Is yours stuck in Customs? 
I donāt find the Oracle to be warm either. Iād describe it as a neutral IEM with a bass boost, and a tastefully done one at that if you ask me. It has less Sub-bass but more mid-bass, which translates well for genres like rock and metal. Thatās also the reason why I think the Oracle compliments my Variations so well.
I think that between the Variations and the Timeless, both should cover pretty much every genre out there while also providing great resolution and detail.
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For Fun music listening forget about Timeless and the Oracle, buy Excalibur 
Thereās literally bets on when ill receive it. Itās a meme by now
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When I tried both the Excalibur and Oracle, what made me choose the Oracle was mainly how the tuning was more balanced.
Bass Response was quite similar to my ears; the Excalibur had a bit more, but what threw me off was that small dip in the midrange. I also found the treble to be more emphasized. Now, some might like that, but whereas Iād describe the Oracle as Neutral with bass boost, the Excalibur comes of as a neutral IEM that slowly borders on a mild V-shape. That mild V-shape also resulted in it sounding a bit less detailed to my ears.
But, one cannot go wrong with either the Oracle or Excalibur in my opinion. Both are excellent IEMs that punch above their asking price (much like the Variations).
And since @lilhm has the Timeless already, Iād not recc either the Oracle or Excalibur, since they are so similar in frequency response to it:
When and if I get the Timeless, Iām probably most interested in its technical capabilities.
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Damn, that sucks, sorry to hear that.
I hope you get your pair soon 
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Ok, I made up my mind, I guess: I was going to order the Variations, but realized that receiving the package will be a major headache around Christmas time, when I probably will be traveling a bit. So no Variations right now (maybe next sale).
I will try to sell the Blessing 2, but if I get a good offer, I might separate with the Timeless instead, even tough Iād rather keep that one.
Thanks again guys 
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*cough * EJ07m * cough *
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To be honest? I would feel weird spending over 500ā¬ on an IEM. It is like paying its weight in gold.
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I totally agree with you. For me personally, I like dd, ba and est in an iem. But for me the cable is important to. I know it is controversial. But I like a gold component in the cable, which takes the edge of the high frequencies, makes the sound also fuller. It is personal opinion of course. I bought the Spear Labs Triton Zero with such a set up, changed the stock cable and ear tips. That squeezes the whole potential from that iem. It is a dream for me.
Again I would definitely suggest which sound signature you like most and take it from there.
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Just saw this thread and want to add a different perspective or at least suggest some other IEMs to be of consideration. I personally donāt look at graphs anymore since Iāve been proven wrong so many times on IEMs I wouldnāt like based on graphs, but liked them once I heard it.
I primarily listen to pop, electronic, edm, rap, rnb. occasionally instrumentals and rock. Some artists I enjoy are Billie Eilish, Lorde, Sam Smith, Kanye West, Linkin Park, Alicia Keys, Daft Punk, Zedd, Old school Dr. Dre, Dua Lipa, Hans Zimmer, Scott Bradleeās Postmodern Jukebox, Taylor Swift, Glass Animals, The Weeknd, Justin Timberlake, and more.
Iāve tried a lot of high end IEMs. Just some that Iāve owned/currently own: Custom Legend X, Andromeda 2020, U12t, MEST Mk2 & Mk1, IER-Z1R, Elysium, Dorado 2020, Solstice (Custom Andromeda), Blessing 2: Dusk, and more.
These Iāve tried at audio shows briefly or at stores: IE900, Clairvoyance, Monarch, Variations, whole 64 audio line-up, whole empire ears line-up (including EVO), and much more. I unfortunately havenāt tried the Timeless or Teas.
Out of all of the IEMs that Iāve tried, I would keep the Legend X and the IE900. Only reason I donāt own the IE900 right now is itās sold out everywhere, but I will own it. Legend X to me is an all rounder IEM, which is controversial when people read about the Legend X as being really bass heavy, but I disagree. Some people think the IER-Z1R is bass heavy and I also disagree with that. To my ears, the LX is a highly technical L-shaped (sometimes V-shaped) that has a unique engaging low end that doesnāt affect the other frequency ranges. Also since itās custom, itās very comfortable although the universal version is also comfortable. The Legend X was the first IEM where I felt like I didnāt need to buy more IEMs. IE900 I donāt have enough ear time to describe it well, but what I can say is itās one of the few IEMs in a long time where I really felt musically engaged. Also itās ridiculously comfortable and comfort is one of those things thatās underrated in terms of people suggesting IEMs. Would highly recommend considering the IE900 at least, Legend X might not be as immediate in terms of ones liking of it, but I liked it more and more as times goes on. There is a reason why I have it custom now.
