so massdrop got their hands exclusively on a new product from new force or for
products rather it's an entire lineup of balanced armature driver inar monitors
or imem the HM 2 4 6 and 8 and they've
got a rather unique drop running on them where you pay less than the retail price
of the least expensive unit with a 50% chance of getting one of the higher tier
ones they reached out to me to ask for a review of the lineup so this will be a
couple of firsts for me I've never actually formally reviewed a multi-
balanced armatur imem and at least I don't remember ever trying to make a
video about four products in the same family all at the same time so wish me
luck cooler Master's new master keys pro
and pro s keyboards provide 16.7 million color RGB backlighting genuine cherry MX
switches and an industry-leading ARM cortex processor learn more in the link
in the video description let's begin with everything these four products have
in common the accessory package is nearly identical across the board and
pretty darn impressive I might add everything comes packed in an air and
watertight polycarbonate case that while I personally wished was smaller to hold
only the accessor I'm actually likely to carry around with me others will likely
prefer the larger size so they can Chuck some other valuables in while they're
kaying or whatever it is that cool people do on the weekends inside that is
more goodies the smaller carrying case I asked for though not waterproof this
time a full complement of ear tips small medium and large silicone and medium and
large comply t00 foam ear tips I can't
use them because my ear canals are too small but they're a nice bonus if yours
aren't the last couple of accessories are a braided ofc copper apparently
there's silver in it too or something like that uh cable without a microphone and a
second cable with a microphone both
offer decent if unexceptional tangle resistance and the braided one looks
admittedly pretty cool one thing to watch out for here though is make sure
you plug your cable into the IM really firmly to engage the lock I made that
mistake a couple of times the last thing that's similar across the board is the
outer design of the housing they get heavier As you move up to the more
premium products but they feel very similar in the ear which is a really
good thing because IMO new Force nailed
the comfort of these they seal really well and offer noticeably better noise
isolation than my daily driver ie80s although it should be noted that they
don't transport you into a completely other world like the edotic er4 series
and they were comfortable even while lying down on my side a critical Factor
if you're like me and you sleep with your IM IMS in so with that out of the
way let's start at the the bottom of the product stack the HM 2s with their
single balanced armature design deliver a pretty clear analytical high-end with
one-dimensional though thankfully fairly Punchy bass I did find them a little
fatiguing to listen to as I prefer a more veiled high-end my closest point of
comparison to these sorry my earphone stable is a little limited is my $100
sure se215s by comparison those sounded boomy
with uncontrolled Bass and made lyricists sound like they were singing
through a blanket but at least they allowed me to
hear the hum background vocalists in better when I'm dancing by Megan Trainer
I could hardly even tell they were singing different notes with the HM tws
at Double the price for improved Comfort a better accessory package and a pretty
much a textbook comparison between the trade-offs that you make between Dynamic
drivers and balanced armature drivers I guess the choice is yours but I
personally go for the better sounding Dynamic drivers let's step up to the
$300 dual balanced armature hm 4S these
are very very dangerous Waters at the
exact same price as my daily driver Sennheiser ie80s these had better
deliver in Spades and while they carry
forward the lyrical strength not to mention the sparkly and for me slightly
fatiguing highs of their little brother and add a much more expressive if a
touch loose low end where they fall flat for me is in anything anthemic Roar by
ktie Perry and Marry You by Bruno Mars being solid examples they bring the
vocalist forward in a way that makes it feel like the background music is
deemphasize it's as though the singer is being beamed directly into my ear canals
and it's I don't know like it's hard to put my finger on it it's like the background music is out of focus I mean
don't get me wrong you want to listen to vocalists like Linda ronad all day the
HM 4S will really impress you and I'll likely end up popping them in from time
to time they just don't work as an allrounder for me which is not my final
word on the HM lineup with the hm6 you move from a dual to a triple balanced
armature design and a fuller more natural sound while I prefer the rumble
of my ie80s in a song like zay's recent hit Pillow Talk the atm6 delivers
controlled lows and Carries forward much
of the vocal Clarity of the HM 4S and twos without the fatiguing sparkly highs
and that uncanny Sensation that I got in some songs from the lower-end models
they're actually very pleasing to listen to so while I don't think the HM 6s are
going to rock the skulls of the EDM and Bas head folks out there for pop rock
alternative and well I mean most of what the mainstream is going to be listening
to these are tuned really well at the
price if all I I was getting was the headphone and a cable I would still have
a hard time recommending them but given that I caved a couple weeks ago and paid
$70 with shipping for a first-party microphone cable for my ie80s after
wasting $20 on a crappy thirdparty one that was obscenely
uncomfortable boom there goes the pricing advantage and the two carrying
cases are a much much better solution
than the cumbersome one that Sennheiser includes with the ie80 I guess you could
interpret that as a recommendation so then the hm8 should be a foregone
conclusion right the8 out of eight rating joke is begging to be made here
and I'd have done it for sure only the h8s really didn't impress me from the
moment I put them in my ears vocals sounded obscured by a basier more Beat
Generation sound signature that just wasn't present in any of the other SKS
to be clear some people will really like them I'm just not one of them it was
suggested to me by my mass drop contact that I might like them better after
giving the whopping four balanced armateur drivers in the hm8 some time to
burn in so I left them running in a corner of my office overnight and came
back to them any difference the burin period might have made must have been
too subtle for my ears to pick up on the Baseline in do I have to say the words
by Brian Adams still dominates the song in a way that it doesn't with anything
else in the testing lineup today given the choice between the HM 6 and the 8
even at the same price I would take take the hm6 which I guess leads us then to
the ultimate conclusion having never looked at anything from the new Force
lineup before the package comfort and construction quality really impressed me
and while I wish the sound signature was a little more unified across a product
family that bears the same name I
understand that from a one to a four balanced armature design that's a
difficult thing to do and I think that the ATM 4 and the six are the strongest
of the four offerings especially given their price points thanks for watching
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