As someone who doesn’t have $1,500 to throw about on 10 different IEMs to “try them out”, I really appreciate the time and effort put into reviews such as yours. These will be my first pair of wired IEMs since the OG Apple earbuds came out years ago. I’m mostly used to over the ear headphones and I own a pretty good set of cans in the B&W px7 s2. I already have a Dac/amp that I fool around with when I listen to them wired, which is most of the time. Just the Ifi hip-Dac 2, but it does seem to make a positive difference. I imagine I’ll find similar results when I power the s12 pros with them. My source is an iPhone 13 Pro Max, Qobuz for Hi-Res tracks and VOX if I want to tinker with different EQ settings. I wonder if the VOX app might be able to tame some of that “planar sheen”… guess I will find out. Anyway, thank you again for the insightful and detailed review. You made my decision much easier. Be well,
Chris

You're welcome @bassdad8 . I hope that you would enjoy it. Cheers!

I am a few weeks in with the S12 pros now, and since then, their little brother the D13s have joined the party (along with Moondrop Katos but that’s another story). The D13s sounded so good right out of the box that I almost returned the S12 pros. But I decided to keep both and I am happy I did. They sound different enough and are inexpensive enough to justify it in my mind. Now to the question. The S12 pros continue to improve in their sound presentation, whereas the D13s sound exacting the same as they did out of the box. This mean the S12 pros are noticeably more balanced, warmer and generally much more pleasant and polished. Is it the 14.8mm planar “burning in”, or is it my brain? It’s just strange because there has literally been zero change in the D13s presentation. I know it’s been debated to death, but I think I am actually experiencing a slow burn in on the S12 pros…