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Looking for cheap IEMs

dean owens

dean owens

Sep 23, 2008
718
25
pittsboro, nc
www.ccf-unc.org
#1
Aren't we all.

Quick backstory. I've been a bassist for the last 25 years. I've played guitar about as long. My only outlet to play now is in church ever other weekend. Although most of my time with this church (last 10 years) has been on bass, I have been the primary lead guitar player for about the last 2 years. In the last year I've played bass maybe twice.

About six months ago our church got Avioms. Great concept, but I hate 'em. The main reason I hate them is because with my $20.00 earbuds, the bass and drums distort. My options are to use the earbuds and just turn the bass and drums down (obviously this only works on guitar)... or don't have any monitors and hear as best I can. Believe it or not, this is what I do and it works so much better than the earbuds. On bass, I just go with no monitors. I can hear enough FOH, along with standing next to the drum cage, that I don't get lost.

So, I'm not someone who is making a living with this. I play 20-30 times a year. I'm mainly on guitar now but do play some bass still. And that could change depending on what musicians start coming. I would need something that would work for bass... but it doesn't have to be perfect. Something suited for guitar that will work for bass.

I'm looking for that perfect place where spending very little meets good sound... doesn't have to be great sound. 1964 ears seem to be all the rage but are more than I was hoping to spend. Do y'all have any suggestions for me?
 
#3
You might want to try out the Shure SE215's before you dive straight into the IEM world. I use these all the time and the bass sounds good through them and they are comfortable to wear even though they aren't molded. And they are cheap! Only $99. Avioms don't really sound that great in my experience, so if you buy IEMs, you might find that the bass is still distorted coming out of the Avioms.
 
#4
seanieb said:
You might want to try out the Shure SE215's before you dive straight into the IEM world. I use these all the time and the bass sounds good through them and they are comfortable to wear even though they aren't molded. And they are cheap! Only $99. Avioms don't really sound that great in my experience, so if you buy IEMs, you might find that the bass is still distorted coming out of the Avioms.
Click to expand...
I have a pair of those as well and I think they are a great entry level IEM and for casual listening. The fitting doesn't work for everyone, depends on the shape of your ear. For me, it's really easy to forget I'm even wearing them sometimes.
 
#6
Keep in mind that I'm the farthest thing there is from an audio snob. I don't hear subtle differences that some people have arguments over.

In the last year I've used both the Shure SE215 and the Westone dual drivers. Both are far superior to the typical $20 ear buds. The Westones were better enough to make the price difference between the two worth it but the Shures would have sufficed.
 
#7
Yup, Avioms have pretty crappy sound quality in the mids and down low. There isn't much you can do, and even 1964ears won't help (I have Quads). To get around this, I bought a decent headphone amp and fed the Aviom out into the Aux in of my 3leaf Enabler....Im sure this isn't much of suggestion since you don't want to spend too much on this.

I would suggest on getting some decent I ears that are known to be inherently bassy...this should help fill out the Avioms weak sound. I'm not a fan of Shure inear's sound (except the 535) and their prices are a bit more than the actual sound quality IMHO, so I would recommend Philips 3590 (cheap but great sounding bass and Sub-bass), Soundmagic E10, MeElectronic Sp51-bk, Monster Turbines, etc... The key to the best sound possible here will be to get some Comply foam tips for whichever IEMs you end up buying.
 
#8
While I'm at...getting a good mix on the Avioms is crucial. If you don't know how to do this, here's what I do:
Press "group" then "mute" to put all the channels at 0. Then I set the EQ to noon and the volume to about 1:00 or just before I start to hear hiss in my IEMs. Then I set the volumes of the following in order and panned dead center--click track, loop, bass, drums (if mixed on one channel). Then I'll set vocals and pan them to different degrees around the center (lead vocal goes center). Guitars and keys are last and are panned most of the time to either hard right or left. This gives me a decent soundstage and allows me to focus on the what matters most....time/groove and lead vocal.
 
#9
Yea, I agree about getting a good mix in the Avioms. Panning tracks like guitars and keyboards away from each other can help avoid adding distortion. When everything is panned to the center, it can get really muddy and distorted.

Also, the Shure SE215s come with three different size ear buds so you can easily customize then to the size of your ear.
 
#11
Dean, I'm another one with Westones -- the newer UM Pro 20. I go for a loose fit because I have VERY bad problems with occlusion, which ruins everything for me as a vocalist. So I use the silicone tips, not the memory foam ones, because they tend NOT to seal as well. And I don't seat the tips very deep. Of course this loose fit means no bass, so, like you, I "get" the bass from the house system bleeding past the silicone tips. The delay is negligible so my timing isn't affected. Everything else comes through the Westones. With the loose fit, the sound is lightweight, but I can hear things well enough to get the job done.

