[kdphan]

Nice. Unique braiding on that cable. I'm not a fan of the connector heatshrinks though

Had the earhook and anything related to the pin connector replaced/removed to Plussound mmcx. So much more comfortable.

 

[Dsnuts]

The S8 cable it comes with it's better than most stock cables (for 30 bucks) but I still feel this IEM deserves one of those soft, sparkling and top sounding ones (I can see why @Dsnuts likes the AG8 ). I tried a Nicehck 8 (copper one, 2.5mm balanced) out of the DC01 and the difference with stock is not that much.

I have had a few people ask me what cable I recommend. I agree the stock S8 is no joke but to replicate the S8 with even better extension on both ends adds some extra sparkle to the treble. Deeper bass impact. The cable I use on it is my Copper alloy SPC cable from Kinboofi. This one here. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32968749034.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.66.75495285hhyzMH Happens to be on sale for less than a $60 spot. Completely worth grabing this cable. This cable for the H40 is a direct upgrade on the S8. I have tried over a dozen cables on the H40 and it is this cable that makes them more of what the H40 is. Highly recommended.

Because it is alloy copper at its core. It retains that full bodied mids and bass but gives a deeper wider sense of stage. Has a lot of silver content going on so it adds to the treble extension. Bit more shimmery in the highs. It is literally the pefect cable for it. Though this is a physically bigger cable. This cable just meshes with the sonic qualities of the H40 actually making them sound even better.

 

[HerrXRDS]

Just purchased with express shipping option

And realized Penon is on vacation from today until Feb 1st.

Oh well, I've waited much longer for IEMs.

Ah crap, so that's why mine was sitting at "Sender is preparing item for posting" for the past 3 days.

 

[audio123]

I have had a few people ask me what cable I recommend. I agree the stock S8 is no joke but to replicate the S8 with even better extension on both ends adds some extra sparkle to the treble. Deeper bass impact. The cable I use on it is my Copper alloy SPC cable from Kinboofi. This one here. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32968749034.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.66.75495285hhyzMH Happens to be on sale for less than a $60 spot. Completely worth grabing this cable. This cable for the H40 is a direct upgrade on the S8. I have tried over a dozen cables on the H40 and it is this cable that makes them more of what the H40 is. Highly recommended.

Because it is alloy copper at its core. It retains that full bodied mids and bass but gives a deeper wider sense of stage. Has a lot of silver content going on so it adds to the treble extension. Bit more shimmery in the highs. It is literally the pefect cable for it. Though this is a physically bigger cable. This cable just meshes with the sonic qualities of the H40 actually making them sound even better.

You got to try PW Monile if you have the chance

Elevates the H40 so much that I like it better than Solaris but of course the cable cost a little more than 5 times the H40. Goes to show that H40 scales extremely well and at its price point, brilliant IEM.

 

[DynamicEars]

This is every ISN cable or IEM you get the same packaging. BUT the benefit of this simple packaging is. You get some crazy value in the items themselves. I kinda like this minimalist simple packaging approach. I mean who carries around their package when listening to music. Unless your Michael.

I love their larger zip up rectangular case they throw in as it is large enough to carry your phones and cables. I think more elaborate packaging = more money we gotta spend. For me I don't mind.

Just listen to those things and tell me you didn't get your monies worth.

on the other hand, this is the ier-m7 packaging. They're very good for what I paid, but totally not worth it at full retail.

Lol, i actually dont care about packaging, usually the box will stay in my cupboard, but yeah for in this midfi class they should have improvement, its a plus point for attract buyer, I mean this box is really bad in design, fonts, etc. Just put the gold ISN logo on plain black matte box will be much better. even KZ on budget level still have better packaging. Not expecting like the M7/M9 presentation that wowed me of course like @ShinAyasaki said and that was my best unboxing experience. Just a suggestion to fight the competitors.

Just purchased with express shipping option

And realized Penon is on vacation from today until Feb 1st.

Oh well, I've waited much longer for IEMs.

Ah crap, so that's why mine was sitting at "Sender is preparing item for posting" for the past 3 days.

oh man, can feel your pain. I was lucky that I got Penon shipped my H40 just before the holiday 3 days back and received mine yesterday with DHL.


