[holsen]

Well, I got the Elan today... And along came a bucket of ice cold water that completely subdued my excitement.

Totally out of the box, with the stock cable, I can immediately notice that the right earpiece is SIGNIFICANTLY less loud than the left earpiece, which has messed up the sound completely. As such, cannot tell how is the sound. Mailed Bob, let's see. But I'm very much heartbroken. This is one purchase I was very much hyped about.

He'll show you what he's made of.

 

[Q Mass]

Well, I got the Elan today... And along came a bucket of ice cold water that completely subdued my excitement.

Totally out of the box, with the stock cable, I can immediately notice that the right earpiece is SIGNIFICANTLY less loud than the left earpiece, which has messed up the sound completely. As such, cannot tell how is the sound. Mailed Bob, let's see. But I'm very much heartbroken. This is one purchase I was very much hyped about.

Sorry to hear that, but I too have confidence that Bob will sort it out post-haste.
My Elans had wobbly sockets OOTB so Bob offered to post out another pair immediately and then I could return the faulty pair. I opted for just waiting for the wobbly ones to be repaired, and a few days later (being in the UK helps here) I had them back in hand with rock solid sockets.
When one of the drivers failed on my EDP it was a very similar experience.
You might think that having 2 out of 2 purchases needing a 'return to base' I'd be wary of further IMR purchases, but with the speed of turnaround and pleasent treatment I received (along with a heavy discount on my Elan) I'll happily make more purchases from IMR. Customer service is worth it's weight in gold.
Oh, and the Elan sound really wonderful btw, still 'breaking in' though.
Hang tough, Bob'll square you away!

 

[Poganin]

Customer service is worth it's weight in gold.

This is how you know if the given business is worth supporting.

 

[Skullar]

Sorry to hear that, but I too have confidence that Bob will sort it out post-haste.
My Elans had wobbly sockets OOTB so Bob offered to post out another pair immediately and then I could return the faulty pair. I opted for just waiting for the wobbly ones to be repaired, and a few days later (being in the UK helps here) I had them back in hand with rock solid sockets.
When one of the drivers failed on my EDP it was a very similar experience.
You might think that having 2 out of 2 purchases needing a 'return to base' I'd be wary of further IMR purchases, but with the speed of turnaround and pleasent treatment I received (along with a heavy discount on my Elan) I'll happily make more purchases from IMR. Customer service is worth it's weight in gold.
Oh, and the Elan sound really wonderful btw, still 'breaking in' though.
Hang tough, Bob'll square you away!

Thing is, even post warranty services are very well done and reasonable by IMR. There no reason to be worried about being neglected in case of any technical issues.

 

[RumbleWeed]

Oh yes AceBee you have no worries whatsoever with Bob, as we all know he will go above and beyond what is asked from him, I'm going out on a limb here but, i would call his customer service the VERY BEST of "any" company!
Both his customer service and customer loyalty are truly second to none.
With that in mind AceBee he will probably send you a new earpiece to replace which ever one is faulty?
The good thing about Bob & IMR in general is you don't get many issues with things not working and in the rare case it does happen it always get rectified in a very short amount of time!
You have nothing to worry about trust me

 

[Zeppmeister]

I've thrown my hat in on the ace that's 60 preorders I wonder how limited it's going to be?

Looks like 125 ... if you hadn't seen that yet.

 

[SHOOTINGTECHIE]

Well, looks like I will have the Elan in my hand by tomorrow! Honestly, cannot hold back my enthusiasm any more.

However, I do have one concern - the Elan was initially offered at 600 GBP, but I bought at 250 GBP after year ending discount and B stock. Now I see that EDP Ace is being sold at 225 GBP which has a wide band CNT ADLC driver, Bone conduction motor, along with a planar magnetic driver. Does that mean the EDP Ace will be better than the Elan, since the other two drivers are same as Elan along with an additional Planar driver? And does that mean Elan is worthy of its discounted price tag, the 250 GBP only? These are the questions keeping me up at night... I have shot a mail to Bob also regarding this.

hehe I know the feeling, you will be like

 

[dakchi]

Quick question regarding EDP Ace: how should I understand this sentence that was in Bob's email: Reserving will guarantee your allocation and you will get a 25% loyalty bonus on the pricing when available to order.
Does it mean that we have 25% discount on the price displayed in the website? so that make EDP Ace at 207 euros

 

[AlexCBSN]

Well, I got the Elan today... And along came a bucket of ice cold water that completely subdued my excitement.

Totally out of the box, with the stock cable, I can immediately notice that the right earpiece is SIGNIFICANTLY less loud than the left earpiece, which has messed up the sound completely. As such, cannot tell how is the sound. Mailed Bob, let's see. But I'm very much heartbroken. This is one purchase I was very much hyped about.