There is a familiarization period for this non-standard way of doing things, however, so I try to practice at home with the Westones in, the material I'm playing along with running through a small mixer into my ears, but the BG signal NOT running into my ears, and a small amp off to the side set at low volume. That mimics the live situations and helps me stay "dialed in" to that method of hearing. (Hope I explained that okay.)

BTW, I bought the 20s rather than the 10s so I could get good bass for charting bass parts before I get started actually learning them. Then when the charts are done, I "un-seat" the Westones (i.e. go back to the loose fit) and fire up the separate bass amp. But if you don't need really deep bass, you might be fine with the 10s.

Hope this helps.
 
#12
Ricky Caboverde said:
Yup, Avioms have pretty crappy sound quality in the mids and down low. There isn't much you can do, and even 1964ears won't help (I have Quads). To get around this, I bought a decent headphone amp and fed the Aviom out into the Aux in of my 3leaf Enabler....Im sure this isn't much of suggestion since you don't want to spend too much on this.
Click to expand...
Dunno what is being fed into tour Aviom's, but the ones at my church have plenty of range and I play bass and use the same 1964 Quads.
Great IEM's, and I have so much bass it's silly. We usually have 2 acoustics, 2 electrics, 4-5 singers, keys, drums and bass all going and I have no issues hearing it all.. tho' I do tend to cut back on the acoustics and pan electrics L/R of center.. the rest is center.

If folks are getting distorted sound in their ears, they are over-driving their buds.. which is #1 bad for your buds, and #2 bad for your ears. Turn down the master and adjust individual channel levels. IF that doesn't work and you can't hear what you need to, then you probably need bette IEM's than single drivers.. my quads will blow my head ff before they distort.
 
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#13
s0c9 said:
Dunno what is being fed into tour Aviom's, but the ones at my church have plenty of range and I play bass and use the same 1964 Quads.
Great IEM's, and I have so much bass it's silly. We usually have 2 acoustics, 2 electrics, 4-5 singers, keys, drums and bass all going and I have no issues hearing it all.. tho' I do tend to cut back on the acoustics and pan electrics L/R of center.. the rest is center.

If folks are getting distorted sound in their ears, they are over-driving their buds.. which is #1 bad for your buds, and #2 bad for your ears. Turn down the master and adjust individual channel levels. IF that doesn't work and you can't hear what you need to, then you probably need bette IEM's than single drivers.. my quads will blow my head ff before they distort.
Click to expand...

Its not the range that bothers me, but rather the sound quality of the Avioms. The bass is flabby sounding, the mids are muddy, and the treble is sibilant depending on mix at the house board. Its an awesome tool but not the best sound quality. My church has moved on to use Allen & Heath ME1 and there is quite a noticeable difference in SQ.

Before we got ME1s, I was plugging the Aviom's feed into the aux of my 3leaf Enabler in order to get a better tone in my ears. Then at least my bass was coming through the Enabler and the mix through the aux ...I don't care how good the rest of the band sounds as long as I can hear them :p
 
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#15
Staying out of the IEM subject, but I gotta say, the newer Aviom A360 systems that came out last last year are far superior in sound quality than the older 16ii models. I was frankly shocked at the difference. We have two rooms, the big room, and a smaller, more "intimate" room. The big room has the newer Avioms while the small room has the older units (which will be upgraded shortly to the new ones. I had been disappointed in the A16ii's audio quality for several years and really disliked playing with them. But you do what ya gotta do.

If you have the older units, the upgrade to the newer A360 units is well worth the expense. WELL worth it.

I understand from some friends that the IEM system that Behringer makes is quite decent, too.
 
#16
Guys,

I want to thank you all. And Ricky, thanks for the tips on getting the most out of the Avioms. I'm going to find some time to get over to the church building and start playing around to see what I can do.

Because of price, and the amount of recommendations, I went with the Shure SE215s. I hooked them up to my computer and I have to say that the sound quality is pretty good. I was hearing things in songs I hadn't heard before. The bass was pretty good... not great... but much better than anything else I had used. Gives me hope I can get some good sounds out of the Avioms.

Only issue I'm having is comfort. I've discovered I have a small ear by trying out the different foam tips. The small ones feel much better. I think it's all something I'm just going to have to get used to.
 
#18
I've used the aviom system the last 7 years. No issues. I stand next to the drummer so I don't put any drums through my IEM's. Some bass, vocals, guitar so I can sing in key, and the click. I use the cheap Westone set w no issues. I do have my amp on stage though. If I was amp less is probably use my Shure 425's. Good luck!
 

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