I think Antdroid’s target may be a healthy compromise between IEF/Crinnacle and the more V-shaped targets out there. Have a look and see if it rhymes with your favourite IEMs.
http://iems.audiodiscourse.com/?share=Antdroid_Target
drftr
IEF/Crinacle target is not really his preferred target but what sounds “neutral” to him. Just in case anyone was confused.
Can’t find it now but its explained on his site somewhere.
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Antdroids target is actually so close to my preferences that I don’t need to worry about a target, I just reference his lol.
Thanks i never thought to look at Antdroid Target before.
I feel like normalization makes a big difference in understand FR graphs.
Of course it’s just a reference but if you’re so close then you may want to check out his ranking list all the same if you haven’t already:
drftr
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Same. Just discovered recently tho 
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Thanks but yeah, I’ve known Antdroid for a while. I also interviewed him on Acho Reviews in case you are interested:
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Read that and precog’s interview. Really enjoyed them. Thank your for the great work!
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Well @Rcayn and @Rikudou_Goku tried to warn me about the fiio em5 and I ignored them.
They were right. I just need to man up and deal with that fire in my ears.
That is all.
In full disclosure, they really could be useful to some people. I am just not one of them.
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Well you have gained a wider perspective at least now that you’ve tried earbuds. 
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True. But I wouldn’t assume these are representative of what earbuds should be.
I think I am going to go find whichever earbud high on @Rikudou_Goku list is easily accessible to me and buy it.
See if I can get them here before I send the em5 back.
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LBBS
10 char
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You could try experimenting with EQ on the EM5. I found it lacking in extension both ways, raise those up and find a good seal. The openness in the mids and especially upper mids is actually quite stellar.
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I don’t generally use aliexpress and most of them are only available there. 
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I don’t EQ. But, even if I did, I don’t think EQ can fix some of the problems. Setting fit aside (didn’t use them long enough in a single session to even know if they are better than IEMs) there were other issues.
Example: soundstage. It was quite large. But I kept experiencing this weird effect where stuff that should have been in front of me was behind me. Like sometimes I was in front of the entire presentation. (Not in the middle with everything around me). Really odd. I triple checked that I had them in the correct ears!
Layered background details were pretty withdrawn. It felt like they couldn’t cope with complexity particularly well.
There was actually quite a bit of stuff I liked. When the soundstage wasn’t weird, it was quite nice. The bass was far more capable than expected. Practical stuff like hearing people enter the room was really nice. Vocals with acoustic guitar was quite good. Actually, pentatonix came off surprisingly well.
If these were $50 I would keep them. But at this price they need to do better.
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Well according to someone’s rec, Willsound MT1 is as good as LBBS and cheaper, EU only though.
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Stuck in the U.S. one of the reasons I don’t use aliexpress.
You can try ordering a Blur, quite pricy but worth every pennies, and excellent workmanship.
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I will look into them. May be a little too far off the beaten path for me at the moment. I am not a get it custom kind of guy for stuff like this.
I own two blurs, they are TOTL but it’s hand made. For amazon stuff, prolly only moondrop chacone is worth checking 
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