I should preface this by saying, my experience with flagship totl iem's is very limited.
Design wise, pictures don't do it justice. It is beautiful to look at and admire the craftmanship. One thing to note is that, while they look and feel gorgeous, I did some light polishing with a silver polish cloth and boy did they came alive. Cable is soft and has a lot of detail on the plugs as well as a little pattern on the cable sleeves. It compliments well the look of the iems.
Looks are understandably a turn off to some, just like Shogun, for how much they could attract attention when you are out and about. In my case it's not a factor since I would never take a $4k+ device out for lets say a run or do some shopping. These are strictly for home use, maybe have them around on the office, but that's about it.
I currently only own the noble Shogun and Thieaudio Valhalla in that similar category of price and flagship level, and most of my collection is on the $1,500 and below. And of those mentioned I would say I enjoy The shogun more than the Valhalla, if only by a small margin.
The BGVP Wukong is basically a whole other thing in comparison. Bass hits hard but controlled. Sub bass feels big, maybe just a bit less than Shogun in quantity but with great quality. Mids and vocals are clear, crisp and forward. Treble is detailed, clear and airy without feeling harsh.
No expert here, not even close but in my experience with Wukong for the past couple of weeks, this is definitely the best I have heard an iem sound. Every genre I've tried, sounds good, a pleasure to listen to.
There may be iem's that may have better technical ability than Wukong, but the whole package plus it's sound, I think it's hard to beat.
