I received my ES5s from Variphone today - 14 full days from sending my impression, to receiving my monitor.      I think I know, what heaven feels like.  

Quote:   From trying the Miracle and the Merlin demos in a 100 db noisy environment, I can confirm, that the Merlins do a very good job of isolating - they're not as good as the Miracle's, but they aren't far from it.     

Just sent off my impressions to Variphone today - I should be receiving my ES5's in about two weeks time!  

I'm almost certain that the ES5's will be my first custom IEM after this review - now I'll just have to wait 'till Westone replies to my e-mail.  

I would love to be given this opportunity. I think I am a good candidate, as I am a very honest person with a moderate experience in Head-Fi. Being a relative new-comer to the scene, I can appreciate even lower-end products for their strengths. I also have access to a wide variety of headphones...

Recently purchased a pair of Grado RS1's - these things are insane. I think my full-size headphone journey has ended - for now anyway!  

To me, even though I am not a musician what-so-ever, music is an expression of self. Whether I feel sad, happy, alone, great or even drunk, it always gets my mood up at least one notch. It's something that can unite people from across the world, who do not speak the same language. It doesn't...

The Westone 3's got me hooked on IEM's, as it gave me an insight to high end portable audio. I had the IE8's, and felt they were "fine", but that they still sounded like any other IEM I had ever heard, but the Westone 3's sound "more" like full-size headphones, than they sound like IEM's. I now...

Like I said kiteki, you weren't the person who brought it off topic, not as I see it anyways, so it's fine :-)   Good idea starting a new topic about it, it seems as if plenty of people will be interested in it!  

At this point, when taking customer service, sound signatures and other horror stories into consideration, I think I'm going to go with Spiral Ear. Now all that is left for me to decide is what model I'm going with.

@kiteki: That's is some really interesting reading right there, and I don't mean to disrespect at all, but I think we've gone just a tad off topic here, so let's push it back on topic!  (That post was not only aimed at kiteki, because I do realize he wasn't the one who took the thread off topic...

I too went from being extremely underwhelmed with the IE8's, and my previous experience at that point was Grado SR60i and Superlux HD681, and yet I felt the IE8's were somehow lacking - although it needs to be said I had fit issues with the IE8's at the time. I then upgraded to the Westone 3's...

Quote: I'm not saying I agree with the 2 PM per day limitation - frankly, I find 5 much more appropriate. All I meant was, that in a few weeks time, people will just complain about the 5 PM limitation.      

It could be because of it being a demo unit, and the seal simply wasn't good enough, however I do plan on buying an amp, but it does seem like it can wait a little bit. I guess I have to decide when i get the customs themselves, but that's a whole different topic.   I had a small...

Quote: No need for other headphones? Blasphemy! ;-)     Quote: I just felt the 3-way was inadequately powered straight out of my iPod, compared to my Westone 3's.