a clear upgrade why? I have both and they are just different. I am tired of hearing about "upgrades", in this price segment,there aren´t any bad IEM´s,just a personal preference, the JVC ´s I like for acoustic jazz and for heavy avant- prog, I prefere the IE80, The Grado GR10 fitts in between, and is the one I use the most on the road.
IMO JVCS are better across the board. Bass goes deeper, has more control, treble has more air to it and maintains a smooth signature. Mids are more detailed, the FX850 has more clarity, timbre is quite a bit more natural sounding. The entire sound doesn't come across as muffled or cloudy as the IE80 can sound when directly compared. Then again the JVC themselves can sound muffled next to the 1Plus2 or Flat 4 Suis. There aren't any bad IEMs is also an opinion (although I've heard some pretty ****ty IEMs myself, but hey that's just me).
I like it when I read stuff like that. the jvc ends up having more everything, I guess it's louder. reality is that it's just a less V shaped IEM, it makes no sense to say it's better when obviously we didn't buy an IE80 to get a flat signature.
to me the 1+2 are much too bright by default and need some EQ or impedance trick to sound ok. they're impressive, yes! they do what they do and have an even better soundstage than the IE80, yes. but I do not think of them as an upgrade. it's also massively V shaped so indeed it might interrest the same people, but that's it.
the JVC seemed to have a lot more presence (based on 1 short audition so take it with a grain of salt) in the high mid/treble region when the IE80 has an obvious boost mostly centered around 5/6khz if I remember my last EQing. and the GR10 I think had the emphasis a little higher in the treble compared to IE80(and a clearly lower bass boost).
I'm totally with willy here, going from one IEM to another is a change of sound, not a change or rank. and your reason to pick one as more all rounded might very well be our reason to keep the IE80 with another IEM to have 2 signatures, as we didn't get it to hear flat sound.
we're in a V shaped group of IEMs, let's not pretend that one has a better signature, when technically, any flat crap is massively better in regard to sound fidelity. we made a choice of sound, and just like willy I don't use the IE80 for everything, but when I do I'm happy to have it.
your analysis about the mid bass of the IE80 on the later post is IMO based on the vent port at mini or even with it duck taped. I use 2 or 3rd position (but then I EQ all the bass region down a little) and it's to me a lot less mid bass centered that way.
to my ears none of those are perfect as is and I would EQ them all to get my "upgrade".
(wrote this in a hurry, I hope I make some sense, and will come back later to check my mess)