OK now for early impressions, i only burn them for roughly 10 hours overnight, yet to tips rolling that much but I've tried spiral dots, azla sedna light and short, spinfit CP145, spinfit CP360, default eartips from H40, red and green (not a fan from foams). I bought this set from Penon and fully paid with my own money and these are my honest impressions as always

FIT
Fit is easy, any eartips can go well with H40's medium nozzle, i can get great seal with any eartips. The only thing bugging me is the protrude that can be a little hot for long sessions.

BUILD
Build quality is top notch, ditch that ugly box and everything inside is treasures, shell is beautifully made with nice finishing, very smooth, and added the elegant gold logo of ISN made them quite a looker, remind me of Meze Audio. They really looks beautiful and elegant. The cable also nice, just what i was expecting from a cable company.

SOUND

SIGNATURE
They are quite balance, with bass have authority here, mids aren't recessed, male and female vocal quite belance with hint of boosted female voices a bit, there is a 3khz high mids boost but it is not peak and shouty, safe for me unless you go wild crank up with very loud volume (3khz is my kryptonite, if i can take it, most of you will have no problem). Trebles ins't rolled off but they are smooth. there are airiness on upper high that made soundstage feel wider. They are quite harman signature with power juice on lower end. These H40 also very easy to drive but they are sensitive too, be careful of hissing if your source isn't silent enough.

BASS
There are some hefty, quality and deep slamming Bass! The rumble really shakes your inner part of your head, coming strike with nice punch, very clean bass, with no slight hint of muddiness. The decay isn't fast, but not slow and they are not tight with fast attack, but a weight, heavy attack with big deep blow at once. Think of high quality fast 12inch sub woofer instead of 8inch ones. This is some serious bass, basshead will love them. Texture of the bass is well shaped, rounded and clean. Mid bass have some punch but not bleeding into the mids, upper bass stay well controlled so non dry bass could be heard. Bass have authority overall, and to be honest not my perfect signature since i prefer balanced sound signature so bass is overwhelming for me but i can take them as they are clear, and dont interfere with mids and other frequencies.

MIDS
Mids aren't recessed at all, I love forwarded mids, and they are quite my cup of tea. Vocals are intimate and clear not distant, but not overly forward too. just nice sitting in the middle and can be star of the show like they should be. mids have very decent weight, made other iem thinner in comparison. They have full bodied mids, weight, this is what i like the most from these IEMs. In comparison LZ A6 mini which was $180 retail price last time, is sounded very distant and thin and light, differences are far enough. Great mids IEM like Moondrop Kanas pro also sounded thin compared to H40. By having great weight here isn't made them to be dark IEM or muddy. A lot of IEMs trying to chase the thick and weight mids by boosting lower mids, sometimes made overall signature muddy or too dark, too warm. But H40 keeps everything clear, bass stay on bass business, while mids keep clear with their great weight. Upper mids have 3khz boost but still safe for sensitive people like me, 5-6 khz seem like lower down a bit, thus details on these area are not pronounced very detailed but on other side they are relaxed but dont miss perception with these IEM aren't detailed. They are very good in detail retrieval. not the best but its very very good on this class.

HIGHS
lower trebles is relaxed, and go up a little bit they have boost towards 8khz that give smooth sparkles, nowhere going to sibilance at all. Trebles have nice extension and very airy on upper highs. Trebles are not too relaxed, but they are smooth enough with decent details, non tiring highs.

