[o0genesis0o]

I have gone down the budget rabbit hole with IEMs (Zero, Zero 2, Wan'er, EW200, Cadenza) and the Cadenzas have my favorite sound signature I believe. I'm happy with them for now, but when I do decide to upgrade, what would be a general across the board improvement from those? I listen to mostly rock/metal, indie, and some pop.

7th Acoustic Supernova might be a candidate. You can also look at AuR Audio Aurora

 

[ardilla]

I have gone down the budget rabbit hole with IEMs (Zero, Zero 2, Wan'er, EW200, Cadenza) and the Cadenzas have my favorite sound signature I believe. I'm happy with them for now, but when I do decide to upgrade, what would be a general across the board improvement from those? I listen to mostly rock/metal, indie, and some pop.

Quintet or EA1000 comes to mind

 

[MidnightSun]

I have gone down the budget rabbit hole with IEMs (Zero, Zero 2, Wan'er, EW200, Cadenza) and the Cadenzas have my favorite sound signature I believe. I'm happy with them for now, but when I do decide to upgrade, what would be a general across the board improvement from those? I listen to mostly rock/metal, indie, and some pop.

Provided you'd like to stick with the same bass profile with minor deviations in the ear gain compensation area (how close/in your face and head the vocals and upper mids are, or, in other words, when it's time to choose, how much you need the vocals to be the centerpiece of your music) accepted, then I'd suggest looking into:

Dunu Falcon Ultra
Xenns Up

If you'd like to have something with a cleaner but still powerful bass and you're fine with a bit more relaxed/distant vocals and upper mids, then depending on your tolerance of brightness and treble in general, these are worthy of consideration:

ZiiGaat Doscinco
Yanyin Canon II
Xenns Top
Monarch Mk III

I don't know how much you could spend in the future, but if you go for something between 200-400 (Falcon Ultra, Doscinco, Canon II), but then still would like to experience more, then as a general advice, I'd suggest you skip the Top or the Up (unless you need the exact tuning), and go for the Monarch Mk III, because it's better than those, and by then, not so far off in price... but financial responsibility is even better, so don't go into debt, it's not worth it.

Graphs normalized at 1 kHz.

 

[ardilla]

I recently did a write-up / comparison between the Kiwi Ears Quintet and the Simgot EA2000. Hope somebody will find it interesting or useful


https://www.headphoneer.com/kiwi-ears-quintet-vs-simgot-ea2000-comparison-review/

 

[Knale]

I have a bunch of Kiwi Ears sets. I figured I could provide quick thoughts on the lot of them!

Dolce: Nice little 20$ set! Comfortable lovely shell but a terrible cable. Pleasant tuning but a muffled congested sound. Not surprising for the price.

Cadenza: Highly praised for good reason. Beautifully tuned. Spacious sound. Impactful bass, clear mids, bright detailed highs. If the separation was better these would be insanely good.

Forteza: Gorgeous shells. An awful harsh shouty mess of sound. Strong dynamic bass, and everything above that sounds unpleasant.

Singolo: The bass shelf from the resonator is interesting, but people are right that the fit is wonky. Pleasant but boring. Awful cable for the price.

Melody: Awesome bass, dipped mids, detailed but slightly zingy highs. Took me a while to find the right tips, but finally found a solid fit. My NiceHck F1 Pro has become my more used planar set, but I still break these out when I want something ultra warm.

Orchestra Lite: I ended up returning these but I had them for a few weeks. I think they sound fabulous. Detail for days and incredible isolation. Incredible for games. I only sent them back because they reminded me of my MagicOnes quite a bit. They've made me want a nice multi-BA at some point.

Quintets: God I love them so much. Razor sharp imaging, thumping bass, clear as a bell mids, beautifully extended and lively highs. I still use them all the time even though I bought a set of Monarch MK3s to basically fill in the few gaps that these have. SO good for games as well.

Happy to answer questions about any of these!

 

[ardilla]

I have a bunch of Kiwi Ears sets. I figured I could provide quick thoughts on the lot of them!

Dolce: Nice little 20$ set! Comfortable lovely shell but a terrible cable. Pleasant tuning but a muffled congested sound. Not surprising for the price.

Cadenza: Highly praised for good reason. Beautifully tuned. Spacious sound. Impactful bass, clear mids, bright detailed highs. If the separation was better these would be insanely good.

Forteza: Gorgeous shells. An awful harsh shouty mess of sound. Strong dynamic bass, and everything above that sounds unpleasant.

Singolo: The bass shelf from the resonator is interesting, but people are right that the fit is wonky. Pleasant but boring. Awful cable for the price.

Melody: Awesome bass, dipped mids, detailed but slightly zingy highs. Took me a while to find the right tips, but finally found a solid fit. My NiceHck F1 Pro has become my more used planar set, but I still break these out when I want something ultra warm.

Orchestra Lite: I ended up returning these but I had them for a few weeks. I think they sound fabulous. Detail for days and incredible isolation. Incredible got games. I only sent them back because they reminded me of my MagicOnes quite a bit. They've made me want a nice multi-BA at some point.

Quintets: God I love them so much. Razor sharp imaging, thumping bass, clear as a bell mids, beautifully extended and lively highs. I still use them all the time even though I bought a set of Monarch MK3s to basically fill in the few gaps that these have. SO good for games as well.

Happy to answer questions about any of these!

Nice write up, thanks for sharing. The Cadenza, Orchestra Lite and Quintet seems to be the top 3 and I agree, all are fabulous.

The Quartet is pretty good too, I might add. The tuning switches are actually very well implemented