Heaven for $300?

I've just recently acquired the Sleek Audio SA6, and I for one can say that wtf?!


Having spent an astronomical amount on earphones, I can safely say that these are probably just a tad under the highest end IEMs but with one critical factor. They cost a lot lot less than their competition.

Extremely fast, tight bass (with bass+ port), insane treble extension (nearly as much as the ER4-P, but not quite), and very copious amounts of detail. Wide soundstaging also, this reduces the "in the head" sound that you often get from canalphones and IEMs.

Definitely worth some consideration if you're willing to take a step (albeit a large one) into the audiophile world.

Note that these (as with any other high end IEM) are very unforgiving on low quality encodes. You really won't be able to experience the great treble extension and detail of these earphones unless you're using high bitrates or lossless files. Truly a merit to sleek audio!. Oh and those with the M6 T1/TP might want to stay away from this one unless they can put up with the hissing. Due to the high sensitivity and efficiency of these IEMs, hissing is quite loud on idle, but less audible with music playing.

Pictures on request.

I simply want to try those too as I read the same about them.
I did actually try order them yesterday, but then the ******* store
don't have them in stock anymore.

Get them soon. They are now made in USA and the customer service I've heard is top notch. =)

this thing looks ugly and really expensive $300 for earphones you're rich dude!

Well...A Stax SRS-404 Signature looks ugly to me and what I know yes Blackstar is rich. He's wallet seems to be unlimit.
But such prices are normal in this world.

I both heard and used the various customer services around the USA and they aren't bad. But if I want to buy the Sleek Audio SA6 from here I going to pay huge costums and taxes for import them to my country and then they will be even more expensive.
I am sure you still can grab below $300, so I think your price tag is a little bit huge.
I would say it's easy to find these for around $250 in USA stores.

ugly? I think its pretty! The size of these earphones are extremely small and when you're wearing it in your ears, you can barely see them, esp if you have black hair. =)

300AUD that is, so its alright =P

Originally Posted by Blackstar

300AUD that is, so its alright =P

You right, you just forgot the write AUD.

250 USD = 300 AUD
250 USD = 170 €
250 USD = 1712 CNY
250 USD = 138 UK£
or whatever....

i respect every opinion (about if it's ugly or not) but 250 or 300 usd it's the same thing for me= very expensive

thanks to the crappy value of the US dollar 250 dollars corresponds to 170 euros. Sure, not the cheapest headphones around but certainly worth the money for great sound quality.

Sound wise the SA6 are pretty hard to beat, it is quite amazing what Sleek have been able to achieve with a single balanced armature driver which easily out performs the dual drivers of my old favourite the Jays q-Jays.

Build wise I am starting to have my doubts, in just on 3 months I have had to get a replacement for one earpiece that had a connection problem and kept dropping out, a second earpiece that started to fall apart with the chrome boot coming loose and the treble port holder starting to split and come to pieces, and lastly today had to send back the last replacement earpiece that just up and died mid song after just over an hours use. I have also received a replacement for a cable that started to fray at the left connector.

Whilst the customer service from Sleek has been nothing short of exceptional with replacement parts sent DHL Express and taking just 3 days US to NZ however on top of the purchase price of $249.00 USD (approx $360.00 NZD) I have had to pay out an extra $82.00 NZD to return faulty parts and had over 3 weeks downtime with the SA6.

Considering the q-Jays were $179.00 USD and in 12 months I have only replaced one extention cable. MylarOne X3's (with a terrible reputation for build quality) $57.00 USD still going strong after 2 years, so sadly as good as the SA6 sound anymore problems and I will be writing them off as a bad investment.

Hopefully my experience is extremely rare and just plain bad luck on my part because the Sleeks really are quite exceptional for isolation, comfort and sound quality. It's a great pity as I was really looking forward to going cable free with the Sleek Kleer Technology Wireless adapter being released at the end of this month.

Ahh.. you had gotton them before I did? The earlier ones had manufacturing problems because they weren't made in the USA. Consequently, I've also heard about people with faulty cables and broken left earpieces.

Just when i bought it, SA announced that all their units on all shelves worldwide were made in USA, so hurray for me!

Although I wont be so quick to jump the gun yet as I haven't had my pair for 3 months. But just handling the units, it doesn't seem like they will break anytime soon. Time will tell....

BTW, how do the biflanges work out for you madman? I seem to get some ringing in my ears if I use them, unsure why, the fit seems good, but could be too much pressure in my inner ear chamber

I am using the q-Jay tips, whilst I have not had any problems fit or comfort wise with the Sleek bi-flanges I just find the q-Jay silicon is a little thicker and noticably tightens up the bass. I also tried the Shure Black Olives but for me they tend to muddy up the bass a little but alot of Head-Fiers like them.

I recall back in April Jason from Sleek posting on H-F that they had moved assembly and QC to the US, I picked mine up in early June so there is a chance they could have been the CH assembled units although at the time there was a delay in shipping them out to me as SoundEarphones had to wait for new stock to arrive, but certainly the 2 repacement units direct from Sleek were US stock.

I must say as much as I loved the q-Jays when I send away the Sleeks and switch back to q-Jays they sound so bland.