The Thieaudio Legacy 4..

Well it’s been stirring a lot of reviews and chatter that’s for sure. It seems I see reviews with people drooling over them as if they just discovered the next best thing in IEM tech. So are they?

I received them (purchased myself) and upon unboxing I was greeted with an bunch of useless packaging. It was kind of like one of those Russian dolls where there is one inside the other, on and on.

Once I worked my way through that I found a nice cable, nice looking (albeit simple) IEM’s. A set of “ok” tips attached to a boat anchor and a nice case.

Build quality was on par with all the other Thieaudio IEM’s I’ve seen/tested. The first thing I looked at was the switches on the back side of the IEM. I left then down (the position they came in) for the first round of testing. I say first round because with switches if I am to evaluate properly I need to test in every position, which sucks. I will state that I only tested the switch position evenly, meaning, I set each side the same which gives you four possible positions. If you wanted you could test with one side set in one position and the other side set in a different position. I mean you could really lose your mind with it if you want. Me. I don’t like switches. Just make it sound the best it can and ship it, that’s it.

Let’s get to the sound. I thought these were very analytical straight away. They had good bass, mid’s were not forward but present and smooth. Treble was good, not grainy or sibilant. Detail retrieval was top notch. Timbre was ok but nothing spectacular. Stage was small and imaging was ok.

There is a song on the album Yoyo Ma “Not Our First Goat Rodeo” called “The Trappings”. Whether you would like this song or not, it is excellent for stage and imaging testing. In the song there are 4 vocals placed in different positions and on something like the Thieaudio Monarch, HD 800S or even the FiiO FD5 you can clearly here their different positions and distance from each other and you. On the Legacy 4 it sounded very flat. I could hear some imaging going on but very subtle. Stage just wasn’t there. I felt like everything was next to my head. This was with the default switch setting.

With inside switches up and the outside down (my favorite setting) the detail was good and the mids were better. Bass also improved. Stage and imaging were the same.

With both sides both switches “up” bass became heavy yet they were still analytical but the imaging completely disappeared? I guess the imaging is a function of higher frequencies and with those “muted” it killed the stage/image.

I tested these alongside the Kinera Freya. The Freya was a completely different beast but at near the same price point. I liked the Freya better. It seemed that the Legacy 4 had excellent sound reproduction but I just could not get “involved” with the music. I felt like I was studying it instead of enjoying it. I can’t say anything bad about them but they just were not my cup of tea.

In fact I would say these were similar in sound “quality” to the Legacy 3, but maybe the bass was better on the 4. Detail and treble slightly improved also. But I liked the tonality of the 3’s better. I enjoyed listening to music on the legacy 3’s. Like I wrote earlier the 4 was just a bit to clinical and the music just didn’t make me “happy” on these, but I could not point out any faults with the sound reproduction if that makes sense?

Are these worth the $195.00 price tag? If your studio mixing or just like really clinical lifeless music reproduction with no stage then yes they are. If you have the Legacy 3 and are happy, keep them and wait for the next one or save some more money and by the Thieaudio Monarch.

Build, well their beautiful for sure. Maybe the best looking IEM’ I ‘ve had except for the Tequila. But definitely close.

Fit, these are very big, especially for my small ears. But I did find the best fit using spiral dots “small”. The nozzle is large on these so I had to stretch the small a bit to get them to fit but once on there “stretched” size proved to be the best fit.

Still I would not be able to do much in the way of activities wearing these, just walking up and down the stairs in my house with a cup of coffee they the right one would start to fall out. I had to stay somewhat still while listening to these. Would that deter me from telling you these are the best sounding IEM’s I have heard to date? NO.

The package I loved. The case is excellent, it’s one of my favorite cases so far. The cable is fantastic, I bought one separately for anther set I have because I liked it so much. The even included a 4.4 and 3.5 adapter for the 2.5 end on the cable. No matter how many times I pulled it out it never tangled, it always just “unfolded” without issue.

