I’ll be honest, at first these were not good. Bright, shrill, piercingly sharp highs and a deeply recessed midrange with little bass, although what low end they did have was tight and clean. In short, if you hear these and that’s your initial impression, give them time. A lot of it. These took at least 100 hours to fully start to break in. They are still pretty V shaped (I only recently saw Crin’s graph and it does align with my sonic impressions) and the upper bass and mids could do with being slightly more fleshed out and fuller bodied IMO. But with much tip swapping (I tried foams but wound up with Type E’s and W1’s) and replacing the stock cable for an inexpensive OCC copper cable these started to improve drastically.
They still have some recession in the midrange, but the high frequencies greatly smoothed out while still retaining ample detail and clarity. Muted or veiled these are not. They are also not basshead IEM’s. The low end is tight and with good punch and well defined with excellent pitch accuracy and zero bleed in to the lower mids, but they aren’t sub bass monsters. I have other less expensive single DD sets that dig deeper in that area and it’s one thing I think that holds these back a little along with the midrange dip.
Even with the recession in the midrange making vocals (both male and female) sound a little thin on occasion they are remarkably clear and clean. I don’t get much sibilance on these, but I find myself riding the volume control more often to hit that sweet spot. A warmer source device is probably also a good idea here, but I favor more neutral sources and “flavor” my sound with the transducer itself.
What really sets these apart for me personally though from others I’ve heard in similar price points are the pinpoint imaging and staging. Both laterally and fore and aft. There is good layering here not just a flat 2 dimensional sound stage. But the imaging is just outstanding and they are soundstage champs.
While they are decent all rounders, smaller jazz quintets and chamber music are sometimes jaw droppingly good in all the right ways. Even rock, jazz, and soul & funk records sound great on these. They have the bass to propel a wide variety of genre’s, but metal heads should probably look elsewhere. As mentioned, they will reveal brighter source material as being such, and they don’t really hit hard enough in the bass to balance the rest of the frequencies to make that kind of music really kick IMO. Although AC/DC sounds marvelous on these. Slayer, not so much.
They aren’t a set that makes everything sound good, but they will reward with higher quality source material. I appreciate that they’re not making all my music sound the same. That’s the job of a good transducer. So they’re revealing, but not at the expense of limiting everything you play be “audiophile” recordings.
But I can’t stress enough just how important the tips and cable are with these. What comes with them will not show their true measure. And be patient with letting them break in. For some reason this set seemed to take an abnormally long time to smooth out and reveal their true character. Once they do though you wind up with something truly special.
I also have to mention the fit of these because for my ears at least, they fit like a glove. I know it’s just an aluminum shell version with the same profile and shape of the original Qdc Superior, but for some reason these just fit me perfectly.
A set that’s definitely worth owning, but not without flaws and probably not for everyone, but still one I keep reaching for almost instinctively. They just feel right to me. Huge thanks to MusicTeck for being the only place in the US to get these very special and unique IEM’s and their excellent customer support and service.
