Well, they've arrived. Meshless version. My first impressions are:
1. The tuning is gorgeous. Just enough of everything for my tastes. I think I'll probably slightly tone down the presence/lower treble region and slightly boos the bass, but that's about it.
2. Resolution is 100% competing with my $730 Monarchs, and that smooth sort of timbre giving way to treble incisiveness from the planar driver is noticeable, in my opinion. I like it. The physicality of the driver leaves something to be desired, however.
3. There is unfortunately a noticeable channel imbalance above 10kHz. I had to EQ in a 6dB boost on the right side at around 16kHz to get the stereo image to not skew to the left. I think from using other IEMs that the way my right ear curves usually results in a 2-3dB mismatch in the treble, so this is just skirting the industry-standard maximum tolerance of 3dB (which I think is far too much, but that's a convo for another day)
4. The cable is terrible and switching cables (to one with the wrong connector, mind you, but just to test the difference) results in cleaner bass, sparklier treble, and maybe better detail retrieval. I think the planar timbre also comes through more in the highs. I actually prefer the tuning that the crappy cable provides, but I don't listen to anything without EQing anyways.
Overall, it absolutely is worth the 30 bucks I spent at this point, and even once I buy a cable and add that to the price it's still a good value. I just wish QC was better and it came with a better cable.
UPDATE: Here's the EQ profile I came up with using AutoEQ to a custom target I made and then tuning by ear. There was supposed to be one more band at 14 kHz reducing the highs by 3dB but I needed that band on the right side for the aforementioned channel imbalance correction. Anyways, feel free to try it out. Band 8 is the ear resonance correction, so adjust that for your unique anatomy.