These were incredible, from the moment I put them in. I did still leave them playing on my desk to “break-in” the drivers for about an hour. But that’s it and I didn’t hear any difference.

How do these compare to others?

Crazy detail that was very smooth and not grainy at all. Treble was the same, airiness to spare. Mid’s were very smooth and in the right place, not forward at all or spikey highs. The bas, man the bass was incredible. It seemed that it fell off in exactly the right place, that is it did not bleed at all but yet had very impactful and rumbly bass. I threw a lot of music at these trying to find a fault but couldn’t do it. Except maybe bad recordings, those were amplified a bit but yet still sounded good. There is something very “epic” about the tuning of these.

The sound stage was just as large as I have ever heard it from an IEM. It was just as large and in some cases larger than my Focal Clear’s.

If you get the chance to listen to these try an album by a band called “Bastille” the album is “Bad Blood”, listed to the first track on the Monarch’s. I honestly have listened to the album several time and never was really impressed with it but when I heard it on the Monarch’s it was like hearing it for the first time. I was blown away and have now relistened to it several time to be sure and each time I am impressed.

Timbre was fantastic, the best I have heard to date. I could imaging instruments and the people playing them without any difficulty or effort at all. Horns, drums, guitars just sounded 3D and incredibly realistic immediately. Almost to the point it was stunning.

Robin Trower “Bridge of Sighs” the bells being played at the beginning just kept circling my head, the guitar was so “perfect” then the bass, which is notoriously hard for IEM’s I have tried to get right was so impressive. Then “About to begin” again bass and guitar was so good, then the symbols!! They melded with the drum hits so well I thought I was right there next to the drummer. Drums were so realistic, Snare hits, Symbol strikes, it’s as if I could hear the impact of the stick in with the sound made by the instrument being hit. Another song on that album “Lady love” has a cow bell being hit as it opens up, holy shit! I was shocked for a minute by how realistic it was, I replayed a half dozen times just to experience it again.

Rodrigo y Gabriella “Tamacun remastered” was unbelievable. Gabriella is striking the body of the guitar with her thumb in that song constantly and you can hear it in such a way I felt like I was there watching her. Guitar picks were so 3D, I could hear the buzz of the string as they plucked them.

Dianna Krall, her voice was so clear and clean in “Live from Paris” I could easily hear her tongue smacking the roof of her mouth on almost every song. The crowd clapping was so real it was like being there.

One of the best aspects of these was I could turn these up, way up and I never had the experience of spikey knives in my ears with highs. They were so detailed and so smooth all the time.

I will say the detail or realism was a bit much sometimes and some albums I needed to take a break after a few songs so my brain didn’t melt 🙂 but I loved it..

Look if I am gushing about these it’s because it really is an experience I have not had yet with IEM’s. I could even say, cause I was definitely thinking it, that these could be “end game” for me.

The problem is this, I want to recommend these highly and I do. But Thieaudio has had consistency problems. The Legacy 3, mine was ok but not great, many others say they were the best thing they have heard. Yet others had lots of different issues with them. The “Legacy 5” I received did not work at all. So for $729.00 and a 1 month wait while they build yours, you should think seriously about it. If you have that money to spend easily then yes go for it, if you get the same build and tuning I did, well if I had heard these at a show and they said you can have them for $1500.00 I wouldn’t have taken a second thought I would have opened the wallet right there.

The build is fantastic, everything I expect from a Sony flagship product.

Every detail is well thought out, I would like to see a standard USB cable, but, I wasn’t in the engineering meetings discussing how to build this. I have heard some say it’s a way to make more money for Sony because you have to buy from them. This is not true, I have in my searching found third party cable sellers that make or have these to sell and they are not Sony branded.

I think the design has more to do with function than anything else.

This device feels great in the hand, the body is cut from a single block of aluminum. The buttons are large and crisp. All over the case ports are clearly labeled. The balanced 4.4 port on top says “Balanced” right next to it in clear white letters. The bottom is no different and all ports are named in white lettering.

