Anarchist:

All I know is I had bought a new set of headphones shortly before the Pilgrammage.  Then Klipsch sprung these on us and I was very interested because I had identified a variety of "issues" with mine.  After evaluating a number of different models, I identified THE Klipsch headphone to have.  Clarity, loudness and comfort were my concern and I was thrilled because the cost was relatively cheap... THEN that head engineer pointed out I was mistaken and had selected the most expensive model.  Just my luck.

Professor Thump:

In the near future I will be going over the details of each design so you the consumer can make an easier decision as to which IE/PM you should buy.  This will include the best applications of each design and how I believe each ergonomic design and voicing will benefit the user.

Mark,

I am looking forward to the details as I spent most of my time at the Pilgrimage listening to the IMAGE model.  VERY comfortable and AWESOME sound and so incredibly tiny.  Definitely wins in the coolness factor. 

The entry level model (I think) I tried was also surprisingly comfortable and delivered AWESOME sound.  I can't say that I yet know which model is THE Klipsch earphone to have though I do really LOVE the IMAGE model.  I can say that the bendable wire model I tried was also very comfortable.  I'm not sure it was as comfortable as the IMAGE but not sure it wasn't, a bit more effort to insert correctly and not as cool, but it's the sound that matters anyway and I don't think I'd be disappointed with any of the models when it comes to the sound.  I'd been thinking  it was time to upgrade my headphones for quite some time before the Pilgrimage and am very glad I didn't. 

If the public cares at all about sound quality, the Klipsch phones should sell like crazy.  The IMAGE model will also appeal to those who just got to have the coolest.  

The Legendary Sound Of Klipsch that fits in the palm of your hand, or maybe that you can wear would be better?.  How cool is that?

Congratulations on an AWESOME line of products.  

Ben 

In one of my previous lives I was a legal secretary.  I was extremely proficient in shorthand, but the attorney I worked for preferred to use a "Dictaphone".  I hated that thing.  The ear plugs were awful.  The black foam rubber was itchy and scratchy.  The earphones did not have a secure fit, which required constant adjusting in your ear.  You could hear everything going on in the office around you, over the dictator's voice.  The phones ringing, typewriters(computers weren't in everyday office use in the early 80's), secretaries talking about their weekend adventures, all while trying to type a ten or fifteen page pleading.  All of the outside noise influence would require turning the volume level up on the Dictaphone earphones, which then caused distortion, not to mention severe headaches. 

After leaving that position I don't think I have used earphones/headphones for more than two hours total.  I couldn't stand having anything play directly in my ear.  That is....until I tried these earphones.

Listening through the earphones at the Klipsch Pilgrimage made me think back to those days.  While shorthand is almost obsolete, Dictaphones are still widely used in many office applications.  The use of the Klipsch earphone (if adaptable) with a Dictaphone would definitely be a major improvement over the standard black foam rubber earphones.

Just thinking out loud, again!

Professor Thump said:  "I guess this is why I have taken the time out of my busy schedule to jump onto this forum and explain our internal process."

Your presence here has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated!  I think I can speak for the entire group when I say "Thank You" for taking the time to talk with us about this wonderful product.

It was very hard to not say anything on the forum before now.  As a matter of fact, I think Jay (winner of a pair of earphones) almost spontaneously combusted  because he couldn't open his pie hole and tell everybody what he had won!

dtel's wife:

Your presence here has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated!  I think I can speak for the entire group when I say "Thank You" for taking the time to talk with us about this wonderful product.

It was very hard to not say anything on the forum before now.  As a matter of fact, I think Jay (winner of a pair of earphones) almost spontaneously combusted  because he couldn't open his pie hole and tell everybody what he had won!

 No... I need to thank all of you!  If it wasn't for your support Klipsch wouldn't be where they are today.  I think I am gonna cry...  But seriously, how many companys have the kind of loyalty that we have?  It is because of you that we can pursue our dreams and dink around with cool stuff every day.  This is a huge reason why we have been growing at the rate we have.  While other companies have been drying up financially we have become worldwide.   

I imagine you were climbing the walls not talking about our little secret project.  I bet Jay can't wait to see his new headphones. 

Jay, I got a pair at Kmart for you.  It was a blue light special.

