What’s your IEM progression?

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
101

I’ll get the thread back on track with my updates.

Hyla Sarda was the first pair for me to really put IEMs on the map. I was well-invested in speakers and headphones at that time. Sarda was the pair that could compete and outperform headphones in some aspects.

64 Audio tia Trio. At this point, I am pretty committed to IEMs. In fact, I sold almost all of my headphones at this time. This pair made me realize that I have to have a 64a pair in my life. It was the first that I could wear all day if I had to. Ridiculously comfortable.

Jomo Trinity Brass. This was my guitar, acoustic vocals, and presentation specialist. I was demoing other IEMs and headphones at the time (Elysium, VE8, Z1R, Utopia, HEKv2). Every time, I’d rather be listening to the Jomo.

64 Audio tia Fourte Noir. End game piece number 1.

Rhapsodio Infinity MK2. End game piece number 2. Note you can’t find any hype, reading material, or tons of reviews of this item. That’s on purpose. Any reviews you find are people that legitimately purchased it and it’s word of mouth. It’s THAT good and it better be.

P.S. Perhaps I have shown too many of my cards to portray how crazy I am…

4 Likes
102

Buddy out if interest what do you use to drive your IEMs?

103

I started with Cayin n6ii E02 and now I use a LP P6 Pro.

5 Likes
104

Lol. Thats how I am with mest. I realy enjoy several other of my cans, but every time I put mests in I don’t realy want anything else

1 Like
105

If you don’t always use them otg I wonder how a BF2 or Soekris 2541 and a Cayin C9 would stack up against the P6 Pro?

1 Like
106

I cannot answer for the Soekris + Cayin combo, but I used to own a Ray Samuels Raptor + BF2 and an Asgard 3 + BF2 and the P6 stock blew it out of the water. Sold my BF2 the next day and P6 became my desktop replacement.

I wouldn’t say the P6 Pro reaches Lampizator performance, but it’s getting kind of close…
… and to carry it around in your pocket.

2 Likes
107

I haven’t heard the cayin yet, but I fairly recently got to hear the 2541 and personally I’d rather take the p6p pretty easily over the 2541 and also the bf2 for dac performance

4 Likes
108

Now we just need proper USB dac functionality. Plus the true Pre-out make it super versatile. Dont even need a secondary passive preamp for your susvara/HE6 speaker amp. Even if it takes getting the eventual P6P Ti to do it, Ill insta buy

EDIT: Also excited to hear your twos opinions on the C9. Its got me mega curious tbh

109

Last off topic comment …Then that beggars the question why are desktop Dac’s and amps so fecking large?

110

3 things need to happen to have actually 0 complaints: 24 bit support for the dac, gapless playback, and higher track cap limit

For sure lol, will be waiting

Mainly the power supply and the components used also how it’s designed, more io also typically. All depends on the dac at hand, but only recently have we been getting portables that actually rival some higher end desktop gear imo (but you play a premium for it lol)

2 Likes
111

I would like lower volume limit on the 4.4 out personally. My IEMatch came yesterday and it works, but its a clunky solution.

Also, with the P6P specifically, we have processing limitations that desktop dacs dont. Namely a 24/382 and DSD128 cap while comparably priced (and even a full tier lower price wise) can do 1024 and DSD512. I am personaly quite currious what would happen if I used something like HQ player to bump up to a higher sample rate would do as I have no expeirence with other dacs in this range (or even other r2r dacs at all)

112

To also actually contribute to this thread, some iems I’ve gone through in the past years in not much order (but not too old since I can’t really recall some of the older iems I’ve had, as I only really dove deep into iems in like the past 5 years ish)

InEar ProPhile-8: iem that I thought was a great balance for studio performance and casual listening, used to be my workhorse iem (sold)

Hyla CE-5: Really opened my eyes to iems for a really fun experience, extreme v shape madness (sold)

Stax 003mk2: Stax in ears that have a similar tuning to the 007, really nice overall and unique experience (still have)

Final A8000: really excellent analytical dynamic iems, very spatially impressive as well (sold)

Meze Rai Penta: got these for half off right when they came out since a friend didn’t like them, smooth unoffensive sound but well built and enjoyable enough but overpriced (sold)

QDC Anole VX: almost a mix of a monitor iem and fun casual iem, pretty well rounded and technical without being fatiguing, w shaped almost, forward and punchy, although lacked organicness at times (sold)

JH Lola: Was an impulse buy, really excellent midrange timbre, body, and organicness but overly wonky and had issues (sold)

Earsonics Grace: also an impulse, actually very pleasant and relaxing tuning, good body and tonal density for a ba setup, generally enjoyable and sounded like an improved rai penta but I didn’t feel I needed it in my collection (sold)

StereoPravada Spearphone SB7: Great deadpan neutral (perhaps more diffuse field) sound, super technical, really great sound overall, but man. The fit. It’s total shit. It’s actually painful after a few hours and I just didn’t want to wear them for that reason alone. Also picky when it comes to amps and too much of a hassle to use as iems so it left lol. (sold)

Final LAB II: A more neutral slightly midrange and treble focused iem, really really organic overall and tubes very well, very realistic (own)

