SoundMagic PL-50

cajl · **Posted:** Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:36 pm

ok i buy !

Mr. Dj M. · **Posted:** Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:42 am

ClieOS, would you say I prefer this one over the Fischer Audio Eterna in sounddignature?
I saw you gave that last one a really good review and a better grade than de Pl-50s talking about the soundquality. But indeed they can't be found unless you maybe live in Russia...
(I sended the guys from the company an e-mail)

The fact that I'm going to look for better headphones is actually the fact that my Teacs do have sibilance issues you can get rid off with Eq'ing but not completely and with some vocals you defenately hear that and you get sharp tones. I acctually thought it was the casing, so a few days ago I took the risk and started to remove the stuff in front of the wholes that let the sound flow (one is the air-in other air-out port), you see a small peace of foam! Taken that out the sibilance is even worser and the peaces of foam are almost crittical to even produce a normal sound. Without them the frequenties in a weither range around the 2kHz (+/- 1-6kHz) are all sharp. With them it's limited to a small range around 2kHz and other types of foam doesn't make this better, all the foam stuff I've tried didn't made the sound any better. So don't lose it....
Also the cracking sound on some bass tones on higher vollumes, that was part of the air-in whole that was to small, made it slightly larger but it doesn't solve everything. Maybe it's also a casing problem of the drivers themselve and is the casing to small or the air-out whole to small. I can't do anything about that or I will distroy the whole thing, but at least it's better now.

Okea owning the Teacs now for a while I'm wanting something better and I won't want to live anymore with the sibilance issue. Importand for me also is that the earphones doesn't crack when puting them in. Something you have with lots of headphones such as the CX300s but also with the Betas for example. It's because of the pressure that you sett on the driver and the fact there's no airwhol to the back of the drivers with these headphones. So I do want that with my new pair (I don't know if that's needed with a balanced armature?) as it probably will causes damage over time, something I had with my first pair of CX300s (the blow or suck thing didn't do anything).

ClieOS · **Posted:** Sat Nov 07, 2009 4:46 pm

Mr. Dj M. wrote:

ClieOS, would you say I prefer this one over the Fischer Audio Eterna in sounddignature?....

I can't say for sure whether you will like the sound signature. If anyone, you probably is the best person to answer that question. Eterna is a very fun, musical sounding IEM that might not be for everyone, even if you can get one easily. PL-50 on the other is more 'polite' when it comes to sound signature - some might find it not enough on the bass or treble department, but I doubt anyone will hate it. It has what I would call a 'popular' sound signature. As for the the 'cracking' sound on insertion, that is mainly a problem of dynamic transducer. Balanced armature (BA) transducer doesn't suffer from it (and PL-50 is BA based, FYI).

On side note, foam or filter in the nozzle (or in front of the driver) are there to provide the acoustic impedance, generally to cut down treble and increase warmness (bass and mid). Sibilance is mainly a transducer (frequency response) problem, not a housing problem. It is the result of peak(s) around the 2kHz~8kHz range that cause the sharp S~~ sound. That is where manufacturer put in foam or filter to cut down sibilance as high frequency is easier to absorb than low frequency sound. If you hate sibilance, avoiding an IEM with known sibilance issue is easier than trying to cure one with such an issue.

Mr. Dj M. · **Posted:** Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:08 pm

ClieOS wrote:

Mr. Dj M. wrote:

ClieOS, would you say I prefer this one over the Fischer Audio Eterna in sounddignature?....

ClieOS wrote:

Eterna is a very fun, musical sounding IEM that might not be for everyone, even if you can get one easily.

Can you explain this a bit more? how would you detail the frequentie responce "parts" on the bandwide between 20Hz-20kHz? Fischer replied very quick by the way and said the webshop will be opened in february next year :!:

ClieOS wrote:

Balanced armature (BA) transducer doesn't suffer from it (and PL-50 is BA based, FYI).

I had this idea also, regarding the technical constructions. Do you noticed any dynamic driver earphones that's don't suffer with this problem? as my thought about this is that with an airwhole to the back, this problem could be solved (must be big enough though....).

ClieOS wrote:

If you hate sibilance, avoiding an IEM with known sibilance issue is easier than trying to cure one with such an issue.

That'r really true ofcourse! but as I needed to clean my Teacs anyways, I tried to look what the casing did. It did at least something for the bass, that hadn't enough airflow and still haven't. The cracking bass is defenately a casing problem but then more a problem of the direct drivercasing and not the outhercasing you can hold. By the way, isn't the peak on frequenties also a thing that has something to do with the frequentie seperationfilter? I noticed a big differents on my speakers at home at the moment I added new tweaters and lateron changed the seperationfilter....

ClieOS · **Posted:** Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:13 pm

Mr. Dj M. wrote:

Can you explain this a bit more? how would you detail the frequentie responce "parts" on the bandwide between 20Hz-20kHz? Fischer replied very quick by the way and said the webshop will be opened in february next year :!:

Bass is fairly impactful and big, mid is full and upfront, treble has good detail and decent extension but not dominant. Soundstage is quite well layered and specious. It is the kind of sound you want to dance to.

