Hey, thread title just about says it, I listen to all genres of music, mostly electronic genre music techno, industrial etc etc, I do mixes (not Dj'ing), the current IEM's I have are listed in my sig.
 
Any opinions, recommendations and help would be valuable.
 
Thanks

Gosh I feel lonely in my thread
 
So............

Kind of broad, giving out genre preferences doesn't cut it much anymore as that still doesn't pinpoint what your sonic preferences are due to the variance of presentation preferences. So what I'm getting at is this, what kind of sound do you like? Giving out examples based on what you have will help. 
 
There is no best universal IEM, there are many top tiers out there in terms of technical proficiency thought. Right now the W4/SM3 seem to reign the BA realm and the EX1000/FX700 in the dynamic realm. That's not to say that they're the "best" they can still fall short in sound to some due to individual preferences. 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/478568/multi-iem-review-164-iems-compared-ortofon-e-q5-etymotic-mc5-added-04-28
 
"BEST" according to this thread is Westone 4 since 1964 is a custom not a universal

@umvue Nope, I don't think Joker will make such a claim. Besides the SQ rating is tied with the SM3 and those 9.6s might as well be 9.7s to some due to individual preferences. The thread is more detailed than that and use that to your advantage, oversimplifying can be misleading. 

Just take a shortlist of the better IEMs and find a local reseller where you can audition them. Let your ears decide

Sent from my HTC Desire HD using Tapatalk

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inks said:

Kind of broad, giving out genre preferences doesn't cut it much anymore as that still doesn't pinpoint what your sonic preferences are due to the variance of presentation preferences. 
 
There is no best universal IEM, there are many top tiers out there in terms of technical proficiency thought. Right now the W4/SM3 seems to reign the BA realm and the EX1000/FX700 in the dynamic realm. That's not to say that they're the "best" they can still fall short in sound to some due to individual preferences. 

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True, I was in a rush when making this thread so I didn't put down my sound preferences and what I like to hear. From some IEM's I've heard so far as well owned etc to start off.
 
The only thing that I've heard with so much good damn quality, wide surround soundstage, incredible isolation, near perfect highs/mids/low's and the right amount of bass has been a previously owned UE18. Of course you would say for that amount of money of course they would be damn near perfect, but what I would like to hear from some good universals I'm after is the sound quality if I were to be in a studio or live (techno or electronic genre) music event, punchy bass that would slap me silly while being also very clean and undistorted and a bit warm. Highs/mids that are clear and kept up with the rest of the music but not too much (Westones do this, more quantity over near perfect quality). Lows and bass is pretty much what I'm looking more out for though, kind of hard to describe what I'm after, but hopfully this will give some of you audiophiles a general idea what I'm after. Quality over Quantity (which is why I chose the IE7's over the W3's, but the soundstage of the IE7's isn't as much as I would like them to be)
 
So far I've been looking and have taken a mild interest in the 1964 custom molded IEM's, but not sure if they are any good over some of the better known universals out there and are pretty much the cheapest custom molded IEM's money can buy compared to Westones ES5 and UE's 10-18 range.
 
But yeah....
 
 

But the OP asked a simple question, so we should give him a simple answer.

I kind of get what you are getting at. I think the W4s will be the safest bet I could think of, definitely has more "quality over quantity" over the W3s fwir. 

Hi friend, I'm sure there are enough people giving you the SM3-W4-UETF10 suggestions so I'm here to propose a lesser known alternative:
http://www.final-audio-design-e.com/products/ba-ss-earphones/
Their DC series might be worth checking out, but generally the BA-SS earphones are very well lauded over here (see james444's thread). I am unfortunately only proposing this by way of research and reviews, having not had the opportunity to actually hear them myself. But they might be worth looking into all the same

Quote:

inks said:

I kind of get what you are getting at. I think the W4s will be the safest bet I could think of, definitely has more "quality over quantity" over the W3s fwir. 

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Yeah, I'm not too sure about the W4's, mainly because I've had trouble getting a proper fit in the past with Westone phones (UM2, UM3X and UM3). Even with the comply tips I've had trouble getting them in my ear snuggly for the best fit and isolation. Funny thing is while many others have had problem getting Senn's In-Ear range (7 and 8 mainly) fit properly, I've never had any problem them to fit-in my ear with the stock double flange and the large hard foam buds. If anybody has heard or have the 1964-Q's or D's, please tell me how good they are and the sound performance. 
 
@umv: True my thread does say best universal, but the 1964's are within my budget and being custom IEM's they are a damn steal compared to the JH16, ES5's and UE's Ref/10-18 range.
 
EDIT: I might be able to get hold of the W4's for a deep listening trial between them and my ears, since armature drivers don't require any sort of burn-in, I should be able to choose my preference right on the spot.
 
But yeah, any further recommendations would be helpful,

I think the BA-SS is retardedly overpriced.  Definitely just a "status symbol"/"look at what we can make for people without a budget" kind of headphone.  Not to say it's bad, far from it, but for that price you can get something like a JH16.  Basically, it's the best single-armature headphone out there, but you can do better with a multi-armature setup.

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dabomb77766 said:

I think the BA-SS is retardedly overpriced.  Definitely just a "status symbol"/"look at what we can make for people without a budget" kind of headphone.  Not to say it's bad, far from it, but for that price you can get something like a JH16.  Basically, it's the best single-armature headphone out there, but you can do better with a multi-armature setup.

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Yeah but the JH16's are over $1k. The 1964's are under $450 for custom's which is really really cheap.

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defqon said:

Yeah but the JH16's are over $1k. The 1964's are under $450 for custom's which really really cheap.

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The Kozee X1 is actually only $140.  But for that price you can probably get a better universal, but as far as customs go, that price can't be beat.