Enjoy what you’ve got, for sure! It’s all about figuring out what you like and what you’re willing to spend. Personal preference plays a huge role in things, and there’s definitely diminishing returns as you go higher in price. Like, the Andros are definintely not twice as good as the FH7s, and I could definitely see some people preferring the FH7s even if price was taken out.
Then, there’s the part about these things being more fragile and easier to lose. That probably scares off a lot of people from this IEM nonsense!
My second favorite headphone/earphone is the Tin P1, so I know I can like an IEM over similarly priced headphones, but I’m hesitant to go any higher as my right ear is a bitch when it comes to getting and keeping a seal with any king of tip. Silicone tips never seal unless they are huge and even then its a crap shoot. Foam tips usually seal but then its like my right ear canal activily pushes it out. It seems like my left ear canal is basically just a cylindrical tube while my right ear canal is an oblong conical shape. I would hate to spend $1000 on Andromedas and then not be able to get a good seal with the tips that sound the best.
oh wow, nice collection lol. definetly not lightweights. Well, i honestly get it. Personally i was contemplating selling my sundara and possibly hawks in order to move into the IEM space since i have a pretty loud AC in my room (which of course is where i do most of my listening)(it started really irritating me). In addition i also treat headphones as a portable… or at least i wished to. I have always like portables like the DS or PSP and chose them over home consoles because it’s what i like. And honestly the idea of an iem that i can literally have in my pocket at all times as my main music listening device excites me. not to mention that because of the closed nature it will always block alot of outside noise. I love it, and in theory it’s my favorite music listening method. But after listening to speakers which have the sound come out and stage more or less far from you i ended up loving it and headphones ended up becoming a sort of compromise for me. Staging more similiar to a speaker but also portability sort of closer to an iem. If the elex didn’t do it for me i planned to get rid of my hawks and sundaras anyways and just use an iem for all portability. However… the elex kinda surpassed my expectations and now i can’t let go of it for iems nor wireless headphones lol. BUT thankfully they are honestly stil very portable as they can be run off my v30 VERY WELL and also my xduoo 05 plus. Now i can’t and wouldn’t take them to skool, the store etc like i would an IEM but at least i can take it to other countries, peoples houses etc. But i do also like the way IEMs present detail and can totally understand why it’s ur preffered way of getting sound!
Another iem bonus is that at even at high end you’d “only” need something like a Hugo2 or say a WA 11 Topaz to get the best from them, where as HP sources can cost more than the sets themselves.
Yessss @Jose_G. Get a nice pair of IEMs and a DAP and join the dark side. All songs you ever want in your pocket with maximum sound isolation. My Shure se425 for instance was rated at 37 Decibels of isolation!!!
yeah, that’s the biggest issue for me with headphones. when i got the hawks, even tho their sensitivity and impedence is theoretically good for portables the bass was dull. had to buy the xduoo plus which costs as much as the actualy headphones lol. fucking ridiculous. I’m a young dude, i grew up plugging shit to my phone or laptop. I always liked about IEMs that u can just plug em and go
lol, well I’ll probably get some nicer IEMs than my blons 03 later on. For now i’m kinda fine haha. I mean, the blons are pretty dang neat for the price. don’t mind wearing them after getting the vocals a bit more forward with some EQ. KSC75 too, super amazeballs. For now i’m just super happy with the ELEx sound where i haven’t considered an iem or a new speaker set lol. I did buy the starfields, but i’m not even gonna try them. going straight to a friend
wow pretty interesting stuff, tbh i never considered that iems had different drivers besides what headphones have lol. like i’ve never heard of BA or DD drivers. do the blon and tin t2 share one of those?
yeah BA is balanced armature and DD is dynamic driver. The Blons have a single 10mm DD and the Tin T2 have 2, a 10mm and 6mm woofer and tweeter respectively.
There are also, of course, estat drivers for IEMs, most of the Chinese ones aren’t ‘real’ estats, the only pairs I know of that are real estat IEMs are from Stax and Shure make the KSE1500 and KSE1200, all need their own portable amp.
I am yet to hear IEM estats but apparently they are really good for highs, which is why I know that fearless use them in some of their IEMs, the Paladin or Roland I believe.
Many people have said that dynamic drivers reproduce texture better in the bass, something that estats and BA can’t do.
BAs for bass tend to decay quicker but dont have that thump. I don’t know of anyone using estats for bass.
BA are better for mids typically than DD as they are faster.
Yeah! This is exactly what I’m talking about with educating myself about IEMs. Some just have 1 dynamic driver like a dynamic over ear headphone such as the Blon BL 03 or Moondrop Kanas Pro, KXXS and Starfield. Other IEMs have balanced armatures. The hybrids use both. The hybrids specifically I’ve noticed can put a ton of detail into your ears. I haven’t heard the Focal Utopia but I’m assuming or hoping the Utopia is capable of this kind of detail with its Beryllium driver, but I’m not sure. It’s very possible a really good IEM might always beat the technical capabilities of headphones due to it’s multiple driver capabilities. I’m strictly talking about detail and technical capabilities. In the end, all of this is subjective and it’s unfortunate that many of the technical capabilities of headphones and IEMs can not be measured.
yeah pretty interesting stuff, if you go down the rabbit hole with iems and rid of headphones please record your journey lol. i would love to read all about it and ur expiriences
Oh, I have headphones I’ll never part with, but unexpectedly, IEMs are becoming my preferred listening method. Especially for detail and sound stage. I wish I had understood their capabilities long ago.