Professor Thump

The S4i is designed to work with Apple products only. It works also with my Blackberry but this is not the case for every BB. If I was you I would hold on to the S4i because it is one of the best products out there. In the meantime if you want to use your N900 you might try using our S2m which works with most cell phones that have a 3.5 mm jack.

You better buy them while you can...

That is great to hear. I love using X10's and now X10i's because they are so small to carry and most comfortable. I can't imagine carrying around big noise canceling headphones where you have to put batteries in them every couple of days whild travelling.

It is always great to work for a company that cares about its customers and the products we use. It shows why we have been around for 60+ years. It is also great to hear the passion about our products from you the Klipsch Fans! Keep it up!

Please make sure you visit my blog on hearing protection and iPods with our headphones. You can see it here...

Thanks for the photo's ciml X10 was one of the first headphones that we designed. We have recognized a problem with this material in about 5% of the users. It has to do with the chemical make up of the user. The only way we could duplicate it in testing was to soak it in gasoline. When X5 was launched we changed material which we believe have eliminated this problem. I am not sure why you are seeing this occur with your pair.

Three options... 1. The shorter the eartip the higher the elevation in HF. This trend is very minimal though 2. You could put a very small hole in eartip to generate an air leak, but I think this may be too drastic. 3. Buy an X5... This frequequency response is flatter.

We have an older original model at Klipsch. Maybe you could post a picture to jog peoples memory. Head-fi.org would also be a place to ask this question.

Your X5 tail defect would be the first I have ever heard of in 18 months of sales. Could you post pictures?

X10 would be my recommendation.

By all means Blabber some more... We love it. This is the paycheck in my mind. Thanks Sonic Sound! P Thump

Yes you can Kelly but you will need to buy the 1/4" adapter.

Vastly different. The Image X10's (and X5's and the Custom models) use armatures which I think Professor Thump has explained somewhere in the Headphone area. Click options and click to view all as defaults and often gets reset to only most recent 2 months. I'm starting to forget but the armature drivers are more like what are used in hearing aids and much lighter and faster in the bass.... ergo while the Image S4's can deliver incredible deep bass it will never be as fast and tight as the Image X10 and X5 or Custom models. Armatures are also much more co$tly hence the much higher price. The S4's and S2's use a more standard micro driver with cone, suspension, and voice coil. I think the S4 uses dual magnets. Much less expensive to produce hence the much more affordable cost. The armatures are the high end of in ear monitors while the micro drivers are more like the low end (common ear buds) to better mid fi. That said the S4 and S2 have the Klipsch sound though maybe not as refined as the X10, X5, and Custom models (not sure any are still available ... newer models? or going away?). If you want more and maybe smoother highs... then you want the Image X5. Maybe not the "stentorian" bass of the Image X10 but not lacking either but much clearer and more highs than the X10. X10 are the best for bass. X5 better in the highs. Custom 3 best of both. The Image X10 are too "dark" sounding get the Image X5. I think they sound better but have Image X10 and Custom 2.. They sound vastly different than the Image X10 but still sound like Klipsch. Professor Thump as in THUMP knows and loves BASS and knows how to produce it... long before Klipsch he owned and operated a larger regional sound company (I'm not sure what that means exactly) but he is Professor THUMP and if it's bass you want in probably any venue, even in your ears / head Professor Thump can get you there. Professor Thump admitted to actually preferring the sound of the Image X5 over the Image X10 though the bass isn't supposed to be as "good". Maybe Professor Thump will add his 2 db... though he's been kind of quiet since returning from China..... got me wondering what he's up to. This is almost an impossible feat, since there are more things than just the speaker giving you the aural excitation of your noggin. For instance the same speaker will sound different in each room it is in. If you move a speaker it will even sound different. It is kind of like when you move to the next room your wife doesn't sound as loud. But I jest... I am Kidding honey... I will be right there... Please read my blogs. As the forum and the Klipsch work gets busier I have less time to communicate on this forum. So I am taking deliberate measures to make sure there is quality info on the blogs. This blog in particular should be of interest: http://community.klipsch.com/blogs/markb/archive/2009/10/02/different-strokes.aspx Hopefully this will help you all understand the diffences in the designs of our IEM's. As far as a match to X10 I would say a B & W 800 series with the bass boost cranked. Oh... we don't sell that model? Hmmm... How about a RF 82 or RF 83? Again... Your room is half the sonic equation.

