So the local Beat Audio dealer recently announced that they were carrying the whole line of Beat Audio (not Wan Xuan) customs. I took a look at them, and they're ridiculous. Just insanity.
 
I think someone else mentioned it before, but Beat Audio really does have a 14-driver custom, a 12-driver custom, etc. The higher end models also have the option for being configured in a 'TT-X' fashion, which uses a proprietary three-pin connector, which I can only assume uses negative and positive polarity with a ground in the middle.
 
However, they never mention how they map the drivers (which ones to high/mid/low) or how the TT-X 'technology' works. They just describe the sound as being superior to their conventional counterparts.
 
While I know Beat Audio cables have a decent reputation, I keep wondering why they choose to go with a non-disclosure type of marketing when the majority of the industry fully discloses the materials they use. They don't like publicizing the materials they use for their cables (even though it's not hard to guess) and now they don't like to disclose how they're designing their customs. It was the same with that 'FST Technology' pushed in the Wan Xuan...
 
I don't get it.
 
 

All I read was "14-driver custom" and I started drooling.
 
But yes, you're right. I don't mind that they don't disclose the materials on cables. Even if one does decide to take a swing at it and order one, it can always be resold at a decent value. Sadly, that is not always the case with CIEMs and I don't see why they wouldn't release information as to how they are configured.

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staal said:

All I read was "14-driver custom" and I started drooling.

 
But yes, you're right. I don't mind that they don't disclose the materials on cables. Even if one does decide to take a swing at it and order one, it can always be resold at a decent value. Sadly, that is not always the case with CIEMs and I don't see why they wouldn't release information as to how they are configured.

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No need to drool just yet... I think the 14 driver number is a little overblown. My guess is that the 'three-pin' thing is supposed to carry different signals, depending on the cable used; with one combination of pins, it activates one subset of drivers, with another combination of pins, it activates another subset. I have big doubts about whether all 14 drivers are used at the same time.
 
Also, they would have to make extensive use of either the TWFK or Sonion 4400 in order to achieve 14 drivers in one ear.

Merely joking, I doubt 14 drivers would necessarily sound better than other products.
 
What would be the point of different sets of drivers being used seperately. 3-in-1 CIEM?

Yeah, it looks like they're trying to do what the JH3A is also trying to do, but with cables... well, at least that's what my take is.

lol @14 drivers
But Is it 7 per side or 14 per side?
If it's 14/side then I totally rotfl. I mean come-on wizard showed us it's possible to stuff 20 drivers in one shell, what's the point though? So many drivers would be so hard to driver, that I hardly believe that any portable player would be able to give enough power. Not to mention very low impedance and very high spl

I think that this should be posted here http://www.head-fi.org/t/601815/stage93-reshells-a-warning#post_8260756 I hope they will resolve issues quickly

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piotrus-g said:

lol @14 drivers
But Is it 7 per side or 14 per side?
If it's 14/side then I totally rotfl. I mean come-on wizard showed us it's possible to stuff 20 drivers in one shell, what's the point though? So many drivers would be so hard to driver, that I hardly believe that any portable player would be able to give enough power. Not to mention very low impedance and very high spl

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From the way they describe it, it does seem to be 14 drivers per side, but the pictures don't reflect that (they may not be using the actual model as an example picture)... I can't find any impressions of it in any language, and the whole thing just seems a bit iffy to me.
 
However, the local dealer did mention that they were considering getting a demo set of the 12-driver model next month, so there may be a chance I get to hear it.
 
I'm hoping AJ could give us more insight, being that he has actually had some correspondence with the folks at Beat.

The Beat Audio custom IEMs have been discussed before here and here.  Stephen from custom-iem.com will be listing more information on his site soon, and according to him the BA14pro has 7 drivers per side.

More info from Stephen at www.custom-iem.com: the BATTX, which uses the 3 pin connector, is available for $1100 without a cable, which you will need to buy from him since it is special, and the BA14, which has 2 pins per channel is $2100 with the Oslo cable.  If you are considering buying one, he can give you more details.

These prices are not cheap at all, which makes them a hard sell unless they truly are amazing to listen to.
 
Hopefully you can review one, Joe... I'm really not feeling Beat Audio's marketing style, though.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12307455192&# it totally has only 6 drivers

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piotrus-g said:

  http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=12307455192&# it totally has only 6 drivers

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I still don't get this TT-X thing. It's interesting how they have the shells, but no cable displayed. And again, $1600 and $2000 for six and seven driver IEMs wired to a proprietary pin connection is not very encouraging. I don't think even the Chinese themselves have that much faith in their own products.

Yeah, price is really steep. Wonder how do they stack up to f.e. SE5

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piotrus-g said:

  Yeah, price is really steep. Wonder how do they stack up to f.e. SE5

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Have no fear, Joe is here? haha... hopefully he'll be able to review it for all us skeptics