Brad,
I am going to start calling you Gilligan from Gilligan's Island.  Oh I forgot you don't know who he is cause you weren't even born yet.  Wait a minute... the Howels had the Hawaian shirts. Didn't they?  Any way I will bring in some VHS tapes from that TV show.  Oh do you know what those are?  Your dad probably has some VHS tapes.

Let's get back to headphones.  What topics are people interested in?  Where will you use them the most?  Exercising? Commuting? (except drivers) at home?  When you are trying to block out your significant other? 

 No... Stick it IN your ear!

Mark,

 Thanks for the info on how the ear works with the in ear phones.  I suspect that the 2.8 khz gain in the ear canal is somewhat cancelled out by sounds coming in through the ear?  Maybe aborbed somewhat by the outer ear so equalized to flatten it out?  Otherwise, it would seem that flat frequency response would also be desired for in the ear earphones.  Fascinating stuff. 

In response to you most recent post

Most interested in

• Technical information and how the ear system works (outer, canal, etc) is very interesting but naturally you can't post too much here and it'd be way above my head anyway but post as much as you see fit.  The advantages of the dual armature model over the single armature model to determine if I want or think I need to hold out for the dual armature model
• Voicings and characteristics of each model to aid in deciding which one I have to have, or which one I can "settle" for.  Don't think the Minister of Finance would understand spending $349 on earphones no matter how good they sound.  The IMAGE definitely has the COOL and gotta have it groove going but just don't see it fitting into my budget anytime soon (come on powerball)

Where will I use them most

• Listening to music while I work - it helps me focus and block out the distractions - added bonus that I annoy my coworkers less - the abitlity to loosen to be able to let in some outside sounds could be handy, at least to hear the phone ringing.  Currently use a 60 GB Creative Labs Zen Xtra Nomad Jukebox, mp3s encoded with included software using the sliding algorithm in the midlle - most appear as 200 to 300+ bit rate in file properties but not sure - might find I need to bump up the bit rate a bit      
• Listening to music doing yard work - don't do this now but the isolation capabilities of the Klipsch IE phones could protect my hearing and make mowing the yard more enjoyable - too stubborn or annoyed by the hot sweaty over the ear hearing protectors (you're not alone on that one) and don't like those foam hearing protectors very well either though I need to start using something while I still have some hearing
• Listening to music while repainting soccer fields - next fall, assuming I last another year as won't be available soon enough this fall (unless you want to send out a set for testing) - finally got around to trying this and made the task much more enjoyable - will have to watch the paint mist closer for the larger cloud as normally indentify empty can by change in sound (wonder how much dain bramage has occurred over the past yew fears?) as I'm sure I'd want the full seal for optimum bass
• Road trips (definitely not while driving) - if I'm not using them I'm sure our youngest daugher will be (the mp3 player is AWESOME for road trips, even with crappy factory sound .... )  Might even be usable on a plane though I fly very little
• Commuting if I ever again have a long commute on PT - would've loved a set of these when I worked in downtown Chicago and spent a lot of time on the bus and train, (would've loved an mp3 player then too)

The oval ear tips seem so obvious - just stick your finger in your ear - my index finger fits perfectly vertically, not so well horizontal.  So maybe that observation in itself was a stroke of genius - forgetting everything you know long enough to see the obvious.  I bet a lot of people are going (@%#$!) why didn't we think of that?

A product I can hardly wait to stick in my ears.  Thought I'd never say that. 

I would say "Stick it in your ears!" but you already do.

Thumper?

blsamuel:

In response to you most recent post

Most interested in

• Technical information and how the ear system works (outer, canal, etc) is very interesting but naturally you can't post too much here and it'd be way above my head anyway but post as much as you see fit.  The advantages of the dual armature model over the single armature model to determine if I want or think I need to hold out for the dual armature model
• Voicings and characteristics of each model to aid in deciding which one I have to have, or which one I can "settle" for.  Don't think the Minister of Finance would understand spending $349 on earphones no matter how good they sound.  The IMAGE definitely has the COOL and gotta have it groove going but just don't see it fitting into my budget anytime soon (come on powerball)

The oval ear tips seem so obvious - just stick your finger in your ear - my index finger fits perfectly vertically, not so well horizontal.  So maybe that observation in itself was a stroke of genius - forgetting everything you know long enough to see the obvious.  I bet a lot of people are going (@%#$!) why didn't we think of that?

