On Tuesday last week, I met with a Head-Fi member who had posted his B-Stock tia Fourté on the Classifieds. I had my first-ever audition experience before buying. Living in Kansas City, that just never gets to happen. But this member was also from KC, so it worked out beautifully.
It took all of five minutes for me to say, "Ok. I'm done listening. I'll buy them."
$2,200 later, and I was on my way home, tia Fourté in my ears.
Here are some recent thoughts I shared in Nic's TOTL shootout thread.
Fourté is not a warm IEM. But it has a great sense of musicality, due in large part to that dynamic-driven bass. The treble is bright, but not shouty. I also don't consider it "splashy", as some folk say. There is nice sparkle, and it has a more natural sound than Encore.
It's very difficult to compare this with U12 because they are so different. On every "technical level", Fourté outperforms U12. The same is true of Encore. Bass is the only thing U12 does better than Encore. And yet, I tend to favor the U12 more than Encore most of the time. But sometimes I just really want that clarity and transparency.
tia Fourté is Encore Ultra, but also has more natural lows than U12, so in some ways it the best of both worlds... but not entirely. Not if warmth is what you crave. U12 is still the best for that.
On normal popular music like rock and pop, tia Fourté is a step or two above U12 or Encore. But when you throw on something like Binaural recordings, such as Amber Rubarth, Fourté expands in stage and quality to a transcendent degree. It leaves the others in the dust. It's simply capable of so much more.
