Hitting the Balance Point…
Which one? As many as possible!Happy Path: My personal history is that I rediscovered headphone listening in 2009, organized local meets, became the Ultimate Ears Ambassador to Head-Fi.org for a time, and now I get to work with audiophile gear every day at Massdrop.
Not-Very-Audiophile Confession: What led me to Head-fi.org was spotting a cool-looking pair of shiny headphones on someone at an airport in Japan and wanting to buy a pair.
I never did find out what that exact pair of headphones was, but I did find a great new headphone. My next super audiophile move was to…buy some HiFiMAN RE-0 in-ear monitors. Loved them but yanked too hard on the cable and lost the left channel. Shopping around for a replacement, I decided to try for extra bass since some people thought the RE-0 were a bit “bass-light”. (Bass insecurity is a thing.) I proceeded to overdo it by buying the Sennheiser IE8 (clublife) and then vowed to go for a neutral monitor. Not too bright, not too bassy, can I find “just right”???
Everyone who knows me in the community knows that I am a big Ultimate Ears Reference Monitor (UERM) fan. I got one of the first pairs as soon as they released and still love them to this day. Many of us think that sound signature is one of the very best and if you had to choose just one headphone or IEM, that would easily be a top 5 pick. The UERM signature plus some sub-bass is fairly viewed as a vision for the “perfect” reference monitor. But would that be the “perfect listening monitor” for most people? Many of us UERM owners have the desire for a complimentary IEM. One that is a bit more lush in the low end in addition to extending lower.
We started this project with the goal of making the perfect reference monitor. We started with a base tuning similar to the Etymotic ER4SR and Ultimate Ears Reference Monitor. Then we looked to add the sub-bass extension. And we really wanted to keep the price to $299.99 so it would be affordable to more people. After a year and a half of experimenting, we got to the point where we achieved elevated but flat bass from the upper bass to the sub-bass with a very clear, flat, and connected midrange (except for a nice little dip in the annoying sibilance region and an extra bump in the presence region to balance the bass).
We’re all at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in Colorado right now, where Jude Mansilla from Head-fi.org has organized a big CanJam event. As soon as possible, we’ll get some graphs up on the page. The graphs will show elements of today’s best monitors in the Plus frequency response and the sound has been subjectively described as very musical, clear and fun, with no annoying peaks. It’s a lot of sound, but I can turn ‘em up and not get fatigued. There’s rumble while watching movies but super clear dialog.
This balance of driver characteristics, price, performance, technicalities, flat response, fun sound, and frequency range extension made us freeze this design. If you HAD to only pick one in-ear monitor or headphone, we hope this would be in your top picks…at any price.
CEE_TEEWill you have review units to lend out to people? I would love to do a write up on them to share with Head-fi and Reddit. Some headphones/IEMs I've written about in the past are the JH Audio Lola, MrSpeakers Aeon Closed-Back, and Monoprice Monolith M300.
CEE_TEEI didn't see you today unfortunately. I'll try again tomorrow. One last question... is there going to be a significant lead time on these? Or will they start shipping soon after they drop?
TheOmegaCarrotI've got one more set that people have asked me to send off to @Crinacle on Head-Fi for measurements.
Jude Mansilla will also be taking some measurements after they recover from organizing CanJam at RMAF.
We'll add Jude's graphs and some review links to the page soon.
I'll see if we can get any more units circulating.
There are a couple more reviews on the way, one person was busy attending RMAF and another had his pair stuck in customs...
CEE_TEEYou guys have basically come up with everything I've ever wanted in an IEM.
DF compensated? Check.
Linear bass? Check.
Flush fit with detachable over-ear cables? Check.
It's almost as if I designed this for myself. I've been wondering why such an IEM didn't exist already.
Thank you so much for investing the time and effort into making this happen. I'm sure they'll be a great set of IEMs for a very long time.
CEE_TEESo these are very close to ER4XR in a more ergonomic, over ear style and 3armature instead of 1? Asking as someone who has er4xr and doesn't want to buy another similar iem at similar price point
CEE_TEEI am really, really tempted to get these, but pardon my enquiries as i'm coming from a Shure universal IEM: might you be offering these with MMCX connectors? Also, how durable would these IEMs be - are they able to handle the occasional drop from table height... -ish? No, i won't be putting their durability to test under a sledgehammer... or worse LOL!
StephenI was't a fan of the AAW Capri DAC lightning cable I got from IndieGoGo... It has quite a bit of noise which is pretty audible if you listen at low volumes. Granted I only tested them with my HiFiMan RE1000. That feedback was quite annoying. At the same time, the Audeze Cipher cable also had a little noise as well, but not as much as the Capri.
The housing of this IEM (from the pictures) has the same notch that my HiFiMans do, so I'd assume that the cable should work, but don't quote me on that.
CEE_TEEThank you for your reply, CEE_TEE.
One more issue with regard to warranty. I understand that there is a one-year warranty period. If very unfortunately my Plus runs into some issues, can it be repaired? Should I expect a somewhat higher labour/parts cost as these are mass produced?
tinyman392I haven't heard the TF10 but according to Tyll's measurements, they're pretty much flat with a broad midbass boost and no DF compensation. The lack of a DF upper mid boost could make them sound V-shaped in comparison.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/UETF10.pdf
tinyman392Yes, that's the compensated measurement, which expects a boost in that range. My "mostly flat" comment refers to the raw measurements. Many popular IEMs are tuned this way, including the CA Andromeda. Not saying one is necessarily better than the other, as it mostly comes down to preference.
