Hey,
Just bought a new pair of Inear Stage Diver SD-3 IEM's, InEar Monitoring - Universelles InEar-Monitoring - StageDiver-Serie. They are only for use in my studio which is an overkill I know but being only able to play when the little one is in bed means headphones are a must. I do have a pair off Sennheiser HD650's which are excellent but after 20 minutes, my head gets extremely sweaty cause of the very comfy furry muffs, so I thought I'd try a pair of IEM's.
I chose the Stage diver's because all of the review's I could find said how amazing they were and how they beat the competition hand's down. Thing is I can't tell whether they're faulty, just crap or that it's just me and my inability to distinguish quality. I got the triple driver version which reports to have extremely good bass but to me they sound thin with absolutely no feel to the bottom end. You can hear the bass almost crystal clear but there is certainly no feeling to it. I've a/b them with a cheap pair of skullcandy's I use for work which I know I shouldn't because they are no where near like reference quality but the skullcandy's feel in the bass range is way better, it's like you can almost feel it in your body with them. When listening to fully produced tracks with a LOT of bass, the SD-3's have nothing to offer and are almost uninspiring. When playing guitar through the Axe FX, they feel like 0 bass on my regular high gain preset and I have to turn up the bass levels in a graphic EQ to get any sort of feeling. I've tried them with foam tips too, as with my skullcandy's, the foam tips seem to create a lot more bottom end than the silicone variety but the SD-3's don't sound any different with them.
The SD-3's also seem far too much `in your face', for me. The `soundstage' is amazing but after 5 minutes I struggle to want to listen and and want to pull them out. As I said I have a cheap pair for work which I can wear some day's for up to 6 hours straight and not be bothered so it's not a case off not being used to wear in ear stuff. After a/b ing with my Sennheiser's too, I realise they too don't show a lot off bottom end unless you turn them up, but at least you can listen to them where as the SD-3's are too much in your face to want to listen.
They are exceptionally loud too which is a good thing I suppose but I have to turn everything down by over half and if I forget, it really bloody hurts!
So are the Stage diver's supposed to be like this? I know they are really intended for live use and reference but again from the review's I've read where they have listened to produced tracks, the comments where exceptional and that listening to previous known tunes through them was bringing out qualities of the track not heard before.
Or are they faulty? The SD-3's are supposed to have great bottom end because of the two bass drivers but to me the there is nothing there. And if they are correct then I dread to think how bad the the twin and single driver versions are.
Or more than likely is it me? This is actually how they are and I wouldn't recognise quality if it smacked me in the face, which is what I feel like when using them.
Really appreciate people's input as I cant decide whether to send them back for replacement, a different brand or to simply give them back as they ain't right for me and I should stick with over ears
Cheers and thanks for listening
Just bought a new pair of Inear Stage Diver SD-3 IEM's, InEar Monitoring - Universelles InEar-Monitoring - StageDiver-Serie. They are only for use in my studio which is an overkill I know but being only able to play when the little one is in bed means headphones are a must. I do have a pair off Sennheiser HD650's which are excellent but after 20 minutes, my head gets extremely sweaty cause of the very comfy furry muffs, so I thought I'd try a pair of IEM's.
I chose the Stage diver's because all of the review's I could find said how amazing they were and how they beat the competition hand's down. Thing is I can't tell whether they're faulty, just crap or that it's just me and my inability to distinguish quality. I got the triple driver version which reports to have extremely good bass but to me they sound thin with absolutely no feel to the bottom end. You can hear the bass almost crystal clear but there is certainly no feeling to it. I've a/b them with a cheap pair of skullcandy's I use for work which I know I shouldn't because they are no where near like reference quality but the skullcandy's feel in the bass range is way better, it's like you can almost feel it in your body with them. When listening to fully produced tracks with a LOT of bass, the SD-3's have nothing to offer and are almost uninspiring. When playing guitar through the Axe FX, they feel like 0 bass on my regular high gain preset and I have to turn up the bass levels in a graphic EQ to get any sort of feeling. I've tried them with foam tips too, as with my skullcandy's, the foam tips seem to create a lot more bottom end than the silicone variety but the SD-3's don't sound any different with them.
The SD-3's also seem far too much `in your face', for me. The `soundstage' is amazing but after 5 minutes I struggle to want to listen and and want to pull them out. As I said I have a cheap pair for work which I can wear some day's for up to 6 hours straight and not be bothered so it's not a case off not being used to wear in ear stuff. After a/b ing with my Sennheiser's too, I realise they too don't show a lot off bottom end unless you turn them up, but at least you can listen to them where as the SD-3's are too much in your face to want to listen.
They are exceptionally loud too which is a good thing I suppose but I have to turn everything down by over half and if I forget, it really bloody hurts!
So are the Stage diver's supposed to be like this? I know they are really intended for live use and reference but again from the review's I've read where they have listened to produced tracks, the comments where exceptional and that listening to previous known tunes through them was bringing out qualities of the track not heard before.
Or are they faulty? The SD-3's are supposed to have great bottom end because of the two bass drivers but to me the there is nothing there. And if they are correct then I dread to think how bad the the twin and single driver versions are.
Or more than likely is it me? This is actually how they are and I wouldn't recognise quality if it smacked me in the face, which is what I feel like when using them.
Really appreciate people's input as I cant decide whether to send them back for replacement, a different brand or to simply give them back as they ain't right for me and I should stick with over ears
Cheers and thanks for listening