An update. After one too many issues with my Chord Hugo not playing nice with one or another of my iems, I have sold it off. This actually caused substantial delays- more than one IEM just didn't sound right on my Hugo, and eventually after several rounds of back and forth and refits and what not, I changed sources and that fixed things. I'll need some time to get reacquainted with the sound of a new source (I have a few), but so far I'm liking one in particular very much. It's not expensive (well, not by today's standards), and it's not going to win any 'flavour of the month' awards, but those who know me know I love this designer.
Also, in the meantime I have continued to build up my desktop system, and this has given me a different perspective on what constitutes good sound. For one, I've become way more sensitive to the naturalness of the treble (my LFF Code-x has really spoilt me in this regard). Soundstage quality and consistency is now much more important as well- well, how can one not, after hearing the EC Studio, which I now own? My views on imaging have been informed also by buying the HD800, which, for all its flaws, really shines in separating the wheat from the chaff in complex passages. I've also refined my views on midrange (tonality is very critical), and bass (hooray for tightness and authority, ala HE6 on a spanking speaker amp). The result of all this? I have changed my ranking methodology to add a few categories, and increase the weightage in certain areas of sound. Also, my investments into my desktop system have cost orders of magnitude more than the IEMs in this shootout, which means that now, more than ever, I find myself completely indifferent to how much an IEM costs. Anyone reading my shootout will have to decide themselves a specific IEM provides good value or not.
Finally, FFAB1 resulted in a single CIEM occupying the top tier. I'm happy to say that in FFAB2 the IEMs are doing well too. So far in my evaluation, there is already at least one CIEM(s) that has passed this threshold.
Stay tuned for more!