Why are Image headphones unique and worth the price?
Made up of the X10 and X5, the Image series represents the world’s smallest, lightest full-range earphone family. Meant to be heard and not seen, these tiny headphones are big on performance, style and comfort. Image is loaded with our most advanced comfort features, plus its remarkably lightweight design places minimal pressure on the ears.
What is the difference between the Image X10 and the Image X5?
The X5 is a slightly larger—by only 2mm in diameter—than the flagship X10, so it’s easier and somewhat less expensive to manufacture, so we can pass the savings on to the end user. However, the X5 is still considered a very small, lightweight design and will continue the Image legacy of being the least fatiguing in-ear headphones around.
With respect to technology and sound performance, the X5 employs a balanced full-range driver with a tuned bass-reflex system, while the X10 uses an exclusive full-range micro-driver with a tuned bass-reflex system. If you like a lot of bass, we recommend purchasing the X10; however, if you like want a superior top end with more forward voicing than the X5 is the right choice for you.
According to the Klipsch engineering team, the X5 continues Klipsch’s sound signature by performing accurately in the frequency and time domain, minimizing any phase distortion with its linear acceleration. As a result, you’ll hear things in your favorite recordings you never noticed before.
Read review that compares the X10 and the X5.
Why is it beneficial for Image to be small and light?
First of all, your ear is a sensitive area; the lighter the headphone the better, as it puts less pressure on the ear canal, resulting in extreme comfort. Secondly, Image’s small size allows it to automatically adjust to the center of the ear canal, meaning users can easily insert and remove the headphones, as well as find the perfect seal. Thirdly, Image’s compact dimensions make toting them around virtually hassle-free.
What makes Image headphones so comfortable?
Unlike other in-ear headphones on the market, our proprietary Contour Ear Gels are anatomically shaped to accurately fit inside the human ear canal. These soft, oval silicon tips reduce ear fatigue and provide excellent noise isolation for superior audio performance.
Why should I choose an in-ear design over a traditional on-ear headphone model?
First of all, the music source is closer to your ear drum, which in turn, makes the sound more accurate. Secondly, your ear lobes won’t get hot and sweaty after hours of use. Not to mention, in-ear designs won’t mess up your hair.
Are in-ear headphone designs bad for your hearing?
Anytime you put something in your ear or listen to loud music, there is a health risk involved. However, when you wear an in-ear design with a good seal, you typically don’t have to turn up the volume as much because a good seal dramatically reduces background noise.
These headphones are too loud and my ears are ringing! What should I do?
You have your volume set too high. These products offer a far higher quality of sound than most people expect from headphones, and you might not always realize that you are listening too loud.
Why am I not getting enough bass response?
It’s probably because you don’t have a good ear seal. Be sure to try out the various ear tip sizes, as you may find that you need the double flange design for the best possible seal. You may also want to try pulling the ear tip out slightly, as it may have collapsed.
How do I know if I have a good seal?
When no music is playing, your voice should sound louder and ambient noise should sound quieter, very similar to wearing a pair of ear plugs. Creating a tighter seal is simple. Insert the ear gel into the ear canal and then gently pull it back. This adjustment eliminates virtually all external noise so you can play your music at a lower volume, for a longer period of time, without experiencing ear fatigue.
What is a full-range acoustic experience?
It’s the perfect acoustic situation where a listener gets a true-to-life sound experience with crisp highs and deep lows.
What is the difference between Image and Custom-3 headphones?
Although headphones are a new product line for Klipsch, we still bring 60 years of audio heritage to their creation. We are confident that you will find our Image and Custom-3 products to be as outstanding in their own way as our loudspeakers and home theater systems—so confident, in fact, that we offer a money-back guarantee for both.
The Image and Custom-3 provide the listener with an outstanding audio experience. In fact, the choice between them will probably be a subjective one, based on listener preference and taste. For example, while the Image, with its remarkable small size, is the ultimate in comfort, many users might find the Custom-3 to be as comfortable, because they wrap around the top of the ear with the wire cinch. Those who wear glasses are already accustomed to how they feel.