U12t to my ears is āboringā in a good way. If I wanted to do work while listening to an IEM, Iād choose U12t since itās so easy to listen to, but I completely understand why you found it underwhelming. To me, it was a little too boring so I sold it.
MEST Mk2 is praised a lot and I understand the praise, but I didnāt like it as much as other IEMs Iāve tried. However, I thought it was the best IEM Iāve tried when watching movies. MEST to my ears is on the aggressive side of engaging where when you listen to it, it commands your attention. My issue with it is I think it best suits rock, but not really the genres I listen to. It has some coherency issues and gets a bit harder to listen to over time since itās so aggressively detailed. Despite these negatives, if the MEST fits your library, it is great and I have friends who loved the MEST when I owned it.
I can keep going on and about IEMs, but this is getting a little long, so long story short, give the Sennheiser IE900 a try lol and potentially the Legend X, but it is pricy, especially when not on sale.
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Me too but it does offer amazing impact, texture and decay but lacks that sub bass rumbleā¦then again itās highs are next level so you pays ya money. etcā¦lol.
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Oh yeah, definitely agree with all of that
Guess this will be my last update for the foreseeable future, in case anyone finds themself in the same spot that I was in pretty much exactly 6 months ago, encounters this thread on the interwebs and looks for guidance. Half a year is probably nothing compared to most here, but still it feels like a journey to me 
(Disclaimer: obviously whenever I call something good/bad/comfortable/etc. itās all subjective according to my taste and ears and your experience would be definitely different)
Recap
In case you missed the previous episodes, a short summary of what happened so far:
- Got 80$ Aria, liked it, but kept wondering what the IEM market had to offer and what price segment to target as I didnāt have a firm budget
- Ordered the infamous 300$ Blessing 2 as something promising a great value and got the 2k$ U12t as a loaner so I could experience high end. Hated the U12t and Blessing 2. U12t went back to owner and Blessing 2 redeemed itself thanks to EQ.
- Got the 200$ 7hz Timeless next, promising a different sound as well as planar uniqueness I never experienced before. Far from perfect, but liked it much, much better than non-EQed Blessing 2 and almost as much as EQed Blessing 2ā¦ Blessing 2 got sold (which I sometimes I wish I wouldāve kept for reference)
- Next: a small sidequest in cheap-o-land with the 15$ CCA CRA. Liked it so much, that I keep rotating between CRA and Timeless (if I could only choose one it would be the Timeless - but the CRA is the value king)
- After a few weeks passed since getting the Timeless, the IEM rabbit hole seemed inescapable and I kept wondering what would be the next upgrade and waited for months for a deal on the $500 Variations, untilā¦
Episode 6 - Final Boss (?)
@tkddans bullied me into buying a Mest MKIIā¦
long story short, I decided to:
- skip the 500$ Variations as a tempting in-between-step
- skip the 1k$ Monarch MK2 as it has too much of a chance of not fitting my taste and being a disappointment like the Blessing 2 or U12t
- skip the 2k$ IER-Z1R because of supposedly terrible fit
- and directly jump up to the 1.5k$ Mest MKII which had the highest chance of fitting my taste, promised a good fit, was easy to drive, looked beautiful, came with good accessories and got rid of my bully
< EDIT Start >: I am an idiot. When I wrote the following I was running DSPs on my PC without knowing. The DSPs were increasing the bass and giving a fake surround sound. My abbreviated/corrected review of the MEST to keep in mind when reading the rest of this post would be: itās not as bright and airy as the Timeless (sadlyā¦), has better bass than CRA which is not too much, sounds cleaner then either in the mids and vocals, is slightly more detailed than the timeless (though the timeless is more āin your faceā with itās detail) and stage is still a meme to me. I think the MEST doesnāt meet my tuning preference as well as the other two, but overall I seem to like it still better. But the improvement isnāt as obvious and smaller than I stayed earlier (see below) and I would say for me personally, itās not worth the money (but I plan on keeping the MEST for now). < EDIT End>
I only listened like 10 hours to it so far, but my first impressionsā¦ I like it.