Mr. Dj M. wrote:

I had this idea also, regarding the technical constructions. Do you noticed any dynamic driver earphones that's don't suffer with this problem? as my thought about this is that with an airwhole to the back, this problem could be solved (must be big enough though....).

Most of my dynamic transducer based IEM don't have that issue, including my CX300, EP630, all my SoundMAGIC, most of my CrossRoads, FutureSonics Atrio, Eterna, etc (the list goes on). Occasionally I do find a few that do have the cracking issue, but they are on the minority.

Mr. Dj M. wrote:

By the way, isn't the peak on frequenties also a thing that has something to do with the frequentie seperationfilter? I noticed a big differents on my speakers at home at the moment I added new tweaters and lateron changed the seperationfilter....

In speaker world, you get to choose which transducer to match around. Something a speaker unit has good mid and bass but horrible treble, so you use it as a woofer and filter the high frequency out via a crossover circuit. The crossover doesn't cause the woofer to have bad treble, it just 'cure' (or 'ignore' as a better word) the problem. The speaker unit still has bad treble, just that you are not listening to that part of the sound from the woofer anymore, as the treble is sent to a dedicate tweeter.

You can imagine a single transducer setup doesn't really have (or need) a crossover to filter sound, so that doesn't work.

Mr. Dj M. · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:01 am

The CX300s are indeed normal cracking free, but with the first CX300s I had I do found some cracking issues every now and then and they gained when becoming older. The second pair I owned did it better but had it maybe a couple of times during the time I used them. Good to know that the Eternas don't suffer on this problem and the soundstage doesn't sound bad either! but as I still prefer the balanced drivers because of the durability and from what I noticed "cleaner" sound. Also waiting for the Eternas will be quite a long time then. We need to see what the prices are going to be and with delivery and order time I think I can't even have them before the end of March....
So I think maybe I should try the pl-50 and indeed that one hasn't got any crossover needed as it has one driver :P

(But what I meant to say about the crossover in regular hifi speaker, if chosen wrong you can get ugly sound! because indeed what you said a woofer for low tones can't give you good highs. I wanted to know if it's the same thing for the in-ears on don't they even use a crossover?!)

Okea now the last thing, could you test the Pl-50s with this track:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZJGMTST8
This girl has a special S in hear voice, so these kind of tracks are really good to get sibilance out of a speaker. If that doesn't happen and tones stay nice and smooth instead of becoming sharp it would make me glad!

Also how does these peform with songs of Enya, such as Amarantine? These tracks are also hard to get correct true a speaker, tones becoming fast a bit hollow and music is fastly "reshapes" (I don't know how to see this is proper English terms, sorry :P). It's probably a peak into the frequentie responce, but it's a peak you don't hear with most other music....

ClieOS · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:08 am

Actually I did test for sibilance in my PL-50 review using Sara Bareilles' Bottle It Up. She also has a very S~ish voice (one of the worst for sibilance prone headphone). PL-50 actually performed quite well in that department.

Don't have Amarantine to test, but it does sound pretty decent with Enya's Paint The Sky With Stars and And Winter Came.

Mr. Dj M. · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:22 pm

Those songs will probably do the trick also then! Thanks ClieOS!
I think I'm gona buy a pair Pl-50s then.

Mr. Dj M. · **Posted:** Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:12 am

I just took some time to play with the with equalizer on the windowsmediaplayer, which I normally let off, but tweaking for the Teacs is needed on the 2/4 and 8 kHz bars. The 4kHz needs the most and the other two a bit less. So it shows the problem also for my Pasen player, as I can't really tweak the 8kHz on this player.
The main eq, the "Stone EQ" has the following bars [80Hz - 230Hz - 650Hz - 1.8kHz - 5.3kHz] and you can set the wide or nearrow. This on is part of the Wolfson hardware in the player. It also has an extra undefinied sofware based eq. I think this one meeds up the frequenties of the stone eq, except for one bar. I think that one covers the 14kHz instead of the 5.3khz.
(Why isn't there a 30 bands eq on the player?!

)

As I was playing around I also played a bit with the E3 and the eq on the Pasen. Maybe a late discover, but with some tweaking I could get a better sound out with the amp then without :roll:

Using the highest frequentie bar on the software eq I could lift up the highs that the E3 cuts off and get a bit less sharp tones out but sibilance didn't became less, otherwise it effects the overall sound. It's still not perfect, but it's better now! :P

Okea, before I'm going to get the Pl-50s, would you advice to buy it with the E5 or would the E3 be fine enough if you're going to use it amped?

ClieOS · **Posted:** Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:15 pm

Personally, I like PL-50 as it is, but if you want a small amp to go with it, E5 is the better choice.

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SoundMagic PL-50

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