So this came in the mail for me a week ago.

I’m no King but I’ll roll with it ;)

Inside it was an Otterbox.

And inside that sat my beautiful brand new 3.A customs.

In this carrying case there was a silica gel packet with a warranty card and a cleaning tool on the left. The top and bottom is covered with a dense foam that protects the customs from all manner of abuse.

This is a Triple Driver, 3-way Passive Crossover Custom Inner Ear Monitor (CIEM). The faceplate is made from REAL Amboyna Burl wood with REAL Siamese Rosewood inlay. It’s a truly stunning piece of art! The wood actually has a nice sheen to it and different shades can be seen by angling the faceplate in different light, much like you would with a holographic sticker.

These are the specs as taken from http://www.heiraudio.com

· 3 Precision Tuned Balanced Armature Drivers

· Three Way Passive Cross Over Design

· One Balanced Armature Drivers for Low Frequency Production

· One Balanced Armature Driver for Medium Frequency Production

· One Balanced Armature Driver for High Frequency Production

· OxiCap Capacitors

· Vishay Resistor

· Hypoallergenic , Hard Acrylic Shells

· Noise Isolation -26dB

· Impedance 25

Back Story

Before I start the review proper, I’d like to state how I came about receiving a pair of these, so there’s full disclosure and a clear idea on the neutrality of the review. I have no affiliation with Heir Audio.

I’ve always been an admirer of the Wizard’s work and this all started back in the DIY threads, we became friends through pm exchanges. One day he finds out my birthday falls on the 11/11/11, he felt it was important to commemorate the date so he asked if I’d like a pair of his new entry level product as a present from him. Needless to say I accepted! He said I wasn’t beholden to write a review on these since they aren’t close to his flagship product the 8.A.

I’ve decided to write one anyways, since I believe very few people in the world actually have a Heir Audio product, and this would certainly be of interest to the community on the whole, and the budget custom consumer in particular. So I’m sure the Wizard will be very surprised to be reading this.

Preferences

I have heard a wide variety of IEMs and CIEMs, my last pair of customs was a alienears C3pro which lasted a while before remolding and retuning them with unique melody.

I have a preference for slightly warm sound signatures and friends have often said I’m a Bass-head. I am particular about tonal accuracy, sound imaging and high quality bass. What do I mean by ’high quality bass’? It has to be thick and full with significant slam and a moderate quantity of sub bass, it has to be tight and controlled, not bleeding into other frequencies.

I’m allergic to exceptionally bright sound which most refer to as sibilance, and I dislike music presented to me in a clinical fashion.

Music has to sound musical.

Test Equipment

I’ll be mainly reviewing these with an iPod Classic, paired with a iBasso PB-1 balanced amplifier, with a 5N stranded silver cable terminated with a hirose balanced connector which I made.

As such, the CIEMs would be running balanced or as some call it pseudo balanced. I adore my portable set up very much, and its brought my woodied Grados to a whole new level.

All music used is of ALAC quality.

Review

Here’s the part I call on your patience. This is going to be a 3 part review.

Part 1 - Build Quality and Sound Quality (Balanced silver cable only)

Part 2 - Sound Quality with Different Cables (including the stock cable)

Part 3 - Comparison with other CIEMs and Top Tier Universals

Do not worry, this first post would be updated as I add the other parts. Just subscribe and you won’t miss a thing.

1.1 Build Quality

These are truly exceptional.

Straight out of the box, they fit! There wasn’t a need to send these back for a re-fit to my relief.

The second thing I noticed was how clear the acrylic was. Remember how we marveled at unique melody’s build quality? Heir Audio is right up there! There were NO blemishes and NO bubbles at all. And the drivers and passive components were neatly tucked away inside, with dampeners clearly visible. My photos simply don’t do it any justice, however, it was the best I could do given I’m not a photographer. Having remolded before with unique melody, I can attest to the transparency and quality these customs have. Heir Audio has possibly surpassed the bench mark set so high by unique melody.

Now I feel like I should give everyone interested in wooden faceplates a heads up. The Wizard found my ears a little bit small for wooden faceplates initially, and it took some ingenuity on his part to work out a wooden design for me. It seems if you just want a plain wooden faceplate that is not a problem at all, BUT if you wish to include inlays it might prove quite tricky. My advice is to send in your order, send in your impressions, then after he’s looked at your impressions you can consult with him on what can or can’t be done.

Sound Quality

Now that I’ve stated I’m a Bass-head, and you’ve probably scrutinized the specs, you’re probably wondering what I think of the Bass on these seeing it uses a single driver for the low frequencies. In a word, SIGNIFICANT.

The Bass on these is very tight and well controlled. It’s quite thick and has a significant amount of slam. This really surprised me, just as how the ES5 surprised me with it’s Bass quantity a few months back. The Bass on the 3.A is just right to make Rock and Jazz music just incredibly enjoyable. I can hear every beat the drummer plays in "Anberlin - There is no mathematics to love and loss", his kick drums are pretty realistic, not at all overpowering.

What I’d really like to talk about are the Vocals. I am very excited to say that with Vocals, the 3.A does a phenomenal job! It feels like I’m right there in a live performance, where there aren’t any annoying fans, just me. The Vocals are just forward and clear, it really does a bang up job with Rock, Acoustic, Pop, heck even Musical soundtracks like "The Wicked OST".

I need to comment about how guitars sound on these for a bit. I can visualize every string plucked when I have the 3.A on. Its tonally accurate and very realistic. I just have to smile when Lifehouse plays and I’m drifting away in a harmony of strings.

Now with Highs, these aren’t particularly exceptional. There isn’t that "sparkle" you’d get in top tier models, but bear in mind, this is the Entry-level product for Heir Audio. The Highs have no brightness or sibilance at all which for me is a huge plus. (coming from Grados I know what I’m talking about ;) )

Soundstage on these are not particularly big. If I closed my eyes and pictured it, it sounds like a studio. Which gives that forward feel to it, like you’re in the garage chilling with the band.

The music presented from the 3.A is pretty clear, but instrument separation isn’t quite as clear. By that I mean the noise level is quite low, but picturing where the instruments are can sometimes be less clear, this only becomes apparent when there’s a number of instruments in a complicated riff. It is heaps better than the alienears I had grown accustom to in every regard, and significantly better than a bunch of top tier universals I’ve heard so far.

The sound signature as much as I gather, isn’t as laid back as westones, nor clinical like the unique melody, nor aggressive like the jerry harveys. I would say its closer to the ultimate ears in terms of aggressiveness and speed. Listening to tracks by The Prodigy, Benny Benassi and Ocean Lab, was very enjoyable.

A few people have asked me whether the wooden faceplate gives it some timber. I cannot affirm that the wood does give the sound some timber as I’d need a non "woodied" version to do side by side comparisons. However, I would logically deduce that a proper wooden shell would make a significant difference since it surrounds the drivers and sound tubes, with that I would think its unlikely the wooden faceplate affects the sound. This is completely my opinion, either ways it looks stunning and sometimes that’s all that matters.

With that I end Part 1. Remember, these are $350 customs from http://www.heiraudio.com . It’s value is extremely hard to beat at this price point. Certainly nothing I’ve heard in this price range or even a 100 dollars more, could beat this sound and build quality. A truly remarkable product.

Part 2 [1] [2] Go Back