Before I start, understand this as my personal opinion. I have no intention of hype this product line
ESEP-01BL is the good entry level buds which shows its uniqueness and true character of the ShoonTH lineup. IMO, the price is just right. I'm not a fan of the cable, but even if you cut the cable, I will buy it again
By saying this I mean that this driver (32ohm) alone is the strong candidate to be in range $10-$20
Now looking at the
ESEP-01BLE and reading product description we see some differences, enhanced driver and cables. They tested each driver and resistor to find a pair
with approximately equal impedance. Also, all of this requires additional driver tuning. The next thing that raises the price here is the cable, of course the beautiful look (my subjective opinion) is not the only reason for that. I personally like how they match plug and Y-splitter with "wasp pattern" snake skin.
I use FURUKAWA silver plated copper cable with my DIY PK1 150ohm "red film" driver and I noticed small improvement in driver performance comparing it with other cheap cables. This cable is thin but rigid (can be good or bad thing, I don't mind that much), and it feels strong.
And now the main question: Is all this worth 4 times the price of previous model?
Well... for overall effort: enhanced driver (150ohm), tuning, quality cable wire and parts, attention to the details, richer package with accessories, the price around $100 would be a complete hit, $120 ...hmm...maybe ok
ESEP-01BU ... what can incense the price $100? This is a hard one if you ask me, and correct me if I'm wrong.
This is not so important, but I need to mention, the package looks a bit downgraded in comparison with ESEP-01BLE.
As for the driver, I think that they probably chose the best samples of the previous version here with some additional tuning.
Looking at the cable, we see that they use the same plug and Y-splitter, the snake skin has a different pattern.
The main difference is the wire. It's thinner and braided, which may indicate two things: softer cable and no microphonics.
Is asking price ok? I will not agree here. Upper limit will be $200 but $150-$170 is a much more realistic price for this model.
BTW... this lineup is not so new and the TOTL model is not mentioned anywhere in the reviews, which may mean that it was not sold as much.
The only solution I see here is to lower the price and send one pair to
@RikudouGoku for testing