kefine quatio are a good allrounder. great build quality and accessories for the price point as well
otherwise ew300 are the cheaper allrounder i'd go for
"do not give me the depth and personality in music i am looking for" based on this statement hexa's i'd probably avoid for you as they're quite neutral, sounds like you want a more engaging signature
simgot ew300 make for a nice fun allrounder, bonus points for having 2 tuning nozzles as well for some variety
if you can stretch or find a sale then kefine quatio are also very good. fun sound, smooth treble, great technical performance
That was a long yet a very enjoyable read. I also really enjoyed viewing your tons of really nice photos. I have only two of your seven IEMs -- The Quatio and the Unicrom.
My favorite eartips for the Quatio are the SednaEarfit Light even though the Tang Sancai Balanced eartips also are very good. I feel that the SednaEarfit Light eartips tightened up the bass a bit versus the Tang Sancai Balanced eartips even though I do use the Tang Sancai Balanced eartips on many other IEMs.
I really like the Tang Sancai Wide Bore eartips with the Unicrom since these wide bore eartips slightly lowers the sub bass such that the sub bass has a similar intensity as the mid bass for a more natural bass sound. The Unicrom's overall sound signature is very similar to the Truthear Hola. Both of these IEMs have a relaxing overall sound signature since both the Hola and the Unicrom have a slightly relaxed scope for the rise in the simulated pinna gain and since both have a peak which is at 4 kHz instead of 3 kHz. It is so easy for me to relax and chill when listening to the Unicrom, just as I used to do three years ago when I listened to the Hola in the evenings.
It is also really slick that you tested each IEM with six different yet popular eartips.
"Soundstage" is purely subjective, and completely based on your ears and your brain.
You only have one ear drum. All of the interpretations of height, width, and depth, are estimations by your brain, based upon delays, tone shift, doppler effect, etc. etc. hitting your outer ear, having the sound wave augmented, and then finally making its way into your ear drum, where those are "processed" by your brain, and through your brains understanding of learning through early life, you can pinpoint the location.
When you insert an IEM in your ear, NONE of that is happening. You are basically bypassing all of what your brain knows, understands, and interprets as "spatial sound stage", and ignores it.
So, your brain does what it does, and tries to make the best sense of it. And takes the delays in the drivers topology, timing, frequency response, and whatever modalities or resonance it might have in your ear, and tries to interpret that as positional audio. And sometimes, its not always right.
For example, the EW300's dont work in my ears at ALL. They sound like shit, like they have bad ANC enabled, and im missing half the frequencies, and have no depth, or nuance whatsoever.
Most recently, the Kefine Quatio, a set that i really enjoy, gives me a wear sensation that sound is coming from behind and down on certain tones.
Yet other IEMs i have, like my MP145's, give me this massive room sensation where the perceived soundstage is almost too big.
So, keep in mind that anytime anyone is talking about "soundstage" in an IEM, they should really be calling it "Personal Brain Stage", because it is completely individual, and always anecdotal. Sure, there are some constants that can be applied in the areas of psycho acoustics, and certain basic inferences that can be made with 3D mics, but in general...your ear will hear everything differently than everyone else. Its not a "meme" like some ignorant reviewers like to call it, but it is unique to the listener, and cant really be given a broad one size fits most approach to how people will hear it.
What are you using to feed your in ear mix? While I was never personally a fan of the 215s (had them years ago and never really liked them) they should still offer clear enough sound for IEM use for live playing. I’d start by checking EQ on whatever in ear mixer send yall are using.
If someone in the band is using a different IEM see if they’ll let you listen to theirs to compare to your 215s to see if it’s more the mix eq or your iems.
I don’t think it’s an isolation issue. I use stock tips with my iems (Kefine Quatio) and I have plenty of isolation even with a drum shield around the set reflecting everything back at me.
I have defiants and the quatio. Both sound great to my ears with the quatio having an edge. The quatio shell is pretty big though just fyi.
If you plan to eq either way, the hexa is probably the safe pick.
Explorers are solid but the treble is so recessed you may not be able to eq it back in.
Pure is a warmer hexa with more bass and less treble. The shells are bigger though.
If you can stretch just a bit, the Kefine Quatio sounds better than the Defiant to my ears with a similar sound signature. Also, a better tip assortment minus the cheap foam tips included with the Defiant.
The Quatio also has 3 nozzles that would give you some flexibility with the treble signature if it's too harsh or you want more.
If that's too much, the Explorers are commonly referred to as an easy listening IEM with solid bass. Sure the upper treble has less energy, but it is less fatiguing for people with treble sensitivity.
On the note of Defiants, I bought a pair from amazon as well as hifigo and neither had any issues I could find with venting or the DD. It's still early in their life though. I've heard that people with issues have had good success dealing with Hifigo if there was an issue. Just make sure if you use amazon, that hifigo is the seller.
Plenty of stores offer a warranty service. If they’re your preferred tuning, they’re very tough to beat under $150 - $200.
Assuming they work for your ears, the Kefine Quatio is a great alternative
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