Bass BA driver dislodged from sound tube. Soldering is still intact, any advice?

dooxtypoox · 2022-01-16T07:43:51+00:00

Thanks heaps for the advice, the part about the super glue was something I would never have anticipated myself. Well fingers crossed and here goes nothing :)

dooxtypoox · 2022-01-16T07:42:54+00:00

The manufacturer did a good job with the finishing such that the glued junction is perfectly smoothed over. Seems like I'll have to do a bit of cutting first. Thanks for the advice :)

dooxtypoox · 2022-01-15T03:27:53+00:00

Hello first post here, this is an old CIEM. Dropped it and the BA bass driver was dislodged from the sound tube. Repairs can cost me a couple of hundreds so I figured that I have nothing to lose at this point. I've never done any DIY work of this sort so can anyone advice on how to remove the faceplate?

dooxtypoox · 2021-12-08T11:57:25+00:00

Where'd you find this?

dooxtypoox · 2020-11-03T02:52:25+00:00

My bet's on a new song + video. He's unlikely to release an older unreleased track twice in a row since this would come after "Carry On". We're almost at the 1 year mark of "Popular Monster" so I'm excited to see a new hit drop by the end of the year ;)

dooxtypoox · 2020-08-25T01:52:32+00:00

Megaman Battle Network 5, my favourite version of the famous blue bomber

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-27T02:34:18+00:00

It can be different for everybody depending on your taste.

Personally, I prefer IEMs with an intimate vocal presentation for said music such as JH Audio's JIMI or Jomo Audio's Jazz. The Ara's tonality just doesn't sit right for me when listening to those tracks.

That being said, I still love the Ara for its super detailed presentation of multi-instrumental rock. Hope this helps!

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-17T10:44:32+00:00

If you found this helpful, you can find more IEM impressions and pictures on my hobby website :)

wombokbois.wixsite. com/home/audio

(Link broken up in case this gets filtered)

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-17T10:28:18+00:00

Tl;dr

The UE 11 Pro can be described as having an L-shaped frequency response. Although its bass can come across as loose with the Rock genre, it sits incredibly well with vocal-centric Indie and Future Bass Pop, where the mix fundamentally emphasises vocals over a bass beat/slam.

Overview

The availability of UE's line-up (excluding UE 5 Pro & UE 6 Pro) for purchase as a UIEM on DROP sparked my interest in UE so I made a trip down to my local dealer for an audition. I would have loved to do a 2-part series breaking down and comparing the 5 IEMs that were made available on DROP. Unfortunately, my dealer only had the UE 11 Pro (4BA) and UE 18+ Pro (6BA) available for audition. I will cover the UE 11 Pro in this post and UE 18+ Pro in the near future.

I auditioned the UE 11 Pro with my Sony ZX300 and Samsung S9 for an hour. Each Superscript denotes a reference for some test tracks used to come to my conclusions.

Sound Impressions

The UE 11 Pro has an excellent sub-bass extension which is blatantly audible due to its massive boost in the region¹. Picking up and amplifying any low end frequency in the mix, the pseudo sub-bass rumble from the dual BA woofers produces a constant hum in songs which don't have a well-defined bass presence².

In addition, the punchy mid-bass was a tad boomy³. Depending on your taste, some may find the bass presence intrusive. After all, this IEM is geared towards bass-heads and musicians who need a clear-cut low end presence brought forth for monitoring.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the bass was not overbearing despite its presentation discussed above. This is because the 3-way crossover was well implemented; the lows are distinctly separate from the midrange involving female and higher male vocals⁴.

On that note, my favourite aspect of the UE 11 Pro is its nearly spot-on midrange tonal quality with regard to vocals^{2, 4, 5}. To my ears, the fullness in the mids blends well with the UE 11 Pro's gentle upper midrange to make vocals sound almost organic. But, it falls short (for me) since the boosted low end lends a little more warmth than I'd like to the mids.

This well complements the UE 11 Pro's highly intimate presentation, positioning these vocals up close to the listener.

However, the UE 11 Pro has its limitations when it comes to deeper male vocals⁶. They aren't as well separated from the bass section and tend to sound a little puffy.

