klipsch image s3 - keepers of the sound.

[NoasArcAngel]

I recently ordered a pair of klipsch image s3 from flipkart and received them this morning. So i wanted to review them properly.

No images because my camera sucks. and i thought what the hell its better to post no image than to post a bad one.


Now this review will be done in a different way. i will not be covering what comes in the box and all and not giving the technical specifications i will only be talking about the sound in detail and some other things.


Firstly to anyone who is reading the review i want to make a few things clear :

1. I am not a very big believer of burn - in . so i am doing this review with a fresh piece of earphones

2. I mainly listen to trance , house and progressive electronic music. And no i do not listen to dubstep . to give you an idea of the tracks i would be using to test this

1. veracocha carte blanche
2. veracocah carte blanche cosmic gate remix
3. paul van dyk for an angel 1998
4. paul van dyk binary finary 1999

so i basically listen to trance in the period 1992-2010 .

3. My music taste : because of the nature of the songs i listen to i like to keep the bass and lower mids to a factor where the overshadow the upper mids and keep the highs to a little lower volume

i dont like boomy bass . and trance songs do not have such a bass .


I will be testing the earphones with :

a ) nokia e63 with custom eq
b ) ipod shuffle 4th gen with custom eq
c ) pc with standard realtek audio card.


Audio gear i have used :

shure se 315
grado sr 60
razer piranha
philips shp1900
denon ah-c452
bang and olufsen earset 3i


i dont own all of them but i have used all of them


I am writing this review while listening to the song on the earphones


Bass :

Bass is pretty punchy . Not as tight as a shure se 315.

The low frequency range 30 - 100 hz is clearly played and gives a good punch to the sound.

And clearly the eq on my ipod is working

on a few tracks with very heavy detail the sound clarity is missing. ( tiesto adagio for strings ferry corsten remix ), but then again even my grado is almost only able to handle this song and its unfair to compare this to a grado sr 60. If i increase the volume even a little the clarity in the grado goes to the rubbish bin .

On the rest of the tracks this works beautifully. The bass is amazing. The lower notes are too good.
Bass maybe not boomy but this is how i love it .


Mids :


Frequency ranges upto 5000-7000 hz are very well played. There is a lot of crispness to the sound . The vocals in this range also sound very good. Although i admit that the soundstage is not that good. In many other models i used even the dirt cheap vfm philips shp1900 have a very very good soundstage.

The balance between the lower notes of the mid 1000hz and the bass region 100hz the difference is very very evident and in many earphones i have used you cannot tell that difference.



Highs :


Frequency ranges above 15000hz become a little distorted. The highs lack clarity when you play songs with very high detail and sometimes the highs start to bleed out. you can feel unbalanced highs in the sound. most of the times the highs are very well maintained and they blend very well with the whole sound .





Misc :

- heavy detail music causes sound quality to decrease a lot, you will feel as though you are using ipod earphones. i think that is because small
driver size

- soundstage is not that great

- need to have a very precise eq for the correct sound

- highs bleed out again with songs with a lot of detail

- perfect for use at moderate volume sound quality is retained


overall rating : 4/5 (for sound)



I have hardly made comparisons with other earphones because most people may not have heard them and its pretty thoughtless to do such comparisons.


Note of advise :


if you listen to music with a lot of detail, these arent probably for you. but even then depending on how you set the eq you can manage to get amazing sound. i am going to tinker with the eq and post results.

UPDATE : apparently the ipod SQ does suck . and after listening to the same song on my nokia e63. The Sound is 10x better. The bass is much more tight, punchy and the mids are crystal clear. the highs are much better now, very less bleeding and the clarity has improved a lot in the high detail tracks i can heard sounds much more clearly.

UPDATE : listening to cosmic gate FAV. And i am loving these IEM's . They are pretty much one of the best budget IEM's in this range.

UPDATE : Listening to cliffe coenraad - gone south the sq is very good .

i love the pouch which comes with the IEM's and i can store my ipod shuffle 4th gen .

UPDATE : I just set the volume on the ipod to normal maybe becasue the output was tuned to give 100% more sound . it may have caused some problems in SQ. will also check this for my nokia e63

 

[dexbg]

How much they cost ?

 

[NoasArcAngel]

How much they cost ?