In regards to your ear canal response you do have a resonance in the 2-3kHz range but you have trained your brain to believe that this is a flat response.  Go figure!!! 

You bring up a great point... Your fingers are some what oval which makes for an easy demo that anyone can do for checking to see if your ears are oval.

There are a lot of consumers who are confused about which earphone to choose.  This is understandable. The earphones have one or two or maybe even three little thingies inside them and the more thingies the higher the price.  It just doesn't make sense to the average consumers, so what is difference?

At first...When I was a virgin user of balanced armature technology, I was working at Apple Computer. We had an earphone company come to Apple to demonstrate their single armature (arm) product.  Many people didn't like it because you have to jam it into your ear all the way to your brain, or at least this is what the 3 flange ear tip felt like to most users.  For those users that didn’t get a seal (where the air leaks out of the canal) which was a majority of users, they complained about not having any bass.  I couldn't believe they were saying this. The design had reasonable bass; they just weren't using it correctly.  This is when I first realized that a better solution is needed.  The creature comforts were not considered.

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!

Mark,

Thanks for the info.  I think that any model will be an improvement over my current over the ear headphones (Grado SR60 - Grado headphones are  hard to beat for the money).  And I believe you get what you pay for.  For some popular speaker brands it's marketing, with Klipsch it's sound quality.   

My short take on each model.

Custom 1   -   Awesome sound, friendly on the budget

Custom 2   -   Even better sound, better highs, lows, and less distortion - and naturally a few $ more than Custom 1

Custom 3   -   Insanely good sound - probably doesn't get any better at a reasonable cost

IMAGE   -   Sound quality probably close or better than the Custom 2, maybe even approaches the 3,  unbelievable comfort, just pop them in

So which do I have to have?  Don't know yet.  Maybe it's good I didn't really try 'em all at the Pilgrimage.  Current finances say Custom 1.  Thinking long term may at least want the Custom 2.  If money was no object, probably the IMAGE and Custom 3.  The kids would also want the IMAGE for their mp3 players once they found out how good they sound and are so comfortable that one would tend to forget there's something in your ears. 

So stick a set in your ears.  A lot of people here on the Forum are looking forward to the day they can stick a set in their ears.  (Especially Jay and whoever else won a pair at the Pilgrimage).  I hope the market demand exceeds expectations.  I suspect the IMAGE has the best chance of that due to the unbelievably good sound from such a tiny and forget they're in your ears comfortable 'phone.  Should become a must have for a lot of people.     

Ben

3. Industrial Design - We incredible resources on ID every year, designing great looks under the tutelage of Glenn Fuller.  The public won't buy many of these if they look like doggy dudu.  Headphone are very personal not only in comfort but looks.  We are all vain in some ways and look are important cause others judge us by our look first. So this thing needs to be like a fine piece of jewelry that you can be proud to wear every day.  Some of the models are more discrete.  IMAGE is very unobtrusive you almost can't tell that they are wearing PM's.  You also won't get mugged  as easily for wearing a white cable cable plugged into your ear advertising your beautifully expensive iPod. 

Over the weekend I preferred to wear mine (when not in use) with the iPod in shirt pocket and the luxurious woven cord (I still like the cloth covering) slung around my neck so the Custom 3's would dangle in sight, like an expensive bit of jewelry (you in the balcony just rattle your jewelry). Didn't start any conversations because it's supposed to be hush hush, but can imagine that like the 'white cord' in advertising, we want these complex little sound machines dangling over the shoulders of people everywhere! It IS an image thing, it's a status symbol, the colors silver and gold display wealth. And with my hair, they were COMPLETELY INVISIBLE when in operation.

Heck, the general public might even recognize the Klipsch brand name after a while...

Professor Thump -  I have Seasons 1 and 2 of Gilligan's Island on DVD.  I've watched them with my kids, and still enjoy them from when I was watching the re-runs after school as a kid.  Forget the vhs - get the dvd. 

Colterphoto - if you need a guinea pig to do some free advertising, I would be happy to replace my ugly white earphones with some (donated?) Klipsch ones.  I typically make it over to Lifetime fitness about 3 days a week, sweating to RUSH 2112 on the treadmills.  It might drum-up a little more buzz...