I definitely gotta get me a set then lol
Yo I honestly have no idea what my best purchase was or will be but I will say one of those ones up there has to be the Topping D10s DAC to accompany the L30 I got from @nymz a while back. I feel as though diving into that source rabbit hole totally slowed down my IEM purchasing or chasing because of how much the sound changed on my current stable. That DAC was only $78, used from Amazon. I mean, that’s a steal if you ask me.
1st place goes to Venture Electronics Monk for
showing me how amazing these small earpieces could sound and starting this hobby for me.
some other contenders
2nd place goes to TFZ X1 for making the same in the wireless context, forcing me to forget about wires for more than a year and providing me with amazing soft tips.
3rd place goes to Topping DX3 PRO+. It made my desktop experience very smooth and convinient. Easy switching between wired and wireless sources, earphones/headphones and acoustics is truly amazing.
4th place is shared by Qudelix 5k and FiiO BTR15 for being convinient and versatile portable solutions.
5th place is shared by my current favorite universal iems: Sound Rhyme DTE500, TANGZU GATE, Night Oblivion Butastur, Symphonium Meteor and Anole VX. Thieaudio Oracle could also be here if Linsoul didn’t have such QC and awful service maintenance.
6th place goes to UM Mest mk1 for being extremely technical but questionably tuned to my taste.
7th place is shared by fun though well tuned hybrids - SLIIVO SL41 (1st version), ZiiGaat Cincotres, ISN Neo 5, local manufacturer’s “Snowy” very well done multi-BA models - A7-1, A8, and Prism, spicy soulful things - EPZ 530 and Penon Turbo, as well as good “old” Dunu SA6 mk1 and mk2.
Here should definitely be more stuff as long as this trip lasts around 8 years already, but i guess that’s enough for now
What streamer if you don’t mind me asking? Looking at maybe going that route in the near future.
WiiM pro plus. But if you have your own dac and only need the streamer save some money and just get the WiiM pro.
And if you only need the bare bones in outputs save more money and get the WiiM mini
ePro horns, from my experience, don’t tame treble. Foam and Final E tips tame treble, IME.
On my Project M, the final Es caused sibilance, I’m guessing due to depth insertion because with Spiral Dots there’s 0 of that
Foam was great though, used the default foam tips from Vari on it and it made M sound different
Penon Serial and EA1000, these two are fighting for my ears and I am equally always looking forward in listening to these sets.
Penon Serial, I just love the bass texture and forward vocals. Not for all genres but I kept thinking of it whenever I see my Rap/HipHop playlist.
EA1000 tends to be more of an all rounder for me. I love the black ring, forward non-thin/analytical vocals, nice treble extension satisfying amount of bass. I grab these for my pop playlist but I find them great for my rap/hiphop playlist as well regardless. Just lacking micro details.
These two are night and day for me, I grab my Serial if I want to chill and I grab my Fermat on the go/when I need focus at the office.
Ughh I have some KBear 08’s sitting at customs doing nothing at the moment! Patiently waiting for them. I am hoping the 08s give a bit more bass without losing detail for my EPZ Q1 Pros
In my experience, they should be pretty perfect for that; I hope they get to you sooner than later!
Best purchase without a doubt is Poweramp equalizer for a few dollars. I equalize pretty much all my regular IEMs, usually with a few different profiles. It’s a huge money saver and makes that set which is almost perfect, perfect, not to mention the versatility of being able to have multiple profiles for different moods/genres. The GUI is fantastic too which is why I chose this one, making it really easy to make small adjustments and to flick between profiles to test how much you like a change.
That aside, on the IEM front it’s a tough one…
- Sound Rhyme DTE900 is my endgame. It’s the purchase which finally stopped me from wanting to go and make more purchases. I got it for $600 in the AE spring sale with custom designs, but could have been had as cheap as $520 without the custom design and if I used the $120 off coupon rather than $80.
- Artti R1 is probably my best value purchase at $60. The timbre and sound profile is everything I want in an IEM.
- My ultimate vote goes for one of the above, but a special mention also to the Penon Quattro and Penon Fan II (assuming 50% discount on the latter) for when I just want to chill out and let music wash over me. Penon Quattro is the better and more versatile set, but Penon Fan II does simple, acoustic, and lo-fi music specatcularly, and is better value.
Best purchase was a used iBasso DX90 for $40 with a swollen battery, bought 2 new batteries on ALix for $10 ea and been going strong daily.
Very nice move.
I think mine is the Quedelix 5k. That thing is a real swiss army knife, and works so damn well. Outstanding software support, still releasing updates like 3 years after release.
If they just rereleased it with 4.4mm and a bit more power it would be perfect. Too bad their newer T-71 dropped the bluetooth functionality
Feliks Audio Echo. Got it for $500. MK2 is twice the price and only has a marginal improvement. It is one of my favorite amps ever with the Focal Elex, 6XX and ZMF Aeolus. Currently paired with a Bifrost 2.
For me the best is always whatever is the latest. Recently an assortment of tubes:2Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE GF Limited Special Edition; 2 Ray 6SN7 RESERVE; 2 Sophia 6SN7 ECC32 and a Sophia 275b rectifier. These will all be enjoyed in a Dennis Had Dragon headphone amp.
Best was a recent purchase of a USB optical cable used for $34 on Amazon. Plug directly into an SMSL DL200 or DO300EX for a DAC and the noise floor is inky blackness.
My Best buy of alltime was campfire audio solaris gold and Kennerton vali.
WiiM just added L/R PEQ and finally fixed a huge bug for me: it saves the song/album/playlist you were using, when you switch sources. Before, you had to reload the thing you were listening to on each switch.
They just keep making their app better and better
Spinfit Omnis for my Mext, finally I get what the fuss is about with these IEMs
now the question whether to go Mest Mk2