2350 from flipkart. but you can manage around 2200

 

[vickybat]

^^ I too own these IEM'S and find their soundquality amazing. Actually i think they have good soundstaging.

I basically hear rock, alternative rock and irish pop ( The corrs). With an orchestra playing in the bg, one can actually hear each and every instruments in details.
Previously i owned soundmagic pl11 and must say these are way better.

I use my micromax funbook & ipod shuffle (4th gen) with them.

 

[High-Fidelity]

User reviews on head-fi stated:

- According to klipsch, the S3 are an upgrade to the S2 - both in comfort and sound quality. That being said, they are still inferior to the S4, and I was not terribly impressed with the S4 to begin with. You can do better for the money.

- I've had the S3 for about a week and while I haven't written up a full review, I can only give this warning - don't bother. The S3 is an okay earphone but it is closer to the S2 than the S4 in sound quality. The S2 can be found for ~$25 and remains the better deal for those who must buy Klipsch. After half a week of burn-in I still feel that the S3 combines all of the weaknesses of the S4 and S2 in a single earphone - it is a little boomy but much worse than that it has some treble spikes that just won't go away. Sibilance and harshness are a problem on some tracks (just as with the S4) and the soundstage is tubular - i.e. lacking in depth and height (just as with the S2). Plus the plasticky housings are bigger than those of the S4 and have sharp edges at the front. Inserting them deeply can be painful - the S2 is way more friendly towards the ear. It's not all bad - the S3 does have slightly more prominent mids than the S4 and the clarity is good for $50 - but I'd grab the Thinksound TS01 if I wanted something a little boomy and a little harsh in the price bracket without sacrificing immersion or timbre.

I won't waste my money on S3 at all, I would rather buy VSonic GR02 Bass Edition which has got much higher rating in Sound Quality than on the S4.

@NoasArcAngel

You should have gone for VSonic GR02 Bass Edition. No IEM in the market can touch this IEM in sound quality at this price range or may be slightly more than their price, it even scores higher than the Brainwavz M2 in sound quality. M2 is currently priced at approx. 3200~3500 shipped.

 

[pramudit]

how much warranty does klipsch give?? I am thinking to buy new earphone in a month or two...

 

[NoasArcAngel]

User reviews on head-fi stated:

- According to klipsch, the S3 are an upgrade to the S2 - both in comfort and sound quality. That being said, they are still inferior to the S4, and I was not terribly impressed with the S4 to begin with. You can do better for the money.

- I've had the S3 for about a week and while I haven't written up a full review, I can only give this warning - don't bother. The S3 is an okay earphone but it is closer to the S2 than the S4 in sound quality. The S2 can be found for ~$25 and remains the better deal for those who must buy Klipsch. After half a week of burn-in I still feel that the S3 combines all of the weaknesses of the S4 and S2 in a single earphone - it is a little boomy but much worse than that it has some treble spikes that just won't go away. Sibilance and harshness are a problem on some tracks (just as with the S4) and the soundstage is tubular - i.e. lacking in depth and height (just as with the S2). Plus the plasticky housings are bigger than those of the S4 and have sharp edges at the front. Inserting them deeply can be painful - the S2 is way more friendly towards the ear. It's not all bad - the S3 does have slightly more prominent mids than the S4 and the clarity is good for $50 - but I'd grab the Thinksound TS01 if I wanted something a little boomy and a little harsh in the price bracket without sacrificing immersion or timbre.

I won't waste my money on S3 at all, I would rather buy VSonic GR02 Bass Edition which has got much higher rating in Sound Quality than on the S4.

@NoasArcAngel

You should have gone for VSonic GR02 Bass Edition. No IEM in the market can touch this IEM in sound quality at this price range or may be slightly more than their price, it even scores higher than the Brainwavz M2 in sound quality. M2 is currently priced at approx. 3200~3500 shipped.

ahahahaha yeah i read that review but they are not avl in india ( i dont make payments via the internet or cards ) afaik and even if they were probably would be about 3k+. i wanted something for 1.5k but i extended a bit and got these instead. I have my grado for SQ dont need vsonic. + i am new to the IEM scene so i would be probably getting the creative aurvana / shure se / denon ah c551 / head direct re2 next which are much better . My relative lives in the US

Whats the point of spending 50$ .... on a dynamic driver IEM ?

how much warranty does klipsch give?? I am thinking to buy new earphone in a month or two...

klipsch gives 2 year "replacement warranty". which probably means if any malfunction happens they will replace your set with a totally new one or something else of the same value

 

[High-Fidelity]

you don't need VSonic and I don't the reason behind this.

