Richard Lanthier (April Wine)
"I’ve been playing bass and singing within the Canadian rock band April Wine for over 15 years now, and in the last 2 years or so I’ve been trying several IEM options, not being satisfied with my previous attempts. So after having been pointed towards Cosmic Ears by a few musician friends who are using them, and then comparing the online specs of the different models (I must admit I also checked a few other options from other companies) I decided to jump onboard and go for the top with Cosmic Ears and ordered their flagship, the C8A - read on to find out why they are the best IEM for me...
First of all, excellent customer service to begin with. Detailed instructions, great communication, to have the ear impressions made, and in my case made again a second time before I sent those to Manchester, UK. They want it perfect, and I liked that…! Also when you order, the online configurator choice of options to customise your IEMs just the way you want them to look, not like any other, is great. From the faceplate color/finish, to the carrying box engraving, everything was swift and easy to do.
I’m just coming back from a 22 show coast to coast Canadian tour with April Wine, and those CIEMs have been fully tested and what can I say… They are just awesome! The fabrication is flawless, sturdy shell, no flaws, bumps or gaps, recessed 2 pin socket, personalised faceplate, and perfectly fitted to my ears! I ordered the ProX cable, and also a slightly thinner ProQ cable as a spare one.
After they warm up and having worn them several times, they fit even better and it feels like they almost disappear. And they do block external sound, a lot…!! That’s exactly what I wanted, being on stage with a rock band is loud, and protecting my hearing is a must. The specs are -26dB isolation. That’s great!
Now of course the sound… There's 8 drivers in each one, and I'm aware of the number of drivers competition between many manufacturers, so that was not my main interest at first, nevertheless they do sound awesome. The tuning, the dimension in the sound, very clear image of all instruments, no weird resonance, a sense of space I guess I could say. Excellent definition of all frequencies, and a tight low-end response and with a lot more sub-bass then you would expect from such a tiny device, if you want to push it (remember I play bass, this is hard to deal with for IEMs). And they can get loud if you want. I tested it…. ;) Although I keep it to a reasonable level, in all my tests I never heard any cracking or any problem whatsoever, and that's in a rock band context. I also tried them to listen to prerecorded music (my main sound quality reference, Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree, and some others…) and again the dimension, the stereo imaging, neutral, immersive, so many details, that was impressive… I had never heard those same recordings sounding that good before."
www.aprilwine.ca
www.richardlanthier.com
www.facebook.com/rlanthiermusic