In purely technical terms, the most significant difference between the lines is that the Custom-3 design delivers slightly lower distortion. It has two larger drivers, which have three times the diaphragm surface area, so the diaphragms do not have to move as far to create the same pressure in the ear canal. Since there is less travel for the piston to displace the same amount of air, the amount of distortion is decreased.
Conversely, those who have very small concha (biggest bowl in your ear) will find that Image series headphones provide uniform fit, which distributes the pressure more evenly in your ear; it also more effectively provides isolation and a better listening experience. Their high style and very light weight will make them a great choice for travelers who enjoy their movies and music on the go.
The Image and Custom series were created to provide an incredible audio experience in attractive, groundbreaking packages. Regardless of which series you choose, you’re sure to discover remarkable sound.
What is a balanced armature speaker?
A balanced armature is the tiny specialized speaker that’s inside your headphones. You have one for each ear and they turn electrical signals into acoustical sound waves. Like a traditional speaker, an armature features an internal diaphragm that’s driven by an electromagnetic motor system to produce sound. Armature benefits include: smaller size, higher output, extended frequency response and improved high frequency detail compared to a traditional moving coil speaker.
How many armatures do I need in my headphones?
Despite their small size, headphones can consist of one or more armatures and filter parts. Different headphone styles can feature significantly different technology. In a broad sense, the more components, the more expensive they are. But, are there really significant differences?
Before we answer the question, here are some pertinent terms:
Armature: The part of an electromagnetic device—in this case, a loudspeaker—that moves or vibrates; it is analogous to a driver.
In-ear monitor (IEM or IE): This is a professional-level headphone customized to fit your ear canals. Performers use these to minimize stage volumes, so they can hear the monitor mix clearly at lower volumes, thus saving their hearing. Clearer sound also helps to keep the performer on pitch and to maintain good timing.
Personal monitors (PM): Earphones with armatures used for personal audio playback.
Earbuds: Headphones with internal moving coil transducers.
Here’s how the use of armatures vary at different price points:
Entry Level: Entry level PM's use a simple balanced armature. The challenge the engineer has primarily rests in the design of the armature, particularly the damper and nozzle design. It’s difficult to achieve full range, since the transducer will work well in the low frequency (LF) or the high frequency (HF), but not generally in both (wideband). Typically, bass, vocals or drums suffer the most with this design, sounding slightly harsh, or not having audible output in a given range. In other words, the vocal sounds throaty or scratchy, depending on the model.
There is also limited sound pressure level (SPL) with the balanced armature, due to its design. Even with these potential disadvantages, it sounds better than traditional moving coil designs; since the mass of the diaphragm is smaller, the HF is much more accurate than with a standard earbud. The Klipsch Custom-1 has been optimized to give the best balance of LF and HF. This design uses a KG332 armature.
Mid Level: These PM's use either smaller premium single armatures or dual armatures with minimal—or no—EQ. Each product has its limitations and advantages.
For Klipsch's Image series PM’s, a premium armature is used; in this case, our proprietary KG926 driver. The KG926 is ultra-compact. Less weight generally results in greater comfort, because there is less force on the ear canal. This model has a proprietary "special sauce"—a unique technology which delivers very full range with delicate highs and smooth, deep bass. The sound is very accurate, due to its lightweight diaphragm. Vocals are silky smooth and drums have a nice snap to them.
Because of its size, a good air seal is required to prevent loss of bass. The micro-small chassis with its thin, aluminum extruded body places the armature closer to the eardrum than any other manufacturer’s headphones, creating a more accurate sound by reducing the volume of air modulated in the ear canal. Precision machining is required to make this model and the design is remarkably intricate, due to its size. The patent-pending Contour Ear Gel also ensures a better seal, since the oval shape—and different sizes—can achieve a fit that’s compatible with the user’s ears.