The back has a “leather like” material that protects it which I really prefer over the glass backs on most devices in this range nowadays. It feels better in the hand and protects it when placed on a surface. It does not come with a case and the Sony version sucks from what I hear. But there are several very nice cases that are well regarded that you can purchase for under $40.

The interface is what I loved most on this device. No it is not a large AMOLED screen, but it is perfect for what it is. The interface, and I don’t know if it’s a modified version of android in the background or a Sony custom OS (more likely), is so well thought out that I didn’t need to go to any manuals to understand it or figure out how to use it. Everything is clearly noted and there are help menus and notes throughout when you start using it. There is even a built in guide for how to produce great sound! I found the interface to be rock solid and had no issues with it. So how does it sound? Well this is where the review process gets hard. It sounds great, I really loved it right away with the “direct” sound setting and no EQ or other Sony sound mods.

But is it better than other device in the same category not especially in the same price range. This is an important distinction to be made. Now a days price does not always reflect quality, even though some manufacturers want us to think so. I tested against several DAP’s but really it came down to the FiiO M11 Pro and this DAP.

So after some initial comparing I settled in for some serious sound comparison testing. I loaded a song (which I will cover in detail shortly) on both devices. I plugged in a head set (I used several) and listen for about 30 seconds. Then paused the song unplugged from the Sony and plugged into the FiiO then started the song. I kept doing this through the whole song and even going back several times on some sections of a song because I really wanted to understand the differences.

What I can say is that the 2 devices were scary close. In some songs I could not hear a difference. In other the difference was clear and yet on others some differences but hard to really define them.

For the Sony I paid $1,198.00 on Amazon with Prime. And the FiiO M11 Pro is going right now on Amazon with Prime for $649.99 so that’s a $548.01 difference. Is it worth it? No and Yes, I really like the Sony, it’s build, its function and its sound. If I had paid for it sometime ago and had not heard the FiiO or just had purchased it first I wouldn’t even question it. It is worth the price at which it is selling now. But the FiiO M11 Pro is so close that it may not make sense to upgrade if that’s what you’re thinking about. If it’s your first DAP purchase and you’re not sure what the difference will be from your phone or iPod (if you even have one of those) then go for the FiiO. Also you could purchase using Prime on Amazon and if you are not satisfied then you can return it. I have a made a little chart below showing my impressions for each dimension of both products.

Rating from 1-10 10 being best

SONG TEST LIST –

Ah-Ha MTV Unplugged Session – “Take on me”, Sony was a better reproduction but just barley

Alexis Cole – “Alone together”, Sony had the edge, beginning symbol and snare drum was fuller and more realistic. Felt like more info was being retrieved from the FLAC file/song.

Amanda Martinez – “Amor”, no real difference – Sony sounded a bit more “full and open” only a bit though.

Bastille – “Bad Blood”, bass was better on the Sony, felt more realistic, more detailed

Beyonce Lemonade – “Pray you catch me”, bass was better on the Sony, FiiO vocal was a little more forward. But vocals on the Sony were better separated

Boston “Foreplay”, liked guitar better in opening on the Sony, but after that I could not hear a difference.

Dido – “Give you up”, vocals were more open and better “reverb” on the Sony but everything else the same.

Elton John – “Captain Fantastic”, better on the Sony, Guitar at opening and background instruments more separated and detailed on the Sony.

Kandace Springs – “Don’t need the real thing”, sounded the same on both

Metallica – “Ride the lighting”, could hear more details in the beginning of the song. After main chorus kicks in mostly the same with the Sony being a slight bit more detailed.

