Heir Audio 4.Ai - Appreciation/Impression/Review Thread - Page 19

 

I don't own 4.Ai's yet but I do have them on order so I guess that makes me qualified to answer this particular question.

 

I've been down the customs route before with a pair JH13Pro's and it ended up being pretty much a nightmare in which I ended up wasting hundreds of dollars in shipping costs and hundreds more in losses when I finally sold them.

 

It started out with only being able to find one local audiologist who would do impressions, she had her own ideas about what was right but I was assure

 

I've been down the customs route before with a pair JH13Pro's. They were sent back at least a half dozen times due to fit issues, plus I developed a case of TMJ shortly after I got them which continues to cause pain around the bend in my left ear making the deeper insertion of most customs a no go. I finally gave up when, after six months of refits, I was told I'd have to go get new deeper impressions and start over again.

 

Between the losses incurred selling them, the impressions and the shipping costs for refits, I lost well over half the money I invested in them so even if I didn't have the issues with pain in my left ear I don't think I could go down that route again. I'd much rather take a potential hit in quality for the assurance that I should be able to find a tip that works and if they don't suit me I can sell them at much less of a loss than customs.

 

That's a simple answer.  It's the never ending pursuit that prevents me from trying customs.  If I grow tired of a sound signature it's much easier to resell a universal.  I've sampled quite a few IEM's over the past few years and haven't settled on one yet.  The closest I've come thus far, was with the W4.  If the 4.Ai comes closer to my ideal, it may be my last IEM.  (famous last words) 

 

Thanks bud.. I'll do my best to get to the bottom of these beauties in a jiffy...

We've gone through such a similar audio journey, I know that you'll steer me right! 

 

I've seen customs sold before. How does this work? Someone buys it and sends them to get reshelled? Is it that simple? Unless I was saving a lot of money, it seems better to start with a pair of (made for me) customs rather than have some company take a Dremel to a set of someone else's to extract the driver, then refit it for my ear.

You've got the right idea, there's a few companies that offer reshelling services but to make it feasible the seller has to make it worthwhile for the buyer thus the price of used customs is significantly lower than it would be for a universal of equivalent value. Before there were companies offering reshelling though there was no real market for used customs so I guess it comes down to something is better than nothing.

 

I don't know much about it because I haven't had any interest in customs but I believe Heir will reshell their customs for a nominal fee, I believe it's around $70, which does tend to make their customs a bit more attractive to buyers worried about reselling. I'm not sure if they'll reshell one of these new universals into a custom though.

Thanks for your answers fellas.

I have many of the same reasons as Swimsonny but I always keep a set of backup IEMs in case something should happen to my customs and I really like sharing my music. Not the pirate way, but "Hey you gotta listen to this!". Kinda need universals to do that. Plus, with the 4.Ai and 3.Ai being so small I can keep them in a VERY small case with my Clip+ and always be packin' music 

Hello fellow head fiers! I've been following this thread for a while and I must say, I'm ready to pull the trigger on the 4A's. I'm just wondering though of anyone's using their 4As with an rsa amp. I'm using b2s with my mustang and I love the way they sound. I was wondering if the 4As would pair well with the mustang!

Whoever was going to compare these to the Westone 4, please do so whenever you have the chance. I was about to pull the trigger on the W4 for classical music listening, but this thread has thrown me off balance again.

We wary about new IEMs.

Most of the time there's huge amount of hype going around when something new from a reputable company releases it.

 

It might perform good, but at the end of the day, the sound signature matters mosts and it varies differently in people.

 

as far as i can remember, it was the audio-gd compass, then jhaudio customs, which has now received quite some negative feedbacks or people selling them.

You're right, there's always the hype-induced bias, but I still think it would be nice to know how their sound signature differs from the W4. Right now I'm having trouble understanding exactly where they lie in terms of signature and quality as compared to other IEMs, with everybody so crazy about them.

 

And on the website it is specifically stated that the sound signature should satisfy classical music listeners. Now tell me how that isn't intriguing. 

Last time I tried something neutral, I was not pleased (GR07).

 

My current cans are mid-centric, and from what I understood when auditioning the W4, they are pretty mid-centric, too.

 

Pretty much I loved the W4's sound signature, which is why I was asking for a comparison. ;)