Both the Sarda and Tia Trio sound pretty interesting to me, I’ll probably have a bit of a listen to what I currently have in terms of headphones over the next few days to decide what sort of signature I want to go for first before I fully start ruling out IEMs and properly narrowing down my list
Even though Jomo Trinity was one of my favorite pairs, I will probably recommend you to take it off your list.
It scales very high and ended up being one of my favorite pairs, but you will have to invest in your source gear to get it to sound how you want. I thought it was pretty boring when I had it on a mid-range DAP – it was quite picky with source. It was still listenable, but just underwhelming. For a data point, I went from Cayin N6ii E02 to P6 Pro.
I think @FiCurious may have a similar data point and feedback.
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Might be better to wait until I have batter source gear to get something like those then, since I am looking at getting something like the N6ii/DX300/Kann Alpha when I upgrade dap.
Lol, it’s too bad you are on the other side of the pond. The used market is slightly easier over here.
Yeah always makes things a bit more tricky, since customs adds a lot unfortunately
To me what would stand out would be the tia trio and earsonics grace for the sound you are after imo, both should hit the signature you are looking for while remaining very technically impressive. Both also aren’t overly source picky but still scale very well. I haven’t heard the gae blog but given how other mmr iems have sounded, it could be a good contender. Other things I would mention would most likely be outside the price bracket (used) like a vision ears ve8 or erlkonig, fir m5 or m4 perhaps
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Yep…funny enough, also went N6ii with E02 to P6 Pro, but with Trinity SS instead of Brass. Part of the challenge with the Trinity is that they are much less sensitive than most IEMs, so they’re pretty demanding, but also picky with what you feed them. With the N6ii, I needed to use a SPC cable or the bass could be a bit loose and get overwhelming, where as on the P6 pro, everything is very well controlled and I can go back to using copper to get a little extra meat in the low end when the mood strikes.
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Looking a bit more into it, the Earsonics Grace and MMR Gae Bolg are probably now my top two contenders. My only issue with the Grace is availability here, since nowhere in the UK sells them and new they’re usually like $2k from what I’ve seen (although they are $1.5k from MusicTeck) so I might need to see if I can wait for a used deal on them. As for the MMR, there’s a shop here that stocks the base model for £1.1k so I can afford to wait a while to get either a better idea of what I want from reviews, or get a good used deal.
From what I have been reading, it seems that the pre 2020 andros would probably not suit my preferences as much? Just thinking for looking out on the used market. The andro 2020 is a bit cheaper than the other two at around £950 but I don’t mind spending that bit extra for something that I may enjoy more.
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Is it worth trying to figure out if I favour different types of drivers at all? Or do the differences become less apparent at this sort of level with IEMs?
I think you should try different drivers at the lower price range (0-50) usd. So you can know what you prefer. At higher tiers the differences between drivers arent as apprarent, but it is still a factor.
If you can wait/save and get to
https://canjamglobal.com/shows/london2021/
You’ll be able to try out a few higher end sets, I’ll be there for sure 
The MEST Mk1 gets my vote. Haven’t had a chance to hear the Mk2 yet.
I might end up seeing if I can do that, although I’m not sure I can be that patient to wait until October to choose 
I’m looking at some reviews to compare against the others now
I might end up looking into some cheaper stuff to see what I do like.
One thing to note, especially if you have not solidified your choice or cannot demo it. It may help to try something that has some hype, in case you need to resell it.
Just for example, you may have trouble reselling the Grace if you get that, whereas, MMR is riding some hype. This is just an example though.
Yeah that makes sense, I’ve not seen any Gae Bolg up for sale although I haven’t seen many Graces up so far. Jomo for some reason seems really difficult to sell from what I’ve seen.
Has anyone tried the Jomo Tangos? Just been reading a review of them and they seem to be relatively well suited to the signature I am wanting. They’re also currently on sale for $800 at musicteck. If I went for them, I might also get myself a custom version of one of the cheaper Jomos like the Haka to try out CIEMs.
Don’t always have the exact sound sig as universal’s do, shell shape can effect this…I think Campfire posted on this when they started doing CIEM’s.
I’d definitely look into reviews of ones that I am interested in to see what people say about the specific ciem performance, I know with something like the MEST, I’ve seen people liking the sound more with the ciem version.
I think it’s sorta like tip rolling…if the CIEM’s dope for you then 
(no sale without a re-shell) but if you’re down with a universal then CIEM won’t necessarily be better.
Yeah that’s my only issue since it’d be a big loss if I wanted to sell it on, I was thinking to try something cheaper first to see how I like the ciem style and then I’ll maybe get a higher end one in the future
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