This study incorporates 283 transducers, from budget pairs to TOTL $5K gear.
My 2 cents is there have been quite a few stinkers in TOTL land for sure, but in general, as you go up the ladder, technicalities usually improve from the budget realm.
But of course diminishing returns come in as you go up the ladder, so each rung of improvement gets more marginal but for greater expense.
The important thing is to know where is your comfort level in chasing the never ending audiophile dragon and sweet spot in value to perceived sonic improvement.
It's cool to be reminded of this stuff. Sometimes I lose sight of what the higher price tag actually means. It means I'm paying for more labor time (including research, manufacturing, QA, and support) and/or for higher-priced parts & materials. But unfortunately neither of those things guarantees a better final product versus something designed quickly and mass produced with low-cost parts & materials.
Today I realised that you have written exactly 200 reviews on this website
Speaking of price/performance, is it just me or the “disruptive” or “disruption TOTL” buzzwords are getting long in the tooth? Yes, you are getting very very good sound for less, which is great. No, these those great value IEMs are not disrupting
Edit: I’m curious about the Volare. I wonder who funded them to price that IEM so low.
I'm not so sure about that. A lot of price is for perception and flexing purposes. It's not all that for every brand or model at all, but it is definitely a solid part of the pricing structure in many cases, and it's taught that way. It's taught to businesses and it's taught to consumers. It's part of marketing 101 in consumer capitalism - price determines value and quality in the minds of consumers many times. Of course there are other things but often it is definitely a big factor.
After listening to almost exclusively 1-5K IEMs at CanJam, and many of them, the $399 Pilgrim was one of the few that when I put them on made me think, oh this is something kinda special. I'm pretty sure IEM's in the $500 range sounding better to folks than kilobuck and up IEM's is disruptive. In a very good way. One of the two guys at the Raven booth late Sunday, after I was not too impressed by their flagship, when I mentioned the Pilgrim, he was like, yeah that has the potential to change things a bit.
I guarantee that a lot of people who invest heavily into the most expensive IEM's and like to flex that, it would be impossible for them to admit a much lower priced IEM is even close to competing with their multi kilobuck sets. It just doesn't compute.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. You think someone is funding them to subsidize the price? Why would they do that. Shenzen Audio is not out here to do charity, they want to make money.
That weird feeling when you a/b a $150.00 IEM and the $25.00 TRN ST7 and you realize in many aspects, the TRN has better technicalities, transparency, and instrument separation/spacing. The advancements are staggering.
folks thought i was insane for praising the $30 cca trio over the $3k ca trifecta. i dont know how cca did it, but it is what it is. hopefully i can a/b them again soon.
a couple years ago, i tried comparing the kz/cca lineup from then to totl giants and kz/cca were nowhere close. today is totally different.
hit play and enjoy the music.
I agree with the popular sentiment here that entry-level gear is more amazing than it's ever been (I ordered a pair of CCA Trio last week) and that budget IEMs are really all you need to just enjoy the music, but it's also true higher-priced gear exists for a reason. Diminishing returns can be brutal and improvements often correlate poorly with the amounts you spend, but having sound improved in tiny ways can often magnify our emotional connection to the music significantly.
And I can’t wait to hear your impressions of the Trio. I already predict that you would prefer it over certain 3DD IEM
@Ineras Wait a few months, and something would come and “disrupt” all of these .
Joke aside, I might be able to get my mitts on a DaVinci soon-ish. Could share some impressions. The AFUL explorer is also coming, which might be another great option.
Really enjoyed the new planet of the apes, dang good. pretty excited for that dude to direct a zelda movie now! real nerd hours, i added my letterboxd to my signature lol.
I (And probably most people.) thought about the same thing but it's not out of the ordinary to have the Volare @ $600 when the Shuoer EJ07M has x4 sonion ESTs and retailed for around the same coin.
If I'd hazard a guess, the Volare might be using cheaper BAs to save $$$, maybe custom bellsings which seem to be quite common among lower cost IEMs.
As of late! A new generation of 7Hz high quality flexible wide-bore silicone ear tips in different standard sizes. Tangzu Tang Sancai Wide Bore
The regular standbys have been the wide-bore purple and long wide bore clear silicones shown.
This study incorporates 283 transducers, from budget pairs to TOTL $5K gear.
My 2 cents is there have been quite a few stinkers in TOTL land for sure, but in general, as you go up the ladder, technicalities usually improve from the budget realm.
But of course diminishing returns come in as you go up the ladder, so each rung of improvement gets more marginal but for greater expense.
The important thing is to know where is your comfort level in chasing the never ending audiophile dragon and sweet spot in value to perceived sonic improvement.
This is also the product of simple market segmentation. The bottom distribution in terms of price will tend to have safe inoffensive tunings, and the totls might lean on the wonkiness side because only enthusiasts wanting to have something special, different, tailored, younameit, are the ones willing to drop such amount of money.
Which warrants the question: does Trifecta sound like old school KZ, or does old school KZ sound like Trifecta?
But to me all that stuff sounds a bit like an arranged marriage. It’s not for me and I’m willing to step on a minefield and catch a few “lemons” during this journey to get what I truly like.
I'm not so sure about that. A lot of price is for perception and flexing purposes. It's not all that for every brand or model at all, but it is definitely a solid part of the pricing structure in many cases, and it's taught that way. It's taught to businesses and it's taught to consumers. It's part of marketing 101 in consumer capitalism - price determines value and quality in the minds of consumers many times. Of course there are other things but often it is definitely a big factor.
After listening to almost exclusively 1-5K IEMs at CanJam, and many of them, the $399 Pilgrim was one of the few that when I put them on made me think, oh this is something kinda special. I'm pretty sure IEM's in the $500 range sounding better to folks than kilobuck and up IEM's is disruptive. In a very good way. One of the two guys at the Raven booth late Sunday, after I was not too impressed by their flagship, when I mentioned the Pilgrim, he was like, yeah that has the potential to change things a bit.
I guarantee that a lot of people who invest heavily into the most expensive IEM's and like to flex that, it would be impossible for them to admit a much lower priced IEM is even close to competing with their multi kilobuck sets. It just doesn't compute.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. You think someone is funding them to subsidize the price? Why would they do that. Shenzen Audio is not out here to do charity, they want to make money.
What do you disagree with exactly? Cuz your statement doesn't make any sense. I didn't make a hard and fast rule about anything about IEMs sound wise. I said it varies.
But one thing that is 100% true though if you know anything about business and consumer culture and capitalism is that there is 100% a price to perceived value strategy when it comes to pricing products and services in many cases. You can't disagree with that, that is a very known and established fact it's business 101. There are literally case studies on this. I mean this is not something up for debate.
I never said every high-priced IEM are only priced high for perceived value/quality, or that it is always done all the time. But it's definitely a tried and true and very often used business tactic that's extremely well established. And to think this hobby is immune to that is unfortunately not true at all.
Edit: To not waste a comment on useless drama, here is some of my discovery today
If you plan to buy this interchangeable plug cable from XINHS, my advice is: DON’T.
I thought it was a good deal and grabbed 3 last year. One of the worst deal ever. It audibly drop the sound quality of my IEMs. Testing the Andro with R4 using this cable, the sound was so poor that I had to take the stock (also pretty horrid in a different way) cable from CFA to compare. Yep, the XINHS cable is the cause.
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