Relatively new here myself, so give my thoughts consideration without a ton of weight.
I think it depends on how you do iems. I fell in love with the artistic side in addition to sound. I have an iem for my xbox, an iem for my quest 3, 2 iems for listening, and one for my gf.
Conversely, you can only listen to one set at a time. Plus source is important too. I spent like 130 on a dongle dac (ka17 i think it is) and love it, cant foresee needing or wanting another one for years. Got my gf a slightly cheaper one that is BT and it works fine for her needs. So you might consider spending half on a dac if you dont have one as many iems dont sound the best unless you have full/enough power to them. Its like if you bought the tea pro and compared it to a Mustang, and you put a toyota engine in it (no great source)…sure the car looks great but it doesnt have the power to utilize the car…and ear tips are considered tires- you have to find the right tires for the car. If you have a toyota, then the toyota engine is all you need. My xbox controller i have $25 iems (wyvern abyss). My listening iems are tangzu heyday and t61 butterfly, both around $200 range.
I have read people say buy the nicer iem and you will spend less money which is good advice, however source and eartips need to be considered if going that route. Because i havent bought a $300+ iem, i dunno if the improvement is worth the cash.
In my experience, spending more doesn’t equal more enjoyment most of the time. I can enjoy the Explorer just as much as my TOTL sets depending on the day. So don’t put too much stock into the price of the IEM, but more so the tuning, fit and aesthetic if that matters to you, which it seems like it does.
With that being said, under and around $300 has ridiculous competition right now. You’ve joined at the perfect time, it’s almost impossible to pick a bad IEM at that price bracket. Similarly, $100-$150 is somewhat the same story. I think the absolute sweet spot of the hobby right now is $300-$400, so I think if you are ready to jump in head first in that range, you can’t go wrong with the Estrella, Tea Pro or the Elysian Pilgrim. I haven’t heard the Tea Pro yet, but it has gotten praise for it’s vocal forward tuning and being a well rounded IEM. The Pilgrim is a safer tuning, especially in the treble, but it is a really nice IEM. The mid bass is a standout to me. It’s textured and very thumpy. Vocals and treble aren’t incredible blow your socks off, but they are very smooth refined. If you want something a bit more dynamic and fun, I can’t think of a better IEM I’ve heard around that price than the Estrella. Full disclosure, Jay (His collab) is my good friend, so yes I am a bit biased, but with that being said I can objectively say the Estrella will get your feet tapping. It’s standouts are the sub bass texture, open and clear vocals and fairly amazing treble. It’s a U-Shaped sig, so not the most “Natural” but it sure is a super fun and engaging IEM. I would only be a little cautions of the 4-5k region as that can get a little spicy for some folks, me included.
We’re always here to help, brother! Happy to give you suggestions of things I’ve heard.
I 100% Agree with what @domq422 said, you can enjoy a Sub $100 IEM as much as a TOTL—being a student its hard to continue in this hobby of trying fresh items every now and then. Buy pre-loved audio products and sell if you don’t like them - if you have to take risks with any product.
I have some bold subjective takes here,
Sidegrade is a bad thing as a music enjoyer. Jumping very high also won’t do a lot of justice.
I guess you have fixated on the target/sound profile you want. Upgrade slowly and give time to each IEMs, trust me jumping between IEMs is not something you should aim for. EQ is your friend here, learn to EQ to microscopic level to tune your IEMs further if you like something.
Lastly, music is the king here. Don’t skimp out on it to chase the upgrade ladder. Tools are tools and art is art, don’t mix them.
Ah yes I got a cheapo dongle that I currently use and satisfied with it tbh. But I saw that there are decent budget dac like moondrop dawn pro, fiio ka11 etc. Planning to get one of it soon too. I only mainly use my phone and my pc tbh and i usually just bring my iem anywhere with me in a case. Tempted to kinda get two iem, one for my pc which i mainly use for gaming and one for music XD Also regarding the tips I’m planning to get spinfit w1, dunu s&s and maybe divinus or tri clarion. I think those are the most mainstream popular I have seen people recommending so far. I only have a spinfit cp360 so I’m definitely looking forward to trying new tips!
