In many ways you are right but times change and so have our products. New stuff is nothing like before and all issues have been addressed in detail.
We literally went back to the drawing board and almost started from scratch.
Don't take our word for it of course, these coming days and weeks as people get there gear will answer many questions over what things will really be like and I for once am more relaxed and at ease than I have been for the past year in regards to the quality of the product line up now.
You can truly do something here at this juncture.
There was a spot missing at Canjam NYC... No, you weren't there, but that's not the point... It was that same spot that the Delta vII created... that same spot that was missing....
I wouldn't say demographic... but position among the price and performance. Not status or anything.
If you brought only the phantom lineup that has been released to canjam, the spot wouldn't have been filled. Too closed off a demographic with those IMO and with regards to this "spot" I"m referring to. A gap.
Delta vII definitely could reserve the spot for some time, but more/higher quality sound would have to be built on it to maintain that spot and get something established.
It was just flat out missing at Canjam. Campfire Audio is stealing the show at the higher price ranges especially with the more agreeable signatures, and there's plenty above those price ranges, but at the price range below those... There's a big gap in something quality. LZ A4 definitely hit on that gap, but doesn't offer characteristics that made the delta vII so good, which were kind of overdone on the sabre and pm4... I haven't tried the Ibasso It03, but it's a little limited comparatively.
You got echobox kind of touching on it, but lacking a refinement.
I mean there's plenty of 100$ IEM's that do a good job, but don't quite get a strong footing into that spot/gap.
There's great 300$ Dynamic Drivers wonderfully balanced, but they can't pull off what a dynamic driver needs to pull off to achieve something with solid detail, and you have to spend Campfire Audio money to do that, which is fine if you can afford it.
But besides that, there was a gap. I think the delta VII definitely made noise in being competent to fill that gap, but it couldn't establish it. It's there for the taking practically, especially with the balancing you had with the detla vII, which had excellent detail without overdriving it... It boggles my mind why you went so V-shaped rather than in the more balanced/natural direction, but that's neither here not there.
From what I hear about the Master, it's like... "Oh, it's about time you are kind of moving back to a more agreeable sound that can fill that spot/gap."
It's like there's nothing really there in that gap right now, and to make IEM's that are so V-shaped/alternative to nothing there, it's like missin' it.... It's like you have it available, and you're spiraling around the target, but not hittin' it, and quite honestly i think you were closer with the D-VII than anything else released. I mean, yah the neutral, gunmetal sound signature was a little dry, the silver's were a little too bassy (remedied by the balance, not detail, of the pm4's bass), but at least the gold filters were really hitting the target, but a lot of that was the driver implementation and how the detail was delivered that wasn't maintained with the pm4 or sabre IMO. I'm not saying subsequent IEM's require identical or even similar implementation or tuning, but there was a almost deviation from the balance of not only sound, but detail delivery that could fill that gap.
With trinity it's like watching the components, all present, that are necessary to fill this gap glean their way to integrate into sound signatures once all the other aspects are pruned out of the way, but it's like you already know, but you have to find your way to you're own knowledge, like it needs to be chiseled out of the marble. You already know, but something's deviating it.