TECHNICALITIES
Soundstage is very wide.. YES! with all reviews here said so, I agree that the soundstage is very wide, wider than almost all my entire collection but not jaw dropping wide. A6 mini give similar width presenation but i like H40 soundstage much better because they have great weight notes together with wide soundstage. Depth and layering is good but nowhere touching the IER M7 (well they are 3x the price of H40). Imaging is very good also here even not very sharp pin point, but you can tell roughly where the instrument is, maybe I just nitpick and spoiled (again by the M7) but for this class they are very good.
Details aren't their most strong point but they still have very great details, but in comparison mids on Spring 1 can pick up background details more effortless, but trebles details much better in H40. Clarity is very clear on note that this is the best effort, maybe tuning them to be more clear will be effecting in smoothness and can be more tiring, so this is like the best possibility. Like @ShinAyasaki said, M7 have better clarity and details because of better driver. But if compared to same price range IEMs, they are considered 1 of the best. A6 mini isnt as clear as this, while still more shouty (with black filter).
Overall the technicalities is great on this H40

H40 is truly great IEM without any wrong point for me, they are good for any genre too, easy to drive, have great technicalities and have great value. 1 more thing they are very coherence, something that difficult to achieve from multidriver IEMs. Can't thank enough to everyone that recommend this @Dsnuts @davidmolliere @audio123 and everyone else.

Will burn more of course to 100 hours before enjoy them more.



Cheers!!

 

[audio123]

Lol, i actually dont care about packaging, usually the box will stay in my cupboard, but yeah for in this midfi class they should have improvement, its a plus point for attract buyer, I mean this box is really bad in design, fonts, etc. Just put the gold ISN logo on plain black matte box will be much better. even KZ on budget level still have better packaging. Not expecting like the M7/M9 presentation that wowed me of course like @ShinAyasaki said and that was my best unboxing experience. Just a suggestion to fight the competitors.






oh man, can feel your pain. I was lucky that I got Penon shipped my H40 just before the holiday 3 days back and received mine yesterday with DHL.


OK now for early impressions, i only burn them for roughly 10 hours overnight, yet to tips rolling that much but I've tried spiral dots, azla sedna light and short, spinfit CP145, spinfit CP360, default eartips from H40, red and green (not a fan from foams). I bought this set from Penon and fully paid with my own money and these are my honest impressions as always

FIT
Fit is easy, any eartips can go well with H40's medium nozzle, i can get great seal with any eartips. The only thing bugging me is the protrude that can be a little hot for long sessions.

BUILD
Build quality is top notch, ditch that ugly box and everything inside is treasures, shell is beautifully made with nice finishing, very smooth, and added the elegant gold logo of ISN made them quite a looker, remind me of Meze Audio. They really looks beautiful and elegant. The cable also nice, just what i was expecting from a cable company.

SOUND

SIGNATURE
They are quite balance, with bass have authority here, mids aren't recessed, male and female vocal quite belance with hint of boosted female voices a bit, there is a 3khz high mids boost but it is not peak and shouty, safe for me unless you go wild crank up with very loud volume (3khz is my kryptonite, if i can take it, most of you will have no problem). Trebles ins't rolled off but they are smooth. there are airiness on upper high that made soundstage feel wider. They are quite harman signature with power juice on lower end. These H40 also very easy to drive but they are sensitive too, be careful of hissing if your source isn't silent enough.

BASS
There are some hefty, quality and deep slamming Bass! The rumble really shakes your inner part of your head, coming strike with nice punch, very clean bass, with no slight hint of muddiness. The decay isn't fast, but not slow and they are not tight with fast attack, but a weight, heavy attack with big deep blow at once. Think of high quality fast 12inch sub woofer instead of 8inch ones. This is some serious bass, basshead will love them. Texture of the bass is well shaped, rounded and clean. Mid bass have some punch but not bleeding into the mids, upper bass stay well controlled so non dry bass could be heard. Bass have authority overall, and to be honest not my perfect signature since i prefer balanced sound signature so bass is overwhelming for me but i can take them as they are clear, and dont interfere with mids and other frequencies.

MIDS
Mids aren't recessed at all, I love forwarded mids, and they are quite my cup of tea. Vocals are intimate and clear not distant, but not overly forward too. just nice sitting in the middle and can be star of the show like they should be. mids have very decent weight, made other iem thinner in comparison. They have full bodied mids, weight, this is what i like the most from these IEMs. In comparison LZ A6 mini which was $180 retail price last time, is sounded very distant and thin and light, differences are far enough. Great mids IEM like Moondrop Kanas pro also sounded thin compared to H40. By having great weight here isn't made them to be dark IEM or muddy. A lot of IEMs trying to chase the thick and weight mids by boosting lower mids, sometimes made overall signature muddy or too dark, too warm. But H40 keeps everything clear, bass stay on bass business, while mids keep clear with their great weight. Upper mids have 3khz boost but still safe for sensitive people like me, 5-6 khz seem like lower down a bit, thus details on these area are not pronounced very detailed but on other side they are relaxed but dont miss perception with these IEM aren't detailed. They are very good in detail retrieval. not the best but its very very good on this class.

