Open-back with a switch, but neither are features just for the sake of it. Alter Ego is Melodic Artification's big announcement that they're hitting the flagship IEM market with a point. A point to their implementations. A point to exist.  Twister6 quickly latched onto the hype. Switches like those on the tri-brid Alter Ego serve the listener, and not the spec sheet. Two different personalities present themselves in Melodic Artification's flagship when flicked.  One presents music accurately and resolutely, transient information all reproduced. Alter Ego's other setting immediately – and obviously – boosts sub and mid-bass as well as lower mids to grant warm immersion and an emotive presentation. Across both signatures, listeners are planted into a mid-range with a sweet, perfectly black background. Spatial detail is abundant but always natural. Distortion is evidently low; artifacts never get in the way of your listening. [See Product Desc. For More] Both switch positions engage a different crossover in Alter Ego entirely and present music in equally full quality and its total glory. No resonances or trapped backwaves from Alter Ego's dynamic driver are given the chance to build up given its open-back construction. In fact, Alter Ego's switch is another showcase of Melodic Artifaction's calibre. It's not easy to reproduce two different signatures with such quality in a single IEM, with a single set of drivers. The quality of its dynamic driver cannot be questioned, when asked to reproduce extra SPL with the flick of a switch. Alter Ego's bass unit responds without distortion, suggesting a perfectly damped diaphragm that allows it to climb in frequency and produce more pistonic motion. Its seamless transition between personalities of equal quality also suggests a design excellence in aspects rarely discussed – crossover design. Indeed, roll-off slopes and order of crossover are calibrated such that drivers, particularly Alter Ego's mid-range balanced armatures, are never pushed out of their comfort zone. The seamless driver transitions between frequency ranges suggests low-order crossovers that preserve phase response. Yet when asked to produce more SPL, Alter Ego never falters, able to take whatever you ask from it in stride. It's a degree of sweat and effort from Melodic Artifaction's design team so that Alter Ego never breaks sweat, sounding completely effortless. Indeed, it's a degree of mastery only matched by the extent of going on to machine its titanium shell. Alter Ego benefits yet from experiments with eartips and cables. Its forgiving detail is always an advantage for listening with more exacting sources, and music players like HiBy Music's R4 plus R8II, iBasso Audio's D16 and DX260 as well as Cayin Audio's N7 make perfect steeds. Stay tuned to welcome one of 2024's most exciting flagship IEMs today, highlighting the sheer variety the earphone segment is counting on as the key to its success today.