The IE800, Inks' (modded) W4, and the F4 arrived today.
The IE800 is terrific. I've been listening with it for just a few hours. The very smooth signature definitely leans to the warmer side of neutral.. but it's executed in an articulate, refined manner. Sub-bass is awesome.. though it's jacked up a little too much for my taste. It brings the bounce in no uncertain terms and remains impressively clean while doing so. The midrange is stunning. It leans to the warm side, but it possesses some of the best depth, dynamics, and clarity I've heard from an IEM (custom or otherwise)... all delivered in an impeccably smooth manner. Vocals, in particular, have a wonderfully realistic quality to them. Treble could stand to have a little more body and better presence in places (Eke nailed it with his "cymbals sound like they're getting hit with chopsticks' analogy), but it's wholly non-fatiguing, detailed, and serves a complimentary role to the mids and bass. Tweak the treble for a more rounded presence, tune back the sub-bass a few dBs.. and you've got a tremendous phone, IMO. There's not much in the universal IEM game that really interests me these days, but the IE800 is one of the few phones I would seriously consider buying. It's something I could see myself enjoying for a long time.
Quick note about Inks' modded W4: very impressive. Much better than the stock W4 (which I was, ultimately, not impressed with). The modded W4 flattens out the stock W4's godawful midbass hump and gives a more linear treble response.. these two changes provide better midrange clarity. The modded W4 is still on the warm/bassy side, but much better behaved than the stock W4, IMO. The modded W4 reminds me of the IE800's "runty, little brother".. and that's a compliment, btw. Nice job by Inks.
F4 Sui.. nice.. but it's pretty 'meh' to my ears (so far). Clean, slightly dry mids.. nice detail and balance.. but on the whole, I'm left feeling underwhelmed.. muttering to myself, "this is what the fuss is about?" I'm not hearing how/where this is some kind of "uber-clear, resolution beast" with a really unique signature. I've only used it very briefly & maybe I need to play with the fit, though.
