Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
MEE audio’s R&D wing was very excited to continue pushing innovation forward after their successful flagship Pinnacle P1 IEM. As mentioned on the drop page, MEE was inspired by Planar Magnetic designs but wanted: small size, closed back, light weight. Their design is innovative, using a single, large, ring magnetic field to drive a very wide/flat/circular voice coil. (Most planar drivers use many bar magnets and magnetic fields.) Here’s a simplified cross-sectional diagram:
DROP DETAILS -The drop starts tomorrow, August 15. -Choose dark blue or black, they both have a glossy finish and the faceplates are curved. -Shipping is free within the U.S. and reduced for international buyers. -We will be capturing payments at the end of August to get the production started!
Also, you're probably going to need an amp for these depending on your phone's output impedance and power. These aren't the most sensitive IEMs despite their low impedance. My phone has an output impedance of ~5.6 ohms and can output about ~0.5 to 1 Vrms. These can have a sensitivity down to 88 dB/mW requiring a bit over 2 Vrms to be powered effectively. To my knowledge, the only phone that has that sort of output power is the LGv20/30 and they're right at 2 Vrms. However, anything beyond a cellphone should be able to power these just fine though (i.e. a Macbook).
His target is actually higher (115-118 dB) than what I typically calculate for headroom (110 dB) to ensure the amp isn't clipping at the peaks. A controlled blind test doesn't have anything to do with the basic math in this situation.
Also, to suggest that an individual cannot determine the difference between a cellphone amp and a dedicated amp is just ludicrous. Maybe YOU can't. You also seem to listen at VERY quiet volumes (60-70 dB). That doesn't mean everyone else does. Your S9 is still only outputting between 0.5 and 1 Vrms. That isn't a lot of power by any stretch of the imagination. In the case of your HE-500, I very much doubt your phone is able to supply the requisite amount of current to truly drive those planars and not clip at the peaks.
Either way, these will be harder to drive to loud volumes compared to something like the Pinnacle PX. That was my only point. If you go over to that page, you will see a slew of people stating how "quiet" the PX sounds off their mobile devices by comparison of other IEMs they own. I can say confidently this is something that has been discussed a lot already and many agree that a more powerful amp brings out what the PX can really do. I'm sure the same is going to apply to the Planamic as well going by the numbers as its sensitivity is lower.
What modern phones are "transparent" as you state? I have a hard enough time finding specs even on places like XDA, GSMarena, etc. If you have links I would love to see them. From what I have gathered, the amount of power from phone amps is consistently 0.5 to 1 Vrms. Most Samsung phones hover around 0.5 to 0.7 Vrms and Apple devices are consistently closer to 1 Vrms (https://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review/11). The LG V20/30 are the most powerful phones I am aware of and can go as high as 2 Vrms (https://www.stereophile.com/content/lg-v30-hi-res-smartphone-mqa-specifications).
Even with all of the above being said, a phone can be sufficient at best, but unless it's a low impedance/high sensitivity ear/headphone, an external amp would be recommended in most cases to ensure your gear is adequately being driven. That's the crux of the matter here.
Also, how good is the separation from 1-10?
No worries on your answers, as I've already joined the drop and regardless, I still want to hear for myself!!!
Thanks CEE_TEE!
That said, your calculation there is correct - these headphones are not nearly sensitive enough to be driven by something like Apple's lightning headphone jack which is 1vrms. On a lightning adapter, the max these headphones can do is around 108dB. Compare this to my older SE530s (119 dB/mW, 36ohm impedance) which can easily hit 130dB.
And yes - 108dB IS a lot. Certainly nothing to listen to constantly. But that number being lower means you'll need to keep your amp's volume near the maximum...which isn't really a good idea. You may get clipping/distortion. If you have noise issues, you won't be able to use an inline volume control to try to lower the noise floor like I can do with my SE530s.
You're better served getting a camera kit and a USB amp, or a amp that is MFI certified. Your battery life will suffer, but you'll get better sound...and if you're spending money on a good pair of IEMs, why are you trying to be cheap with your source equipment?