I won't spend my money on the brand name rather than for the SQ. If I am getting much better sound quality at the same price as the klipsch so why would I spend my money on klipsch?? just for the brand name?

I would rather spend my money on VSonic GR02 Bass Edition and get the much much better sound quality rather than spending money on klipsch.

VSonic has much better range in IEMs than the klipsch at the moment. The only klipsch which has got high rating in SQ is klipsch image x10 and at the price of x10, there are many more IEMs available with same SQ rating.

 

[vickybat]

User reviews on head-fi stated:

- According to klipsch, the S3 are an upgrade to the S2 - both in comfort and sound quality. That being said, they are still inferior to the S4, and I was not terribly impressed with the S4 to begin with. You can do better for the money.

- I've had the S3 for about a week and while I haven't written up a full review, I can only give this warning - don't bother. The S3 is an okay earphone but it is closer to the S2 than the S4 in sound quality. The S2 can be found for ~$25 and remains the better deal for those who must buy Klipsch. After half a week of burn-in I still feel that the S3 combines all of the weaknesses of the S4 and S2 in a single earphone - it is a little boomy but much worse than that it has some treble spikes that just won't go away. Sibilance and harshness are a problem on some tracks (just as with the S4) and the soundstage is tubular - i.e. lacking in depth and height (just as with the S2). Plus the plasticky housings are bigger than those of the S4 and have sharp edges at the front. Inserting them deeply can be painful - the S2 is way more friendly towards the ear. It's not all bad - the S3 does have slightly more prominent mids than the S4 and the clarity is good for $50 - but I'd grab the Thinksound TS01 if I wanted something a little boomy and a little harsh in the price bracket without sacrificing immersion or timbre.

I won't waste my money on S3 at all, I would rather buy VSonic GR02 Bass Edition which has got much higher rating in Sound Quality than on the S4.

@NoasArcAngel

You should have gone for VSonic GR02 Bass Edition. No IEM in the market can touch this IEM in sound quality at this price range or may be slightly more than their price, it even scores higher than the Brainwavz M2 in sound quality. M2 is currently priced at approx. 3200~3500 shipped.

Check this review - Klipsch Image S3 Review

Its much better vfm than s4 according to the guy there. I kind of agree with him after a week's usage.

 

[High-Fidelity]

Check this review - Klipsch Image S3 Review

Its much better vfm than s4 according to the guy there. I kind of agree with him after a week's usage.

You still didn't get me

Image S3 is a tier below the S4 and in the biggest IEM thread S4 only got 6.7/10.

Moreover joker said "I've had the S3 for about a week and while I haven't written up a full review, I can only give this warning - don't bother. The S3 is an okay earphone but it is closer to the S2 than the S4 in sound quality."

I would rather spend the same amount on VSonic GR02 Bass Edition knowing that S3 is clearly inferior before VSonic GR02 Bass Edition in SQ.

 

[NoasArcAngel]

you don't need VSonic and I don't the reason behind this.

I won't spend my money on the brand name rather than for the SQ. If I am getting much better sound quality at the same price as the klipsch so why would I spend my money on klipsch?? just for the brand name?

I would rather spend my money on VSonic GR02 Bass Edition and get the much much better sound quality rather than spending money on klipsch.

VSonic has much better range in IEMs than the klipsch at the moment. The only klipsch which has got high rating in SQ is klipsch image x10 and at the price of x10, there are many more IEMs available with same SQ rating.

good for you. unfortunately i would rather not look at what other people have to say when i decide to buy my own piece of earphones. So you can take your sound quality ratings to the ditch.

and before making such posts just realize not everyone is like you. So please. you have proved your point and hopefully i have proven mine.

 

[bagdeabhishek]

Hey Guys I was going to get the Klipsch Promedia In ear phones for Rs. 3500 from infibeam since they are almost klipsch image s4's but branded for gaming...since they are for gaming the site has got a discount of almost 500 on it...so is it a worthy buy or should i look elsewhere?