I got you:
It’s not a squig graph, so less handy, but still gives you some idea.
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I dig that!
Sorry still catching up, im out of town for my mom’s bday and going back home today. Expect at least one or two takes very soon (maybe today)
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Ok, let me give an update: I have been listening to the IE600 for the last couple of days and was pleasantly surprised. I think the tonality is very good. Better than the CCA CRA and better than the 7hz Timeless. What it is lacking in my opinion is the resolution. I think it is the fault of it being single-DD. It is the best single-DD I have heared so far - hands down - but then again I haven’t heared a lot. I think much cheaper (Planar/BA-Hybrid-)IEMs have a better resolution (e.g. Timeless or Blessing 2).
On a side note: Super Review released his IE600 recently and he gave it 5/5 stars calling it a potential endgame, if I remember correctly. If I wouldn’t care about resolution and detail, I might agree.
So is it worth 900 dollars? For me: no it is not (I would still pick the Timeless over it regardless of price), but I can see, why it would be for folks who like single-DDs. But then again: I don’t know the high end single-DD market well.
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interesting, you are assuming people that buy a $50 iem also bought a $100 source such as qudelix 5k, my guess is that users that don’t want to spend more than $50 on an iem would power it from their phone/laptop or from a $10 usb dac. for someone with a total of $150 would not you recommend buying a $140 iem + $10 usb dac to maximize sound quality over a $50 iem + $100 quedelix 5k( to get the flexibility benefit of bluetooth and equalizer ) ?
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Problem with the budget range for sources, is that.
- chifi dongles have crap QC.
- Apple dongle being the best dongle, is heavily bottlenecked for eu people and on android.
Also, the budget range for iems is getting better and better. We are seeing a lot of great sub 50 usd iems coming out lately. Not so much for the 100-200 usd range.
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ok then let’s forget the $10 dongle if you say QC is a lottery. if your max audio budget is $150. won’t the best $150 iem sound better powered from the internal dac of a phone or laptop (most of us have pretty recent phone/laptop with decent internal dac) sound better than the best $50 iem powered by the best $100 source ?
There is no “best” iem, only iems that will suit your library more than others.
That 100-200 price range doesnt have too many great iem nowadays (filled with planars now) compared to the budget range that u can find a lot of great stuff.
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yes you are right, you can replace “best iem” with “iem that fits your library/signature taste” my point was that once you picked your favorite signature the driver in a “good/approved by the comunity” $150 iem should be "better technically " than any driver in a “good/approved by the comunity” $50 iem and the slight improvement in sound quality from qudelix 5k vs internal dac from phone or laptop could not turn this fact around.
Personally, I invested in a Qudelix and ifi zen DAC early on in this hobby, and I am grateful that I did. It means all subsequent expenditures can focus on the #1 influence on sound - the IEM itself (at least, within my budget of max 400 USD for now). Well, I guess #1 might be your ears, so always take care of those 
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yes i agree that buyer of $50 iems would never spend more than $100 on a source (if it is what you meant by “maximum” ) but my point is : i know you don’t advise it but for those tempted by such a configuration is it wise to spend 2/3 of you budget on the source and only 1/3 of the budget on the driver
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Of course it isn’t. Im a big preacher of apple dongle while you are on a budget. Sources are the thing that matter the least on a chain, if you ignore cables.
The reasons I choose qudelix:
- I own it and it’s clean af
- Built in PEQ on the go, so I can test stuff - and yes, most people that PM are open to EQ/modding
- Is not overly powerful so some dongles around 50 bucks would be the same. You also have stuff like VE Odysey HD for 10 bucks
- I wanna be able to BT during comutes
- A lot of people own q5k or equivalentent. Not everyone that looks for budget is a newcomer, there’s also people looking for beaters
- Because I’m the one taking hours A/Bing stuff and I wanted it like this. I have a 12h/day corporate job. This is an hobby. And a subjective one.
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I think the whole thing is a mute discussion.
@amanieux you are right, that allocating money to the IEM is probably more important than to the source and probably some phone internal dac+amp is good enough. But if @nymz wants to review those IEM, wouldn’t you want him to use a clean source, even if the typical buyer wouldn’t have one? This way you can at least be sure nymz tests the IEM and not the compatibility to some random cheap source, that no one actually owns?
In other words: the source choosen to trial the budget IEMs, shouldn’t really be more that a footnote
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The point is the be consistent on clean source, not which source is being used.
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How’s IE600 stage? Still waiting on mine.
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I am the wrong person to ask about stage, as I don’t really care for it. But some observations, which may or may not answer your question:
- it is neither as thin sounding as the timeless, nor as full sounding as the Mest Mk2
- it has pretty emphasized treble, so opposite to the og tea it is not very good for cranking up the volume
Looking forward to reading your impressions. Also you can much better rate it compared to other single-DDs. I think the most expensive single-DDs I have heared are the Aria and Dunu Titan S (oh… and the 1.3k Euro Technics IEM, which sounded much worse than the IE600)
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Is not the planar remark reveal a bias 
I am kidding but this is not a hobby in black and white.
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Well, I dont particularly like planars lol.
But it is true that planars is all you hear about nowadays in that price range.
Yes I would agree they are the hot iems today.