Did you contacted Bob already? he'll be on top of it right away, the man got the best customer service. i think there's none here that can say that he limited himself when it comes to his customers, dude is always on top of his game.

gotta admit, i was tempted to get the timeless headphones ... at the end i took my money to my money saving section of my account called "Tantrums and objects of desire" which will be saved for the zenith and ace only, tbh theres nothing else in the market that excites me ... i kinda got bored of the "you need to get this new iem" syndrome, maybe ill get a r01 for my cayin n6II (which for sure will get a new bigger or newer brother later this year, i can foresee it) but thats it, already came to paces with my n6II and chord mojo to be my sources for the next 3 years. though... zenith II... cannot wait

 

[theElk]

Quick question regarding EDP Ace: how should I understand this sentence that was in Bob's email: Reserving will guarantee your allocation and you will get a 25% loyalty bonus on the pricing when available to order.
Does it mean that we have 25% discount on the price displayed in the website? so that make EDP Ace at 207 euros

That's how I read it. 25% on the MSRP, which is the displayed price and leads to 207€ + tax.

 

[RumbleWeed]

That's how I read it. 25% on the MSRP, which is the displayed price and leads to 207€ + tax.

Yes it is always minus the loyalty discount from the price on the website. Also, the percentage will normally change inline with how expensive each item is, for example the Astra & Elysium was 35%!
To be honest the full £225 asking price for ACE is a phenomenal price for what your getting and once 25% is deducted its criminal lol.. To be honest i was trying not to spend much in 2022 but as soon as i saw EDP ACE and its price i couldn't resist especially since i haven't got a Planar Driver in my collection! BUT? that's defiantly it now for a long time, i have every driver that's available in a iem except AMT but that can wait, I'm gonna spend the whole of 2022 enjoying my whole collection and at the end of the year there is a certain monitor i didn't use much i will sell it and invest in whatever Bob has created by the end of 2022?

 

[Ace Bee]

Well, I contacted him, and he told he was unfortunately unable to ship a replacement unit as it is sold out. But if I send it back they can attempt to repair it, or give me full refund. I obviously went for the repair option, and shipped the units today. I'd much rather have the iems rather than the cash already spent.

Even though the same thing happened twice with me (Bob was also surprised as no other Elan had this issue),I would still be loyal to him,simply because of the terrific customer service and the wonderful iems.

 

[RumbleWeed]

Well, I contacted him, and he told he was unfortunately unable to ship a replacement unit as it is sold out. But if I send it back they can attempt to repair it, or give me full refund. I obviously went for the repair option, and shipped the units today. I'd much rather have the iems rather than the cash already spent.

Even though the same thing happened twice with me (Bob was also surprised as no other Elan had this issue),I would still be loyal to him,simply because of the terrific customer service and the wonderful iems.

Wow your just like me when it comes to luck AceBee? I NEVER have any lol I am the only person i know who has never won even the lowest prize of £10 in the UK lottery which has been running over 25 years now haha
I'm glade you managed to get it sorted out and fingers crossed Bob is able to fix it? but even in the event they are irreparable you can get a refund and so won't be out of picker! You can then buy EDP ACE? which im positive will be superior to Elan anyway

 

[Ace Bee]

Wow your just like me when it comes to luck AceBee? I NEVER have any lol I am the only person i know who has never won even the lowest prize of £10 in the UK lottery which has been running over 25 years now haha
I'm glade you managed to get it sorted out and fingers crossed Bob is able to fix it? but even in the event they are irreparable you can get a refund and so won't be out of picker! You can then buy EDP ACE? which im positive will be superior to Elan anyway

I have crappy luck. Even the SOR I received earlier had a similar imbalance, and had to send it back. But in that case Bob sent the replacement pair BEFORE I had to send the faulty pair back. I have never won any kind of lucky draw, so I have stopped participating in them altogether. Only once did I win one raffle, but that's all.

Now, regarding what to do with the refund, honestly, I would rather go for the Zenith II over the EDP Ace, because:

I asked:
Now, on to the new products - does the Zenith II perform better than the EDP Ace? The EDP ace seems to have a more improved driver configuration - DD+Planar+BC motor, whereas Zenith II has just DD+Piezoceramic tweeter. In spite of that, does the Zenith II perform better?

Also, are the EDP Ace and Zenith II better than Splash Of Red and Splash Of Gold in terms of overall performance, and holographic stage?

BOB replied:
These are two different IEM so neither is better than the other in my opinion but just different.

The Zenith II offers a big sound with a more full size speaker presentation.

Both are large step up and offer performance gains in both bass, midrange, detail and staging.

Going by the above, it is the Zenith II that has caught my attention. The larger DD probably performs better than the DD+Planar configuration. I have yet to experience how the BC motors actually affect the sound. But anyway, I have my eyes on the Zenith II, more so because of the easy transformation from closed port to open port. EDP Ace will need some work to do that.

Also, considering that Elan was originally a 600 GBP iem, I am surely expecting a performance justifiable for that price bracket, even though I paid 250 GBP for that. Now, if it turns out that the performance is suitable for only the actual price I paid, and Zenith II & EDP Ace are even improvements over that at a cheaper price...I honestly don't know what I will be feeling in that case. However, the saving grace is the SOR surely punchs well above its price bracket, so I am hoping the Elan will do the same too.

 

[Poganin]

I'm fortunate not to have had an IMR earphone with channel imbalance, as I am extremely sensitive to it. I thought the Elysium I got had imbalance, but it turned out that my choice of eartips affected the sound somehow. Some tip rolling later everything was fine.

That said, it's a bit worrying, that you've had several units with imbalance. Doesn't Bob measure channel matching at all?