Midgetguy
Headphoneus Supremus
My immediate first impressions are: how in the hell have they done this?!?
Now these are NOT the best IEMs I have ever heard, let's be clear about that, but at the Kickstarter price, it's an amazing IEM. And on a technology level, even more impressive. I recall when I first started my Head-Fi journey with the MEElectronics M11+; it used to be the smallest IEM I had ever used. The R2A is like half the size; you can fit BOTH ears (without tips) within the circumference of a dime!
Unfortunately, I don't have anything right now in the same price bracket (still haven't gotten my Fidue A83 back yet), but these sound very good. I can't yet rule out being overpriced, but I can say with certainty the sound quality was worth the Kickstarter price. I would maybe describe these in this fashion: think of neutral, then add a little bass without messing with anything else. The sound stage is pretty good, not the largest, but it doesn't feel small and intimate. Separation is again quite good. My early thoughts on sound are that these offer impressive sound quality in the smallest package I've yet seen.
Now what gripes do I have with these? I would have preferred left/right markers on the barrels of the IEMs, or a protruding dot somewhere on one of them to indicate which side is which. The y-split as a counterweight for wearing over-ear is definitely one way to go about the issue, but it's bothersome in straight-down wear. It works out well enough for me since I wear over-ear, but I see the issue people would have wearing straight-down. So as an all-around generally effective solution, I would have liked to see a standard y-split with a cable cinch instead. I could knock on the plug for quality-considering-price, but honestly it's not all that bad, maybe the relief feels a tad stiff, but that's really it. There's 3 ways to do a plug. A) medium-to-large in size, but well-relieved with flexible material. B) very small, with minimal or no strain relief (like the Linum bax cable). This works because there's nearly no way to bend the wire near the plug as it's never in any spot with that tight of a squeeze. C) WRONG (pretty much anything not A or B). I'd say these lean more towards option B than anything else. I really hate to see anything that does things with option C, especially if it's on a good product; cheapo Skullcandy's have it (used to have a pair, no, they aren't good products, just popular) and quite unfortunately the VSonic VSD3S had option C as well (too bad as it actually sounded pretty good).
Now these are NOT the best IEMs I have ever heard, let's be clear about that, but at the Kickstarter price, it's an amazing IEM. And on a technology level, even more impressive. I recall when I first started my Head-Fi journey with the MEElectronics M11+; it used to be the smallest IEM I had ever used. The R2A is like half the size; you can fit BOTH ears (without tips) within the circumference of a dime!
Unfortunately, I don't have anything right now in the same price bracket (still haven't gotten my Fidue A83 back yet), but these sound very good. I can't yet rule out being overpriced, but I can say with certainty the sound quality was worth the Kickstarter price. I would maybe describe these in this fashion: think of neutral, then add a little bass without messing with anything else. The sound stage is pretty good, not the largest, but it doesn't feel small and intimate. Separation is again quite good. My early thoughts on sound are that these offer impressive sound quality in the smallest package I've yet seen.
Now what gripes do I have with these? I would have preferred left/right markers on the barrels of the IEMs, or a protruding dot somewhere on one of them to indicate which side is which. The y-split as a counterweight for wearing over-ear is definitely one way to go about the issue, but it's bothersome in straight-down wear. It works out well enough for me since I wear over-ear, but I see the issue people would have wearing straight-down. So as an all-around generally effective solution, I would have liked to see a standard y-split with a cable cinch instead. I could knock on the plug for quality-considering-price, but honestly it's not all that bad, maybe the relief feels a tad stiff, but that's really it. There's 3 ways to do a plug. A) medium-to-large in size, but well-relieved with flexible material. B) very small, with minimal or no strain relief (like the Linum bax cable). This works because there's nearly no way to bend the wire near the plug as it's never in any spot with that tight of a squeeze. C) WRONG (pretty much anything not A or B). I'd say these lean more towards option B than anything else. I really hate to see anything that does things with option C, especially if it's on a good product; cheapo Skullcandy's have it (used to have a pair, no, they aren't good products, just popular) and quite unfortunately the VSonic VSD3S had option C as well (too bad as it actually sounded pretty good).
