Super happy with custom 1's.

[masterxela]

I've been a klipsch fan for a long time, and my girlfriends dad got me the custom 1's for christmas.

I ride a stationary bike a lot at the gym about an hour a day, and these are amazing.

I highly recommend them.

I'm
sure this has been covered, but does anyone have back to back listening
experience and a comparison between the custom 1's and the more
expensive models?



Thanks,

Alex

[jacksonbart]

Super

[Bill H.]

Ordered my Custom 1's on 2/10/09 and received them today 2/12/09. Wow- thanks Amy.

Heck of deal with the 50 dollar Valentine Offer, I couldn't pass this up...............

Again thanks Amy and Klipsch.

EDIT: After putting on smaller Ear Tips, I love these ! It is Very comfortable, and just feels/sounds as if the sound is beside each ear. Super Comfortable !

Thanks Klipsch !

[Professor Thump]

Some of the earlier key information seems to be getting buried in all the posts. Such as this answer to your question.

How many arms do I need?

Here
is the lowdown as best as I can explain it without you having the
earphone models in your ears.... Before I explain how many armatures
you need. Let's go over some terms first:IEM
or IE = In Ear Monitor - this is usually a professional level earphone
that is customized to fit your ear canals. The performer will use
these to minimize stage volumes, so they can work for more than 10
years without losing your hearing. With lower volumes it is easier for
them to control what they want to hear in the monitor mix thus saving
their hearing. Now the performer can stay on pitch and keep good
timing. PM = Personal Monitors, earphones with armaturesHeadphones or HP = General description for all typesEarbuds = Similar to the Apple headphones with Moving coil transducers inside

Entry Level
PM's.......... use a simple balanced armature. The challenge the
engineer has primarily rests in the balance armature design itself, the
damper and the nozzle design. This is a very difficult task to make
full range since the transducer will work well in the LF or the HF but
not generally wideband. Typically the Bass, Vocals or Drums suffer the
most with this design, sounding slightly harsh or not having any output
that is audible in that range. In other words the vocal sounds throaty
or scratchy depending on the model. There is also limited SPL with
this design due to being a single arm design. Even with these
disadvantages it sounds better than any moving coil design that I have
heard since the mass of the diaphragm is much less the HF is much more
accurate than a standard earbud with a moving coil. Custom 1 has been
optimized to give the best balance of LF and HF. This design uses a
KG332 armature.

Mid Level
PM's............ use either premium single armatures that are usually
smaller or dual armatures with minimal or no EQ. Each product has its
limitations. For
Klipsch's IMAGE PM a premium armature is used which is a proprietary
KG926 driver. The KG926 is ultra compact. Less weight generally means
more comfort because there is less force on the ear canal. This model
has "special sauce"
which I can't go into, due to its proprietary nature, but it is very
full range with delicate high's and smooth deep bass. The sound is
very accurate due to its light weight diaphragm and the multiple levels
of treatment to the design. Generally speaking people will have a hard
time complaining about this design. It is easy to use and sounds very
accurate. Vocals are silky smooth and drums have a nice snap to them.
You can not believe your ears...a product this size sounding this full!
The primary limitation is that it is small so you must have a good air
seal or you will loose bass. The way we have minimized this problem
is by making the chassis micro small with a thin aluminum extruded body
or chassis. This small diameter allows the armature to get closer to
your eardrum than all of the others models out there. Precision
machining is required to make this model, and the design is complicated
to get correct due to its size. The patent pending eartip also insures
a better seal since it is similar to the shape of your ear.

Another
type of mid level design is using dual armatures similar to our Custom
2. In the Custom 2 design we have partnered with Sonion and have
applied for a patent on this armature, so I can talk about some of the
details. The KG534 driver is really two drivers i.e. two motors two
armatures and two diaphragms that are tandem (back to back). The
benefit of this design is that the diaphragms pump air in opposing
directions so any vibration modes are minimized. Think of this similar
to dual air bellows on your fireplace with a single nozzle. When you
have dual diaphragms your SPL increases by 3 dB and your distortion
goes down because it is not working as hard. Part of our applied
patent evolves around the low pass acoustic filter that is built into
one of the two armatures. This give Klipsch greater control over the
EQ since we can have two pistons, one optimized for bass and
one optimized for full range. This baby rocks! Musicians will love
this product because it is portable yet very efficient. Your vocals
will stand out in the mix as an IEM application.

Update... You can see the Custom 2 Patent Application Here:

http://www.klipsch.com/Klipschnotes/032009/Custom2.pdf

High Level PM's...............use
two or three armatures and a passive crossover. Our Custom 3 goes much
further. Not only does it have two different types of drivers and a
passive crossover it also has a patent pending low pass acoustic
filter. The Custom 3 utilizes a Klipsch KG723 for the HF tweeter
which is a premium armature. This allows the vocals to be ultra silky
and very low in distortion. The LF is implemented by a KG732 armature
for the LF woofer. The Custom 3 has TWO low pass filters the
armature has an internal LP filter plus an additional.... you
guessed.... patent pending LP filter on the outside which is optimized
for a very low crossover point in such a small chassis without
sacrificing sensitivity in the low region of the response. This bad
boy has it all! Looks! Comfort! And Concert Level Sound! The passive
crossover has 5 components more than any other in its league. With the
two acoustic filters and a second order crossover, the LF has a 24 dB
per octave rolled off at 1 kHz. Why so low? Everyone else seems to
crossover above the vocal region but we wanted to eliminate
Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) so we have removed the kick drum and
bass tones from the tweeter so the diaphragm can concentrate on silky
highs without movement from the LF signal. This also allows us to take
advantage of the shape of the crossover for additional EQ in the
midrange. The vocals are so natural that this high end IEM won't
fatigue your ears like most designs can. But my favorite part is the
BASS. I use to have a regional touring pro sound system for live
performance applications. I had eight 18 inch 1000 watt drivers just
for the subs, so I don't have to tell you how much I can appreciate
good clean bass. Image hearing headphones flat BELOW the musical
bandwidth. There is no limitation to the bass. I just wish it would
shake my pant legs like my pro system did. I encourage everyone to try
this product before the buy any other. You will find that the money
was well spent.

So
what type of HP do you need? You will have to be the judge, but you
will need to keep in mind that there is a reason why there is large
range of prices. The number of arms does make a difference for the IE
headphone family.

Why don't you stick it in your ears!

[Hornbeams]

Hi

Once I figured out how to fit them (took about 2 months!) I was really pleased with my Custom 1s bought to replace sennheiser cx300. They were more comfortable and the sound was detailed and had good bass.

However, I lost one ear tip and couldn't get a replacement. In frustration one day I bought a pair of custom 2s on the web having found a very good price.

The difference was really significant, the sound opened up with a better sound stage, in particular it seemed to be able to cope better with the varied sounds on my ipod.

For example, listening to a quiet welsh male voice choir track I jumped at the finale when the full glory hit me. The custom 1s would not have had the dynamic range to take me unawares.

AB

PS Many thanks to the team after loads of correspondence my ear tips have now arrived,

PPS I just wish I could afford to buy some Custom 3s to compare again.