Thanks man! Actually saw a lot of your posts and reviews here in the forum which kinda let me know more about the iems here so thanks for that!
For me I think it’s tuning > fit > aesthetic. As long as the color isnt too wild I would rock it no matter what XD And yeah I felt like the 100-200 and 300-400 felt so competitive now compared to back then when i just got my chu. Lots of companies just churning oout 3-4 iems per year in different price brackets. But I think at least they usually have their own style of tuning which actually kinda nice for us customers.
Also I think I saw you reviewing a bit about the estrella which also made me even more indecisive about estrella or tea pro lol. I tuned my eq using wavelet to the graph of estrella and tea pro and i like the tea pro more, but at the same time its just eq. Cant really judge the iem that has lots more drivers and is actually tuned properly. Felt like i’m going down another rabbit hole now. I think if I can get some nice deals the coming weeks or month I might just pull the trigger on some iems under 200. Then get the tea pro or estrella on 11.11 (I hope). Just kinda sucks that here in Germany I don’t think I can find any place where I can demo these iems before buying them.
Yeah I was a student, now I’m already working hence I’m willing to jump into the rabbit hole. And pre-loved sounds nice actually but the thing is I don’t know if the other people would take care of their stuff as I would mine. I have seen people yanking their earphones however they like (including my own sister) so kinda don’t trust 2nd hand electronics in general XD
Yeah I dont plan to sidegrade. I kinda wanna try the different sound profiles, eventho I kinda know what I want but who knows what happens right? Also I think preferences can change anytime in life. Like I used to hate rock and kpop and now I’m into them.
Is there any nice guide about EQ you would recommend? I have only been using squiglink with wavelet so might not be optimal if i wanna try myself what i like
Sadly that’s most places; I know there aren’t a lot of storefronts out there that even carry IEMs beyond TWS and some stuff like Sennheiser, but you might get lucky at tradeshows like High End Munich if you can make it (far more Stereo-focused than headphone or IEMs, but both exhibitors and possibly attendees may be able to help). If you end up hopping over the channel, there’s also places like Elise Audio in the UK which can be arranged for visits to try all manner of stuff. I do have to agree with @Argha that if you don’t just take educated shots in the dark, buying used is the best way to get your beak wet with little risk for serious losses. Places like our Buy/Sell thread and r/avexchange as well as r/avexchangeEU are great resources to that end.
Yeah, I realize that it’s a hop, skip and a jump BUT if you ended up travelling to London for another reason, I wanted you to know that they’re out there haha.
Estrella is on demo tour right now in germany (in exchange for wrtiting a few words about it) , send me a pm with your adress and we can arrange something
I have spent the past few years buying a bunch of budget set and also <$200 sets to try different sound siganture, find what I like and just for the fun of trying different things.
If I could give my own self from a few years ago an advice knowing what I know now, I would say: skip the budget IEMs and buy a good set around $200-400. I now use mainly Cadenza4 and Doscinco and I’m very happy.
The Tea Pro (or similar) looks like a really good choice for a balanced sound.
I have the same thinking but one of my fear was “what if I spent all these money and it didn’t meet my expectation?”. But I guess at this price range there shouldnt be any diminishing returns yet. And also jumping to a 300€ pair should be leaps and bounds above my current nuo
Yeah I mean I don’t think for me 500€+ would really makes any difference for me since I don’t deal with audio everyday anyway. Also saw that you have tried quite a few tips. Any recommendation on cheap good tips? I plan to get spinfit w1, divinus (still dunno standard or wide), tangzu sancai (also dunno balanced pr wide), penon liqueur orange/black, dunu s&s but heard that last one is kinda hit or miss
will take a look at the subredit tho thanks for that rec!
Get on it man.