64 Audio A12 Impression

[iShad]

Just got my A12 a few days ago so thought I’d share a quick impression.

 

First off, I’m very impressed with the build time and glad it arrived before Christmas. Mine was completed less than 4 weeks after the ear impressions were received at the lab, and the order was placed during Black Friday with an estimate of 5-8 weeks wait. However, the original design I submitted had a little trouble printing on the face plates, something about translucent artworks with too much details on translucent face plates makes it tough to get correctly. So instead I had to pick full images to be printed and these are the results:

 

 

Packaging/Design:

Simple, but useful. The carrying case is very nice and sturdy with built in cable management complete with cleaning tools and clip.

 

Build Quality:

The A12 itself seems well-built and fits very well. The artworks were a little disappointing and doesn’t look as nice as the preview in their designer. Stock cable is complete crap, so I bought Linum BaX and it looks and feels a lot better. While I’m not a believer in cables improving sound quality, I do feel it’s worth it to get the BaX just for the form factor and the lack of plastic ear hook.

 

Sound:

I’m not very good at describing sound, but I’ll do my best and use the Th-900 as my reference point. The highlight for me is the mids, coming from the Th-900 known for its recessed mids, the A12’s are a huge improvement with its spacious and forward presentation. Treble is smooth and pleasing compared to the Th-900 harsh treble. Bass is well-textured and detail, but it has nothing on the Th-900’s. Soundstage is surprisingly open, similar to a headphone even. I can only describe the soundstage as if it’s an open design iem.

 

Source: I’ll mainly use the A12 through my Note 4, and having heard it through my Hpa-8 I don’t think I’m losing much if anything without a dedicated portable amp/dac or dap. It sounds about the same to me just playing it straight from the phone like a barbarian. As for cables, I notice no difference changing from stock. I don’t expect it to, and the Linum BaX was mostly for style.

 

Overall:

The Adel tech is quite nice, I won’t lie and admit I bought it over something like Noble k10 because it claims to protect my hearing. I don’t know if it works, but I don’t get the usual hearing fatigue like with other iems even after hours of continuous use where my inner ears would get irritate with earwax and sweaty quick.

 

The A12 is a perfect addition to my current gears, as I want something with a different form factor and sound signature from what I already have. It is worth the price? So far, I think so, but I don’t have any other ciem or high-end iem to compare it with. It's also tough to recommend as you can build a high-end PC for the price, but for people thinking of diving into ciem I’d just go for it. Maybe it’s the new toy syndrome, but I wouldn’t mind if the A12 is the only audio gear I own, and for me that means a lot.

[KaminKevCrew]

Interesting. I suppose it's because of the fact that you're used to the th900, but the a12 has about as deep reaching of bass as any in ear that exists... Even over a lot of dynamic iems. Same with the mids... Compared to other iems, they're not the most forward things out there, treble is definitely silky smooth on the a12

Those th900 are certainly an interesting baseline to use for comparison