Just to get back to the initial thread, I moved back to the SA6s for the past few dog walks (when I really use IEMs), and I am going to say that I am more convinced that while the X10s are very comfortable and sound very, very good (and for that MSRP, they should), I still prefer the Sleeks. Not even sure I can articulate why. Must be the forward mids or something. But straight out of the Sony A818, the Sleeks just sound better to me. The opening kick drum and punch of the RHCP's Dani California was the concvincing track.
Oh, and in terms of comfort, I had been using the Shure olives with the Sleeks, but even using a small and a medium (two different sizes of ear canals), they produced a little to much pressure. So I moved back to the old foamies I used early with the Sleeks, the Shure yellows (the one size only foamies you can get for like $2-$3 a pair). And they are just the perfect fit for my ear canals, much like the medium X10s gels. With those foamies, I just love the Sleeks. As for the bass difference, with the bass+ mod, the bass on the Sleeks sounds just as deep, full and punchy as the X10s.
I guess I am saying that now that the price difference is back to $150 (unless you buy gray market), the obvious choice, to me, is the SA6. At the same price, it would be a personal preference thing. But with the gap, there is no way the X10s are worth spending $150 more than for the Sleeks.
One thing you do come to realize using these higher level IEMs is that bit rate is important to some extent, but a poor recording, even with .wav, still sounds lousy. I thought it was the bitrate (most of my music is at 192-320 MP3 or WMA), so I listened to some original CDs on my old Riovolt, and bad songs still sounded bad with the X10s and the SA6s.
To glue some stems on the gels for the SE530s would be eliminating loose ends.
