lmao, I'll have to remember that one.        Wow, congratulations on the K10!   Your journey is actually quite similar to mine, except I never purchased the IEM's, I just demo'd them. I was about to buy the Westone 4 when the Heir 4.A came out. I listened to the 4.Ai, loved it and...

Brilliant idea. Kill fire with fire, eh? 

Holy cow, the C4 sounds like a dream come true. I have the Heir 4.A and the 5khz dip really comes out in classical. In fact, I think I might be one to like a 5khz bump.    But I got the 4.A for $450, and these are $700.  Am I really going to have to do this again? Curse you, upgradeitis! 

Quote:   Hm, I can hear distortion on certain notes, as well as a static hiss in the background.

What price range are we looking at here? :)

Quote: Most W4's I've seen are around $450, so yes, I'd say that's a pretty insane deal. Congrats! 

Quote: I agree, it's very microphonic if you use it while wearing glasses.

Quote: Isn't the W4 the same thing as W4R, just without the removable cable?

Quote: Your new favorite?    I haven't heard the Yamaha, but from what people say they are a touch bass-heavy.   EDIT: I see the Ortofon seems to lack strain relief at the shells. What do you think about that?

Quote: Agree with this. The soundstage on them is decent for the price, but not much more than that, I think.   For my electronic music it worked quite fine though. It was the classical I was having issues with. :)   They also seem to have quite a solid build, but I haven't tested...

Quote: You're right about that and I agree with you. I don't think I phrased that quite well, so let me restate my opinion more elaborately.   I think overall clarity is about two things: neutrality across the spectrum and definition of every frequency range. The Westone 4 beats the...

It seems the opposite is true for me. What a pity.

Quote: Have you compared them to any Westones? Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to listen to any Shures.

Quote: No problem!   I will probably audition the DBA-02 this weekend, if you're interested I can check back with my impressions.

Quote: Same thing here. W4 has more treble presence than the UM3x, how can it have less clarity? To me the UM3x sounded muffled in complex passages... Maybe I need another listen to compare them more closely.