[nioh]

I've read EE customer service is 2nd to none, here's hoping no further people need to avail of the service.

Perhaps, but depending on where you buy it from there's still the dealer, the dealer gets it from the distributor and so on.
When I first saw the 2 shells break here, I sent those pictures to my dealer and he was like "Why are you so anxious ? Those pictures are the worst.". I had to send him Jack Vang's message for him to understand what is going on. He's still trying to convince me to keep the pre-order and I want to cancel it. So you see, EE is nowhere in the picture, they are somewhere far in the background.

Now this is before even the product has been delivered. Imagine this happening a year later or worse after the warranty ends.
If you contact EE, they will simply ask you to contact your dealer. EE will not directly send you a replacement or anything.

 

[CL14715]

Haven't tried to remove the cable, sound is pretty insane on first few hours. I get much more of a over-ear experience, pretty wild. Haven't really played with cable rolling, but there's nothing to indicate any issues at the moment.

FYI- I have the LX, both universal and custom, EVO, Odin and Raven. My only issue has been with a launch EVO having a covered vent in which Jack was able to fix with about a 2 day turnaround. It happens. These are boutique items. It would be one thing if EE didn't address issues, but they do. Anyways, will report back once I do some cable rolling.

Yea... They have always been great with customer service. The few issues I have had over the years were swiftly handled. That's why if my unit has issues or this becomes more wide spread I will be bummed but know it'll be resolved or I'll be refunded. Definitely want this to be a fluke so others can hear how great they sound. I know confidence is a major factor when spending this much coin.

I rolled a bunch of high end cables with Raven and never found too large of a benefit so I'll probably just run it as is when I get mine since I'm waiting for the all black variant. I have it all written up, just waiting on the larger outlets to fire off reviews before I put mine out there.

 

[gLer]

Haven't tried to remove the cable, sound is pretty insane on first few hours. I get much more of a over-ear experience, pretty wild. Haven't really played with cable rolling, but there's nothing to indicate any issues at the moment.

FYI- I have the LX, both universal and custom, EVO, Odin and Raven. My only issue has been with a launch EVO having a covered vent in which Jack was able to fix with about a 2 day turnaround. It happens. These are boutique items. It would be one thing if EE didn't address issues, but they do. Anyways, will report back once I do some cable rolling.

How would you compare LX to Raven? Does LX still offer something different/unique?

 

[timeslip]

When I first saw the 2 shells break here, I sent those pictures to my dealer and he was like "Why are you so anxious ? Those pictures are the worst.". I had to send him Jack Vang's message for him to understand what is going on. He's still trying to convince me to keep the pre-order and I want to cancel it. So you see, EE is nowhere in the picture, they are somewhere far in the background.

Who is your dealer? Based on responses so far, I would only trust headphones.com and bloom audio.

 

[zoidbb]

Who is your dealer? Based on responses so far, I would only trust headphones.com and bloom audio.

And musicteck

 

[TomKorn]

Perhaps, but depending on where you buy it from there's still the dealer, the dealer gets it from the distributor and so on.
When I first saw the 2 shells break here, I sent those pictures to my dealer and he was like "Why are you so anxious ? Those pictures are the worst.". I had to send him Jack Vang's message for him to understand what is going on. He's still trying to convince me to keep the pre-order and I want to cancel it. So you see, EE is nowhere in the picture, they are somewhere far in the background.

Now this is before even the product has been delivered. Imagine this happening a year later or worse after the warranty ends.
If you contact EE, they will simply ask you to contact your dealer. EE will not directly send you a replacement or anything.

1) you have a contract with your dealer by law, not the manufacturer. Their customers are the dealers and distributors.

2) your dealer should be able to handle this for you without you having to spend time with contacting the manufacturer. Also it's simply the job of your dealer to do so.

3) manufacturers with a good customer service will agree to send repaired or replacement units directly to customers outside the country of your dealer when your dealer asks them to do so to save time and streamline the exchange or repair.

For instance, EE sent a repaired Odin (that was stepped upon) directly to our customer outside of Switzerland no problem. Others do that as well.

4) I can imagine that EE will take care of customer's units even after the regular warranty period ends in case something happens. Who knows, maybe they even do what Cayin just did with the N30LE and extend the warranty?

Edit:

I had a long talk today with @Jack Vang and he assured me that they will handle this to everyone's satisfaction. He also promised for EE to communicate more frequently here in the forum to address questions and concerns as best as they can.

 

[haci]

So, I had a trip today to pick up the Raven and test with @TomKorn . First of all the gold plate I find beautiful. From memory of the test of black faceplate I recall the soundstage to be a bit smaller, so a pleasant suprise. It could be related to composition of the plate if it’s the case for all golds.

We did some wiggling and the pins came off. First time was a bit difficult, after that it got easier. Tested Athena v2 8w, which made it more Odin like, which I didn’t prefer. I don’t think I’ll be switching cables soon, so maybe it was a good idea to leave as is -)

Then did some Cayin N30LE vs RS8 comparison of Raven. This is specifically for melodic music with many layers. Within that realm RS8 sounded more fluid and musical, N30LE sounded more detailed and sharp, with a tad more stage.

Overall, gorgeous! Thanks to whoever had a role in getting this out

Some concerns:
-There was no pouch that divides iems when boxed. Anyone know why?
- I hope the surface where metal sticks to the shell is well studied. Metal and non-metal is not ideal for durability when we zoom out to a year or two. Anyone can share some background work done?
- Huge box and real leather iem box. How about more environment -)

 

[Chill iLL]

How would you compare LX to Raven? Does LX still offer something different/unique?

