Best Headphones for me...

[laneza01]

Alright so awhile ago when these things were first coming i read somewhere a great summary of what each one excelled at and which did best for different types of music. It was mostly comparing the differences between the Image and Custom series...however i can't seem to find this post. Im trying to decide which ones I want... I listen mostly to stuff with lots of bass like rock and rap. If I remember right the Image was not recommended for this and I would be better suited with the Custom-2's or 3's even? I dont know if it matters but I almost always listen to it out of my Iriver at 192kb/s or better. SO, can someone either direct me to this post or maybe give me a suggestion...I realize that the Images are the most expensive and while that will play into my decision on what to buy, lets say for a minute that id spend 350 dollars on headphones...

[Jay481985]

If I remember it right the Custom 3 has the most bass as it has two separate drivers.

[Guest Mr Brad]

laneza01,

You pose a very good question. Hopefully I can answer your question:

If you want the most comfortable headphones with incredible sound go with Image. They are very quick to put in and take out, they give you a great seal every time, and there is no question they sound great (read some reviews, there is a great link from www.klipsch.com right now)

If you want the best sounding headphones and can deal with a few more "operation issues" go with Custom 3. They will take more time to get the custom wire bent to fit your ear. They take a more time to put in and take off. But they do sound outstanding. These headphones have two drivers with a tiny electro-acoustic crossover.

Most importantly, you will be very happy with either pair of headphones. This is one of those situations where you can't make a wrong decision.

[Professor Thump]

Here is one of the main threads that has a lot of info on our products...

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/94657.aspx?PageIndex=4

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 armatures

Headphones or HP = General description for all types

Earbuds = 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.

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!

[laneza01]

Alright, one more question. With either the Custom's or the
Image's, can I run/work out in them without them falling out? To be
honest the most ive ever spend on headphones is like 70 bucks and they
were a pair of noise cancelling over-ear type Phillips? i think...yeah so nevermind
them. But for working out I use a pair of wrap around style headphones
that i bought for 15 bucks from wally-world...I never have used any in-ear
simply because i have dumb ears or something and they never fit(which
could be due to the fact that ive never BOUGHT a pair of them, just the
ones they include with whatever MP3 player or CD player i have bought). SO would i have a problem with either for physical activity, judging by the previous description, maybe the Images are better for this? Maybe neither and I should stick to my cheap-o models for working out and only use my soon to be aquired Klipsch for trips and stuff?

Thanks!

[Professor Thump]

...can I run/work out in them without them falling out? Thanks!

Custom series are more recommended for working out due to their bendie wire holding them in place.

...I never have used any in-ear simply because i have dumb ears or something and they never fit(which could be due to the fact that ive never BOUGHT a pair of them, just the ones they include with whatever MP3 player or CD player i have bought). SO would i have a problem with either for physical activity, judging by the previous description, maybe the Images are better for this? Maybe neither and I should stick to my cheap-o models for working out and only use my soon to be aquired Klipsch for trips and stuff?

Thanks!

I can't say what fit issues you would have without reviewing the geometry of your ear, but it is safe to say that IMAGE will fit a larger range of people because it is so darn small. Also keep in mind that we have 6 ear gel sizes available (5 that come with all models in the box) so our designs will fit a large percentage of the populus.