I'll chip in, seeing as this is now the Cobalt thread du jour!
I guess I have an update of sorts as well; I had put the cobalts on my Ric 4003 in August and *loved* the tone. My bass was more powerful sounding with a better fundamentally low sound. And it was less harsh in the top than the other SS strings I was using (mostly Prosteels) but punchier. I used them for a Rush cover band rehearsal and show, so that super-fresh sound was ideal. I could tell part way through the show that it was going on me already. It was offputting that they'd died that immediately, so I ditched them.
Tried a bunch of other strings since, but nothing compared tone-wise to the Cobalts. Thought about it and realized that 90% of the music I play needs a good thump (reggae), so dead strings would be fine, and at least I'd get that good punch at the outset (for fun noodling or the occasional Rush gig). But now that I'm willing to let the strings die, I've noticed that once the initial zing wore off, it maintained a still decent amount of crisp punch. Way more so than the Prosteels, SR2000s, and La Bellas I've tried recently. They all may keep their 'totally new' sound a little longer than the Cobalts, but they still get totally dead first.
Sorry! that was rather longer than it needed to be. Also just wanted to mention that the strings do get tarnished really fast, but there doesn't seem to be any strong correlation b/w increased tarnish and loss of 'newness'.
