The cheapest IEM to date....

[aaron-xp 0]

Wow, based on this, the UM-1 is the most "value for money" IEMs, being in two categories, one of which is above its actual price range.

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

S$351-S$500 -> Westone UM1 or Shure E4c <--- You mean UM2 or E4c?

 

[xllms 0]

S$351-S$500 -> Westone UM1 or Shure E4c <--- You mean UM2 or E4c?

oh ya...supposed to be UM2 and E4C...paiseh!

[Zephyron 0]

Partially reviving the ATH-CK32 - It now has bass recovery:

 

Well, my itchy fingers made me do something to the ATH-CK32 in hopes to make it worthwhile.

 

I took off its paper filter and wanted to place in some sort of 'buffer' in order to buffer the sound produced from its drivers, but I ran out of cotton, so I decided to use paper instead.

 

Bass did come out, but it still kind of lacks extension. The treble suffered a little bit more though, and feels muddier (though not as muddy as my EX71, suprisingly) but I attribute that to the 'funneling' of the paper, and I believe either cotton or sponge should have done better. The extreme high still rollsoff to my ears. On my Creative MuVo TXFM, to balance out the sound, I turned up the leftmost EQ band (62Hz) up one notch and the 16kHz band up 3 notches.

 

Do note that the pics below are the bad examples, I removed the badly folded paper from this one and placed in a more rounded out version later on.

 

PS: Sorry for the poor quality pictures, I only had my handphone camera available then.

 

Step 1: Take out that filter (It wasn't simply paper apparently. Its some sort of meshed texture speical paper thing)

 

Step 2: Get the paper ready

 

Step 3: Roll em up (into a tube/funnel) and fire in the hole!

 

Step 4: Place that filter meshy thingy back on

Edited April 30, 2006 by Zephyron

[Zephyron 0]

Update on ATH-CK32 mod. I took out the paper and ripped some cottom out of a cotton swab/earcleaning stick, and rolled it into a small, low density cottom ball and stuffed in into the ATH-CK32's funnel. All it all, its not bad. The bass rolloff is now not all that severe, should be acceptable to a certain standard, and bass extension rolloff seems to take place somewhere earlier in the sound spectrum graph, which is a good thing, although it still can be felt and is audible. The harsh mids have supposedly been buffered by the cotton swabs and are not as bad as they were before. The highs seem largely unaffected, the rolloff is still there, starting from about 12kHz or so from what I observed in Foobar2k's spectrum analyzer and Audacity's tone generator.

 

Finally can be considered a minor upgrade in terms of sound over stock buds (compared to my iAudio U3 stock buds and my almost 2 year old Creative MuVo TX FM stock buds that is), and the isolation is pretty good.

 

[heady 0]

Zep, I salute your dedication to tweaking out the max in sound for as little as possible. You have the true DIY spirit!

[Zephyron 0]

^

Thanks man, but this was written for those who bought the ATH-CK32 already. I still recommend against getting one actually, sound wise, its barely better than my brother's Creative EP480 stock earbuds, the good things are the isolation and design.

[theory_87 0]

emm.. i'll try the same mod on my EX71 since i purposely took out the paper filter to c how it sound...

[DiGdUb 0]

well, took my ck32 to listen again today. for some reason, they sound better now. mids are good, highs sounds processed and unrefined, bass seems to be extended now, but not very low. for $30, i can recommend them.

[Zephyron 0]

I'm shocked o.O

 

Will borrow my brother's modded pair for a listen later.

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

well, took my ck32 to listen again today. for some reason, they sound better now. mids are good, highs sounds processed and unrefined, bass seems to be extended now, but not very low. for $30, i can recommend them.

Next you post the Cresyn sound even better than before and Zep would have to buy another Cresyn.

[Zephyron 0]

*lol* No lah, I still remember the Cresyn sound signature rather clearly. With over 200 hours of burn-in back then, it sounds nice but can get congested on heavy rock songs and varying instrumental songs =)

[Tetsusaiga 0]

can someone please explain to me what it means when it says that the bass is extended??

[heady 0]

can someone please explain to me what it means when it says that the bass is extended??

First you must go to a live concert, preferably acoustic jazz where they have a double bass. When the double bass is played, you FEEL the bass more than you hear it. Now if a headphone can replicate that..... it's got extended bass alright! Of course physics will tell you that tiny little driver in the headphone can't produce such low notes but you will think you heard them.

 

HTH.

[Tetsusaiga 0]

Thanks heady.. yet a bit more of audiophile speak added.. mm.. since we are on the topic, what do they mena when they say like the highs are rolled off??