Hmmm....... these VSD1 LEs are a bit tricky.
From my initial listen on my 5th gen ipod classic what stood out was the bigger/ fuller/ bolder sound. More out of head experience if you will. There was also more emphasis on the bass end as well, though it's of the "rounder", not tighter/ deeper variant. So I was like nice there seems to be some added clarity and that nothing feels lacking although the bass end needs to tighten up in order to sound more right that's for sure.
Then after dinner i took a listen to them again and realized that the EQ on my ipod was set on "Jazz" preset, which had boosted the bass end as well as the treble as depicted below:
..
...one of these preset things but you get the idea.
After i set EQ back to "Flat" these VSD1 LE sounded kinda a bit lackluster and boring esp. in the treble regions after i relistened to the same albums i had earlier. So i was like this is interesting, and proceeded test drive these VSD1 LEs with my tried and true tracks for bass/mids/treble forwardness/quantity/ quality/ texture, etc. Lo and behold the treble of these VSD1 LE are indeed more rolled off than the VSD1 Classic and the gr07 BEs. As i have already mentioned the bass end sounds more "round" as in softer and less textured compared to the others as well. Although forwardness/ lushness of the mids seems to be the same on all of them.
I was kinda taken back a bit by this cuz to me the VSD1 Classics sounded closer to the gr07 BEs in sonic presentation and capabilities than these VSD1 LEs. These VSD1 LEs still have VSonic's house sound no doubt but deviates from the sound of the gr07 BEs more compared to the VSD1 Classics.
^ The highlighted above of "Driver66"s impressions is aligned with my initial impressions it seems. Though when i hooked these VSD1 LEs into my portable Venturecraft amp/dac they scales better and responds better to EQ than the VSD1 Classics due to their more neutral/ polite tuning/ sound signature??? When i set my ipods EQ to the "Jazz" preset these VSD1 LEs really comes out to play and sounds more alive, clearer/ fuller than my VSD1 Classics, but my gr07 BEs still have more texture and extension compared to both of these VSD1 variants. Un-EQed/ un-amped i prefer the VSD1 Classics over the VSD1 LE at this stage, but when amped and EQed the VSD1 LEs has a slight edge. For me the gr07 BEs still reign supreme sadly.
I was hoping these VSD1 LEs would sound vastly different from all of VSonic's previous offers as it was supposedly tuned by the father of the CEO to sound like their up coming VSD7s, but sadly this is not what i am hearing from my initial listening sessions. I am not really digging the less extended polite treble as well as the rounder/ softer bass texture tuning, but the overall fuller, more out of the head sound is a nice addition since it makes it sound a bit more 3D.
