Sound Analysis – R3

Note – Fusion and R3’s sound signature changes slightly with different ear tips and fit. It shines exceptionally with some. So, I suggest you tip roll and experiment as the sound can vary between bright to balanced to slightly warm depending on your choice of ear tips. I’ve used both foam ear tips as well as wide bore softer silicone ear tips for the sound analysis.

R3 is ItsFit’s take on ‘flat line style of reference monitors’, something that Ultimate Ears did with their UERM and UERR. I being a music industry professional was highly intrigued to check it out as I’m drawn to the word ‘reference’ by habit of trade. It is also what makes me extra critical when it comes to the word ‘reference’. Well, in theory reference IEMs are ideally intended for monitoring purposes and that requires an IEM to not add a lot of its own colour but if the word reference confuses/tricks you, maybe a tonally correct balanced set won’t and reference IEMs are very much that in foundation. Personally, I don’t think ‘flat line on a graph’ style of tuning in IEMs sounds tonally accurate, primarily because they lack the pinna gain. For those who don’t know, pinna gain is the gain factor added by the human ear as the sound travels through the outer ear, into the canal and to the ear drum. That is why reference target curves like Diffuse Field and Harman Target show a prominent peak around 3kHz with around 10dB of gain.

R3 kind of reminded me of UE’s UERM a bit in the first listen. Now it’s been a while since I last heard the UERM, so I sadly can’t compare them back to back. R3 in reality sounds decently linear throughout but if I have to nitpick, it needs slightly better sub-bass extension, cleaner precision in the lower mids and more pinna gain for a bit more definition and punch in the upper registers for it to become absolutely true ‘reference’.

Let’s check out how R3 does, be it musically for music enjoyment or as a reference monitor.

Bass – R3 has slight sub-bass roll-off at around 40-50Hz with a 3dB-ish slope but bass in most songs is portrayed cleanly, linearly and neutrally. Sub-bass is surely audible but don’t expect it to have a lot of rumble. For that you need a tuning which has a slight boost in the sub-bass (like R3’s older brother Fusion). Mid-bass is portrayed with neutrality too but with a very slight audible boost. Bass overall has good attack and speed. Bass impact & punch in songs completely depends on the song’s mix owing to R3’s linear approach. Even though R3’s bass is tuned linearly, the bass is quite a lot of fun to listen to in songs like Our Lady Peace’s ‘Innocent’ and Coldplay’s Orphans.

Mids – Again, R3 has linear lower mids but can use cleaner precision in this area for better resolution to discern the body and layers of instruments better. Upper mids are more present than lower mids with minor peaks around 2kHz and 4-5kHz but they still don’t have the adequate pinna gain to be ‘true reference’. As a result, vocals and guitars have nice warm natural tone but don’t expect them to be forward sounding like DF-neutral or Harman-neutral IEMs. With its flat line style of reference tuning, in some songs R3 doesn’t pull off perfect reference character or tonality in the upper mids region and lacks the required definition. A slight push in the upper mids using an EQ makes R3 immediately sound more accurate to me. Reference or not, R3 definitely has musicality in the midrange and that should work well for people who want to simply enjoy their music.

Treble – When it comes to treble, R3 has a few low peaks in the 7-9kHz region and even though it doesn’t sound absolutely true reference to me here, with the right tips, it has adequate treble extension to sound good nonetheless. In fact, what is peculiar is that most of the other IEMs marketed as ‘flat line reference IEMs’ had much more prominent peaks in these regions. Empire Ears ESR had a big one around 8kHz and UERM had one around 9-10kHz. I don’t know why that was done because it actually makes treble quite peaky at times, even sibilant. Relatively R3’s treble is much easier in comparison, especially with foam ear tips. R3’s treble helps instruments like acoustic guitars have good presence in the mix while keeping them sounding natural. Sibilance isn’t really an issue unless the track has it as R3 isn’t shy from revealing mixing mistakes or poorly de-essed vocals. R3’s treble is a bit more prominent as compared to relatively flatter bass and lower mids but is still on the smoother side relatively. Also, as I stated previously, R3’s treble character changes a bit with different ear tips and I highly suggest tip rolling for best results. My personal favourite are INAIRS foam tips for R3.

Soundstage, Imaging and Separation.

R3 has a wider than average soundstage, just a bit smaller than Fusion, mostly owing to the difference in fullness of mids. Imaging is good, probably the best for the price. Separation between instruments overall is equally good too.

Page 4 – Comparisons, and Conclusion.