I like FiiO products. They are a more polished or mature audio company than many of the IEM or DAP players new to the market. I really like the M11 Pro and it’s my go-to player for portable audio. I have not been overly impressed with their IEM’s though. Yes they sound good, yes they have one of the best unboxing experiences, yes they have great accessoires and Finally yes the IEM’s themselves are very refined looking. But I guess they always feel “safe” to me. They are not too bright or detailed. They are not to heavy in the bass. Their mids sound good. But I don’t feel excited listening to them. I don’t get that “I want to listen to all my music again’ feeling. To be fair that’s the experience with 90% of what’s out there. And their is something to be said to paying my hard earned money for a set of IEM’s that sound very good and have the great ownership experience that FiiO gives you. Much better than paying for something that does not. I like that they use MMCX connectors, for me, 2 pin connectors always get worn and the IEM’s start falling off the cables.

All that said, I really liked the FiiO FH3 right from the get-go. The ubox was great with that typical FiiO heart shape wire packaging. The great selection of ear tips, the really cool hard plastic case with with a smaller soft case inside that. I also really like the FiiO cables; they are very well made and high tech looking.

On to listening, here is where things get a little muddy, literally. I had also purchased the TFZ King edition at the same time so I was comparing them as they were within $10 of each other in price. I also was listening to the Thieaudio Monarch and Fearless Tequila. Not fair comparisons for sure but they were in the pool. I didn’t expect the FiiO to give me the experience of the higher end IEM’s but I wanted to see just how far away they were. With influx of Chinese manufactures into the IEM “game” quality vs price has been spun on its head and many times IEM’s that cost little are better than higher priced ones.

The FiiO FH3 had very good detail, I tried maybe 5 different tips including spiral dots to see what effect they had. I listened to many songs on these. I spent at least a week on and off listening and comparing. I have a couple of friends that have these and really like them so I wanted to give them a fair shake. I didn’t want a “first sound impressions” to jade my opinion and make my friends “mad” at me. Which probably is showing my hand at how this review is headed. After extensive listening and 4 hours of burn-in on my desk amp what I can say is “I liked them” but I didn’t love them. Back and forth with all the previously mentioned IEM’s I could hear a “veil” over the music. The detail was there I could hear it, the treble was there, the mids and the bass was good. But it felt like things just were not clear or sparkly.

Timbre was good, not great, but acceptable. Stage was about average. On songs like Diana Krall “A case of you” from her “Live in paris” album I could hear the detail but truly the detail was much better on the TFZ King and the Monarch and Tequila were far and away better. The treble area, symbols and higher octave vocals sounded good but not with the “clarity” I would like. The TFZ was better here but it had its issues also. I will say I did not get any spikey treble that hurt my ears like I did on the King. The mids/vocals sounded good. I listened to Brett Eldredge for male vocals and Diana Krall, Amanda Martinez and the like for female vocals. A good example of the difference in detail was when Diana Krall sings “A case of you” she is right on that mic and you can hear her tongue smacking the roof of her mouth on the TFZ but not as clearly on the FH3. These little details lend themselves to the “realism” of a recording as your listening.

I used some heavy metal and jazz for instrument listening. I didn’t get that feeling of realism that I like. Horn’s sounded good but veiled. Symbols were ok but the rolloff and decay was not “how I like it”, I write it, say it, that way because its a subjective area and some might love these.

I think I have covered enough about the sound and build. So, are these a good buy? Absolutely, they are completely worth their price. The build quality, accessories alone put them into this price range and way above. The fit and sound firmly plant them. I’m not hypeing these, there are things about the sound I didn’t like; as mentioned. But I believe for most these are a great buy. Keep in mind that price is not always a benchmark for sound quality. But if it is accepted as such, then increase in sound quality with the increase of price is very small. In other words as the price climbs steeply the quality of the sound produced only goes up slightly.

The reMarkable 2 is one of those gadgets that for the gadget addict is a must have. At least it feels that way. The adds are very sexy and make you think your life will be “enhanced” by having one of these write with and read ebooks on. Now before the pandemic I spent a lot of time with customers (I’m an IT consultant by day) in meeting rooms I was always taking notes. I tried many methods and tools over the years, one of my favorites being the LiveScribe pen, which was ruined by taking out the voice recorder and forcing you to use a smartphone. The reMarkable pad seemed to ring all the bells for me, I co

nd out of the way, so to speak, not interfering with my meetings.