HIGHS
lower trebles is relaxed, and go up a little bit they have boost towards 8khz that give smooth sparkles, nowhere going to sibilance at all. Trebles have nice extension and very airy on upper highs. Trebles are not too relaxed, but they are smooth enough with decent details, non tiring highs.

TECHNICALITIES
Soundstage is very wide.. YES! with all reviews here said so, I agree that the soundstage is very wide, wider than almost all my entire collection but not jaw dropping wide. A6 mini give similar width presenation but i like H40 soundstage much better because they have great weight notes together with wide soundstage. Depth and layering is good but nowhere touching the IER M7 (well they are 3x the price of H40). Imaging is very good also here even not very sharp pin point, but you can tell roughly where the instrument is, maybe I just nitpick and spoiled (again by the M7) but for this class they are very good.
Details aren't their most strong point but they still have very great details, but in comparison mids on Spring 1 can pick up background details more effortless, but trebles details much better in H40. Clarity is very clear on note that this is the best effort, maybe tuning them to be more clear will be effecting in smoothness and can be more tiring, so this is like the best possibility. Like @ShinAyasaki said, M7 have better clarity and details because of better driver. But if compared to same price range IEMs, they are considered 1 of the best. A6 mini isnt as clear as this, while still more shouty (with black filter).
Overall the technicalities is great on this H40

H40 is truly great IEM without any wrong point for me, they are good for any genre too, easy to drive, have great technicalities and have great value. 1 more thing they are very coherence, something that difficult to achieve from multidriver IEMs. Can't thank enough to everyone that recommend this @Dsnuts @davidmolliere @audio123 and everyone else.

Will burn more of course to 100 hours before enjoy them more.



Cheers!!

Good write-up @DynamicEars. The H40 is a no brainer at its price point and it is an easy recommendation. Enjoy your new IEM!

 

[kdphan]

Thanks for the quick write up @DynamicEars
very helpful!

 

[audio123]

Thanks for the quick write up @DynamicEars
very helpful!

Looking forward to hearing your impressions too even though the general consensus is that it is a solid IEM

 

[kdphan]

Looking forward to hearing your impressions too even though the general consensus is that it is a solid IEM

I'm still on a search for that perfect IEM

Basically it's a hybrid of the:
-details of the samba
-great mid/low end bass of the RAH
-sub bass rumble of the Dita Dream

I thought the 64audio tia fourte was it. But it does have tendencies to sound strange on some tracks. 2nd closest was the tia trio. Both have one thing in common, being hybrid.

 

[DezHifi]

Lol, i actually dont care about packaging, usually the box will stay in my cupboard, but yeah for in this midfi class they should have improvement, its a plus point for attract buyer, I mean this box is really bad in design, fonts, etc. Just put the gold ISN logo on plain black matte box will be much better. even KZ on budget level still have better packaging. Not expecting like the M7/M9 presentation that wowed me of course like @ShinAyasaki said and that was my best unboxing experience. Just a suggestion to fight the competitors.






oh man, can feel your pain. I was lucky that I got Penon shipped my H40 just before the holiday 3 days back and received mine yesterday with DHL.


OK now for early impressions, i only burn them for roughly 10 hours overnight, yet to tips rolling that much but I've tried spiral dots, azla sedna light and short, spinfit CP145, spinfit CP360, default eartips from H40, red and green (not a fan from foams). I bought this set from Penon and fully paid with my own money and these are my honest impressions as always

FIT
Fit is easy, any eartips can go well with H40's medium nozzle, i can get great seal with any eartips. The only thing bugging me is the protrude that can be a little hot for long sessions.

