I can see both ways of it: You get sent it, and people should hear if it’s good, bad, indifferent or whatever.
But also, your time is valuable too and do you want people reading too many “it’s fine, plays music okay, don’t rec” reviews?
It’s a tough line to walk
You nailed it 
Like after hearing Olina SE, Fan 2, and P1 Max in short order, I really don’t want to bother with stuff that can’t hang at least in my B-tier, and probably high B-tier at that. I have BARELY touched Kai in weeks and it’s a nice set.
Everybody else can just go home cause you’re drunk if I’m going to use you
And the more often you hear totl stuff, more often you don’t want to hear budget stuff because they simply don’t cut it.
But a reviewers life is different, average user wants best for 100-200$/€ and as a reviewer, that’s also where most of your audience is.
Oh man, I feel that. Once I heard the Monarchs, my interest in budget sets dwindled down to just pure curiosity rather than buying it to enjoy it. As Goober said, it’s a tough line to walk. Although, I see that some reviewers write reviews that I find as pure entertainment, rather than material to ingest to justify a purchase. Not sure if I’m alone on that, but that’s one of the reasons why I’m on this site and head-fi so much.
Exactly, after hearing the holy trinity, most iems just sound…average or bad. 
I am in 100% agreement which is really wonderful because I get no FOMO from budget and mid tier sets anymore.
Since i listened to mangird teas, the budget sets I have seen way more boring.
I continue looking to many reviewers because I’m a techhead. Zeos is the best example of “entertaining even if the gear doesn’t interest me”.
Honestly, I’m just trying to knock out tiers and categories: I’ve got my budget set, my $100 set, my hybrid set, and I knocked out a lot of the DD-driver types (LCP, DLC, CNT, Titanium, bio). Something TOTL would probably close me out but the itch to try things, to grow my frame of reference is hard to not scratch
That’s also the reason why Serratus gets my highest rec. I know @nymz is recommending it on every possible occasion but man… @tgx really created something special.
It’s easily up there with Z1R, U12T and Trio for me for a mere 200usd. It’s a steal of a decade.
Or drive you wanting to hear even more TOTL stuff 
Ahhh Zeos. I can openly admit that I don’t agree with how he necessarily reviews his gear, but I can’t deny that it’s entertaining. I was watching his review on the Stellaris earlier and while I can’t seem to understand HOW he hears them the way he hears them, but jesus christ is it all over the place and funny as hell to watch
Correct. It does nothing but force you into wondering “What does $2k, $3k, $4k get you?” 
You’re not wrong about the urge! Lol
How good is the Serratus?
Over level 9000 
What rock were you under?
Good news is that it is on sale 
Genuine question. Whats the consensus on where budget ends and mid tier beginnings and ends? Because when I see $2-4k I get thrown of on where budget and mid tier are. Something like the UM Le Jardin at $8k skews it even more. At that price everyone of my IEMs could be considered budget.
Speaking of the devil…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkjO3nkvjZ5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Im thrilled to see this one come alive. For months I’ve heard Jim talking about how sad he was by not being able to produce any Ripples since the driver was gone.
He even shared, in cofidence, his “recipe” called homemade pizza, stating that if he died meanwhile, someone had to do it if possible. This is how emotionally attached he is to Ripples.
But he found a way. Cant wait to hear it, or wouldn’t pizza be my favourite dish.
Oh wow… all that intrigue, and the fact that it’s biocellulose too… still my budget has to be split if one of the main players is a bud, as there’s a powerful source needed plus still a decent choice for when a bud isn’t practical… and once it’s split that many ways, $200 is tops. It’s only because of all the rave feedback, and because it’s Jim, that I’m bothering to rearrange everything to see what this could be like.
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, perhaps?
