite earphones, as they remind me of my beloved albeit very old and dilapidated Grado Sr60’s. They just do guitar and vocals so well it’s the perfect match for a sizeable portion of music I listen to. Steely Dan through Sonic Youth. I’m running them off the Hiby R5 balanced after the Fiio M9 got part of the way there, but not all the way!
On the other hand the Shuoer Tapes fill in for the rest of it. All the electronica and stuff that needs more bass or lots of detail in the treble. Caribou and Four Tet for example. I’m running them balanced off of the Fiio M9 and I reckon the balance boost makes them sound a bit better, although everything I’ve read has said they don’t need much power to get the best out of them.
I have a pair of Jubilees that are now gathering dust. Shame.
@leafmulch I have the Tape and Jubilee too, have you eq’ed and felt modded the 58x? There’s two eq set available, the oratory and I forgot the other one. I’m using the other one and the sound is nice enough to make me stop looking at other headphone.
I’ve never gone down the modding route and I’m using streaming services, currently Amazon HD, so can’t EQ. When I’ve EQ’d local files I’ve never felt that it sounded natural, like the EQ sounded artificial, but I’m very inexperienced in that area. I don’t have an external physical EQ, but I’m assuming that’s not what you meant.
I’ve tried MSEB on the Hiby R5 and it sounds okay, but I’m not entirely convinced.
I’ll be honest though, you’ll never make the 58X sound remotely like a grado and I’m sure I prefer the P1 over anything in its price range. But I’ll use this as motivation to listen to the jubilees some more tomorrow. Thanks.
I see, If you use neutron Player, their parametric equalizer is da bomb. I would never use graphic equalizer due to the lack of accuracy, but with param eq I really have no regrets. It changed M50x to a very smooth harman like sound with a deep bass for example.
Felt Mod is the other thing I recommend because it is reversible. It’s easy to apply and remove. Just check the DIYaudioheaven website. I still remember the stock 58x sounds quite compressed and a bit too dark for me. If you like the sound with the foam off, the felt mod is a good middle ground. It still can protect dust from entering.
This is my setting for 58x on peace equalizer. It’s not the oratory1990, I forgot where I found it but for me it sounded the best. You could try remove the foam and use this eq on your desktop setup. No harm to try right
Ive bought the tapes on Amazon a few weeks ago without really reading anything about them. Since I have the Koss Esp95x estat I was curious how they are for just 100€. It’s the second iem I have tried, the only other one was the Fiio FH5, which I didn’t like so much. They sounded good, but they were too much in my head in a way. I really enjoy the tapes so far. They feel way less in my head I think( if I remember right).Noticed the little shouty vocals, but besides that, I think they sound really really good. Comfort is not really an issue now, I can use them with the stock tips. I have read the thread 3 times now, but I always forget - If I want to get other tips to try, which are the tips to go? Since I never tried aftermarket tips till now, I want to!
Hey you don’t burst my bubble because I wasn’t even sure if there is actually an estat driver in there, especially for the price. Haven’t really done any research about the driver technologies in there. Thanks for the heads up! I will try the eq preset and look after the tips !
Isn’t the problem with actual estat that it needs the special energizer for the super high voltages to work…so would it even be possible to have an estat iem without energizer? Don’t know if it would be possible to build such a small energizer and place it inside the iem…whatever, just basic thoughts
Yeah, hopefully give it a year and the prices should go down. Because iems with those drivers are so extremely expensive.
Then there is Piezoelectric drivers that is kinda similar to electrostats. LZ A6, BQYEZ Spring 1 are examples of iems with it. Personally the A6 is my favorit iem out of like 38 ,those drivers are also very good.
self plugging my own database.
Oh thats a sick list! I will keep that. I thought I would never get into IEMs but I think I was probably wrong with that kinda Interested in the crazy ones now but I have to keep my money together. The tapes make me happy for now. Tomorrow I will try the eq settings I think.
I’m just listening to them for about 2,5 hours and the sibilance feels definetly less annoying. But I have to say, some tracks sound absolutely horrible, don’t know why. Probably because bad quality files or so. Probably just tracks I don’t like anymore .
IF they are bad mastered or just bad bitrate that might be the issue or that the song is very bright and the peak at 3,5khz makes your ears bleed lol.
If the EQ preset helps then you know the answer. Seriously the driver in the tape has so much potential, cant believe that shuoer still hasnt released the tape 2 or pro…
So im testing Oratory1990 EQ settings on the tapes right now. They are awesome! Honestly. Applied them to the Koss ESP95/X , the LCD2C and the HD6XX for testing.
Damn. The Koss sounds amazing - Had an outburst of emotion, listening to my favourite track from Heilung. I couldnt stop laughing for 10 minutes coz i felt so happy! The LCD2C sounds amazing. Its a bit like listeing to different headphones - headphones that are fucking great
On the Sennheiser…im not sure. It sounds very good, but im not sure if i can EQ my beloved 6XX.
Im really impressed. EQ done right. I have messed with equalizer APO when i started getting into audio but i ditched it because i couldnt really get something to sound right. It always felt like im destroying the sound. But with real knowleedge and mesurements etc its a different story i see
No problem bro, I felt the same about EQ for the last 2 years I “officially” been in chi-fi. I used to use EQ for my old Xiaomi Piston/hybrids (didnt even know they were chi-fi back then lol) but I didnt know the “proper” way of using it and just boosted the bass and treble so all my already v-shaped stuff became even more v-shaped lol.
- If I want to get other tips to try, which are the tips to go? Since I never tried aftermarket tips till now, I want to!
!
kinda Interested in the crazy ones now but I have to keep my money together. The tapes make me happy for now. Tomorrow I will try the eq settings I think.
I’m getting used to seeing these prices everywhere lol.