This is my quick review for the Sony XBA-C10. 0 - 10 hours.

My preference: Bright, analytic, cold sound signature. My reference IEMs are Unique Melody Mage. 4 BA drivers custom IEMs.

My main usage is for listening to lectures, podcasts and talk show from a cheap Android phone during 1 hour +/way commuting in KTM Komuter, and waiting for public transport. The media files are MP3s and AACs at (25kb/s bitrate) @22050 KHz sampling rate)

Soundstage: Who cares. I want to hear SOUND not the echo, reverberation of a room. IMHO, soundstage is closely related to sound signature. Basically, forward mid, such as vocal, makes the sound stage smaller. Just as simple like that.

My first impression was, the bass is bigger than it's body/size. I am amazed how the tiny single BA can produce that kind of bass quantity. It's warm and reminds the Westone UM3Xs, but with slightly brighter treble and less warm.


Cosine wave frequency sweep. Generated using 'siggen' Linux tool, at 48000 kHz sampling rate, connected to iBasso D10 via TOSLINK SPDIF.

Bass : Starts at 16 Hz,
30-40 Hz sub-bass : Clear
80-120 Hz: Bass. clear
Bass is clear and not boomy or over emphasized at all, but not for basshead.

Mid:
500-2Khz : Mid, about same or slightly higher level than 120Hz : Natural or warm vocal, but slightly laid-back. UM3Xs are very warm and sounds "BIG'.

2.5-7.kHz : High-Mid to Treble: Louder than 1kHz. : Good treble impact for most of the string instuments.
8-15 kHz : High-Treble, rolled off steeply.
Triangle sounds less sparkling. It also make it less airier and analytic than PFE 112.


Conclusion:
Overall soundsignature for XBA-C10 is between PFE 112 and UM3Xs. Very nice for vocal, lectures, talkshow genre. It not emphasis any bass or treble, make it well balanced sound.

The XBA-C10s preform very well in these categories
1), Size : Small, just like PFE without the stems.It fit snugly in my ears

2) Weight: Very lightweight, I don't feel anything hanging from my ears.

3) Cable: Thin, small and lightweight. I am using the "cord/cable adjuster" to make cable shorhter and neatly fit into my shirt's pocket. I also have Bayerdynamic XP3s, but the flat cable is bluky, heavy,.. not my taste. This is one of the reasons I bought the XBA-C10. Other IMEs such as Mage and UM3X's cable also very nice and easy to use as well. For portable audio listening, cable/cord also a very important item to think about.

4) Cheap. I bought it for £30.99 from Amazon UK. For that price, the sound is wonderful. Excellent cost performance.

5) Excellent noise isolation. I almost forgot which KTM stations I had passed. , because the in-train announcement was almost inaudible, while concentrating to the lecture/talk show.

6) Easy to drive. Can be use without amping. Amping makes better and solid sound, but, without amp also very nice too.

Thank you

This post has been edited by bahathir: May 20 2013, 01:02 PM

TDK BA200. I never tried it yet, but it is one of the candidates which I want to buy, but, I want to have a simple and easy to use during commuting. If the BA200 have similar sound signature similar to UM3X, then it is quite useless to have another similar sounding IEMs , and UM3Xs are very comfortable too.

Thank you.