Look for Confort > Quality > Looks.
You wonāt use something that you canāt handle for X hours, you wonāt buy something that feels cheap and you prolly donāt want a pink cable on black/brown IEM (I hope ahah)
Yeah, definitely. Not to mention that whatever IEM that I get are gonna be my first earhook style earphones so comfort is an obvious thing Iām going to be looking out for since I might just end up using them on my laptop for daily use. Definitely gonna want something with minimal to no microphonics because my current ones have a ton.
Do yourself a favor and donāt buy some shitty DAC with no measurements and no record of reliability other than few hyped up reviews on Headfi.
If money is an issue, buy usb c apple dongle which costs around 10$/ā¬ and youāre good to go. Up to around 100$/ā¬, go for Hidizs S9 (Pro) or Qudelix 5k. Both measured on audiosciencereview and they donāt put noise into signal and have plenty of power for IEMs. Both also support 2.5 balanced output alongside 3.5 unbalanced
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Mainly considered the JM20 because I thought I was going to go with the Moondrop Aria and itās sold in the same online shop so I didnāt have to order from 2 different shops, but since Iām probably going to get the Tea then Iām probably gonna get the Tempotec Sonata HD pro. The S9 is a bit much already and the 5k isnāt currently available where Iām at, not to mention Iām already stretching my budget a ton with the Tea.
edit*
Not to mention this is my first jump into headfi and audiophile in general, hence currently waiting on demo-ing the Tea before pulling the trigger
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Received mine earlier todayā¦
Iāll let the gifās speak for meā¦ 
EDIT: Also quickly settled on SpinFit CP-100ās.
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I understand, in that case I would go for Apple dongle. Itās cheaper than Jcally, you can get it locally and itās proven to be good.
Reviews for Jcally like āreference flat tuning with slight treble pushā makes me want to punch the reviewer because this means that DAC is coloring the sound. DAC should only transform signal from digital to analog, nothing else.
Get apple dongle, donāt stretch more than you can 
Itās pretty good, even if cheap.
My boy! Welcome to the club. Take your time with them, they are lovely! They kinda spoiled my journey since they were my second pair on my first monthā¦ Glad I did it
Do you have other cables to test if you hear any difference to the stock one? Mine was crappy
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Iāll do a bit more research and will consider the apple dongle, just a bit unsure considering the quality of appleās cables which isnāt the best. After a bit of googling there were some concerns regarding the volume issue on android, but the Tea is a fairly sensitive IEM in any case, so it probably wonāt be an issue.
Fortunately, thereās an apple store relatively close to the shop where Iām gonna test the Tea, pretty much across the street so it can be done in the same trip.
Now I just hope someone wonāt steal the last Tea from under me before I can go and give it a test
Thanks
Iām going on vacation next week with the kids, the wife and my parents.
First time going on a vacation with the āold folksā in like 20 years (theyāve promised to look after the kids some of the time)ā¦
Iām guessing/hoping Iāll be able to ādrift offā in the evenings with themā¦
So far, Iām really impressed by them (and I have quite a lot of IEMs) and am currently listening to them via the balanced output on a Loxjie P20 (got them with the 2.5mm cable) with some 64 Reflektor 6N3P-DR tubes in it.
Tried them on my BTR-5, RNHP (no IEMatch, yet so that didnāt work well) and the FiiO K5 Pro and they just sound more āopenā somehow on the Loxjie.
I have lots of spare cables too. Amongst them two newly purchased XINHS cables but havenāt tried switching cables yet.
I donāt feel a āneedā for it. The original cable works well and feels/looks nice IMOā¦
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Youāre overthinking it Relax and take a deep breath.
You can run it from a phone. With my phone, dongle and Teas I canāt even get to half volume bar lol.
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Good to know!
Enjoy your vacations. I just came from a 3 week vacation on the beach and I gotta admit, my DAP and my Teas were the first thing I threw in the bag. They were trusty pals at night and on the beach relaxing. They have an amazing price to performance ration, in my opinion.
Never tried tubes, curious tho.
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Thanksā¦ Will do
Might give the Little Bear B4X a go if Youāre into portable stuff (but You should know that itās pretty noisy with most IEMs - though it works well with something like the TinHifi P1ās).
Iām actually looking at either the Shanling M3X or the Hiby R6 2020 (I āneedā Tidal Master/MQA quality on it so it seems it has to be a ārealā Android one) as Iām finding I need to recharge my phones like 2-3 times a day on āgood daysā (where I get a lot of listening done)ā¦
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Overthinking is one of the things I do best, aside from sudden rash decisions lol.
Just making sure Iām getting the best I can get reasonably within my means thatās a meaningful step up from what I currently have, which funnily enough this pair of IEMs cost more than when I bought my current phone.
Also Iām not super worried about volume, Iām mainly concerned with the decoding of higher resolution files to get the most out of the experience
Iāll be the 3rd then: Get the Apple Dongle.
Zeos can be the 4th:
Josh can be the 5th:
Anyone else wanna chip in and quash dudeās doubt? 
Trust us, you wanna go with something cheap AND good to test audio accessories before upgrading. Any dac thatās colored will ruin your idea of what a proper dac should sound like. Itās like how hard it is to convert Beat by Dre fanboys to true audiophile headphones.
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Tempotec sonata hd pro could be another option
Just plugged the Teas in after spending the morning trying tips with the FH3 in my ears. Wow, I canāt get over just how lush (yep, thatās the right word just now) the Teas sound - love these things! 
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Tea`s do not sound violent, but calm! You probably havenāt listened to loud headphonesā¦
I think you got everything wrong due to translation. We were talking about Volume, not sound signaturesā¦
eh?? Yep, something got lost in translation here.