As always, an excellent review.
I agree with you: throwing more money not always gets you an equivalent increase in quality, but nonetheless I think that a pair of customs is worth the economical pain. Of course I'm not referring to 1000$ customs, and of course I don't have a pair of customs, but sometimes one spends a quite amazing amount of money looking for the "perfect" phones, so it may make sense to spend it all at once and get customs.
When I say "perfect" I don't mean the ultimate sound-miraculous phone, but a phone you really like, with the amount of isolation you want, the comfort you want, the sound signature you want, the looks you want (why not?), etc. Sometimes you're lucky and you find a cheap pair of phones which fulfil your needs, but other times you have to sacrifice one aspect to get other.
I can't remember how many times I've lived that. I get a new pair of phones which sound exactly how I want, only to discover they fit like crap and isolation is subpar, or the cable is in auto-tangle mode all the time, or they cause me pain after half an hour, or they slide out of my ears, etc. Customs looks like the way of solving all the issues at once.
Still, price is prohibitive for me. But hoping is free
Thanks a lot for the review, really, a great work like usual.