AAW A3H

I think prefacing the review with "This review is not meant to be authoritative, neither do I claim to be an experienced audiophile. Take this with the biggest grain of salt" in a large, bold font is off-putting.

Similarly ridiculous things do happen in the US.

 

Oh... I forget to edit my HF review before it was frontpaged. I changed the conclusion back to something more neutral and less shouty than what is originally there. I guess I can just ninja edit it and throw that quote somewhere else.

As for your question, I spent a long time auditioning demos at Jaben, though with my low budget (S$500 and below) there wasn't a lot of options for me to choose from. Main contenders were the UE4, Custom Art Music One, A3H and the Jomo 2/3 that I auditioned in a different shop. Even models like the JH5 (which I absolutely loved) were way too over my budget. At any case I heard the A3H and liked it the most compared to everything else I heard at the price point. Can't really give a solid comparison with its contenders since I won't do it justice now without the actual units to A/B.

 

You can always try the more expensive things to get a feel for how they sound. Its not like there is an obligation to buy them afterwards.

 

Thank you for the clarification. That puts things into better perspective and gives better context for your preference. I think you should still have listened to more expensive stuff despite only looking for low budget iems. It would have given you a better perspective on things overall. You'd be able to determine for yourself if paying more for the higher end iems would have been worth it or not. At the same time though, it's possible that you may not appreciate what the better iems have to offer due to amp/dac limitations.

Anyways, I'm glad you decided to stick around. Now, stay a while and listen...

 

I agree, it's worth hearing the high end stuff so you can better identify where cheaper pieces excel but also where they fall short, which is helpful for context.

 

Zreviews is like the Donald Trump of United States of Audiophile.

In his foobar video, he mention about his audio chain and it was something like this: graphics card hdmi output > PC monitor with toslink out > optical > dac. Guess he did bypass USB crap, but I seriously think his audio chain setup sucks big time.

@crinacle:
Take time to visit Zeppelin & Co, Stereo, Jaben, E1 and Connect IT. Bring a notebook, jot down stream of impressions of the gears there. Build up more exp.

 

...or liking their Hugo

 

True Story: This is how I feel(the boy in the picture) when I listened to the hugo for the first and very last time. A very edgy(sounding) experience.

 

Welcome back, now you should get an idea of the different in definition of "quality" between HF and SBAF.

Rock on, you've been immensely bless by the abundance of audio stuff in SG.

 

Will be dropping by the audio district for some comparisons with the UE4 Pro and Unique Melody Marvel and Aero, all of which are somewhat in the ballpark of the A3H's price point.

Taking suggestions for other models; I should be able to get some demo sets off Music Sanctuary (ridiculous markup prices in that shop) and Jaben for most companies.

EDIT: I just got a really good deal for a FLC8S. Should be an interesting comparison considering they both use Knowles TWFK drivers for their BA setup.

 

Updated FLC8 comparison. Currently reviewing UE4 Pro comparison notes, so that'll be up soon I hope.

 

What do you think of FLCS8S soundstage?

 

It's pretty okay. Average width though it's sounds more "open" than the A3H which is slightly wider but focuses bulk of the instruments through a narrower virtual space than the FLC8.

 

@crinacle welcome back bro. I applaud you for your first review, it takes a brave soul to do one, and an even braver soul to listen to criticism and revise it. I've been around for years, and have yet to do any reviews... So, kudos to you for that. This is a great forum, you won't regret returning to it.