There are countless studies that show brining a laptop or even any smart devices (iPad) to a meeting can make you seem distracted and or not committed in a meeting. In a customer meeting that can be disastrous. In fact some well known enterprise organization have banned laptops from meetings and insist on only a pad of paper and a pen. So the reMarkable 2 seems like the perfect solution. No reminders popping up, no strange and or annoying beeps and sounds emanating from it. No bright screen.

But now since the pandemic it seems unlikely I will ever get to use it for that. It is relegated to drawing or sketching pictures (which it does very well BTW) and reading ebooks or PDF’s.

But is is it worth the $399 (plus accessories) price tag? Well the package I bought included the reMarkable 2, Marker Plus and Grey fabric weave folio and came in at $567.00. The marker plus is definitely a needed upgrade. It gives you easy “eraser access” without digging into menus. It also is heavier and feels better in the hand. The folio is also needed as it protects the tablet. The folio is actually the cheaper version, there is a book style folio also that is $99.00 for the polymer weave in grey and a leather folio available in black and brown for $149.00.

For me it’s not worth it. I love the sketching part, I used to study art and in my younger years I had dreams of being an artist. I still sketch from time to time but not enough to justify the cost of this device. It definitely has the capability to sketch as well as a paper and pencil. I tested this extensively and really liked it. I can see for a professional artist this could be a great tool for preliminary sketches. Or for a designer to scribble down design notes and then email to a team easily.

As far as an e-reader goes I don’t like it. Here is the problem and I hope they are listening to (reading) this. The number (according to US census) of people over 40 and working makes up about 32% of the working population. Many if not most are already feeling the effects of presbyopia. An eye condition where the muscles that control the eye start to stiffen and cannot control the lens to focus on smaller text. You know “reading glasses”. I started having to use reading glasses occasional at the age of 43. Now at 50 I use them all the time.

In order to use the reMarkable as an effective e-reader I had to zoom in. Zooming sucks on the reMarkable. Its jumpy and you have to move around the document in sections to see what you want in zoom mode. It reminded me of the movie “Blade Runner” when Harrison Ford is using the computer to review a photo and tells the computer “section 12 zoom in on that” and it makes a series of clicks and jump to get to that section, then makes more jumps and clicks to zoom in. Oh and you cannot pinch to zoom like an iPad, you have to choose zoom from the side menu, so if you have that hidden in “full screen” mode you have to jump through a menu to zoom. They need to improve this for sure. The other gripe I have is the device screen is grey not white. They say paper like and it feels that way for sure, but, paper is white in my experience not grey. I think having a “white” screen would help greatly in the presbyopia department and also in low light situations. In low light the grey screen was all but unreadable.

The battery life was excellent and start up from sleep is almost instant.

The device itself is crazy beautiful, seriously, if you don’t have the need or money to buy this don’t hold one in your hand. The feel in your hands will be too tempting to overcome. Whatever you say about it they really did a great job designing and constructing the hardware. I mean it probably is worth every penny of the $500+ you will have to spend as far as hardware goes. Is the price worth the functionality of the device? That’s up to you. If you take a lot of notes or are a professional designer or artist then I think yes. I will throw out that you can buy and iPad, Apple Pencil and get the “paper” screen cover that feels a lot like the reMarkble for a slightly lower price and have a lot more functionality. Well thats all I have to say about this, hope it helped you.

The Airmotive GR1’s by Emotiva are a a first step by Emotiva into the headphone arena (I hope that statement is true, my research says it is). And if I’m right then they did a bang up job. Many Audio companies that start making headphones usually don’t do this well first time out. Now some have said that these are Sendy Aiva’s or at least they were made in the same plant with the same parts. I cannot confirm this and I am not trying to start a conspiracy thread. Wherever they were manufactured or what there lineage is I don’t know or really care, they sound good. They have beautiful construction and come in a great case. They have one cable that is reminiscent of an IEM cable but slightly longer. Overall their build is on par with much higher end headphones. Their accessories are not (as in the cable), I would have liked to see a slightly heavier cable with a balanced option.

