[pfurey89]

I agree. Fortes bass is very good. It really slams hard for an iem.

 

[iJon96]

...Trio is near the top of my short list. How are vocals on it?

Vocals are great, everything across the whole spectrum just sounds so effortless and natural from the bottom to the top. Female vocals sound absolutely sublime especially with the transition to the tia high driver. Never heard Adele live in person but Trió is what I'd imagine being in the studio with her would sound like

Compared to V6-Stage from what I can remember (can't A/B anymore since I upgraded them), vocals sit similar in the balance of things but again I can't overstate how smooth and natural the Triós are. V6-S resonated a bit better in the lower mid registers so perhaps a little preferable for certain male vocals with some growl, but didn't have the same kind of sparkle and transition between high mids and highs. The coherence and tuning of the three drivers in Trió are truly something special.

Definitely a much more neutral presentation compared to A8. On A8 the mid-bass from 70-150Hz is pretty thick and heavy on them, so the tuning takes a bit of a cut in the muddy 150-250Hz region which leaves vocals yearning for some more of the lower harmonics, with the high mids pushed to cut through the mix around 500-2k being borderline honky, and a bit rolled off in the 3-4k+ for the clarity. Again, not as smooth as Trió but nobody is buying A8 for pristine vocals, more like vocals that manage to poke through the curtain of having-too-much-fun bass.

Soundstage wise, V6-Stage loses on all fronts and A8 seems to have a larger "projection" of space (perhaps because they're custom fit with apex...) but even though I perceive Trió having a smaller overall space, everything within that space seems to resolve better and just sit nearly perfectly where it should be. Psychoacoustics are a crazy thing lol

 

[dthong]

Just about to send my A18ts for refit/repair due to a channel imbalance where the right side seems softer than the left and the resulting stereo image is pulled left.

Has anyone experienced this before and resolved it? I've googled around and it seems that this could be fact-of-life for customs that need to be fixed through balance controls.

 

[pfurey89]

For the price of them, everything should be perfect, imo.

 

[SilverEars]

Just about to send my A18ts for refit/repair due to a channel imbalance where the right side seems softer than the left and the resulting stereo image is pulled left.

Has anyone experienced this before and resolved it? I've googled around and it seems that this could be fact-of-life for customs that need to be fixed through balance controls.

Customs is difficult to verify, but have you tried other headphones/iems and noticed imaging shift to the left or similar imbalance? The imbalance can be due to your hearing being imbalanced as well. People probably have certain frequencies imbalanced as well.

Sometimes the imbalance can come about as result of fatigues of the hearing or imbalanced is perceived at certain periods and not others. It can also be psychoacoustical.

 

[LoryWiv]

Customs is difficult to verify, but have you tried other headphones/iems and noticed imaging shift to the left or similar imbalance? The imbalance can be due to your hearing being imbalanced as well. People probably have certain frequencies imbalanced as well.

Sometimes the imbalance can come about as result of fatigues of the hearing or imbalanced is perceived at certain periods and not others. It can also be psychoacoustical.

Embarrassing to acknowledge but I once "cured" channel imbalance with my A6 customs by doing a thorough wax removal of both the IEM and my ears. YMMV.

 

[SilverEars]

Embarrassing to acknowledge but I once "cured" channel imbalance with my A6 customs by doing a thorough wax removal of both the IEM and my ears. YMMV.

I think that maybe the first thing they ask you to do when you say you hear channel imbalance. With universals I can just swap the earphones to see if it's my ears. Or you can also verify if it's the track's imaging. I use audacity and look at the loudness level on each channel during play. Or just have it play mono so that the sound is symmetric to rule out track's imaging.

I recall awhile back I had a custom maintenanced. I think over time, it took a bit of a beating. One side's capacitor was loose and caused frequency response to be distorted. I've listened to it like that for awhile and I believe it caused my ears to expect imbalance. Once I've gotten em maintenance, they sounded much better. The maintenance consisted of fixing the cap and also cleaning them. Since I've had them for a long time before I've gotten them maintenance, I wonder if it's possible the drivers could degrade over time perhaps corrosion from condensation at times? Not sure. But, I'm thinking there were probably build up of gunk to cause degradation of sound from long term usage.

