Alright some initial rough impressions as i was tip rolling. These lil' mofos are refined as hell. The cable is not that bad tbh, it's stiff/ rubbery but i kinda like the matted feel to them. The stiffness of the cable for sure makes it more prone to cord noise (microphonics) but it is not too bad. I expected it to be a lot worse from all the previous impressions. But I kinda like it. haha Though the cable is not as good as JVCs FXD/ FXZ line that's for sure. And man are those rubber ring things comfy, so soft and fits perfect. That space station design finally won me over.
They do sound a bit bright outta the box, as the head-fier that sold these to me barely did any burn-in. But compared to JVC FX40s brightness/ sibilance/ harsh highs, these CKN70s HA! Double HA!!! in fact since the "harsh" highs almost sound sparkly when compared the crazy @ss treble of the JVC FX40. Speaking of the FX40, these CKN70 sounds like a much more refined version of them with the stock tips. The bass is bigger and more lush, with mids/ highs all over your face, forward is the right term to describe them.
For me the stocks tips makes these CKN70 sound more narrow/ lean, so i tip rolled them with some senni double flanges, which the seller hooked me up with. The wider bore (opening) of these senni double flanges opens up their sound and makes the soundstage wider. There is less congestion to the overall sound but this also makes it a bit more sibilant/ harsher in the treble region. Then i put some MH1C tips on this lil' sucka, and what you know the bass comes out to play with these tips. As Ds and others have mentioned the sony hybrids seems to make them sound more "fun" ie: more mainstream bassy sound. There seems to be more weight to the music using the MH1C tips which sounds really good. I still have not received my amp/ dac yet so all these are 1st impressions straight out of my ipod nano. So take it with a grain of salt.
These CKN70s is everything i expected it to be, so i was not disappointed whatsoever. In fact, they seem to be the complete upgrade i wanted out of my JVC FX40 that i didn't get from my JVC FXD70s. The bass quantity and quality is great, but not overwhelming with crazy refined mids and extended sparkly highs, yeppp these babies are it!!! The sound is so fun and engaging and man do i love the sparkle on these things.
Here is some iem porn for what's to come.....................................
It's gonna be an epic showdown. Dun Dun Dun!!!