I noticed that there were 2 of them. Never noticed that one of them was balanced! Neat.
Well, I squandered that opportunity, yes. And yes, it's better to hear it yourself, totally agreed. I meant to say (and I'm very sorry for not phrasing it this way to begin with, making myself sound very stupidly bias) that the general consensus in the portable hi-fi community is that as IEM development is moving quickly, the custom territory is expanding beyond the old stereotype that IEMs can't compete with headphones in the SQ/enjoyment department. Do I personally believe this? Not totally, but neither do I disbelieve it. I'm just reporting on what other people are catching on to. I noticed that no who owns a high-end pair of customs has complained about sound stage, while many of them have compared their customs' sound stage to their headphones'. That's no evidence that I or you would experience what they generally experienced, but I do value head-fiers' opinions, which do have considerable weight on how I will contemplate my audio gear purchasing. Why? For the reason that it's just not possible to sample customs, obviously.
You guys are right that if I had listened to those cans at the meet, I would at least have something to reference my future IEM purchase to. At that time I foolishly thought, "Well, I'm not gonna have full-size headphones anyway, so why bother listening? That's like having a cup of coffee house quality coffee for today, when I'm only gonna be able to drink tea for many years to come. What is the point of experience something that you may never be able to experience again?" So I'm smacking my forehead for having acted on that stupid idea.
Please don't frown upon my past action for too long, guys. Besides, there will always be another meet, another opportunity.