So what did I test these against?

• Sundara – $349.00
• DT1990 – $599.00
• Philips 9500 – $79.00

Compared to the Sundara: The Sundara had slightly better detail and treble. The timbre was much better in the Sunadara. Mid’s were a close race and the bass was much better in the Airmotive.

Compared to the DT 1990: The Airmotive was beaten out in almost every area. but let’s keep in mind the 1990 is $300 more (double the price). And when I say the DT 1990 is better I mean only slightly. The detail was t a little better on the Airmotive, the treble was so close it’s barely noticeable. The mids were slightly better on the 1990’s and the bass was definitely better on the 1990’s. What was really the separator is the timbre. The 1990’s have fantastic timbre and really outshine many headphones above and below this price range.

Compared to the Philips 9500: Interesting comparison I know ( I took a beating from some on using this one). Oddly these have very similar tuning. (That statement made a few people mad) but that’s not to say the 9500 is better. In fact the Airmotive was better in every area than these but not by miles. What I am saying is that on many tracks with these two side-by-side on my desk coming out of the same amp I could not hear a really audible difference on many tracks.

Amping these was interesting also. I found the best experience by far was on the Darkvoice. To start I used the FiiO M11 Pro. I could play these but reaching a “loud” volume was not possible. But wait, these are only 32 OHM impedance? So I moved on to the Monolith Portable THX amp, again the experience was the same. Max volume on the amp was slightly loud but not as loud as the Sundara’s for sure. Not nearly as loud as my Focal Clear’s. Keep in mind that amp puts out 340 mW at 32 Ohms. So I would say forget running these on a phone if that’s your intention. You will be able to hear sound but you will not be able to drive these properly and realize what they can achieve if properly amped.

That said on the Darkvoice 336 Se tube amp being supplied by the ADI-2 DAC the experience was fantastic and these truly shined above their price point. That’s when I think I understood they must have voiced/tuned/designed these using their own gear such as the BasX A-100 which can put 50W out of the headphone jack, hell yeah 50 WATTS!!

The things that were missing such as Bass and lower end Mids were suddenly enhanced to where I like them. I could still have used more bass as the upper end was very good and it seemed a little unbalanced.

A Powerful Desktop or Home system is the only way to go with these, phones and most portables will not power sufficiently IMHO.

For the portable “amping” experience: Detail was fantastic, treble was very good, roll-off and decay of symbols and guitar was really good. Mids were also good but in some cases a little thin and or forward

Bass was not “thumpy enough” for hip hop, rock or R&B. It was tight and present but needed to be raised up a bit. I bring up and harp on the mobile aspect of these because the cable they come with is obviously intended for mobile use. They should include that cable but also a longer balanced cable with a 1/4 jack adapter for home systems or even an XLR.

Overall though these are solid performers and I can recommend without hesitation in their price range.

FYI the button below is just to make things easy for you, I do not receive any commission for this article or if you buy them, I paid for these with my own funds.

The Philips 9500 was surprising to say the least. I had seen many other reviews from reviewers I trust and thought it was likely it would be good. But I was surprised at how good. I am mostly (at least the last last couple of years) an IEM person. I was, you might say, burned out on headphones that “over promised and underdelivered”. But is seemed that IEM’s delivered great sound at a much lower price. Also I could have several pairs with different sound signatures and “looks” and keep them in my nightstand drawer because they are so small. Headphones are another story entirely.

I put these on and plugged them to my FiiO M11 Pro and immediately sat up straight. What the heck was I hearing? did these $79.00 headphones really sound that good? So, I unplugged them and moved them to my desk, plugged them into my RME and left them playing some heavy metal for about 3 hrs. Just to make sure the break in people would be happy, well I really needed to leave them for like 1000 hrs for that, but 3 hrs would have to suffice. Put then back on and settled in for some serious listening. Man, they really were that good. Unbelievable, that price and this sound. What surprises me is that these were delivering most of the detail and clarity as some of the better IEM’s I’ve heard but also great mids and good bass. These had really “fun” sound.

