Well I thought I would add my experience and thoughts regarding Cosmic Ears, if you can't be bothered to read it all I will say it's going to be very positive.
Now before we start I have no connection with the company, I don't know anyone who works there and I'm using my own money to buy these. For me this is a big investment and not something I do lightly.
I've been looking for a replacement set of IEM's for a little while now and was going to buy a set of Fidue A83's to take the place of my RHA MA750's, until someone mentioned that I should look at a set custom's from Cosmic Ears. After looking on their website I knew it was going to cost quite a bit more so I sent a few emails to CE (Cosmic Ears) regarding general information and the buying process. Phil contacted me and gave me details regarding different models over a few emails and also asked Amelia to contact me to provide information on the buying process, which she did and it helped to make everything clear. The communication was prompt, detailed and really helpful. Well done CE and a great start.
On Friday of last week I contacted Amelia by phone on the possibility of visiting the office to discuss options, maybe demo a set and have some impressions taken. I'd previously phoned round a few companies for impressions and had been quoted a range of costs including £29 from Specsavers, £40 at a local audiologists and a whopping £100 from Boots. I drove over to the office on Saturday afternoon and was met by Phil. Now I'm not sure if this is the usual service that CE offer or if it had been arranged specifically for me, but Phil made me feel very welcome. I sat down and had my impressions taken immediately by a professionally trained audiologist which was an easy and smooth process.
So we sat together and Phil explained the 3 models I had in front of me. He'd provided 3, 4 and 6 driver versions with universal fit tips and explained that the sound would only be 85-90% of the final version as the fit will make a big difference. He recommended that I tried the models with increasing driver numbers and that I should make my own mind up as to which one I preferred. Once I'd done that he would go in to more detail about them as he didn't want to cloud my judgement. So I plugged the CE3P in to my DX90 that I'd taken along and started to pick lots of different songs, the clarity was amazing and so much better than I was expecting. Once I felt I'd got a grasp of the 3 I moved on to the next set and so on, with each model increase there was a significant change in the sound as expected but I was surprised by the differences. Now I'm no audio specialist, not a sound engineer, cannot pick out peaks at certain frequencies as some people claim to be able to and I struggle to describe sound. With that in mind I will say there was a increase in detail, clarity and fullness to the sound which made me think I have the have the top spec model. At no point did Phil interrupt me or make me feel uncomfortable that I was taking up too much of his time. I will say that they paired up beautifully with the DX90 and I was surprised by the richness of the bass. All along I thought I would need the B version, but to I have to say the P was spot on. The bass was crisp and clear and did not bleed in to any other frequencies. One thing that I really didn't expect was that they were the most comfortable earphones I'd tried and they were just universal fits, if the custom fits are better I will be very happy.
Once I'd finished my demo Phil left his office to come and sit with me again. We discussed my thoughts on each model and Phil asked which one I thought I might be interested in. I explained it had to be the 5 or 6 driver version as I loved the level of detail. We now spent a great amount of time as he explained the drivers and the differences between dynamic and balanced armatures. He was also able to show me the sound graph's from the many different IEM's I'd been interested in. They had all been tested on their own bespoke testing equipment and therefore a direct comparison could be made. He explained the plus' and minuses for each set and at no point did he criticise other makes or try to make out CE was the best. A refreshing change for someone to have confidence in their own product to be able sell itself without having to put down another company to make theirs seem better. He then went on to show me the various colours, designs and custom options available. The great start was not a fluke and I knew I'd made a good choice.
So we'd decided it was going to be a 5 or 6 driver version, Phil showed me the graph's of the two, explained the differences between their sound signatures and based on my tastes he said either would fit me very well. To my further surprise, he then said that he wasn't happy about me ordering the 5 without having listened to one and apologised that a set wasn't available for me to test there and then. He said a demo model would be ready in a couple of days and would ship it out to me straight away for testing. 'Wow, this guy really stands by his products and wants everyone to be happy' I thought. So after having a great afternoon (probably near to 3 hours of his very valuable time) Phil was happy to shake my hand, thank me for coming over to see them and let me go without having spent a penny. Their level of service started really well and it would have been very easy for it to tail off but to my surprise it got better at each stage.
I feel the problem with most forums is that many people visit them to complain about something and rarely visit them to offer praise, I think it's human nature to complain especially from behind the safety of a keyboard. I think credit should be given where it's due and for their excellent customer service, concern for their customers and quality of their products Cosmic Ears cannot be praised highly enough. I will be ordering a set of custom IEMS from CE this week and I cannot wait to get them in my hands.
I'm sorry if it seems like I'm gushing over this, but I've worked in retail before and I took pride in how I treated my customers. This is how I always tried to be and it's a refreshing change to deal with such a genuinely nice guy. Bear in mind I'm currently looking for a replacement car as well and have just been dealing with really poor customer service from several dealerships resulting in a 3 page letter of complaint to the head office. My expectations are generally quite high and sometimes I find it easy for people to fall short.
All the best,
Craig.
