Here are my (long) first impressions of the Klipsch Custom-3 earphones:
Design:
The comfort is about the same as any other deep ear canal earphone. The memory wire is a little thicker than normal, but it isn't too bad. I am currently wearing glasses with them and am not experiencing much issue, but your mileage may vary (for example, my glasses' temples are very thin). Once on, it stays in place even with rapid movement. I will say that a good seal is paramount when using these earphones and I'll get to that more a little later. This good seal does result in a good amount of pressure inside your ear canal, but I listened over 4 hours yesterday without fatigue. Finding the right ear gels for you is also very important. I found that getting a seal was ten times easier using the double flange ear gels instead of the single flange ones. Though the single flange ear gels enabled the earphones to stay more flush with my ears, it was not preferrable to the ease that the double flanges provided. On a side note, I also thought that they sounded better with the double flanges but it might just be because of the better seal.
Build quality is very good. The actual housing has a soft-touch texture and it feels very solid. The cloth-wrapped cable feels pretty durable, though I can see a tiny bit of fraying near the cable cinch, though I can't see that this will be more than an aesthetic issue if anything. The plug is very small, gold-plated, and right-angled, which is what I prefer, and I believe it will work with the Apple iPhone without an adapter.
When I first put them on, I was shocked at the microphonics that were produced. It turns out, however, that I was not getting a good seal, and after figuring that out, the microphonics were reduced. They are still prevalent if you want to wear them in front of you without the cable cinch, but it isn't a deal breaker. If you do wear them as they were intended with them behind you and the cable cinch tightened to your neck, it does reduce the microphonics from the cable to virtually nothing. Note though that anything rubbing the cable above the cinch will cause a small rustling noise. One example of this happening is when you turn your head left to right. I have found that there were no extra microphonics caused when walking (I noticed with the q-JAYS that each step produced a "thud" noise).
Isolation is excellent once you get a good seal. I can barely hear the speakers in front of me when they're blasting with these on and with music on. I have not tried it on public transit yet, but I'll probably give it a shot soon and report back.
Accessories:
Included with the earphones are a relatively big carrying case, and inside are the other ear gels (altogether there is are two sizes of double flanges, and three sizes of single flanges), the loop cleaning tool, an airplane adapter and a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter. One nice touch is the desiccant packet they put in there to suck up moisture when you're storing your earphones. All in all, a decent selection of accessories, all feeling pretty well made.
Sound Quality:
First, a little background. All of my listening is done without external amps, so I cannot offer any input as to how much they will improve with external amplification. It is important to take note that I have nothing else on me at the moment that is comparable to compare these to directly. I have previous experience with the Future Sonics Atrio m5, the Shure E500PTH, and the JAYS q-JAYS. I wasn't a huge fan of the Future Sonics Atrio m5, though I attribute some of that to the fact that I had the Shure E500 at the same time and much preferred the slightly less dark sound of the Shure E500. The Shure E500 was pretty warm, musical, and lush in its sound presentation, and I felt the Future Sonics Atrio m5 was even more dark and bassy. I already thought that the Shure E500 was missing something in the top end, but the Future Sonics Atrio m5 in my opinion took even more off the top end (which may be preferable for some for less fatigue). After I got the q-JAYS, however, I found out that my sound signature preference might actually be more towards the cold/analytical side than I thought. It provided tons of treble energy that made the music more exciting to listen (I listen to a good amount of alternative rock, pop, etc.) rather than something that I would sit and relax to. It got my toes tapping and it sounded just so "crisp" and "clean" in the top end. It lacked some bass, however, but that was easily fixable with some equalizer adjustments, though I'm not really into having to use software equalizers as not all of my sources produce similar results with equalizer adjustments. Needless to say, the q-JAYS were my new reference at that point, but I sought out to find something that improved on it in a few areas: bass, soundstage, and microphonics are the big points.
Now, placing the Klipsch Custom-3 into the picture is a somewhat difficult task to do considering I don't actually own any of the previous mentioned IEMs anymore. If I remember correctly, these sound comparable to the Shure E500. The midrange is forward, the bass is full, but one difference that I perceive based on memory is that the Klipsch Custom-3 produces the high end slightly better. I believe that the q-JAYS provided a more crisp top end than the Custom-3, but the Custom-3 is preferable to the Shure E500 in this regard.
The bass is much better than the q-JAYS, however. It is thick, full, and punchy but without bloat. I actually do not think it goes quite as deep as the dynamic-driver based Future Sonics Atrio m5 (IIRC) but there's nothing disappointing at all about the bass output.
