Hello, I don't find the A4000s too bright, it must be because of my 60-year-old ears.... On the other hand, I find them excellent for the micro details, the speed and the soundstage in 3D rendering. I do not know the A3000.
Nice review. I bought a pair of A4000 but had to return them because of fitting issues, I have rather small ears and while my right ear was OK, my left ear couldn't manage more than 30 mins of continue listening without getting some rest. Regarding sound, I kind of liked a good part of the tuning and enjoyed the soundstage and the macrodynamic qualities. I have good tolerance to treble, and the A4000 were in that limit of sharpness to me, so beware if you are treble sensitive. The only issue tuning-wise was that I'd have liked more presence in the 1-3 khz region to balance out the brilliance and provide some more weight to vocals that sounded a little thin. To be honest, I would have kept the A4000 in my collection, but that fitting problem was just too bad.
I didn’t think the A4000 was necessarily too bright although it does lean in that direction. Sometimes I wonder how many people are listening at higher than safe volumes because if you’re turning it up too much the A4000 could definitely be too sibilant.
I am a treble head and prefer bright iems and v shapes as well, but even for me when I first listened to it for the first few days it was sibilant and too bright at quite a few parts even for me. This sibilance issue gets remedied with time and use with the iem, because you need to burn in the iems for many many hours.
I'm wondering about consistency with these IEMs. My current fav IEM is the Final E5000, I love a thick dark bassy sound. I dislike bright sound and I don't find these overly bright. I have seen complaints about them having no bass but again that sounds nothing like my experience with them. it is certainly brighter than my other IEMs but I don't get any ear stabbing that I hear people talk about. I used the A4000 as a kind of daily general purpose IEM for a while. I love the build, they are light and feel robust. I particularly like the cable, it is the polar opposite of what I see from ChiFi but, it is super light, hardly ever tangles and if it does it untangles so easily, I would buy a few if they were available. I'd be interested to know if you think either of them had much soundstage? That was what people were saying about these when they came out. I don't think they do.
Will selecting CD quality streaming in Tidal avoid the problems of MQA tracks that you spoke of with Miles Davis? Or do you have to choose an album that they do not offer in MQA in the first place?
You will likely have to choose other than TIDAL, as the "non-MQA" versions may be the MQA version with the bits that tell the MQA DAC that it's an MQA track removed but the distorted process remaining.
I own both a3000 and a4000. They are really great iem with a4000 on the bright side. But the brightness also applies to some of the music too same with the thoughts by u.
@@kunalrana5321 it depends wt type of music u listen. If u want a very rich and warm sounding which u may easily enjoy, then its not your choice for a3000a4000. And if you are looking for iem that have good isolation for you to travel and listen eg on the bus or train, it is not the choice for you either. Because it's isolation is not that good due to the plastic casing. I recommend them for home listening or in quiet environment. For the overall sound experience, the a3000 or a4000 are not the iems with a shining elements that would engage u for the first impression. Like some iems may have a very punchy and powerful bass eg shure se215sp which i own before, some iems may have a very sweet and rich mid eg audio-tech im-70 which give me enjoyable feeling when listening to female vocals, and some may tune up treble eg most of the chi-fi iems which try to give a best clarity and detail in the music but at last it gives some unrealistic feeling and too harsh. I love a3000 on classical music like acoustic guitar, instrumental or chamber works or orchestra. It is a more neutral tuning comparing to a4000 but if you want me to describe them in the frequency response, they are not extremely flat for me. I can turn up the volume a little bit more in a3000 due to the more balance sound and still feel enjoyable listening to more detail of highs, mids and lows. But the a3000 reponds to the power a little bit more. I find it works better for me when i input more power into it rather than a phone. I would give an example about a3000. When i drink orange juice, Apple juice, lemon juice, milkshakes, i may find them really good for one to two bottles. But when you drink too much in a short time, you would find them tiring for being too sweet, too sour or too salty. You would finally turning back to drink water again. A3000 doesn't give a lot of characteristics or personality, but the neutral of the water is most enjoyable from time to time. For me a3000 is sounding towards the water, with this price point i get a tuning that i like but little things to say is the sibilance gots a bit so sometimes i may feel not that enjoyable too. For the a4000, it is a more easy going earphone. It's highly recommended for many ppl because it gets a more stable tuning of emphasizing the treble and bass(v-shape). When you plug in to your phone or a headphone amplifier, it gots nearly the same sound and sound quality with a lot of difference in the power providing. It gots both pros and cons having a more harsh treble. When you want to turn up the volume in the classical music, the little bit harsh treble may limit your volume and result in having a more healthy volume to your ears. And i find that a4000 works better for new and pop music especially the Japanese pop because usually the new pop songs have strong bass, sweet full mids and more highs in order to give the best listening quality even in devices like phone speakers. With the more v-shape sounding, it makes the music a bit thiner and not so fatigued for listening for a long time. In general there are three basic tunings of earphones. Dark, neutral and bright sounding. A3000a4000 are more on the neutral and a little bright side. It definitely takes some time to find the tuning that you like the most. For me i own the e3000 also which is in dark side which have more bass and also richer sound in comparing to a30004000 and also losing clarity and soundstage. But i just find enjoying the most. In the soundstage, I wouldn't describe them as being very big. I find soundstage is most related to the recording itself and the micing and mixing of the music, and also the file quality. I would describe a4000 as bigger because of the air it provides. But I listen to acoustic guitar in a3000, it gives a more realistic feeling and sounding so i like it more and i won't describe the soundstage is small relatively. For most of the earphones, you can hear the dynamic driver moving and giving the sound, but the a3000 a4000 gives me a feeling the plastic casing is also having resonance with the driver, delivering a feeling of more realistic to me. Btw this is only what i feel, you may find it totally different and disappointing when listening to this earphones. You may find it boring, harsh or too thin or too much sibilance. But i recommend giving a warning up section for every earphones. We have three sections and every one hour of listening or playing, let it rest for 15 mins. 1st section of warming up - 15 hours 1/3 of the volume you would listening normally, playing soft music like choirs or mozart music, the main point is to run the mid and high with a soft and sweet music. In this period running songs with a lot of bass is quite fatal to earphones. 2nd section of warming up - 15 hours 2/3 of the volume and listening to orchestral music with some bass. Don't play pop music with booming bass first 3rd section -15 hours Normal volume and the types of music you like the most. After around 45 hours of warming up, you earphones are ready to go. ******For me i strongly disagree in pink noise or white noise or any soundtrack for "burning-in". It is quite obviously they would burn your earphone and cause damage, not warming up for the best listening experience. I ruin one of my earphone before/_\.***** I wish you can find your own answer at last and i wish my experience can help you a little bit
@@user-yg2ry8dm7x thank you for such a detailed comment. Is the A3000 good for these genres: Rock, Heavy metal, post-rock, Movie OSTs and scores, Instrumental music and Indian classical music? I have the e3000 and e1000 already and I love both of them. Now I want to try a mid-fi IEMs. Would you recommend these for the above mentioned genres?
@@Currawong yes, what I meant was is there a left and right (because they have those little closing snaps on them) - I'm playing with them and don't think it makes a difference. Thanks.
