A4's picked up at lunch and a couple of thoughts on them based on music listening, not playing. I have a fairly standard listening list for headphones with some classical and some bass-driven songs to check things.
Beethoven, Overture to Incidental Music "Egmont"- fuller with A4's than A3's because the low-end (bassoons, etc) came out more. Very nice actually and a good digital recording from Radio Swiss Classic on the internet (great classical station and you can practice your German, French or Italian while listening).
Motown and some funk (e.g. What is Hip) did not have much difference. A little more bass forward, but very subtle and almost indistinguishable between the A3's and A4's. I remember when I got the A3's and compared to the Qi's, that the Qi's all of a sudden felt very boomy, especially on older, Jamerson music. Not so with the A4's.
Newer music, bass heavy - I go through a few Nathan East songs that has B-string involvement (Chant, 101 Eastbound, Can't Find My Way Home and Get Lucky), Queens of the Stone Age (Lost Art, Sat by the Ocean), Foo Fighters, and Tool (Sober) to check heavy bass that is mixed on a separate channel. The A4's shine here vs. the A3's and even the Qi's (from memory granted). They felt big and rounded, but with a headroom to spare feeling, while the A3's felt almost maxed out that they were going to distort is the only way I can think to describe it. I even pushed the volume on the A4's and they never sounded anything but well-balanced and rounded with a full bass end of things. Really impressed.
Will write a bit more when I play my bass through my headphone amp; will be a while until I get them in a band setting I think, but will write more. Short story is that I'm glad I did the upgrade to my Qi's as these sound really good and seem to fit the bill a touch more than the A3's. I still like the A3's a lot, and if money were a concern, you could definitely do worse, but the A4's seem more refined relative to the A3's and Qi's based on music listening.
Playing of course, is another matter.
Beethoven, Overture to Incidental Music "Egmont"- fuller with A4's than A3's because the low-end (bassoons, etc) came out more. Very nice actually and a good digital recording from Radio Swiss Classic on the internet (great classical station and you can practice your German, French or Italian while listening).
Motown and some funk (e.g. What is Hip) did not have much difference. A little more bass forward, but very subtle and almost indistinguishable between the A3's and A4's. I remember when I got the A3's and compared to the Qi's, that the Qi's all of a sudden felt very boomy, especially on older, Jamerson music. Not so with the A4's.
Newer music, bass heavy - I go through a few Nathan East songs that has B-string involvement (Chant, 101 Eastbound, Can't Find My Way Home and Get Lucky), Queens of the Stone Age (Lost Art, Sat by the Ocean), Foo Fighters, and Tool (Sober) to check heavy bass that is mixed on a separate channel. The A4's shine here vs. the A3's and even the Qi's (from memory granted). They felt big and rounded, but with a headroom to spare feeling, while the A3's felt almost maxed out that they were going to distort is the only way I can think to describe it. I even pushed the volume on the A4's and they never sounded anything but well-balanced and rounded with a full bass end of things. Really impressed.
Will write a bit more when I play my bass through my headphone amp; will be a while until I get them in a band setting I think, but will write more. Short story is that I'm glad I did the upgrade to my Qi's as these sound really good and seem to fit the bill a touch more than the A3's. I still like the A3's a lot, and if money were a concern, you could definitely do worse, but the A4's seem more refined relative to the A3's and Qi's based on music listening.
Playing of course, is another matter.
