Kiwi Ears Quintet. Simply sublime for my tastes and library.
Plutus Beast. A fantastic set out of the box, however, after much tip rolling and cable swapping, my setup of Dunnu S&S tips and a pure silver balanced cable, they have tremendous bass, great musicality, and clean
sparkly treble. They do work best with a bit of power.
Swan AW-75 TWS Earbuds. Not necessarily an IEM as such, but a wonderful, musical, detailed, fun, and engaging set. Commuting and shopping are infinitely more delightful with these in my ears.
Simgot EA500LM. Smooth and resolving. Not getting the time they deserve due to the top 3 hogging my listening time. A credible jump in class from the OG, even after moding.
Ziigaat Nuo. My constant carry round set for those times when, God forbid, I find myself without any of 1-4 on my person. Still stunned at the sound these produce for $15.
Myer-Audio SLIIVO SLT6 my BA fix
Oriveti OH700VB Monitor Like Blaster
ThieAudio Oracle - my warm blanky
XENNS MARGIRD UP My Ultimate guity pleasure
KZ Symphony- Because I am a Fucking Idiot and bought one - No comment on SQ yet.
Unique Melody Mest MKII (custom) My go-to with new music, Rock, and Pop.
THIEAUDIO Monarch MKIII. When I want to chill out with jazz, better mixed/mastered music and less compressed music.
64 Audio A12t (custom) Not used for music. Used for live music (drummer monitor)
FIR Audio RN6 (currently demoing) So far, I am not very impressed. Timbre is not my taste, mids seem a bit unnatural, perhaps not my taste. The soundstage is very wide, similar to the MEST, but it also can sound unnatural. $3,200 IEM, I wouldnāt pay more than $500.
Hades challenges Plutus on bass and to my ears they were similar
So similar in fact that Iāve opted to return my Plutus and put the money towards Quintet. I wouldāve liked more treble on my Plutus personally but something about that set was weird. Itās like so intimately comfortable to me
I have had the predicted shake up -
ZiiGaat Doscinco - This might be the most satisfying bass in my collection currently.
Mangird Tea - Still a great IEM, and probably my favorite for vocals.
Mangird Tea 2 - A bit more V than the OG, with a bit better stage and imaging.
Artti R1 - A warm leaning 3DD 2-Titanium Dome + 1-Beryllium-Plated. This is my current favorite under $100
Olina SE - After spending time with the Simgot EA500LM, I prefer the Olina SE, the stage and bass on it is just more enjoyable.
honorable mentions -
Tripowin Kailua - This is a great all arounder, and it works for everything. It is clean has controlled bass. I have a pair in my desk at work, and on my desk at home.
KZ Castor bass - this is a great budget set, that I assume KZ will stealth retune at some point
I still have the Shozy Form 1.1 coming from Linsoul ( maybe someday ).
ZiiGaat Doscinco - arrived today, excelllent combination of satisfying bass and very smooth mids from those sonion BAs (even if the bass is noticeably more prominent than the mids). Surprisingly versatile tuning thatās engaging with almost all music Iāve tried so far
Penon Fan 2 - arrived yesterday; seem quite song-dependent, but when you get it right, those forward, lush vocals are intoxicating, particularly together with the intimate soundstage and somewhat analog presentation. Amazing for vocal tracks with simpler productions (acoustic, singer-songwriter etc)
Tansio Mirai X Anniversary - truly remarkable set. The bass is as good as the Doscinco, and the treble and detail retrieval is far beyond anything else in my collection (note I donāt own any sets with ESTs though). The tuning switches massively change bass levels and make a huge difference to the presentation, and I get joy out of several different configurations. Only criticism is slightly recessed mids and lack of warmth in the vocals, so I make small tweaks with EQ to bring that back if needs be. I thought it likely these would just be Head-Fi hype but I was wrong, they are likely the set I would most recommend in my collection.
Penon Quattro - A big musical blanket. Similar to Fan 2, huge lower mid emphasis doesnāt work for every song but when it does, I can do nothing except luxuriate in it. Better technicalities and soundstage vs Fan 2 make it more versatile overall, but also means itās not quite as intimate and analog for the songs that call for that.
?? - Honestly, these above four are going to have me covered for a long time. I have my S12 Pros specifically for fast paced metal (after an EQ - hate the default planar timbre), the Performer 5 for a comfortable set I wear outside the house (also needs EQ for my tastes), and my Canon IIās are great as an all-rounder but I think Iāll sell them because I donāt think they offer anything over the above. KZ Castor Bass is my preferred budget set so far, although I have a CCA Trio lost in transit so that could take its place. None of these offer enough to be a clear fifth choiceā¦ maybe the best choice is actually my OG Starfields, which I occasionally revisit to show myself how fast Chi-FI has moved over these last few years - although surprisingly, they do still have their charm that the other sets donāt always match!
My HSE is now with @VIVIDICI_111 , he may have one on hand to try!
Edit: I also forgot to add, since Helios SE (like most Symphonium IEMs) uses their FLAT tech to achieve linear impedence across the entire driver/crossover array, I sincerely doubt that an impedance adapter will do anything other than make it ever-so-slightly more difficult to drive without altering the output of the drivers at all. If you want a bass boost, youāll need EQ or another IEM.
I was already leaning on that as well but I wish more people experimented with impedance adapters because its so easy to do. Iāve been thinking of getting an iem that is close to Harman with its infamous mid-bass scoop and Iām looking for an iem that would be tunable like the Crinacle Reds. I just donāt want a Crinacle Red. I want something with more tech and the Helios|Helios SE wouldāve been that if it werenāt for their own impedance tech.
Its good not as fun for me but I like it .
Save your money new 1+4+2 hitting shortly at some good pricing from a few companies. Timmies DUNU looks good as well.
