What makes trusty all-rounders great to play is their combination of balance, weight, speed, and overall strength in every area. That’s exactly what we aimed for with the new EDC3.
The EDC3 aims for:
Audiophile quality in speed, sonic weight, tonal balance, and clarity.
Everyday Carry quality in comfort, accessories, everyday usability, and high value.
Sound Matters
All-rounders don’t optimize for one or two areas, but look for overall strength across the range of attributes.
When it comes to sound values, the typical mass market IEM pumps up the bass value and creates a big peak somewhere in the treble.
If it is a smoother transition, we call this tuning “V-shaped” because EQ with sliders looks like this (bass is on the left and treble to the right):
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Source:https://www.headfonia.com/eq-to-the-rescue/3/ Some music recordings already contain overly boosted bass and sharp glare in the treble. A boosted bass + treble peak tuning usually adds too much and can be fatiguing to listen to over long periods of time.
The alternative is to tune something musical (enjoyable to listen to) but more neutral than the typical mass market IEM. (Bass, mids, and treble in balanced amounts.)
Mids seem to get neglected in a lot of mainstream products. So that’s where we started. Then we added treble to give a sense of air, but without being too bright-sounding. Finally, the prototypes went around for bass feedback with a couple different dampers until we got the okay from our community test group.
Balanced armature drivers:One bigger bass driver + two on top for mids/treble
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Dampers look like this:
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The new EDC3 is a combination of 3 drivers per ear that each handle different sections of the sound, some crossovers to mix sound in the right amounts, and balanced armature technology for drivers that fit into the earpieces. There’s also a mechanical damper (or filter) that we used to tune the final balance.
We hope that the Massdrop x NuForce EDC3 is the the well-rounded character that you will be enjoying late into the game…
FrankDrebinI sampled the triple/quad driver from Amazon and returned them both. They're very V-shaped while these are being touted to sound neutral and balanced. The 1more's also lack an interchangeable cable and due to their size sit oddly in the ear and don't offer the level of isolation in the EDC. The EDC3 also has all BA drivers and the 1more's are all hybrids.
CEE_TEEDo you think you could eventually post overlaying FR graphs of the EDC and EDC3. As a soon-to-be owner of both, it would be interesting to visualize the two IEMs and see if the graphs "jive" with what my ears are telling me. I enjoy the EDC, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the EDC3.
mong9sHey mong9s,
These graphs come off the AP with teeny numbers at the bottom...we've got a couple graphs now and are making the numbers legible for the size we put them on the page.
Here's one comparo with Etymotic ER4S in blue:
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We'll have 3 graphs up today and some more later next week. Thanks for asking!
FrankDrebinI have the 1More quads and found all their small tips uncomfortably big. I had to use silicone tips from Sony MDRXB50AP IEM's and I used to think those were big. I'm a middle-age male who wears size small earasers for size reference. Once I started using the Sony's silicone tips, I was able to enjoy the quads for about 4-6 hours continuously vs 30-45 minutes. The quads are definitely not recommended for working out since they're bulky and not the greatest at isolation. They are very fun to sit and listen with so I kept them. They are more neutral than the Sony's but not as neutral as the HD 6xx. I was surprised that it had a present sound stage but it wasn't enough to make me drop the HD 6xx for gaming. I'm definitely getting the EDC3 for working out though.
CEE_TEECool, then I'm joining this drop. I am stating, for the record, that if you announce a Massdrop X 4+ BA IEM in the next ~3 months I'll be pretty unimpressed xD
CEE_TEEYours unruly was damned glad to know about this second drop, since I prefer to read multiple impressions of a prod (ow!) and not just the stated goals of the company or collaboration that created it.
Still trying to decide whether to economize by buying these or spring (ow!) for the Massdrop Plus Universal IEMs. Both possibilities seem designed to be detailed and non-fatiguing while offering the deja-vu-inducing soundstage that IEMs rarely flung before the emergence of the Shure E5 (the first IEMs yours tabbouleh had ever heard that weren't "intimate" w-a-a-y back in 2006 at the inaugural New York Head-fi meat).
It will be fathinating to thee whether you collaborate on custom IEMs at some point, since that would mean devising a way to make absurdly individualized personalization work in a two-stage group buy. But perhaps you'll streamline your collabs at some future juncture (ow!).
jaydunndidditYes, you're correct that Massdrop has sold CIEMs and even Massdrop-exclusive CIEMs. I believe we can safely bray that in agreement. But what I'm pondering, strapping young Master Dunndiddit, is a Massdrop-collaborative CIEM.
YoughinIt WOULD be cool if that could be done but it looks like the dampener is integrated into the shell before it's clamped together. A re-work would be necessary to have a replaceable dampener system. Any chance of something like this in the future Nuforce? There is something similar from a Japanese company made for some of the Audio Technica IEMs.
CEE_TEE‘ The new EDC3 is a combination of 3 drivers per ear that each handle different sections of the sound‘
Is it a 3-way cross-over? In the Brent Butterworth review he said It’s a 2-way design, basically the two balanced armatures for mid-highs are wired in Parallel. Can someone confirm? It’s not very clear. Thanks.
Ryu, Street Fighter
Soldier:76, Overwatch
EDC3, NuForce
Sound Matters All-rounders don’t optimize for one or two areas, but look for overall strength across the range of attributes.
When it comes to sound values, the typical mass market IEM pumps up the bass value and creates a big peak somewhere in the treble.
If it is a smoother transition, we call this tuning “V-shaped” because EQ with sliders looks like this (bass is on the left and treble to the right):
Some music recordings already contain overly boosted bass and sharp glare in the treble. A boosted bass + treble peak tuning usually adds too much and can be fatiguing to listen to over long periods of time.
The alternative is to tune something musical (enjoyable to listen to) but more neutral than the typical mass market IEM. (Bass, mids, and treble in balanced amounts.) Mids seem to get neglected in a lot of mainstream products. So that’s where we started. Then we added treble to give a sense of air, but without being too bright-sounding. Finally, the prototypes went around for bass feedback with a couple different dampers until we got the okay from our community test group.
Balanced armature drivers: One bigger bass driver + two on top for mids/treble
Dampers look like this:
The new EDC3 is a combination of 3 drivers per ear that each handle different sections of the sound, some crossovers to mix sound in the right amounts, and balanced armature technology for drivers that fit into the earpieces. There’s also a mechanical damper (or filter) that we used to tune the final balance. We hope that the Massdrop x NuForce EDC3 is the the well-rounded character that you will be enjoying late into the game…