IEM Purchase advice. Which budget is reasonable?

[CommanderBrot]

I recently bought my first IEMs, the Tangzu Wan'er 2. Didn't want to spend a lot in case I don't like them. Fact is - I really like these. I mainly use my iPhone 16p with Plex Amp App as source and also found a crinacle EQ in the app for these IEMs which makes them sound even better.

I'd say EQed these budget IEMs do rival my Air Pods pro 2 in sound quality. So I'm thinking about what a bigger budget could get me? I like listening to film music and classical music as well as Jazz, Blues and Hard Rock, also some electro. I'm not a Bass Head and I have always enjoyed more neutral sounding speakers, I love crisp resolution and a good soundstage.

I read and watched some reviews and am even more confused as to which budget is necessary and also reasonable for a good IEM that's a real improvement over my Wan'er as well as my Air Pods Pro 2. I eyed the 7Hz Divine because I'd like to try out a planar driver, but is it really worth the price compared to the two I own?

So my question would basically be: Can I already expect a big improvement with a 50 EUR IEM? An even bigger with 100 or 150? What would be a reasonable budget? Or are the Wan'er so good that diminishing returns set in already?

The TLDR: What Budget do I have to spend on an neutral sounding IEM to have better Sound Quality than Air Pods Pro 2? Is it worth to go even higher?

 

[BeeKay]

You will find a lot of great IEMs under 100 USD / EUR. Also, sealing is important to enjoy good bass performance. So, you might spend another 10 or 20 on ear tips if you don’t get along too well with those coming with the IEMs.

 

[RandomEar]

With most HiFi components, maybe excluding speakers, price doesn't dictate sound quality. Maybe that was different 50 years ago, but it certainly is the case today.

The main differences between IEMs are frequency response and fit in your ears. The latter is especially important, because it influences how the sound interacts with your ear canal. If you compare the FRs of the Wan'er and the Divine, you will see that they don't measure far apart. I've put the Zero:Reds in there for comparison. Like most recent IEM designs from the last 4 or 5 years, they comply pretty well to the Harman in ear 2019 target. I would expect those three to sound very similar, with the mentioned caveat of differences in fitment.

My conclusion is that spending more money in this case is not very useful, as long as you are happy with the build quality and fit of your Wan'er. I would rather try some different EQs to see which FR suits your taste.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi
I am getting excellent results comparable to the best I have yet heard from ear-phones, from a $17 IEM reviewed here at ASR, the Truthear GATE ... I acquired it on a dare since it was so cheap ... and, it is as good as my TCZ Red or Blue and sound as good as my Equalized Headphones the HiFIMan HE-6SEv2,. The 3 IEMs mentioned here do not need EQ. My Headphones require it.

I'd suggest to put a HARD cap at $ 75 for IEM, and add another HARD cap for custom tips.at $50. The end.

 

[Matias]

Truthear Pure for 80 USD is my end game.

 

[obsessive9119]

Hi
I am getting excellent results comparable to the best I have yet heard from ear-phones, from a $17 IEM reviewed here at ASR, the Truthear GATE ... I acquired it on a dare since tey were so cheap ... and, it is as good as my TCZ Red or Blue and sound as good as my Equalized Headphones the HiFIMan HE-6SEv2,. The 3 IEMs mentioned here do not need EQ. My Headphones require it.

I'd suggest to put a HARD cap at $ 75 for IEM, and add another HARD cap for custom tips.at $50. The end.

Love my GATEs. They’re some of the best sounding headphones I’ve heard at any price.

 

[CommanderBrot]

Thanks for the very valuable insight!
Friend of mine (who, unfortunately lives a distance from me) adores his Truthear Hexa.
There are also the already mentioned newer Pure. Both about the same price atm here.
Thoughts about these?

 

[HalSF]

Two IEMs I purchased in the past year based on ASR reviews and recommendations are the TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero:RED ($65) and the Linsoul SIMGOT EA500 LM 2nd Gen ($80).

Both sound fantastic to me

 

[CommanderBrot]

An Update: As I always prefered neutral speakers and there was a small discount, I just ordered the Hexa on a whim.

They arrived today and: Dang, these are really great!

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Truthear pure is nice and reasonable priced when you want something not to tuned to Harman.

 

[ziggurcat]

I purchased a pair of the 7Hz x Crinacle Zero 2s last month, and they're very nice. I'll keep the Zero 2s as my out-and-about headphones with my phone, but I would like a second, "nicer" pair for home with my desktop system. I have been looking at the following:

7Hz x Crinacle Divine
Moondrop Aria 2
Simgot EW200 or EW300

And I will look a bit into the Truthear Pure IEMs based on the discussion here.

I think what I would be most interested in seeing would be the distortion measurements for the ones listed above -- the 7Hz x Crinacle Zero 2s have phenomenally low distortion measurements, and while I'm not looking for something that exactly matches that level of performance, if it's close enough without exhibiting any major distortion or resonance issues, that's probably where I'll land.

 

[ziggurcat]

So after some deliberation, I ended up landing on the Truthear Hexa IEMs. We shall see how these fare.

 

[Jiraya369]

Crinear Daybreak seems to be following the JM-1 target extremely well

I listened to the JM-1 on my Moondrop x Crinacle DUSK and it fits my preferences quite well, only a few adjustments needed. Main thing about IEMs is FR comfort, and fit, you can get cheaper stuff and single DDs for example but they won't be tuned as well passively, meaning you'll need to mess around in eq loads to find out your preferences.

The Gate and other single DD iems have a significant suckout at 8-11khz. It IS noticeable, that's what I felt when going from my Moondrop Aria to Moondrop DUSK, everything had more "sparkle", more "sizzle", which i thought were technicalities. Now, you CAN tune DDs to the perfect target curve but the reason to get more expensive iems is to just get most of it done passively, so you don't have to mess around with anything drastically. Just some preference tweaks at 1k, 3-5k, 8k and then around the bass region.

Once you hit your preferred tuning it'll be like magic, suddenly there's additional detail, soundstage depth, dynamics and all that. It's cus it'll sound neutral to you and that's what most people prefer. Problem with iems is that they're quite variable and even the JM-1 by itself is no good, you need preference adjustments through bass/treble tweaks or tilts.

The Truthear Pure is the best bet till the Daybreak, it has midbass bloat, the pinna gain isn't as high and the treble won't "sparkle". Other than that, the iem is going to reproduce stuff excellently.

Harman target for in-ears is just not that great from my experience, especially when just looking at 711 data without appropriate compensation. 5128 helps me find treble peaks nearly exactly as it is shown and most tweaks feel like the graph is a more accurate representation.

However as this is a subjective hobby by nature, you won't get any clear cut answers. Some will hate on harman target, some on jm-1, some on DF, some on the 711, some on the 5128. Everyone has different biases and also hearing loss. Best bet is to get a Truthear Gate and then a Truthear Pure and find out for yourself what you prefer.