Hi guys, after 30 hours burn in, i think this is the right time for me the review this X3i and XBi...it come to my tough time as i finally found that i m not really a good reviewer coz i have to make sure i m fair to giving most accurate views after my listening, and thus i decide to change my style for reviewing by compare it with songs....rather than criticizing which are good and bad...
and let me give some introduction, x3i is claimed to have warmer signature while xbi having dark signatures, pls do mind that xbi do have the better response of low frequency which is BASS,
but pls do not think that x3i doesn't perform well with low frequency(bass) as this is wrong, this new model x3i do have a very good bass impact and personally i found that it is more than enuf for every single ordinary users who excluded hard-rock,metal :S..so u might ask me, what is the point of having x3i since it bass loss to xbi, as my thought, M'sia tend to overly influences by those philips,sony brand which brought us the view that high bass=good sounds, i extremely disagree with this as those unquality bass does nt sound sweet to me ( i have found that what kind of bass is quality, this incurred learning of "listening" as to every single sound), as i m not really going to comment all others stuff, so i will stop criticizing others products
ok, let's start my own evaluations...
Iriver H120
Ibasso D1 DAC
Ibasso D1 AMP
CrossRoads Mylarone XBi
CrossRoads Mylarone X3i
Susan Wong - Close to you
In this songs, i found that x3i have very good instrument response with very good separation, and yes the vocals really sweet to me, and it enable me to enjoy on the "wet" vocals of the singers. Come to xbi, it have slightly dark signature where you can exactly felt the story of the songs, but with less lively kind of presentations, but this is more closer to those Hi-fi systems, which i found quite numbers of hi-fi systems having very dark signatures, the bass response is superb here and u can exactly felt the drum impacts here.
Susan Wongs - Killing me softly
let start on xbi firts, yeah, the xbi signature defintely present better on this songs as it faithfully represents how sad the singers are, having very good separations but yet it give you impact each instrument accurately. as for x3i, u can exactly focus on the vocals of susan and u can even listen her breath in the beginning, with more refined vocals "shadow", sufficient low frequency response with more lively presentations, giving the totally different feels on this songs which compare to xbi.
Emi Fujita - Best of my love
x3i having quite good synergy with this songs, the background instrument is very refined, u would c alot of instrument at the background, which i felt soundstage wider than xb. go to xbi, i felt it is pretty not suit as slightly forwards signatures with narrow soundstages which compare x3i.
Martin Monoit son Portian au Marche
the high frequency of xbi in this songs really surprises me, almost go near to my hd580 at my memory, i was like omg once it reach the high frequency. however, x3i do perform quite well, having almost same level which compare to xbi, but due to laid back signature, thus the excitement of the songs is like slightly worse off which compare to x3i, but both of this new model really shock me as previous mylar doesnt perform well in high frequency.
Norah Jones - Not too late
x3i seen to have better seperations but xbi do perform very well on the impact of instrument, due to well perform of mid low frequency.nothing surprises me but i was quite enjoy with the sound on xbi due to slightly dark signatures, it really suit this songs very well.
Jay Chow - The longest story
x3i do perform very well in this songs, the vocals from x3i do giving u the feeling of sad, and u can exact feeling like jay chow is very very sad while recording songs, and due to good sources, first time i found that jay chow sang really well, and he do really improve alot of singing skills, ops out of topic ald, change to xbi, i do find it perform equally good but not as to the style i like,it is another kinds of feelings when xbi wear in, and u can get the feelings of sadness, but i do really enjoy of clear and touch vocal for Chinese pop songs.
in conclusion, i can tell u guys that i myself really hard to choose among this, that's y so many ppl in spore actually buy 2 in order to avoid the selection, both are equaly good, the mose common method to say that u like vocal take x3i, u like bass take xbi, which i felt it might not be accurate but we are forced to say so.actually x3i do perform well in low frequency(bass), just not as strong like sbi, and sbi do have a very good vocal, just not as good as x3i, so i have to say that, if i were to select this 2, i will get 2. it is really really hard to choose
added on svi and lbias promised , this is my comparison on the new lbi and svi...
