Heir Audio A.4i have Landed

[Jason36]

At last...after a 3 week wait I finally took delivery of my new Heir Audio A.4i universal IEM's this morning :bounce:

For those that dont know Heir Audio are a fairly new company in the high end IEM market place. They have four Custom IEM's and two Universal IEM's. The universal IEM's (A.3i and A.4i - are based on the custom A3 and A4 models and consist of exactly the same internals and drivers, just in a universal shell).

The A.4i consist of 4 Precision Tuned Balanced Armature Drivers (2 dedicated drivers for the low frequencies, 1 for the mids and 1 for the high frequencies) and are a dual bore design.

The shell colour is "Black Mamba" which is absolutely amazing and in some light looks like a very dark purple. In the light it looks translucent so you can just make out the internals of the IEM's. The faceplate of the IEM's is a very nice "Burl Wood".

They come with an OtterBox protective Case (Water Resistant and Crushproof), excellent selection of quality ear tips, cleaning tool and two silicon amp bands.

All in all a high quality product at a reasonable price (although I believe opnly available from America or China at the moment).

So What do they look like? Well here's a peek:

From what I can make out so far from connecting them to my 5th generation iPod Video via my TTVJ Slim portable amp they seem to offer a clean and neutral sound signature. There is a transparancy to the sound that is just utterley amazing.

Flicking through some music I know really well both FLAC / ALAC and MP3 I can definately say if you feed them rubbish the sound suffers.

All in All, I can say these have absolutely been my best purchase to date and will report more on their sound when I have had a few days and some proper listening time.

 

[Anonymous]

Nice. Blingtastic.

How much did that whole setup cost, including shipping and customs duties?

 

[Jason36]

Well the Heir A.4i's cost me Just under £300.00 delivered to my door, including tax. Unfortunately I had to pay £53.00 import tax. Considering I was looking at the Sennheisser IE80 at anywhere between £200 to £260....the Heir's blow these out of the water completely and in all ways (in my opinion anyway).

I must agree as well...I think they are one sexy looking IEM and have the sound to match as well. I'm not going to want to take these out of my ears to be honest.

 

[Anonymous]

Ouch. Thats gotta hurt the old wallet!

I wonder how much better they are than other (much) cheaper iems. Can youdo any comparison based on experience?

 

[Jason36]

I would say it depends what you are comparing them against...if you are looking at IEM's in the £100.00 to £200.00 bracket I would say that the Heir Audio A.4i would win hands down.

These are basically a custom level IEM in a universal body rather than custom earpieces. my IEM experience is quite limiting but I dont think there are that many mainstream IEM's that contain 4 precision tuned balanced aramature drivers with Dual bore design. I think you would be looking at Westone 3R / 4R and similar....so price wise they are extremely competitive.

You wouldnt go out and buy a pair of these for use in the gym....In my opinion you would look at these if you were thinking of buying custom IEM's but wanted the versality of a universal IEM. These would have a far higher appeal for resale than customs would because obviously if you bought second hand customs you would have to spend in the region of £200, if not more, getting them reshelled.

having tried the Sennheisser IE6 & IE8 / Westone 3R and shure SE325.....i would personally say the A.4i beat all of those hands down.

I would say the A.4i define a flat neutral sound signature, the drivers are breathtakingly fast and the crossover has blended everything together just right so nothing seems disjointed. They do however seem to have the slightest bright tint to them that prevents them sounding dry or rather dull or boring but these are not a bright sounding earphone.

The soundstage to me just could be the best part with perfect imagery and presentation with a sublime depth of soundstage and instrument separation.

If you are looking for a pair of IEM's within the £200 to £300 proce bracket then these should definately be on anyones list (In My Opinion)

 

[Anonymous]

Had my 4.Ai's for a few weeks now and am completely blown away by them. They're the most neutral things I've ever had the honour of shoving in my ears, the extension is stunning and the detail is sublime.

 

[Jason36]

Had my 4.Ai's for a few weeks now and am completely blown away by them. They're the most neutral things I've ever had the honour of shoving in my ears, the extension is stunning and the detail is sublime.

Yep they amazing IEM's with amazing clarity and detail. I have just bought a Toxic Cables Silver Poison custom cable for mine....and this has made an even bigger improvement to them......they now have a more airy sound and are amazingly detailed. Not cheap but a definate improvement!!