- Soundwise it combines what I like about the Timeless (resolution, clarity, bass quality/detail, great air) and the CRA (bass quantity/impact, great air), improves on those qualities and adds itās special sauce to it (mids, ābodyā and stage&imaging). So itās a clear winner and it very well may be the best IEM in the market for my taste sound-wise, which doesnāt mean itās perfect. The bass borders on ātoo muchā/overwhelming with bassy tracks, even though I didnāt feel like that about the CRA, which supposedly is even bassier. In lower frequency regions sometimes a certain āsoftnessā reminiscent of the U12t shines through (in a negative sense)ā¦ but that is complaining on a very high level.
- The (deep insertion) fit is comfortable and secure, but neither the most comfortable (Timeless more comfortable) nor the most secure (Blessing 2 more secure). I like the Xelastics tips, but the included silicone tips make it very bright/less bassy (didnāt like them on first listen). I got good results with the CP100.
- I like the cable visually, but I would like it to be a bit more soft and less rigid. (If someone is looking to buy a 500$ IEM cable from me hit me up
) - Most importantly: How is the value? Wellā¦ I got a deranged mindset over the last 6 months about this, so let me give a more expansive answer in the lessons learnedā¦ but for now letās just say: I donāt know if I would buy it a second time, but I also donāt regret buying it. Especially if it ends up helping me getting salvation from this rabbit hole
So then what is the best (value) IEM between 50$-2k$?
Looking back at my question from 6 months agoā¦ how would I answer it now and what tips would I give (assuming someone else is asking)?
- The tuning of an IEM makes 90-95% of how good an IEM sound and technicalities make 5-10%. More money buys you ideally (not always) better technicalities. Tuning does not equate to a scale from good to bad, but to a multidimensional space where the ideal tuning is a rather arbitrary point in that space and which is different for every person. Therefore a good tuning does not relate to money spend and money spend does not relate to a good tuning i.e. a good IEM.
- Thinking in terms of price brackets therefore isnāt really useful: Assume you got the best 100$ IEM on the market according to your taste. Since money doesnāt relate to tuning and you already got good tuning in this hypothetical scenario, you are not just 90% all the way to the ideal IEM, but you are closer to your ideal than around 80% of all higher priced IEMs are. Ergo thinking broadly in price brackets doesnāt make any sense.
- So what is the best value IEM? #1 The easy answer: The cheapest IEM that somewhat suits your taste in tuning and since your taste is different from everyone else, no one can tell you. For me it is the CRA. Different strategies to find it could be:
A) If you can, try a lot of IEMs for free.
B) Buy one IEM, if you donāt like it, sell it and get a different one.
C) If you have a budget, donāt think about which single IEM to get, but use that budget to plan to purchase 3 different IEMs each a third of your budget. You donāt just pay for IEMs, but also for the opportunity to learn about IEMs - So what is the best IEM? Once you learned something about what IEMs have to offer and what you look forward to in an IEM, you know your taste. From that position, suddenly it can be very useful to start thinking in price brackets. It can be useful, because you can start to filter out potential upgrades within price brackets and you can filter out higher priced IEMs against lower priced IEMs in some cases. For me it left me with many interesting IEMs, but really only a handful I would have a high confidence in beeing an upgrade and therefore only a handful of IEMs I thought about buying. And my confidence again didnāt correlate with price (#1 MEST, #2 Variations, #3 IER-Z1R, #4 Monarch MK2 - ranked by confidence)
- So what is the best value IEM? #2 The hard answer: It depends on how you value money, music, sound, etcā¦ This gets me back to my thoughts about the MESTās value. I would bet the pure sound/price performance of the Variations beats the MEST easily, but value is more than raw sound/price. I say I donāt regret buying the MEST despite poor sound/price-performance, because for me itās the best IEM at any price in the current market (or at least the part I am aware of). That is not something I could say about the Variations. Isnāt that worth something? Isnāt it worth something not to wonder what the next upgrade or step above is? Isnāt salvation worth something? Isnāt getting rid of your bully worth something? To me it is worth something and that is why I donāt regret the purchase. On the other hand: Now knowing about how much better āthe bestā IEM is vs the cheapest good one, I canāt really say if I would spend that money again.