Midrange and vocals are excellent. They are very clean and silky smooth. Listening to female vocals is especially a treat with these. The timbre of each instrument and voice are very realistic sounding.
As I said before, the highs are good, but the q-JAYS provides extra kick up there. It all really seems to come down to sound preference as the Custom-3's are more towards the warm and musical signature, like the Shure E500. One thing I can say though is that I'm not sure what I prefer anymore upon getting these. The Custom-3 presents a sort of lush sound without sacrificing much of the highs (still not as "sharp" as the q-JAYS). It overall provides a very pleasing listen that can be endured for hours on end.
Soundstage-wise, I cannot really actually compare it because I cannot for the life of me remember how the soundstage was perceived with the other 'phones. But I think the soundstage is above average for an IEM but it's still not astounding. It might be a limitation of IEMs in general, something that you have to sacrifice for their ultra-portability.
I gave these a run over all types of music (as I listen to pretty much anything) and I would say that these are fairly neutral across all genres. Overall, it provides a balanced sound signature, and the only place where it might suffer a tiny bit is with classical because of the lack of sheer extreme highs. I have not heard any Etymotics 'phones, but supposedly those are highly regarded for classical music. The q-JAYS seemed to fare a little better with classical as well IMO.
This "first impressions" went longer than I expected, especially without any real direct comparisons, but I hope it helped a little. I am going to give these a longer listen over this month. I tend to be a somewhat critical and picky person, so in general I believe most people will actually love these. It's not fair that the last good headphone I heard were APureSound-recabled Denon AH-D2000, so my ears are still adjusting back to the smaller soundstaging. I still also want to (maybe) get another IEM (Westone 3?) at the same time to really put it into perspective. Basing all of my comparisons on memory is probably not a good idea, so I wouldn't read too much into those.
Here are my pros and cons after the first day, and keep in mind most of these are opinions.
Pros: Excellent sonic quality (only with good seal), fairly balanced sound (a little biased towards warm), very low distortion, decent set of accessories, excellent isolation, great build quality, small, pretty comfortable
Neutral: Soundstage pretty good for IEM, but still nowhere near comparable to full-size headphones, not as flush with the ear when using the double flanges (which is preferrable in sound and seal for me), don't usually like wearing the cable behind me with the cable cinched so microphonics is still a issue
Cons: Not a big fan of the relatively thick memory wire (and could pose a problem to others with thicker temples), a little more difficult to get good seal than usual
Design:
The comfort is about the same as any other deep ear canal earphone. The memory wire is a little thicker than normal, but it isn't too bad. I am currently wearing glasses with them and am not experiencing much issue, but your mileage may vary (for example, my glasses' temples are very thin). Once on, it stays in place even with rapid movement. I will say that a good seal is paramount when using these earphones and I'll get to that more a little later. This good seal does result in a good amount of pressure inside your ear canal, but I listened over 4 hours yesterday without fatigue. Finding the right ear gels for you is also very important. I found that getting a seal was ten times easier using the double flange ear gels instead of the single flange ones. Though the single flange ear gels enabled the earphones to stay more flush with my ears, it was not preferrable to the ease that the double flanges provided. On a side note, I also thought that they sounded better with the double flanges but it might just be because of the better seal.
Build quality is very good. The actual housing has a soft-touch texture and it feels very solid. The cloth-wrapped cable feels pretty durable, though I can see a tiny bit of fraying near the cable cinch, though I can't see that this will be more than an aesthetic issue if anything. The plug is very small, gold-plated, and right-angled, which is what I prefer, and I believe it will work with the Apple iPhone without an adapter.
When I first put them on, I was shocked at the microphonics that were produced. It turns out, however, that I was not getting a good seal, and after figuring that out, the microphonics were reduced. They are still prevalent if you want to wear them in front of you without the cable cinch, but it isn't a deal breaker. If you do wear them as they were intended with them behind you and the cable cinch tightened to your neck, it does reduce the microphonics from the cable to virtually nothing. Note though that anything rubbing the cable above the cinch will cause a small rustling noise. One example of this happening is when you turn your head left to right. I have found that there were no extra microphonics caused when walking (I noticed with the q-JAYS that each step produced a "thud" noise).
Isolation is excellent once you get a good seal. I can barely hear the speakers in front of me when they're blasting with these on and with music on. I have not tried it on public transit yet, but I'll probably give it a shot soon and report back.
Accessories:
Included with the earphones are a relatively big carrying case, and inside are the other ear gels (altogether there is are two sizes of double flanges, and three sizes of single flanges), the loop cleaning tool, an airplane adapter and a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter. One nice touch is the desiccant packet they put in there to suck up moisture when you're storing your earphones. All in all, a decent selection of accessories, all feeling pretty well made.
