Sony ex15ap, €9

[syscrusher]

You know these, you’ve maybe owned them or one of their close relatives (EX15LP - no mic or android controls, strictly for losers). According to Amazon they were released in 2014. It’s time to reconsider these endgame-on-a-budget classics.

Why these? Why now?

Well, struck by a sudden anxiety of an hour to kill with no headphones. I noted a nearby Currys store. For non UK/Ireland folks, I guess it’s a bit like Best-Buy or something. Think headphones, TVs, Microwaves, PCs etc. Looking at their range on my phone, and no wanting to drop some stupid money on some Bose TWS or something, I chose these Sony workhorses. I quickly found a frequency response online, and figured I can work with this.

Frequency Response - Measurement's report - Reference Audio Analyzer

Now the only decision I had left to make was which colour!

As blue was inexplicably €1 cheaper than the other colours, my fate was sealed.

The stock sound was, garbage. The kind of garbage you probably haven’t listened to in about 8 years. Imagine a child had been let free to fiddle about with your EQ. Like this, maybe worse. They weren’t overly bassy, but the treble was completely fucked.

I actually managed to get a quick fix, via the Sonarworks SoundID app (detailed elsewhere, I’m not going to get into it here, but try it, it’s cool). Withing 5 minutes, I had a listenable set.

The fit and comfort were both excellent, and they wear over the ear very well. They come with 3 size of silicone tips, but the fitted mediums were perfect on me. Isolation also not bad.

Next step, get them home and figure out a proper EQ (SoundID doesn’t reveal its secrets).

So I took the frequency response online as well as a Optimum HIFI target response (this a target I have some time for). I carefully overlaid them in Powerpoint (pro-move!), and I had a way forward.

My final EQ (for now) is below. What is the result? In my opinion these sound better than the stock tuning of IEMs I’ve spent more than 10 times the amount of money on (FHE I’m looking at you). It’s not even close. They are detailed, musical, natural. I suppose my point is why spend €150 on something badly tuned, when you can spend €9 on something badly tuned?

So if you have a pair of these laying about, or if you fancy dropping €9 on a new set - try the EQ, and let me know your thoughts.

If you really want something bassier, skip the bass low-shelf. But try with shelf first please.

EQ:

PREAMP

Preamp: -10.2 dB

BASS CORRECTION

Filter: ON LSC Fc 250 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 0.5

MID CORRECTION

Filter: ON PK Fc 2000 Hz Gain 3.8 dB Q 1
Filter: ON PK Fc 3000 Hz Gain 0.7 dB Q 6
Filter: ON PK Fc 4000 Hz Gain 0.3 dB Q 4

TREBLE CORRECTION

Filter: ON PK Fc 6000 Hz Gain 2.1 dB Q 5
Filter: ON PK Fc 7000 Hz Gain 1.8 dB Q 5
Filter: ON PK Fc 8500 Hz Gain 5.8 dB Q 2.5
Filter: ON PK Fc 8000 Hz Gain 2 dB Q 5
Filter: ON PK Fc 9000 Hz Gain 2 dB Q 5
Filter: ON PK Fc 10000 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 5

[D1visor]

The stock sound was garbage eh?

Depends what your taste is but EX15AP is very close to Harman. I actually sent a pair of mic-less version to Oratory1990 who measured them link

My only complaint on the stock sound in contrast to more expensive stuff I own is

1. I had to go through 3 sets until I got one with basically perfect channel balance, others were all louder on right side by 2dB which is unacceptable regardless of price.

2. Is mostly the bass, as you can see in the linked measurement and EQ profile, it’s starts sloping up too soon. The other only real issue is the ear canal resonance which means that where he boosted 6.5k (because on the measurements it’s where the EX15 is recessed or starts deviating from the target) I lowered 7k because it was too loud and made things sound metallic.

[syscrusher]

Thanks for that. That is very helpful info.

I’ll see if that makes any changes to my EQ. I don’t particularly like Harman tuning in the first place (but I would describe a Harman sounding iem as ok, not garbage), but if this iem was attempting to make a Harman tuning, then it failed. I gave them to my son also to try, and he also did not like the sound (and thought the EQ was a big improvement). Harsh, metallic and boomy. Take that for what it is worth.

Didn’t notice any channel imbalance. Agree on the bass slope starting too soon.

Not sure if there are disagreements between the two frequency responses. I was comparing to Optimum hifi, which, if I understand correctly agrees with harman in mid and treble. If so it seems on first look there might be some disagreement on FR. I may be overlooking some details at this point, so I will have to dig a little deeper and break out powerpoint again.

Thanks!

[D1visor]

I guess the goal is to play a sinesweep and everything sounding more or less even which is more or less Harman but without the bass shelf which is Optimum Hifi.

[syscrusher]

Yeah I’ll do some sine sweeps later and see if I can make sense

[syscrusher]

So, from the sine sweep. For me it doesn’t quite agree with either FR.

The response is fairly flat from 200 hz to 1k. There is bass rolloff below 200hz. Although it’s not terrible. I get a small climb between 1 and 2k. Another small climb from 3-4. Don’t notice much change from 4-6. A lot of energy from 6.5k-7. and resonance peak about 8k. As I’ve EQ’d up significantly in that area, I can’t understand why it’s not blowing my head off. Rolls off rapidly at 10k.

edit removed misleading sketch

[D1visor]

I guess we have a different IEM then.

My EX15 is a bit quiet at 20hz but then gets quite loud around 150hz (70-300hz let’s say) and then mostly flat till 6-7k where it spikes and then another spike at 10 but I assume that’s ear canal resonance.

You can also try pink noise (which is supposed to sound more-or-less even across the fr and EX sounds boomy with some “ssssss” sound (prob 7k since if i lower that, it disappears) in the background.

If HT is based on a mix of putting a dummy with mics inside a head, ears, arms and torso in a normal listening room + testing with listeners and finding an average then it should sound fairly natural and so if you look at EX15, the only thing really standing out is elevated mid-bass and if I do pink noise and EQ down just that, it already sounds quite even.