 

[dthong]

Customs is difficult to verify, but have you tried other headphones/iems and noticed imaging shift to the left or similar imbalance? The imbalance can be due to your hearing being imbalanced as well. People probably have certain frequencies imbalanced as well.

Sometimes the imbalance can come about as result of fatigues of the hearing or imbalanced is perceived at certain periods and not others. It can also be psychoacoustical.

I've tried over ears and universals (u6) and they're fine so it's not my hearing. I've swapped cable sides and it still keeps happening, so it's either a fit issue or the CIEM. I can verify the imbalance with frequency sweeps, etc. and mono tracks..

Embarrassing to acknowledge but I once "cured" channel imbalance with my A6 customs by doing a thorough wax removal of both the IEM and my ears. YMMV.

I jodi-vac'ed the A18 ... didn't work. I should have probably cleaned my ears before sending them back

 

[mickeyduff]

Just about to send my A18ts for refit/repair due to a channel imbalance where the right side seems softer than the left and the resulting stereo image is pulled left.

Has anyone experienced this before and resolved it? I've googled around and it seems that this could be fact-of-life for customs that need to be fixed through balance controls.

Hi, Yes I had the same problem a few weeks ago, exactly the same with the soundstage being more prominent on the left side, I was lucky enough to have another pair of 64's, so replaced the right just to conform it was not my ears and it was a fault with the iem. I just returned them to 64 using their web return procedure and they said one of the tubes had come loose/moved inside, as usual excellent customer service and repaired under warranty within a week. They really do have a great customer service section.
I have to ask what colour shell do you have? Clear ,Black, Charcoal?

 

[AllenShrz]

Damn, I miss the treble of the u18t, going back to the u8 is rough.

 

[dthong]

Hi, Yes I had the same problem a few weeks ago, exactly the same with the soundstage being more prominent on the left side, I was lucky enough to have another pair of 64's, so replaced the right just to conform it was not my ears and it was a fault with the iem. I just returned them to 64 using their web return procedure and they said one of the tubes had come loose/moved inside, as usual excellent customer service and repaired under warranty within a week. They really do have a great customer service section.
I have to ask what colour shell do you have? Clear ,Black, Charcoal?

Good to know.. 64 are always great with their service. Unfortunately I don't have another pair of customs, so will just have to see what comes back

I have clear shells

 

[mickeyduff]

I asked about the shell colour, as I have a black shelled pair and a clear shelled pair and it was with the black shelled pair that I had the problem, I don't think I'll get black shells again as the clear are far easier to clean using a tool or vac as obviously you can see the tubes so your more cautious.

 

[junix]

Anybody tried the Comply Audio Pro - SmartCore with the U series?
http://www.complyfoam.com/SmartCore/

"Patented SmartCore™ fits on sound port nozzles with a 0.19” - 0.24” (4.8mm - 6.3mm) diameter which includes 200, 400, 500 and 600 core size models."

I'm currently using Comfort/Isolation 500, but want to give a shot at the SmartCore..

 

[tim0chan]

Anybody tried the Comply Audio Pro - SmartCore with the U series?
http://www.complyfoam.com/SmartCore/

"Patented SmartCore™ fits on sound port nozzles with a 0.19” - 0.24” (4.8mm - 6.3mm) diameter which includes 200, 400, 500 and 600 core size models."

I'm currently using Comfort/Isolation 500, but want to give a shot at the SmartCore..

Tried alr, don't bother. Try crystalline audio foam tips, those don't affect the sound as much

 

[ayang02]

With the right tips I find you can get amazing sound out of universals, just takes some tip rolling then you're right on par with customs

I love customs after using my K10s and Zeus forever but I have settled on Symbio hybrids and Final Type E's for my Fourtes and really don't find myself missing the custom fit, actually prefer the universals in many ways

I just got both the Symbio W and the Final Audio Type E tips last week. Oh my, these work so well for the U12 Adel. For now, I prefer the Type E tips slightly more than the Symobios but these two tips are close in performance.

These two tips just elevates the U12 to another level, no more SpinFits/Comply/Sony hybrids & triple comfort tips!