I like this more now after spending more time with it. I'm keeping it for sure.
Here's my update.
The bass is awesome. I think the DAC was glitching because with zero changes the bass went from absent to very deep.
I don't have the right terminology, but I think I'm experiencing amazing separation. Jack White does this duet with a female on a song called "love interruption." I normally don't care for the song, but hearing it with the iSINE 20 the song sounded brilliant and I love it. Before I could tell at times it was a duet but instead of hearing both people I'd mostly hear the average of 2 people singing. Now I can clearly hear both Jack and the woman sing at the same time. The sound is quite exceptional for something so small. Human voice is more lifelike, musical instruments become suddenly more vibrant. I'm picking up more details like the reverberation of voice in some artists, or maybe when the artists slides his hand across the guitar quickly. I hear details I don't normally pick up.
The not so bad:
The DAC/Iphone cable is a little glitchy still though I prefer this method for iphone listening. Occasionally music stops and I have to replug it in. I blame Apple for thi as some accessories provided by apple can be glitchy too.
I can go 2-3 hours wearing it now, but by the end of 2 hours I begin to feel the pressure of a big metal object pushing on my ear canal. (It used to be 1 hour before discomfort) The ear loops feels less annoying, I accept this as a limitation of the technology.
The flat lightning cable is flat and wide like a fettuccini noodle. The phone in and out of my pockets gets tangled very quickly compared to a normal wire.
The phone controller needs to be moved down another inch or so. It's placed right where I would have wanted to clip it to my shirt. The DAC/controller is heavy so when I clip to my shirt underneath the controller it puts extra weight on the ear. I clip just above the controller and now there isn't enough cable for my head to move around freely. To accommodate it I just clip it higher up on my shirt, but the weight makes the clip slide back down after moving around a lot. It's really a small thing but I think they could do better, or perhaps I have high expectations.
If you are considering this I don't think you'll be let down by sound quality. I don't have the experience most of you have, but I'm thrilled by the sound. I don't really care for the ergonomics and I think they have a lot to improve upon but it's not so bad that I wouldn't try it.
I'm comparing it a lot to my new SHURE se846 too. It's an unfair comparison because the iSINE 20 has a built in DAC and the SHURE uses the iphone DAC. If you care though, the iSINE 20 has significantly better sound to my ears, but I understand the Shure is handicapped so it's not a true comparison. However it is a fair comparison because they both plug directly to my phone when I walk around my neighborhood. Shure is working on a lightning cable so that may soon change.
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