What do you folks think of these? I haven't heard any high-end IEMs. The only good ones I've compared to these are the Etymotic ER6i's and the Apples sound superior to me. The Etys lack bass and sound nasal/shouty with upper mid emphasis and less refined treble.
The measurements at innerfidelity look on par with high-end IEMs except for the upper-mid distortion. But if you have 90db or 100db in the upper mids, then the overall sound level is going to be well above that since most music is strongest in the upper bass or low mids, right?. You shouldn't be listening that loud.
Rin Choi found that adding resistance brings down the bass & low mids close to flat. Also reduces the 3khz distortion but is that just because it reduces the 3khz level a bit?
(
http://rinchoi.blogspot.com/2013/08/apple-me186lla-budget-wonder-updated.html) I'm probably going to try out the Cowon 33-ohm "sound capsule".
I got excellent customer service when I had an issue with mine. I'm not going to say what they did exactly because I don't want people to take advantage of it.