indeed, but the public consciousness often finds things that the can mostly agree upon, hence products get reputations… like the HD600 being good for orchestral / instrumental / classical music and especially so on a OTL tube amp.
…or, even as contentious ad it is, how the harmon frequency response is gaining momentum as a performance benchmark.
I was looking to see whether any of the mentioned IEMs have shown this to be true of them.
I might skip the Aria. Mine just didn’t hold up, the connectors were loose at 2 months and shorting before 4, and they didn’t leave my desk. I don’t have a good impression of recent Moondrop QC and manufacturing. The cable connectors were the common issue on the Aria, and it seems like they still haven’t fixed it, and the DOA reports seemed to go up for months. Also the stock cable sucks, so it is an $80 IEM that needs a cable upgrade.
Mele is a 100% agree
While I am hearing great things about that Tin T3+, and the KZ ZEX Pro, have either made it past the reviewers yet, and into the hands of normal people just listening to music? I think the T3+ is a yes, but the ZEX Pro is a no at this point. OG ZEX got more hype than it deserved, but only because of the under $25 thing.
Etymotic ER2XR is recommended a bunch. I can’t stand the Etymotic fit, but to each their own.
I always forget about that one. I almost bought the Legacy 3 around the time I got the Starfield. It sort of fell off the radar when the Starfield and Aria took that around $100 spotlight. Thieaudio really moved into their own place with Clairvoyance and Oracle, in more upscale price brackets.