(warning: long winded review ahead!)
I received my V6-Stage in ears Saturday (9/14), literally minutes before leaving for a rehearsal. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be able to try them out.
Unlike some others on this forum, my main mission for these IEMs are as stage monitors. I lead worship on Sundays at my church, and also play in a
Styx cover band. I will use these for recreational listening, but other than my studio, I don't have any pro headphone amps, etc., to listen through.
I will also throw out this caveat that these are my first pro CIEMs, so take my impressions with whatever size grain of salt seems appropriate.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
As others have mentioned, the packaging is all first rate, so I won't bore you with the details. The fit and finish appear to be top notch. I didn't notice any flaws or bubbles in the shells. The fit of these was nice and snug right out of the box. I've had semi custom in ear molds made in the past, and one of the problems, (as well as with wearing universals) as a vocalist, is that the seal tends to break when you start singing, especially on certain vowels. The V6-Stages seem to go deep enough into the ear canal, and are a close enough fit that this has not yet been an issue. I believe the key is to make sure you use a bite block when your molds are made.
5 HOURS OF STYX IN MY HEAD!
I had these IEMS in my ears for the better part of 5 hours, and during that time, I felt no discomfort, no ear fatigue. In fact, they more or less "disappeared", simply leaving me with a great monitor mix. The sound of these are, in a word, incredible. Again, realize I've never had anything close to this quality before, the closest being a pair of Etymotic Research ER-4s. The low end is extremely deep, without getting loose at all. Our bass player plays a 5 string, so the lowest fundamental is right at 31Hz. Even hitting that low "B", it was strong, and nice and punchy, not jiggly or weak at all. The mids are nice and up front, great for allowing vocals to cut through the mix. The high end is nice and smooth, almost glassy, never harsh until I purposely went crazy with the treble on my Aviom personal mixer.
Like I mentioned, after 5 hours, my ears still felt fresh, not fatigued at all, and there was absolutely no discomfort. I did notice I had to do a bit of remixing on my Aviom personal monitor. The way the Aviom system works is each musician has their own personal mixer, and has control of volume and pan over 16 individual sends, or channels. The way we're set up is 5 vocal channels, 3 guitar channels, a stereo keyboard feed (me) one bass channel, one channel for kick drum, one for snare, and a stereo pair of drum overheads. In the past, I never really bothered putting too much kick drum into my mix, as it was more of a 'click' than anything else. With the V6-Stage, I get a nice, low warm 'thud', in addition to hearing the 'thwack' of the beater. As I mentioned, it took a while to dial in my mix, but once I did, I was quite pleased.
Yet another benefit of these IEMs is the stereo imaging. Again, in the past, the sound mostly came from the middle of my head, extending out almost to where I felt my ears were. With the V6-Stage IEMs, the stereo stage feels much wider. I can hear sounds quite a ways to the left and right of my head. As a musician, this is a great benefit, as it allows me to pan each instrument exactly where I want, making it much easier to hear the entire band, rather than having all the guitars bass, etc., stacked right in the middle of my head. Perhaps this contributed to the lack of fatigue as well.
SUNDAY MORNING
I used these IEMs this morning while leading worship at my church. Again, the level of detail I experienced was much greater than I've heard in the past. The acoustic guitar was quite a bit brighter than I've been used to, the bass much rounder, and I could hear details in my keyboard patches that quite simply were missing previously. Small changes in volume and panning were readily noticeable. In fact, between services, I told my sound guy that the send on my vocal mic was
just starting to break up. He backed it off, and it was crystal clear. Again, this is something I would have not ever heard in the past.
OUT FOR A RUN WITH THE DOGS
My only other experience with the V6-Stage was going out for a jog this afternoon, with my Samsung Galaxy S4, obviously, not a great audio source, but not horrible. I mostly listened to Brian Culbertson's XII album, playing AAC files. Once again the sound was clear and present, never hyped, and the sound stage quite a bit wider than what I'm used to.
If I had to find a negative, my left ear started getting just a bit uncomfortable about 30 minutes in. However, as I won't normally be using these for exercise, that's not an issue for me.
CONCLUSION
Once again, prior to these IEMs, the best I've had were my ER4s. Suffice it to say I am more than pleased with the fit, finish, comfort, and sound quality of these IEMs. It's alway a bit unnerving to spend close to $700 on something you're pretty much jumping out in faith on, but I have no regrets with my purchase. I am more than satisfied with my V6-Stage CIEMS.
The plan is to have my UERM with my Fiio X3 and then these with the iBasso DX50. Impressions will be done next Thursday so shouldn't take too long after that hopefully.
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