I’ve been an audiophile for a long time, back to the reel-to-reel days, and recently decided to upgrade to a modern pair of headphones, went with the Edifier Stax Spirit S5, which are fabulous, and I got them pretty cheap from what I believe was a reviewer. Been using them for about 6 months, and had been listening to all the chatter about IEMs, and although I had a pair of Apple AIrpod Pro (1st gen) don’t really consider them worthy of the audiophile title. My main source is an Android phone (S23 Ultra) although I also use a laptop on occasion. I try to use LDAC when I can, and got Alternative A2DP for the laptop, but the Android supports LDAC and APT-X as does the Edifiers.
So I decided to take the plunge and see if a wired pair of IEMs would be a huge upgrade to what I use. I settled on the ARTTI T10 Pro, which are dual sided planare and I had high hopes for. I had an Apple dongle that I had for a while to connect them to my phone since it doesn’t have audio out (should have kept my S20 Ultra).
Anyway, on first listen I was floored. Almost inaudible even on top volume, tinny sound with little base, they sounded HORRIBLE! Now I had read about Android having some DSP issues with the Apple Dongle and after some research decided that USB Audio Player Pro would do some magic to get around this and get more reasonable performance. Indeed it did help a lot but this was nowhere near the performance level I was expecting.
I tried hooking the IEMs to my laptop and there was an improvement but still no where near what I get from my Edifiers. I don’t know enough about what to expect but I’d think piping the sound directly into my ear holes would be better than this.
So to you my more experienced brethren, what the heck am I doing wrong? The specs say this is a 16.5 ohm IEM, so they should be easy to drive.
Please, keep responses to helpful information, not criticisms of my particular choices.
Make sure the ear tips fit securely. Try to use the biggest tip as a test, that should ensure a good seal (but might not be comfortable, it’s just for testing) and if it sounds louder/more bassy then the tips you’re currently using aren’t sealing properly.
The apple dongle might not have enough power for the volume you want. If the laptop sounds louder then that’s probably the issue. Get a small dac/amp and that’ll probably help. Reddit - Dive into anything
Thanks, yes, the laptop definitely can drive them, but they still sound really out of tune, quite tinny. I’ll play with the tips, I’m using the ones with the largest holes and large size (what I use on my Apple Airpod Pros). This is sounding transistor radio bad. I really don’t think it’s the IEMs though, as they are planar and sound it coming out, it just sounds BAD.
On both laptop and Apple Dongle? Could be an issue with the 3.5mm plug as well if that’s the case. As bad as an ill fitting and under powered IEM could sound, it shouldn’t be down at transistor radio level bad.
Have you checked its FR? Always consider that this may sound bad to you out of the box, though.
Anyway, welcome to the rabbit hole, by the way. At some point you shouild probably get a “fancier Apple dongle”. E.g.: FiiO KA11 or some other product of your choice.
I like to think I did my research before buying. Watched several reviews, looked at the Squigs and all. These may not be for me or maybe I need to start looking at EQ
Oh, tried several tips with no appreciable difference.
There are many more nuances involved, so that only experimentation (with other IEMs) may give you these answers. Not to mention it took me a while to find out that most reviewers out there are actually treble-heads. Are you positive that your preferences align with theirs, for instance?
Sadly, there are no shortcuts on this game. Although there may be luck involved sometimes.
Looking at graphs, the Edifier Stax have a decent amount of mid bass and sub bass, so it could be that’s a sound you’re used to and like. The iems don’t seem to have as much bass, so I could see why it’d be lacking in bass in comparison.
If that’s the case it’s unlikely a dac amp will solve your issues.
If you don’t mind could you run a 1000-20000hz 20 seconds sweep http://owliophile.com/ and note if there are some frequencies that are especially loud or quiet? You could also use the single tone feature and manually drag the tone on the graph then use the colored marker tools to note the tones as well.
I suspect there’s not only a lot of treble energy in general, but also a few troublesome peaks that you’re hearing.
I tried the web site scan and 4k or so is very loud, not uncomfortable but louder than the rest.
I bought a Fiio BTR15 DAC/AMP and it sounds the same. Horrible. I compared them with my Edifiers and also my Airpods and there is no comparison.
Tried different tips, no appreciable difference, although i notice if i cup my hands over my ears there is a noticeable bass boost. Its still nowhere near the Airpods, not even close.
I guess ill send them back and go back to my Airpods, which i rarely use but sound great compared to the T10 Pros.
