Sir joe that is is average, my best friend's birthday is coming up and I'm looking to buy her some IEMs. Currently my top 3 choices are the Thinksound Rain, Sleek SA1, and maybe the Thinksound thunder, in that order. I think she'll like the silver and wood combo. I was curious as if you could provide me your thoughts as you own or have owned each?
She's not an audiophile and will likely be listening to low 128kbpsish sources unless these motivate her to look for higher quality stuff(which they might). Her music preferences would me mostly spanish pop and ballads(which involve alot of acoustic guitars and such, and also quite mid oriented), R&B, and other popular music you might hear on a hits station or MTV or whatever. Being a girl I would suspect she has smaller ear canals, but that doesn't seem like it would be an issue with any of these. I want something that will wow her but still be enjoyable after a long time. Given her music preferences and that it will be a gift, which do you suggest?
The rain and SA1 seem to be similar in their sound, with the rain being somewhat smoother, from what I've read. But the SA1 does seem to have more of a gift feel to it. My main concerns for the sleek is that the cabling seems somewhat flimsy, though of course detachable for awesomeness, and that the bass my not be enjoyable for when shes listening to R&B, pop, or hip-hop. While the Rain are not bass heavy, they seem to have some impact and fun-ness to them. The thunders are still a strong option, but I worry they may be too bass heavy for her liking and not render spanish music as well.
I guess what I'm looking sound wisefor is clarity and warmth for acoustic instruments, as big a soundstage possible(I still think this is the biggest wow factor there is, besides maybe bass), and workable bass(I don't think she'd like too much bass either).
Given that the SA1 are available at J&R, I might end up buying those because I dislike having to have things shipped whenever possible, but I was wondering what your thought are? The SA1 are 50 at J&R, so about 55 with tax, while the Rain would be like 59 through amazon, and the Thunder 45.
EDIT: Edited some things, forgot she listens to a lot of R&B too.