http://www.thecustomart.com/index.php
US CIEM Demo Tour, Featuring:
- Harmony 8 Pro ($1155*) – Solid Fill Silicone, 8BA , 3-Way, Musical: Harmony series combines best features from each series – musicality and accuracy to create top-tier sounding CIEMs.
- Music One ($235*) – Solid Fill Silicone, 1BA, 1-Way, Balanced: Music Series always strives to achieve the best quality to price ratio possible - vented receiver for better bass response.
- Music Two ($405*) – Solid Fill Silicone, 2BA, 2-Way, Slight V: Equipped with separate woofer and tweeter tuned for boosting lower range without overcoming midrange - vented receiver for better bass response.
- Pro 330v2 ($625*) – Solid Fill Silicone, 3BA, 2-Way, Analytical: Pro Series focuses on accuracy and details.
*Converted from Euros, US pricing will fluctuate.
Reviews/Opinion Links:
- Barra's Impressions
- Miceblue's Impressions
- H2Ologd Impressions
- Miceblue's Video Review
- Alpha421's Impressions
- Barra's H8P Initial Impressions
- Cotnijoe's Impressions
With the lavish praise being paid the Harmony 8 pro in the Head-Fi community by those who have heard all the TOTL CIEMs to know the differences, I needed to hear it for myself. Being relatively new to the market and located in Poland, this posed a problem. To make a long story short, I offered Peter – CustomArt’s owner and CIEM designer genius – to host a US tour and he accepted. Making it even better, he offered to include the M1, M2, and Pro330v2 in the tour. Reading average_joe’s stellar review of the M1, I needed to know what is going on to make him like a 1BA CIEM so much. Having heard the M1, now I understand, wow. My first impressions of all three - M1, M2, and Pro330v2 – makes me want to hear the H8P that much more. All I will say for now is that there is a unique clarity and natural tone to these demos that I have not heard before outside of my NT6pro and that the M1 at roughly $235 converted from Euros is now my value CIEM favorite.
Tour Logistics:
The tour includes demos for all the CIEMs listed above and will be done in two parts. Part one includes the M1, M2, and Pro330v2 which are already in my possession. Part two will start as soon as the H8P demo is completed and in my hands with it following the same tour order slightly delayed by two or three weeks. To keep shipping costs low and logistics simple, this is a US tour only. If you are outside the US, please PM Peter (piotrus-g) directly with the request. He may decide to host other smaller tours following this one if warented. The good news for US participants is that we should be able to accomidate all those interested.
Tour Instructions (7 Day Audition):
Following the signup period, the participant list will be organized logistically to minimize shipping costs starting from Seattle. The the tour will begin with the first in the list for a 7-day audition. Thereafter they will be responsible to deliver or ship the demo kit to the next participant in the list.
- Upon Receipt:
- Post: Please immediately post on the thread both receipt and condition of the demo kit.
- PM: Please immediately PM the next participant on the list to arrange delivery (if local) or shipping. This step is critical to avoid delaying the tour. It is each participants responsibility to keep the tour moving. If the participant is unresponsive for all three days of your audition, it is your responsibility to move on to the next in the list so the tour does not get stalled. Please PM Barra with any issues.
- Issues: Please PM Barra with any issues.
- Dropping Out: Please PM Barra if you feel you cannot fullfil your tour responsibilites and I will pull you from the list.
- Optional Review: Reviews are completely optional, but greatly appreciated by all Head-Fi members.
- Thoughts/Impressions: Feel free to post your thoughts, initial impressions, pairing results, or even informal reviews or comparisons right here on this thread.
- Formal Reviews: While you are welcome to post formal reviews on this thread, they are often more manageable if you use the Head-Fi review fuctionality and post a link here for people to follow.
Tour Kit / Included Tips:
The Kit comes as pictured below and has limited tips. Yes they are silicone CIEMs and yes those are really nice cables. If you look really closely, you may also notice that these are also solid filled which I wasn’t expecting never having seen a silicone CIEM before. Yes it does seem to effect the sound eliminating unwanted resonance that I had not actually noticed in acrylics before until now that I can compare. Peter suggests that the included foams (Comply T100) should be used because they give closest experience to custom. However, other right sized tips that can be used include:
- Westone Star silicone
- Shure Grey flex
- Comply T100
NOTE: The tips supplied are brought up in case participants do not want to share the limited tip supply or want to try other options. Also as pictured below, the stems are not the typical larger demo sizes being rather small – so your typical demo tip collection may not work. This may require some planning ahead to make sure that you can properly audition this kit.
H8P Polarity:
To avoid confusion and poor sound quality due to reversed polarity, here are tips on getting polarity correct on the H8P:
- Cable polarity: positive pin on the cable is marked with dot.
- Monitor polarity: positive pin in socket is on top - furthest from the stem.
- Left cable connection (blue dot): should be attached to left monitor (with blue/silver wires inside) with dot facing your head
- Right cable connection (red dot): should be attached to right monitor (with red/silver wires) with dot facing away from your head.
Everyone must hear H8P.
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