- Bonus tip: Your musical experience can be enhanced in different ways too far greater extent and for far less money than buying gearā¦ look into it.
Hope this helps someoneā¦ smooth sailing everyone
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had some more expensive IEMs when I got my timeless sold them instantly
been shuffling around āvalueā IEMās for a while (sub $200 lol) think Iām at a good spot sold/listed a couple redundant ones
should be getting my open box THIEAUDIO Clairvoyance tomorrow (got for $500) 
hoping thatās my IEM endgame for at least a couple years
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Such a comprehensive walkthrough of your journey. Much appreciated the mention 
I always feel weird about showing off the MEST in my demos. They sound so unbelievably clearer than other stuff, that I feel bad if in real life they donāt hit people like they seem to on YouTube. I still prefer them more over other stuff much of the time though. I just feel bad if others donāt enjoy them off my recommendation.
Iām glad you enjoy them. They arenāt the best at everything for me, Iām not sure what is, but theyāre more enjoyable than most gear on most things. So theyāre a great staple in a collection.
Value-wise, itās a long term investment for sure. Pay for them once and have them forever. Nothing will utterly replace them for what they do well. Wellā¦not that Iāve found yet.
I havenāt explored so many things though yet.
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This was a fantastic read. Youāre well spoken, man! Engaging is the word Iād use. Itās interesting how after all of the sets youāve tried, the CRA is the one that stands out. Pure value is a big standout to me as well. Iāve yet to try out the CRA but it does seem like a monster for sub $20.
Awesome stuff, brother 
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The CRA sub-bass is really good. There is some extra treble around 8k, but it is higher than the region most people are sensitive to. It is tough to beat for for the $14 regular price ( I got mine at CNY for $12 ), but I would want a bit of EQ if it were my daily IEM.
Value is interesting to measure, I tend to think about it as being the best of the stuff in the same price range, because if it lowest price that you can still listen to all the time, that seems like a weird metric, and Mele would just win for me.
As an example, that $100 price point has some serious competition. I think I would say the Olina ( w/double mesh mod ) and T3+ are my current favorites in that bracket, but Aria and ER2XR are also popular for a reason, and people could add a dozen good IEMs here, no problem. Mele is the under $50 king for me, but if you can get the right fit the OG BL-03 is pretty amazing.
Despite the 7Hz Timeless being my favorite IEM in my collection, the Shuoer S12 is a better value. Given how similar those two are, the $50 price gap makes that value pretty obvious. The fact that planar IEMs take EQ like no other make them very interesting from a value perspective, since they can be made to sound like other IEMs.
It is always tough to make a value argument for an IEM in that price range. At least expensive IEMs usually sound good in some different way than the affordable one. I also think that is why they arenāt the best at everything. I think they tend to pick a problem to solve, do that one thing well, which is a pretty normal engineering approach.
I am also a mechanical watch guy, and the mental gymnastics people do to justify those are way more bizarre, since the difference isnāt even remotely justifiable, beyond I want the thing. I enjoy the engineering of them more than I like them as timepieces, which is good, because they are horrible at timekeeping on a per dollar basis. The cheapest Casio keeps better time than a Rolex, and holds value better than an Omega.
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Speaking of the ER2XR, I do have a pair. Although they get very little attention now a days, well, pretty much never ever since my Timeless arrived 6 months ago, I decided to pop them back in about a week ago and wow ā¦ I genuinely forgot how amazing these actually are. I snagged them for $75.00 on Amazon and for about a third of the price of my timeless, I swear theyāre maybe 85% there. Value is a real thing and diminishing returns is something felt extremely hard in this hobby, unfortunately. I donāt regret buying the timeless for the $220 price tag over the S12. I never once said to my self āDammit, if Iād just waited 3 monthsā¦ā I know for a fact that I was so ready to pull the trigger on a set that I would Of never lasted those 3 months till the s12 released. With that being said, $150 originally ($169 now) was such an amazing value for 95% of the timelessā performance, I applaud Shuoer for the S12. Competition truly benefits the consumer and I canāt wait for the follow up to the Timeless by 7hz.
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think if we throw all the chifi companies in a Gulag theyāll make something even more mind blowing then they already do every few months? 