How'd i do here? 5 new purchases - new to the audiophile game

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
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Purchased these 5 in the past 45 days, before then my go-to IEMs were SE215, so this was a massive upgrade… Using BTR5 to drive. Did a lot of research & was only intending on buying the S8F, but the more I research, the more I wanted the rest of the IEMs you see below. I see why ppl say this isn’t a cheap hobby. I looked at many reviews but I also did rely heavily on Crinkle’s list & BGGR reviews. My reasoning for these 5 is that they each are fairly different in their type of sound signature (giving me a good variety). S8F (V-shaped), iSine (harman), 800ST (bright), FH5 (neutral w/bass boost), ER4XR (DF neutral).

in order of favorite: S8F, iSine 20, EX800ST, FH5 / ER4XR (tie)

soo… for you experts, how’d I do?

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S8F is a really nice pair, but did you not look at the new Fearless s8z?

I have always found it better to buy one more expensive set that multiple cheaper ones, but that’s just me’ and I see you will be using different sound signatures as well. Did you look into sets with dipswitches in which you can change the sound signature IEM side? You could also change the sound amp side if you had someone with xbass instead of the BTR5, such as stuff from ifi.

Pretty nice stuff though. BTR5 will power all of them well, and sounds good with the S8F. Well done.

I used to own a pair of the Shure se425, two versions above the se215. Too sterile for my taste, would much rather own the S8F.

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BGGR mentioned in his review of S8Z that is was a more balanced analytical sound. Overall, S8F sounded more “fun” to me and more v-shaped. Thus I choose S8F because I figured the bass would sound better and overall sound would be more fun to me. I listen to EDM & hiphop a lot.

i have not. can you describe what dipswitches are? also i would likely need the set up to be portable, as i listen often from my phone.

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Why not buy one great thing instead of 5 good to very good things?

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These are all A- or higher on crinkle’s list (besides FH5), so im my eyes theyre all great and anything greater is typically $1000+… I didn’t want to buy IEMs over $500 and was just planning on buying one (S8F), but I got interested in others, one after the other lol, and boom… now i have 5. haha. planning on keeping these really long with no new purchases for the foreseeable future.

Also, other than the S8F, each of these were about $200 (ebay), so figured I got good deals on em as well.

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Tin P1 every iem hoarder should have a pair…detail and speed well above it’s price point, match it with say an iFi with a bass boost and can do things it really shouldn’t :+1:

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opinion on the p1’s vs the tapes?

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Personally I prefer the p1, but if you really want something brighter the tape is there, but I would suggest other things than the tape tbh

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thanks M0N, a little curious about the electrostat IEMs and the tapes are up on drop and they have pretty cool shells lol. Would you say the p1 is currently the best value estat IEM? i don’t know of too many

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also bought URBANFUN YBF-ISS014 how do these compare?

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I prefer the Tape if you EQ down 3,5kHZ peak and it has a really unique sound that nothing else can replicate. But I cant recommend it because of the QC issues that is deadly to the tape and that fit can be an issue. Something close to the tape would be the LZ A6 but it is more expensive at around 240 usd.

P1 can sound really good ( mids are godly) but you need a lot of power to drive them, bass quantity is extremely low and fit is also an issue

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The P1 is planar, so not an estat. Personally any of the budget estats I have tried have been misses for me. They have the detail, but they don’t have a natural sound and also typically they aren’t integrated well so they end up not sounding coherent most of the time. I think some of them are def listenable and ok, but I think there are similar options in the same price bracket that I end up preferring. IMO if you want an estat iem really just save for a 003mk2 and a srm-d10, really the only estat iem I would prefer over other options (because it’s an actual electrostatic and not the hybrid low voltage or precharged estats in most “estat” iems)

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and the Tape is actually an “magnetostat” and not estat. This was confirmed on the shuoer impressions thread over at head-fi

edit: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/shuoer-impressions-thread.916267/page-94#post-15444776

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Yes to have a genuine electrostatic iem you would need a special energizer to deliver the voltage and power it needs, hence why the shure estat and stax estat iems have their own special amps

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lol duh still waking up i guess

Thanks guys was just curious I haven’t heard or tried any kind of estat (or planar actually), I don’t think they’d fit my sound preference anyway most seem to lack bass. Just kinda noticed the tapes on drop recently

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Tri I3 might be good (DD, Planar, BA hybrid)

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The tape uses an estat + a dynamic driver to compensate for the lack of midrange and bass in the tape, most of the “estat” iems are hybrids with an estat as a tweeter

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18

I’ve heard good things about it, I should check it out sometime

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yeah one of the members here got this and had a lot of good things to say

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20

Too big for me so it is off my list. That along with ISN H40 seems very good.

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