Haven't tried them with AAC yet as my phone defaults to AptX. I'll give it a shot when I have some time and report back.
Sure. I've owned the Senn MTW, Jabra 65t, B&O E8, Audio Technica CKR7TW, Bose SoundSport Free. Unfortunately none of those I owned at the same time as the Mavin Air-X, but the memory of all of those units is fairly fresh in my mind except for the E8 (which I returned within a day because my units sounded terrible), but take that with a grain of salt. I'm not going to mention the B&O and Audio Technica much as they're just not worth buying from my experience (the caveat being that a lot of people seem to love the E8 and there are reports of variability in sound quality).
The Mavins are probably closest to the Bose in sound signature: a downward-sloping frequency response that's mostly neutral with a tastefully elevated bass. I expect the Air-X closely align with the Harman curve in terms of frequency response, perhaps with a tad more bass. There are no obvious jarring peaks or troughs in the frequency response like there are with the Jabra 65t's ridiculous treble spike (unsurprisingly coincident with a large rise in distortion) or the entirety of the E8's bizarre frequency response. The Air-X feels natural to me in how it presents music, but keep in mind it seems to nail my personal preferred sound signature. While the MTW are also quite good, I find their sound signature to be much more aggressive, particularly in bass and treble, and on the forward side. The MTW I liked but never was able to truly sink into the music and let it carry me away like I am with the Air-X. The Mavins are more laid back in comparison, but aren't laid back in absolute terms.
In terms of other sound technicalities, the Bose have the largest soundstage since they don't actually insert into the ear canal, with the MTW in second and the Mavin in third in size of soundstage. I'd argue the MTW and Mavin have the best layering, separation and imaging, with the Bose not far behind from memory. The Air-X also sound very clean, clear and airy with excellent detail. They just sound "open" for lack of a better term and have a tonality and timbre that is "just right", not thick or thin. The Jabras in general sounded muffled with a thick tonality and an oddly thin and hashy treble, and they sound intimate and mid-forward and are lacking in clarity, soundstage and imaging. They're by far the worst in terms of SQ compared to the Mavin, Bose and Sennheiser.
I think what really struck me was how resolving the Mavin can be. I'd argue these provide the best detail of any TW model I've heard, rivaling even decent wired IEMs. This is the first time I've actually been impressed with the level and quality of detail in any TW IEM, as the Bose and Sennheiser seemed to be a bit lacking in terms of ultimate resolution in comparison, although they're still quite good compared in this regard compared to the rest of the TW space. This is most noticeable with inner detail like instrument and vocal textures, as well as the recording space. This is true resolution and not just juiced up treble or a thinner tonality creating a false sense of detail. As a result, I listened for 4 hours in a row yesterday without any fatigue, just a full involvement in the music.
The big downsides to the Mavin are mostly feature-specific and not related to the sound quality. There is a bit of a noise floor, with some minor hiss at the beginning of tracks, and a very faint "electronic" noise when they're on. When music is playing this isn't an issue, however, but they're not as quiet as the MTW or Bose, and probably on par with the Jabras. It's a little bit of a bummer that it doesn't have an app or adjustable EQ (although I don't have need for one in this case), and it doesn't appear the firmware can be updated OTA by the user as a result. However, the sound quality is excellent and the battery life seems to be living up to the billing although I can't test that entirely as I don't have time to let them play for 10 hours straight. Connectivity has also been rock solid, although it sounds like no phones support Qualcomm's TrueWireless Stereo Plus yet, which these can utilize.
I'm trying to temper these impressions so as not to sound overly enthusiastic about the Mavin, but they're pretty spot-on in terms of hitting my personal sweet spot for sound preferences. I don't think these would offer enough bass quantity and slam for hardcore bassheads, and probably not enough excitement for people who like an aggressive V-shaped signature. But for those of us who like a Harman curve-like response, I don't know that you could do better in the TW space, especially when you consider the feature set, battery life and connectivity.
Oh, on a random note: it does annoy me that the LEDs on each earpiece are on the outside so the intermittent blinking is visible to everyone around you while you're wearing them, which feels dorky. The MTW I thought had the best design where they had LEDs facing inside, so they were hidden when wearing them.
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