As Thom Yorke sang in “Creep,” with a small lyric change by me, “We are weirdos.” We are audiophiles. We are the 1 percenters in this hobby, for what we spend, for the passion we show and the time we take trying new models and discussing them in places like here. The average consumer is NOTHING like us.
When I’m among the “gen pop” in public places like airports, on the streets, etc., about 95 percent of the people I see with headphones are using wireless models. That’s over-ear and IEMs.
Headphones are a hobby for us, a true passion. For the other 99 percent of the world, they’re an accessory, an appliance. They’re an iPhone. An Apple Watch. A new pair of Jordans.
I have given the Wan’er and Hola to friends who didn’t have headphones. They were blown away by the sound and also surprised that wired earbuds still exist. All they see at their local Best Buy is wireless.
Maybe you see a coming explosion of public interest in IEMs in your world. I sure as hell don’t in mine here in the Northeast of the U.S.
I’m torn on whether a renaissance for wired headphones/earphones would be good or bad. Good, as it would breed more competition in a growing marketplace. Bad, because prices could climb if IEMs become popular. Just look at the prices of some TWS buds with crap sound – it’s obscene.
Pull quote: The ANC Headphones Market size is estimated at USD 17.88 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 34.42 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 14% during the forecast period (2024-2029).
ANC headphone revenue is larger than the GDP of scores of nations, placing ANC headphone revenue between the GDP of Mali and Mozambique. Ranking ANC headphone revenue a nation ranking of #120 in the world.
Pull quote: The global in-ear-monitors (IEMs) market is expected to enjoy a valuation of US$ 344.7 Million in the year 2022, and further expand at a CAGR of 9.0% to reach a valuation of US$ 749.7 Million by the year 2032.
344.7 million divided by 17.88 billion, then times 100 = 1.9% for the revenue of IEMs vs. ANC headphones.
I love my IEMs, but most of the time I am using my sublime Sony XM5s. Funny that I end up EQing the XM5s in somewhat the Harman curve.
If you’ll look at the top row, I have Plunge Unity and Kinera Skuld next to each other in my jewel case. I personally think that they are extremely complimentary IEMs.
I think they share a tuning philosophy, to reduce the ear gain, and be a balanced, midcentric playback. Skuld is a little more V-shape, with more sub-bass, ear gain, and mid-treble. I don’t find Unity to be shrill, but I think it’s fair to say if someone is not used to not boosting the ear gain (and bass and/or treble to balance) then it will sound bad or even wrong to someone.
Also, Unity is absolutely unforgiving on poorly mixed music and sources that are lacking. Skuld scales well to better gear but Unity chews up and spits out your gear if it’s not buttoned up.
Unity 1000% isn’t a universal IEM, for the masses. I respect what it does but I don’t think it’s an IEM that will be loved by or recommendable to most people. You gotta want exactly what Unity is spitting out, and you better know what you’re getting into when you get it.
For pure music-enjoying purposes, I’d enjoy Skuld a little more. I like what it does a little more. If I wanted to monitor/mix music or I wanted the best isolation I can get my hands on, Unity in a heartbeat.
But I can personally enjoy Unity for music listening too, as a rotational changeup set. If I had to pick only one set, it would not be Unity. If you’re giving me a rotation of 3-5 sets? Absolutely I’d pack it
Throughout 50 years of being in love with hifi reproduction, I have gone in and out of that rabbit hole of cable swapping in hopes of further controlling the sound reaching my ears, even though I never did hear a difference myself. I was convinced differences don’t exist.
Yet still, after reading or watching countless folks talking about these differences, I managed to be skeptical and hopeful at the same time.
I am 64 now, and just this year, several months ago, I purchased 2 Penon cables, Asos and Space. So one for Jupiter, one for Butastur. Jupiter already came with a “premium” cable albeit a bit delicate and with gold as one of the conductors, so I simply wanted to try something else.
As hard as I could focus with the Jupiter and either of those cables I could not readily discern a difference.
Butastur however, was the different story. I laughed out loud and immediately thought of more than one person I owed an apology , or at least an acknowledgement to. Rico, at Egghead in Manila for starters.
To be clear, I always hoped to hear a difference, I just didn’t, and admitted such to myself and others.
I care little if someone else does or doesn’t believe me, won’t try and convince anyone this or that cable sounds like this or that either. ( this post will be the extant)
What I will say , In front of God and man, is that cables can and do affect the sound.
In my case, the jury is out as to whether this difference is an upgrade, because with the Space and Butastur, the vocal moved back slightly but the entire soundfield went from flat ish, to dimensional, with better definition. Tit for tat, quid pro quo…whatever, the difference is plain as day with that example.
That difference is less pronounced with my other less resolving iems.
At the end of it all, I’m in it for the music, not so much the equipment…the difference was not one I will chase after, it can get very pricey and the ROI is small for me. Yet, I do enjoy the heck out that setup with classical music.
