I am considering buying a pair of either Kinera Nanna 2.0 or Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk.
Both are expensive IEMs (500$-1000$) .
My current setup is Shure SE425 connected to a DAC- Audioquest DragonFly Black.
My question is:
Does an expensive IEM sound good enough to justify its price with a not-so-expensive DAC, or even just plugged into a regular smartphone?
I am considering buying a pair of either Kinera Nanna 2.0 or Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk.
Both are expensive IEMs (500$-1000$) .
My current setup is Shure SE425 connected to a DAC- Audioquest DragonFly Black.
My question is:
Does an expensive IEM sound good enough to justify its price with a not-so-expensive DAC, or even just plugged into a regular smartphone?
The DAC part is a lot less of a problem than the amp part. There's not a whole lot to gain getting a headphone/IEM/speaker upgrade to make the most out of a really expensive DAC's imaging (and even then, in the case of speakers, room reflections are a bigger problem; and for headphones and IEMs, ambient noise or eartip/custom shell fit to manage that), but past giving the amp 2V, you should be more wary of how that amp or the amp circuit built in with the DAC interacts with a particular IEM. Pay less attention to the price and more on the specs - very low impedance and very high sensitivity and you can get noise, or render the amp unusable if it has a bad analogue volume potentiometer, unlike headphones or most speaker amps where your main concern is just getting a not too low impedance while getting enough power.
In this case the DFB has a digital pot so the thing that can render the combo unusable is for the most part not a problem.
My Andro2020, IER-Z1R & 3DT all sound pretty great with iPhone and just the cheap Apple lightning dongle. The DAP and desktop rig I have provide further improvement, but the biggest jump in SQ is provided by the IEMs themselves.
Lot of wiggle room in this one ... overall I'd say quite a few 500$ IEMS are still worth it on lesser DAP's or even on a phone ... I would't generally say that for 1500$+ IEMS though since the additional magic you get for that price jump is just not portrayed well enough on a lesser DAP to be worth the additional cost difference.
You’ll notice an improvement keeping the same DAC. But beyond that you may find some IEMs which need a better amp? Meaning an example, the IER-Z1R is nice from a phone or dongle but is no where near it’s true potential. It’s like damping factor for full-size headphones. The extra juice is not about making anything louder, it’s getting better control of the diaphragm. Thus resulting in what is perceived as greater soundstage, faster bass response and better bass texture. So yes, just the new IEM will be a big improvement yet there is even greater improvement that comes with an upgrade in source.
In additions from the various opinions presented. It is important also to consider on how are you going to use it. If it is for travel/daily commute/EDC then an inexpensive DAC/Amp will suffice since noise coming from your surroundings will just marr your music. For critical listening its another story though.
If you are going to use your IEMs for daily commute/carry, I do suggest not to go too expensive:
1. Because it will be marred by the surrounding noise as stated above.
2. It may get lost/robbed easily. As what happend to. me. One of my UM Mentors loosed from its socket and fell in a subway full of people. Took me 30 minutes (and lucky me) to find it.
IMHO the better the equipment close to the source, the better the overall soundquality.
When you have a nice dac with medium iem's I think you will enjoy this more than a great headphone connected to a cheap dac.
Did you consider a nice, DAP as dac and spend the rest of the money on a nice iem. A total of $1000-$1500 can give you a smile from ear to ear.
When you don't need a DAP try something like a Mojo or even a BTR5. This with a nice pair of Campfire's.....lovely.
Good luck and enjoy, but don't forget to trust on your own ears.
I have the same experience/opinion as @Simple Man - my DAC/Amps are more expensive than the IEMs and headphones.
That said, it also depends on the IEM.
The Blessing 2 is not very picky, or in other words it does not improve as much with source quality as for example the Sony IER-M9. The B2 is Fine with just a phone as source on the go, but when I sitting down I always get out the Chord Mojo. More natural sound, cleaner, blacker background and more engaging and life-like.
Honestly it all depends on your perspective and experience.
I used to run the QDC Geminis off my phone and it sounded amazing! Of course it scaled as I moved into better equipment, but personally I feel like the IEM itself makes the biggest difference and not the source.
My higher end IEMs sound fine out of the little Astell & Kern XB10 90% of the time, and the Bluetooth hockey puck is not exactly known for power.
In my experience people tend to overstate the importance of sources, at least when it comes to IEMs. They're easy enough to drive that unless your source is really just noisy garbage you should be fine.
I am considering buying a pair of either Kinera Nanna 2.0 or Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk.
Both are expensive IEMs (500$-1000$) .
My current setup is Shure SE425 connected to a DAC- Audioquest DragonFly Black.
My question is:
Does an expensive IEM sound good enough to justify its price with a not-so-expensive DAC, or even just plugged into a regular smartphone?
It all depends on the IEM's impedance. The Blessing 2 is very easy to drive even with a smartphone and it can reach its full potential with cheap dacs/amps. But the Nanna 2 is extremely difficult to drive and it requires an amp with at least 1W of power to it to show its full potential. Of course that the Nanna 2 can run on weaker sources like the excellent BTR5, it will perform very well. But the more power the better.
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