I've heard both but not at the same time and the times were too far apart, hence my own experience fails. Anyone else heard these and compared them? Normally I'd just go ahead and buy an SA5000 to find out but funds are running pretty low for me right now, was wondering how much percentage of the Qualia the SA5000 offers. I love the Qualia but it's an awful lot of money to keep to one headphone.

But you just got it the way you like it, Steve!

Send me the qualia and I'll compare them for you

No, you send me that SA5000 so I can compare for myself. I can send back the loser if that'd be ok with you.

Yes. I actually liked the SA5000 better. I'm one of those who probably never got a good fit with the Qualias, but the person (Juan) who was letting me listen to his SA5000 did a real good job of making sure I got a good fit with those.

The SA5000 gives a taste of what the 010 can offer, properly fitted of course. The 010 is more detailed yet smoother, has a larger soundstage, and a more powerful bass. IMO there isn't anything that the SA5000 does better than the 010.

Really, since you own the 010, I wouldn't even bother with the SA5000, unless you want to see if you can get by with them, in lieu of the 010. But I doubt that is really possible. Just go listen to your Qualias, and enjoy!

I've done about an hour of A/B with them using both in a quiet room, with both running balanced out of my setup. Iron Dreamer is pretty much hit the nail on the head. Skip the SA5000s is my opinion. They have less control and less bass and they are harsher. Unfortunately I could not measure the qualias because I'd need to specially carve my coupler to meet up with their curved earpads (for lack of a better description).