[BobFiggins]

Just pre-ordered the A4 on Saturday. Really excited! Heard almost the whole lineup (no A8 available sadly) and the A4 was fantastic! I'm sensitive to sharp treble, and the A4 seemed to be the lightest treble of the bunch. Extremely happy, and excited for the next 3 weeks to go by so I can get them!

 

[pretend]

Just pre-ordered the A4 on Saturday. Really excited! Heard almost the whole lineup (no A8 available sadly) and the A4 was fantastic! I'm sensitive to sharp treble, and the A4 seemed to be the lightest treble of the bunch. Extremely happy, and excited for the next 3 weeks to go by so I can get them!

How much was it? And how does it compare to its predecessor, the qi or the v3?

 

[BobFiggins]

How much was it? And how does it compare to its predecessor, the qi or the v3?

 
Had a 20% meet discount, so paid $700. They mainly had the ADEL series at the new meet. the only old one was the V6 that was available. I will paste my meet impressions here:
 

   
I was at the 1964 booth for a while, so anyone who was behind me, I apologize. One of the main reasons I went to this meet was to buy my first CIEM, so I had to try everything and be sure!
 
xtoria, sadly I didn't. They only had the V6 available from the old lineup. They had the new lineup there yesterday to demo to everyone. I believe they had the A4, A6, A10, and A12. I tried everything they had I think! Might have missed one, but it was interesting listening to them all. I'll talk about them a little bit below. I don't often describe sounds as much as the rest of you guys do, or use IEM's often, so excuse my dry-descriptions.
 
V6: Sounded a bit sterile. I can't describe the sound too well because I took them off shortly. The A6 sounded miles better so I didn't feel it was worth listening any longer. I did notice immediately how the soundstage felt very small compared to the A6. I heard the A6 first so it was like going from a large room to just my head when I put the V6 on.
 
Before jumping into the Adel versions, I have to say the new technology they are using to decrease the amount of pressure is wonderful. Even with bleh earbuds I eventually have to take them out after an hour to let my ears "cool off" so to speak from fatigue. The Adel series seemed to take the pressure factor, and kick 3/4 of it away. You might be wondering how they can still be bassy, but they are, and they are very very well. The bass seems to be way more expansive due to this; It feels room-sized! It did give an impression that the bass was a little bit bloated on the A4, and the bass a bit too weak on the A6 and up, but not enough to make me not love them. These IEM's were the closest thing I've ever heard to a full-size headphone. Yes, even soundstage. When there's no pressure smashing your eardrum, it's easier to relax and hear the sounds from beyond your head.
 
A4: These were the ones I bought, I loved them! I came with enough money to buy the A10's, but the A4's downright impressed me. Highs that weren't sharp for my sensitive ears. The upper mids felt a little recessed, lower mids a bit better. Bass isn't very punchy, but extends very very low like the Westone 4R I was craving. The bass in the Adel series seems to be very smooth, and not so rumbly. I thought I'd prefer the rumbly, but low-pressure bass is just awesome to hear, it's worth the trade. The A4 had this strange quality to me, and I'm thinking it might be the seal. I found that the bass in some songs could be too intense, while in others not enough, or just right. It felt opposite of how I would have expected it. For instance in an orchestrated song the bass felt intensely bloated, yet in Daft Punk's Get Lucky, it sounded just right. Then in some current pop song it felt like there wasn't much of it at all where there needs to be. I get the feeling it was just the seal though.
 
A6: Felt very similar to the A4, except there was a bit less bass, and the upper mids and treble were more detailed and extended. I was tempted to get these, but I figured the treble would be a bit too much for my ears after a long session. I would say for most people, this could be the best all-rounder in terms of price and FR.
 
A10: Didn't last a minute in my ears. Way too treble happy. I can't give a good opinion on these.
 
