[TwinQY]

Official page: http://www.fostex.jp/products/te04/
 
These appear to be the TE-05 drivers in plastic housings? Feel free to correct me on that. MMCX connectors same as the TE-05/07.
 
Very pretty. The blue/teal-coloured ones look might nice in particular.

Picture from: http://headphone-plus-earphone.com/headphone-festival-2016-autumn/3/
 
Up on Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01N6RGNXV
Saw some press releases that suggests they should be in the NA market soon.
 
The TE-05s I found pretty underwhelming. Perhaps the plastic housing will change things for the better (probably not). I'm mostly interested for the looks. If the price was a bit lower, they might have been fun as something to beat into submission with EQ.

 

[yacobx]

Official page: http://www.fostex.jp/products/te04/

These appear to be the TE-05 drivers in plastic housings? Feel free to correct me on that. MMCX connectors same as the TE-05/07.

Very pretty. The blue/teal-coloured ones look might nice in particular.


Picture from: http://headphone-plus-earphone.com/headphone-festival-2016-autumn/3/

Up on Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01N6RGNXV
Saw some press releases that suggests they should be in the NA market soon.

The TE-05s I found pretty underwhelming. Perhaps the plastic housing will change things for the better (probably not). I'm mostly interested for the looks. If the price was a bit lower, they might have been fun as something to beat into submission with EQ.

What did you not like about the 05? I'm looking at getting a pair of the te04.

 

[TwinQY]

I tried them in stores back when our local headphone store had yet to move and I was visiting everyday to try out all of their IEMs constantly. I remembered being fairly excited to get to try them, but they were just nothing spectacular. Smooth enough, but dull and bloated down low, crept into the mids. While the treble wasn't edgy, there certainly was a lot of it. Detail, etc, were underwhelming. In hindsight, probably could have remedied the treble through EQ. But the rest of the sound would probably still feel like treading through molasses.
 
There's a quote in Futurama about their future baseball sport, Blernsball - "Boring! Baseball wasn't.. Hmm. So they finally jazzed it up?". In the case of the Fostex, they did the opposite and really "jazzed it down".
​
​There's some measurements of it here: http://goldenears.net/board/GR_Earphones/5598165
These measurements were taken a good while after I tried them, so they could have changed in between that period, but I doubt it.

 

[yacobx]

Aw man, Thats disappointing :/

 

[yacobx]

I was really looking forward to this earphone

 

[TwinQY]

​Well, like I mentioned, maybe the switch to plastic housings would have changed something, however unlikely. I can empathize, because the teal housings look very pretty. I really want to believe, Mulder...

 

[yacobx]

Hopefully someone chimes in soon

 

[Aternam]

Bought the red one from amazon japan. The colour production is way off. It is closer to salmon pink than red. Whist the construction is plastic it feels really well done for the price and easily beats my se215 on all fronts except for isolation. It comes with a replaceable cable with a mic for mobile users which i love. Nice and thin but coils just a little bit. The only thing i haven't tested is the stock eartips themselves. These earphones have very large bores. You will have a hard time fitting anything other than a sony hybrid or spinfit tip on it. Though i would highly suggest the cp100 spinfits and it makes the fit very comfortable. Far more than my 215's or AN-16's. It lacks the clarity of my dunu titan 5 or hybrid earphones but i still really like these. They are my daily drivers currently. I'd say these are easily worth the 8000 yen.

 

[yacobx]

Bought the red one from amazon japan. The colour production is way off. It is closer to salmon pink than red. Whist the construction is plastic it feels really well done for the price and easily beats my se215 on all fronts except for isolation. It comes with a replaceable cable with a mic for mobile users which i love. Nice and thin but coils just a little bit. The only thing i haven't tested is the stock eartips themselves. These earphones have very large bores. You will have a hard time fitting anything other than a sony hybrid or spinfit tip on it. Though i would highly suggest the cp100 spinfits and it makes the fit very comfortable. Far more than my 215's or AN-16's. It lacks the clarity of my dunu titan 5 or hybrid earphones but i still really like these. They are my daily drivers currently. I'd say these are easily worth the 8000 yen.

Very nice! How is the clarity?

 

[Aternam]

Well it beats both the Vsonic AN-16 and se215 but in my opinion its a solid B-. There is enough seperation in the sound to accurately hear the more hidden sounds in the background. Though it can get really muddy with poorly ripped/mastered songs. Unfortunately i can't really compare its clarity to anything else besides the se215s because every other IEM i have are far out of its price range. In that aspect the fostex beat them easy.

 

[WILLJS]

the TE04's failing is the extremely bloated bottom end, which can be remedied through even a basic 5 band EQ, such as the pre installed one on most laptops, or basic DAPs.
other than this, i find these quit good for the price i payed, (30$ off), but i don't think i'd have been happy had i payed full price ($80 AUD).