BUILD
Build quality is top notch, ditch that ugly box and everything inside is treasures, shell is beautifully made with nice finishing, very smooth, and added the elegant gold logo of ISN made them quite a looker, remind me of Meze Audio. They really looks beautiful and elegant. The cable also nice, just what i was expecting from a cable company.

SOUND

SIGNATURE
They are quite balance, with bass have authority here, mids aren't recessed, male and female vocal quite belance with hint of boosted female voices a bit, there is a 3khz high mids boost but it is not peak and shouty, safe for me unless you go wild crank up with very loud volume (3khz is my kryptonite, if i can take it, most of you will have no problem). Trebles ins't rolled off but they are smooth. there are airiness on upper high that made soundstage feel wider. They are quite harman signature with power juice on lower end. These H40 also very easy to drive but they are sensitive too, be careful of hissing if your source isn't silent enough.

BASS
There are some hefty, quality and deep slamming Bass! The rumble really shakes your inner part of your head, coming strike with nice punch, very clean bass, with no slight hint of muddiness. The decay isn't fast, but not slow and they are not tight with fast attack, but a weight, heavy attack with big deep blow at once. Think of high quality fast 12inch sub woofer instead of 8inch ones. This is some serious bass, basshead will love them. Texture of the bass is well shaped, rounded and clean. Mid bass have some punch but not bleeding into the mids, upper bass stay well controlled so non dry bass could be heard. Bass have authority overall, and to be honest not my perfect signature since i prefer balanced sound signature so bass is overwhelming for me but i can take them as they are clear, and dont interfere with mids and other frequencies.

MIDS
Mids aren't recessed at all, I love forwarded mids, and they are quite my cup of tea. Vocals are intimate and clear not distant, but not overly forward too. just nice sitting in the middle and can be star of the show like they should be. mids have very decent weight, made other iem thinner in comparison. They have full bodied mids, weight, this is what i like the most from these IEMs. In comparison LZ A6 mini which was $180 retail price last time, is sounded very distant and thin and light, differences are far enough. Great mids IEM like Moondrop Kanas pro also sounded thin compared to H40. By having great weight here isn't made them to be dark IEM or muddy. A lot of IEMs trying to chase the thick and weight mids by boosting lower mids, sometimes made overall signature muddy or too dark, too warm. But H40 keeps everything clear, bass stay on bass business, while mids keep clear with their great weight. Upper mids have 3khz boost but still safe for sensitive people like me, 5-6 khz seem like lower down a bit, thus details on these area are not pronounced very detailed but on other side they are relaxed but dont miss perception with these IEM aren't detailed. They are very good in detail retrieval. not the best but its very very good on this class.

HIGHS
lower trebles is relaxed, and go up a little bit they have boost towards 8khz that give smooth sparkles, nowhere going to sibilance at all. Trebles have nice extension and very airy on upper highs. Trebles are not too relaxed, but they are smooth enough with decent details, non tiring highs.

TECHNICALITIES
Soundstage is very wide.. YES! with all reviews here said so, I agree that the soundstage is very wide, wider than almost all my entire collection but not jaw dropping wide. A6 mini give similar width presenation but i like H40 soundstage much better because they have great weight notes together with wide soundstage. Depth and layering is good but nowhere touching the IER M7 (well they are 3x the price of H40). Imaging is very good also here even not very sharp pin point, but you can tell roughly where the instrument is, maybe I just nitpick and spoiled (again by the M7) but for this class they are very good.
Details aren't their most strong point but they still have very great details, but in comparison mids on Spring 1 can pick up background details more effortless, but trebles details much better in H40. Clarity is very clear on note that this is the best effort, maybe tuning them to be more clear will be effecting in smoothness and can be more tiring, so this is like the best possibility. Like @ShinAyasaki said, M7 have better clarity and details because of better driver. But if compared to same price range IEMs, they are considered 1 of the best. A6 mini isnt as clear as this, while still more shouty (with black filter).
Overall the technicalities is great on this H40

H40 is truly great IEM without any wrong point for me, they are good for any genre too, easy to drive, have great technicalities and have great value. 1 more thing they are very coherence, something that difficult to achieve from multidriver IEMs. Can't thank enough to everyone that recommend this @Dsnuts @davidmolliere @audio123 and everyone else.

