[Ultrazino]

Another great post, mvw2!
 
But in case of the Westone 4, these are my observations why it's leaving TS wanting for more:
- it's slightly warm
- while lows and highs are very well extended, the perceived frequency is squashed together (highs sound darker and bass sounds brighter)
- veiled mids
 
Take these three feats and you have an incredibly unfatiguing, well distanced and never aggressive presentation without feeling like you're missing anything from the music. It's actually all there, it still sounds musical but if you're coming from other earphones, you first have to step it down a little.
 
Machine Head on my FX700 is a whole new level of power compared to the W4! With the Westone, I can listen to Slayer at any time of the day - on my FX700 it's too aggressive 4 out of 5 times.
 
In this case, I also think TS is shelling out too much money for his preferred genre. My Thrash- and Metal albums are clearly inferior to the rest of my music, sound quality wise. A SE535 with 8 drivers sounds like a ridiculously stupid idea. But maybe I'm wrong.

 

[etg9]

I really like my w4's and they have been my IEM of choice for quite a while. I've had the chance to try out a lot of other IEM's and it's just precise but mellow and warm. you can hear everything very individually. I would like to give the FX700's a go one day but customs are up next. Probably Westone but the Merlins and JH-16s are well talked about as well.

 

[RockaRolla]

If you're hearing alot of classic rock like beatles, pink floyd, ES5 would be your logical upgrade, its able to covey the slow psychedelic emotions very well but for metal I would say miracle would do better. Miracle has a slightly more sparkly treble, which brings with it a slightly more aggressive and attack SQ, which is more suited to bringing out the raw emotions of metal better