I think we heard rather different units, there's not very much I like which muppet dislikes except for the virtual marionette Kiteki.
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Returning to coherency, a hybrid with a dynamic and a BA with very different THD patterns, speed, tone, that is one form of discoherency, right?  Then there is time/phase alignment, then there is the crystal clear perfectness of the crossovers versus not.  Then there is perhaps a fourth, high decay issues, which Tomscy2000 mentioned in this thread.

Then there is perhaps a fifth which is which is location and radiation.  For example a triple-bore CIEM has three sound exits, thus the driver sound paths merge as late as spatially possible, this feature is usually removed in universalised CIEM's.

Edit:  I don't know IME if the above is audible or not, but then why does multi-bore exist?

A dynamic driver tilted 90 degrees away affects location / radiation as well, that's why everyone says the Sony EX600 sounds more like a headphone than an IEM.  Another example JVC FXC51 / FXD80 driver locality, these are audible especially with deep over-ear insertion, nice feeling.

/just my opinion

/ no way i would have bought them for the sound.

In a blind test versus Etymotic ER-4B, Ortofon E-Q7 and a UM Mage I'd think it's rather unlikely actually.

You spent your premium and you really like these, it's cool, I'll spend my premiums elsewhere.

Thanks AKG for pricing these so high and making luxury commercials about IEM's, please release a $2,500 IEM next with very heavy marketing.

Yeah, I don't know what was up with the T Peos I heard, but it was definitely nowhere close to sounding linear. It had some really wonky ups and downs in the signature, and I think most of the people who heard that pair on Eke's tour heard something similar --- ie. bad.

Eke was sort of in disbelief it could sound so bad, so he bought a second pair, and it was pretty much the same. Maybe the real 'bad' element was Eke's luck? James, ever the pragmatist, suggested it might be a fit issue, however I experimented with different tips and insertion depths and didn't find anything that could save it. In either case, the frequency response chard T Peos supplied was obviously not a measurement of that particular unit we all heard. If their units are going to vary so much from one to the next due to bad quality control, then supplying measurements taken from one "good" unit isn't exactly helpful.

As for the K3003, I think you have to take the overall context of Purrin's review into consideration: the flaws were unacceptable to him at that very high price point. Personally, I like the K3003 myself and think it's a very good sounding IEM despite its having some very definite problems. Having owned the E-Q7, I'd take the K3003 over them just based on sound alone. Interestingly enough, when I heard a new pair of K3003s some of its flaws were less apparent, particularly the bass which seemed to keep pace with the other drivers more closely. There's that product variation factor again I guess?

I probably would be less critical today on the K3003s. The K3003 was a price busting product at that time. Having been accustomed to only IEMs with good coherence and lack of treble spikes, I found the K3003 unacceptable.

Also I think I was goaded into writing this short assessment by some folks who knew a certain person would go ballistic. Back then, I didn't know there were so many crazies in the IEM world of HF. Or knew that there were supposed certain review protocols to follow, mainly the in TL;DR format which I eschew.

It's pretty normal these days for $1000+ IEMs to lack coherency, have funny treble peaks, etc.  You have to understand my mindset in 2012 with the whole manifesto thing http://www.changstar.com/index.php?topic=487.0 where I was in fact railing against these massive increases of the price of products which either did not provide improved performance or bring anything unique (unique done poorly doesn't not count.) I would have been fine with the K3003 at $499 (and even that would have been too much.)

Now in 2013/2014 expensive shit, good or bad, is now the norm. So I've essentially given up on that old angle. Welcome to the land of big boy Hi-Fi.

An no, that manifesto in 2012 was not mocking HF. Some people can be pretty thin-skinnned.