Okay, this is going to be very short and sweet, because to be honest I haven't had enough time with the CKM500 to give it a good "initial first impressions" review.
Let me say this, Of the the two or three ATH IEMs and headphones I've heard, I always found the mids to be a bit weak for my taste and somewhat recessed. Not so with these. I have to agree with Dsnuts that the CKM500 probably has the best mids I've heard in an ATH product. Now, when initially listening I was like, "where is the bass?" Then I thought that perhaps I don't have a deep enough insert, so I pushed them into the ear canal little bit more and POW! Nice bass! It's not overwhelming, but it's there and it's not light. I can only imagine what burn-in will do for these.
The vocals are really really clear. I used Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" and Elvis Costello's "In the Darkest Place" (his collaboration album with Burt Bacharach) as reference music (oh, and a little bit of Dr. Buzzard's Savannah Band).
So, that's about it for right now. I'm not disappointed at all based on that first brief listening, but it's too early to say these sound like this, or are better than that. I can say, however, I'm more impressed with the CKM500 right out of the gate than I was with the Audiofly AF78 dual driver dynamic/BA IEM. I hope to have that full review by this weekend. So you are on point once again, Mr. Dsnuts...LOL. Kudos!