I had the triport once. Bought it at RM300, so RM245 is quite good.
What I can say is that it is very comfortable. It doesn't feel secure to me, as if it's going to fall off any moment, but it doesn't fall off. The bass, although powerful, can sometimes overpower other freq. It has ZERO isolation, hence why the bass had to be upped considerably to deliver bass with a decent impact. It sounds quite good though, a bit overpriced I think.

Oh yeah, be careful with the cables. Ssince they don't have strain relief, the cable can disintegrate at the jack and stalk of the earphones after a few months with vigorous movements.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Jul 12 2010, 01:00 AM

Just use one your very familiar with so that you can easily point out what's missing or what's new that you didn't expect to hear.

I'm reading mixed reviews. Some say that the bass covers up other sounds quite a bit. Some say they can hear things they've never even heard of in their music when using the Atrio.

So which one is it, does it reveal details or cover them up?
Nevertheless, I'm still buying one next year. I'm getting myself one of the bass kings of IEM!!

Yes I have seen fake Sonys before. Very easy to tell from the packaging, but still if you want to be safe, go to a Sony Centre.

Yes, and after purchase, you can check it online to see if its real. I'm not sure about the lower end IEMs, but The Sonys I ever bought came with a scratch card thingy with a serial number that you can use to check whether they're genuine or not.

I dunno if they let you audition one just for testing, but they let me hear it before a purchase. I wonder if I didn't purchase it, maybe they wouldn't let me hear it.

Yes, highly recommended for an IEM within that price range.
Although the bass adjusting knob is only noticeable to the trained ears, it will be noticeable.
The PL30 has a good quality bass, superb clarity for its price, and frankly the black one is quite good looking.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Nov 28 2010, 09:25 AM

I had the PL30. Although it sound good and looks good, it can be quite fiddly to fit in your ear. There's a bit of learning in trying to put them on. But if you get it right, it will be RM100 well spent.

I had 4 IEMs within your budget. SoundMAGIC PL50, SoundMAGIC PL30, Hippo Shrom EB and Sony MDR-EX300.

The best sounding are the PL50 and EB to me, but the bass only emphasises on quality and not quantity(PL50 is the warmer one), but very refined and transparent. Though it can get a bit frustrating if you want the bass to be more pronounced with some music. The bassiest is the EX300 although can be muddy with music containing heavy bass tracks and vocals are a bit recessed(overpowered a bit by music). The cheapest is the PL30 and has the amount of bass between the EB and the EX300 but leaning a bit more towards the EB. That means the bass is well behaved and with the knob at clear bass(the bass is adjustable via a knob), will do the job well at presenting the low stuff while still retaining detail. Good with even the deep bass setting. Do not overwhelm with volume though or it can get a bit muddy.

I don't know how J-rock sounds though so I dunno a specific IEM that caters the music. But the 4 I mentioned are very very different in sound signature.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Dec 4 2010, 07:24 PM

You can get used to it after a week. I migrated from EB to PL50 quite easily. I find the extra little bass quite enjoyable. Doesn't sacrifice detail as well. The vocals on the PL50 though, especially females' to me is great.

You won't regret it. Unless you want bass of course.
However, I do have fit issues when using the silicon tips. I use the foam tips provided, or Sony's Hybrid silicon tips(ones you find on MDR series earphones) but those are quite expensive but very comfortable. Your milage may vary.

In terms of quality the 50.
In terms of quantity the 30. Although not by much still noticeable.
Forgot to add, the 50 does need a bit more volume to shine. Makes sense since of the technology. It is my first Balanced armature IEM and after testing it, apparently it's quite true. If you want more bass with the 50, EQ seems to work quite well.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Dec 4 2010, 11:42 PM

EQ is Equalizer. You can change how loud certain frequencies should be to make them stand out more/less.

Quality bass doesn't get all muddied up. They're tight and precise, never gets all wobbly and "broken". They also don't cover up other sounds like the singer's voice, or the lead guitar, etc.
Quantity refers to how loud it is and how hard the bass hits. You can actually feel the beat pressing against your head.
You can get both but everything that I know of that does that seems to be out of your budget.

The PL30's bass does seem to lose it just a tiny bit at a higher volume. The PL50 has a better volume threshold, it can get louder and the quality holds. Although at those volumes, it'll be too loud for comfort anyway.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Dec 5 2010, 12:16 AM

But do note that the PL30's bass is only very marginally inferior to the PL50 in terms of quality.
But I'd recommend the PL50 anyways, the amount on the PL30 isn't THAT much more.

There's a forumer here who sells them. search for WS Tradings.
Normally audiophiles don't use them simply because the inferior once shapes and colours the sound too much it can sound so artificial and so wrong. Most tend to ignore those settings. There are some good ones but usually on higher-end machines and require more processing power but still won't make the sound natural.

EDIT: Wait, I just found out you're not in Malaysia. Maybe he'll send it to you there, PM him. Or find a trustworthy online store.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Dec 5 2010, 07:13 AM

It's actually AKG HA450. It's an accessory kit.

Some argue that the noise cancellation feature might affect the sound that is playing in the IEM or headphone itself. Noise cancellation cancels out noise by emitting a frequency that is out of phase with the noise, so when the two meet, they both cancel out each other. Some of that might leak into the device and cancel whatever freq that coincidentally is at the same wavelength and at the right phase.

According to my logic and limited knowledge at least.

The best burn-in is your music. The best volume....I can't say. Well, I'd say your comfortable volume but you might be a loud listener or a very soft listener.

Headphones within that price range with good performance is hard to find.

I dunno their prices but you might wanna check some of Soundmagic's range of headphones, the P10 and P20.
There's a seller called maninkl. Search for him, he has a thread, PM him for price. I think they will be within your budget.
These are meant for music though so they're not headsets and so no mic for gaming. Also these seems to have good bass, but not much of it.
Owh, and one more thing, they're tiny.

This post has been edited by tunertoobe: Dec 20 2010, 07:19 PM

How good are they?
I think I saw one near my place but too afraid to spend on it (eventhough they're friggin' affordable).

How bout Hippo Boom? The name says it all.
But g3n0c|d3's suggestion of PL21 is not bad either, and it is cheaper.