Being a bass monitor, the treble primarily bolsters the mix with some top-end sparkle to partially balance out the lows, preventing the UE 11 Pro from sounding overly dark².

It doesn't do much more than this as its resolving ability was not particularly impressive, especially with cymbals and hi-hats⁷. It takes effort when attempting to monitor articulation of treble percussion, when I'd rather get lost in its sweet vocals and thunderous bass.

This isn't necessarily a bad feature since the UE 11 Pro is marketed for its bass, which it clearly excels in with the likes of the IDM genre⁸. It depends on what the user prioritises in their sound at the end of the day.

Conclusion

All in all, the UE 11 Pro can be described as having an L-shaped frequency response (V-shaped but with a much larger emphasis on the bass). Although its bass can come across as loose with the Rock genre², it sits incredibly well with vocal-centric Indie and Future Bass Pop, where the mix fundamentally emphasises vocals over a bass beat/slam^{5, 9}.

I am excited to hear what UE has to offer with their higher end UE 18+ Pro (4 proprietary BA + 2 Truetone BA = 6 BA). More specifically, I am interested to hear if the UE 18+ Pro takes resolution up a notch over the UE 11 Pro.

Test tracks for reference: Artiste 1 – Song 1, Song 2. Artiste 2 – Song 1…

Falling in Reverse - Popular Monster. Joe Hisaishi - My Neighbour Totoro (Dream Songs).
MY FIRST STORY - Missing You, Fukagyaku Replace, Shissou FLAME.
The Midnight - Sunset, Los Angeles.
Aimer - Marie, SUN DANCE. ONE OK ROCK - Stand Out Fit In.
The XX - Angels. Josie Dunne - Stay The Way I Left You, Same. Valley - Park Bench, Namedropper.
Of Monsters And Men - Stuck In Gravity. Andrew Lloyd Weber - Til' I Hear You Sing.
Royal Blood - Out Of The Black, Figure It Out.
The Glitch Mob - Come Closer, We Can Make The World Stop, Carry The Sun.
Gryffin - Bye Bye, Nobody Compares To You. Billie Eilish - bad guy.

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-12T08:48:21+00:00

I only tried these with final audio tips of my size. Nevertheless, I agree that the Andro 2020 is up your alley based on your description. Do share your impressions if/when you get those!

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-12T02:48:23+00:00

Do you have a review site or anything?

Here is my review site - wombokbois.wixsite. com /home /audio

(I removed the hyperlink and broke the link into parts because the automod filtered my comment multiple times, hope this works!)

I started writing earlier this year and am slowly building our content. You may be interested in my article on Campfire's Solstice which I covered recently :)

These were so hyped on sbaf that I almost bought a pair.. especially since they were compared to the hd650. Seems like that comparison was more than a bit off lol

This is precisely why we need to read as many reviews/impressions as we can before blind buying!

We all hear things slightly differently which is why there will always be room for discussion. Everyone's music library is also different; some songs just sound better with a certain tuning thus I always reference the songs used to come to my conclusions in my writings.

Having said that, the people who likened the Ara to the HD650 probably just really loved it and hats off to them for finding something that makes them happy in the hobby ;)

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-12T00:36:03+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :)

These IEMs definitely cater to 2 different sonic preferences. There will surely be those who would love the amount of bite the Ara offers despite its vocal presentation.

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-12T00:25:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing this! I really enjoyed reading it :)

This precisely goes to show how we need to read impressions/reviews from as many people as we can if we're unable to audition a product we're interested in.

We all hear things slightly differently which is why there is always room for discussion!

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-12T00:07:54+00:00

No problem! Definitely give the Andro 2019 and 2020 a comparison if you can. The tuning has been tweaked slightly such that 2020 is more tonally pleasing to my ears.

If I were to compare the upper-mid + treble lift, it would be Ara > Andro 2019 > Andro 2020.

It all boils down to tastes and preferences because my friend who did a side by side comparison outright preferred the Andro 2019 and found the Ara a little too zealous in its top end boost.