LX bass way more emphasized vs Raven, but the Raven gets control speed and tightness. It still hits hard and rumbles to a satisfying amount. There's sometimes a longer decay in the Raven (which is contradictory to the tightness, but it's still there?). Layering, staging, imaging on the Raven is something else. I haven't heard anything like it. LX is still the more laid back, still the warmer one, still the basshead iem. Fit wise, the thing is pretty big, but the ergo is very good so it doesn't really matter. Raven is a tougher iem to explain because it sounds really different than other stuff that's out there- in a good way!

 

[tjzurlaaa]

So, I had a trip today to pick up the Raven and test with @TomKorn . First of all the gold plate I find beautiful. From memory of the test of black faceplate I recall the soundstage to be a bit smaller, so a pleasant suprise. It could be related to composition of the plate if it’s the case for all golds.

We did some wiggling and the pins came off. First time was a bit difficult, after that it got easier. Tested Athena v2 8w, which made it more Odin like, which I didn’t prefer. I don’t think I’ll be switching cables soon, so maybe it was a good idea to leave as is -)

Then did some Cayin N30LE vs RS8 comparison of Raven. This is specifically for melodic music with many layers. Within that realm RS8 sounded more fluid and musical, N30LE sounded more detailed and sharp, with a tad more stage.

Overall, gorgeous! Thanks to whoever had a role in getting this out

Some concerns:
-There was no pouch that divides iems when boxed. Anyone know why?
- I hope the surface where metal sticks to the shell is well studied. Metal and non-metal is not ideal for durability when we zoom out to a year or two. Anyone can share some background work done?
- Huge box and real leather iem box. How about more environment -)

Awesome thank you for the feedback! When you removed the cable, did you pinch the gold plate against the resin before removing like in the video, or did you just pull and wiggle out the 2 pin?

 

[TomKorn]

So, I had a trip today to pick up the Raven and test with @TomKorn . First of all the gold plate I find beautiful. From memory of the test of black faceplate I recall the soundstage to be a bit smaller, so a pleasant suprise. It could be related to composition of the plate if it’s the case for all golds.

We did some wiggling and the pins came off. First time was a bit difficult, after that it got easier. Tested Athena v2 8w, which made it more Odin like, which I didn’t prefer. I don’t think I’ll be switching cables soon, so maybe it was a good idea to leave as is -)

Then did some Cayin N30LE vs RS8 comparison of Raven. This is specifically for melodic music with many layers. Within that realm RS8 sounded more fluid and musical, N30LE sounded more detailed and sharp, with a tad more stage.

Overall, gorgeous! Thanks to whoever had a role in getting this out

Some concerns:
-There was no pouch that divides iems when boxed. Anyone know why?
- I hope the surface where metal sticks to the shell is well studied. Metal and non-metal is not ideal for durability when we zoom out to a year or two. Anyone can share some background work done?
- Huge box and real leather iem box. How about more environment -)

Thanks Haci!

We changed the cable maybe 5 times in total out of the box and tried different techniques like gentle wiggling (as suggested) and also pinching and pulling.

 

[sorrick]

I got my raven LEs yesterday and have to say that despite some anxiety around hearing that two people receiving their LEs had their shells break, they do sound and look fantastic. I was a bit worried about whether the gold shells would be too much, but I agree with @haci—I really like the gold and am glad I switched from my initial order of black.

They sounded quite good right out of the box, but after letting them play overnight, when I picked them up today, they sounded even better, with the bass seeming to settle a bit (better definition and texture as well as seemingly a bit more oomph) and the imaging sharpening. These changes after having a few hours of playing time are consistent with what I’ve experienced with previous EE iems (Odin, evo, and odyssey in particular).

I decided to go from odyssey to raven because while I absolutely loved odyssey (enough so that I sold both my evos and traillis after getting them), over time I wished the mids, especially male vocals, were just a little more present. While I would not say the odyssey mids are recessed, they were a little less present. I was hoping for something like the odyssey but with a bit more mid prescence and that is exactly what I am hearing. The bass is a little less than on the odyssey, but definitely closer to odyssey than Odin. These very much sound like they’ve taken the best from odyssey and Odin and put them together, with some further refinement of the imaging and layering as well as further expanded soundstage.

I picked uo a Fir Rn6 as well recently and so I will definitely be comparing those two as I do more listening (too early to say anything definitive yet).

When mine arrived I did a pretty thorough inspection looking for any signs of stress to the shells by shining my phone’s light through them and everything looked as it should (there are certainly a lot of drivers in there). The cable connection was definitely quite tight out of the box. I built up the courage to (carefully) pull out and reinsert the cable on both sides using Jacks recommended wiggle method (figured if there was going to be an issue, I’d rather have it now than later), and I was able to do so without any problems. I was being careful not to use too much force (in the pulling and in the wiggling) and took my time with it, but no drama and no trauma to me or the iems.

 

[Auricon]

From memory of the test of black faceplate I recall the soundstage to be a bit smaller, so a pleasant surprise. It could be related to composition of the plate if it’s the case for all golds.

Shouldn't the sound signature for gold and black Ravens be identical and difference just faceplate cosmetics? I don't recall faceplates having affect on sound.

 

[KuroKitsu]

Shouldn't the sound signature for gold and black Ravens be identical and difference just faceplate cosmetics? I don't recall faceplates having affect on sound.

But gold

 

[Auricon]

But gold

Only if it was platinum... to match my Patek

 

[KuroKitsu]

Only if it was platinum... to match my Patek

Pssht you can get another Patek in gold.

Platinum can be for whatever Trailli LE pops up