This is wrong. Dynamic drivers themselves are NOT expensive at ALL. Usually ranges from 1-10 usd/piece.
What does cost however, is if they are making a NEW custom driver, THAT costs a lot more because there is a MOQ, and from the OEM perspective, there is also the tooling cost. But still the individual driver, is still not that expensive.
The holy trinity that results in what you hear are:
Driver
Shell (material, shape, internal volume, venting)
Acoustic damping in shell/driver
I guess, but I’d still like to see the bill of materials for beryllium at quantity. That can’t be cheap. And yes, the tooling for dangerous stuff like it is sure to be costly.
I literally have these in my ears as I type. Glamdring is Michael Bruce’s creation, based on 2 years of testing, reconfiguring, and tuning the Letshuoer S12 to his rigorous specifications. By his own words, Glamdring is S12 only in the sense that he buys the completed IEM as a foundation to work his magic on it. And yes, Glamdring is magic.
At the end of the day, you me or anybody could buy a set of drivers, set up the electricals, put it in a shell and DIY an IEM. Several people DIY their own earbuds, so it’s not out of the question.
IMO, a TOTL IEM takes that simple process and through R&D and tuning pull something extra out of it. MIM Dark Magician is a pretty good example of this: The community at-large agrees that the OG revision is some kind of special, but the v2 is inferior. And people have tried to take the v2 and retune it to be like the OG and nobody pulled it off.
Many people have tried to take mid centric tuned IEMs and get them to be “miin DMs” and have failed. What they did with OG DM is something that has not been replicated in a tangible way. So basically, there’s something in the holy trinity that Riku described that hits some kind of intangible something, that transcends just putting a transducer in a shell
Michael’s upcoming Sting is calling your name. 
It absolutely is, but Mike is putting so much into it that he himself said he’s not trying to replicate DM anymore. He’s just making his own 1DD creation. And based on what I’m hearing from Glamdring and his own standard of “if I wouldn’t listen to this, I won’t put it out there”, whatever Sting ends up being is something I want.
Because I’m not a planar guy at all, and this is the tits. So what he’ll do with a 1DD that has the DM driver in it, will be Gypsy magic
If he goes for something that doesn’t lose a lot of isolation so I don’t have to cranck the volume high to make up for it I might jump on it. 
Gotta admit I’m still addicted to DD too 
Starfield, Mele, and Kai hold a nice toasty and smooth place in my heart and ears and I’ve still been itching to get KBear Aurora and Olina SE and mod them with dampers 
You want Aurora?
I’ll move mine to you. Have nostalgic love for it but I honestly don’t really use them much
Really? That’s so kind of an offer! Is your set the matte finish or the fingerprint magnet?
OG 
And you’re welcome, shoot me a PM and we can work it out
Does he have a discord or something? I’d love to follow this as it progresses.
Ok just made a pretty interesting discovery.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32888737802.html
For 1 usd, you can get a bluetooth dac/amp. You just need a powerbank or an external 3.7-5V lithium battery to power it. And then simply plug and play.
What is this, the wish equivalent of a dac??? Lol 
Aka “We have DAC at home” “The DAC at home”.
DIY stuff is always much cheaper than the finished stuff. Wouldnt surprise me if u open a chifi bt amp/dac and find the same module in it lol.
I have it and love the technicalities of it, especially the resolution part.
It’s a niche IEM that may be audience picky.
Let me put the sound this way.
It’s the Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade.
CVJ Konoka
It looks like an actual bone conductor, not the piezo based types like in the MEST. But something like the Empire Ears Legend Evo.
You can think of it like haptic feedback (smartphone vibration for example).
Quite hyped to see this FINALLY being done in (what I assume) budget range.
Hmm, looks like LRA. Those have VERY limited frequency range they work with efficiently (like mainly they are supposed to work at resonance frequency), so may be just gimmick to be fair.
Yeah, that is another type that is only playing at a specific range (150-300hz usually). Rather than a full range like those used in BC hps like Shokz.
Not sure which one the Evo and this Konoka uses though, but if they are using it only for bass, then LRA will do it.
