Lindy Cromo IEM-75 Review (Recommendation BUY!)
It's not very often I feel the need to write down my thoughts on a product in the form of a review, but having spent several weeks with these, listening to them on my commute to work, and also bringing them on holiday for late night listening, I feel compelled to share my findings, especially as these are currently available at a fraction of the original price and I feel that they deserve more recognition.
I've had maybe 10 pairs of decent IEMs over the years and I've never been totally satisfied with any of them for various reasons. They range from Sennheiser CX-300s (OEM branded Creative) to Sony XBA-40 quad armature IEMs via Denon AH-C700s and several others. The Sennheisers were too warm sounding for my taste while the Sony's had a nice balance and soundstage but had an annoying treble which most obviously showed itself with splashy cymbals and an unnatural sheen on violins, especially period instruments with gut strings. I used them for some time to burn them in but they never lost this character. The Denons were very good sounding but because of the weight of the aluminium housings I could never get them to stay in my ears for long, despite trying about 15-20 different eartips. When it comes to IEMs, comfort is as important as sound, and at the end of the day, if they don't stay in, they are useless.
I finally gave up on my Sonys and listed them on eBay, and started looking for alternatives with an open mind and no particular price point in mind. I spotted the Lindys at a very good price (about £15) and searched for reviews. While there were some less positive opinions (but nothing particularly negative), the use of phrases like balanced and neutral piqued my interest, as well as finding out they were dual driver and the original RRP was about £75, and that was direct from the manufacturer with no middle man. My only concern at this stage was the size of them, given my experience with the Denons, as they looked like flying saucers, a necessary design to get the 15mm bass drivers in the housings. However, at that price I thought sod it, it's not much to lose, and ordered a pair.
When they arrived my initial thoughts were nice packaging, attractive product, but the cable looks a little thin compared to some. Also, the little wallet supplied will not stop the two housings bashing into each other and scratching that nice gloss chrome finish when stored on the move, but they are too big to fit in my zip-up circular earphone case I normally use, where you put the housings in the centre and wrap the cable round an outer circular divider. But overall the initial impression of quality was positive, especially at the bargain price.
Next test was fit and sound. After a bit of playing I found the fit was fine with the largest of the 3 pairs of silicone buds. The middle ones also fit well physically but the sound was tinny - I have found in the past that the bud that feels like the most secure is sometimes not the best sounding, especially in terms of bass, and some experimentation is required here. I think people often give up on IEMs and give them bad reviews as they can't get the right fit for a balanced sound.
Sound wise I was rather disappointed, they sounded flat and very mid centric, with no treble and little bass. Fortunately I had read in one review on AV Forums that they should be burned in on constant play for 2 days and so I wasn't expecting too much. However, I will admit that at this stage I didn't think they could improve enough for me to like them, but I wasn't going to give up yet.
I dug out my old MS Zune and left it charging and playing an album on repeat quite loudly through the Lindys for the weekend, occasionally checking how they were getting on (turning the volume down first of course). There was a definite improvement after one day and by the end of the second they were very listenable. However when I did a comparison to my Denons (having by now sold the Sonys) there seemed to be something missing, especially at the top end. Cymbals weren't as crisp and seemed to lack clarity. There was also less bass than I had expected from the large bass driver. There was an overall feeling of flatness to the sound (in spatial rather than frequency terms). I decided to listen to a few tracks and let my ears (and brain) acclimatise to the different sound before making my mind up.
At the end of this listening session I put the Denons back in and was rather surprised. Whereas they had previously sounded exciting and dynamic they now sounded very exaggerated at the frequency extremes and rather unnatural. I discovered that initial impressions when A-B'ing earphones were even less likely to reach the right conclusion than with speakers. As most of us have learnt, the kind of qualities that can initially appeal like treble bite and bass kick (and lead the unaware to the wrong purchase at a dealer demo) can quickly become tiring. These differences seem to be exaggerated when the sound is being pushed directly into the ear canal.
Rather than go through a blow by blow account of the Lindy's performance in various tracks or genres, I'm just going to give my overall impressions. The frequency range seems well balanced but there is also a very unforced nature to them, which is their USP in my opinion - you can forget the drivers are just at the entrance to the ear canal. These earphones sound more like listening to speakers than any other in-ear type I've tried; there is an "in-room" feeling to the response. There is a slight roll off in treble in comparison to others but then speakers can sound like that as your ear is not placed right up to the tweeter. There is quite low bass but it's more subtle than many IEMs I've tried (and very dependent on the buds chosen, it's also worth experimenting with other ones than the ones supplied). The closest sound from headphones I've heard (tonally) to these are the HD600s, they both major on the mids but are overall nicely balanced, with a slight "veil" compared to some others. Of course these will not sound the same as open-backed over-ear headphones, I'm not saying that. However, I highly recommend them to any forum member who has struggled with IEMs before, as long as it was not because of the feeling of having them inserted into the ear, but because the sound was too forced.
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Originally Posted by Lawrence001
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