Hyla Sarda: A CE5 with better technical performance and refinement, a bit more midrange prominence that makes it a good fun daily, but lacks a slight bit of the insane slam the CE5 had (own)

oBravo EAMT-1 c: Very holographic iem, super fast and quick, technical but fun, separation is pretty nuts as well, and surprisingly good coherency, very amp picky though and tonality is hit or miss (own)

MMR Thummim: Circular soundstage that I’ve never heard before in an iem, really rich warm and fun while being very technical, meaty overall, just hard to stop listening but might be too fun for some in tuning (own)

Fiio FH3: Bought for a throw away cause hype, solid for the price but nothing world bending, works well for calls since I bought a mic cable (own)

Guideray GRI: See above, but cheaper and more v shaped than warm in tuning, less technical (own)

FiR VxV: Got as a gift, honestly really good for the money, great all rounder that’s neutral but engaging, comfy and well built, not too source picky, and sounds good out of the box, pretty nice (own)

Rhapsodio Infinity MK2: Won’t comment much on this one but it’s honestly become one of my top iems I use to where I caused me to re-evaluate my collection when I got it (own)

JVC FW10000: Impulse buy, don’t have enough time with it to say much yet, kinda been sitting in the box since I got it lol

And then much more demoed lol.

Edit:
And also the tin T4 and T2, and OH10 so meh I forgot I had them lol

11 Likes
113

Ah that would actually be nice, like just make low gain lower lol. Also so far does the iematch fix some of your issues, and have you noticed any sonic issues (make sure you are running ultra, and did you grab the balanced one?)

Honestly that’s totally fine for me. Tell me how often you play anything over 24/192 or higher than DSD64. My guess is not very common at all. I have some desktop dacs that don’t even support higher than 24/96 (with no dsd of course)

1 Like
114

Lol. Jesus. Ima save that post above for my lunch to read through. IEMs above like 1k used arent realy a world i know so its great to find so many brief impressions in one place.

Yah, the IEMatch (I got 2.5) seems to be solving my volume issues just fine. I dont immediately notice any sound degradation, but I havent critically listened with it at all yet. At the very least I can say that the imaging/spatial recreation is still there just as it was before (have a couple songs that really really hammer on 3D imaging)

While the Micro BL was my main source I was using HQ player quite extensively. I never really tested how much of a difference it made tbh, but its a fun toy. 24/96 limit would actually wipe out a pretty large portion of my library though. I have maybe 1 album natively above 384/DSD128 each, but I have quite a large amount of music in 192 and 384 (probably close to 2k songs) as well as several albums in DSD128

115

Hmmmm I guess they are impressions but prob not really meaningful for someone looking into them

Well that’s at least good. An iematch could also potentially help by allowing the amp to operate more ideally on it’s performance curve so who knows

Same here, which is why I don’t always use that dac all that often lol

Yeah pretty much

I have a decent selection of 192 but not much over that myself, and I also have a few 128 but really not enough to warrant needing 128 or 384 support personally

116

Not useful for actual review, but as a pure “this is what this IEM does” its nice. Especially since I have never heard of 90% of the ones you listed.

Yah. With the way the amp stage is set up as a pure power amp it should be less of an issue, but I dont hear it hurting performance so thats kinda all the matters.

I picked up about 700 orchestral songs mastered 384 a few months back (that i dont have lower quality versions of)

1 Like
117

The Anole VX and Z1Rs are seen as the top tier for all IEMs. In every ranking I’ve seen of them, they are S Tier.

1 Like
118

Incredible collection

1 Like
119

Update (its been awhile…lol) Looks like I still haven’t learned anything from my previous post, ("should just bought the Kumitate KL Sirius/Hyla Sarda …ha ha).
So the list continues on with:
Faaeal Hibiscus (mostly bought for the nice cable, but for energy, they do rock)
Penon Audio Sphere (nice but missing something, not sure what.
Penon Audio Orb (loved them)
Dita Audio The Answer Hard to quibble on the sound, :heart_eyes:
**Dita Audio The Answer (The Truth Edition)**Great organic sound, a step up from the original…
Some Gold Metallic generic iem ($26, worth every penny…shout out to dsnuts for the heads up on these, my stole/borrowed them from me :wink:).
Opera Factory Junior OS-1 Pro, another find on the cheapskate side of things, the more you listen (break-in?), the better they sound(tighter bass, etc)…
Final Audio E1000c, another excellent bang for the buck (mostly use them for the tele capability, but a nice semi-neutral iem).
And now the final update for iems: This past December my hearing was tested, a slight loss in the mid-range frequencies (of course, my fav. range to me), so I bought some hearing aides. I guess I lost my enthusiasm for iems, sold everything so far except for the E1000c, OS-1Pros, Hibiscus, & my wife’s Generic Golds, and couple of the Sonys (MH-750,755s)…I now have changed direction in the Full-sized headphone obsession. Here we go again…

Cheers

1 Like
120

Shure SE530 (cable busted, never bother to repair )
Shure SE535, UE900s (both still own)
CA OG Andromeda (still own)
CA Solaris 2020 (still own)
UM MEST MKII (still own)

2 Likes