Will burn more of course to 100 hours before enjoy them more.



Cheers!!

Nice impressions! Can you compare the H40 against the spring 1 in detail?
Signature, soundstage, details retrieval etc. Thanks.
BTW, any news on your Tri i3?

 

[DynamicEars]

Nice impressions! Can you compare the H40 against the spring 1 in detail?
Signature, soundstage, details retrieval etc. Thanks.
BTW, any news on your Tri i3?

Signature wise they are about similar with Big bass and a bit rolled off trebles, but spring 1 mids are more forward by little bit.
Bass section the H40 crush Spring 1, as i mentioned before Spring 1 weakness is on bass tuning, the mid and upper bass (80-100khz) is the most boosted part so bass sounded dry, cold and the deepness is buried under them, the H40 bass have deep reaching sub bass, with great texture, the sub and mid bass punch together in big attack from your inner ears towards your inner head. Personally i would like the bass to be lower in quantity but quality wise i can say they are top notch, even the NX7 Pro bass, which i like so much (and i just compared) the quality is still better in H40, no smearing at all, so rounded, clean and weight and deep. While NX7 pro bass (double carbon nanotubes) is more agile, reach deep and fast but impact and punch still lose to H40 bass and if compared, i can hear a little bit smearing. That tell us how good the control of the bass in H40.

Mids on Spring 1 can pick up micro details more than H40 (mine is grill modded), and the still doesnt strike me on my 3khz weakness, their high mids more like BL-03 tuning, M7 tuning, peak is on 2khz and 4khz but have dip on 3khz while H40 is more like Kanas Pro, Oxygen, ikko OH1/OH10 but smoother. Mids on Spring 1 more forward than H40, overall if we are talking only about mids, I dare to say i prefer mids of Spring 1. Note Weight also decent on both but the H40 have more weight a little bit

Highs on Spring 1 is a bit rolled off with only boost on 8khz that sometimes cause tizziness of piezo, soft tizzi but still bearable not like sibilances caused by BAs but here BQEYZ being scared or shy on trebles, hence the H40 more audible with trebles part without being too bright.

Soundstage both are wide, H40 a bit wider, but Spring 1 is more airy, they have more vents on shell, on other side isolation is much better on H40, that is your choice. Imaging i have to give slight point on Spring 1 with better instrument placement, just a little bit. I have to add, that soundstage on H40 sounded more natural than Spring 1.

Resolution overall is better on H40, they scale better too. Spring 1 perhaps too smooth, while H40 slightly more fun.
and 1 more H40 have more dynamics compared to Spring 1


Overall i would say H40 is a complete package, if you are look for complete package, there is nothing wrong with H40 (for me bass quantity is too big but its matter of preferences), while Spring 1 have great mids and technicalities but bass part is quite dealbreaker, too bad, i really wish Spring 1 have bass like H40 with lower quantity or NX7 bass. The Jade Audio same 13mm DD bass still tuned better than Spring 1 bass.
If i have to pick 1, I'll go with H40.


Edit : please note my spring 1 is 150hours+ while my H40 is still on early 10 hours burned in.

About i3 i don't think they will arrived anytime soon, i expect around early February especially chinese new year holiday, I don't know if shipping progress will delayed with this (they are already dispatched).

 

[DezHifi]

Signature wise they are about similar with Big bass and a bit rolled off trebles, but spring 1 mids are more forward by little bit.
Bass section the H40 crush Spring 1, as i mentioned before Spring 1 weakness is on bass tuning, the mid and upper bass (80-100khz) is the most boosted part so bass sounded dry, cold and the deepness is buried under them, the H40 bass have deep reaching sub bass, with great texture, the sub and mid bass punch together in big attack from your inner ears towards your inner head. Personally i would like the bass to be lower in quantity but quality wise i can say they are top notch, even the NX7 Pro bass, which i like so much (and i just compared) the quality is still better in H40, no smearing at all, so rounded, clean and weight and deep. While NX7 pro bass (double carbon nanotubes) is more agile, reach deep and fast but impact and punch still lose to H40 bass and if compared, i can hear a little bit smearing. That tell us how good the control of the bass in H40.

