I do think that speakers properly set up are better. Near field gets rid of a lot of room problems. Timeless vs Sundara is to me close. I owned Sundaras and now Timeless . The sound is very good for both. I do like the fact I can listen and not disturb others.
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Overall Iâd say IEMs and headphones are very close nowadays. For example, the Sony Z1Râs has better bass texture and soundstage imaging than my LCD-X; whereas the B2 Dusk, Oxygen, and Mangird Teas are very competitive to the Sundara and Monolith M1070 last time I A/B them. I find headphones to have better dynamics and timbre, whereas IEMs tend to be better in bass and technicalities at similar pricing.
With the release of the Olina, an $100 IEM now competes with $300+ headphones like the Sundara and Monolith M1070. This rapid improvement in IEMs is mainly due to the high competition between many ChiFi brands (which the headphone market lacks) that overall drives the price down while improving the price to performance value. At this rate, I think in a year or two IEMs will overtake headphones in-terms of value/price to performance judging by the onslaught of new ChiFi brands fighting each other for a spot which in-return increases competition and benefits us consumers. So itâs more due to the market context and manufactures (supply) rather than âiems are better than headphonesâ or vice-versa.
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Yes, we are in the era of IEMs. There is no such competition with headphones.
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If youâre comparing closed back headphones, then i think iems can compete on a like-for-like cost but with open back headphones, nope not a chance.
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I need you to give me examples (recent/up to date).
For comparisons, Sundara, M1070, and LCD-X are all open-backs; Iâve owned all of them as well as IEMs like the Z1R, B2 Dusk, Oxygen, Tea (with A/B) which are very competitive and cheaper since you donât need an amp. A Sundara setup is around $550-600 whereas an IEM one is around $400-450 since you donât need an amp.
So if weâre talking about price-to-price here IEMs are better value no competition. Close-backs are even worse price to performance wise. Again, this mainly has to do with IEM Chifi saturation vs the lack of Chifi competition in the headphone market. What youâre saying wouldâve been correct 2 years ago, but not anymore. The IEM market has changed drastically and is simply not the same. Especially Olina ($100); there are no headphones I can think of that can compete with it under $300. I recommend you trying the Olina for yourself 
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And how about Mon MK2, Helios, UM MEXT which cost about 1000 dollars? Are they competing with headphones for $ 1,000? I have no experience with headphones, only with IEMs, so I ask. 
i think its most likely the tuning of some iems u might like more like for instance i love my 7hz timeless but i find the bass quantity a little bit much but everything else i love about them and i compare the bass punch to the he6se v2 over ear headphone even though the quantity of bass is completely different.
Open backs and I have owned them are nice. However it is impossible to be around others without interfering. . That for me is a no. I also feel just like planars play a role in open back sound there are planars that will raise the stakes and my guess it within a year or tops 2. I sold my open backs not because they were not great but for the fact of limited places to listen.
Personally I think both can be equally worthwhile depending on what you are going for. I will say imo in the ultra budget realm hands down iems tends to run circles around the sub 100 buck headphones in most aspects, but for more entry level or midrange headphones they can even out with different priorities and goals, and I think thatâs the same as you continue up even into the higher end. Itâs really going to depend on the person and what characteristics they want to focus on, and generally also what presentation style they prefer. Some love how iems present, some absolutely do not, so thatâs going to be a deciding factor for sure regardless of all other technical performance something may have. I might be able to make an argument about value per dollar for iems over headphones, but from my experience they really arenât that far off from each other and it will depend on the specific headphone or iem at hand. I will say in general with the more entry level to midrange iems their source gear demands are lower so that can factor into being cheaper overall (but they tend to scale less because of that in the future, I will also say the idea that iems donât need good source gear isnât true from my experience, both headphones and iems need good sources to really sound their best, this isnât that big of a concern in the more budget ranges, but when you get higher end in either side the source gear demands can get fairly strong and not be a cheap endeavor).
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I could write a long paraghraph, but I will just say this: Focal Elex, Verum 1, Denon 5k (thereâs also the ESP95X which I have yet to unpack so I canât comment on it) donât need a crazy amp and I will gladly match them up with the Timeless or similarly priced IEMs any time of day. Same for other headphones though, especially things like the 6XX, 560S which are pretty overrated imo.
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I think the background noise reduction provided by IEMs and the potential impact on dynamic range could be a factor in your (OPâs) perception.
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Iâd agree, somewhat more forgiving headphones when it comes to amps, they donât need one, but they sure benefit from having a nice one (also not to ignore the dac, since if the dac canât do it properly, neither can the rest of the downstream components/chain)
The 560s wasnât really as special as some made it out to be for me, although I think the 6 series senns can be incredible with the right pairing, but itâs a lot more picky amp wise than a lot of the aforementioned. But still I see many not really a fan of it, itâs a specific sound for a specific taste
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Open HPâs = a hot, sweaty and heavy way to fail at replicating speakersâŚClosed back HPâs = even hotter and heavier way to fail at replicating IEMâsâŚSimples.
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IEMs = a failure at both replicating speakers and headphones. I personally wouldnât take an approach like this because I donât really think headphone designers are really trying to replicate speakers or iems, or iems replicating headphones or speakers, and definitely not speakers trying to replicate headphones or iems lol. All 3 provide distinctly different experiences from each other, imo they figured out long ago that trying to replicate the experience of another format/medium wasnât really that fruitful and it was better to focus on what the format they chose did best at. If you are going to go about making an iem, might as well focus on taking advantage of what in ears do best rather than trying to turn it into something itâs not, same goes with other formats. At least thatâs just been my experience with the 3
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I liked that 
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Very wise thoughts. You should not try to do one thing with another!
Doesnât help that I have an old 650 which probably sounds different than the 6XX⌠I accidentally wrote 6XX cause Iâve absorbed the notion that both should sound the same but they probably donâtâŚ
They donât sound exactly the same but they are close enough to where I think itâs safe to use them somewhat interchangeably, they are more similar than not
But this is what makes us human.
Many have asked what differentiates humans from other animals. Some point to a âsoulâ or âspiritâ, but thus far, we have been unable to scientifically observe or measure this aspect, so I will dodge the metaphysical question as not able to be compared at this time.
However, others have tried to point to intelligence as the difference. This argument is continuing to decay and crumble as we learn how very intelligent many of our cousins in the animal kingdom actually are. Others try to use our language as a point of differentiation. However, again, the vocalizations of many of the great apes as well as those of marine mammals are more and more beginning to be revealed as extremely complex, communicating not just simple intents, but emotional and coordinative logistical information, and even regional dialects are being revealed. The more we learn, the more the language argument is crumbling as well. Finally, as a last ditch effort, some will point to tool use and/ or manufacture as being what makes us different. However, this argument too is beginning to crumble as we have observed some apes not only using sticks and rocks, but using sticks and rocks on one another to improve the intended function, and then keeping a well made tool for future use.
Only the human, however, can deliberately choose the wrong tool for the job.
Only a human would be laying under an American made car, with a set of imperial sized sockets and wrenches, and discover that the bolt he needs to remove is metric in size. Now, this human knows he has a set of metric wrenches 15â away at his toolbox, but heck, itâs only one bolt, so he grabs the pliers that are right next to him and tries to use them to remove this bolt. Only a human will skin all four knuckles on his right hand when the pliers slip, because he was too lazy to climb out from under the car and walk the 15â to get the correct tool.
Only a human can deliberately choose the wrong tool for the job. This is what makes us unique in the animal kingdom.
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Yes, only man makes the same mistake twice.