@HideousPride
 
How does the soundstage of the C4's compare to that of the 4.Ai's?

Quote:

omphalopsychite said:

 
 
Thanks HP for the great review, I really appreciate the time and effort you spent to share your experiences.
 
I've just ordered a set of C4s to go with my Cowon J3 and was planning to get an O2 but what you've said in the quote above concerns me.  In your experience is the J3>O2>C4 (w/o the ODAC) combination not an upgrade to the J3>C4? 
 
Cheers,
 
O.

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Hi O! Thank you for the kind words. Out of the 3 sources I originally tested, the J3 was firmly in the middle. I preferred the Sansa Clip+ pairing to it, and that ended up causing me to sell my J3. The J3+C4 sounds nice as is, and is portable to boot. I would not recommend picking up an O2, as it destroys the portability and does not do much (if anything positive at all) for the sound to my ears. Of course, YMMV, but I'd recommend saving that money and putting it towards your next source if you find the sound to be lacking somehow. The hope is that they sound incredibly satisfying to your ears with your current setup, thus saving a pretty penny! 
 
Quote:

itshot said:

@HideousPride
 
How does the soundstage of the C4's compare to that of the 4.Ai's?

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Perhaps a bit unfair to compare as the CIEMs sit much further in your ears than the 4.Ai could hope to, but the C4 easily beats the 4.Ai's soundstage in terms of both width and depth. There are times I put the C4s on and it takes me about 20-30 seconds of playtime to adjust to the CIEM feel of soundstage and enjoy myself. It's a bit of a different experience coming from full-size headphones, but I imagine you'll be pleasantly impressed. 

Quote:

hideouspride said:

Hi O! Thank you for the kind words. Out of the 3 sources I originally tested, the J3 was firmly in the middle. I preferred the Sansa Clip+ pairing to it, and that ended up causing me to sell my J3. The J3+C4 sounds nice as is, and is portable to boot. I would not recommend picking up an O2, as it destroys the portability and does not do much (if anything positive at all) for the sound to my ears. Of course, YMMV, but I'd recommend saving that money and putting it towards your next source if you find the sound to be lacking somehow. The hope is that they sound incredibly satisfying to your ears with your current setup, thus saving a pretty penny!

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Thank you HP for your very informative and useful reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
 
 I'll hold off on an amp. I've been researching higher quality sources but the field seems pretty limited. The DX100 looks like a possibility,  but from what I've read other DAP's seem to have some shortcoming: e.g. Tera - no display, Colorfly C4 - ugly; Hifiman - 'dark' sound, etc.  Hopefully in the months to come others will share their experiences with the C4 and things will become a bit clearer.
 
Thanks again!
 
Cheers,
 
O.

Quote:

omphalopsychite said:

 I'll hold off on an amp. I've been researching higher quality sources but the field seems pretty limited. The DX100 looks like a possibility,  but from what I've read other DAP's seem to have some shortcoming: e.g. Tera - no display, Colorfly C4 - ugly; Hifiman - 'dark' sound, etc.  Hopefully in the months to come others will share their experiences with the C4 and things will become a bit clearer.

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I have the RWAK100 with me and it is the DAP with the least amount of compromise but with a SQ able to compete with the other great portable rigs out there.
 
I have just mailed out my ear impression to FB this morning via EMS. The C4 may take another 5-6 weeks to reach me. Then, I may be able to say something about their pairing (hopefully).

Quote:

uelover said:

 
I have the RWAK100 with me and it is the DAP with the least amount of compromise but with a SQ able to compete with the other great portable rigs out there.
 
I have just mailed out my ear impression to FB this morning via EMS. The C4 may take another 5-6 weeks to reach me. Then, I may be able to say something about their pairing (hopefully).

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Thanks uelover, I'll look forward to your report. 
 
I'm getting C4's too, my ear impressions went out Friday afternoon via DHL.  I'm just south of you in Australia, we can have a race.

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[size=2.3rem] Update on the C4 + My Recommendation for an Incredible Audiologist[/size]

[/size] [size=1.4rem] [size=14.08450698852539px] Sending the C4 back to Frogbeats for a minor fix. Listening to a new album that pans hard to both sides at different times during the song, it became apparent that the sound is slightly muffled in the left ear as opposed to the right. I had previously attributed this to a difference in my hearing levels of the left and right ear. This made me curious and I ran a few testing tests and compared my experience with full-sized headphones. Turns out my hearing is fine and about equal in both ears. It’s a minute thing and the C4s are still a joy to listen to, but it would nag at me in the back of my mind to no end if I didn’t strive for perfection. After talking it over with Frogbeats, I went back to the audiologist I previously was fitted at.[/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] I was extremely surprised and delighted at the [size=14.08450698852539px]exceptional [/size]level of customer service I found there. The audiologist actually remembered me from last time (Frogbeats was a company she had never worked on impressions for) and was genuinely concerned about my satisfaction. I thought I’d go in and she’d make new impressions for me and that’d be the end of it, but no! She used a tool to listen to both ears individually to test for perceivable differences in sound levels, checked and swapped cable connectors to see if one side was faulty, and made sure the fit was secure and not faulty in any way.[/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] The left side was the trouble spot, so she ended up making an impression of that ear first. It looks like we found the culprit! The angle of the cut and the vent locations look a bit off, so perhaps this is what is causing the slight difference in sound.[/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] [size=14.08450698852539px]And after such incredible service, she refused to charge me anything, saying the only thanks I owed her was to report back to her on how my C4s sound after the reshell. I was just WOWed.[/size][/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] I cannot recommend Rebecca enough! Here’s the website: [size=14.08450698852539px]http://www.aahttx.com/[/size][/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] If you live near the Dallas area and are ever in need of an audiologist, I would look no further.[/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] I also picked up the neat little audiologist tool from her at a very reasonable price. Thought it’d be neat to give both drivers an A/B test myself, and in this way it actually allows other people to listen to your CIEMs![/size]

[size=14.08450698852539px] P.S. She was quite impressed with the C4s. She commented that they sounded great, and actually asked me how much I paid for them. 

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Did you get your initial impressions back from the fit adjustment? I just got my monitors back from Frogbeats, and it looks as if my impressions were never used to improve the fit. My raw impressions were included as they were without the processing that I see in many other custom production videos. Furthermore, they feel the same as day one when I sent them in.