Hi all,
I am the proud owner of one of these
Shigzeo was kind enough to get me a pair last week.
First, I'd like to say that these phones are simply gorgeous and the most comfortable of my collection. I've been listening to them for a week now and can't point out any fatigue physically or sound-wise. I am wearing them with CX300 rubber tips which I find are the ones that better fit my ears. The phones fit perfectly inside the ears (as eg. the Shures and unlike the Denons).
Sound-wise, I find them extremely well balanced. Bass is beautiful, strong but tight. Definitely cleaner and controlled than the Shure SE530, beautiful! Highs don't seem to be rolled off by any means, is everything there but couldn't detect any sibilance at all. Their balance implies that mids are not as prominent as the SE530 (to which I've been insistently comparing against) neither as mellow. While this usually favors the shures for voice centered music (eg. Cat Power, Kirstin Hersh, Fiona Apple, Anthony are some I tend to listen a lot) and make shure's mids punch awesome, for long listening periods the victor's balance tends to mean less fatigue.
I've been comparing the fx500 against several iem/earbuds (eg. im716, E3, CX300, Ref 220, fx-300, C551) and they definitely stand-out in all aspects. Wrt. the SE530 they are pretty different. If I had to chose among them it would be very difficult.
Cheers,
Rui
PS: In most of the aspects I totally agree with Shigzeo's review.