Other mid-level designs, such as our Custom-2, use dual armatures. For our Custom-2 design, we partnered with Sonion and have applied for an armature patent. The KG534 driver is really two drivers: two motors, two armatures and two diaphragms in tandem (back to back). The benefit of this design is that the diaphragms pump air in opposing directions, so vibration modes are minimized. This design would be similar to having dual air bellows with a single nozzle on a fireplace tool. With dual diaphragms, the SPL increases by 3dB and distortion decreases because they aren’t working as hard as a single unit.
Part of our applied patent revolves around the low-pass acoustic filter that is built into one of the two armatures. This gives us greater control over EQ, since we can have two pistons—one optimized for bass and one optimized for full range. This baby rocks! Musicians will love this product because it is affordable, yet very efficient. Vocals will stand out in the mix with an IEM application.
High Level: Most top-line PM's use two or three armatures and a passive crossover. Our Custom-3 goes much further. Not only does it have two different types of drivers and a second order passive crossover for both armatures, it also has a patent-pending low-pass acoustic filter.
The Custom-3 utilizes a Klipsch premium KG723 armature for the HF tweeter. This allows vocals to be ultra-silky and very low in distortion. The LF is implemented with a KG732 armature for the woofer. The Custom-3 also has two acoustic low pass filters: the armature has an internal LP filter plus the patent-pending LP filter on the outside, which is optimized for a very low crossover point without sacrificing sensitivity in the lower region of the response.
The passive crossover has more components than any other comparable headphone. With the two acoustic filters and second-order crossover, the LF has a 24dB per octave slope rolled off at 1kHz. Why so low? Most other headphones cross-over above the vocal region, but we wanted to eliminate intermodulation distortion (IMD), so we have removed the kick drum and bass tones from the tweeter, so the diaphragm can concentrate on reproducing highs without movement from the LF signal. This also allows us to take advantage of the shape of the crossover for additional EQ in the midrange. With Custom-3, the vocals are so natural that high frequencies won't fatigue your ears the way most designs can.
For those who appreciate good clean bass, Klipsch headphones deliver. These headphones are flat below the musical bandwidth, offering virtually no limitation to the bass.
So, how many armatures do you need in your headphones? Because you know your budget, your music source and your personal preferences, you’ll have to be the judge—but, when it comes strictly to sound quality, the number of armatures really does make a big difference in IEM headphones.
What compression format should I use to get the most from my Image headphones?
When it comes to the superior delivery of your digital music, the compression format you choose to import your songs makes a huge difference—especially when you listen with high-end headphones. The more compression, the more sound quality is lost. In iTunes, you can select between five different compression encoders when ripping music files from your CD collection: AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3 and WAV. Which is best?
If you’re into serious audiophile listening and want to get the full impact of our headphones’ performance prowess, you’ll need to select a WAV, AIFF or Apple Lossless format for your music. While WAV and AIFF are raw audio files from CDs in computer-readable formats, Apple Lossless preserves a CD’s original quality, while cutting its size in half. You might compare this lossless encoding to a zip file: smaller than the original, but with no data loss. Keep in mind that these three formats take up a lot more file space than the standard AAC and MP3 encodings. In other words, you’ll get fewer songs on your iPod or other device, but they’ll be delivered at a much higher quality.
Another thing to consider when choosing these compression formats is that only iTunes and the iPod can support Apple Lossless files and just about every other piece of music-playing software will be able to play WAV files. AIFF files are specific to Macs, so if you are planning to listen to music on a PC, WAV is your best choice.
Because they sound pretty good and achieve the best compression of the five formats, most iPod users choose between AAC and MP3. AAC, or advanced audio coding, is the standard default on iTunes. When compared to an MP3 format, AAC gives better sound at the same bit rate. However, only iTunes and the iPod can support AAC; MP3s can be played on just about every digital music player.
