Is it fair to assume that the CK100PRO is the current most proficient in-ears from Audio Technica?
In my own words, it's actually correct to actually say according to the stuffs i have heard so far, the CK100PRO's are right the category of one of the most technically proficient universal IEMs I have heard in awhile, and these impressions seems to be concurred and shared by vetaran reviewers around here such as
ClieOS, who have mentioned his thoughts under the discussion thread previously on the topic of what's the best Balanced Armature iem head-fiers have heard so far. Despite been an ATH owner for many years myself (I have owned their IEM/headphones since 2008 so that makes it more than 5 years now), I will not go so far as to say the ATH-CK100PRO's are the best universals out there, but according to the stuffs I have heard up till now, I will probably rank these as in the same top-tier category sharing traits to other well-known universal IEMs such as Final Audio Design's FI-BA-SS/AKG K3003/Sony MDR-EX1000 in terms of overall technicalities as well as scoring very high in terms of the musicality factor. (meaning to say, personally to my ears I don't feel that FI-BA-SS/K3003/EX1000's are any much inferior compared to ATH-CK100PRO's actually, and vice versa)
Like what fellow member Jupiterknight has said, which I had also shared once in my initial review impressions, the CK100PRO largely shares the same kind of flat, balanced signature as it's younger brother sibling the
CK10's, which was already been discontinued by ATH since March 2012 last year. Though in terms of comfort fit/housing ergonomics it's true the CK100PRO's are much larger in size and may be more difficult to wear for certain people out there (when compared to previous predecessor models such as the CK10 and CK100), it's a very small trade off in my eyes in exchange for having removable modular cables as an option, the huge jump in SQ improvements (way much more over the CK10/CK100 models) and well, it's Audio-technica's current latest flagship BA model, what else?
Currently retailing at many reputable websites such as Bluetin or AccessoryJack from anywhere between 540 ~ 549 USD, I will not hesitate to say this much if you have this amount to splurge on a pair of new universal BA's, the CK100PRO's will definitely not disappoint you in terms of build and sound quality. While it's true according to one of my local forumers in my country who shared his feedback in my local forum's thread discussion since I have an impressions thread there too, that he had to send his own pair of CK100PRO's back to ATH S.E.A for repairs due to one of the channels dying out (due to the modular cables/pin fault not the drivers), as far as I know his case was the first case to be reported in Singapore according to ATH S.E.A division, and is not exactly a widespread problem at the moment. Also as far as I know, in terms of MMCX-connector pins, there's always a chance of one of your channel's pins connection dying due to the design of the cable pins. (Shures IEMs also uses MMXC-connectors and are actually quite well-known for having this problem as well, just do a search around the forums to understand what I mean)
Anyway I have already received a pair of BNIB CK10's earlier this year February thanks to my japanese friend in Japan, as one of the shops there were doing some clearance sales for their old stocks. If I have the time I might do a proper A/Bing and add on my ATH-CK10's impressions under the first page once I have the time to update my review again.
Cheers.