alrite, let me talk about what shall i compare 1st, i will compare
x3i vs svi
x3i vs lbi
* i do not compare lbi and xbi as it is really similar, very similar, the only differences is the bass level
before start, let me introduce on the new lbi and svi.
svi is the low bass version of x3i, which sound similar to etymotic, having a bright signature, but clear seperation.
lbi is the low bass version of xbi, having less bass than xbi, but still retained its dark/cool signatures.
x3i and svi.i do not going to compare it songs by songs as to the proper review format, but i will tell on general, what is the differences, i felt this shall be more appropriate as they sound is pretty similar, it is not like an apple and oranges, so i dont think i need to tell any single details for both. All rite, the svi is basically low bass of x3i, having the same little laid back signatures, with the new svi, i felt it similar to etymotic signatures, which give u clearer separations than x3i, with less but accurate bass. but most of us shall forsee that bright signature doesn't give lively involvement, i do have to admit so but to be honest, it give a real, and accurate involvement rather than bass bumping. svi having better separation, this might resulted as remove of low frequency distortion. without focus on low freq, it giving clear vocal(clearer breath sounding), and greater drum impact. svi giving greater details but i shall say, it is the mind sets problem, coz when bass is focus, some mid-range details shall be ignored but when bass isnt focus, u could actually pick up all the details easily. it is a good start for entry level guys, who keen to furhter their purchases on etymotic, u can get that and try how was the signature, who know somebody might love that after that, it is more neutral, the bass is accurate, when it is not there, u wont listen any bass, i shall sound abit like IM716. svi do sound good after adding an amp, it is more obvious when compared to x3i but provided the amp is good enuf to push this easy drive IEM. it make more airy, rounded bass and warm down the signature by adding my RA The Secret
x3i vs lbiallrite guys, i will say, lbi is equally good when compare to x3i, as being read so many review, i assume that u guys understand how xbi sound, it is dark/cool signatures, same as lbi, it is same dark and cool, it is more on forward signatures, which give u super involvement feels as darken sound. it suit to listen on hi-fi songs as for darker feelings. Back to the topic, when it compare to x3i, on the bass level, i shall say still lbi is one small little tiny step up from x3i, it is not as strong as xbi, but the bass level is more than enuf for most of the users. lbi having a clear forward sound, with less focus treble, meaning less digital but more analog sounds. it give u different kinds of feelings when u listen on x3i and lbi, i will not conclude which is good, which is bad, but i clearly have to tell u guys, it is honda and toyota, it is really hard to tell , which is good, as it greatly depend on ur preferences. as for x3i, i think i do not talk much on that, as u can refer that on the sales record and customer feedbacks. When i done all this comparison, i shall always remind u guys, when i said xbi or lbi bass good, i do not implied that x3i bass lousy, no bass. I don't know why most of the users always make assumption that x3i having a low or lousy bass. but as for non-basshead users, x3i confirmed to have enuf bass for you. Most of the customer asking me that, how come x3i having this good bass.......so , pls do not assume that....xbi/lbi good in bass, x3i lousy in bass....
this is the bass level ranking
xbi>Lbi>x3i>svi
thks for ur time.
This post has been edited by yuheng: May 2 2008, 09:51 PM 
Nov 22 2007, 10:10 PM, updated 18y ago
. The new packaging also looks nicer.
By the look of it, many would say the new shell is small and looks weird to fit in. In fact, it's more comfortable than the previous version (as least to me) as it's freaking light weight, you don't feel anything sticking into your ears. 
The new flex is softer and it will just slid in your ears, good seal is promised, we have a lot of choices too right? (double flange etc). 
) The XBi seems to have better 3D imaging to me, gotta consult the experts and ask their opinions. 
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