As I promised Arjay, I’m posting a blog entry of the story behind my new headphones. But first, let me give a brief “history” of my life and pricey headphones so that readers can make more sense out of this entry.[2]: http://www.nargalzius.com/blog/archives/2005/07/2005_07_01_2103.php “view post”

Preamble

Basically, I’m an audio fanatic. I hesitate to call myself an audiophile because such a title [usually] demands a much more anal dedication to everything audio. But for the most part, you can say I enjoy and love audio to an extent that I do put serious thought to it, and invest in it whenever I can.

The iPod phonomena has been going strong ever since it started. As a result, it has become very trivial for people to immerse themselves in music. Listening to music this day and age, is akin to using cellular phones [I guess].

But what a lot of people don’t realize is that the music they’re listening to through their regular speakers, or stock white [iPod] earbuds really don’t do justice to the actual source material. It may also be a factor of their ears not being trained to notice the difference, lossy compression, or even the simple fact that they don’t care (perhaps they have better things to do, which is perfectly fair).

THEN

I’m obviously not one of those people, and the first time I [invested in decent IEMs][2] ¹ In Ear Monitors. Not to be confused with regular earbuds. IEMs are are also known as “canalphones,” because they literally are inserted into your ear canal (which can be quite uncomfortable for new-timers) was when I purchased my FutureSonics EM3 for $100, pretty pricey since most “normal” people already consider $20 as expensive for any type of earphone.

I eventually noticed the EM3’s limitations and ended up going to the next level when I got myself Etymotic Research ER-4Ps for about $300. A huge jump in price, but of course to my ears, it was worth every penny.

NOW

To cut a long story short, the Etys (the ER-4Ps) got damaged, and I had to send it back to the USA. And I had to revert back to my EM3s as backup. I figured it would take a long time for the Etys to be fixed, let alone how to even get it back to the country once it’s fixed. And I didn’t want my ears to get used to the EM3s because while they are fun to listen with, they’re kinda bass-heavy, which again is fun, but not accurate.

Anyways, a friend’s relative was coming home for the holidays and I thought I might as well buy myself a new, better, pair of IEMs. After all, it’s been two and a half-years; surely audio has progressed since then. Sure enough, I found myself going up a notch yet again to the $500 range of IEMs. And the two top contenders were the Shure SE530 and the Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi Pro

A lot of reviews said that either of the two would be a good choice (but more were partial to the Shures), but ultimatley it would be a subjective decision… and after factoring all the issues I could think of that applied to how I listen to my music, I decided to get the Triple-Fis

Now my headphones are actually M-Audio IE40s, which are rebranded Triple-Fis. Suffice to say I chose the M-Audio version because they were the only Triple-Fis that came in black and chrome.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT?

1. Triple-drivers. My EM3 and ER-4Ps (and most if not all regular earbuds) are single driver headphones. Since 2½ years have passed, I actually skipped the whole “dual-driver” phase of IEMs. Triple driver is exactly as it states, you’ve got 3 separate drivers that produce your highs, mids, and lows ² Technically speaking, it’s 1 driver for highs and two low drivers. If I’m not mistaken Westone is coming out with three-way drivers, which is basically the same, only they claim that the three channels are true high, MID, and low… I have yet to hear if it will really make a difference. So you get excellent bass response while being able to maintain clarity. Honestly if you ask me, given the TYPE of earphones these are, dual-drivers might already be enough… but I’m not complaining. The more the merrier 😉
2. User-replaceable cable This is one of the major reasons I chose this over the more [publicly] popular Shures. Given the experience I just had with my Etys, the option of just buying the cable, and replacing the damaged one is a god-send. Let’s face it, these types of IEMs are built like rocks; they’re basically components encased in solid slabs of hard plastic. So short of CRUSHING them with a hammer, you’d have a difficult time accidentally “destroying” them. The cables on the other hand have always been a problem for any type of headphone.
3. More resolution During it’s time, the ER-4Ps were vaunted as king of the mids and highs, which is why a lot of engineers liked to mix with them. And until now, they still have a place as far as “respectable” IEM models go (a lot still prefer them over the over-bassy dual-driver models from other brands). The Triple-Fis however, just like the SE530s, are the cream of the crop at that price-point, so there’s no question that they’re better.
4. Sexy If you have seen the track record of my previous IEMs, they all look like shit. This is probably the first set of IEMs I had that actually looked quite stylish (the Shures look even better, but these still look good nonetheless). I guess the Apple user in me shines through here, can you blame me?

So there you go, the story behind my new earphones 🙂

Oh and the ER-4Ps have returned as well, they replaced them entirely with their newer design which is now all black (as against the red, blue, and green) of the older version. I have to say Etymotic Research has excellent customer support. Those phones were out of warranty and everyone knew that. But they replaced and returned it free of charge!

Suffice to say, my ears are so spoiled at this juncture. I literally can’t stand listening to music with plain earphones. Trust me, if you experience really good earphones (doesn’t even have to be IEMs, they could be buds or cans as well) you’d feel the same way.

The only question now is if I’ll ever consider going up to the $1k line of IEMs… only time will tell.