Okay, impression time.
Apologies for the awful pictures but the lighting was terrible and camera refused to cooperate.
DISCLAIMER: Assume of me as a typical consumer who doesn't care about all this audiophile goodness and just wants to enjoy music. I have experience with some IEM's but nothing high-end or particularly good so keep that in mind.
Packaging - Can't say anything particularly good or bad. Although I do wish I could've opened the package like a civilized man but it was sealed shut.
Accessories - 3 tips and a carrying case. Personally I think it's fine for what you're paying but then again, some companies (MEElec) do provide a bit more. Carrying case is made of fairly average plastic. Pretty light and seems sturdy enough but I'm afraid for the hinge as that is exactly what broke on my UE case. Tips are bog standard, nothing interesting.
Quality - One of the first things that struck me was the quality of these. I was shocked (in a good way) as they feel really tough and quality made. The cable is slightly thicker than average and has a rubbery texture (I like it, feels much nicer than just typical plastic) which might be good or bad but I guess it's up to preference. The cable splitter (not the proper word but I can't remember what it's called) as well as the actual housing are both made from hard and sturdy (or so it seems), rugged plastic with a rubbery, non-slip finish. Overall the quality is supreme and feels much better than my Klipsch S2. Pretty sure that you could easily throw these in your pocket everyday without any damage for a good while.
Isolation - Isolation is surprisingly good or maybe those are just my standards but I'm currently listening to a song on these while sitting 30 cm's away from a set of speakers playing a completely different song and I can't hear anything. I will try and remember to update this once I get a chance to try these out in the London Underground (always noisy). Overall, I'm more than happy with isolation.
Comfort - A yet another strong point for these. I'll start of by saying that before I ordered these, I was very worried about possible comfort issues as they seemed to have fairly large housing (I had problems with the MEElec M31 comfort-wise and the housing was smaller on the MEElec's) and they do however the comfort is surprisingly impressive. Now, it's not perfect by any means (I can still very much feel that they are in my ears) but they do not hurt my ears or cause any other problems which I define as good. They are also very simple to put it and they sit there very nicely without any issues (I doubt that they are one of those IEM's that keep falling out every 5 minutes). These also have a pretty unusual housing (see blurry picture
) but it seems to work pretty well.
Sound - Oh well, let's get down to it. Initial impression (no burn-in) was that there is plenty of bass, shallow highs and the bass while being quantitative, doesn't really have any texture. It's very difficult to explain but it's almost like you can hear the bass but you can't feel it (it's difficult to explain because I don't mean literally feeling the bass either, I just mean you can't feel it flowing and pumping). After about 20 hours of burn-in through normal white noise my opinion hasn't changed much about bass, it still feels very quantitative but there is no texture or feel to it but the highs have come through now and they seem a lot less bright. However, overall they are very much worth the price and I really can't complain. This experience has also taught me that quantity might not be everything which I'll keep in mind in the future.
I'm currently trying to decide which tip is the best seal for me and I've also trying the UE silicon tips right now but I don't understand what they've changed yet (sounds weird but I guess I don't know the song or the IEM's well enough).
My quality of writing is not stellar by any means but I do hope that this has helped someone and I apologies for any mistakes or parts that are hard to understand.
Once again, I will update this whenever I have done more burn-in.