Sound Quality:
First, a little background. All of my listening is done without external amps, so I cannot offer any input as to how much they will improve with external amplification. It is important to take note that I have nothing else on me at the moment that is comparable to compare these to directly. I have previous experience with the Future Sonics Atrio m5, the Shure E500PTH, and the JAYS q-JAYS. I wasn't a huge fan of the Future Sonics Atrio m5, though I attribute some of that to the fact that I had the Shure E500 at the same time and much preferred the slightly less dark sound of the Shure E500. The Shure E500 was pretty warm, musical, and lush in its sound presentation, and I felt the Future Sonics Atrio m5 was even more dark and bassy. I already thought that the Shure E500 was missing something in the top end, but the Future Sonics Atrio m5 in my opinion took even more off the top end (which may be preferable for some for less fatigue). After I got the q-JAYS, however, I found out that my sound signature preference might actually be more towards the cold/analytical side than I thought. It provided tons of treble energy that made the music more exciting to listen (I listen to a good amount of alternative rock, pop, etc.) rather than something that I would sit and relax to. It got my toes tapping and it sounded just so "crisp" and "clean" in the top end. It lacked some bass, however, but that was easily fixable with some equalizer adjustments, though I'm not really into having to use software equalizers as not all of my sources produce similar results with equalizer adjustments. Needless to say, the q-JAYS were my new reference at that point, but I sought out to find something that improved on it in a few areas: bass, soundstage, and microphonics are the big points.
Now, placing the Klipsch Custom-3 into the picture is a somewhat difficult task to do considering I don't actually own any of the previous mentioned IEMs anymore. If I remember correctly, these sound comparable to the Shure E500. The midrange is forward, the bass is full, but one difference that I perceive based on memory is that the Klipsch Custom-3 produces the high end slightly better. I believe that the q-JAYS provided a more crisp top end than the Custom-3, but the Custom-3 is preferable to the Shure E500 in this regard.
The bass is much better than the q-JAYS, however. It is thick, full, and punchy but without bloat. I actually do not think it goes quite as deep as the dynamic-driver based Future Sonics Atrio m5 (IIRC) but there's nothing disappointing at all about the bass output.
Midrange and vocals are excellent. They are very clean and silky smooth. Listening to female vocals is especially a treat with these. The timbre of each instrument and voice are very realistic sounding.
As I said before, the highs are good, but the q-JAYS provides extra kick up there. It all really seems to come down to sound preference as the Custom-3's are more towards the warm and musical signature, like the Shure E500. One thing I can say though is that I'm not sure what I prefer anymore upon getting these. The Custom-3 presents a sort of lush sound without sacrificing much of the highs (still not as "sharp" as the q-JAYS). It overall provides a very pleasing listen that can be endured for hours on end.
Soundstage-wise, I cannot really actually compare it because I cannot for the life of me remember how the soundstage was perceived with the other 'phones. But I think the soundstage is above average for an IEM but it's still not astounding. It might be a limitation of IEMs in general, something that you have to sacrifice for their ultra-portability.
I gave these a run over all types of music (as I listen to pretty much anything) and I would say that these are fairly neutral across all genres. Overall, it provides a balanced sound signature, and the only place where it might suffer a tiny bit is with classical because of the lack of sheer extreme highs. I have not heard any Etymotics 'phones, but supposedly those are highly regarded for classical music. The q-JAYS seemed to fare a little better with classical as well IMO.
This "first impressions" went longer than I expected, especially without any real direct comparisons, but I hope it helped a little. I am going to give these a longer listen over this month. I tend to be a somewhat critical and picky person, so in general I believe most people will actually love these. It's not fair that the last good headphone I heard were APureSound-recabled Denon AH-D2000, so my ears are still adjusting back to the smaller soundstaging. I still also want to (maybe) get another IEM (Westone 3?) at the same time to really put it into perspective. Basing all of my comparisons on memory is probably not a good idea, so I wouldn't read too much into those.
Here are my pros and cons after the first day, and keep in mind most of these are opinions.
Pros: Excellent sonic quality (only with good seal), fairly balanced sound (a little biased towards warm), very low distortion, decent set of accessories, excellent isolation, great build quality, small, pretty comfortable
Neutral: Soundstage pretty good for IEM, but still nowhere near comparable to full-size headphones, not as flush with the ear when using the double flanges (which is preferrable in sound and seal for me), don't usually like wearing the cable behind me with the cable cinched so microphonics is still a issue
Cons: Not a big fan of the relatively thick memory wire (and could pose a problem to others with thicker temples), a little more difficult to get good seal than usual
