I’m wanting to get myself a pair of IEMs for both travel and in bed use for both portability and sound leakage reasons.
I’m thinking roughly upto £200 range since in my experience IEMs tend to feel like they’re bruising my ears after longer listening sessions at work etc.
Mainly thinking of neutral with a bass emphasis or a bassy sound signature, with good soundstage if possible and good imaging if I can get all that at this sort of price range (I haven’t really looked much at IEMs since I don’t really know where to start)
From what I’ve seen about them, I like the look of the Ikko oh1 and the fiio fh3s, but any suggestions would be great since I’ve not looked much into this.
I think the FH3 present a really nice value. The bass isn’t overwhelming, but can definitely slam and is emphasized a bit. Soundstage is average (in my opinion), and details/imaging is really nice.
I don’t necessarily think I’ll want to fall asleep with them in but I suppose you never know I could always try my fiancée’s AirPods Pro for both testing fit and seeing whether I could fall asleep with them in
I use to have a horrible time getting to sleep. Years and years of sleeping pills and therapy. Just in the last year I’ve begun to be able to fall asleep normally. I am a BIG fan of ASMR. It helps me to calm down at night and fall asleep. I usually take them out before I fall asleep, but I have fallen asleep with them in.
I can’t lay my head on a pillow with anything in my ear, so I use two pillows. I hold onto one and have the top of my head on the other. Between the two pillows is where I position my ear.
For sleep, I couldn’t imagine anything else but my Apple wireless because I like to switch sides while falling asleep. I used to try it with wires but it sucked! You should definitely try your fiancée’s if she’ll part with them. They aren’t bad.
If you’re more concerned with audio quality and want a sealed experience, I can give you some recommendations of some IEMs I own and have used first hand in the 200 dollar range…
Blon BL-03 - Everyone should just have one of these. Just buy it!
Fiio FD1 - 60 bucks gets you possibly an end-game IEM.
Fiio FH3 - The new hotness. Can’t recommend this set enough if you take your music seriously.
Moondrop Starfield - At the bottom of my recommendations but it’s a solid performer and the reason I got into IEMS.
For that price range, some might recommend the Thieaudio Legacy 3 or the Urbanfun. Both of these sets can be great, but you might end up with garbage. IMO, it’s not worth the risk.
Here are some reviewers tier ranks that post at this site… More perspectives!
The “Head Concert” list has the IEMs listed by price, so you can go right to the price limit you can afford and check out everything above that pricepoint to find out what will work best for you.
Additional advise… TIPS, TIPS, TIPS!!! You can buy the best most expensive IEM on the planet and it will sound like total garbage if you cannot produce a good seal between your ears and the IEM. The IEM is only as good as your tips and seal are. Don’t overlook the process of finding the right tips for your sound preferences and comfort. In the end, it’s more important than the IEM itself.
Thanks guys, I’ll take a look at what’s in my price range etc to see what’d suit me, the ibasso do look good so far.
Thanks for the long post @PapaEmeritus, I have actually bought a pair of bl03s from drop but they’re getting shipped on the 16th of September but I’m getting a bit impatient and really want to see what I can play around with
In terms of looking at tips, where would be a good place to start? As I only really know about dekoni ones etc. I think the tips are what made me not really enjoy my se215s since I don’t think I got a good seal and they just sounded tinny.
I know I am a bit late but so far that has been working out for me so far all around, would be the Moondrop Starfields. Neutral sound but still cool to listen to and there’s some bass that’s good enough but not bass head levels of bass. Sound isolation improved once I fitted it with SpinFit’s CP145s and I recommend to changing the cable for its cable is fragile in terms of durability. Overall it’s your vanilla sound IEM but a vanilla sound like made from Belgium as Zeos’ description and he’s right.
Before you do anything, you need to resolve this first.
You have to find tips that are comfortable and seal perfectly. IEMs have different insertion depths into your ear, so even if you think you’ve figured out what tip size fits you properly, that tip size very well might not work for you with different IEMs.
My suggestion would be to go with an inexpensive IEM like the Fiio FD1 (or an IEM you already own) and use the rest of your money to begin building a tip collection. I know it’s not exciting, but if you don’t have the proper tips, the IEM is useless.
For reference, here’s a photo that shows some of my IEMs and how different the tips are on each of them…
They come with the Final E series (E500, E1000…). I recommend the E1000 since they actually have a very good sound profile (only iem I consider “true” neutral, still looking for an upgrade for them lol). and the E500 has extremely bad imaging, sucks for music but extremely good for games/VR.
You can buy the tips separately though, but with the E1000 you are getting the iem at a muuuuuch cheaper cost. (very high value.)
EDIT: I bought from amazon japan where the E1000 itself is for 2000 japanese yen, so around 20 usd! Shipping did take it up to around 30 usd though…but the value in the iem itself is crazy!
Yep. That’s why I sent that previous link. It’s prime so it would be here in two days. 29 bucks would be a steal for all those tip sizes let alone the IEM as well. Crazy.
I could always try my fiancée’s AirPods Pro for both testing fit and seeing whether I could fall asleep with them in
