The KBEAR KS 1 that I won are quite astonishing.
I've waited to post as I was tempted to post a huge string of superlatives, and thought that I should wait for a while to see if the 'new toy' bias confirmation would ease-up, so I could leave some reasonably level-headed impressions, but the truth is that I friggin LOVE these things.
They're bassy (just the right relative quantity of bass for me), exciting and engaging.
I was really surprised how good the bl03 are for the cost of admission, but the K1 just hit more sweet spots IMO, and that's even before I consider the vastly better physical fit I'm enjoying from the K1.
Even after LOADS of fiddling with cables and tips etc the BL03 were never secure in my ears, comfy but never secure.
The K1's fit superbly right out of the box (I hated the cable at first, and dismissed it, but I was wrong, more to follow) and I even found the tips to be a great fit, which NEVER happens to me! I literally never swapped out from the medium silicones straight out of the box.
At first I found the fit of the cables to be hopeless, as they arched way too high above my ear and were really annoying, but I tried re-shaping them by dipping the ear hook into a bowl of freshly boiled water, bending into the shape I wanted, and holding the shape while the wire cooled. (I removed the iem for this BTW!) This worked perfectly and the cable/ear guide now fits like a glove.
I swapped the cable out for a 4.4mm one anyway, but the stock one actually outperforms it's price bracket by quite a margin once it fits.
The medium ear tip (silicone) seems to be very slightly smaller than most I encounter, so it fits my 'between size' ear canal perfectly, and the nozzle length is decent, and avoids that 'teetering on the edge of falling out' sensation by actually allowing the ear-tip to be inserted properly (N.B. not too deep, just right
).
Clarity and resolution aren't affected badly by the large bass quantity, and the upper end seems to be boosted enough that the whole balance just hits my bass-head/audiophile sweet spot.
I was going to end this comment by saying KBEAR are risking entry level customers just sticking with their first time purchase, thereby killing any sales priced north of $21, but now that I think about it, I myself am now thumbing through all of KBears higher end catalogue with a view to find an even better iem with the same overall tonal balance (and maybe driver compliment) as the KB1.
Thanks for holding the competition
@WendyLi, and thanks for the KB1, it really is a stellar iem.