PC users can make their compression selection in iTunes by going to the edit drop-down box, selecting preferences and then clicking on the importing tab. Mac users can go to the iTunes drop-down box, select their preferences, then click on the importing tab.
How does bit rate influence Image sound performance?
The second variable to consider when trying to get the best sound performance out of your digital music files is “bit rate.” Bit rate refers to the rate that data is flowing in bits per second. The greater the bit rate, the more data is played back every second.
Most often, files are compressed to 128 kbps, 160 kbps or 192 kbps. The standard bit rate default in iTunes is 128 kbps, but you can customize your rate to go as high as 320 kbps (you make your bit rate selection when choosing your compression format). Kbps means kilobits per second—the higher the number, the better the sound and the more space a music file will consume on your computer or iPod. Conversely, the lower the number, the lower quality of audio will be and the less file space you’ll take up.
To give you an example of how bit rates works, a 4-minute song requires about 3.7 MB of iPod/hard disk space at 128 kbps and about 4.7 MB at 160 kbps. If you go to 192 kbps, you’d have a 5.6 MB file, and file sizes increase accordingly each time you move to a higher bit rate.
You may find that your music sounds fine at the 128 kbps rate, but if you want true audiophile-quality sound to fully appreciate your Klipsch Image headphones, you should go to a 192 kbps or 256 kbps rate. Bit rate and file size don’t usually pose a problem unless you have tons of music and want to fit it all on your iPod. That’s when you have to make a choice: better sound quality and fewer songs, or lower sound quality and more songs.
How durable are Image headphones?
Klipsch put Image through extensive “real world” testing to ensure long-lasting durability. You’ll find reliable strain relief at every cable connection point to help prevent wire damage. Furthermore, Image’s sleek, streamlined black “tail” reduces cable stress and strain, as well as serves as an acoustic dampener that minimizes cable noise. However, cable wear occurs over time, so you should always take special care of your headphones.
Why are Image ear gels oval-shaped instead of round?
When Klipsch started studying three-dimensional ear impressions, it was discovered that nearly everyone has an oval-shaped ear canal. The company couldn’t believe that no one else had yet considered the anatomical shape of the ear canal when designing in-ear headphones. Aside from their comfort value, our oval ear gels load quickly and easily into the ear canals as well as virtually disappear from view.
Why does Image include a variety of ear tip sizes?
Ear canal measurements vary. Therefore, each Image model comes with five different ear gel sizes: small, medium, and large single flange designs as well as small and large double flange designs. Extra small sizes are available via klipsch.com. Such variety allows Klipsch to fit more of the population than its competition.
How do I know which ear tip size is right for me?
We recommend trying on various sizes. The tip that offers the most comfort and the best ear seal is the right one for you. You may even find that using a different size tip in each ear is the best option.
Will the ear tips get stuck in my ears?
While we can’t guarantee this will not happen, Klipsch’s patent-pending earphone nozzles are designed with mechanical retention rings to help reduce the chance of the tips getting lodged in the ear canal. However, make sure that the ear tip is fully seated on the nozzle and that the ring is engaged by pulling on the ear tip before inserting into your ear. If it comes off easily, then it is not positioned properly.
What if I lose or damage my ear tips?
You can purchase ear tip replacements from the klipsch.com web store.
What if my ears are wax magnets?
If used regularly, it is natural for you to experience wax buildup in the ear gels. Image headphones come with an ear gel cleaning tool that easily removes wax buildup from the ear tip’s acoustic opening. Plus, you can clean the exterior of the silicon ear tip with rubbing alcohol.
Will I still be able to hear my music if I am traveling on a noisy bus, train or plane?
Yes, that is the best reason to use our noise-isolation headphones. Keep in mind though; you must have a good seal. By inserting Image earphones properly, you’ll easily be able to tune out screaming children, brake sounds, tire squeals, and engine roars. You CHOOSE your audio environment.
Will Image headphones work with my iPhone™?
Image headphones are compatible with the iPod®, the iPhone™ and any device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.