flymetothemoon
Headphoneus Supremus
^In the event my previous post came off as obnoxious, I feel the need to expand. This will likely be my last post on the subject, unless I'm responding to something else.
I really don't believe in burn in. I've had enough neurology courses to understand the power of the brain, so I feel that "burn in" is more or less a symptom of the brain adjusting and compensating for certain areas of sound. For instance, I remember how bass-light and sibilant my GR07 sounded when I upgraded from the SE-215. It was jarring, and made me question what I had just spent my $150 ( a large sum for me at the time) on. People on the threads convinced me that I just needed time to let the drivers settle. 200 hours of burn in and listening later, I could hear the goodness everyone was talking about. Burn in was real! Then I went back to the SE215 for a week while my GR07 was sent for repairs in China. You can guess how my GR07 sounded when it came back...like crap once more. As for the Ref 1 and burn in, I'm pretty sure SoundFreaq commented that the Ref's drivers underwent extremely strenuous testing, and they came out without any problems. So why then, would normal music levels affect what they sound like so dramatically?
I don't doubt that the Ref 1 sounded better to you after a while. Hell, it started to for me until I really started A/B'ing with my other gear. That's when flaws begin to show.
For the record, I thought Gavin's updated 1plus2 fixed the harshness issue. The treble was smooth yet brilliant, and the lifted sub-bass made it perfect down there. The only issue was that the lower mids didn't have much body because of the V signature. The Ref 1 still doesn't fix it because most of the emphasis is in the upper midrange, which creates another localized V shape between the large mid-bass bump and the large upper midrange spike.
I don't tend to wax poetic about IEMs. Only the Piano Forte VIII has made me do that, so I apologize (not really) if my impressions come off as matter of fact. It's my scientific background that requires I write the way I do. Throughout this whole thread, I don't think I had seen one concrete set of impressions that made me understand what the signature of the Ref 1 is. SoundFreaq's thoughts, as beautiful as they are, were as solid as pixie dust when it came to trying to know anything about the Ref, other than it sounds nothing like the 1plus2. It wasn't until I heard them myself that I went.."Oh." Really, the only reason I was interested in hearing these was because Gavin made them.
I think you have reported what you have perceived in impression of the Ref.1 and everyone has their fair space here to express their opinions. No need to get everyone's agreement on what you perceived.
My reference to my impressions on the Ref.1 are the two home systems (one sold and one current) that I owned and you may find it in my profile (of the current). I'd say Ref.1 is awesome for what it can do within such a small unit.