IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

Can be, he had many types of wood to go for. Or even metal back.

Interesting way to buy an IEM, he is Japanese so communication can be a little hard. They describe sound different than us.

But I did for Cocobolo due the sound I asked for. Good balance with nice note weight.
The driver is already giving the sound, so the change is often in how fast the sound bounces back or decays. Harder wood or metal and the sound is brassier bit also more dry.

How much changes I have no idea, but it’s interesting.

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Over the ear, quite comfortable for me.

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I’ve read that some fellow members of the community loan IEMs to each other so they can demo sets. This is an expensive hobby. I only own 3 sets so far but I’d be wiiling to loan them if I could also benefit from listening to more sets! Is it only based on trust? Is there already a “loan” club? If so, coud I join? :smiley:

I live in Canada

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You are far away, or I would send you some of mine, and you some of yours. If someone is in EU we can exchange IEM. Write in my topic or privately.

BTW what IEMs do you own? :slightly_smiling_face:

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Might want to check out and PM the guys in this thread then!

One thing I’ll say is that you can always buy off Amazon Canada and as long as it’s either sold or fulfilled by Amazon.ca then you can return an IEM within 30 days no questions asked! :+1:

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A little trust, how active you are in the forum, and your contributions to the forum. Followed by how you represent yourself in your interactions. There’s no official club. I’d also say it helps to have an account on Head-Fi with sales. You kind of have to put yourself out there first. Show you have established trust via sales and also aren’t a prude in the forums. Get those and then its a matter of are you willing to take the risk of sending out a set in hopes someone will honor their end. You hope it goes well but one of you may get screwed. From there if it goes well you can than vouch for people to bring more into the group.

Issue with Canada when it comes to border crossing shipping is a pain and a big risk. So for me you need more than just above but also something that I’m very interested in hearing. The dilemma is if I ship say my $1k IEM to you and want insurance on it I need to declare $1k value on VAT and now you in turn have to pay import fees on that and it ain’t cheap ask @VIVIDICI_111 we learned the hard way. So a lot of us under declare the value to avoid import fees but run the risk if it’s lost we’re screwed.

In our case @GooberBM was the man who first threw himself out there and organized a tour. Myself and some others took are chances. For me I took a look at the things mentioned above. He and the others conducted themselves respectfully and were active on the threads so I figured it was a safe bet. Now we have a group of some really good dudes and demoed many sets which would have been beyond our means beforehand and grew our database fairly quickly.

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You guys in the US havent considered doing a big meet up and demoing a lot of stuff at once? (no shipping risk that way.)

Unfortunately that last I saw here in the Miami area it didn’t go well. I know there gotta be Florida people in multiple forums just getting the traction for them to see the post is hard. I only know of two maybe three myself. Especially when you don’t know their username to tag them. Then on Head-Fi there’s a place for tour organization but, it usually seems fairly dead.

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  • Olina OG
  • DUNU Zen Pro
  • TGXear Serratus (earbuds)

Sure will, thanks for the tip!

That’s a great advice, even though they don’t sell a lot of different IEMs.

Thanks for sharing your mindset. I totally get it. And yes, living in Canada is great but shipping and declaration value is a pain.

If anybody from Canada or nearby is interested in sharing IEMs, contact me!

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One thing people forget or don’t know about US and Canada is that it’s huge and expensive to travel around inside our own countries! Cause we don’t have the fast and cheap trains or cheap small planes you guys do. It’s either highway which might even have a toll or huge commercial planes.

Like I wish I could have demoed the HE-1 when it was here in Canada at the LTT expo but it would have cost $1,000 for us just on the flight even though we’re in the same country!!

So like if there’s a meetup you’re only getting the people within that state.

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So true. It takes me 7 hours from my house in the Southern tip of Florida just to get to Georgia. Thats without stops or the insane traffic around the larger coastal cities on the way up. For those that aren’t familiar with the United States thats the northern state above Florida. Then if I’m going to Panama Beach it’s 10 hours. Not to mention the cost of toll roads on top of gas . Tolls alone are $16 just for one way.

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Same for me going from southern Ontario to the Quebec! For most of Europe that’s like going to an entirely different country lmao :joy:

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If you’ve never seen it this is crazy and it doesn’t even account for Canada. To keep the conversation on topic it does make for some good music and IEM time on a car trip. The bassier sets with a little more top energy, like Neon Pro, really help balance out the road noise when I’m flying between reported speed traps. Really wish we had an autobahn like over in Germany.

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This is gonna be random, but I picked up a pair of Dunu EST112s for a ridiculous trade deal and I’m literally addicted to the damn things. You guys know my lineup and even with all that awesomeness around me, the EST112s have been getting more ear time than all of them combined. They just hit the spot. Does anyone else have a pair of these bad boys?

I mean, once Crinacle panned them they became the most ignored/overlooked tribrid in that $500 range. I had even forgotten about them until this trade offer popped up and now I’m burnt that I never gave them a shot. The Excaliburs might actually be on the chopping block. Though it’ll be a couple weeks before I decide and if they do go up for sale/trade @GooberBM gets first shot because I know he has wanted them for a while now.

Anyways, I highly recommend checking the EST112s out if you get a chance. That 13.5mm bery DD can really pump and punch, the BA actually gives smooth and even mids, and the dual EST highs are laid back, but very realistic when presenting cymbals and higher instruments. Just a damn solid IEM with a very cohesive tuning. Not an easy thing to find in a tribrid these days.

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I’ve always been intrigued but my the 112s but as you said, they didn’t get the best reviews and them people just stopped talking about them. I’m glad you are enjoying them as much as you are though!

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How well does it take a solid boost to low end with EQ?

Such large driver could move some good air. ISN H30 had much smaller driver but was also beryllium coated, and could sound really good with a little boost.

I guess since reviews never was over positive, few bought. Had opportunity to try it when a friend was visiting, never did as I had no interest.

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I will give it a shot and get back to you. I have been enjoying it so much without EQ that I haven’t even tried, but I will and I’ll report back.

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They may well be my favorites amongst the $500 to $600 tribrids that I have tried and I have tried quite a few. I really don’t understand the knock on them at all.

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Much love @JAnonymous5150 Glad to hear from you cause you’ve been more radio silent :slight_smile: If you do go to sell/trade the Excaliburs (or other stuff) I’ll take you up on that first dibs cause you have some cool gear

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