I wonder if there was damage to the IEM? if the nozzle starts to leak in front of the driver... You would have had to slam it in a car door or step on the product to get that to occur. Visual inspection should be tell tale.

No, I don't believe we are saying that. Professor Thump can chime in with any cable issue / engineering changes that were made during the life of the product. The decision to discontinue the Custom line was likely due to performance in the marketplace. Also, many people I've talked to about them had issues getting a good fit (seal) with the design, which in turn led them to believe the sound was inferior to other products. It was a difficult product to demo and train people on how to use properly. That's how I understand it. Obviously I'm not involved in these decisions. The Custom line was our first designs to go to market. That being said it is a tragic success story that was not adopted by the public. There were both pros and cons to the line. Custom 3 is by far my favorite product to use. It fits me well, is secure to wear and sounds as it should. IMHO... That being said there are issues with fit for a small portion of the populus and the application to wear is complicated for some. Getting the fit story out is not easy, when you don't have a fan base that uses the product. That can't be said now because we have a huge fan base due to S4 popularity. As far as cables, I have never had an issue with the cables but some have. Was there a bad batch that went out? I don't know. It is possible. The combination of little publicity on this product and the complications of the design have made Klipsch disinterested in selling the product. Who knows... maybe some day C3 will come back as a heritage product. That would be my wish.

Good question... You will need an adapter to break out the mic connection from the 3.5 mm phone jack. This is because PC use a seperate mono 3.5 mm connector for the mic. I would hope in the future they will integrate them both onto a single jack. They you would not need the adapter.

http://community.klipsch.com/blogs/technical/archive/2009/12/10/goes-to-eleven-how-much-crank-is-too-much.aspx I guess we need to record the SPL with an iPhone.

Thump has been busy keeping Klipsch in headphone production, and a remodel job at home. I have too many digital portals in life. Maybe I need a higher bit DAC.

I am trying to verify the goezINtaz and goesOutas on the amp. There is a momentary switch on the AC which I am assuming for the heater coil pre turn on, but there appears to be a transformer switch or relay on the input. Maybe this is a Z adjust for a mic.

Okay you gear heads... Who can find me a 103C Western Electric schematic?

That is a great question. Unfortunately the answer is complex. I plan on blogging about this topic soon. The plan is to measure all models at different iPod loudness levels with sign wave signal to give SPL levels for these settings. This won't necessarily answer the question but will help. The other problem is that in your ear canal at Ear Drum Reference Position, DRP the response is elevated at 2.7 kHz by 14 dB. So shall I weight the magnitude with this response or do a simpler method of 1 kHz output? Common sense goes a long ways. I had a guy say he thought X10 was terrible and that it distorted. He was listening to metal at full scale. After explaining that it was going to damage his ears I gave him X5. Now that model gets VERY loud if you want and still stays clean. He loved it... of course at the SPL levels he was listening to, the blood was about to spit out his nose... (kidding). The point is that a little common sense is needed. If your ears are ringing after listening to headphones your body is telling you to turn it down. Now this happens to everyone from time to time so just realize that moderation is the key to life and listening to IEMs is no different. Play short durations loud if you want but the "dosage" (accumulated power) is key. The other thing that was brought up is the compression of audio in master mixes. This is a seperate but extremely sad topic that should be discussed on a seperate headphone thread. ... More to come on this topic folks!

Happy B-day Mang! [<)] [G] [^] I am in China so I can't talk with you dude.

Good question.... The primary concept is that you can project sound broadband 160 degrees from a recessed horn array in the wall.

Your so smart! Too bad that thing doesn't have a mic on the cable. Hmmmmm.....

I think you hit the high points. Unplug your X5 and you iPhone will work as usual.