I got a used pair and sent them to Westone to have them refit. I'm mostly happy (my local audiologist was cheap with impressions, but they don't use Westone much so it wasn't quite effortless), although I don't think people are going to want to send them to Westone for refitting unless you get them really cheap. They sent an entirely new case and cable with them so that was nice. Fit and comfort is good, and sound quality excellent.
I'd place overall sound quality pretty similar to the modded W5000s I also have (this is a good thing, pretty much exactly what I was wanting). I prefer the more pronounced midrange, especially vocals of the ES3X, and they're actually better at micro-detail retrieval, something I felt the W5000 was quite good at to begin with, but these are even better. They are a bit less forgiving of poor recordings, in that its really noticeable, but good ones shine even more. I'll echo what most others have said about higher end custom IEMs, they're pretty transparent and show you what the recording and your source allows. A couple of times I was disappointed with the way the bass on a track was (was kinda flat), and I was worried that it was the ES3X, but hearing it with something else allayed those fears. I haven't paid particular attention to instrument placement, but I don't notice it being any worse than the W5000s in that. Sound stage is less, but doesn't bother me, and is plenty good (better than PFEs easily).
I would be curious to see about getting a more home-friendly, balanced cable and running it out of
this for a pretty low cost but hopefully great sounding setup. Not sure how well that DAC would actually do directly balanced out. A Benchmark DAC1 would probably be better (but also would cost significantly more).
