Bonus Review

As a bonus, I asked my friend Hadi who is an excellent IEM reviewer to give me his impression of the ASG-1. I’ve read his impressions and while he doesn’t seem to be as excited about the ASG-1 as I am, I think his impression is very good and a lot more descriptive than what I wrote. I’ll include it along so you guys can get a different perspective on the ASG-1.

ASG 1.2 (large double-flange)
Bass texturing is good
Bass is weighty, not that punchy, but has a nice mild rumble. Extension is superb for an IEM. Among IEMs with good bass extension, this is the rare one that doesn’t really try to be in-your-face punchy or impactful sounding, but after a while you begin to notice and whoa, such power it has.

Laidback pace and attack, and overall not very crisp-sounding but deceptively fast, detailed, textured. Technicalities are superb and is quite natural sounding.

This has an open soundstage and a lot of air, while maintaining good sense of depth. I kind of wish it has a little bit better center focus with the large double flange tips, as the focus marred the good depth projection.

Barring lack of top end energy, midrange tone and clarity is a standout. Lack of treble energy makes pop music less energetic than many IEMs. It’s just not a crisp sounding IEM. My threshold of treble prominence is between sm3v1 (min) and GR07 (max). This one is below sm3v1, which many people said as a bit dark-sounding.

Tuning is a bit confusing, what music is it best at? As far as I have heard, acoustic and instrumental recordings sound good out of this, but a little bit more bite and snap is very welcomed. My radiohead recording sounds very good, the Aurisonics got the air, ambience, and beats right.

Making a farfetched analogy with cars, the Aurisonics can be best described as an equivalent of Audi. No flair of a Ferrari, drama of a Lambo, or clinical capabilities of a Porsche. Its capabilities are a bit understated, you discounted it the first time you listen to it as you think it lacks excitement/sparkle. After using it for a while and everything starts to shimmer, you begin to realize how capable the Aurisonics is, the raw power, extension, and generally understated capability and detail.

Would I buy it? No, it’s a very interesting listen and has a lot of charms, but I figure in the long run, I wouldn’t get over the fact that I want the treble to come out a bit more, especially when I rotate it with my other more exciting and specifically crisper sounding IEM. I would also the attack to be slightly more aggressive. The $300 price tag and poor comfort on my ears doesn’t help, despite that it’s very capable. A very nice niche powerful dynamic IEM.

The 15mm drivers visible through the shell.

Otterbox case.

Assortment of tips.

A Nozzle cleaner.