That is what I figured. It's a shame I live somewhere where it's impossible to go in a listen to demos easy. I have head a demo set of mid-price range Universal Ears and did not like them one bit, there were phase issues of the low end and I even noted that the units might be faulty. The Shure E5's I have had for like a million years did sound flatter and more in-your-face if you know what I mean. My search showed there might be a manufacturer in Sweden, who is closest to me. I will see if I can arrange a demo with them.
Look for things like money back trial periods and such. Most of the better companies will do that if you're not happy. They should also do as many refits as necessary until you're happy with the fit.
Alclair's policy is [or at least it was...] that once you've bought into their product, if you decided to make an upgrade you pay only the difference between the model you have and the model you want. I've had a couple of friends that started out with a cheaper model and traded up to get better performance. i've also had a couple of friends that started with the cheaper model and were totally happy right out of the box.
[To my US based friends, sorry if i sound like i'm hawking Alclair. I'm not. I just have a lot of experience with them and i've been happy]
