[TimeSnow]

Try measuring the volume output of your two cables. In my experience - and especially with headphones - acrual sound changes more often than not are because of a difference in impedance. One will be slightly louder than the other because of the change. It might only be 1dB. We hear louder as better. Often the difference in cables (apart from the aesthetics) can be negated simply by volume matching properly

The good thing is - this can save you a lot of money in the long run.

I do buy cables - but only to change flexibility, connection type etc. never for sonic differences (unless you are talking multiple-BA IEMs where occasionally a cable change can affect frequency response)

Thanks for the tip.

The weird thing is that the thing that changed made it much worse... I don't wanna name names, but it was an expensive cable and I basically can't use it, because it really screws with some part of the treble which makes the soundstage sound really strange and artificial.

I didn't do an A/B thing, but whenever I try it - and I tried it again just a few days back - I can last for maybe 10 minutes before I have to switch back....

I can't explain it, but... even my wife can hear it.... she noticed it without me pointing it out to her, and she swears she can't hear these sorts of things... probably just to not have to talk to me about it

 

[peter123]

Game on
.

 

[Brooko]

Interested in your views on the filters Peter.

 

[peter123]

Interested in your views on the filters Peter.

After 10 minutes with each of the filters I ended up with the blue ones for the first couple of days of listening......

Edit: After changing from the Monster gel tips to silicone tips I had to change to the black filters.

 

[Ahmad313]

Game on
.

Congratulations ,
Waiting for your early impressions,

 

[Youghin]

is A4s coming? A4 vs A5, how much improvement? thinking of getting A4 bcoz it has many filter combination but A5 Sq seems better

 

[meringo]

They won’t even respond to my PMs Tim. It’s clear to me they don’t want me here anymore. I see it less that the establishment wins, and more that someone else will gain an asset. Either way I’m disappointed given the contributions I’ve made here in the last 7 years that I’m being treated like this.

I just need to find a platform now for any future reviews I still have in the pipeline.

As so many have stated, I love your write-ups and no-BS approach. I too feel like the site is changing -- spend more time on Reddit these days, /r/headphones and /r/avexchange. The sub is dramatically increasing in size, with deeper discussions and useful news/updates. The user backgrounds very a bit more too, and I love hearing totally different perspectives.

 

[TimeSnow]

I've tried to hang out on r/headphones, but it just hasn't stuck...with me... nowhere is perfect I guess

 

[phthora]

My biggest question, and I hope reviewers cover this, is: would it make sense to own both the A4 and the A5, or are they sufficiently similar to be redundant in the same collection?

Frankly, LZ's reputation is strong enough for me to blind-buy the A5, but I don't want to skip the A4 if there is good enough reason to own both.

 

[lmfboy01]

My biggest question, and I hope reviewers cover this, is: would it make sense to own both the A4 and the A5, or are they sufficiently similar to be redundant in the same collection?

Frankly, LZ's reputation is strong enough for me to blind-buy the A5, but I don't want to skip the A4 if there is good enough reason to own both.

One thing you might consider, A5's shell is similar to a whole bunch of other iems. I own Nuforce EDC IEMs and they are very similar and I love their fit / sound. The A5 drivers and driver placement implementations are of course gonna be different, but comfort for me is 65%, sound 35%. I would have gotten these but I got a dentist appt payment up soon

 

[Podster]

After 10 minutes with each of the filters I ended up with the blue ones for the first couple of days of listening......

Edit: After changing from the Monster gel tips to silicone tips I had to change to the black filters.

I figured that would be the case with only 3 filter choices, tips and source could really make a change but I like the shell design a lot and heck that big old Mondo case would be worth the extra $65 alone

I also get @phthora , since I know you have the A4 I'm curious how close the SS is with matching filters or as close as you can get. (iirc I'm one of the few who really prefer the Blue backs on my A4)!

Ooh, almost forgot, Hi Tamal

 

[Bubblejuice]

For me, the ergonomics and overall build quality of the A5 is better. FLC8S has more tuning options - so you can fine tune a little better. I think LZ has a couple of good options with the filters, but he needs something mid-way between the two options he has. Black and Blue sound very similar. Grey and Red sound very similar. There needs to be an option between them IMO. Fortunately the red with a little less sub-bass (some gentle EQ) really does sound very good.

I'll have some more info by the weekend I think.

So I asked LZ if they had any plans to bring new filters to the A5 in the future.

They let me know (and gave me permission to share) that, in about two months they will try to create three new filters for the A5 (which can probably be purchased separately). The exact words are, "We are busy with the A5 right now. 2 months later, we will try to create 3 more nozzles."

Hopefully one of those will hit the mark you are looking for. Maybe you can even suggest what kind of sound you think would be good (I hear they are really open to suggestions and customer feedback).

 

[duyu]

This is a good news. After all, filters are super light and easy to be shipped.
The difficulty is to make the sound right fulfilling people’s taste, and at the same time the demand is large enough so that it is reasonable to mass producing more filters. I guess each batch is like thousands.

Let’s see what consensus we can arrive at here.

 

[rav101]

The decision to wait 2 months after release of the IEM's themselves to make addition filters is that they can get feedback from customers about how they would like to customise the SQ based on their tastes. Whatever trends come up they can make the filters to match.

I guess this is our opportunity as customers of LZ to provide feedback in the next couple of month's!

 

[Nezzad1]

I'm glad they decided to include more filters for A5 in the future.

I had a chat with LZ a few days back, giving an opinion about filters. I said it would be nice to have a filter with a sound between black and grey. Hope they focus on producing at least one new filter to reduce the brightness on the black one, just a little bit.