BASN ASONE 14.2mm Planar Driver HiFi In-Ear Monitors with Detachable MMCX Cables - Professional Studio Earphones for Musicians, Drummers, Bass Players & Singers - Crystal Clear Sound for Live Performances & Recording Sessions

So full disclosure. This is my second pair. First pair the left monitor simply didn’t work. Amazon rectified that in 24 hours. So all good.Second pair works flawlessly so far.I’d taken a sojourn into the world of “true wireless” for a minute and I’m not proud. I had a whole range of in-ear buds (from the Sony wf1000xm4 and 5, and the BO Pi7, and the nura phones, various (terrible Beats Pro) etc). I lost my pretty decent Sonys 1000xm5 on a business trip 2 weeks ago and my Nuras are ok but heavy and uncomfortable for extended wear. I’d also been thinking about the relative health issues of having Bluetooth radio waves blasting my head all the time, and so the lost Sonys was the last straw. Decided to go back to wired…I’ll be honest. Wired is so much more annoying after 5 years without a wire. But holy moly is there nothing even close from a sound quality perspective. I’ve been running these for the last two days both directly from the iPhone 15 DAC (via a not great 3.5mm-USBc dongle) and also via the pretty good Fiio Hi resolution headphone amp. The headphone amp is worth the trouble as the ASones utilize planar drivers (vs more common dynamic) so they require a bit more power to drive them. They work fine just running off the phone amp, but lack a little bit of depth and volume. They are also consuming battery life very fast I’d forgotten about that.Briefly I compared them to my last pair of wired IEM, the excellent Shure SE425. I’ve used dozens of Shure IEMs over the years. I always like the 425 pros and at almost triple the price of the ASOnes they seemed atleast a reasonable benchmark. Long story short all of this is super subjective but the ASOnes sound better to me. Similar clarity, sparkly shimmering highs (but less fatiguing than the Shures) slightly warmer sound with a bigger soundstage and separation and much more convincing bass response. The Bass in the ASOne is actually impressive. Deep and punchy but still tight. Zero flab. Listening to the opening of the Dire Straits song Telegraph Road, the rolling thunder in the distance sounds convincingly, like rolling thunder in the distance. It’s impressive.The packaging as well done Makes them feel like a true luxury item. A Large sleeve over an inner box over an aluminum locking case. The case contains Two sets of low oxygen braided silver plated wires, variety of ear tips, cleaning tools and a small leatherette pouch. It remains to be seen how durable these are, but so far I’m extremely impressed.