Who is satisfied never going all the way?
It’s the one in the middle.
This guy 
Yea I got it. Honestly the UP (bottom left), variations (bottom middle), and Dunu EST112 (top right) are all easy to tell at a glance, but Thie really decided to make all of their tribrids really close in design.
That’s when they started writing their names on the shells. The MOnarch and Clairvoyance have no writing on them which I personally prefer. The Excalibur actually pissed me off because when I received it, it looked NOTHING like all the pictures on Linsoul.
They got lazy and made all the faceplates for the new tribrids the same, but because of the nature of the materials they use, they all look different, but you can’t tell an Oracle apart from an Excalibur just from the faceplates like you could the original tribrids.
Could have been worse. Could have been sent with a defective cable, defective IEM, in a completely differently designed box.
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It all worked out in the end and you seem to like the UP, so no need to be sad. Just careful of mangird.
I always thought it was kinda sad that there are game studios that I will never preorder from because they lost that initial purchase trust… now there are also physical product companies where maybe preordering might be an unsafe idea as well.
Drop has lost all of my trust and I will only buy a drop product used or from some other distributor other then drop.
I do love them. They are very unique and probably the most fun/relaxed set I own.
We learn from our mistakes. Because of the problems with the UP I experienced and the way I was treated with Linsoul to resolve it made me realize I had probably just been getting VERY lucky with all the business I had been giving to Linsoul. I was pretty care-free purchasing anything with them, but one bad experience has me re-thinking that relationship. It’s the reason I pulled the trigger on the Mest MKII. I wasn’t planning on buying it until I got burned by the UP. In the end, even though I was really upset, Linsoul did make everything right. So, I just gotta get over it and I’m just not as fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants with purchases from them. I have similar issues with Fiio they way they treated reviewers who didn’t hand out favorable reviews of the FH5s.
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This is just me, but I think you should start with the budget IEMs first since you can experiment with those without wasting a lot of money for your first time via buying tips and cables that can make those IEMs in those range better. Also it’s a bit of crapshoot since there are some budget IEMs out there that sounds like $500 and that is basically a steal if you hit that gold mine of budget IEMs, and we have to understand that it’s not always Higher Budget = Amazing Sounds, for sounds it’s much more complicated, but I am not saying that statement of higher budget equals amazing sounds is not true for there are a lot of out there still.
Good Starter IEMs IMO:
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Moondrop Aria: You really cannot go wrong with this one for the price, I mean come on? it’s a sub-$100 IEM but it’s so affordable for its price and value, that it is so good to get.
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BLON BL-03: Still one of the best out there to get! Just replace the cable and tips and you are gold with this one, for a bonus replace its stock filters with the mesh ones and to me it was an improvement when I did that mod.
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Moondrop Starfield: You don’t necessarily need this if you’re aiming for the Aria, but these ones are not bad as well for the price. My favorite IEM still, neutral sound signature, and very good for vocal-focused tracks since the mids from these are much more emphasized. Basically this, Aria if you want more Bass, Starfield if you want more mids, but both are similar sound-wise.
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Yes!!! Buy recommission headphones for $ 500 or a little more. Don’t give your money for cheap headphones, don’t make our mistakes! Good luck!!! Mооndrop Variations are good!
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How different is the Aria from the Starfield? Very noticeable?
From reviews, most people can not tell a difference and those who say they can actually prefer the Aria.
I’d suggest the Aria since it’s supposed to be the same new tech DD from the Variations set which is great.
I love mine a lot…
I guess that’s a question: if someone was new and didn’t really know their preferences, is there a pair or trio of budget IEMs that would all complement each other?
Like if this were headphones, it seems reasonable to recommend a newbie a 58X and a DT880 as a pair of sub-$200 headphones to learn whether they prefer a warmer sound or a brighter sound, etc., but I’m not sure what an IEM equivalent pairing would be.
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The LZ A7 would allow many tuning opportunities. Many more than just three IEMs.
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But it does have the price tag of at least 3 budget IEMs. Though it makes more sense over all unless you also like collecting.
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True, but the drivers in the LZ A7 are good quality drivers. It is a tribrid after all.
Budget IEMs normally don’t have really high quality internal components.
I’ve got that KZ with like 24 BA drivers in it or something? It’s the worst sounding IEM I have. It’s OK, but it just sound blah. I know, not very technical. I’m not going to waste my time attempting to express how poor this KZ IEM sounds compared to all my other IEMs.
You don’t have to preach to me about KZ BA drivers… fully on board. but I can also understand the appeal of wanting to start a collection with 3 good budget options over 1 high quality one. Just different ways of enjoying the hobby. Though for saving money it is better to go with 1 high quality flexible option like the A7, just maybe not as fun for some.
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That’s a really good idea though. What would some good benchmark budget IEMs be that would allow people to get a sense of different tunings?
What’s the budget amount then?
The Aria would be an example of harman tuning.
I agree. What would be a good budget sub bass tuned set? How about a budget V set? What about a neutral set like the Blessing 2? Just budget.
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Sub-bass? KZ DQ6 and the GS Audio GD3A fits that.
Oh and you wanna know an iem thats MORE versatile than the LZ A7 with its 10 configs? Check out the FLC 8N, it only has 36 configs. 
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Blon 03 or Tin T2/+ are really nice representatives in the budget range for a V shape that doesn’t go too far or squirly.
If we are talking under $100 each there is the legacy 2 in that range.
Or how about the Final Audio E500/1000 for a really neutral pair with almost no bass boosting at all.
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E500/1000 are definitely a solid pick for a more neutral signature. And also something I think everyone should pick up at least for the Type E tips.