Which $200-$300~ IEM to get?

Aye best try before you buy for sure…fits me like a glove with no weight issues either…the only 2 sets I’ve ever had fit issues with were the 03’s (gone as a gift to my D n B loving step daughter) and P1’s stayed as I still love and occasionally use them :+1:

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It is fine if I am at a desk, but the extra long straight jack it creates is a pain when using it on the go with a DAP or portable DAC/AMP and since I didn’t want to swap cables a bunch I ditched it.

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YAY! :slight_smile:

This is easy. Now that you have the MEST MKII as your bassline standard, authentic audiophile replay IEM, you can have some fun exploring sets that stray off that path.

My recommendations are

  • Xenns Up

I can’t rec this set to anyone as their be-all set, but as a compliment to something like the MEST MKII, it is an easy rec because it is so enjoyable and different than every other IEM I own.

It is the ultimate relaxed set similar to the ZMF Aeolus headphone is. The Up is tuned very warm. I attempt to describe it as swimming through warm goo everywhere. It pushes vocals back and raises the music to the point of it sounding like a live performance. The strange thing about the UP is that normally what I just described might sound bad (it’s a very thick and warm/mid focused replay) but because the DD has beryllium, the transients still are capable of cutting through the mix. This is what a fun replay is all about…

  • Variations and Monarch

I cannot live without either of these IEMs in my collection, but again, I would not rec them to anyone because they are designed for certain libraries of music and not others. These are the IEMs that are not tuned safely. NOTE: The Variations and the Monarch are just about the same thing. I rec the Variations because it’s about $230 cheaper and the much more comfortable shell size but the Monarch has the edge on detail retrieval and literally the most perfect treble I’ve ever heard for my preferences, but the shell size sucks.

This chart is from Audio Discourse and does a good job of depicting different genres of music benefit from a safely tuned IEM (in this case the Clair) or IEMs tuned with a neutral/monitor tuning but with a large sub bass shelf. (in this case Monarch). I don’t necessarily agree with the chart, but the point is, certain music can benefit from the different tunings.

graph

After listening to some sub bass focused music with these two sets, you might say that it’s too much sub bass in general, but for me, I love it and I miss it now if I’m listening with a set without it. These are two IEMs I can not live without in my collection.

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I didnt rec var / monarch because he has dusk.

Var sub bass and treble is top of class.

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How’s the Var with techno?

As I said above, I dont like it. Dont get me wrong, var sub bass is top tier. But when you pick the example I gave, you’ll know that the kick is not there.

It’s just not techno btw. It has a fast donward dip on bass shelve.

Try it again when you get your CP155 tips. For me it seems to smooth out the abrupt bass shelf dip more then say the final type E tips which just seem to boost everything but retains the bass dip curve.

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Good to see someone who listens to techno. I should have guessed from your Daft Punk picture.

Couldn’t agree more and that’s why it is difficult to find the right IEM for this genre

Interesting. What do you mean by air? Is it in the 2k-3k frequency range or in the upper treble?

Thanks for clarifying this. I thought that mid-bass was not super necessary but I see what you mean when you say you need a nice slope down from the bass shelf.

Which IEM would be better to achieve this sound signature at around $300-$400?
I’m leaning towards 3DT, DQ6, FD5, Jasper

Thanks @nymz

Im using cp155 for this opinion, forgot to mention

Upper treble, psycoaccoustics. Illusion of stage and separation.

Will you be mad if I say none? :joy:

FD5 killed me with that treble. Returned.
3DT has too much treble elevations and bass rolloff into mids for my liking, but never never heard it.
Others I dunno.

To me, so far, its mangird tea or mele/Clairvoyance. I love techno on Mele :person_shrugging: but it will also sound great on oxygen!

My prefered curve for it is hbb’s. Very close to clair and mele. You got a starting point :slight_smile:

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I have the FD3 pro so a mini FD5 and the DQ6 (my 3DT arrives Wednesday if UPS doesn’t F’up)

Personally I don’t have much of an issue with treble as long as it is not coming from a BA and if energy is what you are after the DQ6 and FD3 pro both have that. The DQ6 is not as fast so can get a bit sloppy when things get busy in a track… but it can be fun to listen to if you are not concentrating on it. The FD3 pro is a lot faster and can keep up in busier parts though the mids can get lost in the overwhelming bass and treble.

Yeah, that’s exactly why I was asking. Guess it wouldn’t work for trance either. Mele is great for trance :heart_eyes:

100% the best iem for metal I’ve heard < $1000

Regarding the graph. I think the graph on the 3DT is pretty deceiving. This is hands down my favorite iem for all genres I listen to.

And the shell is large, but fitment is better for me than the Mest Mk II universal.

The MK II universal was bad enough that I had to sell it to go custom. But we’re all different obvi.

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I find trance to be even worse than techno on var. You might need more juice than techno. More bpms.

Also trance will benefict even more of stage than techno.

Treble wise i’d be carefull. I’d pick something relaxed with the treble but with some. Youll need more mids than techno, its more melodic.

Teas, Ej07m. Xenns up comes to mind as well if you like bass but relaxed treble. Its warm tho. Still waiting on mine, i can tell you later.

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For trance I prefer balance over all things I use my Oracle for those tracks. Sometimes even the less energetic Dunu EST112. The Mele also works well for trance and techno it is just tuned really well.

Yeah, @Resolution told me. Im glad you guys found something on the mid bracket that kills it!!

I find my Excalibur quite pleasing with trance, bass is hard hitting while treble is more energetic and creates a bit bigger stage. Perhaps graph of Excalibur will scare you but I don’t find it’s treble piercing even though I am quite treble sensitive.

If you’re interested, we can swap them out to test 'em.

Yes, excalibur is has a nice graph for tech and trance, i just forget it exists. Its like the dark sheep

OMG that gif. Sorry if that’s NSFW but I found hilarious. WTF?

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Looooooooooooooool.

Someone ban this guy. Hes too funny