enjoy bud, if you have to do comparisons, do help those who are still on the fence. if you're a mids lover, some of us endorse the grey and blue back. keep us posted!
I'm definitely enjoying, but these things are making me rethink everything I know about IEMs. Where to start... Today was my first full day with them, so I'll give initial impressions. First off.... the tips I chose while they worked they didn't stay in my ear (despite them being the usual size I go for (medium). Luckily Final Audio tips that I got have a range they have a size below my typical medium before I hit small, and they also have extra small. The size down seems to be the sweet spot. I have been playing around with the back filters with black nozzles. Blue brings down bass a lot, almost to neutral. Black seems to be close to what I've been come be used to with my other IEMs in terms of quantity and similar quality. Enough bass to be fun but still decently close to neutral. I've noticed that the one consistent thing (and this is likely due to the drivers more than anything) is that the bass seems to be ALMOST linear to the mids. Sub and upper bass seems to roll off slightly with an ever so slight midbass hump. With black and blue backs this is almost imperceptible though, since it pushes it further up. There is plenty of treble extension with the black nozzle.
For comparisons the only IEM I own that is comparable with these is my ASG2 which is a hooligan. An extremely fun hooligan though. I feel like these two would be friends. The back filters act a lot like the bass dial on the ASG2s (with far less fine control), but the end result is similar, except that nothing on these can even touch ASG2 bass quantity on full blast. But I've not yet heard an IEM that can, I needed to keep the ASG2s only ever so slightly open (so that the drivers could breathe but not too much). But the bass amount on ASG2s is just incredible and these don't have the same amount of quantity, but the ASGs were also far more boomy with a far bigger midbass hump. In a way these are what I'd have liked from the ASG2s in terms of bass (with red back and black front)
Here is where it gets hairy... The mids... I'm currently spoiled. With red back black front they are in no way lacking at all. Voices sound great instrumentation sounds great, separation is far better than I expected for $200. I mean... By any other means I should be floored. But coming from two Aurisonics sets as my main every day pairs (ASG2 and Rockets) they just upped the game. I still don't know what voodoo magic Dale and co did to make mids so luscious on their IEMs, but dang... I still haven't found the equal. I will probably try grey tip and blue black eventually to see if they can come close to matching,and it will be interesting if they do, but I feel that (based on FR chart of tip and nozzle combos) sub bass will suffer too much for my tastes, but that would be fine for things like folk, which will probably be my reference music for that. (So far I've been listening to rock, vgm (specifically persona 5 ost which is an interesting range, but because it is vgm has very little in the way of depth), and jazz.
The highs are fantastic. They go toe to toe with everything I've got. There seems to be even less roll off than on the ASG2s. They have great extension, they have fantastic clarity. They are everything I'd expect from an upper level IEM.
Soundstage is impressive, but I haven't listened to enough of a variety of music that has a large sound stage to really get a good idea of how big or small. I will say that for the jazz and rock I've listened to it feels like I'm midroom of a hall. While ASG2s felt like I was front and center of the same room. They are less in your face than the ASG2s. However, at least for what I've listened to, I feel like they give the feeling of a virtual room of a large club/small concert hall venue which is about right for the music I've been listening to, this is very promising. Eventually I'll get to other genres of music that will better demonstrate or show the shortcomings of the IEMs.
But here is the thing that floors me. These are better in a lot of ways than the Rockets. Rockets are probably my ideal tuning (though that might be because I've been listening to them nearly everyday since I got them), but the microdivers have limitations. Dale did a great job at minimizing every limitation to the absolute possible making a near neutral but fun IEM with fantastic mids and great highs and suitable bass. These are closer to the ASG2s (which makes sense since they are both 2BA 1DD hybrids) in terms of what you get. And honestly the quality is so comparable is it kinda maddening. They are also more efficient than the ASGs which is always appreciated for mobile listening. I've also been playing with them connected to the NiceHCK HB1 (a MMCX bluetooth cable) and they work exceptionally well, to the point where I now feel like I have a TOTL bluetooth iem (they are a bit quiet, with normal volume on the bluetooth side, and max volume on phone side, but I expected that, and they are no worse off than my Tennmak Pros and far better off than either of my Shures (the 215s are good, but the 425s are too power hungry to really make the bluetooth cable work). It is $600-700 sound for $200. They are not the best I've ever heard (which is probably the Campfire Audio Vega, which I had the pleasure of spending some time with at CanJam NYC, seriously don't think I've ever been completely floored by an IEM before I tried those, even with all those multiple BA iems, a single 8.5mm dynamic driver producing that kind of sound is amazing to me, unfortunately I don't have $1300 to blow on IEMs, and there is also the issue of diminishing returns...)
The craziest part of having these in my ears all day is that I know that I haven't even scratched the surface of what these things have to offer. So far I've been most enjoying Red back Black Nozz. They have the right amount of bass to be really fun, but still lose nothing in the rest of the spectrum. I think Red back Black front will be my goto since it is so familiar, but Black and Black are really tempting. Blue Black not so much. They still have all the things I like in mids and highs but the bass seems a bit too subdued.
So... there it is... my initial impressions of one filter combination... I just have to have further impressions and then try out 17 others extensively.... I'll be here all year...