I've had the Sportsbud Silver for about half a week now, and my impressions so far have been very positive. I will firm up my thoughts on them, and then I shall do a detailed write-up over the coming week or so.
Some quite bites:
- Fit and comfort is very good. The Thermaflex tips are no gimmick. It gives better fit and isolation. I selected the half-shell option, and they are low-profile, lightweight and very comfortable to wear even for the long haul
- The first couple of times putting them on and removing them was hilarious and certainly quite frustrating. The half shell means that there is no real way to grip them like other CIEMs, so you have to hold it right by the edges, and orientate them properly for insertion (which is not as easy as it sounds). Removing them necessitates either pulling them by the cord, or 'digging' them out, which I'm not quite sure how to explain.
- With some practice however, I am now able to insert and remove them effortlessly
- Build quality and finish is great. The swirl colour options are aesthetically very pleasing. The material used for the shells feel solid and smooth, without any apparent defects
- The fixed cable is fantastic! Has a nice thickness to it that is almost tangle resistant. It is super smooth and yet firm at the same time, which inspires long term confidence as a non-detachable cable should. It looks amazing as well. Only gripe is that it can be slightly microphonic, although this is no more than other stock cables. Definitely the best stock cable I've seen so far
- Sound is excellent for $250. Don't want to comment too much on this right now, but in my opinion, it is on a sonic level no lesser than the Shure SE535s. Short thoughts so far:
- Bass is north of neutral for a dual-BA. None of that mid-bass bump problem. Bass extension is nice, and is surprisingly rumbly
- Mids are slightly forward and have nice presence. Both male and female vocals sound upfront and realistic
- Treble is not too extended, but neither is it rolled-off. Entirely non-fatiguing
- Overall presentation is slightly warm
- Note presentation is slightly thick
- Clarity is good
- Detail level is great
- Airiness and sense of space is good, but not spectacular
- Soundstage is 3D-esque. Not sure how to describe it, but it's got to do with the note decay being quite long, and the reverb effect is what produces the 3D staging feel. Excellent
- Not too resolving. A good thing for workout earphones
- These are easy to drive. Sounds great out of the Clip Zip. I tried running them off my HDP-R10 and my Portaphile 627. It does scale up with better gear, but not very much
I also managed to get my hands on a pair of Sportsbud Gold that a friend of mine got for himself. He went for the full shell, detachable cable option. Everything that I've written above about fit, finish applies as well. His unit looked even nicer than mine I must say. Our ear profiles are quite similar, so I popped them in for a short listen, and they are basically a bassier version of the Sportsbud Silver. The mid and high frequencies are very similar, but the bass is definitely quite a bit more prominent, which is saying something given that the Silver is already north of neutral. The bass quality and texture was quite good, somewhat reminiscent of the Shure SE846. I didn't quite dig it because I felt the bass level was just approaching a level which was too high for my preferences, and hence I would only recommend the Gold to bassheads who like a good kick to their music. From a value standpoint, the Silver is $70 cheaper with a more neutral sound signature.
Overall, the Sportsbud Silver have definitely exceeded my expectations, which were already quite high based on AJ's review on them. I'm not sure how my thoughts on them will continue to evolve, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that these are a steal for $250, and I would find it virtually impossible to to find a similarly priced CIEM, or even universal for that matter, which can give you as a good a value as the Sportsbud Silver. T[size=12.7272720336914px]hey perform superbly for a normal CIEM, and even greater for sports usage.[/size][size=12.7272720336914px]
I highly recommend them.[/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px] [/size]
[size=12.7272720336914px]Feel free to ask me any question and I'll try to answer![/size]