Audio Nirvana - Aurvana

Finally settled on the most optimum tuning of my audio gears. For anybody who are buying some of the gears mentioned below, here are some suggestions on the (IMHO) sweetest sound configuration (sound accuracy aside).

Sennheiser IE8

The IE8 has the Sennheiser slightly dark-sounding “signature house sound”. In terms of balancing, the mid-highs are just nice, the mid-lows are slightly too much, lows are nice, highs is slightly weak.

This makes the IE8 more suitable towards brighter sources. For PCs, you can tweak the equalizer – boosting the highs slightly (ramp), reducing mid-lows a bit to remove the dark signature and add a bit of sparkling to the highs.

My configuration – bass dial set to highest (I had no choice, hardware failure). iPod Touch (generally bass shy source) EQ set to Treble Booster. Satisfied with the output.

 

Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro

The TF10s, in general has a coloring in the mids and weak bass.

However, the imbalances can be corrected with equalizing without producing artifacts, this makes the TF10s suitable for sources with a fully adjustable equalizer (e.g. PCs). All you need to do is add a ramp to the lows (starting from the mid-lows). Lower the mid-highs a bit. Boost the 4kHz and 16kHz, 8kHz slightly higher than the previous two.

I paired mine with Creative X-Fi GO! with the following settings.

Westone 3

Westone 3 is the brightest-sounding earphone among the 3 shown here. The mid-highs, when paired with a wrong source, can be very tiring to the ears. The lows are a bit too tight (less body) for my taste, however it is capable of extending the lowest, at the same time the highs of the W3 are the most refined and detailed in the pack.

This makes W3 difficult to be paired with the iPod Touch (bright source with no detailed EQ settings to match) as-is – bass booster came close, but produces nasty artifacts, render it unsuitable for practical use.

Pairing W3 with a balanced source is satisfactory without any EQing. If you want the bass to have more body (like me), you can ramp the mid-low section a bit.

I paired it with a Sony home theatre amplifier my game console with the in-line attenuator directly. The Sony home theatre amplifier, when using analog source, is too bright, missing some key details (such as echo of voices), (seems like I’ve forgotten the decade-old equalizer setting still saved inside the amplifier).

Though, I’ve yet to test the amplifier with a Toslink (digital optical) source.

I have no complaints on this pair. No equalization involved. :D