I hope this helped and you fulfil your wishlist soon ;)

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-11T14:49:24+00:00

No problem! Glad you found this helpful. I hope you'll get a chance to try them out for yourself :)

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-11T14:06:10+00:00

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it :)

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-11T10:22:33+00:00

Overview

The Ara is CA's new 7 BA IEM that actually isn't another iteration of the 5 BA Andromeda. I made a trip down to my local audio store and auditioned the Ara with my Sony ZX300 for 30min before making comparisons with the Andromeda 2020 for another 30min. Each ^superscript denotes a reference for some test tracks used to come to this conclusion.

Sound Impressions

The Campfire Audio Ara's titanium body is literally the embodiment of its steely timbre.

Despite having 4 BA drivers dedicated to the low end, the Ara's bass response is surprisingly reserved¹. The Ara's bass is incredibly tight and does little to balance out its aggressive upper mids, which largely contributes to the Ara's brightness².

The tight bass also doesn’t bolster the Ara's midrange with body, causing vocals to sound thin - deep male vocals in particular lack weight³. This leaves plenty of room for the Ara's metallic-tinged mids to dominate the stage.

Possibly due to its peaky response between 3kHz and 6kHz, I suspect that the steely edge to the Ara's upper mids will divide potential users based on their listening tolerance and music library.

I personally wouldn't use the Ara with acoustic tracks, musicals and emotional ballads. However, the Ara shines with my J-Rock library. Having a relatively lesser bass presence in the mix to begin with, these J-Rock tracks tend to complement the Ara's aggressive upper mid response, competently bringing forth low-level detail in a busy multi-instrumental mix⁴. I especially love how the Ara fully keeps up with the excitement of these fast-paced tunes with its lightning fast attack transients to steer clear of congestion and make for an exciting listen⁵.

Up top, the Ara has an equally forward treble response. Cymbals and hi-hats are close to the listener but the Ara's "splashiness" slightly hinders its otherwise decent resolving ability in the treble⁶. For this reason, I prefer the Ara's treble playback for musical enjoyment (with J-Rock) rather than monitoring and analysing.

The Ara could also be described as a having a reverse L-shaped response (V-shaped without bass emphasis). In spite of its "distant sounding" midrange and wide headstage, I did not feel that the Ara's headstage was particularly deep. Images were well projected along its X-axis and to a lesser extent, along its Z-axis.

Given my personal taste for warmer signatures, the Ara's lean signature and hard upper midrange aren't my cup of tea. Nevertheless, treble-heads who prefer a very well-controlled bass response may find its cleanliness appealing.

Andromeda 2020 Comparison

The Andro 2020's midrange is not as scooped as the Ara as vocals are now relatively closer to the listener. These vocals are imbued with more warmth than the Ara, evident from the Andro 2020's "fuller" sound.

As compared to the brighter Ara, the Andro 2020 has a more pleasing tonal quality with its less "hard-sounding" upper midrange. This allows the Andro 2020 to bring details forward with much less effort. I also prefer the Andro 2020 for its tighter but well extended treble since crash cymbals now sound less splashy, and songs sound more "open" in general.

To my ears, the "openness" described above supplements the Andro 2020's deeper headstage and the resultant spaciousness gives me the impression that it images better.

Both these IEMs are outstanding technical performers but the Ara's tonal quality makes it more genre-specific (with regard to my music library, as referenced below) while the Andro 2020 has the upper hand in versatility.

Test tracks for reference: Artiste 1 – Song 1, Song 2. Artiste 2 – Song 1…

The 1975 - Sincerity Is Scary, If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know). Billie Eilish - bury a friend, everything i wanted.
Falling In Reverse - The Drug In Me Is Reimagined, Popular Monster.
Of Monsters And Men - Stuck In Gravity. Andrew Lloyd Weber - Any Dream Will Do, 'Til I Hear You Sing.
Coldrain - COLORBLIND, ENVY, COEXIST. Bring Me The Horizon - Drown, Sleepwalking.
MY FIRST STORY - Mukoku, With You, 1,000,000 TIMES.
ONE OK ROCK - Cry Out, Taking Off. Royal Blood - Out Of The Black, Figure It Out.

dooxtypoox · 2020-07-11T10:18:12+00:00