A12: The greatest sounding of them all, but with an issue to me. Perhaps it was just the demo unit, or the nature of having 12 drivers per ear, but they felt a little bit out of sync. It was really distracting for me. I don't try enough IEM's out to know exactly what I'm talking about, so if it's something else I'm meaning to say, sorry about that. Sync aside, they were incredibly smooth, and put a smile on my face. These were definitely the best for me in terms of smoothness. They felt very neutral to my ears. Not that I'm a good judge of neutral, but that's just my interpretation. I'm extremely sensitive to treble (my virgin ears haven't been ruined by all of you yet!) so the A12 being smooth everywhere, including the treble made it seriously enjoyable.
 
I can definitely see myself buying another 1964 ears Adel in the future. They are just that good.
 
I liked the white CIEM with red ADEL writing on the 1964 poster behind the booth. Inspired me to design mine like this:

 

 

[Levanter]

 
Had a 20% meet discount, so paid $575. They mainly had the ADEL series at the new meet. the only old one was the V6 that was available. I will paste my meet impressions here:
 

 


Nice review!
By out of sync do you mean you hear/find yourself focusing on various parts/details separately instead of in a whole?

 

[pretend]

   
Had a 20% meet discount, so paid $575. They mainly had the ADEL series at the new meet. the only old one was the V6 that was available. I will paste my meet impressions here:
 

Thanks man. Maybe I'll grab one on black friday, I really do like the sound sig of v3, hopefully the A4 will be similar. Lower fatigue definitely sounds like a very important factor here.

 

[BobFiggins]

 

   
Had a 20% meet discount, so paid $700. They mainly had the ADEL series at the new meet. the only old one was the V6 that was available. I will paste my meet impressions here:
 

 


Nice review!
By out of sync do you mean you hear/find yourself focusing on various parts/details separately instead of in a whole?

 
Definitely possible that it was so detailed I found it confusing. I don't even find that an issue with my HD800 which is incredibly resolving. Though I'm new to in-ear monitors, so it's possible I'm just not used to it. For instance, I don't remember feeling this way when I tried the Noble 10 or the A10. It's also possible it was just my phone not putting out enough juice, or a poor connection. Who knows. It was probably working fine.

 

[KaminKevCrew]

 

   
Had a 20% meet discount, so paid $575. They mainly had the ADEL series at the new meet. the only old one was the V6 that was available. I will paste my meet impressions here:
 

 


Nice review!
By out of sync do you mean you hear/find yourself focusing on various parts/details separately instead of in a whole?

I heard a pair from a kickstarter backer at the mini meet we had on Bainbridge. It may very well have been that the phase is slightly off with them, which could account for the strange sound. Nothing was wrong, per se, it just felt like something was off (I do not claim to be an expert on such things though, so take that statement with a rather large grain of salt). That being said, however, the A12 universal was really quite good (And those lucky kickstarter guys got them for $1200!!!) I agree with BobFiggins that the sound is a little bit strange to me. However, to my ears (fairly inexperienced though they are) the A12 sounded very similar to the LCD-3 by Audeze. They had the same well-pronounced mid range, with a very well extended bass. Detail was very impressive, but I would wager that they would do well even with fairly low quality recordings, due to their incredible smoothness. The treble, to my ears was well extended and nicely airy, without being harsh or sibilant. (Now, I'm comparing to my Denon AH-D7000, and the A12 are simply on another level, but that's to be expected since they are almost 3 times the price). My favorite of the bunch that I've heard so far is actually the A6, although I haven't heard the A10. The A4 has more bass than I like, although it's only by the slightest of amounts. I found the A6 to be much more balanced. If they are as comfortable as everyone says CEIMs are, I can definitely see myself selling the D7K, and using the cash for a nice portable setup, they were that good. I found that the A series as a whole was very, very impressive.
 
The Adel module smooths everything out in a remarkable way, without sacrificing sound quality in any way. Now, I've only ever owned universal IEMs before, so this is my first pair of customs. However, with every universal I've owned, I found that my ears started to hurt from the movement of my eardrum from the bass, and my turning the volume up too loud. What Stephen Ambrose says about your ear relaxing due to the Adel module is not a small change. It is very noticeable, and very, very welcome. I didn't realize it before, but after listening to the Adel module, I notice my ear drums immediately tense up as soon as I start listening to music at any sort of volume. The Adel module doesn't just reduce the fatigue, I find that it completely eliminates it. Also, all of this is done without sacrificing isolation. The universal Adel IEMs had just as much, if not more (I certainly thought it was more) isolation than my Shure SE535. By far, the best (read: my favorite) sound I've ever heard from any headphone (Full size or not), bar none (referring to the A6)
. 
 

