Give Empire Ears a PM or email, they can send you over a universal demo unit provided you give them a refundable deposit and cover shipping.
Also to answer your question, the two units you listed are drastically different in tone. When I ordered my Phantoms I knew what I was getting: a tonally accurate IEM that achieves accuracy via warmth and a space-filling sound. These do not have a black background, but the kind of resonance you get sounds like the music is filling a room around you with. There is subbass, but bass is mostly focused around the midbass/lowmid region. It doesn’t sound distorted and it doesn’t overshadow the mids or highs, but it forms the base on which other sounds are built, so expect it to be very present. Somehow, it retains excellent separation and imaging, but don’t expect an “airy ethereal” sound. Treble is quite smooth, great extension. Not sparkly. The Spiral Ears Ultimate 5-Way, from what I’ve heard of it, has an even slower bass (via its delayed firing mechanism) and a thicker mid/treble. This tuning is not for everyone... but if you want something different (like me) then it’s a great choice.
Legend X is a more traditionally “neutral” earphone with an elevated bass that manages to not overshadow the mids like Vega or Atlas do. I didn’t give this one a very close listen, but if you like this sound sig and have no budget limit, I’d grab a Fourte or Tzar. Listening to the Fourte is like star-gazing during a camping trip. Phenomenally black background with the exact right about of subbass to give physically to the entire frequency range, perfectly textured mids and treble that extends far beyond anything else I’ve heard. Airy and ethereal but retains realistic physical presence thanks to support from the lower frequencies. Midbass and lower mids do not have much presence, hence these are not warm whatsoever. Voices appear and disappear from all around you. Even a schmuck like me could tell stage width and height are huge. Depth was not as obvious to me but things sound like are coming from a stage in front of you. I hear people prefer the Tzar for more midbass (or more bass in general) and warmer/sweeter mids.
Hope my impressions help.
Small comment: I’d have agreed with the price sentiment until I heard the Fourte and am cursing 64 Audio for creating an IEM that so perfectly appeals to me at such a high price...
