Picked my pair up out of my mailbox about 15 minutes ago at the time of writing this.
Very first impressions - plugged in to iFi Hip DAC
Two songs in (21st Century Breakdown by Green Day and We’re Finally Landing by Home), and I can say that so far the Polaris have left a great first impression. This is not a ‘delicate’ listening experience by any means - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. The fitting took a bit of adjusting and going through my (lackluster) collection of tips, but my ear canals are quite large and uneven so that may not be the case for everyone. I ultimately settled on the large size “Bass ear tips” that came with that FiiO foam museum of ear tips that I imagine come with most FiiO IEMs. I found that ear tips that leave the grill of the tube fully exposed seemed to give me the best sound out of them.
The performance of the Polaris really shines through when listening to something like The Eagles’ Hotel California or Daft Punk’s Give Life Back to Music. The bass is heavy and very present, but that’s the way I like it. The blending of the harmonies is excellent. The percussive performance blends nicely with the rich bass when you listen to Make Me Feel by Janelle Monae. The treble & higher range can seem a bit muted, and this is especially the case when you try to listen to the string sections of orchestral music. There are no issues with vocal clarity. I can understand every word of Volare by Gipsy Kings.
They are an excellent pair of IEMs, especially for the used B-stock price I was lucky enough to get them on r/AVExchange for. For the time being, I am going to have them hooked up to my FiiO UTWS3, which is another interesting product that I will soon post a review about in the TWS thread.