Mids on Spring 1 can pick up micro details more than H40 (mine is grill modded), and the still doesnt strike me on my 3khz weakness, their high mids more like BL-03 tuning, M7 tuning, peak is on 2khz and 4khz but have dip on 3khz while H40 is more like Kanas Pro, Oxygen, ikko OH1/OH10 but smoother. Mids on Spring 1 more forward than H40, overall if we are talking only about mids, I dare to say i prefer mids of Spring 1. Note Weight also decent on both but the H40 have more weight a little bit

Highs on Spring 1 is a bit rolled off with only boost on 8khz that sometimes cause tizziness of piezo, soft tizzi but still bearable not like sibilances caused by BAs but here BQEYZ being scared or shy on trebles, hence the H40 more audible with trebles part without being too bright.

Soundstage both are wide, H40 a bit wider, but Spring 1 is more airy, they have more vents on shell, on other side isolation is much better on H40, that is your choice. Imaging i have to give slight point on Spring 1 with better instrument placement, just a little bit. I have to add, that soundstage on H40 sounded more natural than Spring 1.

Resolution overall is better on H40, they scale better too. Spring 1 perhaps too smooth, while H40 slightly more fun.
and 1 more H40 have more dynamics compared to Spring 1


Overall i would say H40 is a complete package, if you are look for complete package, there is nothing wrong with H40 (for me bass quantity is too big but its matter of preferences), while Spring 1 have great mids and technicalities but bass part is quite dealbreaker, too bad, i really wish Spring 1 have bass like H40 with lower quantity or NX7 bass. The Jade Audio same 13mm DD bass still tuned better than Spring 1 bass.
If i have to pick 1, I'll go with H40.


Edit : please note my spring 1 is 150hours+ while my H40 is still on early 10 hours burned in.

About i3 i don't think they will arrived anytime soon, i expect around early February especially chinese new year holiday, I don't know if shipping progress will delayed with this (they are already dispatched).

Thanks for the detailed comparison. Good to see that they put up a good fight, but for price comparison, I can get the spring 1 for $80 dollars compared to $195 for the H40. Looks like spring 1 is the obvious choice for me. If the price difference is a little closer, I would get the H40 in a heartbeat. What about the A6 mini? They sound closer to the H40 or the spring 1?

 

[DynamicEars]

Thanks for the detailed comparison. Good to see that they put up a good fight, but for price comparison, I can get the spring 1 for $80 dollars compared to $195 for the H40. Looks like spring 1 is the obvious choice for me. If the price difference is a little closer, I would get the H40 in a heartbeat. What about the A6 mini? They sound closer to the H40 or the spring 1?

To be honest i have big expectation with A6 mini, but they are not my cup of tea.
A6 mini have great quality bass, that same with the big A6, great texture and speed, i like their bass, but the main problem is the mids, they sounded hollow, far distanced not just recessed and thin. As opposed to the H40 which have great weight that follow the M7 weight note, the A6 mini sounded very thin and light, especially male voices that sounded thin, thinner than on Kanas Pro, and female voices also dont have enough weight and shouty, black filters were used. Their soundstage is wide, very wide, like the H40, maybe slightly wider but dont sounded as natural as in H40. perhaps the big A6 have fuller mids since they have more 4 BAs, but from what I read, they are a bit bright on upper mids and lower trebles.

Spring 1 for $80 is a great choice I say, even with cripple bass I still will pick Spring 1 over A6 mini. But please be noted that Im very critical about bass, not easy to please me with bass quality.

A6 mini nowhere have similarity with Spring1 or H40, H40 have great weight, A6 mini sounded very thin, soundstage timbre is better in H40 for me, compared to Spring 1, Spring 1 have better mids, but bass quality is better on A6 mini, they all have wide soundstage.

 

[Keane182]

Both h40 and i3 are keepers. Time to take a hiatus. =/

 

[DynamicEars]

Both h40 and i3 are keepers.

Thats true

Time to take a hiatus. =/

Thats lie