I can’t say enough about how good these sound. I am usually an “IEM guy” but headphones like this have been changing my perception lately about the value of a good set of headphones. Also the experience they can deliver. Great detail, good treble, great mids, good bass, good stage and better than many timbre.

These have been reviewed a lot in the past so I won’t go on to much but these are such a great buy that it’s really a no brainer. If your in the market for some headphones and your budget is small and you haven’t heard these then buy them at Amazon and make sure they are from a “Prime” seller. You can not lose, if you don’t like them just send them back. My guess is you will keep them.

Paring super easy

Nora Jones – Cold Cold Heart – Holy shit! Very Mid forward her voices was really “there”. Resolution was good. Imaging was good much better than expected. A little shouty at places where she really starts “singing it out”

Amanda Martinez – AMOR – Guitar at begging felt right tone was pretty good. Drums felt tight and correct. Bass was good, occasionally muddy (only a little). Again voice forward. I have to say guitars were right there with her voice.

Amanda Martinez – Tomalo – Guitars sounded great, this song sounded as good as it does on some other IEMS I really like. These things are no joke. Bass is excellent on this song. Piano comes in clear. The Timbre wasn’t as good as I would want but for a Bluetooth headset from “beats” I’m shocked at how good they sound..

Beyonce Lemonade album – only listed for a bit, mostly under impressed with these phones and that album

Dianna Krall – Live in Paris -Lets fall in love – her voice forward slightly, guitars sounded great, a little shouty but could definitely listen and be very happy with it.

Background detail was good, could really hear the brush on the snare drum. Still timbre felt off a bit.

Mailia unfastened sounded good, really good. These are really tuned for vocals.

Miles Davis – Someday my prince will come – Piano sounded great on this one, symbols were there, horn sounded good. Hurt my ears a little in some of the high notes.

Over all these are WAY better than I expected. It does seem or “feel” when listening to songs I know well that something is missing, could be the noise cancellation, the back ground is quiet and “dark” and it could be that some frequencies are being cut at the top by the noise cancelation. Great example Miles Davis “Someday My Prince Will Come” a minute into the song some symbol crashing come in seemingly out of nowhere, it sounds very good but then disappears again. When I listed to the same place in that sone on some other IEMS I can hear and feel the build up to that symbol “splash” moment but in these it just appears and disappears. Overall how these sounded fantastic, I mean let’s face it with the strong ear hooks and fit of these they are for playing sports or other activities. These are way better than anyone would need for that, IMHO. Again everything sounded great just the weird start and cutoff of certain parts of songs which I attribute to noise cancelation. But really I could listen these for extended periods.

Detail and separation were “good enough”

Very comfortable, after a about 30 minutes I started to feel a little pressure in my ear canal but I attribute that to ear tips that may have been a little too big.

So are these a recommend? Yes they are, for there price point (competing with Apple) they deliver great sound, a very secure fit a very nice carry/charge case. And very easy to use. The price point (typically found at $178 -$188) which would be expensive for a wired IEM with equal sound quality.

• Small, very small, disappears in ear.
• Very, very light.
• NON-detachable cable.
• Sound is smooth the highs are barely ok bass is ok.
• Separation not good.
• Stage not great, imaging well, no.

Sounds seem to blend together but in a nice way. Detail was not there, songs I use to test detail I could not hear the detail or not identify the sound because of a general muddiness.

These do have a very mellow sound to them though. A nice, maybe “sweet” tonality to them. I can picture sitting on a beach with a drink in my hand and listening to some Latin beat music / island type music (maybe Jimmy buffet) and relaxing.

I cannot recommend at this price because there are “way better” in this price point. Some of those are:

• Jade Audio EA1 – $29.99
• Docooler QKZ VK4 $18.99

Both of these are superior in sound quality, the Jade EA1 by a mile.