Fully agree that the Massdrop Plus will sound quite different from the TF10.
onlysoaaThere is a reason why the compensation is applied... Without compensation, the Massdrop IEMs will have a pretty large 5-10 dB spike in the 2k range... Same for many IEMs that have the neutral FR aim. I think Tyll wants to start using the OW-curve for compensating which expects a slight boost in the bass and sub-bass.
tinyman392Yes of course, I guess I've just gotten used to looking at uncompensated measurements on sites like SBAF. I prefer those since everyone doing measurements applies a slightly different curve.
I don't think Tyll is going to use OW though. Didn't he make a big post about a new curve recently? There was some controversy over his choice to not compensate the bass region at all.
onlysoaaI'm comparing the before and afters of the headphone measurements he gave. I'm only looking at compensated curves and comparing the compensated curves. I'm ignoring the raw measurements for the most part. To be perfectly honest, it would be easier to compare the two if they were plotted one on top of another.
The new compensation looks like it creates an increase in "perceived" upper midrange and treble regions. In other words, instead of adjusting the bass, he decided to adjust both the treble and midrange. The new compensation essentially requires that headphones don't need to produce as much midrange and treble to be considered "neutral". Think of it this way, if I wanted to EQ the bass, I have two choices, adjust he bass by itself or adjust both the treble and the midrange. I can EQ the bass up, but I can also get a similar outcome if I adjust both the midrange and treble down. He's decided to do the latter rather than the former.
tinyman392Ok good. I loved my TF10s but sometimes I feel like needing more body in middle and also some more punch on the low bass side but I dont like the boomy sound of Beats and other "premium" overpriced junk
A year ago I tried Westone UM 30pro. It had what I was looking in bass and middle but was missing details in the high frequencies compared to my TF10s
So do I think this massdrop plus is maybe what I am looking for.
CEE_TEEkhoi.fish And if the Lightning cable comes later:
- will it be available a a separate (stand-along) purchase
- or better to cancel the current order and wait for the next release with the LC?
CEE_TEENice! I'll be in on this if you end up coming out with a lightning cable that has great audio performance, a mic for calls and controls. I'm not into dongles for audio and I need to be able to make calls with any headphone I buy. These are at the top of my wish list if this all happens.
CEE_TEEI'll be in on this if the drop is reopened by Christmas but I guess that won't happen. Hate the fact that I actually missed it. If it's good I could have had a rave about it, if it's bad I'll have a lot of rant material with hifi friends.
CEE_TEEHi ,
Just curious what the THD graphs say about this product? It seems odd-ish, that the THD plot mimics the freq response curve? While the compared products seem to have lower distortion through the mids on up? Just wondering what affect this has on listening, and what helps to keep this lower? like shell material, or mountings, or?
Thanks :)
CEE_TEESo my Shure SE215 IEMs just died today and I've been waiting on this to redrop for a while now, but it's been listed as:
"This item is in stock and will ship in 2–3 business days with standard shipping [...] The drop will launch and end each day to collect purchases." - for a while now and at this point a redrop seems unlikely or quite far away, timewise. I'd obviously prefer to hold out for a redrop, but going on without IEMs is a b****. Any news on a redrop or should I just cop some new beater Shure's?
CEE_TEEHey @CEE_TEE, I already got a pair of these on the first drop (awesome job), but can you share with us if you guys are currently developing anything else? Not asking specifics....
CEE_TEEI just joined the drop last night and the order is about to ship. The balanced cable was sold out and was a really good price. Will I be able to purchase that in the near future separately?
CEE_TEEIs it normal for the shells to crack easily? I recently discovered a crack near the nozzle area of the left earpiece extending to around 3/5 of the iem. I've had cheapo iems (KZ ZS3, for example) before and they never cracked like this, I definitely babied them way less than these too. I also heard a popping sound from the same earpiece when I ran it through a bass sweep, dunno if related.
I've contacted customer support a few days ago. I hope there's something they can do for my case. I'm fine with the cable dying early (just got in on the Massdrop x Mee balanced cable drop) but I've never had an earpiece crack on me.
CEE_TEEDo you have any advice for how to get one of these repaired? One of mine had an unfortunate run in with the pavement but just the casing is cracked and the port damaged (the drivers inside are all fine). Seeing as I can't exactly just buy a new one I really want to pay to have it repaired, so any suggestions you have on that would be quite helpful
mwilderHey mwilder,
At this time, we don't have a way to repair broken shells. I'll have to check and see if this is possible in the future but we don't have a way to do this right now...sorry to hear about the issue!
MangoTreeIt trumps the UE900s in pretty much every way.
IMO UE900/s really hasn't been competitive for a pretty long time. I suppose if you can get it for like <$200 it's ok. It also had a fair amount of build quality issues.
I have not directly compared the MD+ to UE900/S but I'd pick the MD+ over a lot of IEMs that I picked over UE900 before (think Westones, older hybrids like Dunu/Fidue). I also remember that the UEs had recessed upper mids, opposite of the MD+ so that might be good or bad depending on your preference.
CEE_TEEWill there be more of these made? These have been my favorite iems for almost two years, and the housing on the left side just cracked open like a damn egg :(