OK....So Ive the quads for a couple of weeks now. When I had first got them, I wore them at work at work for a couple days playing back MP3's and what not. Additionally, I had church band rehearsal and service that week....which is the reason I had bought them in the first place. I prob have about 10 hours under my belt with them, here are my thoughts.
So my IMMEDIATE impression when I inserted for the 1st time was "I don't get it, whats all the buzz about? And where's all the bass people are talking about?" After a few weeks, I can honestly say, I do get it. They are extremely good sounding monitors. However, if you've never tried IEMS before like myself; read peoples reviews with a grain of salt. There are a TON of reviews claiming these are a bass heavy IEM. To be honest, I just don't see it. IMO, I think the bass is well represented as to what you might here in your FOH mix. The bass is not bloated, hyped, or extended. Again, I think the bass is well represented, present, but balanced....well executed comes to my mind. I was expecting my head and mind to blown away with massive amounts of ooey gooey bass. Not so. In fact, when pushed to hard with a bad source (crappy MP3 or youtube video) you can get the quads to stress.
Speaking of source material, if you're putting crap in; you're gonna get crap out. Let me explain.....if one thing is true about all of the past reviews here on TB and Head-Fi, its that these are extremely revealing IEMS. You will here details in your music you have never heard before. This is both good and bad. Its great when hear a some cool synth work, or buried guitar track, maybe some vocals you've never noticed. The bad....when your other IEMS, buds, or cans are compensating for the crappy MP3 or youtube video your listening to, the quads will not. Let me get one thing straight, not all MP3's and streaming media sound bad. Some sound good. However the ones that sound bad are the ones whom are super compressed, the ones that are mastered with tons of gain, etc. If you're going to split the use for these IEMS and use them for daily listening, pick your source material wisely.
My post purchase thoughts on the way the quads sound is positive. To my ears, nothing is hyped or over extended. The treble is present while being relaxed enough that is not fatiguing to listen. IMO, the treble execution is really rice. Shrilly, harsh, brittle treble is a buzz kill. The drivers on the quads present the upper end in a focused and pleasant way. Upper-mids and low-mids are neither scooped nor hyped. There are plenty of mids present that help give you sound stage and instrument separation. IMO, I think what people hear in these IEMS that they don't hear in other IEMS, [buds, or cans] is the dedicated sub-driver. If not for the sub-driver, I think the low end would be presented in a similar way found in many other IEMS, [buds, and cans]. The low end driver does a pretty good job of producing enough detail on the low end to give you note separation, clarity, etc.....while the sub-driver gives you that extra phat cushion often missing in other products. Don't get me wrong, Im not hearing the mountain of bass other people hear and sometimes complain about. I just hear a well balanced, FULL bass sound. When comparing my Quads to my Beyerdynamic DT770-PRO open back reference headphones; the Beyers sound unbalanced, no punch, a missing bottom end. The Beyers seem like they're all bout the treble, no bass (and no mids too, some def holes in the mid representation on the Beyers). When listening to my Quads, I feel I get the low end and mid detail I was missing on my Beyers. For what its worth, the Beyerdynamic DT770-PRO is a well respected, German made $275 pair of over the ear cans. They are not slouches by any means. Again, the Quads are more pleasing to listen to in about every aspect. I will give the Beyers one thing and thats comfort. They are nice cans. VERY comfortable to wear!! I'd still like to try a pair of closed back 880-PROS. However, I really don't feel like dropping another $200+ on cans. On a stage with no monitors, the open backed Beyers were kind nice since I wasn't isolated. I was able to get some FOH bleed in my ears that might have helped me hear some mid and low end detail I was missing otherwise. The other thing I have noticed is my 250k Beyers take waaaayy more gain to get going than my IEMS. And while this is pretty obvious, I need to say that you need VERY little gain to get the quad going. With that, be careful with knowing where your volume knobs are set before connection your quads to any sort of device. One last thing, I shrugged off getting the 6ft cord despite every review telling me NOT to get the 4ft cord. Get the 6ft cord.
But I felt the V6's lacked a touch of the bottom end compared to the A8's.
