holsen
Headphoneus Supremus
Add another voice to this chorus. I completely concur with both of you. I've had mine about 5 weeks and the level of clarity, detail, precision, imaging and depth of these P1s is simply astounding to me. After extended listing to them everything else pales in comparison, to my ears and listening preference. I've been running them straight off a Shanling M5s Balanced and Unbalanced with high gain and off my phone and PC with the new Shanling UP2 and they are just phenomenal. Really the only downside to them, to me is the power requirement. I travel alot and only want to carry one set of IEMs with me. So now I'm looking for something with a higher sensitivity that will give decent isolation and all detail of the P1s. I just ordered the IMR R1 Zenith and although the reviews have been so good, I'm afraid they'll disappoint; we'll see. I've already written off my Xelentos at $800 against the P1. Yes they've got deeper bass but it now just sounds muddy in comparison to the definition of the P1. I'm thinking next on my list to try will be the Audiosense T800.I can certainly comment on the P1 characteristic from your post now having owned them for about 6 weeks.
I agree that the P1's blossom with more power. My Schiit Rag (rather powerful) vol at about 30-50%. But they also sound great on my ES100 connected to my phone. Great sound on my daily walks. My tube amp is not balanced so I tend to use it less, but I really liked the layer of warmth it gave to my P1's.
Fast & accurate - yes! and I like that about them. Classical multi-layered stuff is great with them.
Bass dependent upon tips and placement in the ear critically.
Sound stage moderate - yes. But imaging and separation - great.
So after 6 weeks, they are my go to's. I recently ordered Fearless S8Pro's so can do a comparison soon. I actually would love to search for an iem that is less clear but luscious in tone - any suggestions? Or is it better to do a balanced tube amp (currently using Vallhalla)?
In this day and age of continually improving Chi Fi, price can no longer be used as an indicator of SQ and one thing for sure the rate of Sound to $$ is decreasing while the rate of Diminishing return is increasing. I actually cant wait to see what Tin Audio does next..... alas maybe I'll just wait