I’m not on this forum anymore but have to log in to say: yup, Symphonium Crimson beats the light out of many sets with more drivers, both in number and types.
My favorite IEM for music like rock and metal, not perfect for all music.
Must admit when I got it I was expecting it to be horrible, the measurement look horrible. But instead it did put a smile on me immediately, but I bet it won’t work for everyone.
The bass is big and fun, but also goes into the low mids. So mid purists going to hate this, the driver is very agile and helps it not sound muddy to me.
There is also the upper mids scoop, this is why it work for me on metal and rock. Relaxes down some of the more tiresome elements in metal, while still having very good clarity due to the treble. But again this amount of treble will be to much for some, I am old Beyerdynamic fan and enjoy treble
I am more sensitive to upper treble and air like 64audio have, so Bonneville is fine for me as its treble peak is lower.
Biggest elephant in the room about Bonneville is pricing for the amount drivers.
Aggressive? Really? I think you might be overstating that a little bit. I just expressed how I felt about the set. How you took that in and reacted is on you, not me.
Well said. I choose to look at this differently. I am 53. I had no interest in this hobby a year ago. My “risky” purchase at the time was a B&W Px7s2 which happened to come with a cable for charging and another cable… for what? So I started looking at reviews. And even though it was a rough start, I found someone who had actually used it wired and with a dac/amp. The iFi Hipdac to be exact. I wondered why, so I picked one up and tried it out. Now I know that it was the wrong way to approach it. The B&W, as a powered, wireless headphone already had a dac and adding another one into the chain was, well, ridiculous. I tried to convince myself that I heard a difference, and maybe there was, but I doubt it. They could only be used with the power on. If they had passive capability, then perhaps the hipdac would have made a difference. Anyway my curiosity kicked in and I started researching what these dac amps were actually supposed to be used with when I came upon the Letshouer S12 Pro. And that is what flipped the switch. Now, if a guy like me, at my age and only a little experience with Hi-Fi (really just speakers) can get excited about this hobby, then anyone who is a lover of music certainly can. Maybe not to the level I have gone to, but at least enough to check out a set or two. So that is what I hope for and I do believe there is potential. The one thing that needs to be avoided for it to really catch on is elitism. And just like the wine business that I spent over 20 years in, elitism runs rampant in the audiophile community. And that brings me back to the Unity. And that is why I have a problem with it, and sets like it. If we want more people to get into this hobby (which we absolutely should), then it needs to be approachable and not intimidating or financially out of reach. Look, these sets need to exist too - the expensive ones I mean. There should be something out there for everyone. But I just don’t think it does anyone any good to overhype and overpriced set like this. Now, I am going to speak with Simon Fisk today on the phone so I can get some answers directly from the owner of Plunge Audio. Based on his emails, he has probably already recruited me into his camp. But that doesn’t mean I agree with the philosophy of some of you folks. I do appreciate how passionate you are about Simon’s creations. But damn, check your attitude. Most of what you said (and you know who you are) was just uncalled for. And if it were directed at someone who actually cared what you said, it could have really turned them off to not just the Unity, but the hobby in general. Luckily, I don’t give a rats ass what you say. I went straight to the source. And although he appreciates your support, even he thought the start of this on YouTube was a bit too “hot”. Thankfully he is not on HiFiGuides. And I told him not to bother checking in. So your support is indeed appreciated, but your tone was definitely not. Just keep that in mind. I will update y’all after our conversation. Until then, stay classy San Diego.
…The one thing that needs to be avoided for this hobby to really catch on is elitism. And just like the wine business that I spent over 20 years in, elitism runs rampant in the audiophile community. And that brings me back to the Unity. And that is why I have a problem with it, and sets like it. If we want more people to get into this hobby (which we absolutely should), then it needs to be approachable and not intimidating or financially out of reach. Look, these sets need to exist too - the expensive ones I mean. There should be something out there for everyone. But I just don’t think it does anyone any good to overhype an overpriced set like this. Now, I am going to speak with Simon Fisk today on the phone so I can get some answers directly from the owner of Plunge Audio. Based on his emails, he has probably already recruited me into his camp. But that doesn’t mean I agree with the philosophy of some of you folks. I do appreciate how passionate you are about Simon’s creations. But damn, check your attitude. Most of what you said (and you know who you are) was just uncalled for. And if it were directed at someone who actually cared about what you said, it could have really turned them off to not just the Unity, but the hobby in general. Luckily, I don’t give a rats ass what you say. I went straight to the source. And although he appreciates your support, even he thought the start of this on YouTube was a bit too “hot”. Thankfully he is not on HiFiGuides. And I told him not to bother checking in. So your support is indeed appreciated, but your tone was definitely not. Just keep that in mind. I will update y’all after our conversation. Until then, stay classy San Diego.
