After a lot of gyrations on pricing, my Image X10s arrived today from Amazon (of course, now they are $179 on newegg, after I was proud of my $191 on Amazon). I bought them because while I love the Sleek SA6 sound sig, I wanted a second pair of quality IEMs, different, but quality. I might have found them. But not sure yet.
Truth is, just got home from a long, rugged day in the Big Apple (taking our one and only daughter to college for her first year). So I am dog-tired, and spent emotionally. Anyway...
Okay, I agree on comfort. The X10 comfort level is pretty amazing for an IEM. I used the stock medium silicones, single flange. And wow, they felt unreal. Almost invisible. Good start. I use the Shure olives with the Sleeks, and they are pretty snug and can get itchy after more than a couple of hours. The X10 gels melted into my ears, it seemed. Haven't tried the bi-flange or foamies yet.
Sound-wise, however, when I plugged the X10s into my Zune80, my insta-impression is "What happened to the highs/mids?" Seemed so dark and with no EQ on the Zune, I really still prefer the Sleeks (comfort notwithstanding), at least with that specific DAP.
Now, when I moved to the Sony A818, where I could kick up the EQ on the right side a tad, the X10s sounded better, but, but, on some tracks (for example, Diana Krall, Live in Paris: East of the Sun...), the vocal was a little harsh (never, ever an issue with the Sleeks). So I pulled back the EQ and found a pretty good compromise. But I need to do a lot more fiddling for the X10s to be on par with my view of the SA6 sound.
Having said that, I have compared the two for all of 5 minutes. I am drained right now, and will do some serious head to head comparison listening tomorrow.
Some say they love the X10 sound right out of the box. I am a slave to the mid-forward, airy, crisp sound the Sleeks deliver with their treble+ tubes and a small EQ boost on the highs. Not much, one click. So, so far, I won't be tossing aside the Sleeks for the X10s.
Almost forgot, the X10 bass depth and oomph is impressive. But I am not a major bass freak, so that's not enough to make the difference. With the Sleek bass+ mod, the Sleeks are a much better phone on that front, so that's not a difference maker for me.
More to come...
Truth is, just got home from a long, rugged day in the Big Apple (taking our one and only daughter to college for her first year). So I am dog-tired, and spent emotionally. Anyway...
Okay, I agree on comfort. The X10 comfort level is pretty amazing for an IEM. I used the stock medium silicones, single flange. And wow, they felt unreal. Almost invisible. Good start. I use the Shure olives with the Sleeks, and they are pretty snug and can get itchy after more than a couple of hours. The X10 gels melted into my ears, it seemed. Haven't tried the bi-flange or foamies yet.
Sound-wise, however, when I plugged the X10s into my Zune80, my insta-impression is "What happened to the highs/mids?" Seemed so dark and with no EQ on the Zune, I really still prefer the Sleeks (comfort notwithstanding), at least with that specific DAP.
Now, when I moved to the Sony A818, where I could kick up the EQ on the right side a tad, the X10s sounded better, but, but, on some tracks (for example, Diana Krall, Live in Paris: East of the Sun...), the vocal was a little harsh (never, ever an issue with the Sleeks). So I pulled back the EQ and found a pretty good compromise. But I need to do a lot more fiddling for the X10s to be on par with my view of the SA6 sound.
Having said that, I have compared the two for all of 5 minutes. I am drained right now, and will do some serious head to head comparison listening tomorrow.
Some say they love the X10 sound right out of the box. I am a slave to the mid-forward, airy, crisp sound the Sleeks deliver with their treble+ tubes and a small EQ boost on the highs. Not much, one click. So, so far, I won't be tossing aside the Sleeks for the X10s.
Almost forgot, the X10 bass depth and oomph is impressive. But I am not a major bass freak, so that's not enough to make the difference. With the Sleek bass+ mod, the Sleeks are a much better phone on that front, so that's not a difference maker for me.
More to come...
- but no doubt the Image will change slightly the longer you listen to it. How many songs did you get to hear in five minutes? The one thing I've learnt (after all this time!), is to take no notice of the first 30 mins of anything anymore, since it takes so much longer to get a feel for the sound, especially if you've been using one pair of earphones for a long period of time. My first impressions have never ended up being my final impressions, except with the C700s, which I liked from the outset and continued to like for nine months. I still like them, but they've been relegated to second place behind the Triples.
