So they came in yesterday and I have tested them throughout the day today. Issues with bad connections ( in the left and a dead shell in the right) seem to be fixed. They do sound great, same crystal clarity on the highs and mids I remember from the UE700s and I do feel the bass has improved slightly from the above mod I mentioned. It's definitely not drastic, in the end I still wish I had a little more bass but I didn't want to risk throwing a random bass driver in there and totally messing with the signature. All in all I am very happy with the sound and will rock these all day most days. This is the most important part of the whole thing, why I started with this.
Fit/seals are good in both ears. Damn near perfect in the left and the right may need a bit of plastic sanded down on the upper ear piece. Right now it can get painful after a few hours and that upper price has a pretty squared off shape to it, I believe that is the culprit. Seals are good though so sound isn't affected. Due to the experiences of others and myself I am afraid to send back to them to fix so am going to attempt to fix myself with a dremel, been waiting for an excuse to buy one for a while.
Finish. I'd rate them a 6 for finish. What I am happy with on the finish is the color (light blue) really nice translucent blue and the clarity of the plastic is clear where polished correctly and bubles are there but very few and certainly not noticeable. What I don't like is the polishing on these are very inconsistent and frankly not complete. You may not see in the pics but there are still sanding swirls on the face (part you see when in your ear) from not polishing completely and then the canal pieces are foggy because of the same lack of polishing but more so (see pics, that's not lack of lighting that's the canals dull appearance from bad polishing). Also the plastic directly surounding the female connection in each looks bad or overworked, very cloudy here. Finally I was supposed to get my original wires back (came back to me the first to round) which I sent them back with and they shipped them back with some other low grade UE cable (L connector and memory wires.) that looked used. The memory wires where mangled in crazy zig zag right angles, very odd. Ultimately not an issue because I immediately plugged in my cables from Plussound (very happy with them and customer service is stellar). Just another example of not desirable customer service and quality/attention to detail.
What's the verdict? Sounds great, fits well, fit and finish is lacking (will try to fix myself), customer service is a 5, would not use them again because of the lack of attention to detail (customer service wise and then finish).