not sure what to think about that shell. They are 3d printing the shell and with metal that means the surface is kinda rough, almost “stone”-like in a way that is not a good idea to use for iems where you are in full contact with the shells…
(mine is with Aluminium AlSi10Mg though but should still be the same texture.)
It shipped! 
The Snowsky Retro Nano was actually set as shipped this time, 5.5 hours before the term expired. To be seen if the real product is what’s on its way, but… maybe?
Plus in the meantime I found out 2 of the banks I’m using offer cashbacks for AliExpress purchases, so I should be getting another 3% back after of all the other discounts from AE themselves. 
IE600 proves it may not be a big deal as I don’t think there are people complaining about the comfort or in-ear feeling caused by the texture.
But those (and UM) may be post-processed more heavily than your buds making the end surface smoother (e.g glass bead blasted). What I think is blasphemy is to have such a terribly looking parting line between 2 shell parts presented in the marketing material for 700$ IEM - like wtf is this crap - what could I expect from final delivered product?
Jeez that seriously needs some gap filler 
Thanks, i knew i can’t be the only one…
It just looks like an early stage prototype with missing finish that would reflect its price
Headphone, Amp, DAC, Streamer, Cables, …? What are you considering? 
Mine is sandblasted. Dunno if that makes a difference.
In general sand blasting leaves the surface which is signigicantly more rough and it removes material more aggressively.
So if you have option for the glass blasting and you want to explore it may be a better option for your ear friendly buds 
Not possible according to them to do any other finish.
Is that just really shitty metal SLS 3d printing? My resin printer is easily 10x that resolution lol
I don’t think that comparing liquid-media material based to powder-media material based 3D printing tech is fair - both have it’s own limitations and applications. If you compare those metal prints to the ones to the high end plastic SLS (EOS) or MJF (HP) plastic printers even with post processing the parts don’t look very nice as compared to resin prints. Take a look on Plunge Unity for example which is vapor smoothed MJF/SLS printed nylon.
Same applies to metal SLM/SLS - parts from even the highest end industry grade metal printers do not go perfect (from the surface quality perspective) as green straight from the print bed, especially at this size.
But what I think UM screwed up is that it would be natural to print the parting planes with some excess material that they would be then able to easily machine down/polish to precisely fit shells together. But maybe the 10x margins would be cut down too much (e.g. to 9,5x) to justify it to the board 
finally got in my asus moonstone glass pad, ubiquiti 2.5 gig switch and some nice ugreen stuf
TRN Shell arrived, 3 DD, 10.5mm beryllium plated, 8mm PET, 6mm titanium plated & 6mm planar, (gift from me wife). Did a 4 hour AC/DC mini burn-in just to flex the drivers a bit. Nice looking polished shells. First impression pretty darn good.
Bought a FiiO K11 R2R dac amp before the prices increased from tariffs.
i have a silver and a red one, love them
Bought these two in a whim. The first one which is the Space Travel, for a blind buy? It’s not bad at all, in fact I was proven wrong with this one for I have that bias against TWS earbuds ever since its inception back then. It sounds neutral which I really prefer and the convenience is really there despite some few caveats. Another set of Penon Liqueurs as well, but this time the orange one just to hear how it sounds around my ears, and so far it has been great, just need to get used to its initial grippy feel though for there are times these can be a challenge to go into my ears.
HD 490. Extremely good. Honestly might be the best senn to date.
Sounds good out of the box, but of course EQ for even better sound.
This is my setup
20hz 8db 1q
200hz -2db 1q
10800hz 2db 2q
EQ just fixes the sub bass dip, de-emphasizes the mid bass a touch to improve clarity and timbre in the lower mids, and opens up the veil in the top end a bit.
Comfort on them is extremely good. Very close to HD800 comfort, while being a bit smaller and more practical. They also have HD800/Hifiman esque sound stage.
I was shocked how well those penon tips seal
ThieAudio Origin
Awesome sound. Nice treble and has the nicest bass I’ve heard in an IEM, yet.
Very girthy though.
Found the Fiio FT5 at a reasonable price here in Norway at least, at $470 including freight. Thought it might be interesting to try them out, and it got delivered a week ago.
Been mostly listening with the “pleather” pads but also tried the suede pads. I do like the extra warmth the suede pads gives, but i also love the extra “airiness” and detail the pleather ones have. From before i have a pair of Sennheiser HD6xx and a pair of Hifiman HE-4xx. With those i do enjoy different qualities from each, so i am hoping the FT5 can have the best qualities from both those others into one headphone. So far it seems it can.
Also, although being a bit heavy, they sit really comfortable on my head, better than the HE-4xx and pretty much equal to the HD6xx, although the Sennheiser can be a bit divisive with its clamping it doesn’t bother me…
