I can't believe this. - Shure KSE1200
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,661 words · ~8 min read
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Portable audio solutions have gotten generally more compact over time, and
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that's a good thing. Who wants to carry a bunch of crap around with them just to
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listen to music? Well, sure thinks you might. And if you
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got a chance to listen to their KSE 1200 electrostatic earphones, yes, you heard
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me right. Electrostatic earphones for did I mention that they're
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$2,000? You might actually agree with them.
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This is going to be interesting.
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The Sure KSC 1200's are not your
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run-of-the-mill in-ear monitors. For starters, they've got this thick Kevlar
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reinforced cable that's designed to isolate each of the two conductors. And
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then that plugs into a matched amplifier
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that you must use through this obscure
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pushpull limbo headphone connector that you'd be more likely to find on aviation
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or medical equipment than on a smartphone.
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But why? What is it about these earphones that makes all of this
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necessary? The answer is in the drivers inside each
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earbud. The actual mechanism that transduces electrical energy from your
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source into sound energy on your eard drum uses a technology that is rarely
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used in speakers. Seldom used in headphones and almost never used in IM.
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These have electrostatic drivers. Now,
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the vast majority of speakers out there use dynamic drivers where electricity
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flowing through the cable interacts with a permanent magnet to move the diaphragm
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back and forth. The goal is for the diaphragm to only move along one plane,
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back and forth, like a piston. But
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dynamic drivers struggle to do this because the cable is only fixed to the
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diaphragm around its dome, allowing other parts of the flexier to warp in
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other directions. This introduces distortion, which hurts sound quality.
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But this doesn't happen nearly at all
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with electrostatic drivers because the diaphragm is not physically connected to
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the voice coil. Instead, it's actually suspended between two sters like a
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sandwich. The diaphragm itself is made of an ultra low mass plastic film, which
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in some cases is actually even lighter than the air that it's displacing. And
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it's impregnated with an electrically conductive material and then held in
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place by a strong electrostatic field
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created by a high voltage power supply.
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Ah, that right there. Now, we're getting to the bottom of this. That is why the
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KSC 1200's need this amp. So, as the
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current carrying the music flows through, the stators work together to
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push and pull the diaphragm back and forth thousands of times per second. And
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it's really, really fast because the diaphragm weighs so little. So, that's
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awesome for creating clear tones even when there are lots of instruments
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playing at once. It also lets the driver produce frequencies across the spectrum.
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So, the KSC1200's use only one full
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range driver per earphone with a frequency response of 10 hertz to 50,000
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hertz, well beyond the range of human hearing. This is in stark contrast to
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most high-end IM which deploy anywhere from one or two to eight drivers per
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earphone so that each one of them can focus on a more narrow frequency range.
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So, that's some cool tech. But most
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people don't pay two grand just to have cool tech in their pocket. They have to
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actually sound good. And subjectively,
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these don't sound good because they
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sound fantastic. Do you guys see what I did there? Honestly, it's kind of like
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having a tiny band playing a show for
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one inside your head. And and that's not
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just because they're electrostats. The fact that they're in-ear monitors
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basically means that you're you're kind of wearing earplugs with the KSC1200's
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purporting to block out up to 37 dB of
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ambient noise provided that you choose a sleeve that makes a good seal in your
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special snowflake ear canal. So I prefer the really really small ones. There are
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four different sleeve types in the box and these IM should be compatible with
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the same sleeves that fit any other modern Sure SE style earphones. They
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also come with a cable clip, two different lengths of ox cable for
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connecting to your source, and two Livstrong style bands for repping. Sure,
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actually, no, it's not for that. It It's It's for holding everything together.
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But on that subject, what what what even is this setup? Like, couldn't I just
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connect the amp to my phone?
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The answer is yes. Yes, you can. But it
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might feel like a bit of a waste because the song or podcast that you're
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listening to is a digital signal that has to get converted to an analog signal
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by the time it hits the headphones. Now, your phone does have a digital to analog
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converter or a DAC built in, but the audio file argument would be that it's
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probably of such low quality that it kind of defeats the purpose of your
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$2,000 headphones. So, while yes, it is possible on many
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iOS and Android devices to output the pure digital signal, bypassing the
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onboard DACK, again, you'd need to add a
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DAC into the chain because the KSC 1200's do not have a DAC built in. In
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fact, that's what differentiates the KSC
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1200's from the KSC 1500s that launched
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back in 2016 for $1,000 more. Both the
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amp and the headphones themselves are the exact same, but the system included
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an integrated DAC and equalizer, which you could tune with the help of an OLED
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screen. Now, those functions are still available to KSC 1200 owners, but only
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through a companion app. So, depending
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on your setup, you could have a source like a phone plugged into a dedicated
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DAC plugged into the KSC amp with the headphones then plugged into your head.
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or you can use a combination source and DAC like the M9 that our friends over at
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FIO graciously sent us. So with something like this, you can stream from
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supported apps that runs Android, but it's actually still quite locked down.
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Uh or you can load your lossless audio tracks via micro SD, so you've got high
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quality links across the entire chain all the way to your ears. But the
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question is, if you need two or three devices, you know, zip tied together in
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your pocket, is this solution really portable?
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Now, I mean, for old folks like me, this
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really doesn't seem that cumbersome. I mean, I used to carry a Discman around
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at school every day. And by carry, I mean delicately caress so that it
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wouldn't skip. But compared to the generation that grew up just using their
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phone for this stuff, which we all have to carry around anyway, it is quite an
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adjustment. With that said, relative to
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other hi-fi solutions, this is downright
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minuscule, and having them on a plane is an absolute godsend. Unfortunately,
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there's more to portability than just size. You don't normally have to worry
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about battery life with wired headphones, but with these, you do
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because they don't operate without the amp. And while the 2200 mAh battery
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provides more playback on these than the KSC 1500's, 12 hours up from 10, that's
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still a lot lower than many Bluetooth headphones that can push 25 hours or
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more. Plus, you got to manage the source and DAC batteries, which is just more
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hassle, more things to recharge every night. What really irks me is that this
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$2,000 device doesn't even have fast charging over USB type-C. No, it's got
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this stone age microB connector and takes 3 hours to fully charge the
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device. I mean, come on, you guys. So, bottom line, should you buy these
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headphones? Their sound quality to size ratio can't be beat. And I might even
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choose them over audio file like overear
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headphones just for the added sound isolation that in-ears offer. I'm a bit
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of an in- ears guy. Not to mention that they're easier to wear to bed than over
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ears which is something you could realistically do. Like these were very
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comfortable for me over long periods. The wire here is formable so you can get
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a nice snug fit around your ear. There's a light to tell you if your input signal
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is going to clip and they absolutely nailed the sensitivity and feel of the
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tactile volume knob. But
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I'm stopping short of a recommendation here for the same reason that I've never
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recommended that anyone buy a Titan graphics card or an Extreme Edition
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processor. I mean, sure, they're the best, but they're an enthusiast product
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in the truest sense of the word. A product that not only has a low price
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toerformance ratio, but also one that asks the user to make affordances that
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would be complete deal breakers for a lot of people,
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including little old me.
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So, thanks for watching, guys. If you disliked this video, you know where that button is. But if you liked it, hit
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like, get subscribed, or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video
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description. To be clear, I'm not saying don't buy it. I'm just not saying to buy
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it. I mean, if you got two grand to blow, like, I can certainly think of
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dumber things to spend that kind of I was at I was at the airport on my way
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back here from a recent trip, and like they have purses for like $4,000.
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They don't even have electrostatic drivers in them. They're just dead cow.