Me getting my impressions done with Vitaliy (The man who created 1964Ears) in the background. He was the Audiologist doing the impressions, and I have to say, it's quite a fun experience!

 

[BobFiggins]

That guy created 1964 Ears? I had no idea! I must have missed it during the history Stephen was talking about, it was rather loud there. Oh man, he even injected my ears with goo! Such a proud moment!
 
As for what you said Kev, I wish there was something in-between the A4 and A6. I agree the A4 had too much bass, but my sensitive ears would have a hard time with the A6's treble after a while. Kind of hoping there's a way to adjust the bass output on the A4, tone it down just a smidge.
 
Also, keeping your mouth open for 4 minutes was harder than I expected. Was a struggle to swallow, and I'm glad it ended at 4 minutes. Another minute and I would have became a faucet.

 

[Sappy]

after a lot of thinking about money and its value I closed my eyes and ordered the A12. that's what they will look like.
 

 
hope they won't be out of sync...

 

[sathyam]

  after a lot of thinking about money and its value I closed my eyes and ordered the A12. that's what they will look like.
 

 
hope they won't be out of sync...

 
Where did you order it?

 

[KaminKevCrew]

  That guy created 1964 Ears? I had no idea! I must have missed it during the history Stephen was talking about, it was rather loud there. Oh man, he even injected my ears with goo! Such a proud moment!
 
As for what you said Kev, I wish there was something in-between the A4 and A6. I agree the A4 had too much bass, but my sensitive ears would have a hard time with the A6's treble after a while. Kind of hoping there's a way to adjust the bass output on the A4, tone it down just a smidge.
 
Also, keeping your mouth open for 4 minutes was harder than I expected. Was a struggle to swallow, and I'm glad it ended at 4 minutes. Another minute and I would have became a faucet.

Yeah, haha! He seemed like a very cool guy! Those bite blocks are a pain in the butt, but I think they are well worth it for a nice pair of customs!

  after a lot of thinking about money and its value I closed my eyes and ordered the A12. that's what they will look like.
 

 
hope they won't be out of sync...

I do honestly think that it's more an issue of the two of us not being used to such high fidelity, I doubt Vitaliy would allow something far enough out of sync to be a problem to go into production. At the meet, I heard Mr.Ambrose saying that Vitaliy is the best in the industry at sound tuning. This coming from a man who has been in the CIEM business since 1964 (He literally invented the concept...) So there's that... Also, those look sick! The A10 is supposed to be very, very balanced, and revealing, from what I heard. (didn't try them though) apparently a lot of engineers have started using them for mixing, etc. for just that reason.

 

[BobFiggins]

MSRP for the A4 is $899. I was wrong before when I said $575. That was just some mixup with the meet, and has been corrected. Pricey, but still worth it. With the meet discount, and adding on wood covers, came to $825.
 
Was originally going to go with the red/white scheme, but after seeing these photos online:
http://www.post76.com/x2/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=212977
 
Looks like the red was fading/bleeding into the shell a bit too much for my liking. Didn't want to chance it and went with wood:
 

 
If I ever get another pair, think I'm just going to go with solid black, nothing on it at all.

 

[LoryWiv]

   
Where did you order it?

+1 on the question. Are the universals (Ambient and U series) available for pre-order now?

 

[BobFiggins]

 
+1 on the question. Are the universals (Ambient and U series) available for pre-order now?

 
1964 was at the Seattle Head-Fi meet. So I pre-ordered there. No idea how to pre-order any of it online. I think it's not out yet? As far as I know, only the Kickstarter backers have had access to them aside from meeting 1964 in person to pre-order.

 

[LoryWiv]

Thanks, BobFiggins, and enjoy!!!

I may be next once they are more widely available.