mashuto
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2016
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Argh. You guys are plain evil. I strongly considered this one but the one distributor ran out and just happened to answer my question a couple of days late!
How would you compare the two (p1 and a4) when listening to drums, percussive, violins, and female vocals.
Which area? Timbre, weight, transients, and sweetness for vox and violin.
Take your time because I know the A4 is one tricky chameleon. Appreciate the input - TIA
I would have to do some A/B comparisons, especially since its been a while since I listened to my P1's, but the things you are describing are mostly mid to upper frequency sounds, which the P1 really shines with. I think the I would give the nod on detail in the highs to the P1's over the A4's with the caveat that some may find them a bit bright. They don't sound sibilant to me. But as with everything ymmv. From memory, female vocals shine as well as higher percussion and violins. They are on the more neutral side of things than the A4, but with a treble lean. Not nearly as smooth, similar to me to my IT03 from say upper mids up, but the bass feels underrepresented to me. Its there, its nice, its well textured, but not in the quantity I want. It doesnt have any real punch or heft, and as such the music can sound a bit less full.
P1 vs A4 overall... P1 if you are looking for a more neutral (but not entirely) sound with more textured highs and more forward mids, but don't care as much about bass. I also think they are more comfortable than the A4, due to the bean shape and them being smaller overall and are designed to easily be worn over ear or down. The A4 comes out on top if you are looking for a smoother sound, and looking for something more V shaped with significantly more pronounced bass (excluding blue backs). And obviously they are super flexible due to the filters.
Another thing to remember is that the P1's are hard to drive and really do scale better if you have something that can power it properly. A phone just doesnt quite cut it. I could get it to a decent volume if I turned my phone volume almost all the way up, but it just wasnt as clean or as open sounding when powered from something better. So definitely not an iem to get if you are not planning to amp it.